Burkit Road - T.Nagar (Name Reason)

:: Chennai Factoids ::

:: Name reasons behind famous roads in Chennai ::

:: BURKIT ROAD - T.NAGAR ::

Am sure all the Chennai'tes know about this road. And no wonder, as a chennai'te, we would have known all the roads in T.Nagar because of the traffic diversions. Here i go with the name reason behind this Burkit Road. It is named after Mr.Harold Hamilton Burkitt.

:: Harold Hamilton Burkitt ::

Harold Hamilton Burkitt was a British civil servant of the Indian civil service .

Burkitt Road in the neighbourhooad of T. Nagar in Chennai is named after him.

Burkitt was born in the United Kingdom and educated at Galway Grammar School and Dublin University .

He passed the Indian civil service examinations held in 1899 and arrived in India on 3 December 1900.

In India, Burkitt served as Assistant Collector and magistrate in the Madras Presidency for sometime before being appointed British Resident to the Cochin kingdom .

Burkitt served as British Resident to Cochin from 2 December 1920 to 25 June 1923 and was succeeded by C. W. E. Cotton .

He was Commissioner of Madras City in 1919-20 and President and Mayor of the corporation in 1917-18

Source : Wikipedia

Locate yourself : Burkit Road - T.Nagar (Source : Google Maps)

Landmarks in and around GN Chetty Road :

• Ramakrishna Model Higher Secondary School
• Eureka Forbes Limited
• Mc. Rennett
• Pasta Bar Veneto - Italian Restaurant
• Shree Hall - Marriage Hall
• Svathi Coaching center
• Seeman Tutorials
• Lotus serviced apartments

G N Chetty Road - T.Nagar (Name Reason)

:: Chennai Factoids :

:: Name reasons behind famous roads in Chennai ::

:: G N Chetty Road - T.Nagar ::

Even a small lane in t.nagar is famous. And no wonder, every one in Chennai must be aware about this G N Chetty road and damn sure that we all bored seeing this road name in the shops when we were troubled in long traffic. Here comes the name reason behind this traffic prone  G N Chetty Road. This road is named after Diwan Bahadhur sir Gopathi Narayanaswami Chetty.

Gopathi Narayanaswami Chetty :

Diwan Bahadur Sir Gopathi Narayanaswami Chetty was an Indian merchant, landlord, politician, legislator and economist.

Narayanaswami Chetty was the son of Gopathy Mahadeva Chetty. He was educated in Madras. He was elected President of Madras Corporation .

Narayanaswamy Chetty served as the member of the Council of State, Imperial Legislative Council of India, from 1930 to 1936.

He also served as a President of the Madras Corporation.

He was a member of the Joint Select Committee of the Reserve Bank of India Bill and played a pivotal role in the formation of the Reserve Bank of India .

Narayanaswamy Chetty was made a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire in 1929 and a Knights Bachelor in 1945.

G. N. Chetty road in T. Nagar , Chennai is named after Gopathi Narayanaswami Chetty.

Source : Wikipedia

Locate Yourself : GN Chetty Road - T.Nagar (Source: Wikimapia)

Landmarks in and around GN Chetty Road :

• The Residency Hotel
• Hotel Dee Cee Manor
• Buhari Hotel
• Jain Temple
• GKB Opticals
• Murugan Idly Shop
• Plantain Leaf 
• Hotel Vaigai
• Natural Fresh
• Hotel Virudhu Nagar
• Jeeva Park
• Cancer Shelter
• Dr. Agarwal hospital
• Bharathiraja Hospital

Ranganathan Street - T.Nagar (Name Reason)

:: Chennai Factoids ::

:: Name reasons behind famous roads / streets in Chennai ::

:: RANGANATHAN STREET - T.NAGAR ::

One of the most crowded and busiest street in the universe, sellers paradise, buyers prefers this place over many other shopping destinations. Whatever be the competition, the shops in this street will never be lack of customers. Yeah , I am talking about Ranganathan Street in T.Nagar. Almost every one in this universe know or atleast heard about this street name. But only few of us knows the reason behind naming street as "Ranganathan Street".
Sharing the name reason behind Ranganathan street.

Tupil Rangaswamy Iyengar

What is presently known as Ranganathan Street ought to have been Rangaswamy Iyengar Street after the first resident of that street.

It was the usual practice then to name streets after the first resident irrespective of their class, caste or contribution.

Mr.Tupil Rangaswamy Iyengar, a retired Civil Servant of the erstwhile Madras Presidency built his house in early '20s. 

When civil authorities approached him for his formal approval the humble, religious and self effasive gentleman requested it be named after Lord Ranganatha of Srirangam .

Locate Yourself : Ranganathan Street - T.Nagar (Source : Google Maps)

Where was Tupil Rangaswamy Iyengar reside in Ranganathan street ? 

It has been told that the Kerala Jewellers in Ranganathan street is where Tupil Rangaswamy Iyengar was resided.. It was named as TUPIL house in those days and now its been completely changed. And also heard that, almost the whole of Ranganathan street is occupied by Tupil Rangaswamy Iyengar and his relatives. 

Firstly, the house has been let out to one Prof Krishnamurthy Iyer - The ex prinicipal of Pachiayappa's college. It has been occupied by him over a very long period.

Later he has built a shop in his house front, on the request made by Mr.Perumal Nadar who is none other than the father of VG Paneerdas and VG Santhosam. 

Later it has seen a complete make over and now it is entirely occupied by the commercial spaces  

Source : Wikipedia, Headway on foot paths by Mr.T.L.Raghavan

Landmarks in and around Ranganathan Street :

• Saravana Stores
• Jeyachandran Textiles
• Textile India
• Rathna Complex
• Shanmuga Stores
• Kalanjiyam and many more.

Wallajah Road - Chepauk (Name Reason)

Image Source : Skyscrappercity.com

 :: Chennai Factoids:: 

:: Name reasons behind famous roads in Chennai ::

:: WALLAJAH ROAD - CHEPAUK ::

Am sure everyone of us knows about this Wallajah Road. It is in Chepauk near to M.A.Chidhambaram Stadium .  Wallajah Road itself is a landmark for this place Chepauk. This is the road which takes us to Beach (Anna Square) from Mount Road. It is named after Mohamed Ali Khan Wallajah - Nawab of Arcot.


:: Mohamed Ali Khan Wallajah ::

Mohamed Ali Khan Wallajah- son of Muhammad Anwaruddin was born in 1717, became the Eighth Nawab of Arcot and he was the Governor of Trichinopoly. In 1750 he was defeated and forced to fly to Arcot. In 1751 Robert Clive, the British Administrator and Military Leader captured Arcot in the battle against the British and theFrench. He was born in Shropshire, England. 

He was the person who joined British East India Company in 1743. In 1754, the battle between the British and the French ended with a treaty by which Mohamed Ali Khan Wallajah left as the Nawab of the Carnatic.

In 1765, he became Independent ruler of the Carnatic. The Treaty of Paris of 1763 also recognized him as the Nawab and friend of the King of England. The first sovereign ruler of the Carnatic was Muhammad Ali Wallajah. In 1770, to the Court of the Nawab Wallajah admiral Sir John Lindsay arrived as the King'sMinister. Governor Dupleix strongly objected to such credit of the Nawab. By the king of England, Wallajah was asked twice to undergo the ceremony of his enthronement with the badge of the order of the Bath, firstthrough Lindsay in 1771 and in 1779 through Sir Hector Munro, which he did in his residence at Chepauk Palace. He supported in the establishment of the BritishEmpire in South India against French.

In London, Robert Clive (Lord Clive) spoke about the great qualities of the Nawab and tribute to his ruling. When the British Ship “H.M.S Wester” reached the Madras Fort, the captain of the ship gave a letter from the King of the England saying that his friendship with the Nawab should grow from generation to generation. He was the friend and admirer of the British East India Company. During the Second Anglo-Mysore War (1780-84), the Nawab divested his administrative independence by the British. After the War he got his powers and during the third Anglo¬-Mysore War (1790-92), his powers were taken away by British.

Muhammad Ali Wallajah is the Nawab who donated land for many temples which are still there till date. Near Trichy, Sri Padmanabha Swamy temple in Srirangam was a gift of the Nawab with a large estate, which is called “Nawab Thottam” even today. Likewise he donated lands for Hindu temples in Tirupati, Tiruvarur, Tirunelveli andMadras. Similarly, he built Mosques in South India. The Wallajah Big Mosque situated in Triplicane High Road, Chennai is one of the biggest mosques in South India. This is the only Mosque in the whole world which has chronogram written by a non-Muslim (his Private Secretary Raja Makhan Lal Khirat). In Arabia, in the Hijaz at Makkah, he had his permanent staff to serve the poor. He furnished a ladder which is covered with gold and silver at Makkah to enable the journeyers to get into the territory of the Kaaba during the Haj. To the Prophet's Mosque in Madinah (Masjid-e-Nabavi) he supplied carpets and lights. The Syeds, who were the descendents of the Holy Prophet, he used to donate Rs. 12000 (in 18th century rupees) every year.

"Safinathullah" and "Safinathun Nabi" are thetwo ships which Wallajah purchased for trade and commerce, but they were mainly used for Haj Pilgrims transportation from Carnatic. For the benefit of the pilgrims of the Makkah and Madinah, Wallajah built rooms which are known as "Arcot Rubats" in Arabia.

The famous Chepauk Palace, built by Mohamed Ali Khan Wallajah in 1768, is located in the area of 121 acres from the Cooum river to Pycroft’s road. This palace has two blocks; the southern block called 'Kalas Mahal' is in two floors which were a school named Madrasa-e-Aalia and the northern block called 'Humayun Mahal', which contained the Diwan Khana, (the land of which now accommodates the PWD Offices, Board of Revenue, Senate House, Madras University, State Guest House and M.A.C. Stadium). Moulana Abdul Ali Bahrululoom from Lucknow was the first Principal of the Madrasa (who is buried in Wallajah Big Mosque, Triplicane). On the site of the Carnatic Nawabs artillery park from where volleys were fined to greet visiting VIPs, Senate house was built.

Nawab Muhammad Ali Wallajah’s bathing marquee afterwards became the residence of Governor Robert Clive, Wellesley and later the residence of Surgeon-General. In 1930 this building was demolished and the Madras University Library and the Department of Research came up in its place.Till it was demolished, the University of Madras housed the offices of the Tamil Lexicon and the Department of Indian History and Archaeology.
At the age of seventy eight, Nawab Wallajah died in 1795, after a glorious reign of forty-six years. The road which leads from Triplicane to the Palace is still known as Wallajah road. He was buried at Santhome, Madras, but his remains were moved to Trichinopoly, with full honors after two yearsand buried at the feet of holy saint Hazrath Tabray Alam according to his wish

Source : hoparoundindia.com

Locate Yourself : Wallajah Road - Chepauk (Source : Google Maps)

Landmarks in and around Wallajah Road : 

• MAC Stadium
• Tamil Nadu Tourism Complex
• Kalaivaanar Arangam (Which has been demolished now)
• Hotel Priyadharshini Park
• Apple Residency
• Various Sports Shops
• ABN Infotech
• Senate House of Madras University

Ethiraj Salai - Egmore (Name Reason)

Image Source : The Hindu

:: Chennai Factoids ::

:: Name reason behind famous roads in Chennai ::

:: ETHIRAJ SALAI / ETHIRAJ COLLEGE ::

Many a times we will pass through the Ethiraj Salai and had a lots of guesses rolling in my mind as to who is that Ethiraj behind this name. The students of Ethiraj College might be well aware of this personality. This road is erstwhile named as "Commander-In-Chief Road" and now it has been renamed as "Ethiraj Salai". After searching for too many keywords in google, here is the one I got from Wikipedia.

Vellore Lakshmanaswamy Mudaliar Ethiraj :

Vellore Lakshmanaswamy Mudaliar Ethiraj was an Indian lawyer and philanthropist who founded Ethiraj College for Women , a college in Chennai.

His father was Thiru. Vellore Lakshmanaswamy Mudaliar from Thottapalayam village in Vellore.

V. L. Ethiraj received his undergraduate degree from what is today Presidency College,Chennai and received his law degree from the University of Dublin. 

When he returned to India, he joined The Madras Bar. He was the first Indian to be appointed as Crown Prosecutor by the British Raj .

He donated one million rupees (Rs.10 lakhs) as an endowment for Ethiraj College for Women. 

He believed that educating a man is educating an individual, but educating a woman is educating the entire family.

One of Ethiraj's successes was the Lakshmikanthan murder case , which he successfully fought in defense of Tamil actors M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar and N. S. Krishnan and got them released from prison.

Source : Wikipedia

Landmarks in and around Ethiraj Salai : 

• Ethiraj College
• The Presidency Club
• Hotel Kanchi
• Sivalaya Complex
• Vivanta - Taj Connemara
• Rani Meyyammai Marriage Hall
• Derby Showroom
• Evergreen Vegetable Store

Locate Yourself : Ethiraj Salai  - Egmore (Source : Google Maps)

Whites Road - Name Reason

Image Source : The Hindu

:: Chennai Factoids ::

Name Reason Behind Famous Roads in Chennai ::

:: WHITES ROAD ::

Many of us aware about this much entertaining road.. The road which connects to the Best Entertainment zones - Sathyam Theatre and Express Avenue !! Here is the reason why it has been named as ''Whites Road'' :

The road is named after one Mr. J. D. White, who obtained a grant of land in 1809 and built a house there in 1832.

The house went on to become the Madras Club — the first club in the city and for long considered the best in India, hailed as the “Ace of Clubs”.

The club moved out of the premises post-Independence and the building was demolished as recently as in 2003.

Today in its place stands Express Avenue, the city's hippest mall.

Source : The Hindu

Locate yourself : Whites Road (Source : Google Maps)

Thanks to  Lakshmi Venkatraman for the suggestion of adding a map. 

Greams Road & Eldams Road (Name Reason)

:: CHENNAI FACTOIDS ::

Name reasons behind the famous roads / streets in Chennai 

:: GREAMS ROAD - Nungambakkam & ELDAMS ROAD  - Alwarpet ::



Mr Henry Sulivan Graeme and Mr Richard Yeldham

These two gentlemen lived in East India Company-ruled Madras around the same time.

Graeme, a civil servant, was a memberof the Madras council (a highly powerful position at the time) for five years from 1823. During his stay in Madras, he owned a bungalow in Nungambakkam, and the road connecting his bungalow to Mount Road was subsequently named as Graeme’s Road.

Yeldham, on the other hand, was a merchant of the Company who went on to become the mayor of Madras in 1801 (he happened to be the last mayor appointed during the Company rule). By the time he died, in 1820, at the age of 68, Yeldham hadbuilt a palatial house in Teynampet, and the road leading from his house to Mount Road was subsequently named as Yeldham’s Road.

Today, Graeme’s Road has been rechristened as Greams Road and Yeldham’s Road is Eldams Road.

Source : The Hindu

Bashyam Bashir Ahmad Street - Alwarpet (Name Reason)

:: Chennai Factoids ::

Name Reasons Behind Famous Roads / Streets in Chennai 

:: BHASHYAM BHASHEER AHAMED STREET - ALWARPET ::

I Must say, its inspiring to see this street name in Alwarpet. Never saw this kind of name . Those who don't know where this street is, its next to Naradha Gana Sabha , Alwarpet. These kind of names should be encouraged.

It is Vaishnavite-Muslim name combination, the explanation is simple — it commemorates two men — K. Bhashyam Iyengar and Basheer Ahmed Sayeed. Both were giants of the legal field.

Bhashyam enrolled as an advocate in 1906. He apprenticed under his father-in-law, the legendary Sir VC Desikachariar, and later worked with leaders such as VV Srinivasa Iyengar and S. Srinivasa Iyengar. He was greatly successful in independent practice as well. He wrote a classic commentary on the Negotiable Instruments Act, while still inthe early days of his career and is even nowreferred to at times as NI Act Bhashyam to distinguish him from the other, Sir V Bhashyam Iyengar.

But it is his services to social causes that earned him immortality. Active in the freedom struggle he was beaten by the police and also sentenced. He took to representing in court, people charged for participating in the independence movement. He was to be a member of the Syndicates of the Madras and Annamalai Universities, a councillor, a member of the Legislature and a minister in the Prakasam Ministry of 1946-47. He died in 1959.

Basheer Ahmed enrolled in the High Court in 1925. An expert in languages and also Islamic law, he rose quickly in practice and was later made a judge of the Madras High Court. He was confirmed as a judge in 1950.Like Bhashyam, he too was actively involvedin social causes, one of the prime beneficiaries being the Music Academy, of which he was a member of the executive committee.

It was at his prompting that the Academy purchased its present property. Justice Basheer Ahmed, in 1951, set up the Southern India Education Trust along with afew other prominent Muslims of Madras.

Sixteen acres of land were purchased in theTeynampet area and in 1955, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, who greatly admired Basheer Ahmed’s legal acumen and learning, laid thefoundation stone of the SIET College, the first of the many SIET institutions. Justice Basheer Ahmed Sayeed died in 1984.

K. Bhashyam lived in Champaka Vilas, at the intersection of Luz Church Road and Mowbrays (now TTK) Road. That property isa rabbit’s warren of flats now. The other side of Mowbray’s Road, was mainly paddy fields, with the vast Sudder Court (native courts of the 18 century) in the distance. The main court building, Sadr Gardens, was Basheer Ahmed Sayeed’s residence. It still exists, a magnificent pile.

When the surrounding area was developed in the 1940s, roads were laid and one connected Sadr Gardens to Mowbrays Road.In an inspired moment, it was decided to name it after both men and so we have it, Bashyam Basheer Ahmed Street.

Source : The Hindu, sriramv.wordpress.com

Ariya Gowda Road - West Mambalam (Name Reason)

Image Source : The Hindu

:: Chennai Factoids ::

Name reasons behind famous roads in Chennai :

:: ARIYA GOWDA ROAD - T.NAGAR / WEST MAMBALAM ::

This road  located near Postal Colony in West Mambalam was named in memory of Mr. Ari Gowder

Ari Gowder was President of the Backward Classes League and leaned towards the Justice Party

The chances of anyone travelling down Ariya Gowda Road in West Mambalam, and stopping to wonder about the identity of the man who gave the thoroughfare its name, are slim. For when you are on Ariya Gowda Road, you are focused on getting out of the road alive, given its traffic.

He was not Ariya Gowda. He was HB Ari Gowder, a great visionary and leader of the Badaga community of the Nilgiris. And his life, as gleaned from various sources, including a 1935 Who's Who and the internet, makes for interesting reading.

Rao Bahadur Hubbathalai J Bellie Gowder, made his fortune in laying the tracks of the Nilgiri Mountain Railway, which was completed in 1908. His wealth made him a leading member of his community, and his clansmen came to him for advice on several issues. Bellie Gowder founded a free school in his native village, Hubbathalai, an institution that still functions. He passed away in 1935.

Bellie Gowder's son, Ari, was born in 1893. His father ensured that he was educated in the modern sense and he graduated from Madras Christian College. Though he was to consider himself a contractor and a planter, it was in politics and social uplift that Ari Gowder was to make a mark. In 1923, he became the first Badaga to be elected to the Madras Legislative Council of which he was a member until 1934. In the 1940s, he was elected to the Madras Legislative Assembly. When the Rajaji government introduced Prohibition in 1937, he led the challenge of enforcing it in the Nilgiris, of which area he was also the first non-official to become District Board President. Ari Gowder was also active in the Scouts Movement. Another contribution of his was the establishment of the Nilgiris Cooperative Marketing Society, which eliminated the stranglehold middlemen had over the simple mountain people. He was also a Director of the Badaga Land Mortgage Bank.

While the sympathies of most of his community lay with the Congress, Ari Gowder, given that he was President of the Backward Classes League, leaned more towards the Justice Party, which was active till the 1930s. That probably explains the road in Mambalam being named after him. Neighbouring Theyagaroya Nagar or T Nagar, developed in the 1920s when the Justice Party was in power and most of the roads, parks and streets there are named after its leaders. Legend also has it that a large chunk of land adjoining the Mambalam Railway Station was his, which he donated for developmental work. Like his father, Ari Gowder too received the title of Rao Bahadur from the British Government, in 1943.

In 1946, Ari Gowder was defeated in the Assembly elections. But in 1952 he contested successfully as an independent. He was to remain an independent for the rest of his career. He passed away in 1971.

Source : The Hindu

Locate Yourself - Arya Gowda Road - West Mambalam / T.Nagar (Source : Google Map)