Kesavaperumal Puram is an upmarket housing development in south Chennai. One end of it is along the Buckingham Canal and standing on its bank is the commemorative pillar you see in the picture.
In design, it is a copy of the 18th century pillars that once marked the boundary of the Esplanade and of which only one survives in the shadow of Dare House. Closer inspection of the obelisk revealed it to be of comparatively recent origins. It was erected when Kesavaperumal Puram came into existence in 1962.
The area has a history that is much older. Henry Davison Love, in his monumental ‘Vestiges of Old Madras,’ traces its past, beginning from 1816 when a house was built there. In 1822, it was the property of Edward Greenway after whom the adjoining road was, till recently, named. Greenway entered the civil services in 1797 and in 1811 was a judge of the Sudder Court. He marries Isabella Sullivan in 1805 and was given a ‘grant of ground in San Thome in 1807,’ all that area then coming under Mylapore/San Thome jurisdiction. He died in Mangalore in 1828.
In 1826 or thereabouts, the property became the residence of J. Olliver, who having entered the civil services in 1800, became a judge of the Sudder Court. He probably succeeded to the post vacated by Greenway and therefore, also his residence. In the 1840s, this became Serle’s Garden probably acquiring its name from William Ambrose Serle, who was registrar of the Supreme Court of Madras around 1845.
What is interesting is that the area, somewhere along the line, became temple property owned by the Adikesavaperumal and Kapaleeswarar shrines of Mylapore, though how or why is a mystery. It probably was the thottam (garden) of the Lord, where the processional deities of the temple were brought once a year for a quaint ritual of vana bhojanam — literally a picnic. Several vana bhojana thottams abound in this area, most of them slums now.
The Adikesavaperumal temple leased out Serle’s Gardens in the 1890s to Raja Sir Savalai Ramaswami Mudaliar, dubash of Dymes & Co and sheriff of Madras. By the 1960s, the lease was subject to litigation, the land eventually reverting to the temple.
All this probably meant very little to the locals for whom, historically, Serles Garden was the boat stop, the place from where vessels could be boarded on the Buckingham Canal for travelling to Mamallapuram and beyond. That is now impossible with the MRTS running right across.
Land for housing in Kesavaperumal Puram was acquired from both the temples but it was for some reason named after Adikesava alone. The pillar records that N.N.S. Manradiar, minister for co-operation, government of Madras, inaugurated the Kesavaperumal Puram housing colony on July 7, 1962. That makes the area just over fifty in age. Interestingly, 2013 also marks the centenary of cooperative housing development in the city, the first of which began in 1914.
This story appeared in The Hindu dated 29th Jan 2013 under the Hidden Histories column
I am a unfortunate resident of The once beautiful and clean kesavaperumalpuram colony.Today it is a place riddled with non existent tar roads washed away in the floods.North K P Puram adjacent to the Vinayagar temple has a almost finished monster of a building flouting all rules,TheSouth wall of the 3 storeyed building is seated on the compound wall with no setback. The building itself is almost on the buckingham canal flouting CRZ rules. The south wall of the Building close to the temple which was made into a so-called 2;0″wide garden with people’s money and later cladded with ugly looking glazed tiles was later stuck with Glazed tile pictures of various deities ,allegedly to stop the Chennaite from peeing on the road.Today within 2 years of the springing up of the park it has been shamefully broken down by the builder and the jolly Chennaite is back to his watering the walls.The contractor and other neighbors who follow suit dump everything from rubbish,plastic covers in droves,paan parag and cigarette remnants wherever they please. I was shocked sometime back to see the temple flower woman peeing in a standing posture a few meters away from the temple,straighten her saree and walk towards the temple calmly with her basket of flowers.Ugh!-Woman Power-If a guy can do it at every nook and corner,why not me?-After all I am only adding the city’s aquifer!Even the temple surroundings are not spared.Most of the colony is like a slum outside every house.the government sweepers DO NOT do their job.They are employed by some of the residents to do their in house work.Nevertheless these including the so called sweepers who do not sweep,the garbage van driver and cleaner who appear maybe 4 times a year and the Health Inspector who claims to fog people to death with some white poisonous gas and black phenyl into the sumps beg around for money at the drop of a hat.Deewali and Pongal are the worst.Believe it or nor they disappeared during and after the floods for 2 months.All in all we are a gleaming example of Swach bharat.I forgot to mention that some our caring Residents walk their dogs and clandestinely make them relieve themselves in front on any house but their house.almost all house maids cleverly drop garbage bags 3 or 5 houses away from the house they are working in.I am ashamed and sick of living in this historical colony.If any of you want to see the most number of flying plastic covers round the clock peep into our colony.