EAST MADA ST AND KAPALI THER
The East Mada Street, Mylapore in the year 1851 with the chariot of Kapali. This is a photograph taken by ace German photographer Frederick Fiebig who had taken hundreds of photographs of Madras, Calcutta and Ceylon. As per the book " A view from below" written by Kanaklatha Mukund Kumarappa Mudali who had taken over the Dharmakartaship of the temple in 1740 did a lot of things to improve the temple. He was the Dubash and Kanakkupule of Governor Saunders. The first thing he did was to remove people of other religions from the vicinity of temple by paying handsome amounts to them. He built the compound wall of the temple and the temple tanks and widened the four mada streets of the temple so that processions can go smoothly. He also planted a lot of coconut trees on the mada streets and created an endowment so that a regular income is there for the upkeep of the temple. He arranged for the dancing girls and also nominated temple servants. The next person who did a lot for the temple was Kovvur Sundaresa Mudaliyar of Kovur a suburb of Madras near Porur. He was the overseer of the temple and during his time the temple chariot, vahanams , jewellery and many idols were made. In spite of his best efforts he was not made Dharmakarta of the temple.
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