Madras miscellany

March 11, 2012 05:30 pm | Updated 05:30 pm IST

The sore thumb in the Fort

Sticking out like a sore thumb midst the handsome Classical buildings in the Fort — all badly in need of restoration — is the ten-storied Namakkal Kavignar Maaligai , housing the offices of many of the Ministers and Secretaries. This tasteless bit of tower block architecture has, I learn, been declared a valuable bit of 1970s-style Indian architecture and is to be restored, believe it or not, on the lines of a heritage building at a cost of some Rs.28 crore with the blessings of the Archaeological Department and the Heritage Conservation Committee! And a grand silence — is it a shocked silence? — reigns all around.

So, perhaps, it's time to call a spade a spade. This monstrosity, raised on what was Portuguese Square and about where Fr. Ephrem de Nevers' St. Andrew's Church — the first church to be built in Madraspatnam — was, between where King's Barracks and Fort House rose in the early 20th Century, was built between 1970 (foundation) and 1975 (inauguration) because the then DMK Government felt top-heavy bureaucracy needed more space. It was built with no special architectural style in mind except a plain and simple P.W.D. tower block style (see picture). The construction was so bad, the maintenance worse and the usage disgraceful that within a decade or so it was in need of constant repairs and maintenance. As things got progressively worse, a major repair of the building and an attempt to give it a new look were undertaken just about 25 years after it was inaugurated. It was that ‘restoration' that gave it what has generally, for some years now, been accepted as Chola architectural features.

But if ‘Modern Chola' is being considered an architectural style by those who teach architecture these days, then they should point to far, far better structures than this sore thumb. There's Anna Arivalayam , Valluvar Kottam , and bits and pieces of the memorials in Guindy Park, all envisioned by Mu. Karunanidhi, Chief Minister at the time many of these were built. Surely this tall bit of tastelessness in the Fort cannot be compared with any of these or put in the same ‘architectural school'!

That Namakkal Kavignar Maaligai is badly in need of complete overhaul, I will be the first person to agree. Its construction was so poor, its usage so bad that in less than 15 years it was crying for restoration. Further, if the aim of the Government is to modernise its offices by introducing new technology, then that's a legitimate excuse too to spend money on the building and its facilities. But for heaven's sake let's not say that the work planned to be done on Namakkal Kavignar Maaligai is heritage restoration, which is what is implied when the Archaeological Department and the Heritage Conservation Committee are called in to advise on the renovation of a plain, simple, functional building.

Heritage restoration is what needs to be done to the Legislative Assembly, the main Secretariat, the flagpole bastion and the military buildings in the Fort. Every one of them needs considerable repairs, leave alone restoration. But an even greater reason than necessity for renovation in the Fort is that if there is one place in post-1947 India that needs to be considered a World Heritage Site, it is Fort St. George from where modern India began. Restoring the Fort to get that prestigious status is what Government should be focusing on more than restoring the Namakkal Kavignar Maaligai . As I've said often enough before, the best place for the State Government's offices would be the abandoned ‘New Secretariat' and its environs, to which the offices could be moved after cutting down the Namakkal Kavignar Maaligai to Fort St. George size.

*******

Another fire victim

Madras's latest fire victim is the Bombay Mutual Insurance Co.'s building on N.S.C. Bose Road, a building that would figure in any record of the City's Art Deco heritage. This building was built in the 1950s on the site of a building that had been the third from the east of the four buildings that were the original 19th Century homes of Madras Christian College & School. Known as ‘The College', this was the main building for classes.

When MCC moved to Tambaram in 1936-1937, the Travancore National and Quilon Bank bought the college buildings and adapted the main one for its use. MCC history mentions its sale price as being Rs. 35,000. When there was a run on the Bank in April 1938, it had to close its doors a couple of months later and court-appointed receivers took over the Bank's properties. Bombay Mutual, badly in need of a South Indian presence, bought ‘The College', pulled it down a few years later and had Coromandel Engineering build the Art Deco building that was one of the first high-rises in George Town. It moved into its new southern headquarters in 1955. With the nationalisation of life insurance in 1956, the building passed into the hands of the Life Insurance Corporation. Indifferent maintenance would have led to the fire which, fortunately, gutted only one floor and provides the opportunity for restoration and renewal.

Bombay Mutual is stated to have been “the first Indian Company open to the public irrespective of colour and creed; it was founded in Bombay in 1871”. A brief history of the Company states, “On 3rd December, 1870, seven earnest men of Bombay with just seven rupees for initial expenses ( Author; Shades ofThe Hindu! ) gave shape to a plan of offering insurance to the public without the risk of ruin, and the Bombay Mutual Life Assurance Society came into being.” The meeting was convened by George Augustus Summers and was attended by six of his friends: George Gahagan, Nathaniel Spencer, David Gostling, John Vaz, William Burns, all middle-level officials or professionals at the time, and Nana Bapu Joshi who was an Assistant with the Chartered Bank. All of them had lost money with the failure of a couple of British insurance companies and resolved to do something about it. After that first meeting, they began seeking members for their Society, but it was a slow process. However, on March 21, 1871, they were able to announce that forty members had been enrolled and that the Bombay Mutual Life Assurance Society was in business.

******

When the postman knocked…

*In Miscellany, February 27, I had wondered whether there were two Buddhist viharas in Nagapattinam, one mentioned by Dr. Chithra Madhavan (Miscellany, February 13) and the other mentioned by K.R.A. Narasiah in Miscellany, February 27. Chithra Madhavan provides the answer. She says that what she had stated on February 13 about the grant of a village to the Buddhist temple was recorded in the Larger Leiden plates. She then adds:

“There is another inscription called the Smaller Leiden plates belonging to the reign of Kulottunga Chola I (1071-1122 A.D.), the great-grandson of Rajaraja Chola I and grandson of Rajendra Chola I. This epigraph very clearly mentions the names of two pallis , namely, Rajaraja Perumpalli and Rajendrasola Perumpalli, which were constructed in Nagapattinam by the King of Kadaram ( Author: Kadaram = Kedah, which was ruled by the kings of Sri Vijaya — Palembang in Sumatra — whose kings were the rulers of Kadaram.) This same inscription also clearly states that the Sailendra Chulamani Vihara (which I had referred to) was also called the Rajaraja Perumpalli. The main gist of the Smaller Leiden epigraph is to record that two messengers from the King of Kadaram requested Kulottunga Chola I that the land granted free from the payment of taxes for meeting the requirements of the shrines of Rajendrasola Perumpalli and Rajaraja Perumpalli which were constructed by the King of Kadaram be recorded in a copper plate document and issued in favour of the Palli. This was subsequently done. It is possible that the Rajendrasola Perumpalli was constructed in the reign of Rajendra Chola I (1012-1044 A.D.).”

And so there we have it; there were two Buddhist viharas in Nagapattinam. Will excavations bring their foundations to light?

*Mambalam (Miscellany February 27 and March 5) is something that Dr. A. Raman of Orange, New South Wales, will not let go. After pointing out that the mango is a native tree of India and groves of them, natural and human-raised, were to be found in several parts of India, including Tamizhagam, he says it would have been no surprise to find such trees in Tondaimandalam. There was, thus, nothing unique in their occurrence to warrant a place being named after them. He goes on to add that while bilam means ‘grove' in Sanskrit, amra , not maa , is ‘mango' in Sanskrit; maa is Tamil. Surely someone was not going to marry a Tamil word with a Sanskrit one to get Mambalam! Question unresolved, he says.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.