A tribute to Madras

Historian S. Muthiah is an acknowledged authority when it comes to Madras. Madras that is Chennai: Gateway to the South makes a great coffee table book for those who simply want gorgeous photographs. But there’s a lot more to the book than just great pictures; the history of Madras over the past 200 or so years is lovingly retold in 200-odd pages. It’s studded with little-known facts about the city; for instance that Mylapore was known to other parts of the country from the times of Ptolemy.

Muthiah walks us through the history and geography of Madras — from Fort St. George down the Marina, past Brodie’s Castle on the banks of the Adyar, and on to Poonamallee and to George Town. And while he’s showing us the finer points of Indo-Saracenic architecture, he’s also giving us a glimpse of more modern structures such as the Valluvar Kottam that was built in the 1970s. The last few pages of the book, in fact, serve as a tribute to the city as it is now. So, will a Madras lover find fault with the book? Not likely. But he may ask for more. For instance, he may ask for mention of the trams (and the tram stations), which once ran between Royapuram and Mylapore.