Madras, now called Chennai, the first city of Tamil Nadu, is comparatively a new city. The erstwhile villages of Mylapore, Triplicane, Ezhambur (Egmore), etc., all now a part of Chennai, have a recorded historical past centuries older than Chennai. Chennai, the present gateway to the South of India, is, however, only about 350 years old. Chennai is ever growing, changing and pulsating with new activities.

The city of today, one of the great metropolitan cities of the world, and the fourth largest city in India, grew from the Fort that Francis Day and his superior Andrew Cogan of East India Company built on a narrow spit of no-man's land that Day's dubash Beri Thimanna negotiated with the local governor of the Vijayangar Empire. The approximately 5-square kilometer sand strip Day was granted has now grown into a city of about 170 sq.kms. with a population of about 6 million.

Chennai was the first British major settlement in India and it was here that many who went on to build the Empire first learnt their trade. As a consequence, the city is replete with much that is of significance in British Indian history. But the much older settlements have stories to tell too, and so the city is an amalgam of ancient and more modern history. Everywhere one goes in Chennai, one can find history written in every name.