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Forts in Tamil Nadu, India

Author:

Vittal Rao

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Dedication

To

My wife

(Late) Kamala

And to

My dearest friend

R.S.Mani

***

Table of Contents

A note on the translation

Map of India and Tamil Nadu

Introduction

1. Namakkal

2. Omalur

3. Hosur: Baramahal

4. Thenkaraik Kottai

5. Krishnagiri

6. Dengani Kottai

7. Rayak Kottai

8. Jagadevi

9. Virabhadra Durgam

10. Maharajakkadai

11. Angusagiri

12. Sangagiri

13. Athur

14. Thiagadurgam

15. Chengalpattu

16. Vandavasi

17. Sadras

18. Chandragiri

19. Fort St.George

20. Fort St. David

21. Vellore

22. Palakkad

23. Gingee

24. Thirumeyyam

25. Dindigul

26. Danesborg

27. Bangalore

28. Sreerangapattanam

A note on the translation

Imet the author, Vittal Rao, for the first time in 1968 at the Madras Art Club, India where local artists gathered twice a week to share their works. Though I moved to Canada in 1974, our mutual passion for fine arts has maintained our friendship over the years.

Since his childhood, Vittal Rao has been fascinated by forts, and he has taken more than a thousand pictures of them. Due to unfortunate circumstances, many of those images were lost, but thankfully, a selection of photos was preserved. In 2006, he published a Tamil version of this book and presented a few small black and white photographs of forts which did not do justice to his original images.

To bring his work to a wider audience and share his photos in their original glory, I decided to undertake the project of developing an English translation with color images. I would like to thank Mr.Jeyaraman Sundaram of Chennai for preparing the initial rough translation of the book which was then revised and edited by me.

Raghava S. Mani

Cambridge, Ontario, Canada

November 2016

***

Map of India and Tamil Nadu

***

Introduction

Icome from the Deccan Plains.

It gave me the opportunity to appreciate the ever-fresh Nature's display of beauties. I admired the lofty mountains towering into the skies and the gushing rivers draining the glittering waters from the hilltops. It was a placid, serene and unperturbed life!

In contrast, the present-day computer-age average person is always on his toes with inner conflicts and contradictions.

The people of the modern, materialistic world lack humanism and warmth. The examples given below would show their mistaken conviction there can be no happiness in life without material possessions.

What does your boy do?

He works in the States... likely to get the Green Card soon...

Hello, Joy! How is your Pal, man? By the way what about your kid Bradley?

Bradley is in Australia...

Means good lot of money, man.

My neighbor is a truck driver in Dubai for the past twelve years. He visits home once a year. He bought that house when he visited here last. I plead with my son to go there and make real money... But he does not listen to me. He thinks that people who work there could be kidnapped or killed!

Owing to the steady and growing foreign payments, the ideas of life of an ordinary Indian have undergone a dramatic change. There is an unabated inflationary trend in the economy.

For an average person in India, despite the growth in his income, it is hard to meet even the expenses of his essential needs! People believe that for a comfortable future, one must take up some foreign assignment at least for a few years.

A similar trend of thinking prevailed in many of the European Countries back in 18th Century. Like USA, UK, and the Middle East Countries are treasure troves for us now, a few centuries ago, to people of UK, Portugal, and other European Countries, India was the dreamland of hope. They were ready to make any sacrifice to set their feet on Indian soil!

Talent in any field helped them to secure a passage with ease through the East India Company. They were ready to take up even defense service. Their chosen destinations in India were Calcutta or Madras.

For people with no talent or skill, a little craftiness or artfulness helped to have their dreams of getting a passage to India! Involvement in criminal actions in their land helped them get a court order of deportation to the Eastern countries!

In those days, the West feared the Eastern countries for their hostile climate, strange religious faiths, unfamiliar languages, rigid cultural practices, and unhealthy conditions. Some of those deported contracted deadly diseases like plague, pox, and cholera in their East- ern destinations. Others survived.

The sporadic clashes, aggressions, and hostilities among the British, French and the Nawabs, Sultans and Nizams in the Deccan Plains of India created continual tension and suspense in those parts of India. It was like the insecurity and threats the British and the Americans face in Afghanistan and Iraq in the recent times.

Despite such an explosive state of affairs, the British did not lose the faith of a promising future for them in India! Driven by this belief and greed, many visited India. Some of them made a fortune and returned home.

By 1770, the British started stabilizing themselves in India. The East India Company posted many of their civil and military personnel here in various ranks and positions. They housed their employees in stately mansions with every imaginable luxury.

To improve further the living in their sprawling mansions, they looked up for decorative artwork revealing the marvels of India. This insatiable craving resulted in an influx of British artists – both professionals and amateurs - into India.

A new trend was also emerging. The age-old views of the British on architecture and landscapes portrayal were undergoing changes. The basic ideas about beauty were questioned. The intellectuals and educationalists were probing into the different characteristics of foreign arts and culture. They made efforts to redefine beauty. Words and expressions listing various degrees of vision – such as Sublime, Exotic, Romantic, and Picturesque – became the topics for debates and deliberations.

Around this period, artists in Britain suffered a severe setback. Their living standards slid down to a new low because of lack of business opportunities. Those returned from India spread the news that great potential awaited them in India.

To the patrons of art of Europe, the architectural features of buildings, temples, palaces, forts, and landscapes of the Eastern countries were unfamiliar. They had little exposure to the Eastern ideas. Those new exposures not only helped them to have fresh themes but also bright hopes for survival to those distressed European professional artists.

The four Mysore battles, and the names of the two heroes, Tippu Sultan, and Hyder Ali fascinated the Europeans. They craved for more details about the developments in India, especially in the South. It surged the interest in India among the British and French artists.

There were no cameras. So, the British welcomed the verbal accounts, and the sketches carried back by the people returning from India. The artists who visited India stayed here for many years, traveled covering every site of historical and cultural importance. They made sketches of whatever attracted them and went back home with loads of drawings and data collected here. Back at home, they converted the drawn sketches into prints using a variant etching printmaking technique. Selling these as individual prints, or in a book form, they made a real fortune.

People who could not travel to India, but had a strong wish to know about the country, bought those prints at any cost.

William Hodges was the first British artist to visit India with a plan to make a fortune here. He landed in Chennai in 1780. He did not travel or sketched much in South India. His health was poor. He could not travel because of frequent clashes of the British with Tipu Sultan and Hyder Ali. He remained almost in seclusion within Fort St. George in Chennai for a year and left for Calcutta in 1781. There he drew several sketches of Indian scenes. On returning to London, he converted those sketches into prints using a unique printmaking technique known as the Aquatints During 1785-88, he published those color prints, 48 in number, as an art book titled Select views of India.

Aquatint received its name for the effect it creates, which resembles ink or watercolor washes. The printmakers employed it to achieve a broad range of tonal values. It is an Intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching. This method uses a specially prepared copper plate with an evenly and detailed pitted surface that yields broad areas of tone when printed. One can achieve an infinite number of shades of colors by exposing, in succession, various parts of the plate to acid-baths of different strengths, for a varied duration. This technique used nitric acid to etch the plate,

The artists apply a ground (wax) that resists acid from reacting on the plate. They incise the outlines of the image on the prepared ground with special tools. When dipped in acid, the acid bites the plate only where the ground is cut, leaving other parts untouched. When passed through a printing press, the variously etched and inked plate transfers the image to paper. Different color inks were used to create the final image.

The next print-image album published in London was. The areas around Mysore war front and hill-forts. The artists were British Army personnel who served in the Mysore war fronts.

Robert Home, another artist, attracted the attention of many. He was the approved artist of the East India Company. In 1791 war against Tippu Sultan, he accompanied the British forces, commanded by Gen. Cornwallis. In 1794, he published the drawings he made during the war preparations as a book titled. Select views of Mysore.

Two more publications were brought out during 1793-94. One was by Lt. Col. Brooke titled 12 Select places in the kingdom of Mysore and the second was by Captain A. Allen titled. Scenes of Mysore. Though the contents were only a few, they showered light on the real state of affairs in South India during those years. Besides, they were the first depictions of the most alive and ever-turbulent Mysore Wars of the South India scenes.

Lt. James Hunter was yet another British Army personnel who was also a talented amateur artist. He took part in the third Mysore battle under the command of Gen. Cornwallis. He drew many watercolor drawings depicting the war scenes of the battle fought against Tippu Sultan. After his death in 1792, his pictures were published in London around 1804-05 as a book titled. Picturesque scenery in the kingdom of Mysore.

Charles Gold was a Captain in the Royal Artillery Division toward the end of 18th Century. He was an amateur artist. His drawings, covering the areas around Chennai, were published in 1806 titled Oriental Drawings: Sketches between 1791 and 1798. One of those sketches, a masterpiece, was a color painting depicting the famous palace Lal Mahal of Tipu Sultan at Srirangappattinam. It shows Tipu and his retinue standing in front of it. It has a great historical value because the 'Lal Mahal' does not exist now on the Sreerangapattanam fort property. When Sreerangapattanam fell in 1799, this palace was vandalized.

The Daniells – Thomas Daniell and William Daniell – unlike their contemporary British artists of the 18th Century, traveled extensively across India, covering the well-known as well as the little-known sites to expose the hidden heritage wealth. William was the nephew of Thomas. Not only have they made a variety of paintings – oil color, watercolor, Aquatint prints – they have also made a daily record of their travel experiences. Their Aquatint prints were useful for me to write this book. In my travel expeditions, I mostly followed their footsteps.

Born in 1749, Thomas Daniell learned about colors and varnishes when he served as an apprentice under Maxwell, a coach-maker. His professional relationship with Charles Cotton, who was a coach-maintainer for George III, helped him with an opportunity in 1972 to display his sketch of a flower in the Royal Academy Exhibition.

Thomas Daniell was one of the pioneers in Aquatint technique of image-printing. When the two Daniells undertook the trip to India, Thomas was 36 years old and William was just 16. With the permission of the East India Company, they arrived in Calcutta in 1786 via Quantan city in China.

The Daniells met all their expenses in India through sketching and sale of pictures of natural sceneries, portraits of people, and by refurbishing old paintings and other artworks. They entered all their daily life in their tour diaries. From those entries, we learn that they used Camera Obscura, a predecessor to the first-made camera, in their South Indian tours.

It was a closed box, with a pinhole, lenses, and mirrors. Through these, the scene in front would be projected on a paper and traced. It was invented in 16th Century. In Latin, it means darkened room. Only wealthy professional artists used this instrument. Indian artists did not have this device. Camera Lucida was an advanced version of Camera Obscura.

The Banyan trees thrilled the Daniells. They made many sketches of these trees. However, they could not distinguish between the Banyan and Peepal trees! Some of their sketches mistakenly show people worshipping the Nagar idols (Idols of snakes), arranged on a pedestal under a Banyan tree. It should be Peepal according to Hindu religious conventions.

On completion of their visits to Calcutta, Agra and Delhi, the Daniells, planned to travel in South India. To meet the travel expenses, they floated a novel lottery prize scheme in Calcutta. As prizes for the winners in the lottery, they offered their artworks completed during their North Indian tour. Thus, they collected an enormous sum for their South Indian tour. On March 10, 1792, they left Calcutta for Madaraspattinam by Sea.

The Daniells took a team of 47 members during their South Indian tour. They carried two light-weight drawing tables and a distance-measuring device consisting of a big wheel attached to a rod.

When visiting hill-forts, they traveled in palanquins. A team of eleven Indian palanquin bearers worked in turns. Two horses, a well-experienced groom for the upkeep of the horses, three bullocks, a cart and four cart-drivers transported the luggage consisting of tent materials, provisions, and other items. Seven porters carried the utensils and the provisions. Four men took the drawing tables and the sleeping cots of the artists. A person to maintain the tour accounts, a cook, an interpreter to communicate with the locals, two peons and an armed guard were also in the team. There was also a Muslim boy and a Portuguese national in the team.

The London news media used to carry interesting reports about the frequent wars between the British and Tippu Sultan. They described the features of the mountain fortresses which were the real heroes of those wars!

The Daniells drew these fortresses from different angles. It took seven long years for the Daniells to complete their Pan-India tour. Their contributions to the history and art were great. They dwarfed all others in this field.

The people of Europe and other countries benefited through Daniells' works. They provided a clear and real perspective of India! The panoramic views of the mountain fortresses of Dharmapuri, Salem, Hosur and Krishnagiri areas and of the sprawling plains there, turned these two artists ecstatic! William Daniell writes in his diary:

Specifically, during sunrise, the view of the distant hills is a visual feast to the observers. It enchants and enslaves the viewers. The broad raising hills with the majestic fortress standing on it embrace the young warm sun rays and spill them evenly over the surrounding plains below – what a serene and tranquil scene!

The Daniells next visited the Trichy Rockfort and drew sketches from four different angles. By the end of March 1792, they visited Madurai. They made three drawings of Thirumalai Naicker Palace. Within the Madurai Fort, in front of Naicker Mahal, there was an exquisite building, with features of a Mandapa (Hall). With a long flight of footsteps leading to its entrance, it stood majestically. It does not exist now. Fortunately, the Daniells made the Aquatint prints of this Mandapa, and it now lives on print forever!

Their itinerary included Courtallam, Kanyakumari, Rameswaram, and Thanjavur. They sketched in all these places and left for Madras by