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Chennai (formerly known as Madras) situated in the eastern coast of South India facing Bay of Bengal. Chennai is a gracious city which has retained Quaint old -world values. The Dravidian dynasties of Pallavas, the Cholas and the Pandiyas, all left their marks on the culture and architecture of the region. Here tradition blends with modernity as the past and the present, the planned and unplanned coexist in harmony. Chennai is widely spread in about 180 Sq. Kms. Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu is the gateway to South India and is a major trade centre being well linked by road, rail and air to important cities besides being a sea port. History Madras(Chennai) was the site of the East India Company's first settlement-founded in 1639 on land given by the Raja of Chandragiri, the last representative of the Vijayanagar rulers of Hampi. A small fort was built on the settlement of in 1644, and a town, which subsequently became known as George Town, in the area of Fort St George, arose north of it. The settlement became independent of Banten, Java, in 1683 and was granted its first municipal charter in 1688 by James II. It thus has the oldest municipal corporation in India, a fact which Tamil Nadu state administrators are only too keen to point out at every available opportunity. Places To Visit Kapaleeswarar Temple Sri Parthasarthy TempleSanthome Cathedral Church Little Mount ShrineSt. Thomas Mount St. Mary's ChurchThousand Lights Mosque Fort St. George Fort and MuseumVictory War Memorial The High CourtThe Marina Beach and Elliot's Beach Periyar Science and Technology Centre The Gardens of the Horticultural Society Gandhiji, Rajaji , Kamraj , Anna and MGR Memorials Lighthouse Valluvar Kottam Rajaji HallThe Snake Park The National Art GalleryThe Government Museum The Theosophical SocietyChildren's Park Kalakshetra PlanetariumGolden Beach Crocodile Park Mahabalipuram ( about 60 kms.) Kanchipuram ( about 100 kms) Mylapore Kapaleeswarar Temple is an ancient Shiva temple and is a delightful introduction to Dravidian temple architecture. There are some fragmentary inscriptions dating back to 1250 AD which were damaged when in 1566 Mylapore fell into the hands of the Potuguese and the original temple was demolished. The present temple was rebuilt by the Vijayanagar Kings in the 16th century. The magnificent 37 meter gopuram is intricately carved and depicts many a legend.The temple famed for being the site of a miracle when Saint Gnansambandar sang a hymn to Lord Kapaleeswarar to resurrect a dead girl from her ashes.This is sculpturally represented in the shrine of the Saint in from of the temple flagstaff. The bronze statues of sixty-three Saivite Saints adorn the outer yard of the temple and are carried in a colourful procession on the eighth day of the ten-day "Aruvathumoovar" temple festival held in March-April every year. Events/Festivals From the end of November until the second week of January, Madras is host to a festival of Carnatic and Hindustani music and all forms of classical dance . Performances are held at various music academies. Chennai's Festival of Carnatic Music & Dance, which takes place from mid-December to mid-January, is one of the largest festivals of this type in the world. It's a celebration of the classical music of south India, with songs in all the main languages - Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. At each venue there's usually a lecture and demonstration in the morning, followed by several concerts, each lasting around three hours, in the afternoon and evening. Most concerts start With a varnam, an uptempo introduction. There are then several songs, kirtis or kittanas, before the main number. The raga is the basis of Carnatic music: five, six or seven notes arranged in ascending or descending scales. There are 72 main ragas and several hundred variations of each, all organised into a complex classification. The main instruments used in Carnatic Music are the violin, wooden flute, veena (a large stringed instrument), gottuvadyam (similar to the veena but without frets), nagaswaram (pipe), thavil (percussion instrument), mridangam (drum), and even a ghatam (a mud pot). Performers to look out for include vocalists K.V. Narayanaswami, M.S. Subbulakshmi, T. Brinda, Balarmuraii Krishna, T.N. Seshagopalan, D.K. Pattammal and Semmangudi Srinivasier; violinists T.N. Krishnan, V.V. Subramanian, M.S. Gopaikrishnan, Lalgudi Jayaraman and GLR Krishnan; veena players Gayatri and Chittibabu; flautists N. Ramani, T. Viswanathan and Sikkil Sisters; gottuvadyam player N Ravi Kiran; nagaswaram players Shaik Chinna Moulana Sahib and Namagiripettai; and mridangam players TK Murthy, Palghat Raghu, Vellore Ramabhadran, Umayalpuram Sivaram and T.V. Gopalkrishnan. In October 1998, a new comprehensive website has been put up on Carnatic Music at Information about films Chennai is the Film Capital of the World if you're talking quantity . Chennai is now number one, having recently overtaken Mumbai. Last year the studios in Chennai churned out 250 movies in the Tamil and Telugu languages alone. Of the many film studios operating in and around the Chennai, MGR Film City is the only one that is routinely open to the public. It's also the only studio with outdoor sets - Mughal gardens, a Greco-Roman amphitheatre and a giant concrete shark to pose before. Universal Studios it isn't but it can be quite entertaining if they're shooting outside. Open daily from 8am to 8pm, it's near Indira Nagar about 10km south of Egmore. Chennai's other big film studios, Vijaya, Prasad and AVM are in the south-western suburb of Kodambakkam. You need the manager's permission to visit and it's not readily given. Copyright 1998, Chennai Interactive Business Services (P) Ltd., cibs@chennaionline.com For more information , visit http://www.travel-india.com/cityac/chennai/ |
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