History of chennai / சென்னையின் வரலாறு😳சென்னை பெயர் காரணம்🤫
Under Vijayanagara Dynasty Nayaks Edit
The present-day city of Chennai started in 1644 as an English settlement known as Fort St. George. The region was then a part of the Vijayanagara Empire, then headquartered at Chandragiri in present-day Andhra Pradesh. The Vijayanagar rulers who controlled the area, appointed chieftains known as Nayaks who ruled over the different regions of the province almost independently. The region was under the control of the Damerla Venkatadri Nayakar, a Padma Velama Nayak chieftain of Srikalahasti and Vandavasi. He was also an influential Nayak ruler under the Vijayanagara King Peda Venkata Raya then based in Chandragiri-Vellore Fort, was in-charge of the area of present Chennai city when the English East India Company arrived to establish a factory in the area.[2][3]

Obtaining the Land Grant Edit
On 20 August 1639, Francis Day of the East India Company along with Damerla Venkatadri Naick traveled to Chandragiri palace to meet the Vijayanagara King Peda Venkata Raya and to obtain a grant for a small strip of land in the Coromandel Coast from in Chandragiri as a place to build a factory and warehouse for their trading activities. It was from Damarla Venkatadri Naick domain, on 22 August 1639, the piece of land lying between the river Cooum almost at the point it enters the sea and another river known as the Egmore river was granted to East India Company after deed from Vijaynagara emperor.

On this piece of wasteland was founded Fort St. George, a fortified settlement of British merchants, factory workers, and other colonial settlers. Upon this settlement, the English expanded their colony to include a number of other European communities, new British settlements, and various native villages, one of which was named Mudhirasa pattanam. It in honor of the later village upon which the British named the entire colony and the combined city Madras. Controversially, in an attempt to revise history and justify renaming the city as Chennai, the ruling party has purged the history of the early English Madras settlements. According to the new party history, instead of being named Madras, it was named Chennai, after a village called Chennapattanam, in honour of Damarla Chennapa Naick, father of Damerla Venkatadri Naick, who controlled the entire coastal country from Pulicat in the north to the Portuguese settlement of Santhome.[4][5]

However, it is widely recorded that while the official center of the present settlement was designated Fort St. George, the British applied the name Madras to a new large city which had grown up around the Fort including the "White Town" consisting principally of British settlers, and "Black Town" consisting of principally Catholic Europeans and allied Indian minorities. Thiruvotriyur is a historically important port city, now forms part of north Chennai. vayiratharayan of Virukanbakkam alias Chenninallur.

Stone age implements have been found near Pallavaram in Chennai. According to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Pallavaram was a megalithic cultural establishment, and pre-historic communities resided in the settlement.[47]

The region around Chennai has served as an important administrative, military, and economic centre for many centuries. During the 1st century CE, a poet and weaver named Thiruvalluvar lived in the town of Mylapore (a neighbourhood of present Chennai).[48] From the 1st–12th century the region of present Tamil Nadu and parts of South India was ruled by the Cholas.[49]

The Pallavas of Kanchi built the areas of Mahabalipuram and Pallavaram during the reign of Mahendravarman I. They also defeated several kingdoms including the Cheras, Cholas and Pandyas who ruled over the area before their arrival. Sculpted caves and paintings have been identified from that period.[50] Ancient coins dating to around 500 BCE have also been unearthed from the city and its surrounding areas. A portion of these findings belonged to the Vijayanagara Empire, which ruled the region during the medieval period.[51]

The Portuguese first arrived in 1522 and built a port called São Tomé after the Christian apostle, St. Thomas, who is believed to have preached in the area between 52 and 70 CE. In 1612, the Dutch established themselves near Pulicat, north of Chennai.[52]

On 20 August 1639 Francis Day of the East India Company along with the Nayak of Kalahasti Damarla Chennappa Nayakudu, travelled to the Chandragiri palace for an audience with the Vijayanager Emperor Peda Venkata Raya.[53] Day was seeking to obtain a grant for land on the Coromandel coast on which the Company could build a factory and warehouse for their trading activities.