Prinsep Ghat

Because Calcutta’s Prinsep Ghat now stands some distance away from the river Hooghly, many make the mistake of assuming that it never was a proper “ghat”, or quay. But in his Recollections of Calcutta For Over Half a Century, Montague Massey describes a set of steep stone steps from the ghat to the water and writes, “When it was low water…you had to be carried ashore by the dingheewallahs on an antiquated kind of wooden chair or board, as the mud between the river and ghat was more than ankle-deep”. Those steps are no doubt buried under the earth and the river has retreated towards Howrah over the years. Nevertheless, Prinsep Ghat on Strand Road, between the Water Gate and the St George's Gate of the Fort William, continues to be one of Calcutta’s best known colonial monuments.

 

The man, who has been honoured by this Palladian porch, was born on the 20^th of August, 1799. James Prinsep was the 7^th son of John Prinsep, a rich Indigo planter turned East India merchant. James initially studied architecture under the gifted but eccentric Augustus Pugin. But an eye infection made it impossible for him to pursue his studies. His father then secured the job of Assistant Assay Master in Calcutta, and James arrived in the city on 15^th September, 1819, to work under the distinguished Sanskrit scholar, Dr. Horace Hayman Wilson. As his eyesight improved, James undertook several important architectural and engineering tasks alongside his job. He studied and illustrated Temple architecture, built a new mint in Benares (Varanasi) and in 1822 even produced an accurate map of the city. But he is best remembered for his translation of the rock edicts of Emperor Asoka, which were in the Pali script. His long hours of work would eventually take a toll on his health, and an unwell James was forced to return to England, where he died on the 22^nd of April, 1840 of “softening of the brain”. Prinsep Ghat was built in Calcutta (Kolkata), in 1843 in his memory, and the money for the monument was collected through public subscription. The architect was Captain W. Fitzgerald.

Sink or Swim: The Bimal Kumar Chandra Story

“Ever heard of Bimal Kumar Chandra?” asked my friend Krishanu. I confessed I hadn’t. “Who was the first Indian to cross the English Channel”? Every Bengali child knows the answer to this question, for it was a Bengali, Mihir Sen. “Well, Bimal Kumar Chandra was the second. I can take you to his house if you like”. And just like that, we set off on a Sunday morning, to meet his younger brother, Amal Kumar Chandra.

Amal Kumar Chandra

Portuguese Church, Brabourne Road

Calcutta’s (Kolkata) Portuguese Church, formally known as The Cathedral of the Most Holy Rosary, has existed in various forms since 1690, but has always experienced some friction with the British. Many Portuguese migrants to India took native wives, and their offspring came to be known as Kintal. Many of these Kintals moved to Calcutta in search of fortune, and the East India Company allowed them to settle in specific areas near the river. Since the Kintals were the only people in India then breeding and selling fowl, the area they settled in is known as “Moorgeeghata” or “the fowl market” even today. Job Charnock had originally granted 10 bighas of land to the Roman Catholics of the Augustinian order to set up a mass hall in the area. But when in 1693 Sir John Goldsborough of the East India Company found the company’s Protestant factors were converting to Roman Catholicism in the mass hall and taking native wives, he ordered them out. The friars would return on his death only 6 months later, and this time they erected a brick Church, a little further away from the original mass hall, and this is where the Portuguese Church or The Cathedral of the Most Holy Rosary stands today.

The Portuguese Church

Bathgate & Co., Camac Street & Ballygunge Circular Road

The first time I heard the name Bathgate & Co. was when I asked my mother about the dilapidated building that once housed my Kindergarten school. That was the name originally associated with building, she said. Thus, my digging began. I present to you here, information that I have gathered through countless hours of internet trawling. Because, in spite of the fact that Bathgate & Co. were Calcutta’s very first chemists, there is no book or website dedicated to their history.

The root encrusted walls of Bathgate & Co's Ballygunge Dispensary

Posta Rajbari, Ratan Sarkar Garden Street

Posta Rajbari

It’s a Sunday morning as our car ventures into the mercantile chaos of Calcutta’s Posta Bazaar area. The fact that even God took rest on this day, seems to have no bearing on the people who live and work here, because although we are assured by people familiar with the area that what we see is very light traffic, there are hardly any trucks for instance, the whole place is buzzing with activity. Burrabazaar is said to have been in existence before Siraj’s sack of Calcutta in 1757 and as we go past the old silver mint, now occupied by the CRPF, through roads and lanes that are almost as old as the city itself, we note the changing look of our surroundings. From the people who are mostly Bihari labourers, to the food which the street shops serve, to the ramshackle buildings with temples on their terraces, this is not a Calcutta that most people living in the residential areas in the South would be familiar with. Indeed, it doesn’t even look like Calcutta. Its appearance is more akin to small town UP or Bihar. We come to a halt in the heart of the bazaar, next to a petrol pump, and lo and behold, a small, but magnificent Rajbari seems to pop up, as if from nowhere, it’s recently painted façade standing out against a backdrop of squalor and urban decay.

Shyam Sundar temple courtyard

The Bengali word Rajbari literally means “King’s house”, but those who built these houses, were, mostly, not kings, atleast not in the conventional sense of the term. Raja was a title awarded by the British to large landowners, the zamindars, who would be responsible for tax collection and general administration of their vast estates. The actual job of collecting revenue would be left to the “nayeb”, the estate manager, while the Zamindar himself, with his accumulated wealth, would build a palatial residence and settle with his extended family, in Calcutta. Attached to the Rajbari would be the temple of the zamindar’s family diety; in this case, it is the temple of Shyam Sundar Jew.

The Office of Military Accounts and Rai Bahadur Satyendranath Aditya

There only two buildings on the Southern side of Koilaghat Street (now Babu Tarapada Mukherjee Sarani). Between the corner of Charnock Place (now N.S. Road) and Bankshall Street lies the Edwardian “blood and bandage” looking Royal Insurance Building. The corner from Bankshall Street, Westwards, to the corner with Strand Road, is occupied by an extremely large and magnificent exposed brick and stucco building, currently in possession of the South Eastern Railways.

Upjohn’s map of Calcutta identifies this building as the Office of Military Accounts. The building originally provided accommodation for the Commissariat and Pay Offices, the Controller of Military Accounts, the Examiner of Commissariat Accounts, the Inspector General of Ordnance, the Pay Examiner, the Examiner of Marine Accounts, the Examiner of Ordnance and Clothing Accounts, the Examiner of Fund Accounts, and the Examiner of Medical Accounts. Today the computerized reservation system of South Eastern Railways takes up most of the building and people may be seen queuing up outside it’s counters as early as 6am on Sundays. The building also houses certain printing facilities of the government.

The Office of Military Accounts, Koilaghat Street

While the specific date of construction remains unknown, we do know that the building was built by the Public Works Department, Mr. C. A. Mills being the Executive Engineer in charge, assisted by Mr. William Banks Gwyther. The overall look of the building is very similar to two better known buildings nearby; The Writers’ Building on Dalhousie Square North and The Treasury Building on Council House Street. Indeed, the same crossed palm tree motif may be seen on the railings on this building and Writers’. The only publication to deal with the building at any length is British historian, film-maker and Indophile, Brian Paul Bach’s formidable tome “Calcutta’s Edifice: The Buildings of a Great City”. Bach says, “Being built in the Writers’ style, it has a multitude of points of interest. One of its most admirable features is the series of genteel balconies which extend the whole route of the second floor’s main windows. Their tokenism is noted, but what a splendid Neapolitan effect they make. The engaged columns all along the façade are topped with Corinthian capitals. They support an entablature (structure between the columns and roof) which is busy without being fussy, and conspicuous blank spaces in the wall surfaces are nicely accented by relief busts of utterly unknown and probably allegorical humanoids. The parapet all around is lively and cheerful, full of variety which in itself is a great achievement, certainly unlooked-at, but in prime repair. Finials of shapes inspired by Burmese or Sri Lankan abstractions of Buddhist pagodas, a low-profile mansard roof, little cupolas at different levels, dormer windows, and mini-pediments thrown in for good measure”.

RAI BAHADUR SATYENDRANATH ADITYA

Marble nameplate on the Rai Saheb's house on Lansdowne Road

Frustratingly little is available on this Calcutta personality, and all that can be gleaned from “Second supplement to Who's who in India: brought up to 1914” is this...

“Satyendra Nath Aditya, Rai Saheb — of the Military

Accounts Department, Eastern Circle. The title of Rai Saheb

was conferred on him in June, 1912, in recognition of his

public services”.

But what manner of service did the Rai Saheb perform? Did he donate money to a worthy cause? Help start a school? Have a tank dug? It is impossible to say. His rather unique looking house, though, may be found still standing on 133 Lansdowne Road (now Sarat Bose Road). Like it’s former resident, no information is available about when the house was made, or who designed it. But it’s exposed brick frontage and the two castle-like towers looming above the neighbourhood, make it easy to spot.

There are two boards hanging from the building’s façade. One is the municipality’s warning that this is a dangerous and derelict building. The other is a board which announces that part of the building is being used as a municipal primary school. I wonder if the school is still operating. The poor can be far less caring about the dangers of collapsing buildings than those more fortunate.

The Rai Saheb's unique looking house on Lansdowne Road

The building is not listed anywhere as a heritage structure, and has passed into the hands of a promoter. A guard has been posted to the gate to prevent squatters (or curious urban explorers) from accessing the wooden staircase inside. Very soon, this unique piece of architecture will be brought down, and a bland or garish apartment block will take it’s place. Amit Chaudhary in a recent article mourned the wholescale destruction of such buildings. While they may not be heritage structures, they add a certain unique look to each city. There are the kind of buildings that set Calcutta apart. Unfortunately they are being replaced, shockingly fast by the bland uniformity of modern apartments and garish atrociousness of shopping malls. 

- by Deepanjan Ghosh

The Small Causes Court, Bankshall Street

One of the unique things about the many heritage buildings of Calcutta in general, and the Dalhousie area in particular, is that many of them remain in use as fully functional offices. Many of them continue to be used, in fact, for the very things that they were originally designed for. One such building is The Small Causes Court.

The Small Causes Court in 1878. Photo courtesy www.oldindianphotos.in

 In the Presidency towns of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras Presidency Small Cause Courts were established by the Charter of King George II, dated 8th January 1753. Initially dealing with cases whose value did not exceed Rs. 100, the Small Causes Court now deals with all cases whose value does not exceed Rs. 3000. Beginning it’s life in the premises of the Imperial Museum (now Indian Museum) in Sudder Street, The Small Causes Court moved to Mangoe Lane in 1870, and finally to this building, at the corner of Bankshall Street and Hare Street, in 1874. It was built on the site of the old General Post Office, designed by W.H. White of the Public Works Department, and though the building has echoes of the French Palladean style, it also has ionic columns. When the building was later expanded southwards, among the many old buildings that were demolished to make way was Calcutta’s only Ice House.

The Small Causes Court today

Before the Ice House was built, citizens of Calcutta were completely dependent for their supply of ice on The Tudor Ice Company of America, whose specially built wooden ships would cause a sensation when they arrived at the ghat near Hare Street. Large blocks of ice were slid down stairs into underground storerooms, and anyone in need of it, would have to send coolies who would carry the ice wrapped in blankets, something that one gets to see in Calcutta even today. The importers of the ice were the Dutt family of central Calcutta, who made a small fortune in the business.

Infact, the street the court is located on, Bankshall Street, gets it’s name from a Marine House which occupied the same space. Historians differ as to the origins of the word Bankshall. Some point to the Dutch word Bankshall, meaning Marine House, while others say it is an Anglicization of the Sanksrit expression Banik-Shala, meaning a gathering of traders, which is what the Marine House was.

HURU CHUNDER GHOSE

Hara Chandra Ghosh's bust

Located at what was once, presumably, the entrance to the Small Causes Court, is the beautiful marble bust of Huru Chunder Ghose. His name is spelt Hara Chandra Ghosh now (pronounced Haw-Row). Hailing from a family from Sarsuna in the South 24 Parganas, Hara Chandra Ghosh attracted the attention of Lord William Bentinck at a young age. He could not join Bentinck’s staff due to objections from his mother. Nevertheless, Bentinck appointed him Munsif of Bankura in 1832; a position from which Ghosh rose rapidly, through his hard work and diligence, to become a judge of the Small Causes Court in 1854. He remained in this position until his death in 1868.

Motifs on the three sides of the pedestal of the bust

Hara Chandra Ghosh was a member of Young Bengal, a loose organization of young, forward thinking Bengali men, influenced by the teachings of the formidable Henry Louis Vivian Derozio and clockmaker turned educationist, David Hare. His marble bust today is surrounded by filth and the view of the pedestal is blocked by benches and makeshift beds, possibly belonging to the many traders who operate roadside tea-stalls and the like from the area. But a closer inspection of the pedestal is possible, and this reveals three motifs carved on it’s three sides; a coconut tree (or possibly palm tree) with a crescent moon, the figure of justice, blindfolded and with scales in one hand, and a rather curious looking arrangement of flowers, whose meaning is not clear to me.

- by Deepanjan Ghosh