A view of the Mount Road (Anna Salai)
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The Gateway to the South, Madras, the first city of Tamil Nadu, is a
comparatively new city. The erstwhile villages of Mylapore, Triplicane,
Ezhambur (Egmore) etc., all now a part of Madras, have a recorded
historical past centuries older than Madras. The present city of Madras is itself, however, only about 350 years old. The
quest of an East India Company factor, Francis Day, for cheaper cloth and
more peaceful surroundings led to the founding of Madras in 1639. The city
of today, one of the great metropolises of the world, and the fourth
largest city in India, grew from the fort Day and his superior Andrew
Cogan built on a narrow spit of no-man's land that Day's dubash Beri
Thimanna negotiated with the local governor of the Vijayanagar Empire. The
approximately 5 square kilometre sand strip Day was granted has now grown
into a city of about 170 sq. kms. with a population of 3.25 million.
Madras was Britain's first major settlement in India and it was here that
many who went on to build the Empire first learnt their trade. As a
consequence, the city is replete with much that is of significance in
British Indian history. But the much older settlements have stories to
tell too, and so the city is an amalgam of ancient and more modern
history. Everywhere one goes in Madras, one can find history written in
every name. Particularly charming features of Madras are its allegiance
to ancient traditions, no matter how modernised it has become, and its
willingness to spread out further rather than develop into a multi-storey
concrete jungle. The result is a widespread city still open to the skies;
a green, airy city with several vestiges of its rural past; a city that
adheres to the leisurely tempo of the life of a world of yesterday; a city
whose values of another day still survive midst the humdrum bustle of
today; a city that still retains the charm, culture and courtesies of the
ages.
In this gracious, spacious city there is much to see. A suggested tour
round the city is best completed by following this route: Fort St. George,
High Court Complex, George Town, Corporation Complex, Patheon Complex,
Valluvar Kottam, Kodambakkam, St. Thomas Mount, Guindy National Park,
Kalakshetra, Elliot's Beach, Theosophical Society, the Shrines of Mylapore
& Triplicane Government Estate, the Marina and Anna Salai.