CHENNAI: We have all grown up understanding that Mylapore, the cultural hub of the city, got its name from ‘Mayil arparikkum oor’, which means ‘the land of the peacock screams’. This was because of the belief that peacocks used to gather in large numbers in this area, which is evident through some of the Portuguese architecture in the Santhome Church. But had you been a part of the Heritage Walks that were organised as part of Madras Week celebrations, you would have learned otherwise. According to Suriyannarayanan, Trustee, Namma Mylapore, who took the interested people through the walk, the name has a mythological mooring. When goddess Parvati was listening to her husband Lord Shiva narrating the importance of the Namashivaya mantra, she let her attention waver by looking at a dancing peacock. This angered Shiva, who cursed her into a peacock to do penance at the Mylapore area, after which she was reunited with her husband. This was the reference he gave, when explaining the etymology of Mylapore. As the walkers dodged slushy puddles and braved the traffic along the route from the Luz Church leading to the Kapaaleeshwarar temple, they learned quite a bit of history and unknown details of the Mylapore area.The first stop was Nageswara Rao Park, a lung spot developed by Nageshwara Rao’s wife with help from two others and donated to the city. Down the road, the walkers also got a glimpse of his house as also the Amrutanjan factory established by him. Walking on, houses and buildings most people miss while driving along the road came to notice. Seventy-year-old houses built in the European style with red-oxide floors, gardens at the entrance, doubled-columned pillars and arches, were predominantly owned by lawyers in those days. “This is why we can also call the area ‘my-law-pore’,” joked Suriyannarayanan. The procession of the motley group of people meandered through narrow-lanes that perhaps were never visited before and, gradually, street houses with a thinnai to sit and a pinnai to lie down at the entrance with Burma teak doors and windows and Mangalore tiles on the roofs came to light.Down the road, the Kamadhenu Kalyana Mandapam is spotted, which used to be the Kamadhenu Cinema Theatre a few years ago. The interesting fact about this 80-year-old structure is that it used to be where the Reserve Bank of India started its Chennai Branch. Suriyannarayanan suddenly looked up, pointing at an imaginary tramway. People used to take the tram from Luz Church to the beach to gather together and listen to community radio. “They used to analyse the news and predict the headline in the newspapers the next day,” he explained.Along the way, the walkers passed the Thannir Thurai Market, which used to be the place to buy vegetables, paper, firewood and rice, the Sanskrit College, which was visited by Gandhi and is known to have inspired Rabindranath Tagore to start his Shantiniketan, and the Thiruvalluvar Temple, the place believed to be where Thiruvalluvar lived over 2,000 years ago when he migrated to Chennai from Madurai. When we finally reached the Kapaleeshwarar temple, we also learn that the temple tank was initially a Muslim burial ground owned by the Nawab of Arcot. When the temple took over the land, it was a part of the deal that only Muslims will be allowed in the tank vicinity on Muharram day.
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