Chennai’s ‘pets’ will soon officially be ‘pettais’

CHENNAI: On a day when actor Rajinikanth’s ‘Petta’ hit the cinemas, the Chennai district administration convened a crucial meeting to change the name of areas with the suffix ‘pet’ to ‘pettai’ soon. The move is part of the state’s plan to rename towns and streets across Tamil Nadu which are in English to Tamil.




Thursday’s meeting, chaired by Chennai collector A Shanmuga Sundram, was a discussion with officials of the Tamil development department on renaming different localities. According to official sources, 18 places in the city have been identified for the purpose. The list includes Ayanavaram, Egmore, T Nagar, Triplicane, Chindatripet, Jalladianpet, Saidapet and Tondiarpet. “Among them, the suffix of the last four places ending with ‘pet’ would be changed to ‘pettai’. The district collector has suggested the Tamil development department official make certain corrections,” an official told TOI.

While Ayanavaram would be rechristened with its Tamil equivalent Ayanpuram, Egmore would be called Azhumbur, Triplicane would be Tiruvallikkeni and T Nagar would be expanded to Thyagaraya Nagar.

The Tamil development department has constituted a high-level committee to examine suggestions from Tamil scholars in renaming towns and streets in 32 districts. District collectors are to shortlist these suggestions and submit it to the committee.

Former archaeology officer with the state’s archaeology department C Santhalingam, who had conducted detailed research on the historical geography of Thondaimandalam region, said ‘pettai’ emerged only after the Vijayanagara rule in Tamil Nadu. “The history of ‘pettai’ date backs to 1600 AD. ‘Pettai’ is a market place, where small traders and skilled professionals from different regions settled down for business purpose,” he said.

Though areas ending with ‘pettai’ are seen across the state, it is more concentrated in Chennai and its peripheries, he added. “In fact, pettai (was indicative of) cosmopolitan localities in those days,” Santhalingam said.

Saidapet was originally called Sayyid Khan Pettah, named after Sayyid Khan, an army commander under the rule of the Nawabs of Carnatic. Though the place is spelt ‘Saidapet’ in English, it is ‘Saidapettai’ in Tamil and the case is similar for Chindatripet and Tondiarpet.

Novelist R Venkatesh said Chindatripet can be broken down to ‘Chinna thari pettai’, an area of looms. “The locality was developed by the British to procure cloth for export. People from various places were brought (here) and settled down in the locality about 300 years ago,” he said.