Sadras—the Dutch connection

Sadras is a sleepy little town near Kalpakkam. Not many know that this nondescript place used to be a flourishing trading port during the 1600s. Sadras was a Dutch port and trading settlement after they obtained it from the Nawab of Carnatic in 1612. The Dutch East India Company established a factory to produce and trade muslin cloth and other fineries, and the centre flourished during the Anglo-Dutch reign in India. Around the factory, a fort was built and subsequently, a Dutch settlement was established here.

While mapping the way to Chennai (erstwhile Madras), a Dutch chaplain named Philip Baldaeus mentions Sadras—‘from Tirepoplier, you go by Poelezere, Poelemoer and Alembrue to Sadraspatan, where the Dutch have a factory and from thence to Madraspatan otherwise Chinnepatan, where the English have the fort of St. George...’

The fort was destroyed in heavy bombardment and remained forgotten for almost a century-and-a-half until it came under the protection of ASI. Visitors can see a square complex surrounded by still standing brick walls and two cannons at the gate. There are officer quarters, granaries, a kitchen and even a dance hall where the Dutch officers used to hold their evening parties. Besides, there is a well-preserved cemetery with graves dating back to the 17th century of officers and soldiers of the Dutch East India Company. The tombstones are beautifully carved and some of them are present with coat of arms, denoting aristocracy.