Madras – It’s a special word that conjures up lot of beautiful memories to me. Though it is Chennai now, I prefer it to be Madras. One reason is that it was Madras when I was born. Lots of things have changed after I was born, especially in the last decade, but Madras to me, has always and will always retain its old charm.
A decade back, lots of areas of the present Madras were unknown. Its core part was Mylapore and areas around it.It would be very hard to believe that places like Nanganallur and Thiruvanmiyur were only suburbs and didn’t qualify to be a part of Madras.
During its nascent days, Madras was a village with dense forests all over the area. Quoting Thirumangai alwar in his reference to the present day Triplicane, he says the sun’s rays would not even pass through the thick vegetation cover. The areas that we know have interesting facts behind their present names. Triplicane or Thiruvallikeni is from the pond with ‘alli’ flowers. Mylapore is ‘Mahila puri’ meaning the place of women.
There were lots of followers of Madhvacharya in the vicinity of Triplicane and hence their place was called ‘Rayar pettai’ which , with the passage of time became ‘Royapettai’. Apart from the vegetation, there was also abundance of cattle and the place of this activity was ‘Dhenu pettai’. Dhenu in sanskrit meant cows. It is this area which is called Teynampet. Similarly, the Thousand lights area, translated to Tamil is called ‘Aayiram vilakku’ which has its origins in ‘Aayar vilakku ‘, the place were cow herds lived.
Change has always been happening, but in spite of this, Madras has always preserved few things for posterity.
A decade back, lots of areas of the present Madras were unknown. Its core part was Mylapore and areas around it.It would be very hard to believe that places like Nanganallur and Thiruvanmiyur were only suburbs and didn’t qualify to be a part of Madras.
During its nascent days, Madras was a village with dense forests all over the area. Quoting Thirumangai alwar in his reference to the present day Triplicane, he says the sun’s rays would not even pass through the thick vegetation cover. The areas that we know have interesting facts behind their present names. Triplicane or Thiruvallikeni is from the pond with ‘alli’ flowers. Mylapore is ‘Mahila puri’ meaning the place of women.
There were lots of followers of Madhvacharya in the vicinity of Triplicane and hence their place was called ‘Rayar pettai’ which , with the passage of time became ‘Royapettai’. Apart from the vegetation, there was also abundance of cattle and the place of this activity was ‘Dhenu pettai’. Dhenu in sanskrit meant cows. It is this area which is called Teynampet. Similarly, the Thousand lights area, translated to Tamil is called ‘Aayiram vilakku’ which has its origins in ‘Aayar vilakku ‘, the place were cow herds lived.
Change has always been happening, but in spite of this, Madras has always preserved few things for posterity.
