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WhatsApp University believes whatsoever. It states Kathipara got its name since of the scissor-like way in which the roadways on the clover there crossed each other. The earliest record I can trace of Kathipara is from the 1960s. Plainly, whoever offered the location its name was prescient.
Kathipara Road exists in district administration handbooks of Saidapet and Chengalpattu from the 1960s therefore it plainly was a town of that name. In my view, the name has something to do with the stationing of the East India Company’s fort at St Thomas Mount though I am no closer to discussing the name that method.
The whole location has a great deal of streets that have Army undertones– Lashkarkhana (a camp), Asarghana (Afsar Khana or Officer’s Enclave), Butt Road (there was a rifle practice butt here), Magazine Road, North Parade, and so on. And the para in Kathipara was most likely pahra– which suggests a guard post. It should not be forgotten that this wanted all the southern border of Madras city for long, separating it from Chengalpattu.
What is neglected is that we have a Kathbada in the northern end of our city too. That remains in Fort Tondiarpet, simply north of where the Town Wall when existed. Kathbada Road extremely plainly specifies its function. It precisely follows the shape of the town wall, north of Old Jail Road/Ebrahim Sahib Salai and extends west to east, linking Buckingham Canal to Washermanpet. To put it simply, it was the northern bound of the city, connecting 2 crucial exits from the old town– to Kathivakkam and Tiruvottiyur. Both were old towns that the East India Company was really greatly bought.
Therefore, both the northern and southern extremities of our city had Kathbada/Kathipara. Kathipara had a fort nearby at St Thomas Mount. Kathbada too had Army existence for a while before the system relocated to Perambur in a location that is still referred to as Pattalam or fort. Regretfully for us, relying as we do on modern maps, both locations have actually gone through significant changes.
The northern Kathbada was altered beyond acknowledgment even in the 1850s when the train line was laid nearby. The Buckingham Canal came soon afterwards and in more current times, the flyovers have actually played havoc with regional markers. Even the old wall, a substantial part of which existed within the Stanley school, has actually because been destroyed leaving simply Madi Poonga. When it comes to Kathipara, it is the much-needed clover that controls, leaving the rest to our creativity. And after that we have actually had Chennai Metrorail too, yet another vital addition however which has actually eliminated a great deal of earlier markers.
That stated, I am no closer to discussing what Kathipara or Kathbada means. Are they the exact same? Even that is unclear. And while pahra might be discussed quickly enough, Kathi or Kath is not that easy. It appears to be a corruption of a word of Urdu or Persian origin. Remarkably, there is a Kathpara Bazaar in Nowgong in Assam, likewise an army area at one time! And Madhya Pradesh has its Garhpehra– the frontier fort situated at Sagar. These might have obviously not had anything to do with our Kathipara.
While on the topic of Kathipara, a couple of more inquiries– who is Paul Wells who is celebrated in a roadway because location? Who is Vembuli Subedar who too has a roadway in his honour? And why Seven Wells Road? Like North Madras did Kathipara too have 7 wells?
(V. Sriram is an author and historian.)
Released – October 01, 2025 06:00 am IST