Tracing the old fort wall of Madras

While reading the book “Tamarind City”, I came across Mr Sriram V, who is conducting informational tours of Chennai during Madras week celebrations every year. A few weeks back, when I looked online for Mr Sriram V, I came across his blog “Madras Heritage and Carnatic Music“, where I learnt that on 18 August 2012 (today), he is doing a tour tracing the old fort wall of Madras. I never knew Chennai had a fort wall of significance. Curious, I immediately contacted him and got registered on a nominal charge of Rs. 600, including Breakfast. Mr Sriram runs his own business and, out of passion for his city’s history, does these tours only during this month (Madras week). He is a regular columnist in The Hindu writing on (what else) “Madras”.

Madras High Court

We were asked to assemble in front of the Madras High Court by 6 AM, which I did along with my co-brother.

We kept hopping on and off the vans with Mr Sriram sharing interesting history about this area where Madras was founded.

Clive Battery

Not much of the wall survives now, except in one place, so it was to be imagined purely from Sriram’s vivid description of where each of the seven gates stood in the 18th Century. First one is at a stone in front of Parry’s Corner, then proceeding on the beach road toward Madras Port, we stopped in front of what would have been “Clive Battery”.

Then, turning into Old Jail Road (under the Royapuram Flyover), we stopped at another end of Thambu Chetty Street, which was called as Pully Gate (Page 336 in Madras Rediscovered by S Muthiah, Sixth Edition). Most places where we stopped, a small crowd gathered around to investigate what was going on.

Madras Fort wall

The wall ran a length of 3.5 miles and had 17 bastions. It was over 30 feet wide, making available good space on the road on top for easy defence movement. The construction of the Madras Fort Wall was to be funded by a tax, giving the road its original name, Walltax Road – now called as VO Chidambaram Pillai Road. The tax was opposed by the residents, and the British Parliament, coming to their support, withdrew the tax. By the 19th Century, with the British firmly in power in all parts of India, the wall became redundant and started its decline, with the city growing on all sides.

The next stop was Maadi Poonga (Terrace Garden), which is called so because it is a park on top of a terrace. The terrace happens to be the only surviving piece of the original Madras Fort wall built in 1772-1773. The British built this wall soon after Hyder Ali plundered the George Fort area twice in 1767 and 1769. The wall was built by Paul Benfield, a British Engineer & Contractor for over a million pagodas. In all history books, he is referred to as the notorious Paul Benfield, including in Paul Mason’s book “The Men who ruled India” page no.70. He was involved in financial scandals, including lending huge funds at 36 per cent interest to Carnatic Mohammed Ali, who was put on the throne by the British to rule over this area. Paul Benfield had come out to Madras first as an engineer in the East India Company’s service – getting himself dismissed, reinstated, suspended, reinstated, sent to London to answer charges, reinstated again. Finally, after 18 years of joining, he had a fortune of over half a million pounds. He is known for designing the plans for the Chepauk Palace, which was built in 1768, marking the earliest attempt to integrate the domes and arches, the Mughal, Indian, and European architectures in India.

Monegar choultry

The next stop was Broadway Gate, which is where a jail functioned in olden days and where today’s Bharathi Women’s Arts College is present.

Then we went in front of the Monegar choultry, which is opposite to the famous Stanley Medical College. Stanley Hospital came up in 1830 due to an endowment by Raja Sir Ramasamy Mudaliar to serve the local people of Madras, as the only English Hospital then was inside the fort and was open only for Europeans. The college got its name as it was inaugurated by a British Parliamentarian, Lt. Colonel Sir George Fredrick Stanley, in 1933. Monegar Choultry had its origins much before, with a village headman, locally known as a ‘maniakarar’, establishing a gruel centre here in 1782, which grew over the years to be a place for the destitute and seriously ill.

Padmanaba Theatre

We then travelled on Basin Bridge Road, then on to Walltax Road and stopped in front of Padmanaba Theatre (which is about to be demolished) near Telegraph Abboy Lane. We went through the area known as the seven wells, where the first organised water supply of Madras began in 1772. It is said that on one occasion, Mysore ruler Hyder Ali’s troops tried to poison the water source one night.

Karunguzhi Parcel Case

Mr Sriram shared a story of a popular murder mystery that happened in this area in the early 20th Century, which was written by the famous writer Randor Guy and in many other books (Famous Murder Trials by Subrahmanya Rajagopalan). It was “The Karunguzhi Parcel Case”, so called because on January 12, 1934, six parcels arrived at Karunguzhi railway station but were not claimed for a few days. It turned out to be the body of a 22-year-old young beauty identified as Seethammal. She came from a poor Brahmin Iyengar family and was married to a cook, Parthasarathy, employed in a temple. She soon eloped with one Ramanujam and settled in Peddu Naicken  Street, which was in this area. The murder suspect was Ramanujam, and the case generated a lot of public interest and was heard before Sir Owen Beasley of Madras High Court, with noted lawyers of the day, Sir Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer, appearing as well. He got a death sentence, but due to his friends in high places and a strong campaign about Ramanujam’s innocence, he walked a free man.

As the last stop, we were taken to the temple “Sri Satyanarayan Mandir” in Walltax Road/Rasappa Chetty Street corner, where Chuckler’s gate would have been. The temple is run by Paramananda Doss Chota Doss Gujarati Dharamshala, where Super Star(s) are rumoured to be frequenting for Divine blessings. Thanks to the priest, there we got a great darshan and piping hot Kesari sweet.

After three Hours of going around where the Fort Wall in George Town in the 1700s would have been, we came back to where we started. Then we were led to Hotel Saravana Bhavan for a delicious Mini Tiffin (Breakfast), a perfect beginning for the day. Mr Sriram’s blog post of the tour can be seen here, and his account of the Fort wall here.