Besant Nagar

Besant Nagar (Tamil: பெசன்ட் நகர்) is a district of Chennai (Madras), the capital of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is named after the theosophist Annie Besant (1847-1933),.

Besant Nagar is located in the south of Chennai about eleven kilometers south of the city center. Administratively, Besant Nagar belongs to the Adyar zone. The boundaries of the district are not well defined, but Besant Nagar can be demarcated from Tiruvanmiyur to the south and Adyar to the west. To the north lies the park-like grounds of the Adyar Theosophical Society on the banks of the Adyar River. To the east is the sandy Elliot's Beach on the shore of the Bay of Bengal.

Besant Nagar is one of the middle class residential areas in south Chennai, developed between the late 1940s and early 1980s. The main attraction of Besant Nagar is Elliot's Beach, named after Edwar Elliot, the Governor of Madras from 1803 to 1820. Like the adjacent city beach Marina Beach to the north, Elliot's Beach attracts large numbers of visitors who come to stroll on the beach, especially in the evenings and weekends. The beach is adorned by a now dilapidated memorial to the Danish sailor Kaj Schmidt, who died here in 1930 when he saved a young British woman from drowning. Near the beach is the modern Ashtalakshmi Temple (completed in 1976), where the Hindu goddess Lakshmi is worshipped in eight different aspects. Also nearby is a church dedicated to Our Lady of Velankanni (built in 1972 and expanded in 1985).