Calcutta: Past and Present

By Kathleen Blechynden

This book was written in 1905. The author had a family connection with Calcutta and also lived there for an extended period of time. Her book is a vivid account of an India now long passed. She has used personal papers, maps, memories and other materials to bring the city to life for the reader.

• Language: English
• Publisher: DigiCat
• Release date: Jul 20, 2022
• ISBN: 8596547086772

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Kathleen Blechynden

Calcutta: Past and Present

EAN 8596547086772

DigiCat, 2022

Contact: [e-mail]

Table of Contents

PREFACE

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER VII

CHAPTER VIII

CHAPTER IX

CHAPTER X

PREFACE

Table of Contents

In

a field of research which has known the learned labours of Sir Henry Yule, Mr. J. Talboys Wheeler, the Record Commission, and Mr. H. Beveridge, followed by Dr. Busteed, the Rev. H. B. Hyde, and the late Mr. C. R. Wilson, it might have been thought that there was little room for other workers; yet, where the harvest is so abundant, a simple gleaner may venture to follow in the wake of these stalwart reapers, and bring her modest sheaf to the great storehouse of history.

Such a thought has encouraged me to put forward this little book. My aim has not been to give any account of the great deeds by which the men of old Calcutta laid the foundations of the British Empire in the East, but rather to try and depict the lives they led, their daily cares and amusements, the wives and daughters who lightened their exile, the houses in which they dwelt, the servants who waited on them, the food they ate, the wines they drank, the scenes ​amid which they moved, the graves in which they laid their loved ones or sank themselves to rest.

In gathering material for these pages I have had the great advantage of a family connection with Calcutta, extending over many years, which has placed at my disposal old diaries and other personal records, besides maps of the town on which changes and improvements were recorded as they were made. These, together with an intimate knowledge of the city, gained during several years' residence in it, have enabled me to construct a mental picture of the life of old Calcutta, which is so vivid as to leave an impression of having really borne a part in it myself. It is this picture, this sense of reality, which I have tried—inadequate as I feel the effort has been—to convey to my readers.

For the illustrations I am greatly indebted to the publishers, who have spared neither trouble nor expense in reproducing old portraits and engravings, as well as modern photographs. They will be found to be, some of them unique, and all, we believe, of great interest, and such as are not readily available to the larger number of those who are interested in the subject.

In conclusion, I may say that, wherever I have taken information or quoted from the ​published writings of others, I have been careful to acknowledge my authority. And if the book as a whole owes its inspiration to the labours of others, it is so in every department of human effort; for each fresh toiler must ever hear, echoing out of the past, the message that came to Kipling's builder from the wreckage of a former builder's plan, Tell him, I too, have known.

K. B.

1905.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Table of Contents

page

From a coloured engraving, one of a series published by Baillie in 1794. The view is taken from Fort point, and shows the Supreme Court on the site of the present High Court. The stern of a vessel on the stocks can be seen on the strand at Cutchagoody Ghat, on the bank of the old creek, the site now occupied by the Bank of Bengal.

From an original photograph. The pavement round the mausoleum is formed of old tombstones. Many of the epitaphs are in raised lettering, and nearly all are legible.

Reduced from the inset map in Upjohn's map of Calcutta, 1794. Several landmarks of modern Calcutta may be readily recognized, notably the great tank in Dalhousie Square; the old pilgrim route along Chitpore Road, Bentinck Street, and Chowringhee; and The Avenue, now Bow Bazar. The Kyd Street tank can also be identified at the southern end of the settlement, and near it, just on the southern boundary, a house with extensive grounds, known later as Sir Elijah Impey's Park, from which Park Street took its name. The plan also shows the batteries and palisades hurriedly constructed to defend the town against Suraj-ud-Dowlah in 1756, and the earlier works of 1742, when Mahratta raids were feared. There is also marked on it the line of Clive's march through the fog and darkness of the early morning hours of the 5th February, 1757, when he drove the Nawab and his great army to a hasty retreat.

From a photograph by Messrs. Bourne and Shepherd, Calcutta. The monument here shown is a replica in white marble of the ​brick-built monument which Holwell erected to mark the common grave of his fellow-sufferers in the Black Hole prison. The replica, erected by Lord Curzon in 1902, and by him presented to the city as a personal gift, is slightly taller than the original, to be in keeping with the modern façade and lofty domes which mask the old Writers' Buildings, now the Bengal Secretariat.

Reduced from an old print.

Robert Clive, First Baron Clive of Plassey. From a portrait in the British Museum. Painted by Nathaniel Dance, engraved by Bartolozzi, 1788.

Vice-Admiral of the White, Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty's forces in the East Indies. From a portrait in the British Museum. Painted by F. Hudson, engraved by E. Fisher.

From an engraving by Baillie.

From a photograph of a painting by Lieut.-Colonel Mark Wood, published by Orme, 1805. Lieut.-Colonel Mark Wood surveyed the town of Calcutta for the Commissioners of Police in the years 1784-85, and it may be safely conjectured that it was about this period that he painted the view of the old Court House, which a few years later fell into decay, and was taken down in 1792.

Governor-General of Bengal. From a portrait in the British Museum. Painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, engraved by T. Knight.

From original photographs, 1895.

Mrs. Fay's House from an original photograph, 1895; Kidderpore House from an engraving by Baillie, 1794.

From a portrait in the British Museum after J. Lonsdale, engraved by Freeman.

From an engraving by the Brothers Daniell.

From an engraving by the Brothers Daniell.

From an engraving by Baillie. This view shows some of the old monuments in a ruinous condition, with trees growing out of the masonry and breaking it asunder.

From a photograph by Messrs. Bourne and Shepherd. This view of St. John's shows the building as it is at the present day, with the various changes made during the century and a quarter of its existence, including the verandahs on each side, and the Venetians fitted to the portico for protection from the weather.

From a photograph by Messrs. Bourne and Shepherd, Calcutta.

From a photograph.

From a photograph by Mr. J. Wakefield, Brentford.

From original photographs. These two views show very clearly the monuments of various shapes and sizes, obelisks, pagodas, etc., which crowd the Park Street Burying Grounds.

Sir W. Jones, from a portrait in the British Museum. Painted by A. V. Devis, Calcutta, engraved by Evans. Lieut.-Col. Robert Kyd, from a portrait in chalks, now in the possession of the Agri-horticultural Society of India.

From original photographs.

From an engraving by the Brothers Daniell. The view is in Chitpore Road.

From a photograph by Messrs. Johnston and Hoffman. This picture shows what is practically the same view as that shown in the frontispiece with the High Court in place of the Supreme Court, and the Bank of Bengal on the old careening yard.

From an engraving by the Brothers Daniell. This is a view of the same locality taken from the same point as that of the replica of the monument at page 44, and a comparison of the two is deeply interesting.

From a photograph of an engraving said to be by the Brothers Daniell, 1788. There were at this period no houses between the Old, or Mission Church, and the Tank, Dalhousie Square. The three figures in the fore-ground are those of Militia men on their parade ground.

From original photographs.

From original photographs.

From original photographs.

CALCUTTA

PAST AND PRESENT

CHAPTER I

Table of Contents

EARLY YEARS

Founding of Calcutta by Charnock in 1690—The three villages and their situation—Charnock's grave and its opening in 1892—The 1715 embassy to Delhi—Surgeon Hamilton, his services, death, and epitaph—The building of the old fort—The church—The park—Social conditions.

ADAY in August in the height of the rainy season in Bengal. The muddy waters of the Hughly, beaten level by the ceaseless downpour of the rain descending in heavy unbroken rush, heaved sullenly in thick turbid swell, rising higher and ever higher as the strong downward current was met and checked by the force of the rising tide, rushing in from the distant sea. In the great circling whirlpools formed by the opposing forces, the bloated carcases of drowned animals, great branches of trees, or whole trees with a tangled mass of roots, swept round, lashed ​ by the rain and whirling flood into semblance of some living monster, stretching octopus-like arms. Once and again would sweep by a human form, charred from the funeral pyre, borne on the rushing waters of the sacred stream to meet its final dissolution, devoured by the alligators, vultures, crows, and jackals who haunted the river waves and shores in watchful eagerness for their prey.

Moving carefully and slowly up stream with the rising tide, came a varied fleet of merchant vessels, and small country boats, which had ridden together at the last safe anchorage, and now toilsomely accomplished another stage of their journey on the dangerous waterway. Sailing with the others came a little country ship, commanded by an English seaman, Captain Brooke, and bearing a small company of Englishmen, servants of the Honourable Company of East India merchants. Their destination was the village of Chuttanutty, where they had traded at various intervals for several years past. Steering for the great tree which was the sea mark, the worthy captain brought his vessel to a safe anchorage in the deep water below the high bank on which the village stood; and this is how the record of the arrival stands in the old books of the company:—

​1690. August 24th. This day, at Sankraal, ordered Captain Brooke to come up with his vessel to Chuttanutty, where we arrived about noon, but found the place in a deplorable condition, nothing being left for our present accommodation, and the rain falling day and night. We are forced to betake ourselves to boats, which, considering the season of the year, is very unhealthy, Mullick Burcoodar and the country people, at our leaving this place, burning and carrying away what they could.

In this way was Calcutta founded, and such was the manner of the coming of Job Charnock to his last port—the spot where his bones were to lie beneath a stately mausoleum through the centuries, while the settlement he founded amid every circumstance of discouragement and discomfort grew and prospered till it became the capital city of the British Empire in India, such an Empire as the wildest dreams of the Great Mogul never compassed.

Before proceeding further, we may well pause and try to conjure up the three villages, set amid marsh and forest, which at that time occupied the site on which Calcutta now stands. Chuttanutty, where Charnock landed, was a thriving village occupied by weavers, and, by reason of its position on the river-bank at a part where deep water ​afforded safe anchorage to the trading vessels passing up and down the great waterway, it commanded a good trade in cotton cloths and thread. The name Chuttanutty, or Sutanuti—derived from suta, thread, and nuti, a hank—has been fancifully translated Cottonopolis. The site of Chuttanutty is now occupied by the northern portion of the town: the river-bank at this point has changed less than has been the case lower down, so that Hatkola, as nearly as can be judged, covers the position of the village, and Dharmatola or Mohunton's Ghat that of Chuttanutty Ghat, the actual spot on which Charnock and his companions must have landed.

Lying somewhat back from the river, to the south of Chuttanutty, was Calcutta, occupying the highest ground in the neighbourhood now covered by the business quarter of the town, and extending down Bow Bazar. The southern boundary of this village was a creek or khal, which, coming from the marshy ground to the east, made its way to the river by a course which may, roughly, be said to be now marked by Hastings Street. Various derivations, learned and fanciful, have been suggested for the name Calcutta, a large number based on a supposed connection with the Kalighat Temple. This ​derivation has been conclusively shown to be impossible, philologically, as well as from a Hindu religious point of view, by a learned Hindu writer, but there seems no apparent reason why the name may not have originated from the position of the village on the bank of the Khal, Khal-Kutta, where the creek or stream had cut its way in some great flood, or had been cut by the villagers to drain their low-lying fields.

The third village, Govindpore, was like Chuttanutty, situated on the river-bank, but considerably lower down. The site is occupied by Fort William. All round this village, extending from the Calcutta Khal (the Creek) to the Govindpore Nullah (Tolly's Nullah), covering the whole of the maidan of the present day, spread a jungle tract of heavy undergrowth and giant trees, the remains of a once dense forest of Soondrie trees, similar to, and possibly a portion of, the forests which give their name to the Soonderbunds or Soondrie forests of the Gangetic Delta. This jungle was intersected by numerous creeks and watercourses, where the muddy yellow waters of the Hughly swept in with the rising tide, or ebbed with the drainage of the surrounding rain-drenched country. A desolate tract, it was haunted by wild beasts, and by armed bands of robbers more to be dreaded than they. These ​made their headquarters in the village of Govindpore, dashing out in swift little boats to attack and plunder rich cargo-boats as they lay at anchor on the fog-bound river in the dark nights of