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[Illustration: Chepauk Palace.
(Southern half)]
THE
STORY OF MADRAS
BY
GLYN BARLOW, M.A.
WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
BY THE AUTHOR
HUMPHREY MILFORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON, BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, MADRAS
1921
* * * * *
PREFACE
This little book is not a "History of Madras," although it contains a
good deal of Madras history; and it is not a "Guide to Madras,"
although it gives accounts of some of the principal buildings in the
city. The book will have fulfilled its purpose if it helps the reader
to realize that the City of Madras is a particularly interesting
corner of the world. This fact is often forgotten; and even many of
the people who live in Madras itself, and who are aware that Madras
has played an important part in the making of India's history, are
strangely uninterested in its historic remains. They are eloquent
perhaps in denouncing the heat of Madras and its mosquitoes and the
iniquities of its Cooum river; but they have never a word to say on
its enchanting memorials of the past. Madras has memorials indeed.
Madras is an historical museum, where the sightseer may spend many and
many an hour--in street and in building--studying old-world exhibits,
and living for the while in the fascinating past. Madras is not an
ancient city; its foundation is not ascribed to some mythic king who
ruled in mythic times; it has no hoary ruins, too old to be historic
and too legendary to be inspiring. But Madras is old enough for its
records to be romantic, and at the same time is young enough for its
earliest accounts of itself to be--not unsatisfying fables, but
interesting fact. The story of Madras fills an absorbing page of
history, and the sights of Madras are well worthy of sympathetic
interest--especially on the part of those whose lines of life are cast
in the historic city itself or within the historic presidency of which
it is the capital.
In the following pages certain places and events have been briefly
described more than once with different details; any such repetitions
are due to the fact that the Story of Madras has been told in a series
of vignettes, appertaining to particular buildings or particular
conditions, and each vignette had to be complete in itself. It is
hoped that such repetitions will be of familiar interest, rather than
tedious.
In respect of the facts that are recorded, apart from general history,
I am indebted principally to the valuable Records of Fort St. George,
which the Madras Government have been publishing, volume by volume,
during several years, and which I have studied with interest since the
first volume appeared. Of other works that I have consulted, I must
specially mention Colonel Love's "Vestiges of Madras," which is a very
mine of information.
G.B.
MADRAS, 1921.
* * * * *
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE v
CHAP.
I. BEFORE THE BEGINNING 1
II. THE BEGINNING 5
III. FORT ST. GEORGE 9
IV. DEVELOPMENT 18
V. 'THE WALL' 25
VI. EXPANSION 35
VII. OUTPOSTS 41
VIII. THE CHURCH IN THE FORT 47
IX. ROMAN CATHOLIC MADRAS 56
X. CHEPAUK PALACE 63
XI. GOVERNMENT HOUSE 69
XII. MADRAS AND THE SEA 78
XIII. THE STORY OF THE SCHOOLS 87
XIV. HERE AND THERE 101
XV. 'NO MEAN CITY' 111
* * * * *
ILLUSTRATIONS
CHEPAUK PALACE _Frontispiece_
PAGE
MAP OF MADRAS, ABOUT 1710 10
CORRESPONDING MAP, 1921 11
CLIVE'S HOUSE 16
A BIT OF THE BLACK TOWN WALL 26
CENTRAL GATE OF THE BLACK TOWN WALL 28
A MAGAZINE IN THE BLACK TOWN WALL 30
'THE OLD AND THE NEW' 32
MAP OF MADRAS 36
SAN THOME FORT 42
EGMORE FORT (SIDE VIEW) 44
REMAINS OF THE EGMORE FORT 46
ST. MARY'S, FORT ST. GEORGE 49
GOVERNMENT HOUSE, MADRAS 74
THE SEA GATE 80
THE COMPANY'S FLAG 81
SURF-BOAT 83
UNIVERSITY SENATE HOUSE 96
PACHAIYAPPA'S COLLEGE 97
DOVETON PROTESTANT COLLEGE 98
ST. GEORGE'S CATHEDRAL 102
ST. ANDREW'S (THE 'KIRK') 104
ST. THOME CATHEDRAL 106
* * * * *
CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES
The East India Company established A.D. 1600
First English settlement, at Masulipatam 1611
Site of Madras acquired by Mr. Francis Day 1639
The acquisition confirmed at Chandragiri by the Hindu
'Lord of the Carnatic' 1639
The Hindu lord of the Carnatic (the Raja of Chandragiri)
dethroned by the Mohammedan Sultan of Golconda 1646
The Company secure from Golconda a fresh title to their
possessions
The Sultan of Golconda dethroned by the Moghul
Emperor, Aurangzeb, who appoints a 'Nawab of the
Carnatic' 1687
The Company secure from a representative of the Emperor
a fresh title to their possessions
Da-ud Khan, Nawab of the Carnatic, invests Madras for
three months, and is finally bought off 1702
In Europe, England and France are engaged in the War
of the Austrian Succession 1740-1748
Dupleix, who is possessed with the idea of making France
politically influential in India, is appointed Governor of
Pondicherry 1742
In the war in Europe he sees an opportunity for fighting
the English in India, and French forces under LaBourdonnais
capture Madras 1746
Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, by which Madras is restored to
the English 1748
Two Carnatic princes quarrel for the Nawabship 1749
The French and the English in South India join in the
quarrel on opposite sides. In the name of the claimant
whom the English supported, Clive captures Arcot,
the capital of the Carnatic, and then defends the town
against the rival claimant and his French supporters 1749
The French are defeated in the open field, and the
struggle is at an end 1752
In Europe, England and France are engaged in the Seven
Years' War 1756-1763
In India, Count Lally besieges Madras unsuccessfully for
more than two months A.D. 1758-1759
The English defeat the French at Wandiwash 1760
The English capture Pondicherry 1761
Treaty of Paris, by which Pondicherry is restored to the
French 1763
(The town was captured again in 1786 and in 1803).
Haidar Ali makes himself Sultan of Mysore about 1760,
and reigns till his death, which occurred in 1781
Tipu, his son, succeeds him, and reigns till he is slain in
defending his capital, Seringapatam, against an assault
by the English 1799
(Madras was frequently disturbed by the raids of the
father and of the son; and Tipu's death relieved
the townsmen of constant anxiety.)
The Supreme Court of Judicature established at Madras 1801
In default of an heir, the Carnatic 'lapses' to the Company 1855
The Madras Railway opened for traffic 1856
The Indian Mutiny 1857-1859
The Madras University instituted 1857
The High Court established 1861
* * * * *
ERRATUM
On page 1, _for_ 'Madraspatnam' _read_ 'Madraspatam.'
* * * * *
CHAPTER I
BEFORE THE BEGINNING
Three hundred years ago, Madras, under the name of 'Madraspatnam' was
a tiny rural village on the Coromandel Coast. Scattered about in the
neighbourhood there were other rural villages, such as Egmore, Vepery,
and Triplicane, which are crowded districts in the great city of
Madras to-day. In Triplicane there was an ancient temple, a centre of
pilgrimage, dating, like many village temples in India, from very
distant times; this was the Parthasarathy temple, which is the
'Triplicane Temple' still. A little fishing village called Kuppam,
lying directly on the seashore, sent out, even as Kuppam does now, its
bold fishermen in their rickety catamarans in perilous pursuit of the
spoils of the sea. There was one small town in the neighbourhood,
namely, the Portuguese settlement at Mylapore, where the tall facades
of the several churches, peeping over the trees, formed a land-mark
for the Portuguese ships that occasionally cast anchor in the roads.
Such was the scene in 1639, the year in which our story of Madras begins.
The Portuguese had already been in India for nearly a century and a half;
and under their early and able viceroys they had made themselves powerful.
The stately city of Goa was the capital of their Indian dominions, and they
had settlements at Cochin, Calicut, Mylapore, and elsewhere. But the
influence of the Portuguese was now on the wane. For nearly a century they
had been the only European power in India and the Eastern seas; but
merchants in other European countries had marked with jealous eyes the rich
profits that the Portuguese derived from their Eastern traffic, and
competitors appeared in the field. First came the Dutch, who in India
established themselves at Pulicat, some twenty-five miles north of
Mylapore. Holland had lately thrown off the yoke of Spain, and was full of
new-born vigour; and Dutch trade in the East--chiefly in the East India
Islands--was pushed with a rancorous energy that roused the vain
indignation of the decadent Portuguese. Six years later, in 1600, came the
English. The English traders were employees of the newly-established East
India Company, and were sent out to do business for the Company in the
East; and they had to face the opposition of the Dutch as well as of the
Portuguese. Their earliest enterprise was in the East India Islands, and it
was eleven years before they gained their first footing in India, at
Masulipatam. Here they established an agency and did very considerable
business; later they formed a fortified sub-agency at Armagaum, a good way
down the coast, not far from Nellore. At first their fortunes went well;
but local rulers exacted ruinous dues, and at Armagaum in particular the
local ruler, alarmed at the influence that the English merchants had
gained, set himself so seriously to the work of handicapping their trade
that Mr. Francis Day, the Company's representative at Armagaum and a member
of the Masulipatam Council, proposed to the Council that he should be
allowed to seek a field for commercial enterprise more favourable than
either Armagaum or Masulipatam. To Mr. Francis Day was committed the
business of finding a suitable spot for a fresh settlement.
It was an important commission. The East India Company's existence
depended entirely upon the profits of their trade. The Company's
enterprise at Armagaum was hopeless; at Masulipatam it was very
unsatisfactory; and Mr. Francis Day was appointed to find a place
where the commercial prospects would be bright.
It should always be remembered that the East India Company was
established purely as a commercial association, with its head office
in London, and that its employees in India were men with business
qualifications, appointed to carry on the Company's trade. The prime
concern even of an Agent or a Governor was the making of good bargains
on the Company's behalf--and sometimes on his own--getting the best
prices for European broadcloths and brocades, and buying as cheaply as
possible Indian muslins and calicoes and natural produce, for
exportation to London, where they were sold at a large profit. Any
fighting in which the Company's servants engaged was merely incidental
to the pursuit of business in a land in which the ruling sovereigns,
as well as the many small chiefs, were constantly at war. It is a
maxim that 'Trade follows the Flag;' but in the case of India the Flag
has followed Trade.
It is as a commercial man, therefore, that we must picture Mr. Francis
Day setting out on his commercial mission; but it can be imagined that
the English merchant, starting on an expedition in which he would be
likely to seek personal interviews with rajas and nawabs and bid for
their favour, set out in such style as would do the Company credit. In
our mind's eye we picture Master Francis Day, Chief of Armagaum,
standing on the deck of one of the Company's vessels lying at anchor
in the Armagaum roads, and receiving his colleagues' farewells. His
garb is that of a substantial merchant in the days of King Charles I.
It has none of the extravagances that were the fashionable
affectations of gay Cavaliers, but its sobriety makes it none the less
smart. He wears a purple doublet and hose, a broad white collar edged
with lace, and a gracefully-short black-velvet cloak. Curly hair
falls beneath his broad-brimmed black hat, but not in long and scented
ringlets such as were trained to fall below the shoulders of
fashionable gallants at King Charles's court. He is in every way a
fitting representative of the Honourable Company.
The bo'sun has piped his whistle, and the last good-byes have been
said. The anchor's weighed, and the white sails are spread to the
breeze. Master Day waves his hand to his colleagues in the surf-boat
which is taking them shoreward, and the ship is headed to the south.
The expedition is important--yes, and it was much more important than
Master Day imagined; for something more serious than profits on muslin
and brocade was on the anvil of fate.