Mylapore gowri amma biography of william

CHENNAI: While Mylapore has become synonymous with Tam-Bram neighbourhood and its middle-class culture, its history is far more diverse. The ancient Greek maps refer to the town as ‘Maliarpha’ and later, European cartographers called it ‘Meliapour’.

Anglo Saxon chronicles mention that King Alfred of England had sent a bishop to the shrine of St Thomas in India in 883 AD. In the 1300s, Marco Polo, the Venetian traveller, would visit the place and describe Mylapore as a place full of peacocks.

Mylapore juggled between the Portuguese (the viceroyalty of São Tomé de Meliapor was established here), the Dutch, the French Golconda and the Mughals before the British took control.

It had a mint-making Mughal coin, a Portuguese gunpowder factory and a Golconda court/police station called a Kutcheri at various times

Country’s Map Redrawn

The Madras Presidency had Tamil, Telugu, Tulu, Kannada, Malayalam and even Odiya speakers.

It was just a matter of time before linguistic chauvini