I do not know whether to laugh or cry. I think the former may be the better option, considering that this is the first epistle of mine for this column in the new year. But researching recently the history of Vepery for a video, I sent my assistant Surya Kumar on a tour of the streets in that area. “Be sure to cover Breithaupt Street,” I told him and he returned with the information that Prathapet is its present name.
Blame it all on the two-language formula, at least as far as street names and signboards are concerned. Breithaupt in English becomes Preithapt in Tamil. This, in turn, changed the English to Brethapet, which is how it remained for much of the past few decades. Then the Tamil became Prathapet and the English followed. It is my guess that someone in the Corporation dictates these names off a list and someone else notes it down in Tamil as heard, and not as written.
Having chortled over it, I then went about hunting for what I had squirreled away about Breithaupt. The story begins with the missionary John/Johann Christian Breithaupt, native of Dransfield, Hanover, who arrived in Madras in 1746. He could not have been more unfortunate in his timing, for his arrival in the city coincided with the French invasion, and that must have prompted his move to Cuddalore, which he did in 1747. In 1749, he and his immediate superior, the Rev. J.P. Fabricius moved to Pulicat, to be closer to the scene of action for Madras had been restored to the British. On May 17, the two wrote a letter to Fort. St. David, Cuddalore, which was then the British HQ. This document was to form the basis of how Roman Catholic churches in Madras were to be treated by the newly returned British. The letter, published in full by H.D. Love in his Vestiges of Old Madras, highlighted the way the French priests and Roman Catholics had colluded with Pondicherry during the occupation and before. They called for retribution.
The two also stipulated which of the RC churches they would like to take over – not the one in the north for “there Allwaysdwell the Most part the black Soldiers and Palanquin-boys,” and neither the one at the west near “Waperi” as that was too far off, but one at Sepakam (Chepauk) on the way to St. Thome. It is not clear as to which was the church in Chepauk, but what they got was the church in Waperi – this is presently the St. Mathias Church, Vepery, when the English took over the private chapel of Coja Petrus Uscan, the Armenian merchant. There, Breithaupt and Fabricius worked together.
Breithaupt died on November 17, 1782, while still at Vepery, of a “short but violent illness.” His son, Christopher Breithaupt, seems to have preferred a life of commerce. Julian James Cotton, in his comprehensive survey of tombstones in Madras Presidency, dated 1911, while documenting the burial of Elizabeth, wife of Christopher, says he began his career with the East India Company, starting off as Conductor of Ordnance in 1777 and in 1798 was Joint Collector and Surveyor of Madraspatam with William Cockell. That year, their proposal to increase the scavenger rates in Black Town was met with stiff resistance by the locals. Some of those whose payments were in arrears and yet protested later, had streets named after them in that area!
Perhaps wearying of civic rate collections, both became men of business. Cockell founded the firm of Stephens & Cockell and wound up as Sherrif of Madras. Breithaupt went into business with Jospeh Pugh and Thomas Parry. And it was Parry, Pugh, and Breithaupt that became Parry & Co, still happily with us.
It is Breithaupt the son, and not the father, after whom the road is named. In 1794, he owned sixteen acres in Purasaiwakkam and not satisfied with that, he acquired five more in Vepery, which is probably how and why he left his name to posterity, only to have it become Prathapet. Interestingly, his business partner Pugh (pronounced Pew) has a small road in R.A. Puram named after him. That, in Tamil, became Puck’s Road and finally in English, Bug’s Road! Among the three promoters of the firm of Parry, Pugh, and Breithaupt, it is probably Parry who is remembered the best, in Parry’s Corner. And it is a neat coincidence that all three partners are commemorated in the city, one way or the other.
Cotton records that the younger Breithaupt’s wife Elizabeth, was buried in St. Mathias Church and her tombstone is there for all to see. Curiously, we have no record of where both the Breithaupts, father and son, are interred. Probably in the same place, is my guess.
(Sriram V. is a writer and historian.)
