CHENNAI: Saidapet was obtained by the British East India Company in the 1700s along with the jaghir of Chingleput and till Independence served as the district headquarters of the Chingleput district. Saidapet was included in Madras city during 1945-46 and since then forms a part of the corporation. When Andhra separated from the Madras presidency, the government of the newly-found state functioned from Saidapet for more than a year till a new capital was built at Kurnool.
The pearl necklace of chennapuri
Bounded by a lake on the north and a river on the south, Saidapet was a lush and prosperous suburb. In 1850, Sistu Krishnamurthy Sastry — a Telugu scholar and musician — was invited by his patron Thulasingasetti who worked for the British government and lived in Saidapet.In his work ‘Strinitisastramu’ in Telugu, Sastry writes of Saidapet as “the pearl necklace of Chennapuri”. He was punning on the word ‘peta’ meaning both pearl necklace and part of a city.
Early colonial inhabitation along Adyar
The Adyar is a short river that runs for just around 35 km and flows only during the rainy season. Till she roars and overflows her banks with impunity, this mighty river is never noticed. The hamlet called Smaranapuram grew between a huge Mambalam lake and the winding Adyar river. Prosperous for trade, fishing and agriculture existed. Saidapet was one of the first colonial inhabitations to arise on its banks. Agriculture still thrived so much that the first agriculture college in Asia was founded here. Fishing and washing clothes were the other two water-dependent vocations here. The clothes of the British were brought by dhobis on long streams of donkey to be washed in the freshwater flowing in the Adyar.
The cactus farm in Saidapet
Source: https://www.dtnext.in/city/2022/06/12/saidapet-the-threshold-of-madras
