Tamil Nadu’s Only Dutch Fort – Sadras

This historic Dutch fort, 70km south of Chennai, on the Coromandel Coast, has now been reduced to ruins. Well, when we say ruins, even whatever is left of the ruins is covered in moss. All the same, it is worth a day’s visit. Especially, if you plan to visit Mahabalipuram, which is about 18km away. Kalpakkam, which has a centre for atomic research, is only 2km from Sadras.

The weaver’s settlement that was taken over in 1612 by the Dutch East India Company and had a fort built around it, encloses the ruins of a weaver’s work area, their settlement, a granary and an elephant mount.

The Archaeological Survey of India has unearthed many items from the premises of the 400-year-old fort, which was identified as late as 1991. A dyeing wall for muslin cloth, remnants of things used by the Dutch – wine bottles, smoking pipes and ovens – and floor tiles were among the lot. The area also has a laid-out drainage system and a low well.

The city of Sadras was named Rajanarayanan Pattinam, after a Sambuvarayar chief – they were a Chola feudatory. The Vijayanagara kings called it Sadiravasagan Pattinam, which later changed to Sadurangapattinam, and subsequently, Sadirai. No prizes for saying that the British anglicised the name to Sadras! As a port, it flourished in trade, and the main product here was muslin cloth. A weaver’s town, the Dutch found it much useful in their trade, almost 200 years before the English invasion. And blame the English for destroying the fort – they razed it in 1818.

The famous Battle of Sadras, between the British and the French, was fought here in February 1782. You can see a Dutch cemetery for soldiers, within the fort. There are two cannons outside one of the gates, a reminder of the fort’s and the city’s past.