Last week, I was in Lucknow, and as always, I enjoyed wandering around the monuments large and small that dot the Nawabi city. And, as always, I learnt a few new things, some with a Madras connect. It was news to me that the smooth texture of the walls at the Bara Imambara and La Martinere, owed much to Madras chunam! Our local plaster had become famous enough to be sent in large quantities in the 18th century to Lucknow, which was then in a fever of construction of palaces and prayer halls.
La Martinere stands testimony to Claude Martin, the French mercenary who, after serving his country’s East India Company for a while, found the British a better prospect and switched allegiance. He then moved to the service of the Nawabs of Oudh and lived in Lucknow, constructing his vast residence Constantia, which also became his tomb and now is the school functioning in his name. What is of interest is that Martin, while in the service of the French, participated in the siege of Madras in the 1750s. Later, while with the Nawab, he assisted the English in Madras in their third war against Mysore in 1792. Being a master gunner, he cast a special cannon for the battle, which he named The Lord Cornwallis.
