Chennai
Chennai (Tamil:), formerly known as Madras, is the capital of the southern state of Tamil
Nadu in India, and is the country's fourth-largest city. It is located on the Coromandel coast of the Bay of Bengal. With an estimated population of 7.45 million (2005), the 367 year old city is the 34th largest metropolitan area in the world. Its has the 2nd longest seashore in the world.
Madras was founded in 1639 when the British East India Company (represented by Francis Day and Andrew Cogan and aided by a local translator Beri Thimappa) was granted land to build a trading settlement by the local ruler (Nayak) of the suburb of Vandavasi, Damerla Venkatapathy Nayak. The document of the land grant is dated Aug 22nd 1639 and hence Madras celebrates its birthday on Aug 22nd each year as Madras day. Madras was one of the first outposts of British East India Company. Colonel William Lambton, superintendent of the great Trigonometrical Survey of India, started his journey of triangulating India from St. Thomas Mount. The British built Fort St. George (today the legislative and administrative seat of the state). Fort St George was completed on St George's day in 1640 (April 23rd) and hence was named after the Patron Saint. George Town then developed becoming the modern city of Madras, absorbing several nearby boroughs. Thomas, one of the twelve apostles is associated with Chennai. He is said to have come to India as an evangelist and died in what is now Chennai. Two suburbs, Santhome and St. Thomas Mount, are named in his memory. In 1996, the Tamil Nadu government renamed Madras to Chennai providing the reason that 'Chennai' was the city's traditional name while Madras was one derived during colonial rule. The reasons for this name change is somewhat ambiguous as it is by no means clear that "Madras" is of foreign origin.
Madras is derived from Madraspatnam, a name given to the area when the British negotiated settling there. The origin of the name is uncertain. Tradition suggests that a fishing village near to the location of the British settlement was called Madraspatnam. Others think early Portuguese may have called the area Madre de Sois after an early settler, or Madre de Deus after an early church (of St. Mary). Chennai is derived from Chennapatnam, a name with almost equally uncertain origins. Tradition has it that Chennapatnam was the name of a fishing village near to the location of Madraspatnam. However it is not clear if the village was there beforehand or grew up around the British Madraspatnam settlement. There are some suggestions that the name was given to the developing Indian settlement honor a local Indian administrator.
As the settlements grew, the exact location of both Chennapatnam and Madraspatnam became
confused as the two settlements merged into a single town. Under the British, the then city of Madras grew to be a major city, It was the capital of the Madras presidency, a province that covered the parts of Southern India that were not governed by any of the other princely states. After independence, it became the capital of Madras state, and when the states were reorganized on a linguistic basis, it narrowly escaped becoming the capital of Andhra Pradesh and became the capital of Tamil Nadu. Since then, it has had an uneventful history, except that in the 60s, it
was the centre of the agitation against the Central government's attempts to impose Hindi on the state's
Coordinates : 13°3'37.5" N 80°14'58.68" E (13.06042 ,80.24963)
History
Madras was founded in 1639 when the British East India Company (represented by Francis Day and Andrew Cogan and aided by a local translator Beri Thimappa) was granted land to build a trading settlement by the local ruler (Nayak) of the suburb of Vandavasi, Damerla Venkatapathy Nayak. The document of the land grant is dated Aug 22nd 1639 and hence Madras celebrates its birthday on Aug 22nd each year as Madras day. Madras was one of the first outposts of British East India Company. Colonel William Lambton, superintendent of the great Trigonometrical Survey of India, started his journey of triangulating India from St. Thomas Mount. The British built Fort St. George (today the legislative and administrative seat of the state). Fort St George was completed on St George's day in 1640 (April 23rd) and hence was named after the Patron Saint. George Town then developed becoming the modern city of Madras, absorbing several nearby boroughs. Thomas, one of the twelve apostles is associated with Chennai. He is said to have come to India as an evangelist and died in what is now Chennai. Two suburbs, Santhome and St. Thomas Mount, are named in his memory. In 1996, the Tamil Nadu government renamed Madras to Chennai providing the reason that 'Chennai' was the city's traditional name while Madras was one derived during colonial rule. The reasons for this name change is somewhat ambiguous as it is by no means clear that "Madras" is of foreign origin. Madras is derived from Madraspatnam, a name given to the area when the British negotiated settling
there. The origin of the name is uncertain. Tradition suggests that a fishing village near to the location of the British settlement was called Madraspatnam. Others think early Portuguese may have called the area Madre de Sois after an early settler, or Madre de Deus after an early church (of St. Mary). Chennai is derived from Chennapatnam, a name with almost equally uncertain origins. Tradition has it that Chennapatnam was the name of a fishing village near to the location of Madraspatnam. However it is not clear if the village was there beforehand or grew up around the British Madraspatnam settlement. There are some suggestions that the name was given to the developing Indian settlement honor a local Indian administrator.
As the settlements grew, the exact location of both Chennapatnam and Madraspatnam became
confused as the two settlements merged into a single town. Under the British, the then city of Madras grew to be a major city, It was the capital of the Madras presidency, a province that covered the parts of Southern India that were not governed by any of the other princely states. After independence, it became the capital of Madras state, and when the states
were reorganized on a linguistic basis, it narrowly escaped becoming the capital of Andhra Pradesh and became the capital of Tamil Nadu. Since then, it has had an uneventful history, except that in the 60s, it was the centre of the agitation against the Central government's attempts to impose Hindi on the state's primary education system. Chennai proudly boasts many of its great children. Elihu Yale founder of Yale University, Arvind Sanmugam of Canada- Chairman World Police Academy, Chairman and CEO of Chez Leeloo Canada,
Chairman of Chez Leeloo India, Director of Chez Leeloo Philippines, President of Canadian
Peacemakers Corporation and Director of Tan Theta Entertainment and Indira Nooyi the CEO of Pepsi International, A.R. Rahman the creative music genius who won double Oscars for his music score for themovie "Slumdog Millionaire" making him a world celebrity and a sought after musician.
Culture
Chennai, being the capital of Tamil Nadu, is home to a host of Tamil culture art forms including dance, literature, sculpture, music and cinema.
The season for Bharatnatyam and Carnatic Music draws visitors and aficionados from the world over.Being the capital of Tamil Nadu, the preferred language of communication amongst the local population is Tamil. However, English is widely spoken as the language of commerce and English speaking visitors should have no problem getting around. The city also has a fair number of people that speak Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi.
Mamallapuram, an extension of the city which is known for its sandy beaches, stone carvings, food and resorts. It also hosts the Choloamandalam artists village which is fairly well known in art circles both in India and abroad.
The city has a thriving Tamil film industry. It is also known as Kollywood. It is the second largest film industry in India. Some of the most prominent figures of Tamil Nadu like M.G. Ramachandran, Sivaji Ganesan, M. Karunanidhi, J Jayalalithaa, Rajnikanth, Kamal Hassan,Vijay, Shankar, Mani Ratnam,Illayaraja, AR Rahman are currently, or have at some stage of their career, been associated with Kollywood.
Amongst sports, Chennai is also a major centre for cricket, motorsports and tennis.
Chennai, like all the other metropolises in India, experienced significant economic growth in the last 15 years. It has several options for mainstream entertainment with malls, multiplexes, restaurants and hotels at nearly every major commercial district. Pubs and lounges, however, are restricted to only hotels in Chennai due to legal restrictions on the sale of liquor.
Climate
Climate of Chennai is Tropical.
Chennai has mainly two seasons - summer (33 deg C - 38 deg C) Mar, Apr and May and monsoon (Oct, Nov and Dec). It does not enjoy the south-west monsoon, but gets its bountiful rains from the north-east monsoon from October through December, thus amounting to about 125-150 cm of rainfall annually.Rainfalls occur usually from October to December. During some seasons, Chennai gets ample amount of rainfall if there are depressions in Bay of Bengal.
December to February are the mildest months temperature-wise. Climate is humid pretty much throughout the year because the city is on the coast. Summers are very hot and humid.
ITS AWESOME DA APPU
ReplyDelete