The fires of Madras’ kitchens Premium

Explore the evolution of cooking fuels in Madras, from wood and coal to the rise of LPG, amid recent shortages.

Cooking gas has been in the news for all the wrong reasons over the past one week. And that set me off on the story of domestic fuel in Madras. I realised in the process that I was old enough to have seen almost all variants in use.

First – wood and charcoal. As late as the 1980s, there were plenty of wood and coal depots in all the older parts of the city. The wood, chiefly casuarina, arrived from plantations to the north and south of the city. These were planted as early as in the 18th century, when the demand for firewood began growing in Madras. By 1802, the North or Cochrane Canal was ready to transport wood from the groves, all the way from Pulicat and beyond. The South Canal, for the same purpose, came up later, linking Adyar to Cuddalore. And then, in the 1870s, work began on Buckingham Canal to link these two through the city. Firewood now began arriving by water, not at the outskirts but within Madras as well. Old Firewood Bankshall Street in Triplicane is a remnant of that era. Likewise, the site of City Centre Mall was a giant firewood depot and even now, to its rear are wood shops.

Boats carrying firewood on the Buckingham Canal, circa 1961 | Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives

Unlike firewood, which was a dispersed trade, coal seems to have been the monopoly of a few British entities such as Shaw Wallace and the South Indian Export Company. They, in turn, sourced coal from the Nizam’s dominions and Bengal. Coal and firewood accounted for the bulk of cooking fuels in Madras almost until the late 19th century. The open wood stove or the iron brazier, known as kumpati (Telugu)/kumati (Tamil) were used for cooking. This was a laborious process, with plenty of blowing using a narrow pipe – if the wood was wet, there was smoke – and irritation to the eyes and lungs, as side effects.

A wick-based domestic keosene stove on display at an exhibition in Madras in September 1975. | Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives

The construction of the Madras harbour brought change. Kerosene oil became available from 1895 or so, retailed in cans by Best & Co, and push carts by Haji Sir Ismail Sait. Streets were lit, as were buildings. The primus stove, gleaming like gold when polished, made its appearance in 1903, with K.S. Shivji of Broadway being the pioneers. Known colloquially as the pumping stove, for you needed to pump the fuel up the filament after priming by pouring a small quantity in a cup at the top, this was touted as a great convenience. It had another interesting purpose – the stove was considered a medium, rather like the Ouija board and many were the seances conducted with it! Pressure differences made the stove jump, and on unfortunate occasions to explode, and this was considered an augury.