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Chapter:

Calcutta Diary: Roots of Calcutta

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Samaren Roy 1 Calcutta: Society and Change: 1690 -1990;"Introduction"; Rupa & Co publishers,1991.Thisintroductory note gives a vivid description of the foundingofCalcutta three hundred years ago, and the state of Bengal at thatperiodof time, including the intrigues by and betwee n theEuropeans as they

jostled for power and position.

Compiled by S

Mukherjee

2 Picture Gallery: Calcutta in the 17th and 18thCenturies

Samaren Roy 3 Calcutta: Society and Change: 1690 - 1990;"Growthof the Metropolis"; Rupa & Co publishers,1991.Describeshow the city of Calcutta grew from the flood bank of theHooghlyduring the times of Job Charnock in the late 17th century totheorganized city, complete with Fort William, the Esplanade andotherfamous landmarks of Calcutta.

Compiled by S

Mukherjee

4 Picture Gallery: Calcutta in the 19th Century.

J P Losty 5 Excerpts from 'Calcutta: City of Palaces'JamesAtkinson's epithet 'The City of Palaces' is presented, alongwithexcerpts of comments about the European influence.

Samaren Roy 6 Calcutta: Society and Change: 1690 - 1990;"TheCalcuttans"; Rupa & Co publishers,1991.Describes the peoplewho lived in the early part of Calcutta's growth.

Compiled by S

Mukherjee

7 Old Maps of Calcutta.

8 Pop QUIZ on 'Roots of Cacutta'

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CONTRIBUTIONS & ARTICLES:

1. Calcutta: Society and Change: 1690 - 1990; "Introduction";Rupa & Co publishers,1991.

CALCUTTA is on the east (which happens to be the left ) bank ofthe Hooghly, the most easterly of thedistributaries of the Ganga inits large delta spread over approximately 70 sq. km. Job Charnockchose thissite on August 24, 1690, and it has since been criticizedas an erroneous selection, as all other Europeansettlements -Hugli, Chinsurah, Chandernagore and Serampore - were all on thewestern bank. Tamluk, the

port founded several centuries before Christ, and Nabadip - inthe 11th Century A.D. - were also on thewestern bank. RudyardKipling, the mildest of the critics, w rote 200 years later that itwas "chance directed",

but that was probably because Calcutta had grown into a citybigger than Bombay where the poet was born.

Even imperialists suffer from parochialism.

Events have proved that Charnock was not wrong - at le ast hadnot been so for 257 years till partition robbedthe city he hadfounded of a large part of its hinterland, by bringing the borderas close as 77 km. The border,like most borders, was as mucheconomic as political. Nobody in Charnock's time or even ten yearsbefore thehappening could have foreseen partition.

Charnock was led to Sutanati and adjoi ning Kalikata by theweavers (Basaks) and traders (Setts) - who hadsettled at the formerplace as ear ly as the fifteenth century (i.e. before the Portugesehad sailed up the Hooghlyin 1510; and possibly before Vasco da Gamahad discovered the 'Cape route' between Europe and India in1497);he was definitely not led by chance!The Setts and Basaks had cometo Sutanati and Kalikata because itwas nearer the the sea, and theBetor canal connecting the Hooghly with Satgaon was silting up.According toSir Evan Cotton, Charnock came to Calcutta because "TheBengali families which have been so closelyassociated with Britishrule in India - the Setts, the Bysaks, the Mallicks (ancestorRajaram of Trevene

[Triveni]) - advised Charnock to transfer the Company's Factoryfrom Hooghly to Sutanati".

The Hooghly had been an important waterway for more than 3000years. Tamluk (a shortened form forTamralipti) - lower down theriver - gets its name from the copper w hich was mined, as it is even now, atGhatsila, not far from the port. Copper had been eclipsedby iron around 100 B.C.. So the name must haveoriginated during theCopper Age, when Tamralipti exported the ore and metal topeninsular India, since thealternative was the less accessibleRajasthan area. The longer, original name of the port was i n usetill thethird century B.C., when Ashoka's daughter and son sailedform it for Sri Lanka.

Copper was replaced by other exports - mainly cotton goods - toSouth-East Asia. When the weavers andtraders settled at Sutanati,they were most likely viewing prospects in the regions now known asMalaysia,Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. Since the East IndiaCompany, whose interests Job Charnock represented,had to economizeon the bullion they spent on their purchases, export of goods toother Asian countries was asimportant a consideration as export toEuropean countries. Sutanati was valuable in that context.

Let us turn to an even ear lier peri od - to the 18 centuriesbetween the Ashoka siblings' voyage to Sri Lankaand the first entryof Portugese ships into the Hooghly estuary. Greeks knew of thedelta (perhaps second orthird hand) and called it Gangaridae,placing it further east of Parasii, their term for Magadha. ShardsofRoman poetry and the clay cast of Augustan medallion have beenfound on the banks of the Hooghly, thereby

pointing to Roman trade extending as far east in the earlycenturies of the Christian era.

This trade, as w ell as Vasco Da Gama's crossi ng of the ArabianSea from Malindi in East Africa to the Keralacoast, was helped byknowledge of the monsoons - winds blowing in a particular directionthroughout aseason. The same knowledge was used by Ashoka'schildren for their voyage to Sri Lanka. The Bay of Bengalis soshaped and situated, that the north-east monsoon wafts ships fromthe Hooghly outwards towards SriLanka and Java, and the south-westmonsoon facilitated homeward voyages before the season of rainsandstorms sets in.

The people of Bengal were mariners till the Sena Dynasty loweredthe status of traders in the caste hierarchy,and sea trade wasdeclared pol luting. These acts might have been prompted by adesire to deny the Buddhist

monasteries their p rincipal source of income: donations fromtrades. These degradations and proscriptionswere instrumental inensuring the decline of Buddhism in Bengal. The needs of trade,however, could not bestamped out. On the west coast, where Islamhad r eached four centuries ear lier than in Bengal, conversionstothat religion ensured the continuance of the maritime tradition.Ibrahim, who piloted Vasco da Gama from EastAfrica to India, was aGujarati Muslim.

The Chinese and the Arabs took over the overseas trade, and bothranged over the waters from China toAfrica. They crossed theequator but did not round the southern tip of Africa, for thereseemed to be no

produce worth picking up in Zululand. Some Indians, mainlyGujaratis and Sindhis, also participated in the

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trade. Bengalis had to rest content with the adventurers ofChand Saudagar and a few others.

Trade with Europe, however, w as still lucrative, althoughtransactions had to be conducted throughintermediar ies - Arabs,Shirazis , Turks and Venetians. Upto Jeddah in the Red Sea, thetrade route coincidedwith the pilgrim route of the Moslem Haj.Arabs were the principal car riers of both pilgrims and goods.Thegoods were handed over to Venetians to sell to the rest ofEurope. The direction of and route of the trade wasthe same as withRome in earlier times.

Husain Alauddin Shah was ruling Bengal when the Portugese firstentered the Hooghly estuary in 1518.However, by the time theirfirst trading settlement was established in 1537, Sher Shah was theruler of Bengalas well as the rest of North India. The Portugeselocated their settlement near Bandel, which is apopularmispronunciation of 'Bandar' - the Arabic word for harbour.Thus, it can be inferred that a port existed hadexisted at Bandel,about 42 km. upstream from Calcutta during the Arab supremacy overthe seas around India.By 1580, the Moghuls had extended theirauthority over Bengal.

It will be useful to recal l two facts. First, the Portugesewielded some influence at Akbar's court, though fromGoa and notform their settlement on the Hooghly. Second, Humayun had come incontact with Armeniantraders during his refuge in Persia, some ofwhom followed him back to India. Armenians spoke Persian -thelanguage of the Moghul court - and were Christians, though notof the same denomination as the Portugese.They were eminentlysuited to be middlemen.

For 192 years the Portugese enjoyed a near monopoly of Bengal'strade with Europe, and their settlement atHugli (named after theriver but spelt differently to distinguish the town from the river)grew. It had theadvantage of geographical location, only twokilometers away from Bandel and not too far from the earlier

port, Satgaon, the temple town of Navadwip, and theadministrative center of Panduah.

In turn, Hugli attracted other settlements. The treasury hadremained at Satgaon, the Customs House waslocated here too, and theDutch built their settlement at Chinsurah, two kilometers south.The Moghuls did notcompel anyone to turn Muslim and were tolerantof the Portugese, who, however, did not reciprocate.Portugese slavetraders boasted in 1630 that they had made more Christians in oneyear than all themissionaries in ten.

In 1629, Sha Jahan - annoyed with these forcible conversions -laid siege of the Portugese settlement at Hugliand in 1632, forbadetheir entry or residence throughout his territories. The churchbuilt at Bandel in 1599was destroyed during the siege. Aurangzeballowed it to be rebuilt in 1660. Till late in the 18thcentury,Roman Catholics around Bandel and Hugli boasted to anItalian visitor that they did not permit heretics ( bywhich theymeant Protestants) to live among them. It is possible that they(the Roman Catholics) were equallyintolerant of other Catholics,for the oldest Armenian Church on the banks of the Hooghly wasbuilt in 1707 inthe Dutch settlement of Chinsurah, and not inPortugese Hugli or Bandel. Till the early 18th century,Chinsurahwas we ll inhabited by Armenians.

The Dutch were the first to challenge Portugese hold on Asiantrade, but their original efforts were dir ectedtowards wrestingthe Indonesian islands from the Portugese. After havingaccomplished that, they establishedtheir settlement at Chinsurah in1622 and other stations on the way to Chinsurah at Baluster, FaltaandBaranagore. The Hooghly being subject to tides, intermediatehalts w ere r equired when recessi on set in.Betor, near Sibpuropposite Calcutta, had been used as an anchorage by the Portugese;Falta and Baranagore

by the Dutch. The English used Kulpi for that purpose till 1789,when they began developing DiamondHarbour. The Danes, who settledin Serampore and Gondalpara (now part of Chandernagore) around1670,had a place for the purpose of lighting the burden of ships ata place below the confluence of the Rupnarainwith the Hooghly.Chandernagore was founded by the French in 1688, and had a countryhouse at Garati for itsGovernor.

Chandernagore retained its identity longest, till 1947, when itmerged into independent India. The Dutchsettlements of Baranagoreand Chinsurah were exchanged for British enclaves in Sumatra around1824, whileSerampore was purchased from the Danes by the Britisharound 1845. Gondalpara was abandoned in 1714and later incorporatedinto Chandernagore.

How it is that the Portugese presence at Hugli inhibited allEuropean nations other than the Dutch fromestablishing theirsettlements is not clear. However, the English, the Danes and theFrench came to the riverafter the Moghuls had driven out thePortugese in 1632. Sir Thomas Roe's embassy to the court ofJahangir in1611 had cleared the way for the British to es tablishtheir trading settlements. However, they appeared i nGolghat in theheart of Hugli town only in 1650, and had to leave in 1686, havingincurred the displeasure ofthe Governor, Shaista Khan. The factorywas re-occupied after Calcutta had been founded, but was inruinsthrough unuse.

Throughout the 18th century, the English and the French wererivals in Europe, America and India, and often atwar. Englishrivalry with the Dutch was less prolonged and less intense. Duringthe 1757 troubles between theEnglish and Siraj-ud-dowla, thoseevicted from Calcutta and Cossimbazar took refuge with the Frenchand theDutch. The settlements were not free to remain peaceful toeach other once hostilities broke out in Europe.Within months ofhaving received with gratitude French hospitality and succor, theEnglish shelled andoccupied Chandernagore from 1793 to 1813. Theprolonged occupation robbed the French settlement of allitselegance, but even in its small town shabbiness it had"Liberte", "Egalite" and "Fraternite" inscribed on thegates whichfaced British India on the Grand Trunk Road running through theenclave. The Dutch had a less

bitter and shorter experience of British ingratitude in 1759fighting them on the Hooghly.

Both the French and Dutch settlements were upstream of Calcutta,below which - between Thana (Sibpur) andMetiabruz - the half-milewidth of the river was under the surveillance of guns mounted onwatch towers witha chain drawn across. To storm through thatstretch was possible only by a strong naval force which neithertheFrench nor the Dutch could bring. Calcutta was suitably located forinterception. To guard the settlementson the west bank, the Britishlater built a large cantonment at Barrackpore, and a smaller one atBerhampore.

Pilotage had been found necessary on the Hooghly since 1695. Thenumber of pilot vessels depended on thetraffic and a French visitorin 1789 noted that the English had twelve pilot brigs at the placew hich later cameto be known as Sandheads. He was told thatpreviously the French and the Dutch had a pilot vessel each.Thefortunes of these two nations had by then declined beyondredemption.

(end of chapter)

Other references and links to historical information aboutCalcutta:

1. Calcutta: City of Palaces - A survey of the city in the daysof the East India Company (1690 - 1858), by JP Losty (The BritishLibrary, Arnold Publishers).It provides detailed information of itsfounding and growth; the author says '. .. it is re vealed here,Calcutta, fa r from being the 'City of D readful

Night' was, in its prime, truly a 'City of Palaces'...

2. Encyclopedia Brittanica, pp. 412-416

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2. Picture Gallery: Calcutta in the 17th and 18thCenturiesSource: 'Calcutta: City of Palaces' by J P Losty (BritishLibraries, Arnold Publishers); compiled by S.Mukherjee

Click picture to

enlarge

Description of Picture

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1. The Dutch factory at Hooghly, Chinsurah, 1665

Oil on canvas, 203 x 316 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, A 4282

2. George Lambert (attributed), Fort William from the land side,with St Anne'sChurch c.1730. Oil on canvas; 81.5 x 130 cm.; MafargeAssets Corp.

3. Thomas Daniel, Views of Calcutta #3; East side of Tank Squareand the OldMission Church, Calcutta 1786. Colored etching withaquatint; 40.5 x 53 cm.

4. Thomas Daniel, Views of Calcutta #5; The new Court House,Calcutta 1787.Colored etching with aquatint; 40.5 x 53 cm.

5. Thomas Daniel, Views of Calcutta #7; Houses on theChowringhee Road, lookingnorth, Calcutta, 1787. Colored etchingwith aquatint; 40.5 x 53 cm.

6. Thomas Daniel, Views of Calcutta #9; Old Court House Streetfrom the north,Calcutta, 1788. Colored etching with aquatint; 40.5x 53 cm.

7. Thomas Daniel, Views of Calcutta #10; Esplanade Row West withthe CouncilHouse, Calcutta, 1788. Colored etching with aquatint;40.5 x 53 cm.

8. Anonymous view, Calcutta as in MDCCLVI, Line engravi ng byThomas Kitchin,from Robert Orme's History, vol.II, London, 1778; 20x 71.5 cm.

9. Early view of Calcutta (unspecified ori gins)

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3. Calcutta: Socie ty and Change: 1690 - 1990; "Growth of theMetropolis", by Samaren Roy Rupa &Co publishers,1991.

CALCUTTA is built on land that slopes east from the flood bankof the Hooghly to a depression which isinundated by tides, andhence filled by salt water. This depression was la rger than it isnow when it covers 2 8square miles, and possibly reached uptoEntally in East Calcutta.

Job Charnock, having been once driven out of Hugli, wanted toassure himself that the new site for the Englishfactory would beless vulnerable than the former to land forces. He was notapprehensive of an assault bywater, for the Moghuls lacked even aflotilla, and the French and Dutch were not expected late in the17thcentury to be contenders of power on the Hooghly. The Portugesewho were strong and dominating, had beenousted by a land army.

No cavalry can ride down a river or splash through a marsh, norcan an infantry wade through water. To drag

field guns through a stretch of water would be still moredifficult. So Charnock sited himself and hiswarehouse at a place tow hich access by land was restricted to a narro w strip of landbetween the Hooghlyand the Salt Lake. The strip was three mileswide. Old temples point to the Hooghly having swept eastward inameander which touched Garia to return to a point above the placewhere it receives the Damodar(see map).The ancient meander is nowrepresented by Tolly's Nullah, which was turned into a spillchannel for tides bythe excavation in 1748 of obstructions, whichenabled the use of the present navigable route.

If the Dutch did any river training, that must have been before1686, because Charnock used the channel to sailto Madras to enlisthelp, and returned to Sutanati. Alexander Hamilton , who was an"interloper" or"merchant" trading on his own without being part ofthe Company, came up the present route in 1705, andmentions thatthe English settled at Kalikata after "the Moghuls had pardoned allthe robberies and murderscommitted on his subjects".

Alexander Hamilton defiantly owned a house in Calcutta, which heasked the Council to register against amortgage of Rs. 2,902. Hethought that "a pretty good garden belonging to the Armeniansacross the river (thatis, Howrah) would have been a better place tosettle down". Hamilton provides information about the layoutofCalcutta. Govindapur had a "little pyramid built as a landmark toconfine the Company's colony". TheGovernor's House in the fort "isthe best and most regular piece of architecture that I saw inIndia. And thereare many convenient lodgings for factors andwriters within the fort, and some storehouses for theCompany'sgoods, and magazines for their ammunition".

The fort was then roughly where the General Post Office islocated now, to the west of Laldighi (which had a

succession of names: Tank Square, Dalhousie Square, and nowB.B.D. Bagh). The Company had a garden andponds that furnished theGovernor's table with vegetables and fish. About 50 yards from thefort was theChurch of St. Anne, built in 1709. The construction ofa hospital was begun in 1707.

Residents were ca rried about on land in palanquins, and inbazras (budgerows) in wa ter. According toHamilton, Kalikata waspreferred to Sutanati or Govindapur "for the sake of a large shadytree". Charnockused to draw on his hookah underneath it. Thelocation and identity of that tree has been the subjectofconsiderable speculation. Most investigators hold that Charnock'sfavorite w as a pipal at the end of theavenue that led from his residence eastwards, later called Bow Bazar Street. At the eastern endisBaitakkhana, where Charnock used to make purchases of goodsbrought by land. The ancient pipal tree therewas cut down i 1820 bya notification of the Governor-General. Others are of the opinionthat a tamarind treewas Charnock's favorite and that his tomb wasbuilt near it.

Neither the Governor's House nor the warehouse was fortifiedtill 1696, when Shobha Singh's rebellionstarted. All armies on themove resorted to plunder and the wealthy moved away from theirpaths. The Dutchat Chinsurah could not remove their factory and sosurrounded it by a high brick wall and mounted guns atsuitableplaces. The English did the same at Kalikata, and named theconstruction after the reigning sovereign,Fort William.

Hamilton the fort as a "irregular tetragon" built of brick andmortar, jostled by other houses, erected withoutorder and insatisfaction of the convenience of their builders, accessiblethrough gardens. The English had

possession of the riverside of Kalikata, while Indians hadproperty inland. In Sutanati and Govindapur,

Indians occupied both the waterfront and inland sites.

The Roman Catholics at Bandel who had been intolerant ofProtestants till the end of the 18th century erecteda brick chapelin Kalikata in 1700, to replace an ear lier temporary structure.The present Cathedral, earl iercalled the Portugese Church, wasbuilt in 1799. The Armenians, too, built a place of worship withtimber,later re placed by a masonry structure. Hamilton noted that"... in Calcutta, all religions ar e freely tolerated ...there areno polemics, except between the Governor's par ty and other privatemerchants on points of trade."

At the beginning of the 18th century Calcutta was on its way tooutstripping all its rivals. Hamilton mentions

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4. Picture Gallery: Calcutta in the 19th Century

Source: 'Calcutta: City of Palaces' by J P Losty (BritishLibraries, Arnold Publishers); compiled by S.Mukherjee

Click picture to

enlarge

Description of Picture

1. James Baille Fraser, View of Court House Street from theSouth Eastern Gate ofGovernment House, 1819. Colored aquatint,engraved by T Fielding, plate 14 from'Fraser's Views of Calcuttaand its Environs', London, 1824-6'; 28 x 42.5 cm

2. James Baille Fraser, A View of Writers Building, 1819.Colored aquatint,engraved by R Havell Junr, plate 6 from 'Fraser'sViews of Calcutta and itsEnvirons', London, 1824-6'; 28 x 42.5cm.

3. James Baille Fraser, A View of the West Side of Tank Square,1819. Coloredaquatint, engraved by R Havell, plate 22 from'Fraser's Views of Calcutta and itsEnvirons', London, 1824-6'; 28 x42.5 cm.

4. James Baille Fraser, View of St Andrew's Church from MissionRow, 1819.Colored aquatint, engraved F C Lewis, plate 13 from'Fraser's Views of Calcuttaand its Environs', London, 1824-6'; 28 x42.5 cm

5. Shaykh Muhammad Amir, Government House and Esplanade Row fromtheCourse, 1828-30, Watercolour; 33 x 74.5 cm; India Office LibraryAdd Or. 4151.

6. Sir Charles D'Oyly, Esplanade from Chowringhee Road, c. 1835.Colouredlithograph, plate 24 from his 'Views of Calcutta and itsEnvirons', lithographed byDickinson & Co., London, 1848; 21 x44 cm.

7. William Prinsep, Entertainment during the Durga Puja, c.1840, Watercolour, 23 x43.5 cm, India Office Library WD4035.

8. Sir Charles D'Oyly, Chowringhee Road from No.XI Esplanade, c.1835.Coloured lithograph, plate 26 from his 'Views of Calcutta andits Environs',lithographed by Dickinson & Co., London, 1848; 26x 53.5 cm.

9. Sir Charles D'Oyly, Suspension Bridge at Alipore over Tolly'sNullah, c. 1835.Coloured lithograph, plate 20 from his 'Views ofCalcutta and its Environs',lithographed by Dickinson & Co.,London, 1848; 30 x 41.5 cm.

10. Frederick Fiebig, panoramic view of Calcutta from theOcterlony Monument, insix parts. Lithograph published by T Black,Asiatic Lithograph Press, Calcutta,1847; each 21 x 32.5 cm.

11. Frederick Fiebig, panoramic view of Calcutta from theOcterlony Monument, insix parts. Lithograph published by T Black,Asiatic Lithograph Press, Calcutta,1847; each 21 x 32.5 cm.

12. Frederick Fiebig, panoramic view of Calcutta from theOcterlony Monument, insix parts. Lithograph published by T Black,Asiatic Lithograph Press, Calcutta,1847; each 21 x 32.5 cm.

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5. Excerpts from 'Calcutta: City of Palace s' by J P Losty, TheBritish Library, Arnold Publishers.

Although references to the 'palaces' of Calcutta are found fromas early as 1780, the epithet 'The City ofPalaces' was fir st usedby James Atkinson as the title of his poem published in Calcutta in1824, which sumsup feelings expressed by many at this time. Thiswill give the flavour:

... But we here behold

A prodigy of power, transcending all

The conquests, and the governments, of old,

An empire of the Sun, a gorgeous realm of gold.

For us in half a century, India blooms

The garden of Hesperides, and we

Placed in its porch, Calcutta , with its tombs

And dazzling splendors, towering peerlessly,

May taste its swee ts, yet bitters too there be

Under attractive seeming. Drink again

The frothy draught, and reveal joyously;

From the gay round of pleasure, why refrain!

Thou'rt on the brink of death, luxuriate on thy bane.

I stood a wandering stranger at the Ghaut,

And, gazing round, beheld the pomp of spires

And palaces, to view like magic brought;

All glittering in the sun-beam ...

Atkinson goes on to compare the glittering European city withthe surrounding squalor of the Bengali town, acontrast which becameever more obvious as the 19th century progressed.

Page 11: 'August 24, 1690. This day at Sankraul ordered Capt.Brooke to come up with his Vessel toChutanutte where we arrived atabout noon, but found ye place in a deplorable condition, nothingbeing left forour present accommodation & ye Rains falling day& night. We are forced to take ourselves to boats which

considering the season of the year is very unhealthy.' Withthese depressing words from the first volume of theFort WilliamFactory Records, Job Charnock, the Honorable East India Company'sChief Agent in Bengal,recorded the third and final occupation of afoothold of ground in Suttanauttee within the confines of themodernCalcutta, and so begins the history of that city.

It was trade that sent the English and other Europeans to India,and it was obvious that the delta of the Gangeswas the best placeto establish a trading station. Bengal was the richest province inIndia, whiledownriverfrom the Ganges, Jumna and their tributariescame the goods of all Hindustan. When the Portugesearrived i nBengal about 1518, two great ports were al readu established there,Chittagong in the east (which

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did not control the Ganges trade) and Satgaon in the west, anancient town originally on a branch of the riverHooghly (itself thewestern-most branch of the Ganges delta) about 30 miles upriverfrom Calcutta. Satgaon'simportance was diminished by the gradualsilting up of its river, and about 1550 some of its Indianmerchants,families of Bysacks and Seths, transferred themselvesdownriver to the site of modern Calcutta, to the villagesofGobindpore on a slight eminence above the river, and Suttanutte,where an important market for cotton, the

principal trade of Bengal itself, was developing. The bend ofthe river just below was its last easily navigablestretch, and atemporary town at Betor on the west bank had sprung up to servicethe traders during the season.Further upstream the river shallowed,and the Portugese used to send r iver b oats to bring down thegoods fromSatgaon. About 1575, however, the Portugese receivedpermission from the Emperor Akbar to found asettlement at the townof Hooghly, and they prepared to bring their ships further up whileenjoying theEmperor's goodwill. Betor was largely abandoned and itstrade transferred to Suttanutte across the river.Akbar demanded inreturn that the Portugese at Hooghly should keep the eastern seasfree of the renegadePortugese and Arakanese pirates from Chittagongand the Arkan who infested them. However, the tolerance ofAkbar'ssuccessors for the pr esence of the European infidels was easilyupset, and the Portugese failure tofulfill their part of thebargain drew the vengeance of Shah Jahan upon them. In 1632 Hooghlywas captured by

the Moghuls after a three month's siege, and its Christiansurvivors were transferred to Agra as slaves, endingall seriousPortugese economic ac tivity in Bengal.

Page 13: The Company divided its servants into ranks: 'Knowingthat a distinction of titles is, in manyrespects, necessary, weorder that when the apprentices have served their times they bestyled writers; andwhen the writers have served their times they bestyled factors; and the factors having served their times bestyledmerchants; and the merchants having served their times be styledsenior merchants.' In the factories theylived a kind of collegiatelife, wi th meals taken in a common hall, seated in strict order ofseniority, butapparently with groaning tables before them, witharrack punch and Shiraz wine to drink ...

Page 16: Between Suttanutte and Gobindpore was another village,Calcutta, in 1690 the least important ofthe three, but destined togive its name to the whole city. The name Calcutta (Kalikata) hasnothing to do withthe temple at Kalighat, as is still oftensupposed, as the two were distinct places even in the 15thcentury,when both places ar e mentioned by the Bengali poetBipradas ...

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6. Adapted from "The Calcuttan" (page 31 - 38) by Samaren Roy;"Calcutta: Society and Change - 1690- 1990"; Rupa & Co.publishers; 1991.

Bengal was intermittently a part of the Delhi Sultanate till1580, when Akbar absorbed the province into theMoghul Empire. ManSingh was the first Moghul Viceroy, and he governed from Rajmahalon the Ganga,above the point whence the most easterly distributary- called the Bhagirathi in the upper reaches and theHooghly in thelower - branches off. On his second trip in 1612, Man Singhentrusted the collection of rent inlower Bengal to the Sabarna RoyChoudhury family, who are still illustrious, having producedgenerations ofmembers who attained eminence.

The Roy Choudhury's could collect rent only from those areaswhich had come under cultivation, or wherespinning and weavingproduced items which could be subjected to l evies. Most of the delta or the southern

part of the demesne was too marshy for cultivation. Mangroveswamps extended to the neighborhood ofSealdah, one of Calcutta'spresent r ail termini; the locality known as Entally derives itsname from hatalpneumatophores which grew there. The Roy Choudhury'swere at Halisahar - 46 km north of Calcutta - till themiddle of the16 century. Later, they shifted to Gopalpore in the Hooghlydistrict, then to Birati and finally toBarisha, 10 km south of thecity, where it has remained till now. The spread of cultivationsouthward wasslow and till the end of the 18th century, Kulpi - 66km south of Calcutta - was the last village on the south

bank.

It was from Barisha that the Roy Choudhury's leased out threeeast bank villages ofSutanati, Kalikata andGovindapur to theEnglish East India Company in 1698, five years after Charnock'sdeath. Tidal creeks , laterfilled up and obliterated, separated thevillages from each other. The memory of one of these tidalchannelslives on in the name of 'Creek Row' - a lane extendingeastward from Subodh Mullick (formerly Wellington)Square.

Sutanati was probably the more ancient of these threehabitations. It was definitely the most populous andprosperous,engaged in the production and export of cotton textiles; till 1632selling its produce to thePortugese ships anchored at Betor on theopposite bank.

Fisherfolk lived at Govindapur, the most southerly of the threevillages. It was small and thinly populated,where an indigent andnearly ostracized Brahmin family lived as a priest for thefisherfolk. The family'ssurname in the 1700s was Kushary, whichchanged to Thakur (rendered into English as Tagore), becausetheirfishing clientele addressed them as such. Thakur means lordand is the honorific of priestly groups in Bengal,and ofland-owning castes in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The adoption of thenew surname erased the stigmaassociated wi th a polluting event.There w ere also other Brahmins and Kayasthas s ettled there,notably theHalders of Kalighat.

Information about the population of Kalikata and their vocationsaround 1690 is scant. The Roy Choudhury's,who were also Brahmins,had a kutchery there to collect rents, presumably from all thethree villages. To theeast of the kutchery was a tank, which turnedred during the colour-sprinkling festival of Holi each spring,andthus earned the name of Laldighi, or red tank.

However, much had happened before the English leased the threevillages from the Roy Choudhurys, The

English East India Company had been a latecomer i n trade wi thIndia, and entered it following the visit of SirThomas Roe to thecourt of Jahangir. Trading centers were established at Surat,Madras and Vizagapatnam

before the Company came to Balasore, further east. The expulsionof the Portugese from the Hugli and allMoghul territories createdan opportunity for the English to move in. An English factory wasestablished atGolghat in Hugli town in 1650, with subordinateestablishments at Cossimbazar for silk and indigo, at Patnaforindigo and at Hajipur for saltpetre.

Job Charnock had served at Hajipur and Patna before moving intoHugli. In upcountry Bihar, he had saved awidow from being burnt onher husband's funeral pyre. Charnock made her his wife, and livedwith her till herdeath at Sutanati. Meanwhile at Hugli, Charnockand the factors fell foul of Shaista Khan, the then MoghulGovernor,and after a brief fight in 1686-87, the company was expelled fromBengal.

While Charnock was reporting to the Company's Indianheadquarters, then at Madras, there was a change inthe governorshipof Bengal. Ibrahim Khan, who replaced Shaista Khan, was morereceptive to the company's

pleadings. The name of the Company's pleader is buried in a massof correspondence, but it is likely that itwas Khoja Sarhad Khan,as he acted as a pleader as well as interpreter in 1698 and1715.

Khoja Sarhad was a shipowner and merchant, who became a primefactor for the Armenians in Calcutta afterreceiving a charter totrade in 1688. Unlike the Europeans, the Armenians had littlepolitical identity. Theirhome country was ruled by the OttomanSultans of Turkey and the Safavid Shahs of Persia. But theywereChristians and had little in common with their rulers, both ofwhom were Muslims. They befriended Humayunwhen he was a refugee atthe Persian Court during the middle decades of the 16th century andfollowed him

back to India. Being at home in Persian, which was also thelanguage of the Moghul Court, they often foundemployment in civilposts and occasionally in the army. But they were mainlytraders.

There was a large Armenian community at Chinsurah, and theinflux continued. Khoja Sarhad was a latearrival, a nd it isdebatable where and when he learned English sufficiently to serveas interpreter to JohnSurman's mission to Delhi in 1715. Hisstanding with the Moghul princes was good enough to enabletheEnglish Company to secure the permanent leases of the threevillages in 1698, obtained from Azimushan whilehe was still theViceroy in Bengal. Azimushan later became Emperor Jahandar Shah in1712, but was

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murdered the following year.

Farrukhsiyar, son of Azimushan (Jahandar Shah), marched fromBengal to claim the throne and rule till 1719,The Surman missionwas to Farrukhsiyar's court and commanded the good offices of KhojaSarhad, as bothinterpreter as well as negotiator. His task was madeeasier by William Hamilton, surgeon accompanying themission, curingFarrukhsiyar of a disease which till then had resistedtreatment.

Under the new firman issued by Farrukhsiyar, the English wereconferred not only the right to reside and tradein Moghulterritory, but their goods were also freed from duties, imperial orlocal, except for an annual

payment of Rs 3000. The misuse of this right was later to leadto friction with the Nawab Nazims, the rank towhich the subedarswere elevated. The concession put the English Company at a decisiveadvantage vis- a-vistheir French and Dutch rivals.

Another advantage was that from 1698 - thanks to Khoja Sarhad -the English owned a continuous tract of land12 km long and 4 kmwide through a permanent lease, whereas the three settlements oftheir rivals stretchedalong 25 km, separated from each otherstretched along 25 km, separated from each other and surroundedbyIndian landowners. The English, however, did little to convertthis compact estate into a defensible position.Even after ShobhaSingh's rebell ion in 1696, only the warehouse w as provided withfortifications and guns ofa sort whose efficacy was severelyhampered by allowing haphazard private constructions around whatwascalled Fort William.

The only defensive work undertaken was the digging of theMarhatta Ditch in the 1740's when the Bargis hadappeared in theBurdwan and Birbhum areas. The Bargis were bought off by NawabNazim Alivardi Khan.The ditch was not even a continuous moat. Inany case, neither the ditch nor the Fort William proved anyobstacleto Siraj-ud-dowla in 1756. The ditch served only one purpose: to earn the English residents of thecity the nickname 'Ditchers'. TheArmenians and others were excluded from this description, and tothis daythey are known as Calcuttans. What about the Englishbetween 1690 and 1740? The best nomenclature forthem would beCharnockites, by which English geologitsts designated a rock whichtill then had not beenfound anywhere.

Armenians became an important constituent of Calcutta. KhojaSarhad was not the first of his people to cometo Calcutta. Atombstone for Sookea's w ife, who had died in 1630, was found in1884. The Sookea's probablyresided at Sutanati or Howrah, where theArmenians had a garden throughout the 18th century, and whichmighthave existed in the previous century.

Next to the Armenians, the Suvarna Baniks were an importantlocal trading community. They worked ascashiers for Clive andHastings, became powerful in their ow n ways and founded houseslike Cossipore andJorasanko Rajas that remained important tillrecent times. Other legendary figures include Gouri Sen,thefamilies of the Dhars of Posta (Burrabazar), the Mitras, theMullicks and the Dutts.

There is evidence that Brahmins resisted the attractions ofsettling down in Charnock's city. The RoyChoudhury's, who settledat Barisha after leasing the three villages over to the Company,did not usually travelthe ten kilometers to experience theamenities that were becoming available at Calcutta.

Their neighbours, the Behala Roys, were descendants of migrants.Their ancestor, a Chatterjee, had lookedafter the treasury atSatgaon during Jehangir's reign, and became 'Roys' as a result.When Shahjahan marchedto sack the Portugese at Hugli, the familycrossed the river to Halisahar, home of the Roy Choudhury'sbeforethey settled at Gopalpur, Birati and then Barisha. They movedagain, this time to Madhyamgram, 21 kn nearerto Calcutta. After thescare caused by the appearance of the Bargis, they sought thecomparative security oftheir present residence, four miles south ofthe Marhatta Ditch, but not within it.

Behala, however, did not prove to be as secure as the Roys hadhoped. Soon after, they began to build a house(the constructionlasted from 1743 to 1860!). Raghu dacoit raided and hacked an armoff one of them. Thetemple built by the 18th century dacoit isstill there, then two kilometers outside the city limits, butnowwithin, on Purna Das Road in Ballygunge, Raghu had threatened toto pay a visit again, but did not.

Krishnachandra Ray used to travel the 116 km from Krishnanagarto meet Sir William Jones, towards theclose of the 18th century.However, he chose not to have a house in the city. The family laterbuilt a house ineast Calc utta

Learned Brahmins and reputed priests came much later to thecity, after 1774, as advisers on Hindu lawbefore the courts. Forexample, the Tarkabagish, who remained ambiguous on burning ofwidows; and asresidents in the 19th century - Rammohun Roy,Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar and Ramkrishna Paramahamsa. TheTagores -who were Pirali Brahmins - found a refuge at Govindapur from 1700,and at Pathuriaghata andJorasanko after 1760; they faced a kind ofostracism, for it was alleged that the aroma of cooked beefhadentered their nostrils!

All temples, at Dakhineswar, Kalighat and Tollygunge - exceptfor a temple built by Gouri Sen in Burrabazar,the Navaratna templebuilt by Gobindaram Mitra and the older Chitteswari temple - werebeyond the areaenclosed by the Ditch. Brahmin reluctance to live inCalcutt may have prompted Warren Hastings to locate theSanskritCollege at Varanasi, and the Madrassah at Calcutta. Till the late19th century, Banik pupilsoutnumbered Brahmins and Kayasthas in thecity schools. This fact influenced the Bengal Renaissancemovementin its early stages, for the debates were mainly between theBanias, although the reformistleadership remained with theBrahmins: Rammohun Roy, Dwarkanath and Prasanna Tagore,TarachandChakravarty, Dakshinranjan Mukherjee and IshwarchandraVidyasagar.

Immigration from the villages during the 19th century so alteredthe population pattern that by the 1911 census- the last toenumerate people by castes - Brahmins and Kayasthas were the twolargest, numerically matchingeach other. The other groups becamenumerically weaker, and no longer w ielded their earlierinfluence.During the 192 years of Portugese presence at Hugli, acommunity referred to as Portugese first, then'Topasses',Feringhees and Eurasian at last, came into existence throughconversions and intermarriages.Similarly, at Chinsurah, the Dutchbrought Malay women, who were reputed to be beautiful. ThePortugeseafter 1632, and the Dutch after 1824, became dispersed.They were attracted to Calcutta as it was the onlyflourishing andnearest urban center.

Henry Derozio could have been o f Portugese des cent, but hepreferred an India identity, and became a leadingfigure in BengalRenaissance in early 19th century. His senior contemporary,Alexander Skinner, who had anEnglish father, became a soldier offortune and the cavalry unit he raised became a part of the IndianArmy; ithad armored vehicles for conveyance and bore a differentname.

The Muslim community in Calcutta had mostly drifted in fromMysore (Tipu Sultan's descendants),Murshidabad and the Oudhentourages, and generally did not form part of the city's life. Ofthe few who did,were Mirza Abu Taleb, who was the first person fromthe city to travel to Europe at the end of the 18thcentury, andreturned with the idea of progress; this influenced the BengalRenaissance to a great extent. TheOudh entourages, of course,introduced North Indian music and dance to Calcutta.

(end of chapter)

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7. Old Maps of CalcuttaSource: 'Calcutta: City of Palaces' by JP Losty (British Libraries, Arnold Publishers); compiled byS.Mukherjee

Part 1:The maps in PART 1 record the progressive growth ofCalcutta in the following phases:

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Phase 1:1690 - 1757 > Phase 2:1757 - 1798 > Phase 3:1798 -1858

The fourth map is a 'Plan of Calcutta, 1825' - engraved by M MWoollaston, and scanned from 'Calcutta: Cityof Palaces', by J PLosty; (back cover).

Note: The four pictures (which have been placed on one page tofaci litate comparisons) total approximately90 kB, and may take awhile to load. Please be patient.

Click the enlargement button on the left if you wish to seethese maps.

PART 2: This section is an ongoing compilation of maps relevantto the historical explorations of

Calcutta:

#1. Bengal in the 18th century (with an inset showing theimportant centers along the Hooghly River)

#2. Conjectural map of Calcutta at the time of the Britishadvent, taken from 'Calcutta: Society and Change;1690 -1990, bySamaren Roy, 'Introduction'.

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-------- ------- ------ --- End of contributions ----------------- -------

Quiz - time!!! ready...get set...GO!If you do not know any ofthe answers, click on the link to 'view' the 'answer'...

... but first, you must enter your name please:

Q1.J ob Charnock chose the site for Calcutta on the east bank ofthe Hooghly on August 24, 1690(true or false)?

(in words; lowercase)

Q2.The Hooghly has been an important waterway for more than 3000years (true or false)?

(in words; lowercase)

Q3.The epithet 'The City of Palaces' was first used as the titleof a poem by ___________.

(in words; Sentence-case)

Q4.The three habitations that the Roy Choudhury's leased out tothe English East India Companyin 1698 were Govindapur, Kalikata and_____________ (hint: it i s also the more ancient of thesethreehabitations)

(in words; Sentence-case)

Q5. In early 19th century, Henry Derozio became a leading figurein _____ ___ ___ _____ .

(in words; Sentence-case)

Your score this time: percent

Please tell us if you have any inputs to improve this pop quiz.Thank you.

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