Heritage & History

Madras 1639: The Grant Behind Chennai’s 22 August Madras Day

Madras Day marks the 1639 grant of Madraspatnam to the East India Company. Here is what the grant was, why the date is disputed, and how the day began.

19 October 2026

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Updated 2026-10-29, 2:05 AM

Madras Day is marked on 22 August because that is the date, in 1639, commonly given for the East India Company’s acquisition of the coastal strip called Madraspatnam from the local Nayak ruler, the land on which Fort St George was later built. In 2026 that makes the city 387 years old by this reckoning, though historians still argue about whether the date should be July.

Here is what the 1639 grant actually was, why there is a dispute over the day, and how a date in an old copy of a deed became a city festival.

What the grant was

In 1639, Francis Day, an East India Company servant, and Andrew Cogan, the Company’s first Agent at Madras, secured permission from Damarla Venkatadri Nayak, a local chief under the Vijayanagara rulers then based at Chandragiri, to settle on the coast and build a fort. Different accounts name the Nayak slightly differently: Citizen Matters calls him Damarla Venkatapathy, Nayak of Vandavasi.

The document is often called a firman, but the historian Sriram V has argued that a Nayak had no right to issue one, since that was the emperor’s prerogative. More importantly, no original survives. The Nayak’s version, probably in Telugu, is lost. What exist are copies dated 1690, 1695 and 1751, discussed in H.D. Love’s Vestiges of Old Madras (1913). Sriram V also notes that the grant refers to an existing settlement called Madraspatnam, so the British did not found a village from nothing; they acquired one.

Why 22 August, and the July question

Here is where it gets interesting. According to Sriram V’s reading of Love, all three surviving copies date the grant to 22 July 1639, and Francis Day’s covering letter is dated 27 July. Love’s footnote says Day reached Madras from Armagaon only on 27 July, which raises the possibility that the grant was arranged before he arrived, perhaps by the interpreter Beri Thimmappa.

The organisers of Madras Day settled on 22 August as the generally accepted date of the deal. Their official site says the city’s founding day is said to be 22 August 1639, when the Company is believed to have struck the deal with the Nayak rulers for the land where Fort St George stands, crediting Day, Thimmappa and Cogan. Citizen Matters calls 22 August reasonably established. The honest summary: 22 August is the convention, and July has a documentary case.

From grant to Fort to city

1639: grant for Madraspatnam.
1640: foundations of Fort St George laid, a year after the acquisition.
1805: Governor Lord William Bentinck pooled the Presidency’s scattered records under a Record Keeper; until then papers were kept in Fort House, as the Tamil Nadu Archives records.
1906: a government order renamed the old Black Town north of the Fort as George Town, according to the Archives.
1909: the Madras Record Office opened at Egmore to hold the Presidency’s papers.

Anyone who wants to see the earliest records of the settlement can apply to the Tamil Nadu Archives at Egmore, which holds Company-era material, under its rules for researchers.

How Madras Day began

The first big public celebration of the city’s age after Independence came in 1989, for the 350th anniversary, when the Madras 350 monument was unveiled. The present Madras Day began in 2004, when journalist Vincent D’Souza took the idea to journalist Sashi Nair, and the two brought in historian S. Muthiah. Five events were held that first year.

The idea was to get the city talking about its past and present, not to stage an official function, and for years government departments stayed out of it. It has since grown into Madras Week, and often a full month, run with no single organiser. Schools, colleges, residents’ associations, clubs, radio stations, hotels and tourism bodies host heritage walks, talks, quizzes, food festivals and bike rides. Anyone can list an event; that open format is the whole idea. In 2006, for instance, the programme ran from 20 to 27 August. If you want to take part, the simplest route is to host something small in your own neighbourhood, such as a walk, a talk or an old photograph display, and list it with the organisers in July.

Quick answers

Why is Madras Day on 22 August?

It marks the date generally given for the 1639 grant of Madraspatnam to the East India Company, though surviving copies of the grant are dated 22 July.

Who gave the land?

Damarla Venkatadri Nayak, a local chief under the Vijayanagara rulers, to Francis Day and Andrew Cogan of the Company.

When did Madras Day celebrations start?

In 2004, started by S. Muthiah, Sashi Nair and Vincent D’Souza.

How old is Chennai in 2026?

387 years, counting from 1639.

Information checked against official sources on 18 October 2026. Fees, dates and rules can change; confirm on the linked official pages before acting.