Madras Day - A Short Note - Takeaways from the session of Dr. Chithra Madhavan

Madras day is celebrated on 22^nd of August every year since 2004, to commemorate the day when Madras was bought by the East India Company from the viceroy Damarla Venkatadri Nayaka of the Vijayanagar Empire.

Since heritage and history of Madras being given more attention now because of the efforts of few eminent scholars, historians like Sriram V, Dr. Chithra Madhavan and few other heritage trust who have been conducting some sessions through which the City's valuable history is being disseminated to the common people.

Bronze Image of Thirukachi Nambi

Since Madras saw a rapid growth and became a metro city, it makes a perfect case study for the discipline of urban archaeology. This busy metro city secretly shelters (the masses miss to experience) antiquities of more than thousand years old heritage. The city needs more people who have an eye to encourage the different layers of history that it offers. Even though it is the ‘Cultural’ and ‘Carnatic’ Capital of Tamilnadu, other facets of the same city awaits to enjoy the limelight.

On the occasion of this year’s (2021) Madras Day, Press Institute of India conducted a session of which the speaker was Dr. Chithra Madhavan, who as usual tried her best to overwhelm us with loads of unknown information about the temples in and around Madras with the limited time given to her. I was fortunate enough to attend this session and ended up adding number of temples to visit next time when I’m in “Madras”. 

Bronze Image of Thirumazhisai Azhwar

Dr. Chithra Madhavan began her session with the history of Varadaraja Perumal Temple at Poonamalle. Poonamallee is the birthplace of Thirukachi Nambi, one important Vaishnavite Acharyar. The glimpse about the Navagraha Sthalams in Porur and Poonamallee was a surprising information when the speaker discussed about the Vaitheeshwaran Temple of Poonamallee. Jagannatha Perumal Temple and Othandeshwarar Temple at Thirumazhisai, Sundararaja Perumal Temple at Sitharkadu, Soundarya Narayana Perumal Temple at Pattarai Perumbudur and Thiru-Evvul Veera Raghava Perumal Temple (Thiruvallur) were discussed in detail alongwith the information about the unique sculptures and inscriptions of the respective temples.

Dr. Chithra Madhavan explaining about Vishwaksenar, often misunderstood as Vinayagar or Thumbikkai Azhwar

Within the limited time, the speaker could cover only the temples in outskirts of the city. Imagine how much more information we could get if Dr. Chithra had time to talk about the heritage hotspots within the city.

Fortunately, as far as I know, Madras has a working heritage committee to safeguard the ancient fabric of the city. Most of the people obviously knows about Mylapore, Triplicane, Santhome etc. Thiruvotriyur was a buzzing spot when Rajendra Chozha was stationed there to protect the limits of Chozha Kingdom.

Although the attention of the masses settles with the colonial beauty of Madras, there is a lot of scope to look beyond the layer of colonial heritage. This modern yet ancient city is bestowed with tangible heritage forms from Pallavas, Cholas, Nayaks upto the Britishers. Channelizing the crowd and bringing all other lesser-known facets of the heritage of this busy metro City would result in sustaining the heritage as well as the livelihood of those who are closely associated with it.

Link to the session's video: https://youtu.be/TD9qUQVnzKc

There is much more to MADRAS!

Yours East Gaterr