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| Thanjavur kingdom under the Maratha dynasty. en.wikipedia.org/ |
The small Thanjavur Maratha kingdom, a principality of Tamil Nadu was ruled by the Bhonsle dynasty between the 17th and 19th centuries. Their roots are in Satara, Maharashtra. Venkoji a half-brother of the Maratha king Chatrapathi Shivaji, was the founder of the dynasty. In April 1674 he took over the administration of Thanjavur. The last Maratha ruler Shivaji (reign 1832 to 1855) had to step down as the couple did not have a legal heir to the throne. After the ruler's demise in 1855 the idea of adoption of a male child (queen's nephew) to rule the land met with failure. The English company devised the Doctrine of lapse (authored by Lord Dalhousie) which did nor recognize adoption by Hindu rulers. So Thanjavur was annexed by them leaving the royal family with limited regal power to control the town and neighboring areas.
Giving much importance to welfare and health care of the people in their last phase of rule the Maratha ruler Shivaji established the very first hospital in Thanjavur town called Raja Hospital presumably far before 1880. Details are sketch as its closure in the later period. The contributing factor could be chaotic political situation and the fate of kingdom after the last ruler's demise.
Thanjavur kingdom since 1855 had come under the English company rule. British, being shrewd as they were, for their convenience started making several civic improvements, etc., taking into account the rich agricultural production in the delta areas. Once Thanjavur delta was called the granary of the South.
It was in 1861 railroad was laid by the Great Southern Railway of India - 125 km (78 mi) long broad gauge line between Nagapattinam and Tiruchirapalli (then known as Trichinopoly) and the line was opened to traffic in the following year. It was a new development south of Chennai. When SIR - South Indian Railway Company took over GSIR in 1874, the Nagapattinam–Tiruchirapalli line was converted into meter gauge in 1875. As for Madras to Thoothkudi (Tuticorin), in 1880 SIR laid the track via Villupuram, Myladuthurai, Madurai, etc.
To administer the town, improve drainage facilities, roads, supply of potable water, etc., Thanjavur Municipality came into being in 1866. In the mean time the population of the town had also moved up. During that period many diseases impacted the health of the people, so it became imperative to start a hospital for the common people.
In 1879 District collector and Thanjavur District Board President H.S.Thomas laid the foundation stone for the hospital that was to have buildings, operation theatres and emergency surgical halls, to keep abreast of latest developments in medicine.
In 1880 the public hospital was reopened called Raja Mirasudhar hospital to offer free health services to the people. It was built into several wards over a period of time right along the present hospital road stretching from Gandhiji road (near clock tower and ophthalmic hospital) up to the Big temple road on the west. The cost of construction was borne through public subscription. Even today the emergency and OP ward (opened in 1898) is popularly known as 'Thomas Hall' and it offered emergency medical services for about 130 years, for the people of Thanjavur and surrounding towns
People of Thanjavur may not be aware of the historical fact that the place where RMH is functioning now was once a beautiful garden - (Bagh) owned by the Thanjavur Maratha family. According to senior doctor, Dr. R. Krishnamurthy, the R.M. Hospital is on a land donated by Rani Kamatchi Bai Saheb(a), grand daughter of Rajah Serfoji - II, who ruled Thanjavur and also practiced 'Native Medicine and Ophthalmology. ' Ranee granted 40 acres of land opposite to Big Temple (present RMH hospital). So the RMH is a legacy of the Thanjavur Maratha family. The queen's monetary contribution was Rs.30000, a huge sum in those days, the rest Rs.66000 was met by donations from prominent landlords of Thanjavur district. Hence it was named Raja Mirasudar Hospital (RMH). Managed by the Madras Presidency Govt., Tanjore District Board and Chatram Administration, the hospital initially had 144 beds for in-patients under the management of District Medical officer (DMO).
The hospital is still functioning in the old limestone- sand mortar masonry building with Mangalore tiled roof. There are several wards of similar type spacious and airy with a common covered passage through out connecting all wards. These independent wards were built over a period of time, stretching the entire Hospital road from the Ranee's clock tower on the east to the parking lot on the west side opposite to Big temple. The wards are made of thick walls with high tiled roof supported by quality wooden rafters and beams. The doors are large and wide The thick walls, high roof with wood cover and spacious windows keep the interior cool during hot summer season. Besides, wards are surrounded by greenery with big trees, etc. I understand most of the wards underwent major repair work and replacement of roof tiles after 1952 cyclone that had caused severe damages in the delta region. During that time countless big trees all along the hospital road were uprooted. So were the zinc roof sheets of many movie theaters and from this one could understand the severity of the cyclone.
In those days smallpox was the most dreaded disease, contagious, deadly and disfiguring killing people all over the world.; out of 10, 3 would die. The discovery of vaccination against small pox by the British doctor Edward Jenner in 1796 was a blessing in disguise and countries in North America, South America etc., started using it. There was an unprecedented global immunization campaign against small pox . When vaccination against small pox was introduced in the RMH, natives who believed in siddha treatment etc., were reluctant and objected to it initially. To meet the health care demands of the people RMH opened two dispensaries one at Karunthattankudi and the other one at Manombuchavadi and they were run by popular doctors P. Narayana Rao and Dr. K. Anantharaman.
Natives of Thanjavur will be surprised to know that there was a government run medical school functioning on the RMH premises between 1880 to early 1900s offering LMP certificates to limited students less than 20. The young physicians were trained in all aspects of health care. The Prince of Wales - (later King Edward VII), on a long visit to India in 1875, advised the British Raj to open medical schools to train doctors. Accordingly, medical schools came up in six places across India including Thanjavur, Nagpur, Madurai, Visakapattinam, Royapuram (Chennai) and Calicut and were authorized to issue 'Licentiate Medical Practioner' (L.M.P). The schools came up to commemorate the prince of wales' visit to India. In 1933 the medical school was closed for unknown reasons.
Yet another historical fact is it was in 1919 an Eye Hospital was opened in a colonial building built on the land donated by the Martha family. It was opened to public in 1926 by George Joachim Goschen (2nd viscount Goschen Hawkhurst), Governor of Madras Presidency. It was on 13 December 1919 the foundation stone was laid for the Ophthalmic ward by Sir. E. H. Wallace, ICS, Judge and Collector of Tanjore. The building is 102 years old and as part of Smart City project, the old building will be restored back to old glory. Further, a sum of Rs. 16.47 crore is already allotted by the government to construct a Regional Eye Care Center with 120 bed block to house the center. Though functioning under the Ophthalmology Department of Thanjavur Medical College, the Eye hospital is part of RMH. It is the third oldest Eye hospital in the world.
When Thanjvur Medical college came up in the early 1960s, its foundation ceremony was held in 1958 on the RMH premises; it was presided over by the the Indian president Sri Rajendra Prasad. Sri AYA Parisutha Nadar, a prominent rotarian and businessman was the chairman of the Thanjavur municipality. When the college and hospital work was on till 1964 classes were held in Madurai Medical college. Likewise, for the first and second year students classes were held temporarily under big thatched pandals specifically put up on the palace grounds part of which was used by popular V.H. School as a play ground. I myself saw those huge pandals there when I used to practice Cricket with my friends to play for the school.
The present Medical college is on a vast land on the Vallam road taken from Raja Serfoji college ( then a private institution, the college got a vast land through donation from the Rotary club under senior Rotarians like late K.V. Srinivasan, Advocate, late Sri Parisutha Nadar, et al. They travelled abroad and gathered funds from there. The new bus Stand area used to be known as Rotary Town in the 1960s and 1970s. The big name board on the side near the Sefoji college is gone so is the name of the place. Thanks to Sri Parisutha Nadar, being a charitable person he donated a big chunk of land for the New medical college - roughly 156 acres in 1956 (its worth now runs into hundreds of crores)
But for state Industries minister R. Venkataraman, Kamaraja Nadar and Shri Parisutha Nadar MLA and their sustained efforts, the Medical college in Thanjavur would have gone to some other city.
Tit-Bits:
Ranee Kamatchi Bai Shaheba:
''The British East India company confiscated all the private properties including the Sarasvati Mahal library after his death. Queen Kamakshi Bai, the wife of the last Maratha king of Thanjavur filed a case in the court against British East India company and stopped Thanjavur Maharaja serfoji's Sarasvati Mahal library (TMSSML) and rest of the private properties of the late Rajah from being looted. She engaged the services of an eminent barrister at law, Mr. John Bruce Norton to plead for their case at Madras, Bengal and at London.She filed a bill of equity before the parliament and at the Supreme Court of Queen Victoria. She won the case at London and also gained public support there. She got back the immovable properties but precious treasures like jewels, artifacts etc (movable properties) were not given back by the British East India company. When she wrote a letter to her lawyer and asked for it. The lawyer replied that 'the wealth (precious treasures) were gifted to Queen Victoria by the East India company so we couldn't request them to return.''
(Reference: Thanjavur paper or Fobers documents at Indian Library, London) Records are also available at TMSSML
(I found the post by Shri AYSP. Anthonysamy MABL in the Facebook quite useful and informative.; unfortunately I could not find relevant images on the RMH old buildings)
https://serfojimemorialhall.com/maharani-kamakshi-bai.html
https://navrangindia.blogspot.com/2021/11/rmh-eye-hospital-thanjavur-tn-3rd.html
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=4465017016909966&id=413042932107415