Chennai, the first city of the South, and capital of Tamilnadu, has a chequered history dating back to 1639 when Francis Day and Andrew Cogan, agents of the East India Company acquired a Strip of Land granted on lease by the Vijayanagar Emperor. Fort St.George was built in Chennai for setting up a factory as a nucleus around which arose the British settlements. Gradually, but steadily the old tiny village like Triplicane, Egmore, Purasawakkam and Chetpat were clubbed with the new agglomeration of the fast growing Chennapatnam as it was know then.
Chennai, widely known as Madras till 1996, has a rich tradition and civilisation with a blend of the old, and the new, vibrating ceaselessly to keep pace with the rest of India, as the buoyant metropolis of the third most industrialised State.