Striking structure: The new Elephant Gate bridge. The oldest Elephant Gate bridge was constructed probably in the late 17th Century to cross over the Elambore River to Vepery
| Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam
The Corporation has a new bridge at Elephant Gate. Going by the photographs, it is striking with three arches spanning the railway tracks running below. Much has changed in the area over the centuries. The oldest Elephant Gate bridge was constructed probably in the late 17th Century to cross over the Elambore River to Vepery. In the late 19th Century, the Elambore became part of the Buckingham Canal and railway tracks ran parallel to it, all the way to the Central station.
Today, though on the maps the canal still flows, it is difficult to see it at site, with the railway lines dominating. Through all these changes, the sheer enduring power of the name Elephant Gate is amazing.
Seven entrances
In Tamil, the place is called Yaanai Kavuni and that provides us with the explanation: Kavuni is an entrance to a fortress. And Elephant Gate was one of the seven principal entrances to the old, fortified town of Madras, by which we mean essentially George Town. The wall exists only at Madi Poonga, but the seven entrances can be identified even today. Boatmen’s Gate was roughly where the flyover from Royapuram connects with Rajaji Salai, Pully Gate at the northern end of Thambu Chetty Street, Thiruvottiyur Gate at the entrance of Monegar Choultry Road, Ennore Gate at the end of Mint Street, Elephant Gate as explained above, Chuckler’s Gate where Rasappa Chetty Street meets Wall Tax Road, and finally, Hospital Gate at the entrance to Evening Bazaar Road facing the General Hospital.
The names of five of the gates need no explanation. Chuckler’s was because it led to what was once Chakkilipalayam, a settlement of leather workers, which probably explains why Periamet historically evolved as a centre for that trade. Elephant Gate alone has a long and somewhat hazy history.
According to H.D. Love in his Vestiges of Old Madras, this entrance got its name from Elephant Garden, a vast open space that stood roughly where the eponymous bridge connects now. In the mid-18th Century, all of this was open area, and it is likely that like Calcutta’s Hatibagan (Elephant Garden), this was where powerful people of town tethered their pachyderms.
The history of the area goes back to the 1670s when one Dorai Murtiyappa rented it from the Company. He applied for a lease in perpetuity and died before it was sanctioned. His son, ‘being soft and illiterate’, accepted as a matter of course a lease for 31 years, while the family thought it was in perpetuity. Early in the 1700s, it was in the possession of the third generation — Maria Pois and her brother Sebastian Chanda. The garden was named after her and she had, it was acknowledged, brought it to ‘a vast perfection’, building a house and planting several trees on it. It was therefore something of a shock when the Government demanded it all back. The brother-sister duo retained the place till 1731 when it was awarded to another renter. H.D. Love remarks wryly that had the family not insisted on a lease, they might have enjoyed it forever — a situation that has not changed much.
Interesting tale
By the 1750s, it was clearly Elephant Garden and lent its name to the gate facing it. The ASI report of 1903 has an interesting story according to which a priest entered the city through this gate and in his retinue were some elephants which could not make it as the doorway was too low. It had to be broken down to allow the animals to pass, and hence the name. But this seems a tall tale at best.
(V. Sriram is a writer and historian)
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