The Banqueting Hall was constructed between 1800 and 1802[2]byJohn Goldingham, an astronomer and engineer with the British East India Company.[1][3] The building was commissioned by Edward Clive, the then Governor of Madras, who envisaged the hall to be an extension of the Government House which was being renovated that year.[1][4] The hall was built to commemorate the company's victory over Tipu Sultan in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War[1] and designed to be a venue for social functions.[2] The construction of the hall cost about two and a half lakh rupees.[1] The building was opened with a grand ball on 7 October 1802.[5]
From 1875 onwards, the hall was extensively renovated and expanded.[6] In 1895, a colonnaded terrace was constructed and a verandah was built around it.[1][6] The convocations of the University of Madras were held in the Banqueting Hall from 1857 till 1879 when the Senate House was constructed.[7] During 27 January 1938 – 26 October 1939, the legislature of the Madras Presidency met here.[8] The hall was renamed as "Rajaji Hall" after India's independence (in honour of C. Rajagopalachari).[5] The mortal remains of important political leaders lay in state in Rajaji Hall before their funeral. At present, it houses the offices of the Tamil Nadu State Raffle.[5]
Rajaji Hall was built in the form of a Greek temple and is believed to have been modelled after the ParthenoninAthens.[3] It is built on a basement of arched cellars and store rooms[3] and is surrounded by a colonnaded terrace.[3] The exterior of the hall is constructed in the 16th-century Italian Manneristic style.[2] The building is 120 feet long, 65 feet wide and 40 feet high and is enclosed by a gallery which had portraits of popular Anglo-Indian leaders[3] and administrators including Edward Clive, Richard Wellesley, Sir Eyre Coote,[10]Sir Thomas Munro, Lord Hobart and Lord Harris and British monarchs George III and Queen Charlotte.[11] The southern end is connected to the Government House by an array of steps.[3] Sten Nilsson describes the hall as resembling "a Heroum, a neo-classical temple for hero worship".[2]
^ abcChopra, Prabha (1999). Monuments of the Raj: British buildings in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Srilanka and Myanmar. Aryan Books International. pp. 7–8. ISBN8173050945, ISBN978-81-7305-094-7.
^Illustrated guide to the South Indian Railway (Incorporated in England): including the Tanjore District Board, Pondicherry, Peralam-Karaikkal, Travancore State, Cochin State, Coimbatore District Board, Tinnevelly-Tiruchendur, and the Nilgiri Railways. South Indian Railway Co. Ltd. 1926. p. 20.
