Glyn Barlow wrote this in 1921, in the inaugural chapter of his ‘Story of Madras’. He was visualizing Chennai as it looked in 1639—the twilight of the township. Chennai, situated on the seashore, sporting one of the finest beaches in the world, Marina has undergone real sea-change since Barlow wrote this. Often called the Gateway to South India, the city spread over 50 sq. miles, pulsates with cultural activities typical of the South and despite being one of the four major cities of the country, has a quiet and relaxed atmosphere about it. Chennai, erstwhile Madras, is the capital of Tamil Nadu. Although the city grew much later, the area had always been historically significant. Two thousand years ago the sage Tiruvalluvar wrote the immortal Tirukkura, an anthology verses containing profound pronouncements on the ways of the world and advice of both practical and moral import, while residing at Mylapore.
St. Thomas, the Apostle, who arrived in India soon after the crucifixion and organized in Kerala one of the earliest Christian communities in the world, died on a hillock near the Chennai airport, well-known as Mount St. Thomas. At Old Mylapore, a part of which is now under the sea, existed a Christian colony and a church in the early centuries of the Christian era. An authentic account of the city's development published by the Corporation of Madras in 1933 says, "To this church it is said that King Alfred the Great of England sent some emissaries about A.D. 883. Subsequently, Persian merchants, who were Nestorian Christians, established a church of their own at the place, built a chapel over the tomb of St. Thomas and a monastery on the top of St. Thomas' Mount. The place was visited by Marco Polo, the famous Venetian traveller, who touched the Madras coast towards the close of the 13th century. But the town decayed later on and its revival was the work of the Portuguese who settled therein in 1522. As the Portuguese were rebuilding the old chapel, they stumbled on the grave of the Apostle, beside which they built a small church which has now grown into the San Thome Cathedral."
Lieut. Colonel H.A. Newell of the Indian Army wrote in Madras, the Birth Place of British India (1919), "At the beginning of the Chrisitian era Mylapore is reputed to have been a large and prosperous city, the capital of a Hindu Raja. Tradition likewise asserts that the sea has since encroached some three miles or so, swallowing up the ancient metropolis. ..
"Material rather than spiritual considerations brought the English to Madras. For them the neighborhood possessed the coveted distinction of producing cheap and excellent muslins and printed calicos. This induced Francis Day, the East India Company's Agent at Armegam, the fortified English factory established in 1628 near Masulipatam in the territory of Golconda, to urge its abandonment in favour of a more advantageous sight further south, offered in 1639, by the Naik of Chingleput. The latter wished to attract trade to his own district, hence the easy terms upon which he proposed to lease the small sea-port town of Madraspatam to the merchants." This was the beginning of the emergence of modern Chennai out of the old Madraspatam. "Madras was a sandy beach where the English began erecting straw huts," says the chronicle of Manucci, an Italian physician who settled in Chennai in 1686. For the founding of the Fort St. George, the head-quarters of the English, two men are to be credited: Francis Day and Andrew Gogan. Today's Chennai can be justly described as a compendium of South India.
The rich artistic and cultural heritage of India is well exposed in Chennai, one of the largest metropolises in the country. Formerly known as Madras, Chennai was once an important urban center and a naval base of the British during colonial rule. One phrase associated with Chennai is that it is named as the "South Gate of India. A tourist will love all of Chennai right from the sightseeing spots, shopping, restaurants, nightlife and more needless to say about the various cultural events in the form of music, dance and theater. The rapid development of the city is a phenomenon. The glitz and glamor of the Tamil film industry called Kollywood is well apparent too. Shopaholics will love the nightlife in Chennai as there are many things in store for them.