Darkhast land and the Church of Our Lady of Assumption in Chennai

Each time I write an article or do a video on the history of Madras (that is Chennai), I get knocked on the head with some more information. Last week was no different and I am grateful to those who so generously shared their knowledge.

The first concerns the topic of my last article in this column – the Goddess Nimishamba. Karthik Bhatt, who knows all that there is to know about our city gently steered me to the Census of India 1961, Vol XI D which deals with the temples of Madras State. Running through the names of those who put it together was by itself a delight, for there were hallowed names from the IAS, including my dear friend P. ‘Bob’ Murari, who was then Deputy Superintendent of the Census. And many of the articles in the book undoubtedly bear the stamp of Bob’s writing.

The Sri Nimishambal Ishwari temple says the write up, was built in 1836 or thereabouts. The present claims of the shrine being four centuries old are therefore clearly fake. The builder was Krishnaswamy Raju of whom nothing further is known. He built it on a plot of 3 cents – 1300 sq. feet, off Kasi Chetty Street. In 1884, a Venkatalakshmi Ammal endowed a mandapam. The two shops at the front pay rent to the shrine and help in its maintenance. I was wrong too in assuming that it was one of the Chitrakars who endowed the temple. From the name, Krishnaswamy Raju seems one of the Rajapalayam Rajus.

The second story concerns a YouTube episode that I did on the sights of Madras as seen in the 1977 Tamil film Adu Puli Attam starring actors Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan and Sripriya. Much of it was straightforward - bits of T. Nagar and Mount Road and a nice shot at Fort Station with a clean Cooum flowing by. However, a rather dilapidated church had me baffled. It was as per the film somewhere in Kancheepuram. I left it as a question for viewers and many responded, one of them saying he used Google lens to locate the place. It was the Church of Our Lady of Assumption, Dharkast, Kancheepuram district. With the city now expanding, the area has a Chennai PIN code – 600045.

The church, about which I could find nothing beyond its date of construction being 1894, is happily well-preserved. It has not fallen victim to the craze of modernisation with scant regard to heritage that is sweeping across many others of its kind. And as compared to what I saw in the film, it seems very well kept. But it was the word Dharkast that had me intrigued.

What does ‘Darkhast’ mean?

In Urdu, Darkhast (and not Dharkast) means a petition or request, and in East India Company terms it came to mean, particularly in Madras Presidency, grant by the government of poromboke lands to homeless or downtrodden individuals. Poromboke incidentally has nothing to do with Lord Pembroke as some would have us believe. This Madras cussword is of early Tamil origin, coming from purampokku – land that is outside the bounds of a town or village, and so a commons of some kind.

A scan of court records reveals that Darkhast land grants were always preceded by a request (Darkhast) from a needy individual/institution. It was deemed an absolute sale from the government to the grantee and the latter had to abide by certain conditions – the end usage was specified. And there was a lock-in period too, within which the recipient could not sell.

Chengalpattu, given that it was the vast district of water bodies and fields, seems to have had plenty of Darkhast lands. Interestingly, Chengalpattu was also the pioneering district for Panchami lands. This was the brainchild of JHA Tremenheere, Collector of Chengalpattu in the 1890s. Acting on his advice, the government made over in permanent to Dalits what became known as the Panchami lands. These are inalienable when it comes to sale outside the community.

Not so it would seem the Darkhast lands. The Catholic Church as per records, was a major beneficiary of the scheme. The parcel of land that holds the church of Our Lady of Assumption was one. It is just off the Chennai Outer Ring Road and Darkhast Road leads to it.

A search on the Internet reveals that this is now an area with “an active real estate and rental market offering residential plot and rental properties.” In the 1977 film it was all wilderness, with the church standing rather forlorn. Welcome to Chennai, Our Lady of Assumption. You enjoyed pastoral views for long and will soon trade them in for housing colonies and multistoried buildings.

On the lighter side, it was amusing to see signboards announcing the place as Darkash, Dargah and Darkasthu. But its grace and favour origins were interesting.

(Sriram V. is a writer and historian)