PACHAIYAPPAS COLLEGE CHENNAI

Pachaiyappa's College, located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, is one of the oldest educational institutions in South India and the first sole Indian college in Madras Presidency. It was established as Pachaiyappa's Central Institution at Popham's Broadway on 1 January 1842, funded through the will of philanthropist Pachaiyappa Mudaliar, a financier and merchant. It was the first educational institution in South India not funded by the British, and gained college status in 1889. Until 1947, it admitted only Hindu students. The institution's architecture blends Indo-Saracenic and South Indian styles. Between 1920 and 1921, Charles Leslie Wrenn, who later became Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon, served as Principal and Professor of English. The college is administered by the Pachaiyappa's Trust Board, which oversees several affiliated colleges across Tamil Nadu, including institutions in Kanchipuram and Cuddalore. It offers undergraduate and postgraduate programs in Arts, Commerce, and Science, along with M.Phil. and PhD programs. Notable alumni include mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, physicist Anna Mani, former Chief Minister C. N. Annadurai, and various politicians, literary figures, and filmmakers. In 2010, the Indian Postal Service released a commemorative postage stamp honoring Pachaiyappa Mudaliar.