Place · city

Chennai

Also known as Madras

Chennai, formerly Madras, is the capital of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, on the Coromandel Coast. It grew around Fort St George, founded by the English East India Company in 1639–1640, and became the seat of the Madras Presidency, one of the three great presidencies of British India. Its army and fleet took part in British campaigns across the Indian Ocean and beyond. The city was officially renamed Chennai in 1996.

Chennai
Image: jamal haider from india · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 5 profiles

Kingdom of MagadhaFoundationPala EmpireFoundationVijayanagara EmpireImpact, SummaryKingdom of Mysore (1399-1799)MilitaryBritish RajSocioeconomy, Governance

Mentioned in 7 state histories

Dutch CoromandelDutch CeylonMadras PresidencyBanganapalle StateBhavnagar StateBritish occupation of ManilaTravancore-Cochin

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Chennai. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/chennai
MLA
“Chennai.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/chennai. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Chennai.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/chennai.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Chennai’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/chennai (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻