''Madras Rediscovered: A Historical Guide to Looking Around'' is a book on the

history of Chennai History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

(previously known as Madras) authored by

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

historian

S. Muthiah Subbiah Muthiah, (13 April 1930 – 20 April 2019), was an Indian writer, journalist, cartographer, amateur historian and heritage activist known for his writings on the political and cultural history of Chennai city. He was the founder of t ...

. Originally titled ''Madras Discovered'', the first edition was published in 1981. Since then, the book has emerged a

bestseller A bestseller is a book or other media noted for its top selling status, with bestseller lists published by newspapers, magazines, and book store chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and specialties (novel, nonfiction book, cookb ...

and has run into eight editions. A

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

translation of the book ''Chennai Marukandupidippu'' by C. V. Karthik Narayan was published in 2009.

Editions

The first edition titled ''Madras Discovered'' was published in 1981 by East-West Books. It was 160 pages long and priced at Rs. 10. The second edition of ''Madras Discovered'', 286 pages long was published in 1987 followed by the third edition in 1993, 363 pages long, which was augmented by a supplement titled "Once Upon a City". The fourth edition which came in 1999 was titled ''Madras Rediscovered''. The fifth edition which came in 2004 was priced at Rs. 360 and was 427 pages long.

Criticism

Journalist Bishwanath Ghosh considers Muthiah's ''Madras Rediscovered'', the "last word on the city's heritage". One review by ''

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'' describes the book as follows.

Notes

References

* * http://www.frontline.in/cover-story/memories-of-madras/article6328325.ece#test {{Chennai topics 1981 non-fiction books English-language books History of Chennai