Dânesh Zaki

Many times I have been asked about the renaming of Madras to Chennai. People have always remarked that the renaming has been totally in contrast to Bombay becoming Mumbai and Calcutta becoming Kolkata. While the latter two are just different pronounciations of the same name, Chennai and its earlier name have been seen as unrelated.

I then decided to do a little research into this matter. And found that there is not much of history available on the origin of the name “Madras”. The name “Muthuraasupattnam” has been mentioned by a few people as the origin of the name “Madras”, but it has not been possible to confirm this. The Corporation of Chennai site (see link above), mentions the usage of the name “MadrasPattnam” before “Madras” and gives many opinions on the origin of the name without endorsing one.

The name “Chennai”, seemingly, has been derived from “ChennaPattnam” from Chennappa Nayak’s name. Chennappa Nayak’s sons, apparently, donated large areas of land to get the town named in their father’s name. Though the British continued to call the town “MadrasPattnam” or “Madras”, the Indians used to call it “ChennaPattnam”, in agreement with Chennappa Nayak’s sons.

Years passed after the British had left and Madras was still “Madras” not Chennai. I do not know why it dawned so late (approximately 50 years after independence) on the people to rename it.

But to me, Chennai will always remain Madras, for I’ve grown up knowing it by that name. While Chennai brings me thoughts of the recent few years, Madras brings me back distant memories of a place more quieter, more serene, more closer to heart.