Swami Vivekananda visits Madras
Returning from the West, Swami Vivekananda stayed at the Ice House on the Madras beach from 6 to 14 February 1897.
Swami Vivekananda had close followers in Madras, who had supported his journey to the Parliament of the World's Religions in 1893. On his return to India he visited Madras and stayed at the Ice House, then called Castle Kernan, from 6 to 14 February 1897. At Vivekananda's request, his brother monk Swami Ramakrishnananda went to Madras to open a branch of the Ramakrishna Math. The Math functioned from the Ice House from 1897 to 1906. The building was later renamed Vivekanandar Illam.
