These ‘Heritage Walks’ in my view, are one of the best ways to connect to your city. So, there I was at Washermanpet a k a Vannarapettai, in September 2023.
On the origin of the name of the place, Dhanashree, who conducted this Walk, informs that the place used to be a washerman’s enclave and hence the name ( Vannar- person whose occupation is washing clothes and Pettai - locality). As I reached the meeting point early, I was exploring the area and guess what caught my fancy? –cycle rickshaw....for people like us living in other parts of the city it's a rare sight......
The starting point of the walk was the Vavilla Press(established in 1856), on Ramanuja Iyer Street, Washermanpet, .
Dhanashree pointed out that the building which houses the Press is constructed in Indo- Saracenic style with the famous Madras roof supported by wooden pillars.
The place seems to have frozen in time. Enter the narrow pathway, and you are transported to another dimension. You would in all probability forget for a moment that you are in Chennai (Of course, it is old Madras).
...Not much seems to have changed since ages.
The window frames with Roman arches above them had small holes to allow water seepage......
As you explore the Press, you will find an aged binder deeply engrossed in threading the books with his nimble hands.......
.. and the antique ‘Remington’ typewriter (in working condition we are told) sitting quietly in a corner as a mute witness to the happenings around.
After settling, Dhanashree lets the cat out of the bag – this Press had the distinction of facing the first obscenity case, for publishing the book, ‘Radhika Swantanamu’ in 1910 and gave the details. In this context, The Hindu, in its edition dated Monday, Apr 30, 2007, refers to this case,and here is the gist of the article:
‘Radhika Swantanamu was the work of Muddu Palani, a courtesan during the reign of the Tanjore Maratha ruler Pratapasimha (1739-1763). It is almost certainly the first erotic work by a woman in South India.’
The book was published by Vavilla Ramaswami Sastrulu and Sons in 1910.
The social reformer Kandukuri Veeresalingam in his 1887 work covering the lives of Andhra poets, appreciated the quality of writing in Santwanamu, but condemned its eroticism.
Nagarathnammal, that great courtesan and feminist, had at the instance of her patron C. S. Rajarathna Mudaliar had found Santwanamu a beautiful work, and added a sharply worded rejoinder to Veeresalingam.
Legal experts in Britain were consulted and when they interpreted obscenity as anything that could adversely affect public morals, it was decided to take action under Section 292 of the Indian Penal Code.
Radhika Swantanamu was banned.
The publisher's offices were raided and nine titles (including the Santwanamu) was seized in May 1911.
When the discovery was made that one of the seized titles had been published with support from the Raja of Venkatagiri, Government decided to softpedal the whole issue... the Chief Presidency Magistrate decided that only Santwanamu needed to be banned and every copy of it destroyed.
T. Prakasam, then Premier of Madras, lifted the ban, saying he was "restoring a few pearls to the necklace of Telugu literature’, and a revised edition (Nagarathnammal version) was reissued by Vavilla in 1952.’
There..... you have the story.
Before we moved on, we were presented with a small nugget of interesting information. Among various books published by this Press was a book titled – ‘Poverty to Power’ by the great freedom fighter V.O. Chidambaram Pillai( affectionately known as ‘Kappalottia Thamizhan’).
Next stop was the Majid-e-Mubarak mosque on Mottai Garden Street (Can I call it a lane?), built by Sheik Ismail Hahib of Bavuta Beedi Works ( estb. 1905). As you enter the lane which leads to the mosque, the attractive structure in white with a floral design the top of its minarets, towers over you imposingly.
We understand that the roof of the Mosque is supported by beams and not concrete, as is usually the case. Unfortunately, we had to observe the mosque from the outside, as we had no permission to explore the inside.
Speaking about Bavuta Beedi Works, Dhanashree informs us that predominantly Muslim women were engaged in beedi rolling work( 500 to 1000 beedis per day) and that they used to make beedis with different flavours (that is news to me... I was always under the impression that all beedis were the same.....( they look alike, don’t they?), like pineapple flavour and chocolate flavour (Wow! .....interesting.....I wonder how it tastes (or should I say smells?)....but I may never, ever get to know.... doesn't matter....forbidden fruit....
We bid the Mosque a goodbye, came out of the lane and walked down the Ramanuja Iyer Street to reach ‘Madras Aryan Club’, founded by Sir. Pitty Thyagaraya Chetty, the first Commissioner to the Corporation of Madras, in the year 1898.
The Club stands on the land donated by him. Dhanashree, tells us that the Club with 400 members today, is into promotion of sports (chess, football, cards, cricket, carrom, table tennis, and badminton), but when it comes to membership, sorry- restricted to men only....reason?.....not known..........The Club has a reading room also.
As I was walking away from Madras Aryan Club, pondering over what could possibly be the reason as to why women are excluded from membership, we had reached the next spot on our walk – the house of Sheik Ismail Hahib, bearing House No 30, the founder of Bavuta Beedi Works, again on Ramanuja Iyer Street.
It is a simple structure but what was unique was the step-like construction of the walls on either sides of the small gate. A small board at the centre of the building announced:
Sheik Ismail & Sons
Working Hours
10 AM to 6 PM
Sunday Holiday
As we were scanning the building, Dhanushree broke the silence with the info that similar to the Vavilla Press, this building was in the centre of a legal storm at one point in time. Sheik Ismail Habib appears to a person good at heart.....after all he had allocated a part of his house for charitable purposes where the locality people could perform function related to marriage ceremonies, poojas etc, free of cost. The best part was, it was available for use by all, irrespective of their religious inclinations. A wonderful example of religious harmony, in action, don’t you think? Wait.... here comes the twist in the story......
As fate would have it, the noise and the commotion caused during the ceremonies and the festivities, in particular during the Kanda Shashti festival( held in honor of the Hindu deity Murugan), which disturbed his sleep, the peace and tranquillity of the locality, and sadly, the death of his child, forced Sheik Ismail Habib, to file a case of nuisance (India’s first nuisance case- this was in the year 1935) against Nirchinda Venkatanarasimhulu Vanniga Chettiyar and Nandagopal Chettiyar. The Hon’ble Madras High Court in the year 1936, passed orders in favour of Sheik Ismail Habib restraining the defendants from disturbing the plaintiff during hours of sleep (no noise between 10 pm and 4 am).
Further down the Ramanuja Iyer Street is the District Library – rather a reading room on Seeerangammal Street , as per the stone plaque and it was opened on 19.11.1945 by Radhakrishna Pillai, then Mayor of Madras.
It was rather small but had a good collection of books, mostly in Tamil. The condition of the building was not very good and the lone librarian clarified that they have been assured of a better and bigger place and would be moving out soon.
Wishing that it happens at the earliest, we moved on...
On the same road from the Library, is another heritage artefact, but we were advised not to go near the place and to only see it from a safe distance.... you will know the reason shortly.... It is actually a stone engraving in Telugu referred to as ‘ Dwajarahanam Inscription’ and has an interesting story behind it.... Dhanushree tells us that one upon a time there was this person called Sanjeevi Rao who had two wives and a lot of properties in the locality. Though we do not know what prompted him, Sanjeevi Rao, before he passed away declared that the rent from the properties shall not go his wives, repeat, not go to his wives, but to the Bhakthavatchalam Temple in the locality and that declaration of his intention was not in the form of a duly made document but by way of the ‘ Dwajarahanam Inscription’ in stone which was executed by Seshachalam Chetty. The building where the ‘ Dwajarahanam Inscription’ is installed, is presently occupied by one of the wives who creates a lot of ruckus and commotion whenever anybody goes near the house to have a closer look at the said inscription.... With a husband like hers, her anger is understandable, I thought to myself as we walked on to our next spot....
Moving further down Ramanuja Iyer Street and onto J P Koil Street, we took a right turn and entered Narasier Street to reach Mariamman Temple. According to Dhanashree, the story behind this temple, being taken care of an aged woman priest, goes like this..... The temple originally had a Ganesha idol inside, but when prayers by the family to Goddess Mariamman were found answered, they moved the Ganesha idol to the left side and in the sanctum sanctorum installed Goddess Mariamman idol inside the temple and from then on the temple transformed into Mariamman Temple....shifting of loyalty... dare I say?
If you have the opportunity to visit this small temple, take care not to miss the beautifully designed old lamp post, of the Madras Corporation still in place on the right side of the temple.
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Our next stop on the same street was the ‘Vilayaattu Vinaayagar’ temple. Dhanashree tells us that this temple had humble beginnings in a clay Vinaayagar( Ganesha) idol made by children playing in the locality and the present temple came into being later on with the effort of elders in the area. The temple is being taken care of by a mother-son duo. A similar lamppost like the earlier one mentioned above, stands guard before this temple. Apart from regular festivals, Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated in a grand manner with competitions (women participate in large numbers, we are told) fostering community involvement and participation in development.
Not to be missed - Selfie- spot also at the entrance to this temple.
The unassuming S L Printers (Shri Sundara Lakshmi Printers), is tucked further down the same street.
Thanks to Dhanashree, we were able to have a leisurely look inside. The cramped space was occupied by printing machines and inks of various shades and colors.
As we were having a peek at the machines and the environment, the owner casually states an incredible fact –the printing machines are still manually operated and the worker there was kind enough to demonstrate how printing is actually done. He explained that the job is laborious since each and every letter, punctuation mark etc, has to be typeset on to a block manually before print. Here is a photo of a sample printout he made on the printing machine.
On the way to S L Printers, Dhanashree drew our attention to an old house.
The house in a dilapidated state had sloping tiled roof which was already giving away, and though it seemed to be unhabituated, through the sides of the main door, ventilated by iron rods, we were able to get a glance of the ornamental wooden door with beautiful wooden carved panel on the top that speaks volumes of the artistry of the carpenters of those times.........
and a ‘thinnai’( a place for seating guests) on its left.
On the side of door was a small square space for placing a lamp.....
With the last spot on our walk covered, it was time to say goodbye,
and what a walk it was!.......the highlight was the surprise element in the stories and the coverage was wide.............enjoyed thoroughly.
Here are some some interesting shots I had occassion to capture during the walk.....
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