AFVOA Newletter August 2020

Section 6 – eConnect Reviews CV 2 No. 02 / 2020 Page 195 of 237 consort Paravaiyar, was a long term resident of Chennai (Thiruvottiyur - 8 C E). Chennai is also home to two of the twelve Alwars who adorned Vaishnavism – Pey Alwar (5 BCE) and Thirumazhisai Alwar (7 C E). The reference in Silapathikaram and Tholkappiam of Kotravai worship, a cult prevalent then, takes the origin of Mundaka Kanni Temple Amman, a landmark in Mylapore, to pre Common Era, belying the commonly recorded date of its origin in 7 C E. The Vijayanagar kings had been active, constructing and renovating temples in and around Chennai ( 14 and 15 C E). Did you know that our very own Hindu warrior king and a nightmare for the Mughals, Chatrapathi Shivaji Maharaj visited Chennai in 1677? There is also this unverified claim of Shivaji worshipping incognito on 03 rd October 1677 in Kalikambal Temple in George Town. Other than the fact that Chennai was also the garrison post during the conquests of East Chalukya kingdom (Southern Andhra) and Ganga kingdom (Kalinga, modern Odisha) by both Raja Raja Chola and Rajendra Chola (10 C.E), references to Chennai in history are steeped in traditions, religion and conservatism. Was Chennai always like that? Not quite. Enter East India Company and the handful of hamlets around the port gets christened as Madras. The seeds for a vibrant Metro, third largest in India were sown. The resultant sum was greater than the sum of its parts, the X factor that bound them all was the unquestioning faith in our age old traditions. The foreign interference stirred the local culture a bit, but could never shake it out of its roots. Read on. If ever there is one qualified enough to take us back in time to the late seventeenth century Madras, it is Shri V Sriram and none other. He held the audience spell bound with his detailed account of the operations style of the East India company. Enterprising Individuals flourished with their unlimited and unrestricted moonlighting ways, before Robert Clive arrived on the scene and shifted focus to acquisition of local territory, as diametrically different from mere trading. Elihu Yale, Welsh by descent, was born in Apr 1641 to a reasonably well off, upper middle class parents in Connecticut. The family eventually moved to London. The family survived the Great Plague (1665) but it lost much of its wealth in the Great Fire of London (1666) and young Elihu was compelled to seek greener pastures outside England. He travelled to India via Africa and started his career as a Writer for the East India Company within Fort St.George. A Writer fits into the lowest rung of the Company’s organizational hierarchy. Through a combination of very enterprising business partnerships, personal liaison and Machiavellian tactics to boot, he rose to the top position of the Governor of the Company’s operations in Madras within a few years. His flourishing business interests badly needed a proxy to be a figure head and Elihu found a perfect foil in Mr John Nicks, a close friend of his. Elihu Yale is probably the father of benami accounting, which practice dogs Indian politics in general and Tamilnadu politics in particular even