Colonial Histories of Flaring Towers in Chennai

Centuries ago, when the first Europeans landed on the Coromandel coast, little did the humble fishermen know that their lands would soon be adorned with beaconed towers and witness unique cultural blends. This is the story of Madraspattinam, which transformed into one of the world's major cities, guided and overseen by the towering lighthouses that grace the metropolitan city of Chennai.

Collage created in Canva: From Top-Left clockwise — Old picture of a part of St George fort with St Mary’s Steeple visible, Existing part of the fort housing Administrative offices of Chennai and Old engraving of the Mediaeval fort; Source: Wikimedia

Prior to the decommissioning of the third lighthouse in 1977, the lighthouse authorities decided on a new site to facilitate technological advancements in the shipping industry and the growth of traffic. It was agreed to be constructed at the end of Marina Beach. The new lighthouse was an eleven-storey rounded concrete tower with two galleries coloured in the iconic red and white bands. It was also attached to a circular three-storey building housing the harbour control offices.

The beacon stood at 57 metres from mean sea level, and its flare reached 24 nautical miles, initiating its services right when the earlier beacon stopped functioning. The beacon was electrical, shining from one of the tallest lighthouses in India, famously known as the Chennai Lighthouse. The lighthouse is now equipped with a radar installed on the tenth floor for security, making it the only tower in India with an elevator, and it is solarised, replacing the LED lights, just like most of the present-day lighthouses in India.

The lapping waves of the Coromandel shores have cradled the sands of ancient history, from the glorious Indian megalithic Stone Age to the drifting realms of the Vijayanagara Empire. It was in the early 16th century that Europeans set foot on the Coromandel coast, marking the first Indo-European settlements on its surfing sands. The Portuguese were the first to arrive on this strip of the Bay of Bengal coast. Almost a century later, Dutch ships docked on this part of the subcontinent, followed by the British fleet of the East India Company.

The day that seemed to herald the birth of a new throbbing city was on Francis Day in 1639 when Nayak Damarla Chennappa Nayakudu escorted the representatives of the British trading company to the contemporary Vijayanagara emperor. They sought a grant for a strip of the coast to build a factory. On 22 August, the East India Company obtained the lease of the 10 kilometres of quaint shores of Madraspattinam, marking the birth of a flourishing city known as Chennai in the pages of the history of South India.

The name Chennai was formalised in the sale deed of the grant received from Damarla Venkatadri Nayaka, who likely dedicated the European deal to his father, Damarla Mudirasa Chennappa Nayakudu. Both the names of this city, Madras and Chennai, have a Telugu lineage. Some British military maps even state that the place was known as Mudiraj, referring to the indigenous Telugu clan inhabiting this shore. However, when the British settled here, it came to be known mostly as Madras, originating from the existing name of the fishing village Madraspattinam.

The first garrison built on this land, also called Chennirayarpattiname or Channapatnam, was St George Fort, which became the nerve centre of trading capitalising on the natural sea route along the eastern coast of the subcontinent, including Sri Lanka. Until then, the returning fishermen from the seas were guided by their womenfolks, who used to raise a bonfire as a beacon for safe arrivals back onshore.

However, with the growing number of ships of different sizes arriving near St George Fort, the risk of ships running aground on the shoals of the banks of Armagaon, Kovalam, or Pulicat increased. Therefore, in the late 18th century, a proposal was submitted to the British government for a flare at a higher altitude to facilitate the easy anchorage of arriving ships during nighttime. The historically oldest lighthouse in Tamil Nadu was mounted on the hub-of-activity building of St George Fort—the exchange office or mess room. The flares that guided the ships were twelve huge lanterns of burning wick fueled by coconut oil, visible 25 miles away at sea, and officially functioned from 1796 to 1841.

The flares of these four towers have assured the safety of the ships, transforming a fishing village into this beta-city, which is rated one of the safest urban areas by The Quality of Living Survey. The lighthouses of Chennai are not only beacons for mariners but also the guiding spirit of the city with the fifth largest urban economy, representing the towers of its Indo-European heritage.

The saying "Necessity is the mother of all inventions or innovations" holds true even in the case of this rustic lighthouse. John Gore, the contemporary vice-admiral, felt the necessity of a more powerful beacon for the mariners and conveyed his requirement to the corps of engineers, Capt. T. J. Smith. While sailing from his motherland to the banks of Madras, Smith ordered the latest apparatus innovated by Stone Chance in Birmingham. The need was not only for an advanced source of beacon but also for a higher altitude than the 99 feet of the old lighthouse. The relentless traffic of ships by then was docking too far away from the fort area, causing inconvenience for the mariners.

The extended region between Parry's & Co. offices and the fort, which came to be known as George town and then the Esplanade, was proposed and granted as the new site for the second lighthouse. The new lighthouse had a column with a base of 55 feet breadth and stood at sea level, towering 38 metres altogether. The round, tapering, fluted tower with a gallery was named Madras Light and began functioning in 1844 for the next fifty years. The Madras Light was equipped with an innovative beacon bought by Smith, which consisted of fifteen lamps created by Aimé Argand, surrounded by three-tiered parabolic reflectors. Due to corrosion caused by saline water, the base of the tower was constructed with Pallavaram granite stones. The structure is now a protected monument under the Department of Archaeology.

The destruction caused by a cyclone in 1886 called for the reconstruction of the essential Madras Port. During the work, a port officer reported to the British government about the presence of a Tripasore reef 40 miles away from the south of Madras, which could be fatal for unaware traffic transmuting the sea through the current Mamallapuram region. This called for a lighthouse at a greater height and a new location than the existing second one.

In 1894, the new towering lighthouse of 160 feet was installed on the highest dome of the new Madras High Court, equipped with the shifted Argand lamp beacon. The gilded dome was cut on its top section to accommodate the kerosene vapour lamps brought from Birmingham. The once humble fishing village owed its flourishing port and eventual growth into a pulsating city to this new beacon inaugurated in 1894. Unfortunately, its illuminating reach far into the sea also attracted German ire during the First World War, resulting in the bombing of the Madras High Court, but the devastating experience became a muse for much local folklore.

The Marina View of the Fourth Chennai Lighthouse nighttime and daytime; Source: Wikimedia and Wiki commons

Collage created in Canva: From Top-Left clockwise — The oldest Surviving Second Lighthouse of Chennai within the grounds of Madras High Court currently with Museum, old painting of tower with granite base and Close up of the Second Lighthouse. in Chennai; Source: Times of India, a screenshot of flickr.com and Chennai Metblogs.

The third Lighthouse was on the highest dome of the Madras High Court; Source: Madras Musings