Like the cities Venice and Bangkok, Chennai also has three inland waterways. Even though they cut across the residential areas, they serve only to carry the sewage or function as storm water drains. But one locality is named after one of these waterways and that is Adyar.

Adyar is named after the river Adyar. "Aaru" in Tamil means river. The changes that have taken place in Adyar cannot be seen anywhere else. About 50 years back only one bus served that area - route number 5. Today other than route number 5, there are more than 25 buses to reach or pass through Adyar.�

There was a time when one had to foot the distance between Adyar and T. Nagar. The Kotturpuram route was not in existence then. A boat was needed to cross Adyar River from that place, for which an anna was charged. One anna is equal to the six paise of today, and a paise is one hundredth of a rupee. The five paise, ten paise and twenty paise coins are not in circulation nowadays. But in the Chennai Metropolitan buses 20 paise coins are given instead of 25 paise, as balance amount.

Adyar is very famous for its Banyan tree. The vast area occupied by the Banyan tree belongs to the Theosophical Society. It stretches from a bridge at the banks of Adyar River to the Seashore and the Banyan tree is in the centre. There are people who often say that this is the largest Banyan tree in the world. People, who have some doubts about this statement, claim this to be the second largest Banyan tree. Some say that the largest is in Calcutta. Others say it is in Kasi and in Prayag too.

About 10 years ago, a devastating cyclone uprooted this tree. To bring back the tree to its original position, huge cranes were brought to the scene. A vast pit was dug and the tree was kept back in its position. But all these efforts went in vain. The aerial roots of this tree have become well rooted and the entire tree appears like a bunch of several trees. The members of the Theosophical Society assembled underneath this tree as though they were about to decide the destiny of the world on the very same day. The great philosopher J Krishnamurthi has delivered lectures under this Banyan tree. Later he left this Banyan tree and went in search of a Peepul tree. Even though this place was called Adyar for quite a number of years, it has become Annamalipuram now. Adyar has distinct boundaries today. A number of areas in Adyar have different names and individual main roads and crossroads have come into existence.

Ashokamitran
(Translated by Sujatha Pradeep)