From India's Digital Archives-1

The Digital Library of India (DLI) project, an initiative of the Central Government, aims at digitising significant artistic, literary and scientific works and making them available over the Internet for education and research. Begun in 2000 by the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India and later taken over by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, it has to date scanned nearly 5.5 lakh books, predominantly in Indian languages.

The archives of the DLI contain a huge collection of books on old Madras and various institutions that were/are part of its landscape. While these include the more famous ones, such as the Madras Tercentenary Commemoration Volume, Story of Madras by Glyn Barlow, and Madras in the Olden Times by James Tallboys Wheeler, several out-of-print publications too are part of the collection. This column will profile some of these.

The Pachaiyappa’s College Centenary Souvenir

The Pachaiyappa’s College had its genesis in the Last Will and Testament of Pachaiyappa Mudaliar, a legendary merchant and philanthropist who died in 1794. A long and protracted legal battle broke out between his heirs over his estate in which he had left about a lakh of pagodas towards charitable and religious purposes. With a large part of the estate having been squandered away due to mismanagement, it was left to the Government to step in and salvage what was left. George Norton, the Advocate General of Madras, played a vital role in the recovery of funds, which amounted to around Rs. 7.25 lakh. This formed the nucleus of the Pachaiyappa’s Trust.

The commemoration volume records that a school was established in 1842 under the name of Patcheappa’s Preparatory School in the house of a Waddell in Popham’s Broadway for the education of poor students in the “elementary branches of English Literature and Science”. It moved to the Esplanade in 1850, when the historic building modelled on the Temple of Theseus, was inaugurated. Over the years, it grew to be one of the best known schools in South India and was the main feeder for those graduating from Presidency College and Madras University. It was raised to the status of a Second Grade college in 1880 and, in 1889, it became a First Grade college.

A small hostel for students was opened in 1899. Over the years, it grew in size and a site was purchased at Chetpet in 1914 to accommodate the growing numbers of hostellers. On April 1, the Governor of Madras, Lord Pentland, laid the foundation stone for the new buildings. The construction was completed in 1921. During the time of construction, the hostel was moved from George Town to Doveton House in Nungambakkam (the rentals being borne by Annie Besant and Sir C.P. Ramaswamy Aiyar) and subsequently, in 1915, to Dare’s Gardens adjoining the new hostel site.

By the 1930s, the College had outgrown its Esplanade campus. When the University Commission reduced the strength of the institution to 800 due to the space crunch, it was decided to shift the entire College to the hostel campus, an idea that had originated at the time the site was bought. In 1935, the Residential College Scheme was drawn up and an appeal made to the public and alumni of the institution for funds. A raffle conducted at the College raised a sum of Rs. 50,000 towards the Building Fund. In 1939, the Governor of Madras Lord Erskine laid the foundation stone for the College buildings, which were declared open in 1940 by his successor Sir Arthur Hope.

The section dealing with the origin and growth of the institution compiled by the renowned Sanskrit scholar, T.M.P. Mahadevan, Head of the Department of Philosophy, is a comprehensive account of its journey. The book also contains a profile of Pachaiyappa Mudaliar and an account of the legal battle following his death, written by the noted historian Rao Sahib C.S. Srinivasachari, an alumnus. The section on endowments and scholarships acknowledges the contributions made over the years by several well-known names of the times, such as Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetti, Raja Goday Narayana Gajapati Raju, Dewan V. Ramiengar (an alumnus), T. Subbaroya Mehta and Raja Sir Annamalai Chettiar.

This post was first written for Madras Musings

OLD MADRAS ROAD 17: MCDOWELLS

The origin of this liquor major goes back to 1825, when a Dr.Mcdowell started a wine business in Madras. The business later expanded thanks to the acquisition of many valuable agencies of major companies such as George Younger and Sons, well known Scotch brewers, M/s Lipton and Van Houtens Limited. The firm had several large godowns for the storage of wines and spirits imported from Europe.

In 1880, the firm ventured into cigar manufacturing. The manufacturing operations were first setup in Trichy, after which facilities were opened at their headquarters, Mcdowell House, Second Line Beach, Madras. It soon became a pioneer in the blending of the finest imported leaf with the indigenous tobacco was renowned for its brands such as “The Light of Asia” and the “Pearl of Kashmere”.

It was reconstituted as a company in 1898, with an initial capital of Rs.8 Lakhs. In 1951, it was acquired by Vittal Mallya, the founder of the UB Group, which continues to use the name for its flagship product.

OLD MADRAS ROAD 16: HARRISON & CO

The Eden restaurant at Harrisons is one of the city’s most famous restaurants. Harrisons itself is an old Madras name, tracing its origins to 1885. Founded by G.Varadarajulu Chetty, it started off as a restaurant, catering and confectionary service. Its two storey building in Broadway (where today the Bank of Maharashtra stands) consisted of the confectionary store in the ground floor and the restaurant in the first floor. The establishment was known for its Officer’s Lunches and had a string band in attendance.

Their business as confectioners too was renowned and they were appointed Confectioners and Caterers to His Excellency, the Governor of Madras and the Rajah’s of Travancore and Cochin. In 1939, the restaurant was bought over by Nammalwar Naidu, whose family in the early 2000s demolished the old garden house of the Maharani of Vizianagaram and opened the new Harrisons.

OLD MADRAS ROAD 15: SURAJMALS

The business house of Surajmals, trading primarily in diamonds and other precious stones was founded by Surajmal Lallubhai Mehta in Bombay in 1895. The Madras branch, which was opened in 1916, was managed by Surajmal’s nephew, Jaisinghlal.

Surajmal’s connections with Madras however went beyond the diamond trade. In the 1930s, it was involved in the gramophone records business, with the setting up of a company in called Musical Products Limited with a capital of Rs.50000. The Broadcast label was taken on licence from Vocalion of England. To establish the connection with the diamond trade, the Broadcast logo featured a diamond. Prominent artistes who recorded with them included M.S.Subbalakshmi and her mother, Mysore T.Chowdiah and Rajamanickam Pillai. However, this venture did not last long due to dull sales and this company was wound up in 1937. Surajmals continued in the diamond trade for long after. Their showroom building survives almost intact, operating today as the NSC Bose Road branch of Saravana Bhavan.

OLD MADRAS ROAD 14: TB MEHTA AND SONS

Much like the Tawkers, T.B.Mehta and Sons too were big names in the diamond trade. The family’s presence in South India went back to the mid 1600s, when two brothers Kameshwar Mehta and Kunwar Mehta migrated to Tanjore from Gujarat. Balakrishna Mehta, the founder of this firm was a descendant of Kameshwar Mehta. Born in 1834, he shifted to Madras in 1871 to expand his diamond trade. The business was a flourishing one and boasted of customers that included the likes of the Maharaja of Mysore, the Rajah of Venkatagiri and the Raja of Kalahasti.

Two of Balakrishna Mehta’s sons, Subbaroya Mehta and Neelakanta Mehta continued the diamond business after his demise in 1899. The showroom was located at No.453, Mint Street. Neelakanta Mehta passed away in the year 1910. Subbaroya Mehta made a munificent donation of Rs 30000 to the Pachaiyappa’s College in memory of his brother. The Central Block of the hostel is named the Neelakanta Mehta Ward. Yet another commemoration is the eponymous street in T.Nagar. Sivasankara Mehta, the grandson of Neelakanta Mehta served for a brief while as the Mayor of Madras in the 1960s.

OLD MADRAS ROAD 13: NARAYANJI KESHAVJI

An advertisement that can be seen regularly in magazines of the early 1900s is that of “Rajvaidya” Narayanji Keshavji, renowned Ayurvedic physician. Hailing form a family of royal physicians to the Jamsahibs of Jamnagar, Narayanji Keshavji established the Ayurvedodaya Pharmacy in 1896 in Kathiawar. He also published a pamphlet titled “Vaidya Vidya”, a work on secret of good health in Gujarati (his native tongue) which was so popular that it had to be translated and published in no less than ten languages, including Sinhalese and Burmese!

Establishments were opened in Bombay, Calcutta and Madras to ensure quick supply of medicines to patients who wrote in to him detailing their sicknesses. The Calcutta establishment seems to have been in existence even upto the 1940s. However, the fate of the Bombay or Madras branches are unknown today.

OLD MADRAS ROAD 12: NV SHANMUGAM

This well-known snuff manufacturing business of Old Madras was setup in 1904 by Nagoor Velayudham Shanmugam. Specialising in white snuff, a finer variety than the black powder, Shanmugam attracted a dedicated set of clientele with his door to door marketing. After Shanmugam’s demise, his sons Palani Vale Nadar and Muruga Vale Nadar continued the business. It was a flourishing one, with sales constantly on the rise. The business had a huge network of agents and distributors to whom they distributed specialised calendars printed in Germany as gifts every year.

The expansion of the city and changing times had an impact on the business. The increasing regulations brought about on the tobacco industry impacted the snuff sector as well. The factory was moved to Poonamallee in the 1990s, from where it functions even today.