Brodie Castle / Thenral
Isai Kalluri Campus, P.S. Kumaraswami Raja (Greenways) Road
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Several garden houses came up along Greenways Road, which was named after a man who owned a large property on this stretch. Most of these houses had English names such as Bridge House, Grange, Hovingham, Cranleigh and Ardmayle. Some still survive as bungalows currently occupied by ministers and judges, but in their gardens have come up many more government houses. All of them have Tamil names now.
One property which has remained largely unchanged is Brodie Castle, which is today called Thenral. It was built between 1796 and 1798 by James Brodie, an East India Company civil servant who obtained an 11-acre grant to build his mansion. He fell on bad times and rented it out to the Government.
Brodie who was fond of boating on the Adyar river drowned in it in 1801, some say in a boating accident, others call it suicide. The family sold the castle to the Government and it has been Government property ever since. Several judges occupied it over the years. It also served as the official residence of P.S. Kumaraswami Raja (1898-1957) when he was Premier of Madras Province during 1949-1952. The Road is now renamed after him.
In 1956, it became home to the Central College of Carnatic Music which was set up in 1948. Many leading musicians such as Musiri Subramania Iyer, T. Brinda and Tirupamburam Swaminatha Pillai have been on its faculty.
A white, towered and turreted building, Brodie Castle is not in the best of shape today but it still catches your attention.
(Courtesy: KALAMKRIYA)
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