While waiting at a traffic light, this signboard caught my attention. Panpet is in Saidapet. The name is mutilated beyond recognition from its original Fanepet but it serves as a reminder of when Chengalpattu was one of the most important districts of the Madras Presidency.
To the East India Company, while Madras was the administrative capital, neighbouring, or more aptly surrounding, Chengalpattu was important as a source of revenue. Obtaining the rights to the jaghir of Chingleput was one of the key objectives of every early Governor of Madras. The region was full of waterbodies and therefore fertile.
Farming there was seen as the most lucrative activity. Unfortunately, the incessant wars of the 17th Century had rendered much of that area barren, but this could be rectified with some careful management. Approval from Nawab The Company saw its dream come true by the 1750s, though it took until 1788 when the necessary approval from the Nawab of Arcot, the Nizam at Golconda, and the Mughal Emperor in Delhi could be obtained.
The jaghir comprised the districts of Chennai/Madras, Kancheepuram, Vellore, Tiruvallur, and Tiruvannamalai districts. Thereafter with the city of Chennai becoming an administrative entity of its own, Chengalpattu district came to be divided into ten taluks — Karunguzhi, Uthiramerur, Kanchipuram, Manimangalam, Chengalpattu, Tirupporur, Saidapet, Poonamalle, Peddapalayam and Sathiyavedu, and Nayar. Karunguzhi was the district headquarters except for a per.