State

Tamil Nadu

Area

174 sq. km

Language

Tamil, English, Hindi, Urdu,

Malayalam

Latitude

13.09 N

Longitude

80.27 E

Altitude

6 m from sea level

Mean Temperature

37 C Summer, 24 C Winter

Average Rainfall

1,272 mm

Climate

Tropical

Total Population

6.9 million (2005)

Population Density

5,847/km (4th)

Literacy Rate

80.14%

Sex Ratio

957 females (per 1000 males)

Official Language

Tamil

STD Code

+91- 44

Postal Code

600xxx

Vehicle Code

TN-01 to TN-22

Religion

Hindu, Muslim, Christian

In ancient times, Chennai was called Madras Patnam located in the province of
Tondaimandalm. It had its military headquarters at Puzhal, which is now a small and
rather insignificant village on the outskirts of the city. Modern Chennai grew out of a
small village when in 1639 a fishing hamlet called Madraspatnam was selected by
early English merchants of the East India Company as a site for trade settlement.
This city was founded in 1639 on land given by the Raja of Chandragiri, the last
representative
of
the
Vijayanagar
rulers
of
Hampi.
A small fort was built at a fishing settlement in 1644 and a town, which subsequently
called as George Town, grew in the area of fort St. George. The settlement became
independent of Banten, Java, in 1683 and was granted its first municipal charter in
1688 by James II. It thus has the oldest municipal corporation in India.
During the 18th and early 19th centuries, when the British and French competed for
supremacy in India, the city's fortunes waxed and waned. It was briefly occupied by
the French. It was used by Clive of India as a base for his military expeditions during
the Wars of the Carnatic and, during the 19th century, it was the seat of the Chennai
Presidency,
one
of
the
four
divisions
of
British
Imperial
India.
After independence the city was going by the name of Madras until the government
of Tamil Nadu officially renamed it as Chennai in 1996.
Chennai is located on the southeast coast (Coromandel Coast) of India
at an average altitude of 6 metres from the sea level. The latitude and longitude of
this city is 13.04 N 80.17 E respectively. It covers a total area of 174 sq km that is
spread
irregularly
in
the
northeast
corner
of
Tamil
Nadu.
There

are

five

administrative

divisions

in

Chennai

namely

the

Egmore-

Nungambakam, Fort Tondiarpet, Mambalam - Guindy, Mylapore-Triplicane, and

Perambur - covers 1,177 sq. km which is divided into four parts: North, Central,
South, and West.
Metropolitan area of Chennai consists of three districts namely Chennai city and the
districts of Kanchipuram and Thiruvallur. On the basis of geology the city has three
regions: sandy regions, clayey regions and hard-rock regions. The soil of Chennai
comprises of clay, shale and sandstone. The citys clayey areas include Transport
Nagar, West Mambalam, Anna Nagar, Kolathur and Virugambakkam. Chennai falls in
the seismic zone III where an earthquake risk is moderate. But the city comes under
the Cyclonic Zone where the possibility of frequent cyclones is very high.
1639
Grant given to English Company for the construction of Fort
St.George
1716
The starting of St.Mary's Charity School
1733
Preparation of map of Madras and its surrounding village
3rd - 10th Sep 1746 Bombardment of Madras by De La Bourdonnais
10th Sep. 1746
The capitulation of Madras to the French
Nov 1746
The battle of the Adyar River between the Nawab's troops and
the French
Sep 1746 - Aug 1749Madras remains in French occupation
April 1752
Madras again becomes the seat of the Presidency
1793
Erection of the Madras Observatory. Building of the Madras
Lunatic Asylum
1806
The Mutiny at Vellore
1809
The threatened White Mutiny
1817
The starting of the Madras Literary Society
1834
Started Government Survey School
1835
Started Madras Medical School
1841
The opening of the High School (Presidency College)
1855
Abolition of the titular Nawabship of the Carnatic
1856
University of Madras was incorporated
1868-1871
Protected water supply for Madras
1871
First census of Madras was taken
1876-78
Great Madras Famine; construction of the Buckingham Canal
through Madras
1876
Construction of the Madras Harbor was started
1895
The first tramway line of the city opened
1905
The Madras Port Trust created
1907
Starting of the Indian Bank
1915
Leather Trade Institute was opened
1916
Madras Trade School was opened
1932
Mayor of Madras was revived
Aug 4th 1939
Celebration of the Tercentenary of the Foundation of the Madras
city
Some events in the history of Chennais development:
1639: Foundation of Madras Grant given to English Company for the construction of
Fort St.George

1640: Francis Day and Cogan landed with 25 Europeans. Foundation stone was laid
for Fort St. George.
1664: The first organized hospital in the country started at Fort St George. General
Hospital, which moved to its present location in 1772, opened its doors to Indians in
1842.
1668: Triplicane annexed to the city.
1678: Foundation stone laid for St. Marys Church in Fort St. George.
1679: St. Marys Church Completed.
1688: Madras City Municipal Corporation was inaugurated.
1693: Egmore, Purasawalkam and Tondiarpet annexed to the City.
1708: Thiruvottiyur, Nungambakkam, Vyasarpady, Kottivakkam and Sathangadu Five neighboring Villages annexed; wall built around Black Town.
1711: First Printing Press erected in Madras.
1716: The starting of St.Mary's Charity School
1733: Preparation of map of Madras and its surrounding village
1735: Chintadripet was formed.
1742: Veperi, Perimet, Perambur and Pudupakkam annexed to the city.
1746: (3rd Sep - 10th Sep) Bombardment of Madras by De La Bourdonnais
1746: (10th Sep) - The capitulation of Madras to the French
1746: Nov The battle of the Adyar River between the Nawab's troops and the French
1746: The French return Madras to the English; Santhome and Mylapore annexed to
the City.
1746 - 1749: Sep 1746 - Aug 1749
1752: April

Madras remains in French occupation

Madras again becomes the seat of the Presidency

1758: French Commander Lawly siege Madras.

1759: French siege ended.
1767: Hyder Alis first invasion.
1768: Chepauk palace was built by Nawab of Arcot.

1769: Hyder Alis second invasion.

1777: Veerappillai appointed as First Kotthawal- Hence the name Kotthawal Chavadi.
1783: Fort St. George was repaired and attained the present shape.
1784: The First Newspaper Madras Courier.
1785: First Post Office.
1793: Erection of the Madras Observatory. Building of the Madras Lunatic Asylum
1795: Triplicane Big Mosque - Walajah Mosque built.
1806: The Mutiny at Vellore
1809: The threatened White Mutiny
1817: Madras Literary Society founded.
1826: Board of Public Instructions founded.
1831: First Commercial Bank Madras Bank; First Census in the City.
1832: Madras Club founded.
1834: First Survey School inaugurated Later developed as Engineering College.
1835: First Medical College Later became Madras Christian College.
1841: The opening of the High School (Presidency College)
1841: Ice House was built Ice brought from America through ships was stored
here; later named as Vivekananda House.
1842:
1846:

First
Pachaiappan

School;

1851:
1853:

Light
Later

Pachaiappas

Museum
Zoo

1856: University of Madras was incorporated

1856: First Railway Royapuram to Arcot.
1857: Madras University

College.
formed

was

1855: Abolition of the titular Nawabship of the Carnatic

1855: University Board formed.

House.

built.

1864-65: Presidency College was built.

1868-1871: Protected water supply for Madras Attempt to protect water supply.
1871: First census of Madras was taken
1873: First Birth Registered. Madras Mail Newspaper founded. Cosmopolitan Club
founded.
1874: University Senate house built.
1876-78: Great Madras Famine; construction of the Buckingham Canal through
Madras
1876: Construction of the Madras Harbor was started
1878: The Hindu Newspaper founded.
1882: First Telephone.
1885: Marina Beach Road formed.
1886: Indian National Congress Meet at Madras. Connemera Public Library founded.
1889: foundation stone laid for High Court Building.
1894: First Car Mr. A.J. Boag, Director of Parry & Co, drove the Car on City Roads.
1895: The first tramway line of the city opened
1899: First Tamil Newspaper-Swadesamitran published.
1905: Port Trust formed.
1906: Chennai Electric Supply Corporation was established, King Institute, Guindy
founded.
1907: opening of Indian Bank.
1914: Water mains and drainage formed. Street lights introduced. Kilpauk water
works inaugurated. Endon bombardment- Endon German fighter Vessel bombarded
the sea shore and disappeared - First World War.
1915: Leather Trade Institute was opened
1916: Madras Trade School was opened
1917: First Aeroplane; Simpson & Co., arranged for the trial flight.
1924: School of Indian Medicine.
1925: First Bus Transport.
1930: First Broadcasting Station founded at Ripon Buildings Complex.

1932: Mayor of Madras was revived

1934:

First

Mayor

Raja

Sir.

Muthiah

Chettiyar

1938: All India Radio formed and broadcasting from Ripon Buildings ceased.
1939: Aug 4th 1939 Celebration of the Tercentenary of the Foundation of the Madras
city
1942: Second World War - Evacuation of Madras.
1943: Japanese Fighter Plane dropped bombs on City and disappeared.
1946: Mambalam, Saidapet, Govt. Farm, Puliyur, Kodambakkam, Saligramam,
Adayar and Alandur Villages which formed part of Saidapet Municipality were
annexed to the city. Sembiyam, Siruvallur, Peravallur, Small Sembarambakka and
Ayanavaram which formed part of Sembium Panchayat Board were annexed to the
city. Aminjikarai, Periyakudal, Maduvankarai Villages which formed part of
Aminjikarai Panchayat Board were annexed. Part of Velacheri Village belonging to
Velacheri Panchayat Board was also annexed to the city.
1947: Indian National Flag hoisted over Fort. St. George.
1952: Nehru Stadium
1956: Gandhi Mandap.
1959: Guindy Childrens Park.
1969: World Tamil Congress.
1971: Snake Park.
1972: Madras Metropolitan Development Authority.
1973: Madras Corporation Superseded.
1975: Kamaraj Mandap. Valluvar Kottam.
1976: New Light House.
1977: Madras Metropolitan Water supply and Sewage Board established. Kanagam,
Taramani, Thiruvanmiyur, Velacheri, Kodambakkam, Virugambakkam, Saligramam,
Koyambedu, Thirumangalam, Villivakkam, Errukancheri, Kolathur, Kodungaiyur
Panchayat areas annexed to the City; Madras reaches the present stage.
1988: Periyar Science Park, Birla Planetarium were founded
1996: Madras was officially renamed as Chennai.
2000: The Tidel Park at Taramani was opened to Information Technology enterprises.
This Software Park gave Chennai its very own cyber corridor.

A 350-year old medical heritage

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2003/03/12/stories/2003031200170300.htm
Western medicine appears to have first arrived in India with the Portuguese in the 1500s. But with
Portugal unable to spread its domain in India and the Dutch - who could well have had a hospital in
their chief settlement in India, Pulicat, just north of Madras - deciding to move further east, the
healthcare system in India is a legacy of the British who by the 1750s had firmly established their
presence in coastal India.

ACROSS THE road from the headquarters of the Southern Railways is the sprawling campus of the
General Hospital and the Madras Medical College. My picture from the past shows what it was like in
the 1930s, a far cry from the congested space it is today. Gone from that picture today is the main
block of the hospital, a rather unnecessary bit of wrecking by those with little sense of history. But
that is another story. Today's is of all that that huge block stood for.
Western medicine, allopathic medicine if you will, appears to have first arrived in India with the
Portuguese in the 1500s. In fact, the records speak of a Portuguese hospital in Goa dating to the
early 16th Century. But with Portugal unable to spread its domain in India and the Dutch - who
could well have had a hospital in their chief settlement in India, Pulicat, just north of Madras deciding to move further east, the healthcare system in India is a legacy of the British who by the
1750s had firmly established their presence in coastal India.
Surat, where the English first established a trading post in 1600, and the next British settlement,
Machilipatnam, were served by ships' surgeons - and all East Indiamen appear to have had one
abroad - who also tended the English living on shore. But it was only with the founding of Madras in
1639 and the development there of Fort St. George by 1640 that a look began to be taken at more
permanent medical facilities. John Clarke was the first `surgeon' to be based in the Fort. It was
1664, however, before any doctor got himself a bit of space for his patients. Governor Sir Edward
Winter wrote to the East India Company,
"The fresh soldiers which came forth this year taking up their habitations in the bleak wind in the
hall fell sick in that four of them are dead, and about ten remain at the time being sick and
complain not without reason that the wages are not sufficient to supply them with what is
necessary at the time of their sickness. So rather than see English men drop away like dogs in that
manner for want of Christian charity towards them, we have thought it very convenient that they
might have an house on purpose for them and people after them and to see that nothing comes in
to them, neither meat nor drink but what the Doctor alloweth. We have for that purpose rented Mr.
Cogan's house at two pagodas per month (about Rs.50 today), which we hope you will so well
approve of as to continue it for the future."
And, so, Madras got its first Western style hospital. It was from this house in Fort St. George that
the vast Indian health system was to develop, though it was to be many years before this nucleus of
what became the Madras General Hospital admitted Indians as patients. When the house proved
inadequate, a large two-storey building was built in the 1680s to specifically serve as a hospital; the
838 pagodas it cost were raised by public subscription. A few years later Governor Elihu Yale
persuaded his Council that a still bigger hospital was needed and, in his inimitable fashion, went
ahead and did exactly what he wanted to do: Give Madras a new hospital in 1688 at a third location,
just north of where the Fort Museum now is.

The French occupation of the Fort in 1746 and the subsequent wars of the Carnatic had the hospital
moving from site to site, in and just outside the Fort, ever in search of greater space for its
increased requirements. Eventually, it was decided to custom-build a hospital at a permanent
location and, in 1772, a double block of buildings was inaugurated where the General Hospital now
is. The two blocks were designed by Patrick Ross and built by John Sullivan for 42,000 pagodas. The
buildings underwent changes over the years and acquired in two steps, in 1859 and 1893, that
shape seen before the wreckers' hammers got at it. The expansions were undertaken to meet the
growing civilian needs; in 1842, Indians were admitted for the first time, the hospital being
described by the Madras Medical Board as "an institution for the reception of sick, both European
and Indian, civil and military". In 1899 it became a purely civil hospital.
Work began in 1928 on modernising the hospital and further expanding it. Writing in 1939, the
legendary Dr. A. Lakshmanaswami Mudaliar, who was that year appointed the first Indian Principal
of the Madras Medical College, said, "The Madras General Hospital now presents an inspiring pile of
buildings, of which Madras may well be proud and which delights the eye of every professional
visitor to this city."
Until General Hospital began admitting Indians, it was the Native infirmary established by Surgeon
John Underwood in 1799 in the Monegar Choultry, a refuge for the less fortunate that offered space
for sick Indians. Government took it over in 1809 and amalgamated it with the Native Hospital that
had been established in Purasawalkam a few years earlier and named it the Monegar Choultry
Hospital. Expanding the hospital and improving its facilities, Government renamed the Hospital the
Royapuram Hospital in 1910 and over the next few years raised the buildings that stand today. In
1938, it was renamed the Stanley Hospital.
The third major teaching general hospital established by Government is Kilpauk Medical College
Hospital, set up in 1960 on both sides of Poonamallee High Road. The College functions from what
was the home of the Government School of Indian Medicine when it was established in 1925, its
Principal the legendary Dr. G. Srinivasa Murti. The school became a college in 1957 and now
functions in Anna Nagar.
To all three hospitals much is owed, for all of them are teaching hospitals and have provided city,
State and country a galaxy of doctors over the last 150 years. Madras Medical College, had its
genesis in the Madras Medical School established as an adjunct of the Madras General Hospital in
1835. Surgeon Mortimer was in charge and the first students were ten Anglo Indian medical
apprentices, to be trained to become apothecaries in time, and 11 Indians, to be trained to become
dressers, but both taught diagnostic skills and aftercare. The institution became a college in 1850,
Dr. James Shaw its first Principal. In 1863, it was affiliated to the University of Madras (founded in
1857) and degrees and diplomas were granted solely by the University. In a path-breaking step - an
extraordinarily bold one for the times - the College began admitting women students in 1875, when
Europe was still debating the issue and only one institution in the U.S. had taken the step just a
year or two earlier.
Madras Medical College was expanded when the Auxiliary Royapuram Medical School was
established at the Monegar Choultry Hospital in 1877. The school became the Stanley Medical
School in 1933. When the Lady Willingdon Medical School for Women, started in 1923, was merged
with it in 1938, the school became a college and together with the Royapuram Hospital took the
name of Governor George Stanley, who had in his time upgraded the school, but had failed to get it
recognised as a college.
From this College flowed a steady stream of doctors who made medicare in Madras renowned and
whose successors have made the city the medicare capital of the country.
S. MUTHIAH

Abstract:
Context: The medical profession is one of great antiquity in India. However, the
history of medicine and, in particular, the role of medicine in the administration of
justice in India has not been discussed very much. The present paper attempts to
fill in this lacuna and traces the medicolegal practice from ancient times to British
India.
Source: This paper is based on archival materials collected from the Tamilnadu
State Archives, Chennai, and Madras Medical College Library, Chennai, and
University of Madras Library, Chennai.
Main Observations: The medical men in ancient India were considered as men of
wisdom, and one of the ancient Tamil hymns equates the doctor-patient
relationship to that of the dedicated love of a devotee to God. Kautilya's
Arthashastra gives a list forensic evidence for establishing the cause of death
and describes the necessity of autopsy in establishing the cause of death.
In British India, the early incidence of custodial death and its certification by
medical practitioners, issuance of medical certificate and wound certificate, and
medicolegal autopsy are documented. The most outstanding contribution of India
to legal medicine during this period is modern dactylography. It is recorded that
there was a high ratio of homicidal poisonings in India.