Vivekanandar Illam, earlier known as Ice House or Castle Kernan, is a historical building in

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 ...

. It was constructed in 1842 by

Frederic Tudor Frederic Tudor (September 4, 1783 – February 6, 1864) was an American businessman and merchant. Known as Boston's "Ice King", he was the founder of the Tudor Ice Company and a pioneer of the international ice trade in the early 19th century. H ...

. Indian Saint

Swami Vivekananda Swami Vivekananda () (12 January 1863 – 4 July 1902), born Narendranath Datta, was an Indian Hindus, Hindu monk, philosopher, author, religious teacher, and the chief disciple of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna. Vivekananda was a major figu ...

stayed in the building when he visited Chennai in 1897, and it was later renamed in his honor. It is currently maintained by

Ramakrishna Math Ramakrishna Math is the administrative legal organization of the Ramakrishna Order, of Daśanāmi Sampradaya. It was set up by sanyasin disciples of Ramakrishna Paramhansa headed by Swami Vivekananda at Baranagar Math in Baranagar, a place ne ...

and houses an exhibition on the life of Vivekananda.

History

In 1842,

constructed the building facing the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. Geographically it is positioned between the Indian subcontinent and the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese peninsula, located below the Bengal region. Many South Asian and Southe ...

as a facility to store ice. In 1880, the business collapsed and the building was sold to Biligiri Iyengar, an advocate in the

Madras High Court The High Court of Judicature at Madras is a High Courts of India, High Court located in Chennai, India. It has appellate jurisdiction over the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry. It is one of ...

. Iyengar re-modeled the house and named it Castle Kernan after his friend and judge in

. When

visited Madras in 1897, he stayed in the building between 6 and 14 February 1897. Later,

functioned from the building from 1897 to 1906. In 1914, the building was acquired by the Government of Madras and functioned as a hostel and training school for children run by R. S. Subbalakshmi. In 1963, on the birth Centenary of

, the

Government of Tamil Nadu The Government of Tamil Nadu () is the administrative body responsible for the governance of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Chennai is the capital of the state and houses the state executive, legislature and head of judiciary. Under the Const ...

renamed the building as 'Vivekanandar Illam' meaning 'Vivekananda House' in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

. In 1997, Government of Tamil Nadu leased the building to

, and it currently houses an exhibition on the life of Swami Vivekananda.

References

External links

vivekanandahouse.org, Vivekananda House, ChennaiLonely Planet Review on Vivekananda House
{{Chennai Topics Museums in Chennai Biographical museums in India Memorials to Swami Vivekananda

History

See also

References

External links