Water tanks in 19th century Madras

Aerial view of Kapaleeswarar Karpagambal temple tank in Mylapore, Chennai | Photo credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam

Summer is coming and thoughts automatically turn to water. If you belong to the age group that lived through the terrible water shortages of the 70s and 80s in the city of Chennai, you may be scarred for life. After that, the scars were caused by floods. The transformation of Madras into Chennai is also reflected in our water history.

These days, whenever it floods, we see articles about how many of the city’s natural reservoirs have disappeared. Such lists usually begin with the Mylapore Long Tank and most of these details are well known. In his memoir Chinnanati Muccatlu, KN Kesari recalls how in the 1880s many of the well-to-do towns used to get drinking water from the Villivakkam tank delivered through carts to their households. Once spread over 219 acres, it is now a tenth of that size. Not so well known or documented are reservoirs – smaller bodies of water, several artificial. Those attached to the temples survived, but not so much the others.

It is in this connection that it is interesting to read that when the Madras Corporation, under the JA Jones scheme, began to supply water pipes to localities (rather than homes, which happened later), they made use of available reservoirs in addition to building storage tanks at various locations. Such a list survives in the Madras Municipal Administrative Report 1875-1876. A digital version is available for download if you enter this title. Before proceeding to the enumeration, I must add that the Corporation had a tradition of administrative reports from the 19th century to the 1990s. These are excellent records of the annual performance of the town body and many of the later ones are available in the Ripon Building Archives. A few older ones survive as digital copies on the Internet.

But back to the list – there are 21 tanks in it. Of these, those attached to temples can easily be identified, although their condition is highly variable. So those at Kapaliswarar, Parthasarathy and Gangadiswarar temples are all well maintained but the same cannot be said about Kachaliswarar, Ekambareswarar or Thiruvateeswarar and Chithra Kulam temples. However, what requires closer study are the others listed. The Krishnappa Naicken tank, located in the square of the same name in George Town, has almost survived. It was news to me that there is a tank next to the mosque on Angappa Naicken Street, of which there is no trace. But it is there in the list, like Pallivasal Cistern, Ungappa Naick Street.

The army clearly needed its water supply, so we had two regimental tanks, one at Perambur on the left flank lines (how interesting in today’s context) and the other at Rundall’s Road, Vepery. Now they cannot be found. Marshall’s Road Tank drew a smile of recognition. It became the Police Line and, in the early 1920s, a sports facility for the force. In the 1970s, the site was converted into the Rajarathinam Stadium. Likewise, the museum reservoir was filled in to build, I forget, either the Connemara Public Library or the Victoria Memorial Hall (now the Art Gallery). The Chepauk Tank in the Chepauk Compound was no doubt the pond given by the Government to the Madras Cricket Club when it returned from a stay elsewhere after its older land was taken for the Buckingham Canal. If so, Chepauk’s stadium now stands on it. That today’s playground was once a pond is documented in S. Muthiah’s book The Spirit of Chepauk.

The Peddu Naicken tank on the street of the same name is where the Sivagnanam park, the first to be named after an Indian who arrived at the end of the 19th century. It is named after Prime Minister Dewan Bahadur Sivagnana Mudaliar, a member of the Justice Party and a councilor of the society for decades. The Elephant Tank in Triplicane is recognizable by its name but is now a thriving residential area with no watercourse. The remaining tanks seem to have disappeared without leaving behind a single wreckage. For example, what do we know about the Avadhanam Paupier tank on the road of the same name in Purasawalkam. Or for that matter Balakrishnapathy Street Tank in Chintadripet?

Which brings us to the end of the list. There are several conclusions to be drawn – first, even in 1800 the aquifers supplying these reservoirs did not have the capacity to fill them. The company was thus able to use the volume it had available for its piped water. Secondly, the civic association was clearly working on a system of linking these reservoirs, a scheme that was later unfortunately abandoned. Finally, getting rid of water bodies and using the space for real estate is an ancient practice in our city.

(Sriram V. is a writer and historian)

Published – 20 May 2026 07:00 IST