By the end of the 17th Century, Madras had become the main commercial town of the English East India Company. The Company’s prime concern was obtaining Indian textiles for the European  markets where they fetched the Company good profits. As the English found the Indian traders of great help in this, they engaged Beri Thimmanna as  their first Chief Merchant.

Thimmanna was succeeded by Kasi Viranna, a merchant, property-owner, judge and tax-farmer operating from Madras. Known in the English records as Casa Verona, he founded the first Indian-owned joint stock company, Cassa Verona & Co. He had extensive mercantile investments and connections with the overseas trading world. He conducted significant trade with the English East India Company.

Viranna was also known as Hasan Khan, as he built the first mosque in the new settlement called Madras. The mosque was built in Black Town in Moors’ Street (now Second Line Beach), but there is no evidence of its existence now. He was a shrewd trader, and knew how to manage the trade with the foreigners. He started his business along with Thimmanna but had more business acumen than him, dealing shrewdly with both the English and the Dutch, as well as the Golconda administration and building his own trading empire. His closeness with Golconda could also be a reason for him to be known as Hasan Khan. Viranna eventually became a major land-owner in Madras. In 1678, the Council granted him the right to pay only half customs on goods at Madras, a privilege he received also from the Golconda Nawab.

Virannna teamed with several merchants to form his joint stock company. He also had his own trading house, a flourishing one. However, his main business was supplying cloth to the Company procured from different sources – but chiefly from south Andhra.

Revenue farming was a system adopted by the English and under it Indians rented land. Thus, Viranna became the renter of Armagaon (Durgarayapatnam) and Kothapatnam (north of Madras), paying the Company 1200 pagodas a year. Though he was not making money from this – in fact, he was losing as he was not able to make that amount through collection from taxes – he remained a renter, since that gave him social status. In fact, the Company was happy with Viranna as he was able to deal with the local Nayaks who troubled the Company. Viranna was so powerful that the Company turned a blind eye to complaints against him. He wielded so much power that one of the severest critics of the Governor, Sir William Langhorne, said (1670), “Sir William rules from within the Fort and Verona from without.”

When Kasi Viranna died early in 1680, he was given a 30-gun salute at his funeral. As his body was being carried to the cremation ground by local Hindus, some Muslims intervened saying that Viranna was a Muslim and therefore should be buried according to their religious rites. As he had been instrumental in building the mosque, he had converted to their religion, they asserted. The Company officials were drawn into the dispute and after a long discussion ruled that he had never changed his religion, though he befriended the Muslim community. His cremation took place according to Hindu rites. He had a daughter, his only child, then just eleven years old. His wife had predeceased him. Though he had married again, the second wife had borne no children. Some elders suggested that she should commit sati. But the Company officials would have nothing of it; it is believed that the Governor himself prevented such a thing happening.

The Company had planned to present a gold medal with a chain to him in appreciation of his services, but since this could not be done during his lifetime, his widow was paid its value.