Rajaji Hall, previously known as the Banqueting Hall, Madras, is a public hall in the city of

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

used for social functions. The hall was built by

John Goldingham John Goldingham (1767 - July 1849) was the first official astronomer of the Madras Observatory, appointed in 1802. Goldingham was also an architect and surveyor who headed the Madras Survey School which later grew into the Guindy Engineering Col ...

to commemorate the British victory over

Tipu Sultan Tipu Sultan (, , ''Sultan Fateh Ali Sahab Tipu''; 1 December 1751 – 4 May 1799) commonly referred to as Sher-e-Mysore or "Tiger of Mysore", was a ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore based in South India. He was a pioneer of rocket artillery ...

in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War.

History

The Banqueting Hall was constructed between 1800 and 1802 by

, an astronomer and engineer with the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

. Srinivasachari, p 202 The building was commissioned by Edward Clive, the then Governor of Madras, who envisaged the hall to be an extension of the Government House which was being renovated that year. Srinivasachari, p 203 The hall was built to commemorate the company's victory over

in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War and designed to be a venue for social functions. The construction of the hall cost about two and a half lakh rupees. The building was opened with a grand ball on 7 October 1802. From 1875 onwards, the hall was extensively renovated and expanded. In 1895, a colonnaded terrace was constructed and a verandah was built around it. The convocations of the

University of Madras The University of Madras is a public university, public State university (India), state university in Chennai (Madras), Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and most prominent universities in India, incorporated by an ...

were held in the Banqueting Hall from 1857 till 1879 when the Senate House was constructed. Srinivasachari, p 327 During 27 January 1938 – 26 October 1939, the

legislature A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial power ...

of the

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency or Madras Province, officially called the Presidency of Fort St. George until 1937, was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India and later the Dominion of India. At its greatest extent, the presidency i ...

met here. The hall was renamed as "Rajaji Hall" after

India's independence The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events in South Asia with the ultimate aim of ending British colonial rule. It lasted until 1947, when the Indian Independence Act 1947 was passed. The first nationalistic movement t ...

(in honour of C. Rajagopalachari). The mortal remains of important political leaders lay in state in Rajaji Hall before their funeral. At present, it houses the offices of the Tamil Nadu State Raffle. The Government House and Gandhi Illam were demolished during the construction of a new Tamil Nadu legislative assembly-secretariat complex between 2008 and 2010, apparently causing irreparable damage to the hall's foundations.

Structure

Rajaji Hall was built in the form of a

Greek temple Greek temples (, semantically distinct from Latin , " temple") were structures built to house deity statues within Greek sanctuaries in ancient Greek religion. The temple interiors did not serve as meeting places, since the sacrifices and ritu ...

and is believed to have been modelled after the

Parthenon The Parthenon (; ; ) is a former Ancient Greek temple, temple on the Acropolis of Athens, Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the Greek gods, goddess Athena. Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of c ...

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

. It is built on a basement of arched cellars and store rooms and is surrounded by a colonnaded terrace. The exterior of the hall is constructed in the 16th-century Italian Manneristic style. The building is 120 feet long, 65 feet wide and 40 feet high and is enclosed by a gallery which had portraits of popular

Anglo-Indian Anglo-Indian people are a distinct minority group, minority community of mixed-race British and Indian ancestry. During the colonial period, their ancestry was defined as British paternal and Indian maternal heritage; post-independence, "Angl ...

leaders and administrators including Edward Clive, Richard Wellesley, Sir Eyre Coote, Srinivasachari, Introduction, pp xxxvii-xxxviii Sir Thomas Munro, Lord Hobart and Lord Harris and British monarchs

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...

and Queen Charlotte. The southern end is connected to the Government House by an array of steps. Sten Nilsson describes the hall as resembling "a ''Heroum'', a neo-classical temple for hero worship".

Notes

References

* {{coord, 13.069378, 80.274916, display=title Buildings and structures in Chennai City and town halls in India Memorials to C. Rajagopalachari