A quick history of how Madras became Chennai in a new book about Tamil life and culture

The Tamil region has been settled for millennia and this is also true of the Chennai area. Robert Bruce Foote, the British geologist, unearthed a hand axe dating back over 2.6 million years. Later, Iron Age tools and implements were also found and as historian and archaeologist KV Raman has documented, burial urns and a small sarcophagus have been found within the current city’s precincts. While there is no documented continuity of human presence after the Palaeolithic Age, a few million years later, Roman coins and painted earthenware were found in areas of the city, indicating a brisk trade with West Asia.

Yathees Kumar, the archaeologist, suggests that even though the continuity of human settlement in the area is not recorded, the ongoing excavations across the regions of Tamil Nadu, including in the Chennai area, may throw up more evidence in terms of buried objects and human remains that indicate a kind of continuity of human presence in the region. The numerous neighbouring villages that were woven into the city like the strands of a necklace became an integral part of Chennai but were initially independent villages. The pakkams and oorus, each with their own distinct identity and history, were a…

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