An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Conference on Indian Economic and Social History sponsored by the Social Science Research Council at St John's College, Cambridge, England in July, 1975. I should particularly like to thank Arjun Appadurai, Dennis Hudson, Julian Smith and Burton Stein for their useful comments on this paper, and John Robertshaw for the maps of Madurai and Madras.

¹ Evenson, Norma, Chandigarh (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966), p. 2.Google Scholar

² For a discussion of the ceremonial city see Wheatley, Paul, The Pivot of the Four Quarters (Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh, 1971),Google Scholar and City as Symbol (London: H. K. Lewis, 1969);Google Scholar and Wu, Nelson I., Chinese and Indian Architecture (New York: George Braziller, 1963);Google Scholar and for the colonial city see Horvath, Ronald J., ‘In Search of a Theory of Urbanization: Notes on the Colonial City,’ in East Lakes Geographer, V (1969), pp. 69–82.Google Scholar

³ Architecture of Mānasāra, trans. Prasanna, Kumar Acharya (London: Oxford University Press, 1933), Vol. IV, p. 95 (Ch. X, paras 44–7).Google Scholar

⁴ See Ramanujan, A. K., ‘Toward an Anthology of city Images,’ in Urban India, ed. Fox, Richard G. (Durham: Duke University, 1970), p. 224.Google Scholar

⁵ Adigal, Prince Ilango, Shilappadikaram (The Ankle Bracelet) trans. Alain, Daniélou (New York: New Directions, 1965), p. 3.Google Scholar

⁶ See Ramanujan, particularly, ‘Toward an Anthology of City Images,’ pp. 235–40.Google Scholar

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⁸ For the text of this and other stories see Nelson, J. H., The Madura Country: A Manual (Madras: Asylum Press, 1868), Pt III, pp. 3ff;Google Scholar and Oriental Historical Manuscripts in the Tamil Language, trans. William, Taylor (Madras: Charles Josiah Taylor, 1835), Vol. I, p. 13.Google Scholar

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¹⁰ Anon., Madura: A Tourist's Guide (Madras: Higginbothams Ltd, 1913), p. 2.Google Scholar

¹¹ Shilappadikaram, p. 90.Google Scholar

¹² Ibid., pp. 72, 92.

¹³ Ibid., pp. 91, 96.

¹⁴ Imperial Gazetteer of India, Vol. XVI (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908), p. 391.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Oriental Historical Manuscripts, Vol. I, p. xiii;Google Scholar and Pillay, K. K., A Social History of the Tamils, Pt I (Madras: University of Madras, 1969), p. 239.Google Scholar

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¹⁸ Ray, Amita, Villages, Towns and Secular Buildings in Ancient India (Calcutta: Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay, 1964), pp. 71–2.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Shilappadikaram, p. 91. Inscriptions also refer to moat, flagstaff, rampart and parapet as parts of the fort.Google ScholarMahalingam, T. V., South Indian Polity (Madras: University of Madras, 1967), p. 83.Google Scholar

²⁰ This plan is mentioned not only in the Mānasāra but also in the Agni Purāna and the Sukranitsara. Ray, , Villages, Towns and Secular Buildings, p. 53. The ancient Tamil settlement of Uttaramārūr has an overall plan that fits well with certain prescriptions of the Śilpaśāstras.Google ScholarGros, François and Nagaswamy, R., Uttaramerūr (Pondichery: Institut Français D'Indologie, 1970), pp. 90–5.Google Scholar

²¹ Smith, ‘Madurai, India,’ Ch. III, which gives a detailed description of this process.Google Scholar

²² Ibid., p. 22.

²³ Ibid., p. 37.

²⁴ Shilappadikaram, p. 91.Google Scholar

²⁵ Ibid., pp. 98, 133–5.

²⁶ Hart, George, The Poems of Ancient Tamil Nadu (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975), p. 13.Google Scholar

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⁴⁵ This is a reference to the symbolic circling of the capital by the king mentioned in the Agni Purāna and the Mānasāra which comes from the Hindu rite Pradakshina, or delimitation of sacred space. Paul Wheatley cites examples of this rite in several Southeast Asian cities. See Pivot of the Four Quarters, p. 466. Dennis Hudson suggests that Tirumala Nāyaka not only had two large cars constructed to pull the deities Siva and Minākshi around the city of Madurai during the yearly festival celebrating their marriage, but also incorporated into the festival the coronation of Minākshi as queen of the city. ‘Siva, Minakshi and Vishnu: Reflections on a Popular Myth in Madurai’ (unpublished paper, 1975), p. 5.Google Scholar

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⁴⁸ Anon, Madura, p. 12.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ See Smith, ‘Madurai, India,’ Chs VI and VII, for a very interesting discussion of the different festivals in the city, their historical development and their relationship to the urban morphology.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Balandier, G., ‘The Colonial Situation: A Theoretical Approach,’ in Immanuael Wallerstein (ed.), Social Change: The Colonial Situation (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1966), pp. 54–5.Google Scholar For a discussion of the Asian Port City see Murphey, Rhoads, ‘Urbanization in Asia,’ in The City in Newly Developing Countries ed. Gerald, Breese (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1972), pp. 58–75.Google Scholar

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⁵³ MrsFrank, Penny, Fort St. George, Madras (London: Seven Sonnenschien, 1900), p. 4;Google Scholar and Census of India, 1961: Madras, Vol. IX, Pt X-(I), p. 4.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Leighton, David, Vicissitudes of Fort St. George (Madras: Addison Press, 1902), p. 6.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ This description is taken from one of the official records of Madras Presidency, ‘Account of the Present Localities of Madras as Existing in the Middle of the Seventeenth Century,’ reprinted in the Manual of Administration, Vol. I, p. 163.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Love, Henry Davison, Vestiges of Old Madras (London: Govt of India, 1913), Vol. I, p. 35.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Manual of Administration, Vol. I, p. 163,Google Scholar and Ransom, C. W. ‘The Growth of the Population of Madras,’ in The Madras Tercentenary Commemoration Volume, p. 320.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ In 1688 the Directors of the East India Company granted the Armenians a contract enabling them to travel on Company ships and to establish settlements where they could build their own churches.Google ScholarSrinivasachari, C. S., History of the City of Madras (Madras: P. Vardachary and Company, 1939), pp. 106–7.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Ibid., p. 52.

⁶⁰ Some of the streets were named Middle, Charles, York and Choultry Streets. Manual of Administration, Vol. I, p. 163.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Although there is much discrepancy in population figures for early Madras, one fairly reliable estimate places the population at about 50,000 in 1688, the year in which Madras was made a Corporation by Royal Charter of the East India Company.Google ScholarCensus of the Town of Madras, 1871 (Madras: Fort St George Gazette Press, 1873), p. 26.Google Scholar

⁶² The following description is taken from the account of Thomas Salmon of the city in 1707.Google Scholar See Lanchester, H. V., Town Planning in Madras (Madras: Govt of Madras, c. 1916), pp. 87–8.Google ScholarMaps of early Madras, such as ‘Prospect of Fort St. George and Plan of the City of Madras’ (1710), surveyed by order of Governor Thomas Pitt, clearly attest to the physical layout of the city. This map is located in the British Museum, London.Google Scholar

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⁶⁴ During the first 100 years, villages that existed on the periphery of the Fort were acquired on lease by the British. In 1708, for example, five villages were given in free grant to the Company, among the most important of which were Trivatore and Nungambakkam.Google ScholarCensus of Town of Madras, 1871, p. 34.Google Scholar

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⁶⁶ In fact, the Regulating Act of 1773 limiting the political role of Madras was an acknowledgement by the British that Calcutta and Bombay had more commercial and industrial potential.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ In 1772, of the 33 merchants who rented warehouses, only 9 were English. The merchants protested against the sale of land, for they feared it would be re-rented at prohibitive rates. Love,Google ScholarVestiges of Old Madras, Vol. III, p. 163.Google Scholar

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⁶⁹ For a description see Brown, Percy, Indian Architecture (Bombay: D. B. Taraporevala Sons and Co., 3rd ed., 1942), Vol. 2, p. 135.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ In 1775, of the 356 lots of 2,400 sq. ft each that were available in Black Town, 253 were given to one family whose land was taken over by the Company after the attack of the French in 1746. Love,Google ScholarVestiges of Old Madras, Vol. III, p. 53.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Ellefsen, Richard, ‘The Evolution of Areal Patterns in Madras City,’ unpublished Mimeographed paper, p. 6. There were four important forts in Egmore, San Thome, Nungambakkam and Puraswalkam which attracted a colonial population.Google Scholar

⁷² Dupuis, Madras et le Nord du Coromandel, p. 405.Google Scholar For a more detailed description of this development see Census of Town of Madras, 1871, p. 53.Google Scholar

⁷³ The Book of Grants of Ground for 1774 mentions an unusual grant of 25 acres of land on Choultry Plain to a civil servant and Member of Council (Henry Brooke) for a period of 99 years on condition that he build a brick house on it. Love,Google ScholarVestiges of Old Madras, Vol. III, p. 56.Google Scholar

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