Origins of Madras: Tracing Portuguese link imprinted in India long before British arrived

A Twitter user by the name of Josephine Ramya has gone viral on the internet recently after she posted a series of tweets expounding on the various connections between the Tamil and Portuguese languages, dating all the way back to the 15th century. 

The tweets explain that these words have ‘travelled several thousand miles’ all the way from the Tagus river in Portugal to the Indian ocean to enter the Tamil lexicon. Josephine substantiates her claims by illustrating numerous words such as jannal (janela) chavi (shavi) and veranda which have all been borrowed from Portuguese. The etymology does not end there as Alamari, pena, beeppai, koppai, mejai, mestiri, chupo, kusini, annasi, goba fruits, and countless other household items have lost their original Tamil names only to be replaced with Portuguese words.

Tamil Nadu’s Portugal connection

There are several places in Tamil Nadu with a suffix ‘pettai’, namely, Saidapettai, Crompettai, Ulundurpettai, the list of places numbering in the hundreds, in just one state alone. Pettai is a derivative of Porto-the second largest city in Portugal after Lisbon, and Porto in Portuguese means port, which is why several areas in Chennai have the suffix pettai.

When the Portuguese established their first port in Tamil Nadu, near Chennai (Madras) they named it Porto Novo (new port), this later came to be known as Parangi Pettai. Parangi originates from the Arabic word ‘Firangi’ and Porto became Pettai.

Madras which was rechristened as Chennai in the late 90s was once believed to have derived the name from the city’s first mosque/madrasa. However, there appears to be no merit to the claim. As the sprawling metropolis once had a Portuguese-built Church of Madre de Deus aka Mother of God, which over time was simplified to just Madras. There was also a cargo ship that arrived with the first Portuguese settlement that carried the same name as the Madre de Deus church.

The Twitter user confirmed that the ship’s models are exhibited in one of Lisbon’s museums. Notably, Portugal was the first European empire to set its base in India in the 15th century, even before the Mughals.

Tuticorin was settled by Portuguese and Dutch travellers before the British reached, which is why the southern Tamil Nadu city has deep Portuguese influences, right from its architecture and people’s surnames. It is understood that currently, over 2 lakh fishermen in Tuticorin and Tirunelveli districts have Portuguese surnames, by local census estimates.

Timeline of Portugal’s arrival in India

As the first European country, the Portuguese discovered the sea route to India in 1498 under Vasco da Gama. They reached Calicut and were received by the local leaders who allowed them to establish trade links. It is documented that Vasco da Gama stayed in Kerala for three months and returned with a vessel laden with precious goods, including spice, which was then sold in the European markets, reportedly 60 times the total cost of his trip.

The Portuguese Overseas Empire was founded six years after the sea route’s discovery in 1504, and it served as a governing body of a string of Portuguese fortresses and colonies abroad that monitored international trade for the port country with India, However, their ambitions to conquer the subcontinent remained a distant dream as both the southern empires as well as the northern kingdoms were far too powerful to be defeated at the time.