Speculating on Kathipara

WhatsApp University has no doubts in any respect. It says Kathipara acquired its identify due to the scissor-like method wherein the roads on the clover there minimize throughout one another. The earliest document I can hint of Kathipara is from the Sixties. So clearly, whoever gave the place its identify was prescient.

Kathipara Road exists in district administration manuals of Saidapet and Chengalpattu from the Sixties and so it clearly was a village of that identify. In my view, the identify has one thing to do with the stationing of the East India Company’s garrison at St Thomas Mount although I’m no nearer to explaining the identify that approach.

The total space has lots of streets which have Army connotations — Lashkarkhana (a camp), Asarghana (Afsar Khana or Officer’s Enclave), Butt Road (there was a rifle follow butt right here), Magazine Road, North Parade, and so forth. And the para in Kathipara was most likely pahra — which implies a guard submit. It should not be forgotten that this was after all of the southern border of Madras metropolis for lengthy, separating it from Chengalpattu.

What is ignored is that we now have a Kathbada within the northern finish of our metropolis too. That is in Fort Tondiarpet, simply north of the place the Town Wall as soon as existed. In truth, Kathbada Road very clearly defines its goal. It precisely follows the contour of the city wall, north of Old Jail Road/Ebrahim Sahib Salai and stretches west to east, connecting Buckingham Canal to Washermanpet. In different phrases, it was the northern sure of town, linking two necessary exits from the outdated city — to Kathivakkam and Tiruvottiyur. Both had been outdated villages that the East India Company was very closely invested in.

And so, each the northern and southern extremities of our metropolis had Kathbada/Kathipara. Kathipara had a garrison shut by at St Thomas Mount. Kathbada too had Army presence for some time earlier than the unit moved to Perambur in an space that’s nonetheless generally known as Pattalam or garrison. Sadly for us, relying as we do on modern-day maps, each areas have undergone main transformations.

The northern Kathbada was modified past recognition even within the 1850s when the railway line was laid shut by. The Buckingham Canal got here shortly thereafter and in newer instances, the flyovers have performed havoc with native markers. Even the outdated wall, a major a part of which existed throughout the Stanley campus, has since been demolished leaving simply Madi Poonga. As for Kathipara, it’s the much-needed clover that dominates, leaving the remaining to our creativeness. And then we now have had Chennai Metrorail as properly, one more important addition however which has obliterated lots of earlier markers.

That mentioned, I’m no nearer to explaining what Kathipara or Kathbada stands for. Are they the identical? Even that’s not clear. And whereas pahra could also be defined simply sufficient, Kathi or Kath just isn’t that easy. It appears to be a corruption of a phrase of Urdu or Persian origin. Interestingly, there’s a Kathpara Bazaar in Nowgong in Assam, additionally a military location at one time! And Madhya Pradesh has its Garhpehra — the frontier fort positioned at Sagar. These might have in fact not had something to do with our Kathipara.

While as regards to Kathipara, just a few extra queries – who’s Paul Wells who’s commemorated in a highway in that space? Who is Vembuli Subedar who too has a highway in his honour? And why Seven Wells Road? Like North Madras did Kathipara too have seven wells?

(V. Sriram is a author and historian.)