Tributes to Tara Murali

In the passing of Tara Murali, noted architect, the city of Madras that is Chennai has lost a champion of heritage and culture. Madras Musings mourns the passing of this feisty personality who was a Director on the board of Chennai Heritage between 1999 and 2007. Her residence was the Madras Musings office and it was she and her staff that attended to all paper work the was required in the backend of running a magazine. Those were very crucial years when the cause of built heritage in this city seemed hopelessly lost. It was people like Tara who kept hope alive and fought on relentlessly.

Tara with S. Muthiah at the silver jubilee celebrations of Madras Musings.

Built heritage in this city has never had it so good as in the present. Just last week, the Government announced that it was taking up for restoration via the PWD’s conservation cell, the power house in the harbour and the University Examination Hall (Tholkappiyar Campus) on the Marina. It seemed an apt tribute to Tara who passed away the same day. In her lifetime, she had more to deal with announcements regarding demolition of heritage buildings. That the situation had changed so dramatically owes much to crusaders like her. Just to place on record, there are at present at least seven to eight major heritage structures that have been restored and an equal number that are in the process of being conserved.

The decades between 1980 and 2010 were certainly very dark for built heritage. There was a feeling in Government circles that colonial buildings were reminders of a period of subjugation. There is no doubt they were, but what was conveniently forgotten was that these were built by local artisans using indigenous techniques and both were on the verge of extinction. That these buildings witnessed several episodes in India’s freedom struggle and growth was also overlooked. The city therefore lost a considerable number of its architectural treasures.

Tara led the battle to change such attitudes from the front. In the beginning it was representation and later it shifted to litigation. I always suspected that Tara enjoyed the thrust and parry of the latter more than the niceties of the former. Through the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, she challenged many demolition notices in court. In some the verdict was favourable, in most it was not. But this certainly did not deter Tara. Eventually, it was this relentless pursuit of protection for heritage buildings that brought about a turnaround. When the demolition of Gokhale Hall and Bharat Insurance Buildings were challenged, the judgement not only stopped demolition but also brought forth a list of 468 heritage buildings in the city whose future it decreed had to be brought under a heritage conservation committee. That the Government emasculated that committee even at inception is a different matter.

While most of us accepted this as yet another indication of the way bureaucracy worked, not so Tara. I was personally witness to a meeting at Fort St George with the IAS officer in charge of Town Planning where she made her disappointment very clear. She also railed at the manner in which Government then was going about heritage conservation – it was then arguing based on a judgement of the High Court of Madras that only the facades of historic edifices need preservation. It is an instance of Tara’s fair-mindedness that when the same Government began a conservation cell within the PWD, she was all appreciation of the effort, and also felt that INTACH ought to conduct courses for them.

Tara also played an important role as a member of the Consumer Action Group in preventing the wholesale destruction of Adyar Creek. The matter went to court and eventually, a committee was appointed to make sure that around 300 acres of wetland was preserved. Tara was not wholly happy with the way this was finally implemented, but she rejoiced in that the area was protected and later, as Tholkappiyar Poonga, became a place where children could take nature walks. She also worked on the saving of Palani Hills ecology.

A firm believer in getting children involved and made aware of heritage, she made sure INTACH conducted programmes for them. Also, realising that Madras had enough heritage of its own, she got INTACH Delhi to bifurcate INTACH in Tamil Nadu into two – a Chennai and a TN chapter.

Despite being born into an affluent family and marrying into one of the foremost clans of Madras, Tara retained her simplicity. Dressed always in simple and elegant cottons, within minimal jewellery, Tara was a presence. She could hold her own in conversations on several topics, ranging from sports, to politics. She was particularly fond of tennis and badminton. In Carnatic Music, given that she was the daughter of Sulochana Pattabhiraman and the sister of P. Vasanthkumar, her knowledge was deep and she retained an interest in it till the end. A fitting tribute to her design skills and her interest in music is the ACJ M.S. Subbulakshmi Auditorium in Taramani, which she planned and executed with Kalpana Balaji. It remains the only mic-less venue for music in the city.

That Tara was a very confident car driver was made manifest to me when I first met her. We were to go to the Armenian Church, where the head of that order was coming to consecrate it post restoration. She asked me to come to her house and there, I was asked to get into the rear seat. Tara drove the car while the chauffeur sat in the passenger seat and once we reached Town, she asked him to take over for parking! Tara was like that. Most unpredictable. But loads of fun. She was a fund of funny stories of dealing with Government officials on matters concerning heritage. And she also could take jokes made on her, laughing wholeheartedly. And she was warm-hearted and affectionate. It was no wonder that in the thirty years I knew her, she was always Tara to me, and I addressed her in the singular in Tamil.

Till the end, despite a ­debilitating illness, Tara remain au-courant with all matters that interested her. She communicated via whatsapp with friends ­almost till the last week of her life.

Buildings and Precincts in Chennai that Tara fought for:

Bentinck’s Buildings
DGP Building on the Marina
Queen Mary’s College
Old Madras Club building (Express Estates)
University Senate House
Government House and its adjunct buildings
Royapuram Railway Station
Adyar Creek
Gokhale Hall
Bharat Insurance Buildings
P Orr & Sons annexe

In addition as part of INTACH, she advised on the restoration of the High Court of Madras and its buildings (see extract below). Together with N.L. Rajah, Senior Advocate, she also wrote a book on the architecture of the High Court titled Iconic Splendour, it was released to commemorate 150 years of the building.