VELUDHARAN TEMPLES VISIT : Avvai Home, Ramalayam Palace & Balaramavarma's Statue, Elphinstone Bridge, Mundaka Kanni Amman Temple, Neptune Studio, Dr Durgabai Deshmukh Hospital, Andhra Mahila Sabha, The Grange, Vasant Vihar

Monday, 27 March 2017

Avvai Home, Ramalayam Palace & Balaramavarma's Statue, Elphinstone Bridge, Mundaka Kanni Amman Temple, Neptune Studio, Dr Durgabai Deshmukh Hospital, Andhra Mahila Sabha, The Grange, Vasant Vihar - A Greenways Road Heritage Walk

19^th March 2017.

The Last walk in the series of THE ADYAR – a cultural mapping, Greenways Road Heritage walk was kick-started by Venkatesh Ramakrishnan and curated by Nivedita Louis, Karine Hrt, and Nandan Sankriti Kaushik on 19th March 2017 from Avvai Home in Besant Nagar and ended at Vasanth Vihar, where J Krishnamurti Foundation is functioning.

AVVAI HOME

Even though the walk was called Greenways Road Heritage Walk, most of the places covered are on the Besant Nagar Gandhi Nagar. One of the historic and heritage places covered is the Avvai Home. Avvai Homes was started by Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy, the first lady Doctor in India from Madras Medical College ( 1907 – 1912 ) and the founder of the Women’s India Association ( WIA also runs the Cancer Institute Adyar since 1952, ). She held many positions as a Member of the Legislature and Vice President of the legislature.

She founded the Avvai home for abandoned women and orphans. The required land of 50 grounds on Besant Avenue was leased for 50 years from Thiruvannamalai Sri Arunachaleswarar temple @ Rs 10 per month. The Home was constructed between 1934 to 1936. The Avvai Home started an Elementary School which was later upgraded to a Higher secondary school in 1978. They also started a Teacher's Training Institute, which was closed due to lack of infrastructure. After Dr Muthulakshmi’s demise, in 1965 her daughter-in-law Mandakini Krishnamurti, took over the home and orphanage, brought to the present level, and passed away in 1980.

LOCATION OF THE AVVAI HOME: CLICK HERE

Avvai Home east side entrance

Dr Muthulakshmi Reddi’s residence gate Pillar name board the founder of Avvai Home

RAMALAYAM PALACE AND BALARAMA VARMA STATUE

It was a disappointment that we could not peep into the Ramalayam palace, previously owned by Rajas of Travancore. From the gate, we could not see the palace due to trees which obstructed the view. Understood that the property is under litigation between the sisters. Then we moved to Anantha Padmanabha Swamy temple where Balarama Varma's Statue was installed ( This was originally installed in front of Rajah Annamalai Mandram ) Esplanade. The details of Balarama Varma’s statue were written in my previous post along with Sri Anantha Padmanabha Swamy Temple.

PALACE LOCATION: CLICK HERE STATUE LOCATION: CLICK HERE

Ramalayam Palace

Balarama Varma statue

Balarama Varma statue's base inscription

ELPHINSTONE BRIDGE.

Elphinstone Bridge was constructed between 1837-42 CE during the period of Lord Elphinstone, who was the Governor of Madras. This bridge connects Santhome and Mylapore to the South of Madras. After the construction of a new bridge in 1973 the old bridge was abandoned for traffic and used for the crossing of sewage pipelines and covered with concrete slabs.

Elphinstone Bridge from where we can see Whale Island, Broken Bridge, Theosophical Society, Chettinad Palace, etc. ( It was planned to renovate the bridge to use for the walkers, but the project was shelved and this bridge has become a suicide spot ).

LOCATION LOCATION OF THE BRIDGE: CLICK HERE

Elphinstone bridge

Sewage line on Elphinstone Bridge

The view of Whale Island from Elphinstone Bridge

MUNDAKA KANNI AMMAN TEMPLE & Dr MGR JANAKI ARTS AND SCIENCE COLLEGE FOR WOMEN.

MUNDAKA KANNI AMMAN TEMPLE ( It was a part of Dr MGR Janaki College) During the Navab period the temple was built, with the Vimanam looking like a mosque dome. The present caretaker had won a legal battle with MGR for the Temple land gifted by Nawab.

NEPTUNE STUDIO was started in the present place of Dr. MGR Janaki Arts and Science College on the northern side of Adyar River by C V Raman, a lawyer, and A Narayanan from Sivagangai District. They entered making films after taking training under Raghupathy Prakash. Raman started a Limited Company in the name of ‘Lalitha Cinetone’ with Kasi Chettiar. He got 25 and odd acres of land with some superstructure on lease from Arcot Nawab and the monthly rental was Rs 150.00.

After Lalitha Cine's tone drowned in crises, C V Raman started another Company called ‘National Theaters Limited’. With great difficulty, they produced the first silent film ‘Vishnu Leela’ in the year 1932. NTL too went into trouble and Raman started another Company called ‘Meenakshi Cinetone’ with Nattukottai Chettiar AL.RM. Alagappa Chettiar. They included C V Raman and produced the hit film Pavalakodi in the year 1934, with M K Thyagaraja Bhagavathar and S D Subbulakshmi.

After the talking film Kalidas produced by H M Reddi in the year 1931, Alagappa Chettiar re-entered the field with Letchumanan Chettiar alias Lena, a Drama contractor. During 1940 – 50 successful films were made in Tamil and Telugu, like Krishna Bhakti, by Lena. The property after changing many hands finally passed on to the MGR family and called after MGR’s mother Sathya Studios. After MGR’s demise, the Studio was converted into Dr. MGR Janaki Arts and Science College for Women.

LOCATION OF THE AMMAN TEMPLE: CLICK HERE

The office room still bears the name board of Sathya Studios

Dr. DURGABAI DESHMUKH HOSPITAL AND ANDHRA MAHILA SABHA.

Dr. Durgabai Deshmukh joined the Swadeshi movement with Gandhi in the year 1921, when she was 12 years old. At the age of 12, I dropped out of School and started to teach Hindi to Congress Volunteers of Kakinada. When Gandhi ji was on tour in Andhra Pradesh she acted as a translator to his speeches. In the Salt Satyagraha movement, in the year 1930, she also participated, so she was lodged in jail for a year and continued teaching Hindi to her co-prisoners. She became a Dr and a Criminal lawyer later. During her life, she held various positions like Member of Parliament, Member of Parliament Steering Committee & Planning Commission ( 1952).

In Madras, she started many institutions including Andhra Mahila Sabha for which the foundation stone was laid by Gandhi ji. The many blocks of Dr. Durgabai Deshmukh Hospital were opened by eminent personalities like Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, who runs the Hospital and nursing School ( for the accommodation of students the adjacent Garden House called Yerolyte was purchased from the owner for Rs 1 lakhs through then Union health minister Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, which has an interesting story) etc,.

There is a Baobab tree the biggest of its kind on the premises is an added attraction.

LOCATION OF THE DR.DURGABAI DESHMUKH HOSPITAL: CLICK HERE

THE GRANGE

During the British period, there were many Garden Houses built for the Britishers and business people of the UK on the north bank of the Adyar River. The building was built by a Lawyer John Bruce Norton in the year 1853 and called Norton’s Garden. Temples of Kadari & Kumaresa and a chavadi were demolished and the Norton’s Garden was built over that. The name Norton’s Garden was renamed Grange by Percy Macqueen ICS, collector of Nilgiris in the year 1907.

The ownership was transferred to many hands and presently runs by the Tamil Nadu Government to train officers, under Anna Institute of Management and named Kanchi. A SHORT FILM is available on the website shot by Lady Stokes and Hoptoum on Grange in 1930.

LOCATION THE GRANGE: CLICK HERE

VASANT VIHAR

The Krishnamurti Foundation India ( KFI ) headquarters functions at Vasantha Vihar, which was set up in 1928 as a Charitable Institution by J Krishnamurti, Dr Anne Besant, and other 5 founder members under the name of Rishi Valley Trust. Later the name was changed to Foundation for New Education in 1953. The Vasanth Vihar was previously known as Bishop Gardens. This White building was designed by renowned architect Surendranath Kar in a 6.5-acre square plot. Later trees belonging to South American origin, were planted.

J Krishnamurti stayed here during his annual visits and gave public speeches sitting on a rock under a tree. He delivered his first talk on December 1936 and his last talk on January 4, 1986. The building houses a library where J Krishnamurti’s books are kept for public reading, which is inclusive of a book written and prefaced by Anne Besant at the age of 14, by Krishnamurti. In addition to this facility has been provided to see & hear his speeches. The ground floor consists of a 200 seater hall and office rooms.

LOCATION OF THE VASANT VIHAR: CLICK HERE