Triplicane, Chennai, India

Triplicane is one of the oldest commercial districts in the South Indian city of Chennai. In fact, the costal communities that include Triplicane, along with Thiruvotriyur, Mylapore and Thiruvanmiyur, predate modern Chennai by at least two millennia. Most popular guide books are more likely to mention Mylapore with its outrageously colorful Shiva (Kapaleeswarar) Temple at its heart.

In Chennai, one learns of things by word of mouth. Very little literature that goes into detail about the city’s various neighborhoods and attractions is available. It was through someone my wife works with that we were alerted to the singular charms of Triplicane and the famous Parthasarathy (Arjuna's Charioteer) Swamy Temple the town was originally built around.

Unlike Kapaleeswarar in Mylapore, the Sri Parthasarathy Swamy Temple in Triplicane is dedicated to the (Lord) Vishnu part of the Hindu trinity with an entirely different entourage of deities. The temple itself stands imposing; bright and gleaming under the hot Chennai sun. Unlike Kapaleeswarar, the figures adorning the central tower (gopuram) are not painted as to approximate English garden gnomes.

It is abundantly clear that Vaishnavites (Vishnu worshippers) settled here. Practically every business or dwelling lining the madas (streets) surrounding the temple bears either the name of some avatar of Vishnu or a representation of his three-pronged symbol.

We weren’t so much drawn to Triplicane by the temple however. Next to the Kapaleeswarar Temple in Mylapore, most any temple in the city is visually strictly second rate. What did impress us were the facades along the madas surrounding the Parthasarathy Temple. It’s the Indian version of what any European tour operator would refer to as quaint; referring to crusty old villages with cobblestone streets.

In Asia, the word ‘quaint’ almost never fits properly. Asians, in general, are much too humorless for that. Everything, even the seemingly most insignificant gesture is tightly structured and shaped by ageless tradition. Even ‘humor’ is choreographed as is evident every morning when we take our walk on the beach before breakfast. Invariably, we run across a group of about a dozen grown men sitting in a circle in the sand, facing each other. At predetermined intervals they all laugh heartily for roughly thirty seconds. I was puzzled by this. Later I was told that these men comprise the Thiruvanmiyur chapter of the ‘Laughing Club of Greater Chennai’.

I would be remiss not to point out that Triplicane is also known as Batchelor’s Paradise, offering relatively cheap food and lodging for students studying in the city. As such it has served as home to a number of people who have earned international standing in various fields from mathematics to literature. Hindu School in Triplicane even produced one of India’s Nobel Prize winners (Sir C. V. Raman, physics).

Unlike Mylapore, where Brahminic culture is deeply entrenched to the exclusion of any other influence, Triplicane can also boast of a significant Moslem population. The district is home to two major mosques.

Peter Koelliker; pkoelliker8@yahoo.com