Madras Musings ...

Well, after the tour of Mumbai, I also wanted to do the Madras city round-up with places to visit etc. But somehow, I could never write it well and after several aborted attempts, I finally decided to give it up. I can probably just list out the places I was going to include, just for ready reference - Chennai Museum (with Museum Theatre and Connemara Library also thrown in), Marina, Elliots, Valmiki Nagar and Neelankarai Beaches, Kapaleeshwarar Koil, Parthasarathy Koil, St Thomas Mount and Santhome Church, Madras Music College, Theosophical Society, Kalakshetra, Dakshin Chitra and Cholamandalam Artists village for culture and Rippon Building, Chennai Central and Egmore just as reference for colonial architecture. I was going to throw in T.Nagar for city experience too!!! But, you see(this is such a typical Tamil expression), unlike Mumbai where I have wandered around to heart's content, each of the above places means you go there with some purpose. So I can't find that comfortable wandering spirit, but I just love most of the above mentioned places (yes even the Museum and the stations!)

But I did want to mention Parthasarathy Temple for a special reason. Tho' I've been there before, this time I paid attention to what was around me and found something curious. The main deity, i.e Vishu as the charioteer (hence Parthasarathy), has a distinctly Dravidian look, with a big meesai(moustache) and rolling eyes. For some reason this rather thrilled me. So far, Vishnu in any of his avatars, has always sported this clean-shaven look which is associated with Aryans.I found this Meesai look, look very true to the local interpretation(it closely resembles some of the village statues!) and I wanted to mention that specifically.

Further online search, as well as some columns of S.Muthiah, put the origins of this temple sometime in 800 A.D which is around the time of the Pallavas. The basic architecture is supposed to be similar to the Pallava style, though there are some extensions and modifications. And here is a bit of trivia - the main deity, whose looks I was so thrilled about, is supposed to resemble Mamallan or Narasimha Pallava!! I am really curious, why would the Pallavas build a temple, in honour of one of their greatest kings, in the obscure Chennapatnam rather than in Poompuhar or in Mahabalipuram? It is a mystery, so any historical background or interesting stories in response are very welcome.

Incidentally, the temple also played an important role during the Indian Independence movement and is said to have been the location of the Youth cell of the Congress. There is a small commemorative stone outside marking the place from which the Southern equivalent of the Dandi March to Vedaranyam started. Very Indian style, this bit of monument is ignored completely and you see a lot of chappals propped around it. Triplicane itself, which was considered a hot-bed of fervent rebels at the time of the independence movement is now a rather sad and bourgeoise neighbourhood!