“Buildings have many lives”, Belgian photographer Luc
Peters had once told me. For no building is this more true than for Henry Martyn’s
Pagoda in Serampore.
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| Henry Martyn's Pagoda |
Located in the Hoogly district of West Bengal, about 25
km away from the state capital of Calcutta, Serampore was once part of Danish
India, under the name Frederiksnagore. But unlike Calcutta, which came into
existence thanks to the British, Serampore may be said to be a pre-colonial
town, having existed as a settlement before the arrival of the Danes. Of the several
ancient Hindu temples that are found in the town today, one of the most
important is the temple of Radha Ballabh.
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| The present Radha Ballabh temple |
The story begins in the 16th century, with a
man called Rudraram. Rudraram, who was living with his maternal uncle in the
Chatra area of Serampore, came to Ballabhpore, and began meditating. The deity Radha
Ballabh appeared to him in his dreams and instructed him to go to Gaur, the
then capital of Bengal, secure a black stone, to be found atop the gate of the Viceroy’s
private residence, and carve an image of Radha Ballabh out of it. Upon arrival
in Gaur, Rudraram found the Viceroy’s Prime Minister to be a devoted Hindu, and
was able to secure the stone. Transporting a stone which weighed several tonnes should have been a challenge but the legend says this was accomplished by supernatural means. The river apparently carried it straight to the Ballabhpore ghat! The idol, celebrated for its beauty, was carved, and set up within a
temple in Ballabhpore. However, when the river Bhagirathi began changing its
course, and came to within 300 feet of the temple, it was thought prudent to
evacuate the idol, and thus, the present Radha Ballabh temple, about a quarter
of a mile inland, came into being. The construction of this new temple is said to
have been sponsored by the Mallik family of Calcutta, and it still contains
Rudraram’s original idol. The old temple was abandoned, and left to be
reclaimed by nature.
The Danes arrived in Serampore in 1755, with a royal
firman from Ali Vardi Khan, Nawaab of Bengal. Along with the Danish East India
Company, began the influx of missionaries, among them, the well-known Serampore
trio of Joshua Marshman, William Carey, and William Wade. By the time the Provost
of Fort William College in Calcutta, Rev. David Brown, had moved to Serampore,
the abandoned temple had become part and parcel of the grounds of a squat
little bungalow called Aldeen House. This was purchased by Brown in 1803, and
three years later, there arrived in Serampore, from Cornwall, England, Henry
Martyn, who had come to India to “burn out for God”. Martyn had asked Brown for
a secluded place in which to live and pray, and Brown had pointed out the
abandoned temple to him, which they referred to as a Pagoda. “My habitation
assigned to me by Mr. B.”, Martyn writes, “is a Pagoda in his grounds, on the
edge of the river. Thither I retired at night and really felt something like superstitious
dread, at being in a place once inhabited as it were by devils”. Referring to
Hindu Gods and devils, and Hindu ceremonies as devil worship was a common
practice among Europeans of the time. Martyn, it seems, managed to make the
Pagoda quite habitable, moved an organ into it, and it became the favourite
meeting ground for the missionaries of the area. “I prayed out aloud to God and
echoes returned from the vaulted roof” Martyn writes, and he was satisfied that
he had managed to convert a place of “devil worship” into “Christ’s oratory”. Apart
from prayer and discussions, a marriage was conducted here as well. Surprisingly, there seems to have been no protest from the local Hindu community about this. |
| Aldeen House today |
But Martyn eventually set out for the cantonment town of
Cawnpore, and when Rev. Brown died in 1812, Aldeen House found no takers. What
was now Henry Martyn’s Pagoda, was abandoned once again. In 1845, the Pagoda
underwent yet another and a rather startling change. It was turned into the “Pagoda
Rum Distillery”. Finally, in 1893, the entire area was taken over by the Howrah
Waterworks, which allowed both Aldeen House and Henry Martyn’s Pagoda to remain
standing, while digging up the grounds to create ponds.
Any visitor to Henry Martyn’s Pagoda today, needs to
enter the premises of the Howrah Waterworks, and approach the Pagoda via a
narrow and treacherous path between two ponds. The Pagoda is in an absolutely
derelict state, a Peepul tree has completely covered it’s roof, and the entire
structure is tilting towards the river. Old lithographs of the Pagoda however,
do show it in a broken down state, and with the present tilt, although during
Henry Martyn’s time, it must have been different, since he says there were so
many rooms and enclosures, that he often got confused. Old lithographs also show terracotta ornamentation which has been destroyed. Aldeen House is also
visible a short distance away, also derelict, and overgrown with vegetation.
The good thing is that there were no officials to restrict entry or photography
of the structures, and unless there is a flood or some major natural calamity, they
will probably remain standing for the next few decades. However, I do wish the
A.S.I. and the Serampore Municipality would take steps to renovate the
structures, and increase awareness about them.
"Yon dome, ‘neath which in former days,
Grim idols marked the pagan shrine,
Has swelled the notes of pious praise,
Attuned to themes of love divine".
SOURCES
Thacker’s Guide to Calcutta - Rev. W. K. Firminger
Journal and letters of the Rev. Henry Martyn, Volume 1 –
Samuel Wilberforce (Ed)
A History of the Church of England in India - Eyre
Chatterton
Life of William Carey – George Smith
The Liberal and the New Dispensation, Volume 12
Henry Martyn: Saint and Scholar – George Smith
Temples and Legends of Bengal – P.C. Roy Chowdhury
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am grateful to Supratim Chowdhury for his assistance in
locating Henry Martyn’s Pagoda
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