Madras

This coloured lithograph showing a boat nearing the rough shores of Madras was drawn by Leighton and later engraved by William Frederick Measom (active. 1840-1876) in the 19th century.

In 1639, a British trading corporation was granted permission to establish a factory on a three-mile-long stretch of the shore on the Coromandel. The Nayakas, feudatory rulers of the region under the Vijayanagara kings, gave it to them in the form of a grant. This land was christened Madraspatnam for its owners, the Madre or Madeiros, a prominent Portuguese family of San Thome.

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