Purasawalkam: From ‘poor’ shewak to thriving commercial hub

CHENNAI: When the British sought to expand their base from the fort, one of the options they set their sights on was Purasawalkam, an ancient village that existed from the Chola times. They negotiated with the Nawab who ruled the region on behalf of the Mughals and acquired the village that is referred to in the British documents as Poorshewak. In 1693, Emperor Aurungzeb’s Grand Vizier Asad Khan issued a Purwanna (an order issued by the Nawab), granting Purasawalkam, Tondiarpet and Egmore to the English. The deal seems to have been negotiated by Governor Elihu Yale, but the formal signing happened after he left Madras under a cloud. About a century later, Assistant Surgeon John Underwood of the British East India Company started the Native Infirmary in 1799, one the first hospital in India meant solely for the Indian poor.

THE AUTOMOBILE AND PURASAWALKAM

By 1900, the Black Town had become congested, and the rich found it tough to flaunt their affluence. The motor car was replacing the horse-drawn carriage and palanquin across the city but while the rich could afford many, the crowded roads of Black Town did not offer an opportunity to own a car. Meanwhile, the western part of Black Town, starting from the erstwhile Hoggs Hill, was now flattened. Though still remembered as the peria met (big mound), there were now large mango groves and open countryside. Many affluent Indians from Black Town moved there. This gave an economic and social boost to Purasawalkam and the areas surrounding it. The huge garden houses that the rich Indians built needed a huge retinue of staff. The latter, thus, started living in the nearby areas. And of course, the car traders across the nation made a beeline to Purasawalkam to sell their top of line offering there.

THE GLOBE, LATER ROXY

Raghupati Venkaiah Naidu was in great demand in Madras as a wedding photographer, and owned a studio. Fascinated by motion pictures, he mortgaged his studio to buy a projector called “Chrono Megaphone” and 400 short films, and toured throughout India, Burma and Ceylon carrying them. Wanting to settle down, he set up the first theatres of Madras. While two of them were in Mount Road and Mint, Purasawalkam became home to the third — the Globe theatre. In 1913, under the management of “Star of the East”, the “Glass Studios” was established behind the premises of the Globe theatre. It was here that Raghupati and his son, a trained cinematographer, produced a series of silent films. Globe later became the Roxy theatre, which exhibited Hollywood films.

A FLOWER GAVE ITS NAME

Before it became a thriving human habitat, Purasawalkam was a grove of the Purasai trees (Butea Monosperma), a flowering tree native to the tropical and sub-tropical parts of South Asia. The tree traditionally associated with the break of spring is commonly called Flame of the Forest in English, Palash in Sanskrit and Purasai in Tamil. When in bloom, the tree offers a stunning spectacle. It is revered as sacred by Hindus and a shloka in Yajurveda speaks about the Palasa tree. The five petals of the flower are arranged in such a fashion that together they resemble a parrot, with two wings and a beak. Incidentally, it was one of Rudyard Kipling’s favourite flowers and he mentions it frequently in the Jungle Book. Rabindranath Tagore likened it to the inner fire and had them planted in great numbers in Shanthi Niketan.

GANGADHEESWARAR TEMPLE

The Cholas, who had set up their second capital in Kancheepuram, seemed to have ruled over many medieval towns in Madras. Purasawalkam was one of them. It has a temple with Chola origins though much of it has been concretized. For a temple of this size, there must have been many inscriptions. But only a handful are available; one from the Chola period and others from the Vijayanagar empire. The temple, associated with the legend of the Ganga coming to the earth from heaven and Shiva, is called Gangadheeswarar. There is a statue of King Bhagiratha who prayed for the Ganga and the Shivalinga is noticed to be perpetually wet regardless of the season, The Purasai tree is the temple’s Sthala Vriskham or holy tree. The temple has a large pond used for religious purposes during annual festivals.

THE FIRST TOWER CLOCK OF MADRAS

In the early days, machines that told the time were almost as valuable as time itself. Every day at 8 pm sharp, the English used to fire cannonballs from Fort St George to announce the time. Stories say this led to many instances of unexpected deliveries by pregnant women who were shocked by the sudden sound. The rulers then decided setting up clock towers in public places was better. The first standalone clock tower in Madras was built at Doveton junction in Purasawalkam in the early 1900s. The phallic tower was originally built in the Gothic style, but art deco elements were added during later modifications. The task of keeping it running was entrusted to a clock keeper employed by the Corporation. The success of the Doveton clock enco uraged the English to build more across the city.

THE MALGUDI OF MADRAS

Malgudi, arguably the most popular village in Indian literary history, might have mostly been fashioned from one lonely child’s sojourn in Vellalar Street Purasawalkam. Its author, RK Narayan, who put Indian English writing on the international bookshelf, was born in Purasawalkam. As his father worked as a teacher in the distant State of Mysore, young Narayanaswami lived with his maternal grandmother in a spacious compound with a stream of pets, including monkeys, birds and cats. (He’s allotted a chapter in his autobiography to his pets). Literary experts can identify the now-congested Vellalar Street transformed into Malgudi in Swami and Friends with some embellishments. His grandmother and an evangelical-natured schoolmaster can also be found in his work. His grandmother was one of the popular figures and to see her came a stream of people. An observant Narayan later populated the legend of Malgudi with these characters.

THE MURDER OF A BLACKMAILER

Crimes are not unusual in a congested city. However, the murder in Madras on November 7, 1944, was special in several ways. First, the incident: On that day, as a middle-aged man was travelling on a rickshaw on General Collins Road, he was waylaid and stabbed by unknown assailants. The victim was Lakshmi Kanthan, a failed lawyer who found a much more lucrative avenue in blackmailing. He ferreted out secrets of the rich and famous and then extorted them on the threat of publishing them in his yellow journalistic rag, Indunesan. Hush money must have sustained his lifestyle. But as profitable as it was, the career was also dangerous. The attackers disembowelled Lakshmi Kanthan, who died the next day in the general hospital. The suspect list was seemingly never-ending, but a month later, the police swooped down on reigning film superstar MK Thyagaraja Bagavathar and top comedian NS Krishnan on charges of conspiracy. What followed was a long trial in all the courts, up to the Privy Council, by which time their careers and public images were in tatters.

THE SOCIALISTIC CAPITALIST

The Civil Service Board in England rejected Alagappan, a young candidate from India, merely because his face was disfigured by disease. Alagappan reacted to the rejection by turning his attention to business; after all, he hailed from a mercantile community. Not long after, Alagappa Chettiar became a leading figure who made his fortune in many arenas. When the British sold their surplus Dakota planes at the end of the war, Alagappan bought eight of them and launched Jupiter Airways, the first airline to have a hub in Madras. He was also widely respected for his munificence in education. He became quite close to the nationalist leaders, Jawaharlal Nehru once called him a ‘Socialistic capitalist’. Mahatma Gandhi spent a substantial amount of time with Alagappan on his last visit to Madras. Alagappa Chettiar, who made Purasawalkam his home in the city, plotted out a residential area in Purasawalkam, and named roads after himself, his daughter and his mother.

THE FIRST TAMIL FILM

Though an automobile spare parts dealer, R Natarajan is considered the father of Tamil cinema as he was a pioneer in the production of silent films. It was he who set up south India’s first film studio, India Film Company, at a bungalow called Tower House on Millers Road, Purasawalkam in 1915. He bought the camera from a wealthy landlord in Tanjore. Keechaka Vadham, his first silent film, was shot here. Since most actors of Keechaka Vadham were Tamils, it is often considered the first Tamil film. Tamil subtitles were written by Pammal Sambandam Mudaliar, while those in Hindi were written by Devdas Gandhi. For his next film, Draupadi Vastrapaharanam in 1918, no Indian actress wanted to do the disrobing act. So he roped in Marian Hill, an Anglo-Indian girl who was paid a substantial amount.

DASAPRAKASH

Hotel Dasaprakash, which means “Light of the servant of the god”, was founded in the early 1920s by Seetharama Rao. It soon took Madras by storm. In the early 1900s, an average Indian would not walk into a European hotel. They could enjoy hospitality only in a few establishments, and it was these hotels like Dasaprakash that laid the foundation for the sector. The decor at Dasaprakash was done up in spotless white, perhaps to signify the cleanliness. The 24-hour coffee shop, perhaps the first in Madras, with its own car parking area and separate entrance brought in many doctors from nearby Kilpauk Medical College and Madras Medical College, who used to come over and grab snacks even at 3 am. Wedding Receptions at Dasaprakash were as posh as they could get, comparable only to Abbotsbury. The Dasaprakash soda fountain was famous, the only other competitor being Jaffer’s on Mount Road (many suspected that he used eggs in his preparations). Ball ice-cream, banana float sundae, and even butter and jam bun sandwiches were hugely popular offerings introduced by Dasaprakash.

RITHERDON’S PURASAWALKAM

There are several roads in Purasawalkam that sport British names, which is perhaps not surprising as many civil servants and soldiers made Purasawalkam their home after retirement. One of them was Augustus Ritherdon, who joined the Madras Army in 1840 and saw action in Anglo-Burmese war in 1852-53. He later rose to become the General. After retirement, he lived in a house in the Purasawalkam-Vepery area, where he built a Madras terraced single-storey bungalow with round, symmetrical pillars, large verandas, and coir and cane screens that kept the heat out. The road where it stood is named after him — Ritherdon Road.

CHRISTIANITY IN PURASAWALKAM

As the East India Company frowned at evangelisation in the vicinity of their fort, the many new orders of churches that mushroomed in Madras had Purasawalkam as their base. At that time at least, Purasawalkam must have had the most number of churches in Madras after Santhome. It had a heavy concentration of non-Catholic Anglican churches like Lutheran, Methodist, and Episcopalian. Many of these churches have Tamil names, such as Manimudi Maamari Aalayam and Adaikalanathar.