Kilpauk: From the woods

CHENNAI: Though now in the heart of the city, Kilpauk was an essential suburb for the British. The moment the dangers of invasion from Mysore and Pondicherry ceased, the British moved to large garden houses in Kilpauk. Early residents were ridiculed as jungle inhabitants. But soon Kilpauk was full of shaded roads and garden bungalows widely spaced that only half a dozen families lived on each street. Bounded by a stream on the north and lakes on the south, it must have been a pleasant place to live in compared to the claustrophobic fort. The native neo-nobility consisting of the affluent and educated Indians too preferred the sizeable garden houses of Kilpauk

THE TALKIE MEERA

The cult film Meera directed by American Ellis Dungan was shot in a Parsi-owned Newtone studio (Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan School of Kilpauk now) and was released on Deepavali of 1945. The response was unprecedented. The heroine MS Subbulakshmi became an icon in contemporary Indian history and decided to quit films while that status lasted.

Dungan had a soft corner for a handsome extra whom he had introduced in an earlier film. With his handsome face spoilt by a beard, Ramachandran would just speak just two lines as a Rajput courtier.

Much later, both MS Subbulakshmi and MG Ramachandran would get the highest civilian award in India, thus making Meera the only movie ever to have two Bharat Ratna laureates acting in it.

PREHISTORIC KILPAUK

In 1934, the staff of the Madras Museum were granted permission to excavate an archaeological site in Kilpauk — the British garden house. Fontenoy was the house of a British gentleman Prudhomme. They discovered a prehistoric cemetery in the plot. Burial urns and pottery pieces dating far back into prehistory discovered here made Kilpauk one of the oldest inhabited places in the city.

The museum-led excavation lasted a month; trenches of 40x20 feet were dug up to seven feet. They discovered gold buttons, bricks and earthenware and even a well. The best of the discoveries was a sarcophagus standing on six legs.

As the first discovery of prehistoric life within city limits Kilpauk attracted great attention in the press. The great war breaking out stopped further excavation efforts and by the time peace reigned Kilpauk had become a prime place for residence.

GIRLS STRIKING TO STUDY AS CO-ED

For perhaps the only time in Indian educational history did such a strike happen — that of students of a girls’ college going on a strike demanding that it be made co-educational. And it happened in the conservative Madras of 1965 when the students of the all-girls Kilpauk Medical College (designed like the Lady Hardinge College in Delhi) marched many times to the Secretariat demanding that they study alongside boys. The reason, the girls as doctors had to deal with male patients as well and felt too shy because they had lesser opportunities to move with males. The government budged in two years and admitted boys as well.

KILPAUK CEMETERY

East India Company-owned churches had used their church yards for burial initially. By 1700, these were full and they scouted for newer places preferably away from habitations. They started the St Mary’s burial ground at Bodyguard Road on the island. The 20th century saw the expansion of Madras and hence with all their cemeteries full the third phase of cemeteries was created on the outskirts of Madras in the 1900s. Kilpauk Cemetery at the northwest corner of Kilpauk was one and right at the edge of the city. The 16-acre Kilpauk cemetery was the largest in the city with a tomb dating back to 1903. But like others, it became full of the dead and stopped fresh burials nearly two decades ago.

CULTURAL ICON BALASARASWATI

One of the cultural icons of Madras was the dancer Balasaraswati. Hailing from a traditional devadasi family stationed in George Town, Bala made a move to Kilpauk. Bala stood as steady as a rock when the traditional dance ‘Sathir’ was being snatched by new adherents who changed its aspects in the name of sanitisation and rechristened it as Bharatanatyam. Bala was an expert in the Abhinaya aspect of dance which was a deeply individualised expression of the artist. Abhinaya was all about facial expressions and subtle gestures of the limbs and an artist could take a long time to learn. The aspects of abhinaya were lost when audiences grew larger and none beyond the first few rows could catch the expressions. But a fascinated Satyajit Ray would make a full documentary on her, capturing in close angle all her intricate expressions to record Bala’s expressions for eternity.

FIRST WATER TREATMENT PLANT

Kilpauk played a major role in the water supply to the city. The first water treatment plant built in Indo-Saracenic style with a capacity of 80 million litres per day was inaugurated in 1914. Its massive overhead tank, the largest in the city (6.8 million litres) contributed to the growth and well-being of the city. Water from the Red Hills was purified using fine sand, pebbles and bricks. Britisher JW Madeley and Parsi Hormusji Nowroji were water engineers, (both having roads named after their memories) who contributed substantially to the plant.

OTTERI NULLAH

Running on the northern edge of Kilpauk, Otteri Nullah is one of the natural water streams of Madras. The east-west flowing creek starts close to the ancient township of Padi and drains excess rainwater from Ambattur, Korattur and Villivakkam lakes.

The nullah was used for irrigation of agricultural land before urbanisation and drained into the North river that later became a part of the Buckingham Canal.

Like other waterbodies, the city had scant regard for it and the width of the canal shrunk over the years. The problem compounded because the nullah shrunk in size due to encroachments and became a dumping ground for debris. Kilpauk suffered for a long with mosquito menace as well as flooding with the canal overflowing during heavy rains.

CHURCH AS THANKSGIVING

The Japanese had decided to bomb Madras to smithereens, mainly in response to the allied forces regrouping in Avadi post the fall of Singapore.

Madras was in the grip of panic. People were moving out in any form of transportation available as the city seemed doomed. During a special service held in St Mary’s Cathedral in September 1942, led by Archbishop Louis Mathias, the pilgrims attending the mass made a solemn pledge to erect a church to St Mary if the city was saved. And when the war was won and Madras was saved, Kilpauk was chosen as the locale for the votive shrine to Mary. The church was completed in 1953.

THE MENTAL HOSPITAL

The very mention of Kilpauk evokes a smirk on the faces of most Madras residents. The knowing smile is because of its ‘Institute of Mental Health’ which started in 1795 as a “house for accommodating persons of unsound mind” on the 66.5-acre site in Kilpauk (Lococks Gardens, just outside the then municipal limits). 

Originally with 54 European inmates, it grew to be the oldest and largest in South Asia, rendering psychiatric care to the mentally ill. During World War II, fearing that a Japanese bomb would set free the mentally imbalanced, the inmates were shifted to safer places.

ROYALTY OF PARALAKHEMUNDI

Paralakhemundi is a former zamindari of Odisha with a rich historical legacy. The royalty of the state descended from the medieval eastern Ganga dynasty. The Oriya-speaking royal family spent most of their time in their Kilpauk Palace whose grounds were later developed as the Manikeshwari Road named after their clan goddess.

The last king Krishna Chandra Gajapati Narayana Deba studied at the Newington Prince’s School in Teynampet. Later, he would represent the landowners and princes in the first roundtable conference in London and also became the first Prime Minister of an independent united Odisha State.

KILPAUK MEDICAL COLLEGE

While two Madras medical colleges were functioning with the European medical system, there was felt a need to train the natives in Indian systems as well. The Rajah of Panagal, Ramarayaningar, who was the second chief minister of the Presidency owned a lakefront garden bungalow, Hyde park in Kilpauk, and gave it willingly. The Government School of Indian Medicine (GSIM) started here in 1925. Captain Srinivasa Murti who is honoured with a statue on the campus was responsible for starting this institution.

After a few evolutions, this college became the College of Integrated Medicine. However, it was closed for 10 years from 1960 and later revived further west near the Anna arch. This campus was converted to the Kilpauk medical college One of the blocks in the KMC is also named after Rajah of Panagal.

THE RAJAH BURIED IN KILPAUK

The largest land owner in Kilpauk was Rajah Sir Ramaswamy Mudaliar, the first native sheriff of Madras. His palatial house Ramamandiram and other properties he owned constitute what is now Kilpauk Garden. A dubash in Dymes company, he acquired affluence and is known as a well-known philanthropist who built choultries and hospitals across the state.

He was knighted and given the title of rajah as well by the British. In 1902, Mudaliar was chosen to represent the city of Madras at the coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. His family still owns a small burial plot in Kilpauk where the rajah is buried.

THE CHETPET LAKE

It was a time when finding space for the citizens to live was clouding the urban planner's judgement. Lakes across the city were being merciless- ly levelled to build houses. Luckily a 16-acre lake with an island in the middle escaped that fate though in the middle of a prime residential area. The reason? The Chetpet lake had been taken over by the Depart- ment of Fisheries to conduct research in 1934.

For many decades, the lake had a hydro-biological research station along with the only fishing club in the city- the Madras Anglers Club. Of recent, its ecological and social importance has been understood. The lake has been desilted and both boating and angling flourish.