friends, to day i went to cuddalore old town. the british east india company ruled from here from 1690-1860. there are a few reminders of their stay here, like the old governor secretariat, the rest house ( with rumors of a secret passage beneath), the st.david church and school. all are situated in the banks of the harbor. the custom house and a few dilapidated bungalows of the company were seen.
the whole area was subsequently bought by EID PARRY COMPANY( now with murugappa group).the buildings have lost their identity. unless one goes to see them with interest. european tourists may like them. they can be renovated like it is being done in tharangambadi.
actually the st.david church has been completely remodeled without any regard for its heritage. the cemetery in the backyard have all been burried under sand. some of the cemeteries date back to 1750. the custom office is now under indian bank occupation. many of the villas are in shambles.
the entire sonagar street is full of old structures. there is an ancient mosque, styled in tanjore chatrams model(1600?), which is also poorly kept(said to be one of the largest in tamilnadu)
these christian-european structures are no less important to us and should be preserved too.
I had lived at Cuddalore for 2 years from 1993 to 1995.Visit the town now and then to have darshan ofPataliswara and Tiruvahendrapuram. Wish to place on record what an old lady of 70 told me there.Lots of high breed horses were killed on the beach of Cuddaloreby British in 1947 so that Indian successors do not use them !!!!!! Also it was said that the underground tunnel mentioned would lead toPondichery and Bharathiyar used it !!!! I have my doubts on this. Regards,S.KarthikVandemataram
quiet possible. but the passage may not be a continuous one but interrupted with overground forest roots. barathiyar could not have used it. he was kept in a prison in the manjakuppam police station.
cuddalore used to have a european aura in the 1970s when i studied there. talking in english in the public places was not uncommon. many anglo-indians also lived there at that time.
the churches and schools in that area were aplenty. the cast based stratification seen today was not obvious then. christianity was popular.
the town was bought by east india company in 1690 from local muslim merchants. then the collector office was shifted to new town in 1850. the old town is very dirty now. but the old buildings in the harbour area are worth seeing.