Kottur – The Core of Kotturpuram

-- by Sriram V.

Last fortnight we looked at the landmarks in Kotturpuram that help us trace the heritage of that upmarket housing district. We now turn to Kottur, the ancient village from where the name Kotturpuram evolved.

For the record, Kottur is now a warren of streets at the southern end of Kotturpuram, bound by Sardar Patel Road and the Adyar river. But in ancient times it was a busy administrative headquarters. An inscription in the Dandiswara temple in Velachery dating to the 10th century records the place as being within Kotturnadu in Puliyur Kottam. This takes us to the reign of Sundara Chola Parantaka II. In hisThe Early History of the Madras Region, Prof K.V. Raman states that many inscriptions can be seen relating to Kottur prior to the 13th century. That gives us an idea of the antiquity of the place.

However, there is nothing like going to a locality to see for ourselves. Kottur’s streets preserve at least in name their village character. There are for instance Naidu and Yathaval Streets, surviving despite the ban on caste names. They indicate to us the predominantly Vaishnavite nature of the village in olden times. As though to reinforce this, we have a Prasanna Venkateswara Swami Temple in the centre of this settlement. And surrounding the locality are various guardian deities. But perhaps even older than all of these is a Sivalinga, unearthed some years ago and now housed in a makeshift shelter facing the Prasanna Venkateswara shrine. The Linga is now named Koteswarar after Kottur but we do not have any idea as to what it was consecrated as, and the whereabouts of the temple in which it stood. It is very likely that under the Cholas, Kottur was a Shaivite village.

Prasanna Venkateswara Swami Temple.

Today, it is the Vishnu temple that dominates. It is dated to the 16th century based on the idol and the pillars in the sanctum. There is also an inscription carefully preserved but practically undecipherable, at the base of the north wall of the sanctum. Lord Prasanna Venkateswara is in standing posture in the middle of what seems to have been a simple shrine – six pillars fronting the garbhagriha and all at one time probably open, to provide ventilation but now walled in. The spaces that have come up on the sides ­owing to the raising of walls have become niches for the Goddess and other deities. Fronting the shrine is a small sanctum to Garuda. This in turn has to its rear a Vijayanagar-era stone pillar or deepasthambha. That more or less completes the older parts of the temple, which has a large, spacious courtyard. Much of the recent restoration of the precinct is by the munificence of a community that identifies itself as Agni Kula Kshatriya on the stone slabs. They are as per Government records, a variant of the Vanniyar community. The upkeep of the temple is truly excellent.

The Walk Group outside the Bhajana Mandiram.

Facing the entire temple and across a narrow street is a Hanuman temple. It seems to have at one time been a part of the same complex. That the temple had extensive lands in the area in the past is made clear by HR&CE boundary stones at some distance away. But as all the intervening space is built up it is quite likely that there has been considerable encroachment.

Thulukanathamman Temple.

The guardian deities of Kottur are well represented by shrines. There are temples to Thulukkanathamman, Peeli Amman, Ellai Amman and Ponni Amman. The last named, is very near to Lake View Road which is to be expected, as Ponni Amman is said to protect water bodies. But of lake in Kottur there is none now though the road remembers it by name. Thulukkanathamman here is prefixed by the word Dandu, indicating that Her worship here is linked to an army camp, probably that of the Nawab of Arcot.

In Yathaval Street is a temple to Lord Venugopala. This was once a simple bhajana mandiram – a place where the music-loving Yadava community gathered to sing of their Lord. This is now upgraded into a proper shrine. Each year in the month of Purattasi (Sep/Oct), this temple has a festival.

Pondicherry Street is a short stretch that begins nowhere and ends nowhere – that is strictly not true, for it starts from Teacher’s Colony and peters out by the Adyar. The name is a mystery. It probably is a remnant of what a PWD minute dating to 1862 speaks of as “the old coast road from Madras to Pondicherry which is almost obliterated and only here and there can traces of the old line be seen by the trees that formed the avenue.” That Pondicherry Street is by the Adyar coast is undeniable. Moreover, writing of the route to Fort St George, Ananda Ranga Pillai in his diary states that it is along the Adyar. It is very likely that the Pondicherry Street here is part of what was once a busy highway. Sadly, what is left also may soon vanish. Already, a part of Pondicherry Street is now RS Sridhar Road, after a one time MLA.

By the side of the Adyar River, in Kottur, is South Lock Street. This is where the Buckingham Canal connects with the Adyar, becomes a part of it, and then on the opposite bank emerges as the South Canal and proceeds all the way to Cuddalore. The canal as we know, cuts across both the rivers of the city – it intersects the Cooum behind the University of Madras and the Adyar at Kottur. Both locations required locks to balance tidal variations in water flow. The Northern Lock was behind the University and can still be seen from what was once known as ME Grant Duff Bridge on Adams Road/Sivananda Salai. The South Lock was in Kottur but it survives no longer though it is commemorated in name. Ironically, the North Lock survives but the Lock Nagar there is now named after Navalar Nedunchezhiyan!

And so we come to the end of our heritage tour of Kottur/Kotturpuram. Superficially it all seems modern city but scratch the surface and there you have its antiquity. There may be a lot more waiting to be discovered.

This article owes much to the following sources:

1. The Early History of The Madras Region by Prof K.V. Raman, The CP Ramaswamy Aiyar Foundation, Chennai, 2008.

2. Vishnu Temples of South India, Vol III, by Dr. Chithra ­Madhavan, Chennai, 2010.

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