My Junk Diary: Very Beautiful Old Chennai

I collect most of the images from various website and trying to give a collective collection of Vintage Classic Images of Chennai. Old is always gold, but we never had the golden time to live the classic life. Hope you might enjoy the classic Chennai pictures. 1000 words cannot explain its beauty, how much beautiful the old Chennai is.

Lot of stories existence in the history of Chennai. Chennai is initially two big town named Chennapattanam and Madrasapattinam.

Stories on origin of name of Chennapattanam are:

It was named after Damarla Chennappa Nayakudu, Nayaka of Kalahasthi and Vandavasi, father of Damarla Venkatadri Nayakudu, as Chennapattanam from whom the English acquired the town in 1639. The first official use of the name Chennai is said to be in a sale deed, dated 8 August 1639, to Francis Day of the English East India Company.
According to the another account, Chennapattanam was named after the Chenna Kesava Perumal Temple; the word chenni in Tamil means face, and the temple was regarded as the face of the city.

Stories on origin of name of Madrasapattinam are:

Madras is believed to have been derived from Madraspattinam, a fishing village north of Fort St. George.
The military mapmakers believed Madras was originally Mundir-raj, or abbreviatedly, Mundiraj.
Other arguments suggest that the Portuguese, who arrived in the area in the 16th century, had named the village Madre de Deus, meaning the Mother of God. Another possibility is that the village's name came from the prominent Madeiros family of Portuguese origin, which consecrated the Madre de Deus Church in the Santhome locality of Chennai in 1575.
Another theory concludes that the name Madras was given to Chennapattanam after it was taken from a similarly named Christian priest, while other parties are of the opinion that it might have been taken from a fisherman by the name of Madrasan, or from religious Muslim schools which were referred to as Madrasahs, or the word Madhu-ras, which means honey in Tamil.

After the English gained possession of the area in the 17th century, the two towns, Madraspattinam and Chennapattinam, were merged, and the English referred to the united town as Madrasapattinam.

More over thousand words cannot explain the beauty of the Old Chennai that our Forefathers lived. Hope these pictures may explain it. Share your comments. As soon as possible I ll update the picture captions. Hopefully my next post will be also on a classic touch of good old days.