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| Madurai town hall, TN serving as a cine theater. thehindu.com |
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| Victoria Edward Town Hall, Madurai, TN.justdial.com |
Since the colonial days the town halls built in many cities and towns have been the venue for public meeting, music, dance recital, etc. Nowadays some halls are being used for political meetings, make-shift voting booths, etc., during the election time. Among the town halls, the ones built during the Raj and before that period under the English company stand apart because of their unique architecture - a blend of Indo European style. The town hall built in 1884 in memory of Dewan C.V. Rangacharlu in Mysore and the one built in honor of P.P. Puttana, former President of Bangalore municipality and Rajaji Hall, (in memory of former CM of Madras \ and first Governor General of India after India's independence) previously known as the Banqueting Hall, Madras (Chennai) are good examples. Invariably, such town halls are used for various cultural activities.. The last one in Chennai has appeared in several Tamil movies and a large section of the Tamil population may not know about it.
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| Madurai town hall, TN serving as a cine theater. thehindu.com |
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| Madurai Victoria Albert Hall. blogarama.com |
The Victoria Edward Hall Library, a prized possession of the city is a heaven for book worms and there is a vast collection of rare and old books more than 30000 covering various subjects.- Homer’s Odyssey, various English essayists and novelists, English plays by both Indian and English authors, postal stamp catalogues of the British Empire, important Government gazettes (since 1923) and bulletins, etc. There are Tamil and Sanskrit novels besides important news papers, magazines in English and Tamil.
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| Location map. Madurai city, Tamil Nadu. mapsofindia.com |
Because of lack of publicity and awareness a large section of city's well- educated population may not be aware of the book treasures in this library. The library that began as a small reading room in the early 20th century needs substantial funds from the state government to keep it going and catering to the needs of the local people, in particular, college students. Though there are more than 2900 members, there are no regular users and countless rare books need preservation. and proper care. The library is functioning without a librarian, hence many problems related to books - preservation, buying, etc., are not properly taken care of. ''The books must be checked for the presence of insects like silverfish and fungus. If the paper is damaged, it needs to be strengthened through a process called mending,” acceding a retired conservator of Saraswathi Mahal Library, Thanjavur, TN.
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| Library in the Victoria Edward Hall, Madurai. thehindu.com |
Above image: Library in the Victoria Edward Town Hall, Madurai: One of the oldest libraries in Tamil Nadu, it has priceless old books about 30000.plus. In addition to valuable books on various subjects the library has countless .Government gazettes and bulletins dating back to several decades. Catholic dictionaries and postal stamp catalogues of the British empire are priceless possessions. The Victoria Edward Hall library was very much close to the cafes of Paris. The first floor has a rich collection of over 100000 books from which readers can gain a wealth of knowledge.......
The books need to be catalogued systematically s with proper call numbers so that they will be accessed easily by the public. Further, there is a need to preserve them for the posterity. Steps are being taken to preserve the rare books through digitalization and cloud computing, besides mending (of damaged pages in the books).. Since a charitable organization is running the library and the hall, considerable funds are a must for regular periodic improvements, purchases, repairs, etc. Part of the building was converted into a cinema hall pretty long ago. The town provides air-conditioned banqueting space to the public for various needs, wedding reception, corporate meeting, etc..
This library has its origin in the early 20th century when a group of well-read men started the Madurai District Literary Association, and established a small library in 1902 on North Chitrai Street on the first floor portion of E.M. Gopala Krishna Book Shop. The elite of the city felt the need of a more spacious town hall and a library, according to a Souvenir on the Town Hall put out during 2008 Centenary celebration. Sri Palanikumarasamy, former President of the Victoria Edward Hall Society wrote the Souvenir
The society bought one acre and 11 cents of land for a sum of Rs.7000 in a prime location for the town hall in memory of Queen Victoria and to commemorate the coronation of King Edward VII,
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| King Edward VII and Queen Victoria commons.wikimedia.org |
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| Queen Victoria.althistory.fandom.com |
Above image: Queen Victoria (Alexandria Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901), daughter of Prince Edward, married her cousin Prince Albert in 1840 and they had nine children. Her reign is the longest one in the English history and second longest female monarch reign in history after Queen Lorraine of France. The Raj in its early period - 1880s held queen Victoria in great esteem. The Madras based Gayan Samaj (that patronized Carnatic music) in association with Madras Philharmonic Orchestra had Tennyson’s Ode to Queen Victoria translated into Sanskrit, set to music and performed for the benefit of an invited audience at the Pachaiappa Hall in Esplanade (Flower bazaar), Madras.....
Since a charitable organization runs the library and the Town Hall, the management experiences financial crunch though the income from the theater is not good enough to maintain them and if the state or central government steps in to tide over the difficulties, it will help the organization a lot and be free from financial constraints. Countless rare books are aging and turning yellow and hey need special care to get them back to old shape. The library is not a quiet place as it is surrounded by messy urban traffic, snippets of sound from the theater, etc. Quite lacking is the library ambiance- proper lighting in the reading area as well as in the shelf area, ventilation, comfortable seating arrangement, and dust-free book shelves, furniture, etc. Owing to paucity of funds, proper upkeep of this once prestigious library is a tough job for the management. .
https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Madurai/a-library-in-need-of-patrons/article23335438.ece
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/madurais-famed-hallmark/articleshow/13931021.cms
