Category Archives: Historical Links, Pre-Independence

‘Galapra’ period coin die made by Roman smiths minted in Sangam Era?

The two faces of the Galapra period coin | Express
The two faces of the Galapra period coin | Express

Chennai :

After a gap of several years, a ‘Galapra’ period coin has been discovered and deciphered in Tamil Nadu, thanks to the efforts of R Krishnamurthy, president, South Indian Numismatic Society (SINS).

The coin was collected from the Amaravathi river bed Karur in 1986. The period immediately after Sangam Age in the Tamil Country is called the Kalabhra (also Galapra) Interregnum and  an alien tribe occupied the Tamil Country throwing out the  ancient Chera, Chola and  Pandya kingdoms and ruled for some period for which there is no proper evidence.

“This is an accidental discovery. When I was rearranging my old collection of Pallava Coins six months ago, I saw a coin which has a different texture not at all connected with the Pallava coin. In the coin holder,  I have written in 1986 that the coin was collected from the Amaravathi river bed, Karur,” Krishnamurthy, an expert in deciphering Brahmi scripts, told Express.

He also recalled that in 1986 he had published a square copper coin with  an elephant on the obverse and a legend in Brahmi-script  “I read the legend as ‘GALAPIRA’.   Many scholars did not accept  my reading because of some reasons,” he recalled. Krishnamurthy had presented a paper on his recent discovery at the recent conference of SINS at Hyderabad.

Regarding the date of the coin, Krishnamurthy said, “The coin is die struck and the minting is of high quality. It looks similar to the Roman bronze coin of Third century AD. On going through a Roman Coin  catalogue, I found a coin similar in diameter and weight. The Galapra coin die might have been designed and made by Roman coin die-makers.”

He further said the ‘Galapra’ coin had four symbols on the obverse top right near the border  which are usually seen in Sangam Age Tamil coins.

“So, the coin may have been minted  at the fag end of Sangam  Age,” Krishnamurthy said.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Express News Service / March 02nd, 2017

Inimitable cornices

Avudaiyar Kovil in Pudukottai holds magnificent sculptures

There is no happiness for him who does not travel, Rohita!… The feet of the wanderer are like the flower, his soul is growing and reaping fruit; and all his sins are destroyed by his fatigues in wandering. Therefore, wander!/The fortune of him who is sitting, sits; it rises when he rises; it sleeps when he sleeps; it moves when he moves. Therefore, wander!’

Indra in Aitareya Brahmana

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About ten years ago, I made a trip to Avudaiyar Kovil, also known as Tirupperunthurai (near Aranthangi in the Pudukottai district of Tamil Nadu), simply because I had booked for the whole family on the only convenient train to Karaikkudi from Chennai, but everyone else dropped out for one reason or other. So I decided to go on my own, a first for a trip that wasn’t related to work. Mainly, I did not want to pass up the chance to see the never-before-or-since stone cornices at the Athmanathaswamy Temple.

I spent most of my day on the road, checking into a modest hotel in Karaikkudi for just long enough to freshen up, bussing my way to the hamlet that takes its name from the temple. Avudaiyar Kovil turned out to be little besides its legendary temple, set in the middle of pretty agrarian vistas, the priests given to calm diffidence.

A chattering guide introduced me to the wonders of the shrine to Siva in which there is no lingam, only the avudaiyar (the base to it), with the deity imagined in the steam that rises from offerings of freshly cooked rice, greens and bitter gourd.

I hung around till well after the mid-day ritual (Uchchi Kaala Seva), the quietude of the temple seeping into me as I walked around undisturbed. The adjacent Tyagaraja and Oonjal mandapams in the third prakaram, to the east, hold the most magnificent sculptural riches. Cavalrymen set off to battle, their horses so life-like that flared nostrils and taut sinews rear to gallop beneath enormous stone chains hanging from the ceiling. The famous cornices, their beams, rods and bolts crafted entirely and unfathomably in stone, are here.

Elsewhere in the temple, the immaculately preserved detail in stone is breathtaking — whether in the musical pillars or the royals and nobility bearing swords, bows and spears, each of them rendered uniquely in their facial features, build and attire, . Motes of dust float surreally in the rays of light that enter the cool darkness from holes in the roof, falling upon a fabulously embellished pillar or the regal figure fronting it. I would reach for my camera but never get a picture that came close to what I was seeing. I have returned to Avudaiyar Kovil twice and its preternatural aesthetic never failed to hold me in thrall.

I took the night train back, rather quieter than I was when I had arrived, stilled not so much by lassitude as the wonders of what I had seen and the cordiality of the people I had met.

A montly column on places of religious interest

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Society> History & Culture / by Lalitha Sridhar / February 23rd, 2017

The dark secret of Elihu Yale

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Believe it or not, there are a few who want to change the name of Yale University! It was initially named Yale College after Elihu Yale, Governor of Madras (1687-1692), who had, in 1715 and 1721, gifted about £800 worth of textiles and books to what was the Collegiate School of Connecticut. Their reason: The donor had not only kept slaves in Madras but had also encouraged slave exports.

These liberals of the anti-Trump brigade cite precedent. Yale in February re-named its Calhoun College, Hopper College because John Calhoun, a Vice President of America, had been “a white supremacist and a national leader who passionately supported slavery”, according to Yale’s President who amplified, “He was fundamentally in conflict with Yale’s mission and values.” So was Yale, say the liberals pointing to Yale’s Madras record of dubiously enriching himself and supporting slavery.

Writing about the last year of Yale’s Governorship, historian HD Love says, “The use of slaves for domestic purposes in Madras had always been recognised and sales and purchases were invariably registered at the Choultry (a Government office). The iniquitous practice of stealing children for export was, of course, illegal… (In 1683 there was) absolute prohibition against the exportation of slaves of any age. In 1687 (Yale’s first year as Governor), however, the trade was sanctioned under regulation, a duty of one pagoda being exacted for each slave sent from Madras by sea.” In September that year, 665 slaves were exported, giving an idea of the trade. The next year, the export of slaves was prohibited. The Council’s policy kept chopping and changing till, in 1790, the Council “resolved that any Traffic in the sale or purchase of Slaves be prohibited by public Proclamation”.

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Yale, whether involved in the trade or not, was, as Governor, permissive about it, it would appear. The records state he permitted 10 slaves to be sent on every ship to England. Citing Yale’s own involvement, the pro-changers refer to three paintings of Yale in the Yale Library collection showing a dark-skinned boy in them. But, the picture seen in all sources and which I found in the first authoritative biography of Yale (by Hiram Bingham) says the boy is the “page boy of the Duke of Devonshire” whose brother Yale’s daughter Anne was to marry.

As for slavery in the Madras Presidency, a 19th Century report says it was commonplace, affecting about 20 per cent of the population (the figure in 1930 was still 12 per cent!). But this slavery was what continues to this day as ‘bonded labour’. The poor borrowed from the landowners and when they could not pay back they entered into a bond to work for the lender for so many years. Laws against such practices were enacted in 1811, 1812, 1823 and 1843, when total abolition was decreed. Selling of slaves became a criminal offence under the Indian Penal Code of 1862.

But to get back to the Yale issue; it’s been said that virtually every old private college in the US was endowed by men from slave-owning families.

Last ‘great white hunter’?

Joshua Mathew from Bengaluru, an IT professional and history buff, tells me that he has the rights for all the books by Kenneth Anderson, the Jim Corbett of the South, who tracked and killed man-eating leopards and tigers and then wrote about them and the southern terrain they flourished in. Anderson, of five-generation British lineage, and his wife Blossom, of Australian and Ceylon Burgher parentage, called Bangalore home. Their son Donald, whom Mathew calls “the last great white hunter-author”, is the subject of a book by Mathew awaiting publication.

Many Andersons married in St Andrew’s Kirk in Madras, says Mathew, but Kenneth Anderson’s greater connection with Madras was his friendship with Wiele the photographer. They hunted and, later, photographed in the wild together, leading Anderson to spend his post-hunting years ‘shooting’ with the camera. His pictures of the Nilgiris in the early 20th Century brought Mathew to my door after reading of Albert Penn, the photographer of the Nilgiris, in this paper.

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Wiele, of German origin but who may have been British — I’ve found no mention of his being interned during the First World War — opened a photographic studio in Madras in the 1880s. Around 1890, Theodor Klein, also German, joined him. Their Wiele and Klein photographic studio was at 11, Mount Road, facing Round Tana (later the G Venkatapathi Naidu building). Branches in Ooty and Coonoor were added. Wiele later sold his share to Klein, moved to Bangalore and successfully ran a studio there in the early 1900s (Mathew tells me Wiele’s daughter visits Bangalore every year). In Madras, Klein hired young Michael Peyerl, another German, as assistant, then took him as partner.

Klein died during the Second World War internment. His widow Valeska inherited his share and ran the business with Peyerl till after Independence when they sold it to Indian interests and moved together to Europe. Klein and Peyerl remained a well-known name in Madras till 1987 when a fire wrote finis to it.

The chronicler of Madras that is Chennai tells stories of people, places and events from the years gone by and, sometimes, from today

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Society> History & Culture> Madras Miscellany / by S. Muthiah / February 27th, 2017

Inspection bungalow of British era in disarray

The building is now being used as a telephone exchange. | Photo Credit: M. Sathyamoorthy
The building is now being used as a telephone exchange. | Photo Credit: M. Sathyamoorthy

The inspection bungalow built by the British more than a century ago in Kendala, near Selas, from where engineers oversaw the construction of one of India’s first hydroelectric systems, still stands today. Though the main inspection bungalow is in a dilapidated condition, it continues to function as a telephone exchange, where most visitors fail to appreciate its role in the history of the Nilgiris.

The building still possesses a great amount of charm, with the teak roofs and wooden floors of the building still standing strong. Apart from the main inspection bungalows, the smaller buildings, believed to be staff quarters and also stables for horses still remain, although they have fallen into a state of extreme disrepair.

The building has been functioning as a telephone exchange for the last decade, with a sign at the top of the entrance of the building, stating its year of construction as 1902, being the only reminder of its historical significance. Venugopal Dharmalingam, the honorary director of the Nilgiris Documentation Center, said that the bungalow overlooking the Kattery waterfalls and the hydroelectric system was known popularly as the “Kattery bungalow.”

“When the dam was being built in the early 1900’s, it would have been used by the British to oversee the construction” he said. The entire project was designed to power the cordite factory in Aravankadu.

“Kattery itself was a popular picnicking spot for the British, and there are old pictures attesting to its natural beauty. Now, the landscape itself is under threat due to the construction of too many resorts and private buildings,” said Mr. Venugopal.

Apart from the main inspection bungalow, there are also a couple of other bungalows nearby built around the year 1906. Though these buildings are in a relatively good condition, they too require maintenance. These buildings are being used as quarters for Cordite factory workers.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / News> Cities> Coimbatore / by Rohan Premkumar / Udhagamandalam – February 24th, 2017

Coal-powered steam engines to be put up for public viewing

The last coal-fired X class engine of the Nilgiris Mountain train came to Coonoor Railway Station from Mettupalayam on Friday. | Photo Credit: M_Sathyamoorthy;M_Sathyamoorthy -
The last coal-fired X class engine of the Nilgiris Mountain train came to Coonoor Railway Station from Mettupalayam on Friday. | Photo Credit: M_Sathyamoorthy;M_Sathyamoorthy –

‘The engines are almost a century old and part of the tradition of NMR railway’

The last of the coal-powered steam engines operational along the Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) route have been retired and are to be exhibited to the public at the Udhagamandalam and Coimbatore railway stations.

Speaking to The Hindu, Divisional Railway Manager of Salem Division, Hari Shankar Verma, said that the coal-powered steam engines had far outlived their technological relevance, and that the remaining two engines still in operation will be exhibited to the public at the two stations. “We had two options, either to sell the engines for scrap or to preserve them as a memento of the NMR’s long history. We are gifting one engine to the people of Ooty,” said Mr. Verma to reporters.

Engine number 37384, which is the older of the two engines, is to be exhibited at Udhagamandalam. K Natarajan, a heritage railway enthusiast and founder of the Heritage Steam Chariot Trust, said that the “X” Class locomotives, built at the Swiss Locomotives and Machine Works factory in Switzerland, was introduced sometime between 1917 and 1925.

“The coal-powered engines are almost a century old and are part of the tradition of the NMR railway. All the newer engines are oil-powered locomotives. The railways should have preserved this important part of the NMR history, as the engine to be retired in Udhagamandalam was still operational,” he said.

He said that railway enthusiasts across the world were prepared to pay good money to enjoy the experience of the old coal-powered locomotives, and that with the retirement of the engines, an important remnant of the NMR history will be lost forever. However, railways officials said that operating the oil-powered locomotives was the only viable solution to pull coaches up the steep hills as the quality of the coal used to power the older locomotives has gradually decreased over the years. It is also said that the older locomotives increased the chances of forest fires.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Coimbatore / by Rohan Premkumar / Udhagamandalam – February 18th, 2017

Tales of Cooum and its 113 temples

At the book lauch in Madras Literary SocietyRomani Agarwal
At the book lauch in Madras Literary SocietyRomani Agarwal

 

Chennai :

The Cooum River has for long been a talking point in Chennai — albeit for all the wrong reasons. Environmentalists decry the pollution and neglect the river has been subjected to, turning it into a nauseous cesspool, as opposed to its rather cleaner upstream that starts from the source.

It was as an attempt to restore a cultural significance to both the river and the historical temples on its banks that the book The Gods of the Holy Koovam, by heritage enthusiast Priya Baskaran, was launched
recently at the Madras Literary Society.

Inspired to take up the project while she was part of the Cooum Cultural Mapping Group — a group of heritage lovers aiming to regenerate interest in the river through cultural cartography — Priya said that her aim was to map the various temples of importance along the course of the river that have been obscured from history.

“This book is not the first of its kind to try and retrace history — but it definitely is the first to retrace the history of Cooum,” said Priya. “Most of the information for temples in the Cooum region was not available in the public domain and was elusive. Books that detailed historical inscriptions (such as The Topographical Inscriptions of Madras Presidency (1915) by V Ranchacharya) went out of print decades ago.”
Initially organised as a trip to the source of the river in a village by the group, Priya wanted to detail more about the holy shrines along the river. “I found that the Cooum, a relatively short river of 72 km had its own Koova Puranam (which is a part of the Skanda Puranam). That is where we started from, and through further research, we found that the Cooum had 24 cheris and 18 kotams annexed to it — that was its importance! It clearly was a treasure hunt for us!” she said. She has mapped nearly 113 temples starting from the source of the river right up to the heart of Chennai.
She also found that many temples had inscriptions that could be of great historical value. “However, the sad part is that in most temples these inscriptions are no longer available as they have been modernised and subsequent work has left them bereft of heritage value,” she rued.

She also lamented the fact that several temples in the region have not been getting any patronage and are in an advanced stage of disrepair, often with certain buildings being taken up by surrounding encroachments. “The temple tanks of several temples require repair and if revived they can help replenish surrounding water bodies and villages too,” she added.
The book was released by K Sridharan, retired deputy superintendent of archaeology, state archaeology department. Priya also runs a blog called ‘Aalayam Kanden’, where she writes about lesser known heritage sites, has been featured among the top Indian travel and spiritual blogs for the last six years. A part of the proceeds from the sale of the book will be used to set up a Tamil section at the Madras Literary Society.
To order a copy, call 9790918056 or write to aalayamkanden@gmail.com

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Gokul M. Nair / Express News Service / February 13th, 2017

Early Nilgiris through photographs

The Burn foot lake of Udhagamandalam in 1860 – from a collection of photographs of A.T.W. Penn.
The Burn foot lake of Udhagamandalam in 1860 – from a collection of photographs of A.T.W. Penn.

Christopher Penn, the great grandson of ATW Penn, one of the first photographers who documented the Nilgiris and Southern India, visited the Nilgiris on Saturday and made a presentation at the Nilgiri Library of his great-grandfather’s photographs.

Mr. Penn, who stumbled upon his gilded ancestry by sheer coincidence in 2000, has been visiting the Nilgiris over the last decade.

Mr. Penn made a pictorial chronicle of the early Nilgiris, by reading from his book and also based on research done on the pictures.

Mr. Penn exhibited photographs of the Ooty Boat House, Willow Bund, a view from St. Stephen’s Church, Tiger Hill and many more.

Reading from his book, Mr. Penn, who is 79-years-old, and believes that this could be his final visit to the Nilgiris, described the funeral rites of the Todas, emphasising the importance of the Toda buffalo to the local culture.

The author said that the buffalo would be sacrificed with a single blow, and placed in the grave of the fallen man in such a way that the head of the deceased would touch the buffaloes’ and the hand would be in contact with the animal’s horn. Geetha Sreenivasan, president of the Nilgiri Library, welcomed Mr. Penn.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Coimbatore / by Staff Reporter / Udhagamandalam – February 09th, 2017

Chinese Indians family reminiscences their roots

Members of the Min family bursting crackers to signal the arrival of New Year. | Photo Credit: R. Vimal Kumar
Members of the Min family bursting crackers to signal the arrival of New Year. | Photo Credit: R. Vimal Kumar

For the Min family, the only Chinese- Indians based in Tirupur who now lives very much as Indians, the dawn of Chinese New year is still been seen as the moment that provides an opportunity to reminiscence their roots.

The Chinese New year celebrations each time bring fond memories to the family members, spread over three generations, about the traditional rituals followed in China since otherwise the Min family did not celebrate any other Chinese festival.

The Chinese New Year falls on the ‘New Moon’ between January 21and February 20 of the English calendar year and the festivities usually last for a fortnight with each day marked for different types of rituals.

Thus, the Chinese New Year this year began on January 28.

The Min family this time welcomed the dawn of New Year with the bursting of crackers wearing new dresses.Special prayers were performed as per the Chinese tradition with Wenchaswi Min (69), the senior most member in the family, leading the ceremony. Then they distributed sweets to the neighbours and friends.

“Speciality of the feast is that there would only be even numbers of dish. This time, there has been 10 dishes with six being Chinese specialities like Chinese dragon chicken, dried mushroom soup and egg sandwiches as prepared in China”, said Sebastian Leo Shaou Kang Min, another member.

The Min family fled China to India in 1930s following the effect of China-Japan war on that country’s economy.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Coimbatore / by R. Vimal Kumar / Tirupur – January 30th, 2017

A new lease of life for a 200-year-old Indian library

The Madras Literary Society houses more than 55,000 books / PM Naveen
The Madras Literary Society houses more than 55,000 books / PM Naveen

 

The 204-year-old Madras Literary Society in Chennai is getting a new lease of life, thanks to youthful volunteers and a social media campaign. Karthik Subramanian finds out more.

The sight takes your breath away.

As you step in, you encounter bookshelf after bookshelf rising up from the floor to the ceiling. It is as though you have stumbled upon a waterfall of books.

The Madras Literary Society library located in the centre of the south Indian city of Chennai, formerly known as Madras.

It houses more than 55,000 books, including a huge collection of tomes that are between 150 and 300 years old.

From outside, the imposing red brick building, which was constructed in 1905, looks like something out of a British period movie.

The architectural style is typical of the Indo-Saracenic movement, favoured by the architects of British India in the late 19th Century.

A group of youngsters are stepping into help restore the library to its former glory / PM Naveen
A group of youngsters are stepping into help restore the library to its former glory / PM Naveen

Established by the East India Company in 1812 to train its employees in administration, languages, law, religion and “customs of the natives”, the library was initially located inside the Fort St George between 1812 and 1854 and moved to its current location in the year 1905.

One of the oldest books in its collection is Isaac Newton’s Naturalis Principia Mathematica (“The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”) published in the year 1729.

It also contains memoirs and accounts published by the British officers of the Raj, such as “The History of Buckingham Canal” which was published in 1898.

But some of these are in a dire state and require immediate restoration, a process that costs from 5,000 rupees ($74; £58) to 12,000 rupees. Without adequate funds and staffing, the old books will soon turn to dust.

Many already have.

Without adequate funds, some of the books are turning to dust / PM Naveen
Without adequate funds, some of the books are turning to dust / PM Naveen

But now, a group of young volunteers are stepping in to help.

“The first time I saw the shelves, I just went wow,” Rajith Nair, a 38-year-old entrepreneur and volunteer at the library told the BBC.

“I have seen libraries like this only in the movies and thought they only existed in old libraries and museums of Europe.”

That was in June last year.

Since then, many youngsters have enrolled as members in the library. They are also actively recruiting other young people through projects like open house days, an adopt-a-book campaign and an aggressive social media strategy.

Thirupura Sundari Sevvel, a 26-year-old heritage consultant, is a regular at the open house the library conducts every Saturday. She helps in the conservation of books, and also trains volunteers to catalogue the titles.

She is also responsible for creating and maintaining a Facebook communities page that actively promotes the restoration of the library’s books.

The Madras Literary Society is still a circulating library / PM Naveen
The Madras Literary Society is still a circulating library / PM Naveen

 

One such recently restored book is a collection of cartoon prints by legendary political satirist James Gillray, which were originally published between 1798 and 1810.

They first caught the attention of author KRA Narasiah last year.

“I was writing a series in a newspaper about Buckingham Canal and was at the library doing some research when this book caught my eye,” he says.

“It was a serendipitous find. The comics were a wonderful example of political satire. I knew it was something special and had to be revived.”

The restoration work itself was carried out by P Renganathan, who has been restoring books for more than two decades now. The book of cartoons, he recalls, was in bad shape.

“It was affected by insects, had fungus and several water strains. I had it restored by encapsulating it in specially processed archival grade polyester films.”

A collection of cartoon prints by legendary political satirist James Gillray is one of the restored books / PM Naveen
A collection of cartoon prints by legendary political satirist James Gillray is one of the restored books / PM Naveen

 

Mr Mohanraman, the 73-year-old honorary secretary of the library, says the youth interest has been a huge lease of life to the library, which he believes “is caught between two worlds”.

The library is "caught between two worlds", its secretary says  / PM Naveen
The library is “caught between two worlds”, its secretary says / PM Naveen

 

“The Madras Literary Society was established to encourage scholastic work. This is one of the birthplaces of what we refer to as the Madras School of Orientalism. We want to preserve that aspect,” he explains.

“But it is also a circulating library that is still catering to its members. Most of our members are senior citizens, who prefer to read books in the physical form. Our challenge is to find a middle path and achieve both goals.”

The library today has close to 350 members who each pay 850 rupees a year to access the rare books inside. The membership has actually doubled over the last 12 months, Mr Mohanraman says.

He says that the goal is to reach a target of 1,000 members, which will help him realise his dream of restoring it to not just a vibrant lending library, but a thriving cultural centre.

source: http://www.bbc.com / BBC / Home> BBC News> Asia> India / December 10th, 2016

Madras’ milieu beheld from the eyes of a dewan

 Although not a diarist in the strict sense, Nemali Pattabhirama Rao , the dewan of erstwhile Cochin State, did maintain a personal diary. It was a small notebook bound with red hard cover with a lock (having an ornamental key) on it — an indication that it was purely personal. But, having seen the value of the contents, Rao’s family decided to make it public in the form of a book. Titled ‘A Dewan’s Diary’ the book edited by Rao’s granddaughter Malathi Mohan was recently released in a function.

Handwritten in neat cursive script, the content is autobiographical. Born in Siddavattam of Cuddappah district, Rao, a graduate from Presidency College (1882) of Madras, after an eventful career in the revenue department, was appointed as the dewan of Cochin State from September 6, 1902. The book reproduces a letter sent to Rao by the Raja of Cochin Sri Rama Verma when the former offered to resign from the post due to bad health. The letter speaks volumes about Rao’s integrity of character.

The Golkonda vyapari community from which Rao hails is a sub sect of Telugu brahmins. While the Telugu brahmins adhered to strict Vedic practices, a group fell out as a secular sect and took up administration, trade and similar works. They were called aaruvela niyogis and a part of them called themselves Golkonda vyaparis — vyapari meaning trader. While the niyogis stuck to Shaivite principles, the vyparis took to Vaishnavism. This religious difference was the only factor that hindered marriage alliances between the two communities. The book says that Rao’s family was one of the rare ones to break the caste-based bias. His niece Rukmini, a freedom fighter married Lakshmipathy, a medical practitioner from Niyogi community of Achanta family.

A major part of the book deals with the acute financial difficulties Rao faced during his tenure as the dewan. During this time Rao had employed Namberumal Chetty — known for building landmark buildings in Chennai — for the construction of a house on Edward Elliots Road (Radhakrishnan Salai; the site now houses AVM Rajeswari Kalyana Mandapam). The house was named Kanaka Bhavan, but unfortunately its construction caused great financial difficulty to Rao. His wife had invested money in Arbuthnot & Co Bank and it was lost when the bank collapsed in 1906. Rao had to complete the house by taking loans from friends and acquaintances. But, after his retirement, repaying the loans became difficult for him. It was during this time that his friend Namberumal Chetty offered him the job of supervisor for a construction. As luck would have it, Chetty and Rao were offered a contract to supply bricks for the construction of Ripon Building by the consultant architect of the then government G T Harris. To be close to the site, Rao shifted to Choolaimedu area and built a house. However his financial difficulties continued and as ill luck would have it he lost his wife in 1909.

It was then that he decided to shift to Madanapalle, where he had a bungalow. Rao records in the diary that in 1918 he sold his house at Edwards Elliots Road to the zamindar of Devakota. He also gives the full particulars of his assets and liabilities and how they should be divided after his death. He continues further till February 1932 and ends the narration as on June 29, 1935.

Apart from familiarizing the reader with the Nemali family and the joys and harrowing times they have undergone, the book has a fine compilation of family pictures that make the text relatable.

(The author is a is a heritage enthusiast and a reviewer of historical books)

Email your feedback to southpole.toi@timesgroup.com

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News > City News> Chennai News / K R A Narasiah / TNN / November 15th, 2016