Our search for Veera Perumal Pillai Choultry or what is now called Pillai Chatram on Buchanan’s route not far from Chennai (then Madras) opened up new insights into this important pre-colonial institution. Unfortunately, the condition of the two chatrams that we visited, i.e. Pillai Chatram and another at Ocheri (then Wochuru) were to put it simply, pathetic. While the one at Ocheri had almost completely disappeared, the Pillai Chatram is literally crumbling down. We made two visits to the Pillai chatram, the first c. 2007 and the next in 2019. In the last decade, it seems to have deteriorated at much greater pace than it had in the last 200 years, the time when Buchanan had stopped for a couple of nights on his Journey of 1800-01. The need to preserve and inform people of these economic and social institutions of pre-colonial India are more pressing than ever.
