City’s bi-centennial library houses equally aged tomes

Established in 1812 as Asiatic Society of Madras, Madras Literary Society is the oldest lending library in the south. It was started with Bengal Asiatic Society in Kolkata and Bombay Asiatic Society. In the early 19th century, East India Company’s employees in Madras received instruction in administration, languages, law, religion and local customs in College of Fort St George, of which MLS was part. MLS was housed in Connemara Library until 1905 when it moved to the current building inside the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) campus.

The library boasts around 83,000 books, many of which dated back over 150 years and a few considerably longer. A few of the notable members of this library from the past include Annie Besant, Subhas Bose, and Dr S Radhakrishnan.