Tamil Nadu Timeline

CultureEast India Company rule

Madras Literary Society founded

· Chennai

Madras Literary Society founded
Finrod Felagund Robert Grosvenor, CC0 · Wikimedia Commons

In 1817 a learned society and library, the Madras Literary Society, was established in Madras.

Founded in Madras in 1817, the Madras Literary Society served as a learned body for the city. The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland took it into association in 1830. Colonial officers and Indian scholars were among its members, and its journal covered South Indian literature, science and history. In 1851 it handed its geological collection to the government, and these specimens became the core of the Government Museum in Madras.

Related events

  1. 1812

    1. 1812ChennaiLiterature

      Tirukkural appears in print for the first time

      The first known printed edition of the Tirukkural was produced in 1812, together with the Naladiyar.

  2. 1814

    1. 1814ChennaiReligion

      Church Missionary Society begins work in Madras

      After the Charter Act of 1813 allowed missionaries into India, the Church Missionary Society placed its first missionaries at Madras in 1814.

    2. 1814ChennaiEconomy

      John Binny establishes Binny & Co in Madras

      Merchant John Binny, in Madras since 1797, established the firm of Binny & Co, one of the city's oldest mercantile houses.

  3. 1816

    1. 1816ChennaiLanguage

      Ellis publishes the Dravidian Proof

      Francis Whyte Ellis argued that the South Indian languages form a family separate from Sanskrit.

  4. 1913

    1. 1913ChennaiScience Technology

      Ramanujan writes to G. H. Hardy

      Srinivasa Ramanujan, a clerk at the Madras Port Trust, began corresponding with G. H. Hardy, who arranged for him to travel to Cambridge in 1914.

  5. 1920

    1. 26 Apr 1920ChennaiScience Technology

      Death of Srinivasa Ramanujan

      The self-taught mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan died in Madras at the age of 32, a year after returning from Cambridge.

Open in the timeline explorer