Q. Who obtained the site of Madras and from whom?
Answer: Francis Day from the Raja of Chandragiri.
Notes: Francis Day and Andrew Cogan, representatives of the East India Company which had begun licensed trading at Surat, were sent to find suitable land along the Coromandel Coast to build a factory and warehouse for the company's trading activities. They chanced upon a strip of land which was then under the rule of the Raja of Chandragiri, under the control of chieftan Damarla Venkatappa Nayak. On August 22, 1639, Day and Cogan secured the grant for a piece of land in the fishing village of Madrasapatnam, giving over to the East India Company a three-mile long strip of land. This was the beginning of the settlement of Madrasapatnam.