An old map of Calcutta

Ever since the British East India Company started their commercial operations in Calcutta some times in the last decade of the 17th century they have attempted to study and document the many facets of the city through maps, sketches and paintings. People often refer to the map of Calcutta drawn up in 1792/93 by Upjohn and the one prepared in 1828 by Capt. Prinsep.

Shown above is the Upjohn map of Calcutta.

The Prinsep map is shown above. A chance look at a book on Calcutta by Lord Curzon revealed yet an older map, as surveyed and prepared by Lt. William Wyllie in 1753. That makes it nearly forty year older to that of Upjohn.

This map of Calcutta naturally raises a number of questions. For instance, it shows the famous Dalhousie Square Tank, also known as "Lal Dighi", as being of a rectiangular shape. The position of some of the building such as the Court House, the Church of St. Anne and the original Fort William itself are to be seen in this map. Of course much changed following the attack on Calcutta in 1756 by the forces of Nawab Siraj-ud-daula.

West Bengal - Terracotta temples

Terracotta,  or unglazed fired clay products, is an ancient art form in India. It seems to have developed as an extension of pottery-making, which is possibly the oldest craft practised by mankind after the making of stone tools. 

It was of course much later, possibly around 700 or 800 CE, when temples began to be built in India that ways had be found to decorate the temples with sculptures, and it was mostly in stone in those days. Sophistication in temple architecture progressed with time and finer and more elaborate carvings began to be made by the 15/16^th centuries. 

Yet finer designs and in less time and less effort came with the development of terracotta tiles to decorate temples with. Necessarily, terracotta generally flourished where stone for temple building was scare and clays were abundant, as found in the numerous river basins, such as the Kangsabati, the Damodar, Ajoy, Rupnarain rivers and of course the Ganga (Hooghly) in West Bengal. It was of course to some extent deliberate because of the ease and the sophistication of designs that could be made in clay relative to that in stone.  This found a great flowering in the late 17^th, through the 18^th and into early 19^th century. A good part of this now has become part of Bangladesh but a great deal remains in West Bengal to be enjoyed in towns such as Bishnupur, Kalna, Ilambazar, Guptipara and elsewhere in the Bankura and Midnapur districts of the state. These sites are quite easily accessible from Kolkata by journeys of just three to five hours by bus, vehicle or train.

The "Jor-Bangla" temple in Bishnupur

"Raghunath" temple in Ilambazar

A hunting scene on Jor Bangla

A detail with Shri Krishna in Shyam Rai temple, Bishnupur

  

As the above illustrations indicate, the motifs for the sculptures in the terracotta are diverse, ranging from the secular, such as wars and royal hunts, to the common devotional theme of Shri Krishna with the gopinis in Vrindavan. Tile after terracotta tile is placed on the basic superstructure of the temple, made here mostly of laterite blocks, to create a wonderful piece of art. 

"10 Walks in Calcutta" - the book

Calcutta (now officially called Kolkata since 2001) was once the capital city of British India from 1858 to 1912 (when the capital was shifted to Delhi) is a fascinating city with its amalgam of a great deal of cultural, political and social history (not only of Bengal but of India as a whole), colonial Renaissance-style architecture, the Indo-Saracenic mode and of course, examples of the native "ath-chala" and "pancha-ratna" mode of buildings.

With the continuing interest of the reading public and of visitors to the city in the book, it is proposed to bring out a new, revised and considerably enlarged edition of this book shortly. 

The book, "10 Walks in Calcutta) came about in 1998 as a result of the walks I had actually undertaken from about 1984, along the roads, lanes and by-lanes of the city, exploring new neighbourhoods, marveling at the architecture,  meeting and talking with people, researching history, taking photographs and so on. The book was published in 1999 by Harper Collins and was well revived and the reviews given below will show; a further, enlarged edition was published in 2004 and again 2006 by Hermes Inc., and a Bengali edition, called "Paye Paye Kolkata" was published in 2018 by Ananda Publishers.
A couple of reviews of the book are as follows --

"On Foot -- If you don't mind breaking a sweat and rubbing shoulders with the aam janta (common man), Kolkata is quite a walkable city, at least in parts, with its pavements lined end to end with makeshift shacks selling practically anything that is sellable! Early morning is the best time to get out and stroll through the streets; it's still relatively quiet, and the air is cooler and less choked by pollution. Pick up a cup of tea from the chai-wallas who serve their sweet brew in tiny unfired clay cups -- India's answer to the polystyrene cup, these are simply discarded after use. A great way to get acquainted with Kolkata is to pick up a copy of Ten Walks in Calcutta by Prosenjit Das Gupta (Hermes Inc.) from a bookstore.

Read more: http://www.frommers.com/destinations/kolkata/274375#ixzz4Hvr5"

"Urban safari

Prosenjit Das Gupta has logged over 150 miles simply walking around the city, Pentax 1000 slung over shoulder, notebook in hand.

Labonita Ghosh – India Today, April 3, 2000 | UPDATED 16:44 IST

For Prosenjit Das Gupta, going around in circles can be a good thing. Now he's telling others how to do it. In his recently published 10 Walks in Calcutta (HarperCollins) - a literary global positioning system - Das Gupta, 55, combines maps, history and philosophical asides to allow readers a zoom-in on the city. You must be a walkaholic to write this one. Das Gupta qualifies: he's logged over 150 miles simply walking around the city, Pentax 1000 slung over shoulder, notebook in hand.

The book is more discerning. It picks the 10 most picturesque and heritage-dotted routes to give walkers a "feel" of the city.

There's the labyrinthine Chitpore Road past the crumbling mansions of old, affluent Bengali families including the Tagores' house in Jorasanko; the riverfront stroll past the ghats; the "path of knowledge" through the city's academic district of College Street.

Das Gupta prefers the offbeat road, cramming the book with minutia rather than textbook history. He actually barged into people's houses collecting facts, and at times got into trouble with the law. Like when he was shooting a photograph of Writers' Building and the security men thought him to be a terrorist.

The book took Das Gupta - a Presidency College alumnus who now works with a refractories firm - 12 years to compile. He was inspired by a leaflet on walking in Aachen, Germany, and Desmond Doig's Calcutta: An Artist's Impressions.

It's hard to tell who the book is for. Tips on clothing, about carrying water and taking a hepatitis shot before eating out, smack of a manual for foreign tourists. But Das Gupta insists it is "first and foremost" for Calcuttans.
"They never really see their city, they never look up," he says. "If you want to study the jungle, you'll have to get down from your jeep." Meanwhile, the book's writer himself may be on the road to Part II. But that's another story.

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/prosenjit-das-gupta-talks-about-his-book-10-walks-in-calcutta/1/243805"


The book gives the readers easy-to-follow maps and descriptions of locations and sites in a convenient manner so that even a casual visitor to Calcutta can actually stroll down the various roads and streets and discover the various localities and their specialties in culture or cuisine, and enjoy the experience in one's own way.  

Barrackpore - once a colonial outpost

Much has been lost in Kolkata (till 2000 known much more widely as Calcutta, the first capital of British India) over the last one hundred years or so; but much still remains. Thanks to the personal interest taken by Shri Somen Mitra, Additional Director General of Police (West Bengal Police), the Governors' House in Barrackpore near Kolkata has received a new lease of life. Slowly, the classical architecture with the Doric facade is emerging out of the dust and shadows of years of neglect.

Barrackpore can be easily reached by a short drive of less than an hour from Kolkata along the Barrackpore Trunk Road, turning left at Chiria More, or four-way crossing, towards the Barrackpore Cantonment; the main sites are to the left shortly beyond the small Lady Hardinge Bridge. One may go in a shorter time of about half an hour from Sealdah Railway station by suburban train up to Barrackpore; but such trains tend to be quite crowded.
The history of the governor's house at Barrackpore goes back to the life and  times of Lord Wellesley, governor-general at the Fort William in Calcutta in 1798. Since then it has served as the country residence of successive Governors-general and Viceroys of India under the British colonial rule, till India achieved Independence in 1947.

 

It was in the adjoining military cantonment at Barrackpore, that Mangal Pandey, a sepoy in the Native Infantry, lit the lamp of revolt against the British military establishment, that saw its rise into the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 (also known as India's first War of Independence) against British misrule in India. 

Barrackpore is a short journey by local suburban train (best over a week-end) or by car from Kolkata. After passing "Lat Bagan" (literally, the governor's garden) at Barrackpore,  one would have get permission from the local Directorate of Police Training and proceed to the Lady Hardinge Bridge a short distance from the "White Tiger Statue". The small museum in the basement of the Governor's House is a "must see" for local history - indeed for modern Indian history.

  

Kolkata - a city that grows on you

Tucked away in the far south-eastern corner of the Gangetic plains, about 1400 kms away from the bustling capital city of Delhi, Kolkata ( earlier known as Calcutta - once the second city of the British Empire) had not been given much attention earlier by tourists. It is overlooked that Calcutta was the administrative centre of British India during the days of the East India Company from about 1695 and later, from 1858, the seat of the British colonial administration in India. It was, in fact, capital of British India upto 1912, when this was shifted to Delhi. 

Now it is coming increasingly into its own. Teeming with people of all colours and creeds, with notable historical sites, a major centre for art and culture, cuisine of all sorts at affordable prices, many places to "chill-out" with friends, Kolkata seems to grow on you.

                                            The Calcutta Collectorate

Walking through the streets of Kolkata there are so many sights and sounds that one can experience: there is the Flower Market on way to the Howrah railway station, church bells on a Sunday morning, or chanting of prayers at a temple, or a horse carriage ride near the Victoria Memorial. The archtecture in the city is varied, from a ixture of Renaissance, Gothic and Baroque during the British adminitsration, to the Indo-Saracenic, to "ath-chala" of native Bengal; a few of these are illustrated on this page.

                                            Victoria Memorial

                                                        The Flower market

                                                        St John's Chirch

There is so much to see and do, so many interesting art galleries and museums, theatres (though mainly of Bengali plays). There are many books on the history and architecture of Calcutta, and the work "10 Walks in Calcutta" is a useful read, appreciated by Lonely Planet and Frommers. This book guides the visitor through easy walks to discover the city. For those who can read Bengali, one can leaf through the "Paye Paye Kolkata" recently published by Ananda Publishers, that should give a visitor a good introduction to the city.