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BENGAL AND ASSAM
BEHAR AND ORISSA

^e*

BENGAL AND ASSAM
BEHAR AND ORISSA

Their History, People, Commerce, and Industrial Resources

Compiled by

SOMERSET PLAYNE, F.R.G.S.

Assisted by J. W. BOND
Edited by ARNOLD WRIGHT

»i^

The Foreign and Colonial Compiling and Publishing Co.

27 pilgrim street, LONDON, E.G.

I9I7

"*|^r

PREFACE

HE issue of this volume to the public at the present juncture, when the problem of the
future of the Empire is receiving the special attention of Imperial statesmen, calls for no
apology. Never was there a time when the fullest information in regard to all component
parts of the vast territories that owe allegiance to the British Crown was more needed ;
never was there an occasion which more insistently called for the production of the
amplest material which may throw a light on the complex questions of commercial polity,
the supreme importance of which has been so abundantly demonstrated in the Great War.
We are at the parting of the ways in Imperial policy, and upon the decisions taken will
depend the future destinies of all the great communities of the far-flung British possessions. As an aid to that
"thinking Imperially" which is the first essential to a successful handling of the questions which are now
clamouring for settlement, this volume may reasonably claim to have a distinct purpose. It is one of a
series of publications commenced some years ago with the object of supplying the British public with a
picture — complete as far as literary and pictorial effort could make it— of the several different parts of the
Empire. In turn the compilers have prepared volumes dealing with British East Africa and Uganda, Cape
Colony and the Orange Free State, New Zealand and Southern India, and now in this work they have essayed
a survey of Bengal and Assam, Behar and Orissa.

In the present book, as in the companion volume dealing with Southern India, the aim kept in view has
been to compile a work on broad and independent lines. While it embodies material of a character commonly
associated with the admirable works issued from time to time under oflicial auspices, it also embraces literary
and popular features not found in those productions, and it has, besides, an immense amount of information
relative to the purely commercial aspects of life, which are not touched either in oflicial works or in the
volumes descriptive of India which have a popular character. Moreover, the pages are illustrated by a wealth
of pictorial matter absolutely without precedent in any literary undertaking dealing with the Indian Empire.
These features, literary, artistic- and utilitarian, it is believed from the experience gained elsewhere, and from
the extremely favourable reception accorded to "Southern India," will ensure for it a friendly welcome from
the Indian public, and ultimately a recognized place in the bibliography of that great Dependency.

This prefatory note would not be complete without a reference to the valuable assistance which the
compiler has received from all classes -oflicial and unoflicial— in the territory covered by his operations.
Without the aid so freely and generously extended it would have been impossible to produce the work in any-
thing approaching the completeness which it is hoped now characterizes it. In another part of the volume
special acknowledgment is made of the assistance rendered in individual cases in India itself, but the opportunity
offered by these opening sentences cannot be allowed to pass without paying a tribute to the kindness of the

QaMMaflb.MMSMtwatBBamMMUKMWiM'aMMMHM

tBrnauoKummm^msM

PREFACE

India Council in permitting a reproduction of a selection of pictures from the unique collection at the India
Office. These works, as our readers will be able to note, are of great artistic and antiquarian value, and give
llimpces of bygone days in India that are extremely fascinating. The processes of reproduction, necessarily
elaborate and protracted, were greatly facilitated by the arrangements made by Mr. F. W. Thomas, the
librarian, whose kindly assistance on this and other occasions the editor desires to acknowledge.

A final sentence or two must be devoted to the difficulties under which the work has been produced.
The Great War has had its influence on India as on other parts of the Empire, and the work of the compilers'
tiall has been impeded at many points by the exigencies of the war period. The delays and obstructions
encountered in India have had their counterpart in the exceptional conditions prevailing at home owing to the
war. Not only was the printing of the book made extraordinarily di6ficult by the enormous depletion of the staHf
of the printers by the war, but the problem of providing paper was a most serious one for a time. Happily
it was ultimately possible to overcome all these obstacles, and to produce the book in a manner equal to the
high artistic standard established in earlier works of the series. The delay in the publication will, it is hoped,
be overlooked as the inevitable outcome of a period of unexampled strain and difficulty.

CONTENTS

CFii?=«^=«^

Bengal — Early axd Later History. By Arnold Wright

Native Races. By L. S. S. O'Malley, I.C.S., Fellow of the Royal Anthropological

Institute ................

The Vegetation of Bengal, Assam, Behar and Orissa. By Humphrey G. Carter,

M.B., Ch.B., Officiating Director, Botanical Survey of India

The City of Calcutta ■

Commerce and Industries. By J. A. Sandbrook, Editor of the "Englishman" .

Mica (p. 211).
Shellac (p. 218).

Darjeeling

Indigo in Behar. By D. J. Reid

Behar and Orissa

Early Histoky. By Arnold Wright (p. 259).
The Provin'ce of Behar axu Orissa (p. 260).
The Behak Planters' Association, Ltd. By The Hon. T. R. Filgate, CLE. (p. 26S)

Railways

The Bengal-Nagpur Railway Company, Ltd. (p. 352).

The East Indian Railway (p. 358).

The Eastern Bengal Railway (p. 363).

The Assam-Bengal Railway Company, Ltd. (p. 369).

The Tea Industry of Bengal and Assam. By G. D. Hope, B.Sc, Ph.D., F.C.S.,
Chief Scientific Officer, Indian Tea Association

The Province of Assam

Early History. By Arnold Wright (p. 410).

Indian Nobility

The State of Cooch Behar (p. 437I.

The Tripura (Hill Tippera) State. By E. F. Sandys (p. 458).

The Native State of Manipur (p. 483).

PACiE

54
59

205

245
255
259

352

387
405

437

CONTENTS

PAGE
60Q

Sport ....

The Tcrf (p. 609).

Polo (p. 6i6).

Athletics (p. 619).
Sugar. By Wynne Sayer, B.A., Assistant to the Agricultural Adviser, Government of

India

Fauna. By VV. M. Nuttai-l ^3i

, 641

Jute ^

Calcutta Industries °-l'5

The Agricultural Research Institute and College, Pusa. By Wynne Sayer, B.A.,

Assistant to the Agricultural Adviser, Government of India 692

The Port of Calcutta 7o8

Press 728

The Foreign and Colonial Compiling and Publishing Company (p. 730)

The Fisheries of Bengal and Behar and Okissa. By T. Southwell, A.R.C.Sc.
(London), F.Z.S., National Scholar, 1902 ; Deputy Director of Fisheries, Bengal
and Behar and Orissa; Honorary Assistant, Indian Museum ; Late Scientific Adviser
and Inspector of Pearl Banks to the Ceylon Company of Pearl Fishers ... 733

The Bengal Presidency 74 1

Concluding Note 762

Glossary ■ • 7^4

Index 765

H.B. THE BIOHT HON. BABON CAHMICHAEL, OF SKIRLING, G.C.I.B., K.C.M.G., GOVEENOB OF BENGAL, 1912-1917.

t'hoto by Johmtfti Or Hoffmann, Cakutta.

HER SXCBLLENCY LADY CARMICHAEL.

photo by Bourne &• Shepherd, India,

h<lMMMMftiMMak>«Aifa^^i^iMMM*iri

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR

AND ORISSA

THEIR HISTORY, PEOPLE, COMMERCE, AND INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES

BENGAL EARLY HISTORY

CHAPTER I
Hindu and Mahommedan Ascendancy

Origins of the population — Early dynasties — The Buddhist
kings— Supplanted by the Sen line of Hindu mon-
archs — Rise of Mahommedan inHucnce — Mahom-
medan dynasty established independent of Delhi—
Shcr Shah's conquest of Bengal— Annexation of
Bengal by Akbar — Bengal under governors appointed
by the Mogul emperors.

ENGAL shares to a
very large extent in
the historical tradi-
tions of the northern
parts of India. The
movements of popu-
lation which settled
the ethnological cha-
racteristics of those areas largely affected
the province, and it was conspicuously
associated with the great religious de-
velopments which so profoundly in-
fluenced the life history of the people.
Generally speaking, the population of
Bengal is of Dravidian and Aryan origin,
though on the eastern side there are
marked Mongoloid elements, pointing to
a close association of those tracts with
the stream of immigration which settled
the character of Burma and the other
parts of Further India. The Aryan immi-
gration is that which has left its deepest

By ARNOLD WRIGHT

mark upon the life and literature of
Bengal.

A heavy mist obscures the early
dyn:istic history of Bengal. It seems
probable that for a good many centuries
the province consisted of a number of
independent and mutually warring States.
In the earliest period of the Christian
era North and East Bengal with Assam
formed the important kingdom of
Pragjyotisha, or Kamapura, as it was
subsequently called. This territory was
ruled over by a succession of Mongoloid
princes, whose line was still powerful
when Hiuen Tsiang, the Chinese pilgrim,
visited the coimtry in the seventh
century. Another early kingdom was
Pundra, or Paundravardhana, the country
of the Pods, -which is thought to have
given the name to the modern Pabna.
References to it are found in Hiuen
Tsiang's work, and as late as the eleventh
century we read of it as a place of pil-
grimage. The other dynastic features of
early Bengal were Banga or Samatata,
a kingdom east of Bhagirathi, the home
of the modern Chandals ; Kama Suvarna
(Burdwan, Bankura, Murshidabad, and
Hooghly), associated with Sasanka or
Narendra, famed in Hindu history as the

last of the Guptas — the monarch whose
fanatical zeal on behalf of Hinduism
prompted him to invade Magadha in the
seventh century and cut down the sacred
Bodhi tree ; and, finally, the kingdom of
Tamralipta, or Suhma, a country which
comprised what are now the districts of
Midnapur and Howrah.

In the ninth century the history of
Bengal becomes more clearly outlined
with the accession of the Pal dynasty,
which, rising to power in the country
originally styled Anga, finally extended
its sway over the whole of Behar and
North Bengal. Buddhist in religion,
these kings exercised a very benevolent
sway over the population, and left a dis-
tinct mark on the country, both as regards
place-names and the traditions of the
people. The rising tide of Hinduism
overwhelmed them in the eleventh cen-
tury, when they were ousted by the Sen
dynasty, which had placed itself well
abreast of the Hindu movement, and by
its influence had established itself in East
and deltaic Bengal in the previous cen-
tury. This dynasty gradually drew to
itself all the authority in Bengal proper,
from the Mahananda and the Bhagirathi
on the west to Karatoya and the old

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Brahmaputra on the east. It was in its
day a great power in Hinduism. To one
of its kings, Ballal Sen. belonjjs the fame
of having reorganized the caste system
and introduced Kulinism among the Brah-
mans, Baidyas, and Kayasths. The line
survived until the period of the Mahom-
medan invasion in the twelfth century,
and in a severely reduced form even
lingered on 150 years later in East
Bengal, with Bikrampur, in the Dacca
district, as the capital.

The Mahommedan influence in Bengal
dates back to the twelfth century, when,
in common with the adjacent areas, the
country was subjected to the inroads of
the Turki hordes. One of the adven-
turers, Muhammad-i-Bakh<yar Khiiji,
after conquering Behar in about 1199,
took possession of Gaur and Nabadwip,
and the former became the seat of a line
of potentates who ruled the country some-
times with, and sometimes without, the
overruling authority of the Delhi
emperors. For two hundred years, from
the fourteenth to the sixteenth century,
Bengal was under the sway of succes-
sive lines of independent kings of a mixed
origin. Some were Pathans, others were
Turkis, others, again, were Abyssinian
eunuchs, and in one instance the ruler
was a Hindu. In 1539 a new and power-
ful ruler appeared upon the scene in the
person of Sher Shah, the famous Afghan
adventurer, who was to become one of
the greatest of the early line of emperors
of Delhi. Sher Shah, in the first years of
the reign of the Mogul Humayun at Delhi,
carved out for himself an independent
position on the borders of Bengal, with
Chunar as his headquarters. Humayun
becoming jealous of his power, six years
after his accession, marched against him,
and besieged and took his fortress of
Chunar. Sher Shah himself, however,
evaded the emperor's attacks, and re-
tired to Rohtasgarh, in Bengal, which
he had wrested from its owners. Here
he successfully withstood a siege, and
when, at the expiration of six months,
Humayun retired discomfited to Delhi,
he ousted the Mogul governor who was
resident at Gaur, and proclaimed himself
King of Bengal and Orissa. This was a
prelude to a still greater triumph in the
defeat of Humayun at Kanauj and Sher
Shah's occupation of the Imperial throne,
from which he had evicted the defeated
monarch. After Sher Shah's death
Htmiayun was able to restore ihis
authority at Delhi, but the position in
Bengal remained unchanged, a series of

.Afghan governors upholding the authority
which Sher Shah had established. In
1568 Orissa was conquered by Raju,
better known as Kala Pahar, the general
of Sulaiman Kararani, a prince who was
really independent, but who acknow-
ledged the authority of Akbar. Sulai-
man's son Daud, when he came into
authority, followed his father's example,
and gave in his adhesion to Delhi, but
he subsequently rebelled, and Akbar,
seizing an opportunity for which he had
been waiting, definitely annexed Bengal
to his empire. Henceforward, until the
British assumed power, the country was
under Mogul rule.

The authority now devolved upon a
succession of governors and viceroys, who
wielded authority with varying degrees of
success. At art early period, owing to
the incursions of defeated Afghans who
had taken refuge in Orissa, the capital,
which had usually been established at
Gaur or the neigbouring' towns of Pandua
and Rajniahal, was transferred to Dacca,
and here it continued for a hundred years,
at the expiration of which, under the vice-
royalty of Isniael Khan, the centre of
government was again removed, this
time to Murshidabad. The province
shared in the vicissitudes of the Imperial
throne. When Shah Jehan revolted
against his father, the Emperor Jehangir,
in 1 62 1, he seized Bengal, and held it
for two years with the aid of Afghan ad-
venturers. Eventually he was defeated
and compelled to relinquish his conquest.
When later he came to the throne he
established his son, Sultan Shuja, as
Governor of Bengal. This prince, follow-
ing the evil precedent of the Imperial
house, fought against his brother Aurang-
zebe, and being defeated by his general,
Mir Jumla, was compelled to fly to
Arakan, where he died in obscurity. As
a reward for his services Mir Jumla was
appointed to Sultan Shuja's place, and
made an admirable ruler. Mir Jumla
died near Dacca on March 30, 1663, after
an arduous campaign in Cooch Behar and
Assam, in which he had suffered great
exposure. His successor was Shayista
Khan, the premier prince of the empire.
Later, on Aurangzebc's death, the gover-
norship of Bengal was conferred upon
Murshid Kuli Khan, a Brahman convert
to Islam, who had worked his way into
favour by his commanding talents. This
worthy, profiting by the weak and divided
condition of the Imperial family, took to
himself a considerable amount of power,
and eventually made himself practically

independent. Thereafter the authority of
Delhi was of the smallest, the Governors
of Bengal being all but in name sovereign
princes.

CHAPTER II
Rise of European Influence

The Portuguese in Eastern India — Tlleir setllcmenl at
Chittagong— Portuguese piracies— Shah Jehan de
stroys the Portuguese settlement at Hooghly—
Appearance of the Dutch in: Bengal— Their factories
at Pipli and Chinsurah — Early English trading expedi-
tions— Balasar becomes the English headquar:ers —
English factory establislied at Hooghly— The East
India Company dispatch a special commission to
Bengal — Disputes between the Company's officials
and the Mogul authorities- Sir Edward Winter ad-
vocates an energetic policy — Growth of Bengal trade
—Establishment of the Bengal Pilot Service—
Streynsham Master visits Bengal — He reorganizes the
English establishments with Hooghly as the head
quarters.

Before the Mahommedan domination of
Bengal had been firmly established a new
influence had made its appearance, which
was destined in course of centuries to
produce a revolutionary change in the
government and the commercial life of
the country as of the rest of India. This
was the European factor, brought into
existence by Vasco da Gama's epoch-
making achievement of doubling the Cape
in 1498. The Portuguese, as the pioneers
of the new movement, reaped all the early
advantages that attached to the discovery
of the sea route to India. For a century
they enjoyed a practical monopoly of the
trade, with all that their position of
splendid isolation implied in the way of
political power. Though their territorial
conquests were mainly on the western
coast, with Goa as a splendid capital,
Portuguese emissaries penetrated to
almost every part of the peninsula then
open to outside influence. As early as
1530 they began to frequent Bengal, and
they were not slow to grasp the immense
potentialities which its trade offered.
They established themselves firmly at
Chittagong and Saptagram or Satgaon,
the foundation of the latter settlement,
which was in the neighbourhood of the
modern town of Hooghly, anticipating by
nearly two centuries the decision of the
English East India Company to fix their'
headquarters there, and so to form the
beginnings of the great city of Calcutta.
An immense trade was rapidly created
under Portuguese auspices, with Satgaon,
or Porto Piqueno, as it was known, aS
its chief centre on one bank of the river,
and Betor, near Sabpur, on the other.
Chittagong also shared in large measure
in the oversea trading operations initiated
by the Portuguese, but in course of years
this port became the refuge of numerous

BENGAL— EARLY HISTORY

adventurers from Goa and other settle-
ments in the west, and their piracies be-
came infamous throughout India, largely
tending to neutralize the success of the
legitimate commerce which their more
orderly countrymen carried on. From
time to time efforts were made by the
Mogul Government to deal with these
desperadoes. They managed, however,
by their knowledge of the sea and their
superior military talent to evade the
punishment they so richly deserved until
1632, when Shah Jehan, enraged beyond
endurance at the crimes perpetrated, sent
a big force against the Portuguese settle-
ment at Hooghly, and when the town had
been captured caused all its Portuguese
inhabitants to be transferred to Agra as
slaves. The disaster practically sealed
the fate of the Portuguese trade in this
part of India. With some of the outer
settlements at the mouth of the river fitful
relations were maintained by Portuguese
from Calicut and elsewhere on the Coro-
mandel coast, but the days of ascendancy
and even of equality of effort were gone
never to return.

The downfall of the Portuguese was
hastened, if it was not actually caused,
by the action of the Dutch. From the
outset of their intervention in Eastern
trade the Hollanders had constituted
themselves bitter foes of the Portuguese.
In the Malayan region and in the Eastern
Archipelago, as well as in Ceylon and
Southern India, before the destruction of
Hooghly by Shah Jehan, they had fought
an unrelenting fight, driving the descend-
ants of Albuquerque from one settlement
after another, until their power was a
mere shadow of its old self. In Bengal
the Dutch made their first appearance in
1625, establishing themselves at Pipli and
Chinsurah. They were at the time too
much occupied with the task of consoli-
dating their positions in other regions of
the East to give much attention to the
trade of Eastern India, but their records
show that they grasped its importance,
and that if the exigencies of their policy
had admitted they would have made a
much stronger bid for supremacy in
Bengal than they did. Not, however, that
they were an insignificant element in this
early struggle for commercial pjedomi-
nance. They made a great display with
their ships, and by the masterful way in
which they handled local problems sup-
plied an example which their more timid
English rivals were constrained in the
end to follow.

The early essays of the English repre-

sentatives of the East India Company in
Bengal were certainly neither heroic nor
well planned. They were traders pure
and simple, and the influence of the
ledger was ever present in their tran-
sactions. Even as traders they left a
great deal to be desired, since we find
them taking with them as suitable articles
of mercliandise the stout English broad-
cloth^, which could have no possible
market in a sweltering climate such as
that of the Gangetic delta is. Neverthe-
less, as the first of their race to establish
themselves in Eastern India, they are en-
titled to the respectful notice of the
historian. We may think lightly of their

vinces bordering on the Bay of Bengal
was but feebly supported, and after an
inglorious existence the Hariharapur
factory fell into utter decay. The
Balasar establishment, however, survived,
and after various vicissitudes it was con-
stituted the headquarters of the English
trading operations in this part of India.
It so remained until 1650, when, acting
on the advice of Gabriel Broughton, a
surgeon in the employ of the East India
Company, who had won favour with Shah
Shuja, the Mogul Governor of Bengal,
by his skill in treating a member of that
prince's family, the Company dispatched
the ship Lyoness to Bengal with the

ft Hi" ^^^-^

THE GAME OF CHAWGAB (AN INDIAN POLUJ.
From an Indian drawing in the Johnson Collection at the India Office.

acumen and cast stones at their morals,
but we cannot forget that they were the
banner-bearers of a Power which was
destined profoundly to influence the
course of history in this part of Asia.
The first appearance of the English
as traders in the Bay of Bengal was in
1633. In that year a small expedition,
composed of eight Englishmen, led by
Ralph Cartwright, voyaging in a country
boat, proceeded from Masulipatam to the
mouth of the Patua in Orissa, and thence
to Cuttack and the Court of Malcandy,
or Mukund Deo, the last of the line of
independent Hindoo kings in that pro-
vince. Friendly relations were estab-
lished with the native power, and under
the authority given by the king factories
were set up at Hariharapur and Balasar
in the same year. This initial efi'ort to
create trade relations with the rich pro-

object of establishing a factory inland
up the Ganges. The Lyoness did not
proceed beyond Balasar, and it was from
that port that the Company's representa-
tives, James Bridgeman and Edward
Stephens, with two assistants named
Blake and Tayler, started on the mission
which took the form of a design to secure
powers for the starting of a factory at
Hooghly. There is some doubt as to
what really happened after this, but the
generally accepted view is that, probably
owing to Broughton's influence, though
this is by no means clear, a nishan, or
authority, was procured for Rs. 3,000
from Shah Shuja in 1651 or 1652, giving
the English the right to trade in Bengal
without payment of custom dues. The
factory established at Hooghly under this
grant suffered under the same disabilities
which had nullified the efforts of the

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

earlier expedition at Hariharapur. It
had, in fact, barely been brought into
existence before the Council at Madras
came to the conclusion that the enterprise
must be abandoned. This decision was
come to in 1657, but before there was
time to give it effect the condition of the
Company's affairs at home, with the
amalgamation of Courtin's Conjpany with
the original Company and the renewal of
the latter's charter by Cromwelli, had so
greatly improved that a new forward
policy was deemed politic, and under this
an arrangement was concluded for the
dispatch of a special commission to
Bengal, with the object of removing
abuses and strengthening the Company's
position in that quarter. A large new
staff was appointed to equip the factory
at Hooghly as well as provide for sub-
ordinate agencies at Balasar, Kasim-
bazar, and Patna. It is to be noted
that one of the junior officers thus
appointed was Job Charnock, who was
to become famous some years later in
connection with the founding of Calcutta.
A new era in the connection of the
English with Bengal was opened with the
dispatch of the commission referred to
in the foregoing paragraph. Hitherto the
efforts of the Company to create a posi-
tion in Bengal had been spasmodic and
disconnected. Their agents had been men
of inferior status, and lacking in the sup-
port which was needed in a situation such
as then existed, with exigent native
authorities on the one hand', and aggres-
sive rivals, Dutch and Portuguese, on the
other. Now there was a regular organ-
ization, with a proper system of control,
and possessing authority to consolidate
and extend the Company's influence in
the vast region comprehended in the
sphere of the Hooghly factory's opera-
tions. Unfortunately the introduction of
the new system coincided with one of
those dynastic upheavals which from time
to time convulsed India. The Emperor
Shah Jehan falling seriously ill in 1657,
his third son, Aurangzebe, went into re-
bellion, and after imprisoning his father
and defeating his elder brothers, seated
himself upon the Imperial throne. These
changes for a time reacted disastrously
upon the English position. Disputes
immediately arose relative to the pay-
ment of the annual sum of Rs. 3,000, and
the new native officials vexatiously
hampered trade. At length the Com-
pany's agent at Hooghly retaliated by
seizing a native vessel in the river. This
brought down upon the English the wrath

of Mir JumlaW, the Mogul Governor of
Bengal, who threatened to destroy the
Company's factories and expel their ser-
vants from Bengal if the vessel was not
returned. Alarmed at the turn that
affairs had taken, the Company's officials
made their peace with the irate governor
by restoring the vessel and paying a fine
by way of indemnity. Their action was
a humiliating confession of weakness,
which served to accentuate the arrogance
and extortion of native officialdom. Sir
Edward Winter, who, under the new
charter of the Company issued by
Charles II in 1661, had been sent out to
India as President of Fort St. George,

BABER PADSHAH."

From an c>rif|inal Indian drawing in the Johnson
Collection at the India Office.

with full control of the Bengal factories,
was greatly in favour of the adoption of
a more energetic policy. His view was
that the only suitable argument for usq
in discussion with the native Government
was sea power, and that this should be
energetically employed so as to convince
them that the English were as strong on
the water as the Mogul power was on the
land. His theory had much to commend
it, as the subsequent course of events
clearly demonstrated, but the times were
not suitable for the adoption of thorough-
going measures. The home authorities,
imbued with the idea that trade and
aggressive action, even for purposes of
defence, were incompatible, took strong
exception to Winter's policy, and in order
that they should not be committed too

far by him, sent out a new agent in the
person of George Foxcroft to supersede
him. Winter openly opposed these
meaFures, seizing Foxcroft and casting
him into prison, and continuing to exer-
cise official authority in spite of protests,
until, three years later, a commission was
sent out from home with powers which
he could not disregard.

Winter's coup d'etat belongs more to
the history of Madras than to that of
Bengal, but it, nevertheless, was not with-
out its influence on the course of events in
the latter territory, where development
was delayed by the fierce official feud
waged at headquarters over the prostrate
body of Foxcroft. The trouble was the
more unfortunate as the Bengal trade at
this juncture was proving its value. A
great export was growing up in Bengal
silk, and such was the demand for the
beautiful muslins and other light fabrics
of Bengal that in 1668 the Company had
authorized the establishment of an agency
at Dacca, then the capital of the province.
It was in this year that the famous
Bengal Pilot Service was formed. The
Company's ships had found the difficulties
of navigating the river so serious that
they had up to 1662 landed their cargoes
at Balasar, a practice which seriously
militated against the profits of the
voyages, owing to the necessity of tran-
shipment and the incidental expenses. As
the large Dutch ships were able to get up
to Chinsurah in safety, the Court of
Directors determined to grapple with
the problem of navigating the difficult
channels of the river by giving special
orders to their captains to have a
survey of the waterway made. The
instructions were very definite, and
in order that some permanence should
be giveri to the system, six young men
were appointed as apprentices to be
trained in survey work. Acfmirable work
was done by these youthful pioneers. To
one of their number — George Herron —
belongs the credit of producing the first
chart of the river which was of any scien-
tific value. It was, however, not until
1679, when Captain Stafford made the
passage to Hooghly in the Falcon, that
their labours reached fruition.

No change of any moment occurred in
the position of the English in Bengal until
1676, when the Company introduced an
improved system of administration, and
sent out Streynsham Master, one of its
ablest servants, to inaugurate the new
regime in Eastern India. Master, in his
well-known " Diary," has left a record

BENGAL— EARLY HISTORY

of his mission — or missions, for he paid
two separate visits to the Bay of Bengal
— which is one of the classics of Indian
official literature. Besides being a clever
official, he was a man of considerable
culture, and his writings have a literary
quality which is not often found in the
Company's records of that period. He
gives us a graphic picture of the life of
the English factories in Bengal as they
then existed, and also tells us a great
deal about the conditions of trade and
the openings offered for enterprise in the
rich Gangetic delta. His visits resulted
in a marked extension of the Company's
activities. The existing factories were
reorganized, with Hooghly as more defi-
nitely the headquarters of the Bengal
agencies, and a new factory was started
at Malda, bringing the number of the
Company's agencies up to six, the other
centres being Hooghly, Balasor, Dacca,
Patna, Kasimbazar, and Singhiya. A
considerable extension of the Company's
investments followed upon the completion
of these arrangements. The trade was
a very lucrative one, so much so that in
1677 it is noted in the records that the
year's transactions on the east coast were
greater than in any other period of the
Company's commerce.

CHAPTER III
Growth of English Influence

Authority to trade given by Aurangzebe — Native exactions
— William Hedges, the chief factor at Hooghly,
recommends the .ndoption of a strong policy — Expedi-
tion to the Bay of Bengal— Mogul troops assume the
offensive at Hoo;;hIy — Job Charnock successfully
attacks the Moguls, and the English sack Hooghly —
Shayista Khan, the Mogul Governor of Bengal
declares war against the English — Tlie English take
refuge at Hijili— Precarious position of the English-
English reinforcements arrive and save the situation
— Occupation of Sutanuti, the modern Calcutta.

Hooghly, though a far more desirable
centre for the Company's headquarters
than Balasor, had many and serious dis-
advantages. Some of these were inherent
in the situation ; others were the product
of the short-sightedness of the founders
of the factory, who chose for its site a
position hemmed in by native houses and
open to attack from the land as well as
the river. As the Company's trade grew
the drawbacks of the position were accen-
tuated. Powerless to resist the native
exactions, the Company's agents more
and more fell under the evil influence of
the system, which made their operations
the sport of avaricious officials. In 1680
an authority to trade without payment of
any dues other than the 3| per cent, tax
imposed at Surat was obtained from

Aurangzebe, but, owing to the obscure
wording of the rescript, the Bengal
officials repudiated the exemption claimed
by the Company's agents, and enforced
their exactions as of yore. In vain
William Hedges, who had been sent out

tinued, and even assumed an aggravated
form. It became more than ever obvious
that if the Company wished to enjoy real
freedom in its trading operations it must
have a fortified position, with power in
the background to protect its interests

THE EMPEROR

From an original Indian drawing in the

as agent and governor in Bengal,
appealed to the Mogul Governor,
Shayista Khan, to have the impediments
to the Company's trade reniovtid.
Shayista Khan was conciliatory, and
even promised to procure a new larman
from the Emperor, and to compel the
obnoxious officials to make restitution.
But, in spite of all, the old abuses con-

SHAH JEHAN.

Johnson Collection at the India Office.

when they were unfairly assailed.
Hedges in his dispatches home
strongly recommended the adoption
of a forward policy of this kind, but,
as in the case of Winter before him,
the directors were indisposed to acknow-
ledge the soundness of their servant's
logic. They thought that strong
measures would defeat their own ends,

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

and that, in any event, if they were to be
resorted to, the pressure could be more
effectively applied in Bombay than in
Bengal. Their opposition, however, was
not long proof against the evidence which
accumulated year by year indicative of
the serious effects produced upon the
Company's trade by the unrestrained
violence of the local officials. In 1686,
having obtained permission from James I
to make war on the Mogul, the Court made
arrangements for a vigorous campaign on
both coasts of India. On the western side
the Company's officials had orders to
withdraw from Surat and seize every
Mogul ship that was encountered at sea.
To Eastern India a large fleet was dis-
patched, with instructions to rendezvous
at Balasor, and from thence proceed to
Chittagong, which port was to be seized
and held for the Company, with Job
Charnocic in the position of governor.
The expedition to the Bay of Bengal
was for that period an imposing force.
It consisted of three men-of-war — the
Beaufort, the Nathaniel, and the
Rochester— moMUlm^ altogether 185
guns and manned by 600 seamen,
and three small frigates, each mounting
12 guns and having a crew of 20. In
addition to this force, there was at the
disposal of the local officials a number
of river craft and a miscellaneous con-
tingent of troops made up of English
soldiers and Portuguese or native Christ-
ian fighting men— the latter " very sorry
fellows," according to the officbl state-
ment. It was a sufficiently large force, if
used with judgment, to effect much as
matters then stood, but the arrangements
for the concentration of the various
elements of the expedition were ill-con-
ceived, and before they were completed
the native authority assumed the offensive,
and sent a considerable body of troops,
iiKluding artillery, to occupy Hooghly.
Hostilities commenced on October 28,
1686, when three English soldiers were
set upon, and, after being badly beaten,
taken prisoners. A company of soldiers
were sent out from the factory with orders
to rescue the captives. They made a
gallant attempt to execute their instruc-
tions, but were met by a largely superior
force of the enemy, and were compelled
to retreat with the loss of seven men
killed or wounded. Following up their
success, the Moguls fired the houses ad-
jacent to the factory and opened fire with
their artillery on the Company's ships
in the river. Alarmed at the turn that
affairs had taken, Charnock, who was in

charge of the factory, sent to Chandcr-
nagore for some English troops that were
quartered there. These in due course
arrived, and, ably led by Captain Arbuth-
not, attacked and captured the enemy's
battery, and, having spiked and dis-
mounted the guns, pushed on to the
Mogul Governor's house, driving all
before them. The Mogul Governor,
fearing for his safety in the presence of
this impetuous onslaught, incontinently
fled, leaving the English in undisputed
possession of the field. In order that
the lesson they had given might lack
nothing in point, the English later opened
fire from their ships on the native settle-
ment, " and kept firing and battering
most part of the night and next day,
and making frequent sallies on shore,
burning and plundering all they met
with." Impressed by this vigorous
assertion of power, the Mogul Governor',
through the Dutch, sought to eff^ect an
accommodation. Charnock, who was in
no condition to continue the fight in-
definitely, and was anxious to gain time
for the completion of his plans for the
removal of the Company's property to
a more secure position, gladly accepted
these overtures.

A " sort of peace " now followed, the
English actively employing themselves
with their loading operations, and mean-
while conducting negotiations for an
Imperial authority to trade. But they
had reckoned without Shayista Khan, who
was not the type of functionary to sit
down meekly under such a heavy rebuff,
as the defeat of the Mogul troops un-
doubtedly was, to the supreme power.
The Mogul Viceroy almost immediately
took steps to avenge the Hooghly attack.
Rejecting with contempt the demand for
a new authority to trade, he issued orders
for the seizure of the Company's property
and the imprisonment of their servants
at Dacca, and he followed this up with the
issue of orders to the subordinate gover-
nors of Bengal to collect all the forces
they could get together with the purpose
'of driving the English out of Bengal
never to return. Charnock now realized
that it was to be open war. He promptly
took the initiative by burning the King's
salt houses and assaulting the forts at
Thana or Garden Reach. When the latter
had been demolished the English agent
loaded the ships with the Company's
property and records and went off down-
stream to the island of Hijili.

Charnock so far had shown himself a
shrewd and resourceful leader in a time of
18

emergency, but the choice of Hijili as
a place of refuge was an unfortunate one.
The island was naturally a swamp, and
malarious to a degree which has passed
into a proverb. Its gravest defect, how-
ever, was that it was not a spot on which
a good defence could be made. The
serious disadvantages of the situation
were revealed ere the new colony had
been in being many weeks. As the hot
season approached the English soldiers
and seamen sickened in alarming
numbers. Simultaneously the Mogul
forces became stronger and more
menacing. By the middle of May
1687 two hundred of the English troops
had succumbed to the climate, and Char-
nock, with his sadly diminished force,
was called upon to meet the attacks
of twelve thousand well-equipped Mogul
troops. Desperate almost as the position
was, Charnock never lost heart. When
on a day at the end of May the Moguls
surprised one of his outposts and pene-
trated into the town, threatening his com-
munications with the ships in the river,
he concentrated his attenuated forces in
a small masonry building midway between
the town and the landing-place, and suc-
cessfully, in that position of advantage,
repulsed the enemy's attacks. On the
1st of June the gallant defenders were
greatly heartened by the arrival on the
scene of a reinforcement of seventy men
fresh from Europe. Skilfully utilizing
these new troops, Charnock so impressed
the Mogul general that on June 4th he
sent in an intimation that he desired
peace. Ultimately an arrangement was
come to by which the English were able
to march out with all the honours of
war. Charnock was promised by the
Mogul general a consideration of his de-
mands for freedom of trade and a site
for a factory. But, as had often hap-
pened before, these pledges proved
altogether illusory. The utmost that
Shayista Khan would concede was per-
mission to continue trading from Hooghly
and to create a factory at another
point on the river, Ulubaria, whither the
English had gone after leaving Hooghly.
Charnock was under no misconception as
to the uselessness of the concessions
made, and as soon as Shayista Khan's
intentions were fully disclosed he made up
his mind to abandon Ulubaria and take all
the ships up the river to Sutanuti, the site
of the modern Calcutta. The agent had
by this time a clearer vision of what was
really needed, and his skilled eye saw
in the geographical position of the little

1. HINDOO PAGODAS BELOW BARBACKPORB. 2. HINDOO GHAUT ON THE GANGES.

8. HINDOO VILLAGB ON THB GANGES, NEAR AMBROAH.

Illustrations from Lieut.-Col. Forrest's "Picturesque Tour on the Ganges and Jumna " (1824).

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

village of Sutanuti strategical advantages
such as were not readily to be secured at
any other available spot. In due course
the new haven of refuge was reached,
an.1 a settlement of rude mat huts was
formed, which was destined to live in
history as the embryo of the greatest of
Indian cities.

CH.APTER IV
The English driven from Bengal

Charnock's ible conduct o« at(airs— His supersession by
Heath— Encuatixn of Sutanuti— English Mxck on
Balaaor— Subsequent abortive expedition to Chitta-
(ong — Departure of the English for Madras —
Aurangiebe Intites the English to return to Bengal—
The invitation accepted— Reoccupation of Sutanuti—
New authority to trade received.

Charnock so far had played an able and
even a brilliant part in the transactions
with the Moguls. With a ridiculously
small contingent he had for months held
at bay the formidable forces of the native
Government, and had implanted in their
minds such a lively sense of English
prowess that he had been able to make
a not unfavourable composition with the
Mogul Governor. In all his dealings with
the enemy he had shown himself a clever
diplomatist, and had revealed a know-
ledge of native character of a very un-
common kind. His services, it might
have been supposed, would have com-
mended him to his superiors. But the
Court at home had conceived a violent
prejudice against Charnock, and at the
very moment when his policy was reaching
successful development they were dis-
patching an envoy out charged with the
execution of a design which ran counter
to the agent's idea of establishing a
settlement up the river. This was the
plan previously alluded to for the capture
of Chittagong. The directors had long
been in favour of a settlement at Chitta-
gong, and their predilection for that port
was strengthened by the earlier accounts
of the difficulties encountered by Char-
nock after the evacuation of Hooghly.
In sending out a special representative in
the person of Captain William Heath,
the commander of the Company's ship
Defence, the Court were thinking more
of the desirability of settling at Chitta-
gong than of the expediency of reversing
Charnock's policy. But in dispatches
they had bitterly impugned his judgment
in the Hijili affair, and his supersession
was doubtless regarded as a measure of
wisdom in view of his supposed deficien-
cies. However tlvat may be, Heath was
given a pretty free hand, and he was not
slow tu use his power, with disastrous

results to the carefully laid schemes of
Charnock.

Heath was a man of ill-balanced mind,
reckless to a dangerous degree, and, what
perliaps was even worse in such a posi-
tion as that in which he was placed,
strongly self-opinionated. He went out
to India with the idea that the way to
peace was through war, and he would
tolerate no suggestion that the English
might get all they wanted if they re-
mained at Sutanuti, or Calcutta as we
may now call it, as Shayista Khan was
no longer in power, and his successor,
Bahadur Khan, had shown himself well
disposed to the English. His orders were
that the local officials should wind up
the Company's affairs with a view of the
transfer of the whole establishment to
Chittagong. In due course the orders
were carried out, and, much to the
astonishment of the native officials, who
could not comprehend the meaning of the
move, the whole staff set sail on November
8th for the Bay. Eight days later the
flotilla dropped anchor off Balasor. At
this port a very considerable English
force was gathered, reinforced by two
captured French frigates, which had been
seized by the fleet a short time previously.
Heath parleyed with the native authorities
for some days without effect, and then,
on November 29th, landed a force, which
attacked and put to flight the Mogul
troops, and temporarily occupied the
town. The easily purchased victory
availed nothing so far as the demands
on the Mogul Government were con-
cerned. If it had any effect it was to
stiffen the local opposition, and make
Bahadur Khan more indisposed than he
had been to grant facilities to the
English.

Finding that nothing further was to be
accomplished at Balasor, Heath at the
close of the year proceeded to Chitta-
gong to execute the plan formed by the
Court for a settlement there. On arrival
at that port it was very apparent that the
position was far too strong to be sus-
ceptible to effective attack by so small a
force as that under Heath's command.
Heath, however, was not disposed to re-
linquish his task without an effort. He
consequently opened up negotiations with
the local king, who was at war with the
Moguls, offering the services of his force.
As Heath had before made a similar offer
unsuccessfully to Bahadur Khan, and the
fact was probably well known in Chitta-
gong, the overtures were treated with
scant respect. Enraged at the rebuff,
20

Heath decided to quit a scene in which
his generous impulses appeared to have
so little play. Weighing anchor on Feb-
ruary 17, 1688, he steered south, and a
short time later appeared off Fort St.
George. Here the Bengal staff found a
temporary resting-place after their six
months' wanderings.

It now seemed that the star of the
Company's destiny in Bengal had finally
set. Their factories razed, their agents
all either prisoners or fugitives, and their
ships without a friendly anchorage to re-
sort to, the prospect was gloomy indeed.
But proverbially it is the darkest hour
before the dawn. Ere the peripatetic
officials had barely settled down in
Madras, measures were afoot for their
reinstatement in Bengal under promising
conditions. The truth is that the native
authorities did not want to lose them.
They required their trade, which was very
helpful to the local revenue, and they
wanted the immunity for Mogul shipping
which a contented and friendly English
connection brought. Even the great
Aurangzebe was constrained to intervene
to secure a reversal of the English policy
of evacuating Bengal. " You must under-
stand," he wrote to the Nawab of Bengal,
" that it has been the good fortune of
the English to repent them of their
irregular past proceedings and their not
being in their former greatness, have by
their attornies petitioned for their lives
and a pardon for their faults, which, out
of my extraordinary favour towards them,
I have accordingly granted. Therefore,
upon receipt here of my order you must
not create them any further trouble, but
let them trade in your government as
formerly, and this order I expect you
see strictly observed."

The conversion of Aurangzebe to the
r61e of a friend of the English was so
sudden that Charnock was at first dis-
posed to distrust the motive of the over-
tures. He replied to the summons from
Ibrahim Khan, who had replaced Bahadur
Khan in the viceroyalty, by demanding a
specific warrant stating on what terms
trade would be permitted. Ibrahim
Khan, in reply, intimated that he had
applied to the Emperor for the warrant,
but pointed out that it would probably
be some months before the instrument
could be arranged, and urged the English
to proceed to Bengal without delay.
Charnock thought that the prospect was
sufficiently good to justify whatever risk
there might be in the acceptance of the
offer. He therefore made arrangements

BENGAL— EARLY HISTORY

for the return of the staff to their posts in
Bengal. The decision, as events proved,
was a wise one. On arrival in the river
in August the returned merchants were
received in friendly fashion, and by the
end of the month they were once more
in occupation of their quarters, or what
remained of them, at Sutanuti and
Hooghly. Afterwards the relations with
the native officials were established on a
more friendly base than they had ever
been previously. Aurangzebe was
genuinely anxious to see the English
trade continued, and Ibrahim Khan was,
by disposition as well as policy, disposed
to befriend them. It was, however, not
until February lo, i6gi, that the desired
authority to trade was received. On that
date an Imperial rescript was signed
allowing the English to prosecute their
operations in Bengal on payment of
Rs. 3,000 annually in lieu of all dues.
This official recognition of the English
right to trade in Bengal was the herald
of a new dispensation, in which the Com-
pany's power was consolidated and
strengthened until it became the most
powerful foreign influence that was
exerted in Eastern India.

CHAPTER V
The Founding of Calcutta

Charnock's administration of the setUemeiit — His dealii —
Condemnation of Charnoclv by Sir John Goldsborough.
llie Company's Commissary-General — Reforms insti-
tuted—Steady progress of the settlement— Charles
Eyre's administration— Bengal created a separate
Presidency— Fort William completed— John' Beard's
administrjtion — The Rotation Government — Aurang-
zebe's death— Shah Alum threatens to attack Calcutta
— New authority to trade procured — Growth of the
settlement.

Certain events mark the historic pro-
gress of the British Empire. The foimd-
ing of Calcutta is one of these. It
constitutes a distinct dividing line
between the early India in which the
English were struggling for a footing in
the guise of humble traders, and the later
India in which the British power by
gradual stages gained a paramount posi-
tion as an administrative force. As far
as Bengal is concerned there was still
much to be accomplished after the estab-
lishment of the settlement at Calcutta ere
the position was made secure even against
local tyranny, but the undoubted turning-
point in the British connection with
Eastern India was when Job Charnock,
with his little band of merchants and
writers, settled down on the swampy
banks of the river and sought to make
there a home and a habitation for them-

selves as free as might be from tiresome
Mogul interference.

Charnock was the right man for a task
such as this, calling not only for energy
and foresight but for the possession of
a wide experience of the country and its
people. As we have seen, he was an old
officer of the Company, one who had for
years held responsible positions in its
hierarchy. He was not a man of great
education or of high intellectual power.
But he knew Bengal like a book, and
this profound knowledge of local con-
ditions stood him in good stead in the
continuous struggle he had to wage to
obtain for the Company in Eastern India
its " place in the sun." Many things
to his disadvantage were said at the time
by his fellow-countrymen. The directors,
too, were his stern critics. But we can
only judge him by his public acts, and
these, as far as we can estimate things,
show him as a highly capable official,
and one who had the gift of true states-
manship.

It is doubtless true that Charnock in
the later years of his life displayed quali-
ties which were not compatible with full
efficiency. Long residence in India had
dulled his faculties, and he was too prone
to ease. Furthermore, he was open to the
charge of favouritism and of taking an
active part in quarrels when he should
have maintained a rigid impartiality. So
the record of his association with Calcutta
is rather blurred and spotted. It was
the rounding off of a strenuous and
chequered life in a certain squalor. Cir-
cumstances, general as well as local, were
against him, and he was content to float
in a muddy stream and knock against
the shoals rather than to exert himself
and get into clear and deep water.

In point of fact Charnock's oppor-
tunity came too late in his life. He died
on January 10, 1693, less than three
years from the time of the landing of
the old chief and his council after their
sojourn in Madras. In the interval
England had become involved in war-
like operations with France, and the com-
mercial activities of the Company had
been seriously hampered by the hostilities
conducted between the rival naval forces
in Indian waters. Added to this grave
disability— doubly felt in the case of a
settlement just struggling into existence
— was the mischievous influence of per-
sonal animosities, which divided the com-
munity and prevented anything in the
nature of healthy progress. In the cir-
cumstances it is not remarkable that when

Sir John Goldsborough, Commissary-
General and Chief Governor of the
Company's settlements, arrived at Cal-
cutta in the August following Charnock's
death, he should have found the settle-
ment in a very disorganized condition.
His report upon it is coloured by a strong
prejudice against Charnock, who is held
responsible for the unsatisfactory condi-
tion of affairs, but in the main we may
accept it as a faithful picture of what
this early Calcutta was like. No place,
we are told, had been marked out for a
factory, and people had been allowed to
enclose lands, dig tanks, and build houses
where and how they pleased. The moral
atmosphere of the place was bad. One
of the leading officials— Hill by name —
had been " allowed to keep a punch-
house and billiard-table gratis while
others paid for it." There were other
abuses associated with the Company's
trade which could not be reconciled with
an efficient administration. Using the
authority with which he was invested,
Goldsborough instituted sweeping re-
forms in the settlement. Hill was sum-
marily dismissed and packed off to
Madras, and Ellis, the official who had
succeeded Charnock, was superseded by
Charles Eyre, one of the few officials who
appeared to possess ability and character.
At the same time the military establish-
ment was reduced and other retrench-
ments made, the net effect of which was
a saving of Rs. 4,000 a year. On the
constructive side Goldsborough was
equally energetic. Arrangements were
made for the erection of a factory as
soon as permission for the undertaking
of the work could be obtained from the
native authorities. Goldsborough also
interested himself in the religious con-
dition of the community. Finding that
the merchants and factors were marrying
native wives and coming too much under
the influence of the Augustinian friars,
he turned the priests out of the settle-
rnent and pulled down their church. His
zeal for reform, as he regarded it, might
have carried him a good deal farther had
not he been seized with illness and carried
off in November ere it had been possible
to secure formal approval of his plans.
Charles Eyre, Goldsborough's nominee
for the chief office, after some delay
assumed control of the settlement, and
justified the faith reposed in him by the
Commissary-General. He is, perhaps,
best remembered in this day as the hus-
band of Charnock's daughter, Mary, and
the builder of the massive mausoleum to

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

that worthy which still stands in St.
John's Churchyard.

Under the improved system of admin-
istration which Goldsborough introduced
the Calcutta settlement made steady pro-
gress, but it was not until 1696 that it
was possible to commence to make it the
fortified position which the Company had
always contemplated it should be. The
opportunity for completing its equipment
in the manner desired came through some
local troubles in which a Hindoo land-
owner named Cubha Singha played the
leading part. Cubha Singha raised a
rebellion, and, joining forces with Rahim
Khan, an Afghan chief, soon became a
menace to the peace of the country. As
the Mogul authority took no active steps
to crush the revolt, the heads of the Euro-
pean settlements sought and obtained
from the Nawab Ibrahim Khan permission
to raise troops to deal with the disturbers
of the peace. Acting on the authority
given, the English set to work to fortify
their factory. They made good progress
with the operations, and by the middle
of 1698 had erected a substantial struc-
ture of brick and mud, which in due
course developed into the first Fort
William. A more important advance
towards the creation of a stable position
for the Company even than this essay in
fortification was made in July of the same
year, when, for a sum of Rs. 16,000, the
Company obtained letters patent from
Azimu-sh-Shan, who had succeeded
Ibrahim Khan as Nawab of Bengal,
allowing them to purchase from the
existing holders the right of renting the
three villages of Calcutta, Sutanuti, and
Govindpur, a permit which gave the
English a firm foothold on the territory
which they required for their settlement.

Eyre returned home in 1699, and the
Company, in gratitude for his services in
securing the grant from the Nawab, used
its influence and obtained for him the
honour of knighthood. As Sir Charles
Eyre he returned to Calcutta at the end
of the year to superintend the important
changes which had been made in the ad-
ministration by the Court of Directors,
under which Bengal was created a
separate Presidency. Eyre carried with
him instructions to complete the forti-
fications of the factory, which, it was
arranged, should, in compliment to the
King, be called Fort William. The
newly-created knight arrived in Calcutta
on May 26, 1700, but within the year he
returned to England " on urgent private
afifairs "—in point of fact to contract a

marriage which he had set his heart
on. The reins of power fell from his
hands into those of John Beard, an old
servant of the Company, who had first
come out to India about twenty years
previously with his father, in the com-
pany of Governor Hedges, at this period
a leading figure in the official world,
whose " Diary " vies with that of Streyn-
sham Master in historic interest. Beard
took up office at a somewhat important
juncture in the affairs of the English in
India. Not long after his assumption
of office Aurangzebe issued an edict
directing the arrest of all Europeans in
India because of the depredations of
pirates, who had robbed Mogul ships in
the Eastern seas and maltreated Mahom-
medans on the way to and from the
pilgrimage to Mecca. Beard showed
conspicuous courage and ability in meet-
ing the situation which arose in Bengal
in this crisis. By a combination of finesse
and firmness he prevented the Mogul
officials from doing any mischief. On
one occasion, when a Mogul officer
ordered the Company's goods at Cal-
cutta to be seized, Beard mounted addi-
tional guns and drafted men from tlie
ships to work them, his reasoning being
that it was better to spend money on
powder and shot than "to be always
giving to every little rascal " who thought
he could do the Company some injury.

Beard's career of usefulness was cut
short, or at all events seriously dis-
turbed, by the arrangements which were
made in 1703 for the union of the old
East India Company with its newer rival,
which had for years been a thorn in the
official flesh in Eastern India. Under the
plan adopted the office of governor was
abolished, and the general affairs of the
settlement placed under the control of
a joint council composed of members of
the local staff of each council, and with
as its heads Mr. Robert Hedges and Mr.
Ralph Sheldon, who presided over the
council in alternate weeks. Beard did
not long survive his supersession. Fall-
ing ill in 1704, he proceeded to Madras
for change of air, and, after lingering
for some months, died there on July 7th.
Meanwhile his rival. Sir Edward Little-
ton, who had managed the affairs of the
new Company in the years prior to the
union, got into disgrace for making too
free with the Company's cash. He was
ultimately dismissed from his office, and
died imder a heavy cloud on October 24,
1707.

The Rotation Government, as it came
22

to be known, was a makeshift, and it
was not more successful than makeshifts
usually are. Its dual character led to
many difficulties, not the least perplexing
of which was the impossibility of making
the native authorities believe that the two
rival Companies were now really only one,
and that unity implied but a single con-
tribution to the Mogul exchequer. While
the council were haggling with the local
governor over the question of the amount
of the contribution, news was received of
the death of Aurangzebe. Immediate
steps were taken to prepare for the
emergency which it was clearly seen
would arise owing to the conflicting
claims of the dead emperor's sons to the
throne. The council called in their
Company's representatives from the out-
stations and strengthened the defences
of the fort. Meanwhile they broke off
the negotiations for a payment to the
Imperial treasury, and steadily refused
to consider a demand for a special levy
towards the support of the forces of Shah
Alum, the victorious aspirant to the
Imperial succession. An attack was
threatened on the settlement about the
middle of 1708, and was only averted
by the spirited measures adopted to ward
off any aggression.

At length the negotiations for a contri-
bution to the Imperial funds were
resumed, and after many vicissitudes,
were carried to a successful conclusion
in 1709, when, in consideration of a
payment of Rs. 45",ooo, the Company
obtained an order giving them freedom
of trade in Bengal, Behar, and Orissa.
This arrangement placed the affairs of
the Company in Eastern India in a more
satisfactory position, and a considerable
extension of trade followed. Simul-
taneously extensive building operations
were carried on in the settlement, and
Calcutta gradually but surely assumed
the character of a centre of social life
as well as of commerce. In 17 10 the
Rotation Government disappeared from
the scene, and, dying in anything but the
odour of sanctity, gave place to a unified
administration, in which Sir .Anthony
Weltden figured as President of the
Council and Governor.

CHAPTER VI

The Eclipse of English Power in
Bengal

Murshid Kuli Khan, better known as Jafar Khan, the
Governor of Bengal— Hisgreat power— Unsatisfactory
relations with the English— Mission to Delhi— The
Emperor Farrukhsiyar grants to the Company im-
portant privileges— Improvement of trade— Death of

1. VILLAGE AND PAGODA BELOW PATNA, AZIMABAD. 2. THE FAKEER'S ROOK AT JANGUIRA, NEAR SULTANGUNJ.

3. PART OP THE CITY OF MOORSHEDABAD.

Illustrations from Licut.-Col. Forrest's "Picturesque Tour Along the Ganges and Jumna" (1824).

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Jifir Khan— His succtssore— The 0»tend Company
esUblishn a factors- at Bankipor<^— EnRllsh and Dutch
opposition — The Germans driven out— The Mahratta
Ditch — Suiaj-ud-Dowlah attains to power — The
Iragcdy ot the Black Hole of Calcutta.

After Aurangzebe's death the power in
Bengal was largely concentrated in the
hands of Murshid Kuli Khan, the Nawab
or Governor, with whom the English
Council had negotiated for a licence to
trade. This worthy was one of those
remarkable men in Eastern history who
through force of character raise them-
selves from comparatively obscure posi-
tions to the height of worldly power.
A Brahman by birth, he was early sold
into slavery in Persia, and there assumed
the Mahommedan faith. He was taken
into the Imperial service, and his con-
spicuous talents, supplemented by his
natural gift of intrigue, secured him
steady advancement, until he was asso-
ciated by Aurangzebe with Azimu-sh-
Shan in the government of Bengal in
the position of Imperial Treasurer. The
priiKely Governor, who at the time was
thinking a good deal more of the succes-
sion to the Mogul throne than of his
charge in Eastern India, left the govern-
ment very much under Murshid Kuli
Khan's control. Making the best of his
opportimity, the crafty treasurer gradu-
ally got all the reins of power into his
hands, and eventually became in name
as well as fact Governor of Bengal. Nor
was he content to be merely a servant
of an Imperial master. As the Mogul
power, under the influence of the mortal
disease with which it was stricken, be-
came less and less a reality, the Governor
of Bengal arrogated to himself to an
increasing extent the rights of a sove-
reign ruler. Transferring the seat of
government from Dacca, where it had
long been, to Murshidabad, he established
a Court to which representatives of the
principal trading nations of Europe re-
sorted on the frequent occasions when
they required concessions or had to com-
plain of grievances or protest against
exactions. The intercourse was the more
intimate as the Governor's Court was in
close proximity to Kasimbazar, which had
long been a centre of commercial impor-
tance to the European traders, and which
at the beginning of the sighteenth century
contained factories belonging to the
French and the Dutch as well as the
English.

Murshid Kuli Khan, though he disliked
Europeans and was at no pains at times
to conceal his aversion, had a very intelli-
gent conception of the advantages that

European trade brought, and he left the
East India Company to pursue its trade
with only occasional checks. The position
nevertheless, was not altogether satisfac-
tory, owing to the vagueness of the terms
of the authority which had been conferred
upon the Company, and it was not until
some years after the establishment of the
new regime that a definite legal status
was secured.

The first step of importance taken to
secure a permanent status after Aurang-
zebe's death was the dispatch in 1714
from Calcutta to the Court of Farrukh-
siyar, the new Emperor, of an embassy
headed by Mr. John Surman, one of the
Company's experienced officials. As the
first English diplomatic mission which
had been sent to the Mogul's Court since
Sir William Norris's unfortunate embassy,
the event excited much interest at the time,
and every effort was made to invest it
with importance. Surman carried with
him presents of the value of £30,000,
and his train was an imposing one. He,
however, was ignorant of the intricate
politics of the Delhi Court of that day,
and only a favourable chance probably
saved the mission from failure. This was
the successful medical treatment of the
Emperor by William Hamilton, the
surgeon attached to the mission. Far-
rukhsiyar was to have been married to
the daughter of Raja Ajit Singh, one of
the Rajput princes, but the wedding had
been postponed because the Ejnperor was
suffering from a complaint which his own
physicians had been unable to cure.
Hamilton, by a skilful operation, restored
the Imperial patient to health, and by so
doing won his fervent gratitude. Any
reward that he cared to ask for might
have been obtained by the young Scotch
surgeon, but with rare self-denial and
fidelity to his employers he merely stipu-
lated for the granting of their petition
for trading rights. Farrukhsiyar was
well disposed towards the appeal, and
referred the matter to his leading officials.
In so doing he gave an opening for in-
trigue, of which Jafar Khan, as Murshid
Kuli Khan was now known, was not slow
to take advantage. The sand which that
worthy now put into the Imperial
machine caused the negotiations to drag
inordinately. It was only after repeated
efforts and elaborate bribery that Surman
was able, two years after his arrival, to
depart, carrying with him the sealed com-
pact which gave trf the English greatly
increased powers. The principal of these
were a right to have handed over to the
24

Company for trial all Europeans or
natives who might be accountable to the
Company, and a concession of the lord-
ship of thirty-eight towns in the vicinity
of Calcutta, with the same rights as were
attached to the Company's existing
possessions.

Jafar Khan was incensed at the success
of the English mission, and he took
instant measures to nullify the grant of
new territory by prohibiting the local
landowners from parting with their rights
to the English on pain of severe punish-
ment. In other respects, however, the
wily Nawab saw fit to accept the situation,
and the Company's representatives, real-
izing now that they had to deal with
Jafar Khan as the real power in Bengal,
lost no opportunity of conciliating him
with valuable presents. This prudent
policy secured for Calcutta a lease of
vigorous life. Trade grew enormously
in volume, and the streets of the settle-
ment hummed with life. Farrukhsiyar's
death in 1 7 1 9 by the hand of an assassin,
and the further degradation of the
Imperial power by sordid parricidal
warfare, enabled Jafar Khan to consoli-
date his position. The Nawab was a man
of great strength of character, and he
established a rule in Bengal which was,
regarded by Oriental standards, both firm
and just. Dying in 1725, he left instruc-
tions for the succession to the Nawabship
of his grandson, Serferaz Khan. This
arrangement was set aside in favour of
one in which Serferaz Khan's father,
Shuja Adem Khan, was made Nawab and
Serferaz Khan was Dewan.

Shuja Adem Khan early in his career
gave evidence of his jealousy of the power
of the English, and he availed himself
of every opening which presented for
thwarting and prejudiing their trade. It
was this spirit that prompted him in 1724
to give the Ostend Company, which a
short time previously had been floated
imder the auspices of the Court of \'ienna,
a concession for a factory at Bankipore.

Neither the English nor the Dutch
relished the prospect of competition
which the introduction of this new rival
into their midst threatened, and they set
to work immediately to oust the intruder.
Their labours were not very fruitful at
first, because Jafar Khan for his own ends
threw the mantle of his powerful pro-
tection over the newcomers, and refused
to entertain any proposals for their evic-
tion. When, however, Jafar Khan dis-
appeared from the scene, the opposition
to the Ostend Company was more sue-

1. KHELAS8Y,

2. COACHMAN. 3. MUSHAULJEE LINK BOY.

Illuslrations from Solvyn's " Les Hindous." Published in Paris, 1812.

4. AYAH.

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

cessful. In 17 33, acting on the instiga-
tion of the English and Dutch Council,
the Mahommedan Governor of Ilooghly
attacked the German settlement, and
forced the defenders, after a stiff fight,
to capitulate. Thereafter the whole of
the Ostend Company's staff embarked for
Europe, bringing to a close one of the
most interesting essays in European
trading in the East of that day. A
second attempt on the part of the
Germans to gain a foothold in India was
made under the patronage of Frederick
the Great in 1750. It was even less suc-
cessful than the earlier essay. After
abortive efforts to trade the company was
wound up.

The elimination of this important rival
from the path of the East India Company
in Bengal had scarcely been effected than
another and more serious danger arose
to menace not merely the trade of its
settlements but the whole prosperity of
Bengal. This was the Mahratta peril.
Falling more and more into decrepitude
as the eighteenth century wore on, the
Mogul Empire became a mark for the
attentions of the virile Hindoo race of
Western India, which the genius of Sivaji
had disciplined into a formidable power
for offensive, or, more properly speaking,
destructive warfare. Sweeping across the
plains of India, these light horsemen
shook to the very foundations the crazy
structure of Mogul rule. They pene-
trated into Bengal, and threatened to
appear even at the gates of Calcutta
itself. Alarmed at the increasing bold-
ness of the Mahratta forays, the Bengal
Council sought and secured from the
Nawab of Bengal permission to con-
struct an outlying line of fortification
to keep off the intruding hordes. Thus
came into existence the Mahratta Ditch,
a familiar place-name in the Calcutta of
to-day.

The Nawab who sanctioned the Mah-
ratta Ditch was All Varda Khan, an adven-
turer who in 1740 had wrested from the
feeble hands of Jafar Khan's descendant
the power to rule Bengal. Ali Varda
Khan continued to exercise authority until
his death in 1756, when the succession
devolved upon his son, Suraj-ud-DowIah
of infamous memory. Suraj-ud-Dowlah
was a youth of eighteen of vicious in-
stincts and despotic temperament. Ere
he had been long on the throne he came
into collision with the British power over
a member of his family who had fled to
Calcutta to escape his vengeance. Col-
lecting a great army, Suraj-ud-Dowlah

placed himself at its head and marched
on Calcutta. The local officials of the
Company pursued the worst possible
course that could have been adopted in
such an emergency. Instead of taking
all the measures they could to make a
stout defence of the settlement, the
Governor and leading functionaries took
refuge on board ships in the river, leaving
the difficult task of opposing Suraj-ud-
Dowlah 's force to their dispirited and
disorganized subordinates. A show of
resistance was offered by the little band
of Englishmen, but in the end they had
to capitulate. When the fort had fallen
the Nawab ordered the prisoners to be
brought before him in the principal hall
of the factory. He assumed towards
them an arrogant bearing, but promised
to spare their lives. They were then
handed over to the tender mercies of their
guards to undergo that terrible ordeal
which lives in English memory as one of
the foulest and darkest crimes that have
stained the pages of British Indian
history.

Many accounts have been written (on
the basis of the narrative of Holwell,
who was one of the prisoners) of the
tragedy of the Black Hole of Calcutta,
but nothing has ever brought the scene
of that fateful night more vividly home
to the present-day Briton than Macaulay's
brilliant pen-picture in his essay on Clive.
" The English captives," says Macaulay,
" were left to the mercy of the guards,
and the guards determined to secure them
for the night in the prison of the garrison,
a chamber known by the fearful name of
the ' Black Hole.' Even for a single
European malefactor the dungeon would
in such a climate have been too close
and narrow. The space was only 20 ft.
square. The air-holes were small and
obstructed. It was the summer solstice,
the season when the fierce heat of Bengal
can scarcely be rendered tolerable to
natives of England by lofty halls and
the constant waving of fans. The number
of prisoners was 146.' When they were
ordered to enter the cell they imagined
that the soldiers were joking ; and, being
in high spirits on account of the promise
of the Nabob to spare their lives, they
laugh'jd and jested at the absurdity of
the notion. They soon discovered their
mistake. They expostulated, they en-
treated, but in vain. The guards
threatened to cut down all who hesi-
tated. The captives were driven into the
cell at the point of the sword, and the
door was instantly shut and locked on
26

them. . . . They cried for mercy. They
strove to burst the door. Holwell, who
even in that extremity retained some
presence of mind, offered large bribes
to the gaolers. But the answer was that
nothing could be done without the
Nabob's orders, and that the Nabob was
asleep, and that he would be angry if
anybody woke him. Then the prisoners
went mad with despair. They trampled
each other down, fought for the places
at the windows, fought for the pittance
of water with which the cruel mercy of
the murderers mocked their agonies,
raved, prayed, blasphemed, implored the
guards to fire among them. The gaolers
in the meantime held lights to the bars,
and shouted with laughter at the frantic
struggles of their victims. At length the
tumult died away in low gaspings and
moanings. The day broke. The Nabob
had slept off his debauch, and permitted
the door to be opened. But it was some
time before the soldiers could make a
lane for the survivors by piling up on
each side the heaps of corpses on which
the burning climate had already begun
to do its loathsome work. When at
length a passage was made twenty-three
ghastly figures, such as their own mothers
would not have known, staggered one by
one out of the charnel house. A pit was
instantly dug. The dead bodies, 123 in
number, were flung into it promiscuously
and covered up."

After the terrible night in the " Black
Hole " Holwell and the other male sur-
vivors were dispatched up country in
irons, and the sole Englishwoman who
escaped the ordeal was sent to Mur-
shidabad to grace the Nawab's harem.
Practically the little English community
in Bengal had ceased to exist when the
tyrannical Nawab had completed his
operations. In fancied security he issued
edicts designed to secure that the power
which he hated should never again rear
its head in Bengal. He even went so far
as to re-name Calcutta Alinapore — the
city of God. But he had reckoned with-
out the growing sense that once helpless
English traders possessed of their
superiority in arms, and he had par-
ticularly left out of his estimate one of
the greatest soldier-statesmen that Eng-
land ever possessed — Robert Clive, the
obscure writer in the Company's service,
who a few years previously in Southern
India had laid the foundations of his
great reputation by a memorable cam-
paign in which the French domination
in India received a mortal blow.

2. KIDDEEPOBB BRIDGE, CALCUTTA, IN 1837.

1. GOVERNMENT HOUSE, CALCUTTA, IN 1837.

3. BUERA BAZAAR. CALCUTTA.

Illurtrations from "Vkws in Calcutta,' by Capt. R. Jun.p, H.C.S. Publishea n .837,

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

CHAPTER VII
The Battle of Plasaey

Rnbrct Clivt entrusted with tl^e command of an expedi-
tioa to Bengal— Reoccupation of Calcutta and sacking
of Hoogljly— Suraj-ud-Dowlah sues tor peace—
Chandemagote attacked and occupied by the British—
CHTcand Mir JaTar— British army marches to attack
Sur*)-!**''"*"'"''— '-""'P''" <l'fMt of the latter at
piaaey— Mir Jafar installed by Clive as Xawab of
Bengal. Behar and Orissa— Profound effect of the
Battle of Plassey— Enormous wealth acquired by
Oiw and his associates— The Company's share o( the
spoil.

Clive was in Madras at the time that
the news was received of Suraj-ud-Dow-
lah's atuck on Calcutta with its lament-
able sequel. He was immediately
entrusted with the leadership of an
expedition to avenge the disaster. Under
his command were placed nine hundred
British troops and fifteen hundred sepoys.
Admiral Watson, who fort.mately also was
in Madras at the time with his fleet of
well-found ships, was sent to support the
expedition with the naval power which
had previously proved so valuable in
Bengal. Contrary winds delayed the
passage of the expedition, and it was not
imtil December, several months after the
Black Hole tragedy, that Bengal was
reached. But once within the sphere of
action the combined force speedily
asserted its power. Calcutta was
attacked and occupied without much
difficulty, and Hooghly was stormed and
sacked. The Nawab, thoroughly alarmed
at the energetic operations of the in-
vaders, sought an accommodation. Clive
was for disregarding the overtures and
continuing the war until more substantial
victories had been obtained. But his
ardent spirit was kept in check by the
civilian council, who were eager to grasp
the immediate advantages that a compo-
sition with their arch-enemy and perse-
cutor held out. A peace was, therefore,
concluded on the understanding that the
factory should be restored to the British
and that compensation should be paid
for the losses sustained by Suraj-ud-
Dowlah's aggression.

Before the negotiations for peace were
terminated the shadow of a new trouble
had arisen in the outbreak of war between
Great Britain and France. Suraj-ud-
Dowlah, smarting under the humiliations
which Clive had inflicted upon him,
o|>enetl up an intrigue with the French,
whose support he invited for a new cam-
paign against the British. Clive, obtain-
ing knowledge of this move, and setting
little store by the arrangement which he
had by this time concluded with his wily
enemy, resolved to anticipate the coali-

tion of hostile forces by acting as the
aggressor against the French. With the
valuable support afforded by Watson's
ships, Clive directed a successful attack
against the French settlement at Chander-
nagore. The fort was surrendered to
him, and with it its garrison of five hun-
dred Frenchmen. It was a brilliant feat
of arms, and did much to re-establish
British prestige. Suraj - ud - Dowlah
recognized in it a deadly blow at his
own power, and was torn with alternate
gusts of passion and fear as he sought
a means of checking this insolent power
which had so. demonstratively crossed his
path. The significance of the events had
not been lost upon the Nawab's subjects,
who had little love for him. ■ But he
was still able to command powerful re-
sources, and in a short period he had in
the field a great army ready to drive
the audacious Englishmen into the sea.
Clive was under no delusions as to the
magnitude of the task before him at this
critical juncture of affairs. But he faced
the situation with the cool determination
which he ever showed in moments of
danger. One of his first steps was to
get into communication with the dis-
affected element in Suraj-ud-Dowlah's
dominions and complete an arrangement
with Mir Jafar, a rival aspirant to the
throne, for mutual aid. When his plans
were completed he marched out at the
head of his little army of i,ooo Euro-
peans, 2,000 sepoys, and 8 pieces of
artillery, to meet the Nawab's army,
which consisted of 35,000 foot, 15,000
horse, and 50 cannon. An essential part
of the arrangement with Mir Jafar was
that that worthy should at the appropriate
moment join forces with the British, and
that a combined attack should be de-
livered. But Clive advanced as far as
Kasimbazar without any sign of an inten-
tion on the part of Mir Jafar to honour
his part of the contract. Attempts made
to elicit his intentions resulted in evasive
replies, which only served to deepen the
natural distrust which had been aroused
by his inaction.

Clive was now in a very difficult posi-
tion. He had gone too far to retreat
without danger, and to advance appeared
almost suicidal, seeing how formidable
were the forces opposed to his little con-
tingent. In his perplexity Clive called
a council of war, with the result pro-
verbially attributed to such councils,
that a decision was come to not to fight.
But Clive, after mature thought, elected
to disregard the view of the majority
3.8

of his military colleagues, and deliver
an attack at the earliest possible moment.
His army was immediately set in motion,
and when night fell on June 22, 1757,
he camped in a grove of mango-trees
near the village of Plassey, about seventy
miles north of Calcutta. Here he was
so close to the Nawab's army that his
sleep was disturbed by the noise of the
drums and cymbals with which the enemy
forces were celebrating in advance the
easy victory that they expected to win
over the hated infidel. When morning
broke the Nawab attacked with his entire
force of artillery. The guns were badly
served and nearly all the shots went wide.
The little force of British artillery re-
sponded with considerable effect on the
serried masses of the enemy. The battle
continued until noon, when the Nawab's
army retired to an entrenched camp for
their midday meal. Clive seized this
opportunity to deliver an attack on one
of the enemy's advanced posts. His men
drove in the Nawab's forces, and, carry-
ing everything before them, effected a
lodgment in an angle of the camp. So
impetuous was their onset that a panic
seized the enemy, and they fled in con-
fusion, leaving Clive in possession of the
position, with the guns and baggage and
the entire impedimenta of Suraj-ud-
Dowlah's great army. The Nawab him-
self fled from the field on a camel to
Murshidabad, from whence, after a brief
sojourn, he proceeded in disguise to
Patna. Meanwhile Mir Jafar, finding how
completely fortune had favoured the
British, had made his peace with Clive
and had been saluted by him as Nawab
of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa. The actual
ceremony of installation took place amid
much pomp at Murshidabad, whither
Clive had proceeded immediately after
the battle with an imposing escort.

The Battle of Plassey was one of the
most notable victories ever won in Asia.
From it dates the real foundation of the
British Empire in India. Hitherto the
British had been mere traders, living a
precarious existence on sufferance.
Henceforward they were to take an
ever-increasing part as administrators
and rulers in directing the destinies of
the country. It was, perhaps, the
cheapest triumph ever won by British
arms, for the total loss sustained by
Clive's force in the battle was only twenty
killed and fifty wounded, casualties no
greater than those of many a street fight.
But it was, no doubt, quite as much due
to diplomatic as to military qualities that

1. HINDOO TEMPLES AT AGOUREE, ON THE RIVER SOANE, BEHAR.

2. THE SACRED TREE OF THE HINDOOS AT GYA, BEHAR. 8. CITY OF PATNA.

Illustrations from "Oriental Scenery," by Thomas Daniell (i795)-

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

the vengeance wreaked on Suraj-ud-Dow-
lah was so complete. Clive was a states-
man as well as a soldier, and he turned
his military advantages to the fullest
account. History has reproached him
severely for some of his dealings in this
momentous period in his career, and it
would be idle to assert that his actions
will all bear the full light of day. But
the credit belongs to him that he dared
greatly, and that by his calm courage
and prescience he opened up a path which
led his country directly to the summit
of Imperial greatness.

The immediate result of the Battle of
Plassey was the pouring of a great stream
of wealth into the coffers of the Com-
pany and into the pockets of all who had
been prominent on the British side in the
operations which terminated in the battle
and Mir Jafar's elevation to the throne.
Macaulay in his picturesque way describes
the apportionment of the spoils of vic-
tory. '■ A sum of £800,000 sterling in
coined silver," he says, " was sent down
the river from Moorshidabad to Fort
William. The fleet which conveyed this
treasure consisted of a hundred boats,
and performed its triumphal voyage with
flags flying and music playing. Calcutta,
which a few months before had been deso-
late, was now more prosperous than ever.
Trade revived, and signs of affluence
appeared in every English house. As
to Clive, there was no limit to his acqui-
sitions but his own moderation. The
treasury of Bengal was thrown open to
him. There were piled up, after the
usage of Indian princes, immense masses
of coin, among which might not seldom
be detected the florins and byzants with
which, before any European ship had
turned the Cape of Good Hope, the
Venetians purchased thi; stuffs and spices
of the East. Clive walked between heaps
of gold and silver, crowned with rubies
and diamonds, and was at liberty to help
himself. He accepted between £200,000
and £300,000." Nor were these pay-
ments in solid coin the sole rewards
reaped for the victory. The Company
obtained the grant of the zamindari, or
landholder's rights, over an extensive
tract of country round Calcutta known
as the District of the Twenty-four Par-
ganas, and Clive somewhat later was
given as a jagir, or military fief, the quit
rent of these lands, amounting in value to
nearly £30,000 a year. In after years
these transactions became the subject of
heated criticism and prolonged inquiry
in England, and it was then that Clive,

defending his action before a Parlia-
mentary Committee, uttered his historic
exclamation, " My God, Mr. Chairman,
at this moment I stand astonished at my
own moderation ! " That remark is a
pregnant estimate of the situation as it
existed in the period following the battle.
The flow of wealth knew no limit so far
as the principal actor in the scene was
concerned. The native powers that then
existed were only too ready to purchase
his invaluable support at any price he
might demand. It was a demoralizing
position, which in due course produced
its inevitable fruit in the disorganization
of the public service, and Clive cannot
be entirely acquitted of responsibility for
the results. But in fairness we must bear
in mind that the traditions of the Com-
pany's service in those days were not
exalted, and that the acquisition of wealth
by irregular means was encouraged by
the miserably low scale of official
remuneration.

CHAPTER VIII
After Plassey

Clive's great reputation— He is created Governor of
Bengal— Sends to Madras an army to fight tlie French
—Shah Alum and the Nawab of Oudh march against
Mir Jafar — Clive defeats the movement — Mir Jafar
intrigues with the Dutch against the English— Clive
attacks and captures the Dutch station of Chinsurah—
Clive returns to England— Demoralization in Bengal —
The massacre of Patna— The Battle of Baxar— Clive
proceeds to India for the last time— His leforms—
Warren Hastings appointed Governor of Bengal.

The eff^ect of Clive's success on the home
public was tremendous. They dimly saw
in it the realization of a dream of Indian
conquest which had long fascinated them,
but which after the Black Hole tragedy
seemed more fanciful than ever. The
East India Company, in their joy at the
wonderful transformation effected in their
affairs by brilliant and courageous leader-
ship, constituted Clive Governor of
Bengal, with the highest honours that
it was possible for them to confer. This
dignity was so natural a corollary of the
achievements of the young soldier-states-
man in the field that even before the
Company's instructions arrived he had,
by the general request and desire of the
Council, assumed the supreme position.
Nothing, indeed, could surpass the pres-
tige that Clive enjoyed on this morrow
of his great triumph. He was courted
and feared by every one. The whole
Indian world, with Mir Jafar at its head,
was at his feet, ready to do his instant
bidding.

Not without justification was the trust
reposed in Clive. His greatness was not

limited to ability to lead in the field.
He possessed all the qualities which make
the successful statesman— sound judg-
ment, foresight, tact, and ability to take
quick decisions. He had wide knowledge
of India, and had that instinct for getting
into the Indian mind which all our great
administrators in the East have possessed
in a greater or less degree as an essen-
tial part of their mental equipment.
Knowing what he knew of the then exist-
ing conditions in India, and understand-
ing, as he well did, that the British could
not rest on the laurels of Plassey, Clive
from the outset of his career as head
of the Bengal Government pursued an
energetic policy. When the call came
from Madras for support in the cam-
paign against the French under Lally and
Bussy, he sent south a considerable body
of troops, and in that way assisted
materially to secure the ultimate pre-
dominance of Britain in that theatre.

While the bulk of Clive's army was
still away fighting in Southern India a
serious crisis arose in Bengal itself owing
to the rebellion of Shah Alum, the Shah-
zada, or Imperial Prince. Shah .\lum,
supported by the Nawab of Oudh,
marched with forty thousand men with
the object of dethroning Mir Jafar and
securing for himself a vantage ground
for his larger designs. He got as far
as Patna, and invested the city, greatly
to the terror of Mir Jafar. Clive, whose
advice was sought, strongly urged his
protege to deal boldly with the position.
He promised his powerful support if the
course he recommended was followed.
Mir Jafar, gladly acquiescing in the pro-
posed resistance, gave Clive the cue for
the advance which he had seen to be in-
evitable from the first. The British com-
mander could only muster a force of under
3,000 soldiers, of whom only 450 were
Europeans. But such was the glamour
of his name that when Shah Alum heard
of his approach he abandoned his invest-
ment of Patna and precipitately fled,
leaving his huge army to disperse in the
absence of leadership.

Relieved of a great danger, Mir Jafar
overwhelmed his benefactor with atten-
tions, but his gratitude was not more
lasting than that of a despot rescued from
threatened peril usually is. Jealousy of
Clive's power soon made itself con-
spicuous in his policy. In his desire
to emancipate himself from what had
become a galling thraldom the Nawab
opened up an intrigue with the Dutch,
who were then the only European Power

1. MOSQUE ON THE BOORAGUNQA BRANCH OF THE GANGES.

2. PART OF THE INTERIOR OF THE CITY OF DACCA.
3. THE FORT AND GATEWAY OF THE GREAT KUTHA, DACCA.

4. THE SMALL KUTHA WITH ITS ENCLOSED MOSQUE, DACCA.

Illustrations from "Antiquities of Dacca." Published in 1817.

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

in India capable of being an effective
ally against the English. The Dutch,
who had long conceived designs for
establishing their supremacy in Eastern
India, responded to the overtures made
to them, and the Batavia Government dis-
patched an expedition composed of seven
well-found ships to co-operate with Mir
Jafar against the British. Clive, still
heavily handicapped by the absence of
a large part of his force in Madras, was
now confronted with a situation of great
peril. But he never hesitated as to the
policy that he must pursue in the emer-
gency. He clearly perceived that he must
attack the Dutch before they could form
a junction with the Nawab if the situation
was to be saved. Acting with character-
istic energy, he made a combined water
and land attack on the Hollanders.
Although the Dutch were superior in
numbers they were unable to withstand
the onset of Clive 's disciplined forces,
and a great victory for British arms was
the result. It gave the last blow to
Dutch pretensions to dominion in India.
Hctjceforward the Dutch settlement at
Chinsurah was under strict regulation
and existed on sufferance. In other parts,
notably in Southern India, a semblance
of power was maintained for some time
longer, but the humiliating terms which
Clive wrung from the factors of Chin-
surah were the real death warrant of
Dutch ambitions in India.

When Clive had made the British posi-
tion in Bengal secure in this fashion he
proceeded to England on a well-earned
holiday. For five years he remained in
England, dazzling the fashionable world
with a display of riches which seemed
fabulous. In the meantime the conduct
of affairs in Bengal fell into the hands of
men who had been raised to high position
under the corrupting influences of the
reign of profusion and extravagance which
the Battle of Plassey ushered in. The
natural consequences followed in a degra-
dation of the whole system of administra-
tion. Extortion was practised as a fine
art, and the principal end which almost
every official had in view was the accumu-
lation of a private fortune which would
enable him to figure as a man of fashion
at home. Following these principles of
conduct, the Bengal Council soon saw
fit, in 1 761, to remove Mir Jafar from
the throne and place upon it a creature
of their own, Mir -Kasim. Substantial
rewards were paid to his sponsors by the
new Nawab for his honour, and his
generous recognition of the power that

elevated him also took the form of the
grant to the Company of the three dis-
tricts of Bardwan, Midnapur, and Chitta-
gong. But Mir Kasim did not long
remain in the favour of his patrons.
They expected more of him than he would
or could give, and he, on his part, was
irritated at the effective way in which
the Company squeezed the sponge before
he himself had an opportunity of trying
his hand at the operation. Eventually
he went off from Murshidabad to
Monghyr, where he took up a strong
position ready to cross swords with the
British if • a favourable opportunity
offered. He had not long to wait
for his opening. In 1763 a dispute in
reference to claims made by the servants
of the Company to carry on their private
trade without the payment of local dues
led to a rupture. In the course of its
passage up the river an English boat
was fired upon by the Nawab's officials.
Immediately the whole province became
aflame. Mir Kasim, who had carefully laid
his plans, attacked and practically anni-
hilated a force of about two thousand
sepoys at Patna, and at the same time
instituted a vendetta against all English-
men in the province.

The Bengal Council took energetic
measures to meet the formidable situa-
tion which had arisen. A series of well-
organized moveincnts led to successive
defeats of the Nawab's troops, first on
the banks of the Adjee River, on
July 17th, then, two days later, at
Kutwah ; again, on August 2nd, at
Ghecriah, and finally, on August i ith.
at OodeynuUa. These reverses aroused
the fanatical rage of the Nawab to such
an extent that he determined to wreak
his vengeance on the comparatively large
force — numbering over two hundred — of
European officials and soldiers he had in
his power as a result of the earlier
operations at Patna. Orders given to his
native generals for the execution of his
shameful plan elicited from them a noble
refusal, accompanied by the remark that
they were soldiers and not assassins.
But Mir Kasim had at his elbow a pliant
tool for the. dark work in hand in Dyce
Sombre, a foreign adventurer, probably
of Germanic origin, from Strassburg, who
had come out to India as a carpenter, and,
like many other men of his class, had
found an easy road to fortune in native
military employ. Sombre, without the
least qualms of pity, took up the rejected
commission, and proceeded to execute it
with an energy that seemed to indicate

a real zest for villainy. On October 5th,
having surrounded the building in which
the prisoners were interned, he sent for
the three leading civilians of the party-
Ellis, Hay, and Lushington. No sooner
had they approached than they and the
party accompanying them were attacked
and killed, their mutilated bodies after-
wards being cast into an adjacent well.
Subsequently, a body of sepoys, under
Sombre's orders, mounted the roof of the
house and poured down a deadly fire upon
the unfortunate prisoners who were in the
yard below. Some who escaped the
murderous volleys took refuge in an inner
chamber, where they desperately defended
themselves against the parties of sepoys
sent against them. The sepoys, struck
by the heroism shown, sought to be
excused from proceeding further with the
massacre. But Sombre would accept
nothing short of a full tale of slaughtered
victims, and, by energetically exercising
his authority, ultimately achieved his vile
purpose. So complete was the holocaust
that even Mr. Ellis's infant child was
murdered by Sombre's directions. Alto-
gether, more than fifty civil and military
officers and over one hundred European
soldiers perished on the occasion.

An immediate effect of this terrible
massacre was to lead to a concentration
of English power against the Nawab and
the double-dyed villain his accomplice.
By a swift march Patna was taken on
November 6th and Mir Kasim forced to
retreat to the territory of the Nawab
Vizier of Oudh. A demand that the fugi-
tive should be handed over being rejected,
the Bengal Council took measures to en-
force their views. This led to a coalition
of the forces of Shah Alum, who was now
Emperor, and of the Nawab of Oudh
against the British. The danger, formid-
able enough of itself, was, as time wore
on, intensified in 1764 by a mutiny of
sepoys. Major (afterwards Sir) Hector
Munro, who was in command, took
prompt action to suppress this rising, and
by dealing out stern punishment to the
ringleaders ultimately restored discipline.
Major Munro afterwards, at the B.ittle
of Baxar, showed that the moral of his
force had not been permanently affected
by events by winning a great victory,
which placed Oudh at his mercy and
made the Mogul Emperor a creature of
British policy.

The events which had been passing in
Bengal in these years following Clives
departure had a powerful reflex action
in England. Not without good reason ^

1. DANCING BOYS. 2. DANCING GIRLS. 3. GROUP OF MgNDICANTS.

Jllustrations from Mrs lieliios' ■■ MuiinLTd in Ucn^ial." I'liblishcd in iS^2.

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

the directors became seriously alarmed
at the evidence that almost every ship
brought of the increasing anarchy into
which Bengal was falling under the in-
fluence of incompetent administration.
The cry went up that Clive alone could
evolve order out of the chaos that had
been created, and, bowing to the uni\-ersal
demand, the great soldier-statesman (now
Baron Clive of Plassey in the peerage of
the United Kingdom) went once more to
India. On landing at Calcutta in May
1765 he found that the machinery of
government was terribly disorganized.
The discoveries he made had a profound
effect on him. " Alas ! " he said in
a communication home, " how is the
English name sunk ! 1 could not avoid
paying the tribute of a few tears to the
departed and lost fame of the British
nation— irrecoverably so, I fear. How-
ever, I do declare, by that great Being
who is the searcher of all hearts, and to
whom we must be accountable if there
be a hereafter, that I am come out with
a mind superior to all corruption, and
that I am determined to destroy these
great and growing evils or perish in the
attempt." Clive was as good as his
word. Before he left India, at the end
of an eighteen months' sojourn, he had
laid solidly the foundations of an edifice
of administration which left no effective
opening for the evils which so rankly
flourished at the time. Besides this work
of official reorganization, Clive carried out
a great scheme of territorial adjustment,
which may be said to have settled the
lines of British domination in India.
Preserving still the fiction of Mogul over-
lordship, he entered into arrangements
with the Nawab of Oudh by which that
province was handed back in considera-
tion of a payment of £500,000 towards
the cost of the war, and he agreed to
yield up the provinces of Allahabad and
Kora to the Emperor Shah Alum in return
for the grant to the Company of the
diwani, or fiscal administration, of Bengal,
Behar, and Orissa, with the jurisdiction of
the Northern Circars. An essential part
of the arrangement in regard to Bengal
was that the Nawabship should be main-
tained, and that an allowance of £600,000
should be paid for its maintenance out
of the revenues of the province.

In this fashion Clive rounded off his
official career in India. Ere he had dis-
appeared from the scene the great name
of Warren Hastings, which is indis-
solubly associated with his in the foun-
dation of the British Empire in India,

had come to the front as that of an official
of great promise. When Clive quitted
India for the last time in 1767 Hastings
had already served nearly sixteen years
in Bengal. He had advanced by suc-
cessive stages in the official hierarchy,
until in 1769 he had reached the dignified
position of Member of Council at Madras.
He remained at the Southern Presidency
until 1772. when his conspicuous talents
and long service marked him out for pro-
motion to the still higher office of
Governor of Bengal. With his assump-
tion of this appointment opened the
most important period of his life, and
with it was ushered in a new epoch in
the government of India.

CHAPTER IX
Consolidation of the British Power

Hastings iustUutes reforms abolishing tlic dual syslem of
conlrol— The Company "stand forth as Uewan "—
Passage of the Regulating Act creating a supreme
government in Bengal— The new administration torn
by faction— Hastings's great measures— His return to
England — L/Ord Cornwallis's administration — The
permanent settlement of Bengal— Consolidation of
British power — Financial difficulties.

When Hastings arrived in Calcutta he
bore with him instructions to initiate a
series of reforms in the administration
which e.\perience had shown to be neces-
sary. The dual system of control which
Clive had established had not borne the
test of actual experience. " There was,"
says Kaye in his " History of the Admin-
istration of the East India Company,"
" no responsibility and no control. The
strong preyed upon the weak — and the
weak had none to look up to for protec-
tion. Misgovernment brought its wonted
bitter fruit, and the revenue began to
decline. So, in 1769, European advisers
were appointed as a check to the native
functionaries. The most elaborate in-
structions were issued to them. It is
hard to say what they were not expected
to do ; but still the double government
continued to work grievously, ."^nd there
were those who thought that the super-
visors only made confusion worse con-
founded and corruption more corrupt."
It was Hastings's special mission to
change all this by initiating an entirely
new system, under which the entire con-
trol of the admmistration was to be
vested in British officials. To adopt the
words of the historic proclamation of May
II, 1772, announcing the reform, the
Company was from that time forward to
" stand forth publicly in the character
of Dewan." "This," as Kaye observes,
" was the greatest step in the progress
of Anglo-Indian administration ever made

by the Company — the greatest adminis-
trative revolution, perhaps, to which
Bengal had ever been subjected."

A task so tremendously important as
that which was embodied in the Com-
pany's instructions was not to be quickly
discharged, and Hastings spent many
busy and eventful years in organizing
the government on the new basis. If
he had been left to himself to carry out
the change unaided, with the unrivalled
knowledge that he possessed of India,
all might have been well. But Parlia-
ment in 1773 had passed an important
measure, known in history as the Regu-
lating Act, under which great constitu-
tional changes were effected in India. By
the provisions of this Act a Governor and
Council, consisting of four members, was
appointed to Bengal, with supreme
authority over all the Presidencies of
India, and a Supreme Court of Judica-
ture was created, with its seat at Cal-
cutta. The appointment of the four
members of the Supreme Council, as well
as of the judges, was vested in the Crown,
and the right of choice as regards the
Members of Council was exercised by the
dispatch to India of General Clavering,
Colonel Monson, and Mr. Philip Francis,
not one of whom had had any prior ex-
perience of India. Mr. Barlow, the fourth
member, was an experienced servant of
the Company, and might in favourable
circumstances have redressed the balance
which weighed so heavily against experi-
ence. But, unhappily, almost from the
first a cabal was organized against Hast-
ings, with the object of concentrating in
the hands of the trio of inexperienced
members all the governing power. Ably
led by Francis, who is known to literary
fame from his association with the con-
troversy as to the authorship of " The
Letters of Junius," this majority of
the Council speedily made Hastings's
authority to a large extent a nullity.
The story of that remarkable conflict, with
its tragic sequel in the execution of the
Brahman Nuncoomar on a charge of for-
gery, is told by Macaulay, with many and
gross inaccuracies in points of detail, in
his well-known essay on Hastings. It
is not necessary to dwell upon it here
further than to say that the enmities then
aroused were largely responsible for the
subsequent impeachment of Hastings,
which lives among the most absorbing
features of British history in the
eighteenth century.

The changes introduced by Hastings
were of a far-reaching description.

1. VIEW IN OLIVE STREET. 2. OHOROH ENTRANCE TO THE DHURAMTOLLA.

8. CALCUTTA FROM THE OLD HOtJSB. 4. CHOWRINOHBE ROAD FROM THE ESPLANADE.

From Sir Charles DOyley's " Town and Port of Calcutta. ' Published 1840.

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Bengal was divided into fourteen dis-
tricts, and over each was appointed a
European official, termed a collector, who
was charged with the duty of collecting
the public revenue and of presiding over
the Diwani Ada'.at, or civil courts. It
was also the collector's business to keep
an eye on the Faujdari Adalat, or
criminal courts, which were still presided
over by the Mahommcdan officials.
Appeals from the local civil and criminal
courts were allowed to two superior courts
in Calcutta. Subsequently this system
was changed by the substitution for the
collectoratcs of six provincial councils at
Calcutta, Burdwan, Dacca, Murshidabad,
Dinajpur, and Patna. But later still, in
Lord Cornwallis's time, the Hastings's
plan was revived in a somewhat extended
form, the collector under the new regime
filling the position of civil judge and
magistrate.

Now that Hastings's work in India can
be seen in its true perspective, free from
the distorting mediums of personal
animosity and political prejudice, it is
impossible not to yield to it the meed
of our highest admiration. With patient
statesmanship, illumined by the resources
of a mind stored with the rich experience
of nearly a quarter century's contact with
Indian problems, the great man gradu-
ally evolved the complete machinery of
a system of internal administration. It
is largely upon his measures that the
present official organization of Bengal is
based. If he had accomplished nothing
else he would have won an indisputable
title to enduring fame. But side by side
with his work of domestic reform he con-
ducted a diplomacy of the most far-reach-
ing kind ; he made and unmade poten-
tates and he directed the movement of
great armies, all his operations tending
to the aggrandisement of the power of
his native country. That he perpetrated
some bad moral blunders from the stand-
point of British integrity and fair dealing
is not seriously to be denied. But it is
impossible to separate him from the
system of which he was a part — a system
in which successful administration was
judged by the extent of the exactions that
could be squeezed out of the unfortunate
population. Hastings in this matter was
the good servant of a bad cause. Driven
forward by the inexorable demands from
home for financial results, he acted in-
judiciously, and even tyrannically, but
rarely had failure to be written on any
of his projects.

In 1781, when Hastings retired from

India, the foundations had been laid of
a stable system of government and a
foreign policy which extended to almost
every part of the continent. It now
remained for others to rear upon the base
of his far-seeing measures an enduring
superstructure. Fortunately at this junc-
ture there was nominated as the head
of the Government of India a noble-
man of high moral purpose and good
attainments in the person of Lord Corn-
wallis. The new Governor-General, the
first of a long line of aristocratic pro-
consuls who have ruled India, addressed
himself to the work of administrative con-
struction with a zeal and judgment which
bore fruit in a code of written laws and
regulations which gave luminous expres-
sion to the aspiration of the British nation
to make the government of India worthy
of them. Under his official auspices
criminal jurisdiction was first entrusted
to Europeans, and the Nizamat Sadr
."Xdalat, or Court of Criminal Juris-
diction, at Calcutta was established.
Another of his measures was the sepa-
ration of the jurisdiction of the district
collector and judge. But the most im-
portant of his reforms was the Permanent
Settlement of the Land Revenue of
Bengal. This great scheme, introduced
in its final form in 1793, gave rise to a
fierce controversy, which extended over
many years, and even still has an
academic interest for land reformers. It
had, no doubt, many defects, not the least
serious of which was that it did not suf-
ficiently protect the rights of the occupy-
ing tenants. In later years many
attempts were made by legislation to
remedy the defects in the system, and
something like an equipoise was estab-
lished between the propertied rights of
the zamindar, or landowner, on the one
hand, and the interests of the ryot, or
tenant, on the other. But it is open to
serious question whether it has been
possible entirely to recover what was lost
by the enforcement of the one-sided con-
ception of the landed rights of Bengal
embodied in Lord Cornwallis's settle-
ment. Its greatest value, perhaps, is that
it established for the first time a system
of revenue collection on a scientific basis.
The native poiJulation, instead of being
subjected to the evils of frequent and
arbitrary changes in the method of col-
lection, knew exactly where it stood, and
was able to conduct its life accordingly.
The end of the eighteenth century
found the British power well consoli-
dated from the mouths of the Ganges

to Benares. It became the duty of Lord
Wellesley, who succeeded Lord Corn-
wallis, after an interim of five years filled
by the colourless regime of Sir John
Shore, to carry the British flag farther,
so as to make it the supreme authority
throughout the country, and so safeguard
the position already secured in the three
Presidencies, but most conspicuously in
Bengal. This glorious chapter in British
Indian annals belongs to the general his-
tory of India, and need not be touched
upon here further than to say that in
consequence of the brilliant victories
secured over Ti\n\ Sahib in the South
and the Mahratias in Western and
Central India, the centre of government
in Calcutta attained a new splendour. It
was in this period that some of the most
important of the city's institutions —
Government House amongst them — were
erected, and it is from the same spacious
age that dates the inception of the Presi-
dency banking system. Calcutta life
grew in splendour with the steady march
of the British arms ; but the times were
not entirely free fiom anxiety. The great
Napoleonic war was then opening, and
Britain, as in our day, was face to face
with a struggle in which its very exist-
ence as a nation was threatened. How
well her sons comported themselves,
wliethcr in the homeland or in exile,
the records of the time show. In India
a great wave of patriotism swept over
the European communities, and large
sums were contributed to the support of
the national cause. In Calcutta volunteer
forces were formed, and the Maidan every
morning resounded with military words
of conmiand addressed to miscellaneous
bodies of civilians who had banded them-
selves together for the aid of authority
in the event of a not unexpected raid by
" the little Corporal."

Financial difficulties arising out of the
state of war that existed in Europe and
in India itself occupied a large share of
the attention of the Supreme Government
in the early years of the new century. It
is an interesting fact, and one which en-
ables us to realize how enormously British
credit in India has enhanced in the past
century, that the (jovernment borrowings
in Calcutta at that period carried interest
at the rate of 12 per cent., and that in
1801 this 12 per cent, paper — Treasury
notes payable in the ensuing autumn -
was selling at a discount of 3 or 4 per
cent. The crisis was weathered in due
time, but the financial stress left its mark
for a long period on the administration.

1. ESPLANADE BOW, CALCUTTA.
From ■■Panoramic Views of Calcutta," by Wni. Wood. Junr. Publislied in 183,?.
a. OHOWBINQHEB BOAD, CALCUTTA, IN 1833.
From ■■ Panoramic Views of Calcutta," by \Vm. Wood, Junr.

a. THE FOBT, CALCUTTA.
From ■■Panoramic Viewi of Calcutta.' by Wm. Wood, Jimr,
4. CALCUTTA.
From "Sail's Views." Pubr.s'.ied in li^J-

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

CHAPTER X
A Century of Progress

North- West ProTinces Rovernment formed— The liberty
ot the Press granted by Mctcalle-The first Burmese
War— Annexatioa of Assam— Land reform— The first
lieutcnaot-Govcrnor appointed— The Mutiny of 1857
—An era of peaceful progress- The partition of Bengal
—The coronation Durbar changes— Conclusion.

With the lapse of years and the growth
of the activities of the administration, in-
creasing difficulty was found in effectively
governing the huge area which was in-
cluded in the Province of Bengal. As
early as 1808 a proposal was made that
a separate system of government should
be established in the North-VVest Pro-
vinces. Nothing came of the scheme then,
but the question was revived in 1829,
when the division was strongly recom-
mended by a Finance Committee
appointed by the Supreme Government.
Lord William Bentinck, the then Gover-
nor-General, was opposed to the separa-
tion of authority, and held that if a
change was to he made it should be the
removal of the Supreme Goverrunent to
the North-West Provinces and the dele-
gation of Bengal business to local authori-
ties in Calcutta. The influences at home
in favour of the creation of the new
Government were, however, too strong to
be resisted, and when the Bill for the
renewal of the Company's Charter was
passed in 1833 it embodied a scheme for
the establishment of a fourth Presidency
with its seat at Agra. Eventually the
project was revised, and in the place of
the larger Government designed in the
Charter Act, a subordinate administration,
with a Lieutenant-Governor at its head,
came into being.

The period during which this change
was being discussed witnessed also a
prolonged and acrimonious discussion in
regard to the liberty of the Press in India,
and more especially in Bengal. In its
earliest days the Calcutta Press, like that
of every Indian centre, had reprehensible
features. It dealt largely in scurrility,
and showed an entire lack of responsi-
bility. Gradually as Calcutta grew in
importance the character of its news-
papers improved, but the old taint clung
to the Press, and when the war broke
out with France at the end of the
eighteenth century Lord Wellesley had no
difficulty in finding reasons for establish-
ing a rigorous censorship. The regula-
tions framed were very drastic, involving
the suppression of the offending paper
and the deportation of its editor in the
event of infringement of them. They
were probably a necessary provision for

the state of war which existed at the
time, but they were incompatible with the
era of peace which followed, and when
the Marquess of Hastings proceeded to
India in 18 14, he caused the restrictions
to be relaxed to a very large extent, in
spite of the protests of the local officials.
On Lord Hastings's departure in 1823
the supreme office was held temporarily
by Mr. John Adam, one of the old
oligarchy of Calcutta who had objected
to the policy of gentle dealing with the
Press, and that gentleman took upon him-
self to re-enforce the Press restrictions.
The weight of his authority fell upon
Mr. J. Silk Buckingham, a journalist of
some standing, whose name has become
famous in connection with the struggles
of the Press for freedom. Mr. Bucking-
ham was seized and deported to England,
and his property in Calcutta was rendered
worthless. Afterwards the East India
Company had to pay dearly for the arbi-
trariness of their servant, but meanwhile
the Indian Press was put under the lash
of a new set of regulations of a most
stringent kind, issued on March 14th and
April 15, 1823. These ill-considered
proposals added fuel to the fire of the
resentment excited by Buckingham's de-
portation, but the forces of reaction were
for the time being too strong to permit
of a change of policy being made.
During Lord Amherst's Governor-
Generalship, and still more during that
of his successor. Lord William Bentinck,
the regulations were allowed to fall into
disuse. But it was not until Sir Charles
(afterwards Lord) Metcalfe filled the
office of Governor-General temporarily in
1835 that the Indian Press was actually
freed. In .April of that year he caused
to be passed a law repealing the Press
regulations throughout India, and sub-
stituting for them a new enactment of a
mild and unexceptionable character.
Thereafter until quite modern times the
Bengal Press, in common with Indian
journalism, generally went its way un-
shackled, to the infinite advantage not
only of the Press itself but of the interests
of the country.

."Ks the lines of British rule in India
broadened the military operations neces-
sitated from time to time by political
exigencies, though, of course, directed by
the Supreme Government, became less
directly associated with the Bengal ad-
ministration as such. The province, how-
ever, was very seriously involved in the
prosecution of the first Burmese War in
1824, and sent out two of the three expe-

ditions which formed the army of inva-
sion. One of these proceeded up the
Brahmaputra into Assam, and the other
took the land route through Arakan to
Chittagong. Some initial reverses on the
frontier, and notably the cutting up of
a small British force in Assam, created
for the time a most unpleasant impres-
sion in Calcutta, and special measures
were taken in view of what seemed to
the fevered imaginations of the local
public an imminent Burmese invasion.
But in due course the might of British
arms was asserted, and Assam, Cachar,
and other territory passed under the
Company's rule.

In spite of the persistent demands
made upon the Bengal Army during the
wars of the nineteenth century, domestic
rather than military problems engaged
the attention of the Government during
the earlier decades of that period. The
land settlement was a continuous source
of unrest and heated controversy. As
has been noted, the settlement made by
Lord Cornwallis took too little account of
the cultivator's rights, and the partiality
shown for the landlord had been aggra-
vated by stringent regulations passed
in 1799 and 18 12, which placed the
tenants at the mercy of rack-renting land-
lords. After prolonged discussion the
question was seriously taken up in 1859,
when a Land Law was passed which
greatly curtailed the landlord's powers
of enhancing rent in certain cases. Even
this legislation was found in practice to
be inadequate to remove the admitted
grievances of the cultivators, and it was
not until 1885 that finality was reached
by the carrying of legislation embodying
the recommendations of a Commission
which sat in 1879 to inquire into the land
system of the province. I

Before this great reform had reached
fruition the entire administrative system
of Bengal had undergone a striking
change by the creation of a definitely
local executive with a Lieutenant-Gover-
nor at its head. The old arrangement by
which the Supreme Government was re-
sponsible for the working of the adminis- •
trative machinery in the province served
.very well for the time when the British
power was in its infancy, but with the
growth of the vast interests beyond the
confines of Bengal which flowed from the
various extensions of British territory on
the continent, consequent upon the over-
throw of the Mogul and the Mahratta,-
power, the need came to be felt for a
system which left the control of local

1. THE SILK AND CLOTH MERCHANT.
a. ABLUTIONS OF A YOUNG HINDOO WOMAN OF RANK ON THE BANKS OF THE GANGES.

3. THE VILLAGE GOSSIPS.

Illustrations from Mrs. Bdnos' "Manners in Bengal." Published in 1832.

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

affairs in the hands of officials specially
appointed to deal with Bengal affairs.
Sir Frederick Halliday was the first of
the series of Lieutenant-Governors.
Since his day a long series of able men,
drawn from the ranks of the Covenanted
Civil Service, have filled the office.

The great Mutiny of 1857, which for a
time shook the foundations of British
power in India, deeply involved Bengal,
whose native army supplied the principal
material to the forces of the rebels. But
apart from the famous incident at
Barrackpore, which gave the signal for
the rising, and such episodes as the dis-
turbances at Dacca and the heroic defence
maintained by a handful of civilians and
Sikhs at Arrah, the province did not be-
come the scene of any notable conflicts.
An enormous amount of demoralization,
however, was caused by the loosening of
the ties of discipline which followed upon
the successive mutinies of the native regi-
ments in Lower Bengal, and a consider-
able time elapsed after the crushing of
the revolt in Northern and Central India
before normal conditions were restored.

The noble Proclamation of Queen Vic-
toria, announcing the transfer of the
government of India to the Crown, which
was read at a great durbar at Allahabad
on November i, 1858, by Lord Canning,
ushered in for Bengal, as for the rest of
India, an era of peace and progress. A
vigorous i>olicy of public works construc-
tion was inaugurated on lines which the
past troubles had shown to be desirable.
In particular the construction of railways
was actively promoted, and nowhere in
India was the need for this means of
communication greater at this time than
iu Bengal. Before the Mutiny broke out
the entire railway system of the province
consisted of a short section of what is
now the East India Railway, starting from
Calcutta. This had proved of great ser-
vice to the military during the Mutiny,
and the work was now pushed on ener-
getically. Other lines were projected,
and in due course the magnificent system
of communication now seen came into

TF it be true that happiness attends a
•'■ country that has no history, that coun-
try is doubly favoured if it has no recent
history ; for, of course, it is the events of
to-day and yesterday that really count,
rather than those of centuries ago.
Judged by the poet's exacting standard,
Bengal should at the present time be in

being. Meanwhile trade developed enor-
mously, bringing into e.xistence thriving
centres of commerce in regions which had
hitherto been mere jungle. These activi-
ties are treated at length in other sections
of this volume, and call for no further
reference here. Nor is it necessary in
this historical survey to do more than
record briefly the measures associated
with the Partition of Bengal introduced
during Lord Curzon's Viceroyalty in
1905. The scheme then introduced,
based on a long-entertained desire to
make the government of Bengal more
effective by dividing the province, cut off
the eastern districts of the old Presidency,
and, combining these with Assam, consti-
tuted a new province with the designation
of Eastern Bengal. Though at the time
no very serious opposition was offered
to the project, it was afterwards bitterly
assailed, and a formidable agitation was
promoted in favour of the reversal of
the policy of partition. Grave disorders,
incited by an anarchical propaganda
which was conducted in more or less
open association with the constitutional
movement, arose in various parts of the
Presidency, and were a source of much
anxiety to the Government. The King's
visit to India in connection with the Coro-
nation ceremonies at the end of 191 1
brought a welcome reaction from the tur-
bulence of the period of political discon-
tent which had preceded it, and the
memorable proclamation of State changes
which was made at the great Delhi
Durbar on December 12, 191 1, opened
the way to a new era of peace and re-
conciliation. Amongst the measures
announced by His Majesty was the
removal of the capital of India from Cal-
cutta to Delhi and the substitution for
the partition scheme of 1905 of a new
arrangement by which Bengal, with the
districts in the east which had been
separated from it, was created a single
entity under the rule of a Governor,
while Behar, Chota Nagpur, and Orissa
was constituted a new province, presided
over by a Lieutenant-Governor, Assam

LATER HISTORY

a very lugubrious mood. In comrilon with
the rest of India, it has experienced the
thrills of the Great War; in association
with the rest of the Empire, it has taken
a part, and a noble one, in the memor-
able struggle for the world's freedom.
But this, unfortunately, is not the only
side of the picture that this great Pro-
40

being left, as before, under a Chief Com-
missioner. The visit of the King and
Queen to Calcutta after the great Delhi
function set the seal upon this compro-
mise. Their Majesties were received with
extraordinary enthusiasm, and any doubts
that were entertained as to the wisdom
of some portions of the plan — notably that
which deposed Calcutta from its position
as capital — were drowned in the chorus
of loyal gratification at the auspicious
circumstance which brought the Sovereign
and his Consort to the banks of the
Hooghly.

Though from time to time episodes
occur which indicate that the virus of
anarchy implanted in the Bengal body
politic by maleficent agitators is still
working, the condition of the province as
a whole is satisfactory. Absorbed in the
work of building up a commercial and
industrial fabric which is ever increasing
in strength and magnificence, the great
masses of the people are only anxious to
live their lives in peace. The more in-
fluential classes recognize the value of the
protectioti of the Paramount Power, and
are content to work out their destinies
under its shadow ; the lower grades of
the inhabitants, the cultivators and those
engaged in the humbler walks of industry,
are little prone to disorder, and with their
modest needs ensured and safeguarded
by a firm and just administration, may be
trusted to rest contentedly under the Pax.
Britaiinica. The Great War has happily
passed so far without directly touching
their lives or in any serious degree ad-
versely affecting their interests. But it
has not been without its influence in
strengthening in Bengal, as in other parts
of India, the sentiment of loyalty to the
Crown, which in recent times has been
so markedly and beneficially developed.
Thus we may hope that in due time, when
the stupendous World War has been
followed by the Great Peace, Bengal will
play a noble part in the work of economic
regeneration which will be a leading, if
not the chief, concern of our Imperial
statesmanship.

vince has exhibited in later days. Sedition
has reared its ugly head in a fashion which
has caused the gravest official anxiety.
Fed from outside sources, the character
of which it is not now difficult to deter-
mine, an anarchical movement has alter-
nately smouldered and burst into flame,
producing unrest in wide areas in which

BENGAL— LATER HISTORY

the agents of disorder operated. There
are many who think that the trouble has
to a very considerable extent been created
by past supineness in dealing with dis-
order. But whether so or not, it is beyond
question that the criminals have shown
an audacity and contempt for the law
witliout parallel in the modern history of
India.

Some of the worst phases of this orgy
of organized crime were experienced in
the tenure of office of Lord Carmichael,
who was the first statesman to fill the
office of Governor created under the new
arrangements for the ruling of the Pro-
vince. A man of high distinction in Home
politics, Lord Carmichael took to his new
position more than a common share of
the exalted Liberal aspirations in regard
to India which were prevalent at that time.
His desire was to rule by kindness and
persuasion rather than by force, and at
the outset he was subjected to strong criti-
cism because he did not more thoroughly
apply the forces of the law to the work
of extirpating the conspiracy. But the
stern logic of events in the end compelled
him to show that, as Gladstone said on
a famous occasion when he was faced with
Irish troubles, the resources of civiliza-
tion were not exhausted. After a careful,
investigation, conducted by his instruc-
tions by Mr. John Gumming, had
disclosed the existence of a widespread
conspiracy against British rule, he put
into execution the powers conferred by
the Defence of the Realm Act, causing a
number of suspected persons to be in-
terned. His action was fiercely criticized
by a section of the public who did not
adequately realize either the extremely
dangerous character of the movement or
the perilous character of the times in
which we live. In plain truth. Lord
Carmichael did no more than was done
in liberty-loving England without any
serious protest. Constitutional govern-
ment is a very precious thing, and not
lightly to be thrust on one side, but there
are times when it would be madness to
allow a pedantic interpretation of the laws
of government to restrain the administra-
tion from suppressing organized crime,
and this assuredly is one of them.

Lord Carmichael, at all events, had no
difficulty when, at the closing durbar of
his administration he addressed the
assembled notables of Bengal, in justi-
fying the policy which he had followed.
Step by step in his speech on that occa-
sion he took his hearers through the
developments of the subject, showing how

he had come to the conclusion that there
existed " a well-organized conspiracy,
whose aim is to weaken the present form
of government and, if possible, to over-
throw it by means which are criminal ";
how, faced by the insidious ramifications
of the movement, the deliberate corruption
of the young, side by side with the more
overt acts of disorder such as organized
gang robbery, the authorities had to adopt
severe measures ; and how such measures
of necessity took an exceptional form
owing to the special characteristics of
the conspiracy and the gravity of the
times in which we live. He went on
to claim that the Government measures
had been amply justified by results.
Not only, he declared, had crime been
diminished by direct measures, but the
administration of the Defence of the
Realm Act had been a great indirect
factor in the prevention of crime by the
discoveries which it brought to light in
the course of its operations. At the same
time. Lord Carmichael did not disguise
from himself the fact that executive action
alone would never eradicate the evils of
anarchy. A healthy public sentiment
antagonistic to the criminals was, as he
properly pointed out, by far the best safe-
guard that the Province could have from
the disorders which it had experienced
in recent times.

It was an admirable speech with which
to round off a career which will be grate-
fully remembered hereafter when the
harvest of this first Bengal Governorship
comes to be reaped. In what form events
will shape themselves no one can say,
but, as the retiring Governor in his vale-
dictory remarks pointed out, the war has
worked a wonderful transformation in
all Imperial affairs — to use his exact
words, " the war has taught us to realize
more clearly than we ever did before that
if the British Empire is to continue as
the greatest Power in the world for good,
every part of that Empire, India no less
than any other, must be allowed, and, if
need be, helped, to develop to the full
all that its people feel themselves capable
of doing for the mutual welfare of the
whole." There will be changes, no doubt,
but they will be on constitutional lines, and
they will be helped or retarded according
to the degree to which the anarchical con-
spiracy is successfully grappled with.

It is a curious fact, and a significant
one, that in spite of unrest within and war
without, Bengal in the past few years has
been remarkably prosperous. Economic
development has made wonderful strides

in the Province of late, and has now
reached dimensions which show, in a very
impressive way, the vast future that lies
ahead for India as a producer. This
movement commenced long anlerior to the
war, and on the outbreak of hostilities
there were fears that a grave check would
bo given to commercial and industrial
activities. Kor a time a serious influence
was exercised on the course of trade. But
as the war proceeded and it was seen
that few of India's material interests
would be adversely affected, and that in
certain directions she would actually
profit by the war, the situation became
stable. Some industries, notably jute,
underwent enormous expansion owing to
demands for war purposes, and there was
for a time in Calcutta in 1916 a wild
speculation in shares, the value of which
in some instances increased by 600 per
cent, on the pre-war figure. Coal and
tea also, though not to the same extent,
profited by the war, the heavy orders
made on Government account stimulating
business in spite of the severe handicaps
imposed by the war conditions. The
satisfactory character of trade generally
is clearly revealed in the official statistics,
which show that in 1916 a more valuable
trade was done than in any preceding year
save 191 2 and 19 1 3. As far as Bengal
is concerned, imports during the year in-
creased 13 per cent, and exports nearly
14 per cent. To a considerable extent,
no doubt, the increase represents the
enhancement of values which the war has
caused; but even allowing for that, it is
a remarkable testimony to the strength
of the Indian commercial position that
these results should be possible after two
years of war. It can hardly be expected,
perhaps, that future returns will be so
favourable. The shortage of tonnage, due
to submarine warfare, and difficulties of
finance arising out of the stoppage of the
sale of Treasury Bills towards the end of
1 91 6, have given a check to business, and
this may continue. Such handicaps as
those indicated, however, can have little
influence on the steady march of economic
development, which is, perhaps, the most
striking feature of modern India. Indeed,
it may confidently be anticipated that
here, as in the United Kingdom, the
invigorating effects of war activities— the
making of munitions, the production of
all kinds of war material and the im-
provisation of transport machinery — will
be felt long after the war has ceased, and
that out of the welter of this terrible
death-struggle may arise a new and

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

improved system of industry which will
be of enormous permanent value.

By a happy conjuncture of events, the
destinies of Bengal at this most interest-
ing period are entrusted to a public man
of considerable distinction in the person
of Lord Konaldshay. This peer, who
assumed office in the early part of 19 17,
on Lord Carmichael's departure, has had
a soniewhat arduous apprenticeship in
Home affairs, and possessing as he does
broad sympathies and the invaluable
quality of tact, he can scarcely fail to

make his administration a success. It will
be his duty, in all human probability, to
supervise the work, political as well as
industrial, which will follow the war. No
more difficult task, probably, has been
imposed upon any modern administrator
of Bengal, for the forces of disloyalty
have still to be finally reckoned with. In
Bengal, as elsewhere in India, however,
there has been an increasing disposition to
realize that in the gradual development
of Indian institutions under the shadow
of the Empire lies the best hopes of future

peace and happiness, and this feeling may
doubtless be relied on to smooth the path
of the Government. Advancing on lines
of peaceful progress, Bengal has a future
more splendid than tliat of any other part
of India. Nowhere else, probably, will
be found such flourishing industries, such
noble public institutions, or such a high
state of intellectual development. Her
old premiership of the Indian Presiden-
cies will have received a new endorsement,
and, in a deeper sense, Calcutta will be
•the capital of India.

GENERAL VIEW OF CALCUTTA AT THE BEGINNING OP THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

From an old print.

VIEW OP DACCA, SHOWINO THE RUINS OF THE PORT AND PALACB OP THE NAWABS OF DACCA,

CALLED LAL BAO.
From '• Panorama of the City of Dacca. " Published about 1847.

NATIVE RACES

Bv L. S. S. O'MALLEY, I.C.S., Fellow of the Royal An'thropoi.ogical Institute

HE peoples of Bengal
and Assam, Behar
and Orissa, number
a little under 92
millions, or three-
tenths of the total
population of India.
They include many
distinct races at widely different stages
of civilization. Some are still primitive
semi-savage tribes, ignorant of the use
of the plough, whose weapons are the axe,
the spear, and the bow and arrow. Others
attained a high degree of civilization at
a time when the Britons painted -them-
selves with woad, and they have not
lagged behind in modern times. Not to
multiply instances, a living Bengali poet
(Sir Rabindra Nath Tagore) has a Euro-
pean reputation and the rare distinction
of being a Nobel prizeman. To give more
homely illustrations, bicycles and sewing-
machines, gramophones and the cinemato-
graph are popular, while Association foot-
ball is a game that has thousands of
devotees of no mean skill. In spite of
all this diversity, some national charac-
teristics can be distinguished.

The Bengalis, in particular, have cer-
tain peculiarities which mark them oflf
from all other races of India. Living
in a humid, relaxing climate, in a country
of which a large part is a network of
rivers and swamps, and subsisting mainly
on a diet of fish and watery rice, they are
a slenderly built, small-boned race.
Although, however, they are not robust,
they are capable of long and continuous

rather than arduous labour, and are able
to stand exposure better than hardier
races not acclimatized to Bengal. The
great mass are tillers of the soil, pas-
sionately attached to their land and their
homes. " The ryot's main property,"
says the Bengali litterateur Mr. R. C.
Dutt, in " The Peasantry of Bengal,"
" the means of his livelihood, the ground
of all his hopes, is the little bit of land he
cultivates. His most dearly cherished
hope points to nothing higher than a good
harvest ; his greatest fear is lest his
produce is decreased or his rent in-
creased. Abuse him and the ryot will
not complain, beat him and he will not
bend, but increase the rent and he can
bear no more."

Largely on account of this home-loving
spirit, and also because the natural
fertility of the soil brings in abundant
harvests, which put the cultivator beyond
the fear of want, Bengal contains a dense,
settled population with little mobility. A
small area produces sufficient for the
cultivator and his family, so that there
is little emigration, and the Bengali is
content to allow immigrants to furnish
the bulk of the labour force of the modern
factory industries and commercial under-
takings in and around Calcutta. There
is but little concentration in towns, and
the people are spread over a multitude of
villages, mostly consisting of scattered
homesteads buried in thickets of bamboos,
fruit-trees, and undergrowth, which secure
the seclusion and privacy which the
Bengali likes for his home. They have

not, however, the homely wits of home-
keeping youth, but possess alert and subtle
intellects. The higher classes, who are
known as bhadra-lok, in particular, are a
clever, keen, and e.Kcitable people. Their
natural bent is not so much to commerce
and industries as to professional pursuits.
Here the Bengali shines. " In the field
of law his success has been fully admitted.
In literature his high standard of excel-
lence has long been known to students
of Indian letters, and has begun to gain
the acknowledgment of the Western world.
In arts and science also he is winning his
way to recognition." Education is almost
a passion with them, and private enter-
prise has spread English education
broadcast; one in every seven of those
able to read and write has a knowledge
of English. It has well been said
that the difference between the Bengali
bhadra-lok and the middle classes of
other Provinces of L'pper India is that
the former are more enterprising, more
intelligent, and far more ready to put
their hands into their pockets to secure
educational advantages. It has regret-
fully to be admitted that one advanced
section have found vent for a discontented
and refractory spirit in an anarchical
movement, professing to aim at self-
government, the outcome of which has
been a number of murders perpetrated
with bombs and revolvers.

A little over half of the Bengalis are
Mahommedans, who, with a strength of
24 millions, outnumber the whole Mahom-
medan population of Turkey, Persia, and

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Afghanistan. The great majority of them
are descendants of Bengali Hindu con-
verts; the minority are of foreign stock,
the descendants of immigrants from
North-West India, e.g. noblemen and
their entourage, or soldiers of the Moghul
army. Thus, one will find Mahommedans
whose robust body, high stature. Semitic

climate than that of the humid delta of
Bengal, are a more manly, robust, and
vigorous people, whom the Bengalis them-
selves are glad to employ in posts
requiring physical strength, courage, or
endurance. They furnished a large
number of recruits to the Sepoy army in
pre-Mutiny days, and during the Mutiny

A MANIPURI DANCINQ-GIBL.

Vholj by li. C. (ih0:,'.tttl, JorlutI

nose, and luxuriant beard contrast
strongly with the features of their slim
and meagre, flat-faced, and almost
beardless co-religioni its. In Chittagong,
where Arab traders and sailors resorted,
the high cheek-bones, hook noses, and
narrow faces of many Mahommedans pro-
claim their Arab origin; while others, who
are muscular, bull-necked, and thick-
bearded, are equally clearly the
descendants of foreign soldiers.

The Beharis, living in a less enervating

the forces that besieged the little .Arrali
House mainly consisted of Behari levies.
They are a nation of industrious and
thrifty cultivators, but when social or
religious ceremonies, sucli as marriages
and funerals, occur, their thrift gives place
to lavish expenditure; the savings of a
lifetime disappear, and the peasant will
incur a crushing load of debt. When the
crops arc off the land they migrate to
Bengal in hundreds of thousands anJ find
employment on the roads and railways,

in the fields and factories, of that rich and
fertile Province, returning a few months
later with their savings to resume the
cultivation of their land.

The Assamese are an amalgam of races,
the fertile valley of the Brahmaputra
having been overrun by successive waves
of invaders from India on the one side and
from China, Tibet, and Burma on the
other, each of which has left its traces
on the physique of the inhabitants. The
aborigines of the country, the autoch-
thones, so far as can be traced, are
believed to be the Bodos, of whom several
branches still survive. The most easterly
are the Dimasas— a name meaning the
great river people — who were driven out
of the Brahmaputra Valley and became
masters of the tract known as Cachar
(Kachar). North-west of them, in a long,
narrow belt of country to the north of
the Brahmaputra, live a kindred tribe,
called Kacharis after that district, who are
described as a cheerful and smiling
people, the most innocent and kindly of
semi-savage races. To the west, in the
Garo Hills and the plaiivs of Goalpara at
their foot, are the Garos, once a savage
race of head-hunters, of whom a descrip-
tion will be found later; while to the
south-west are the Tiparas, in the Hill
Tippera State of Bengal. Under the
name of the Chutiyas, the Bodos, or
Kacharis, established a powerful kingdom
in the east of Assam, from which they were
ousted in the thirteenth century by the
Ahoms, a Shan race from the upper por-
tion of the Irrawaddy Valley, who held
sway for many centuries and gave their
name to the Province. In the valleys the
conquerors fused with the aboriginal in-
habitants, and the descendants of fierce
and warlike invaders, softened by cen-
turies of peace and settled life in a
somewhat enervating climate, are a race
of quiet and somewhat indolent culti-
vators. While the main stock of the
valley population is Indo-Chinese,
Hinduism is the predominant religion,
and the language is almost entirely
Indian, Bengali being spoken by half the
population of the Province, and .•\ssamese,
which is very similar to Bengali, by nearly
one-fourtli. In the hills, however, which
formed a refuge against the hordes of
invaders, there are still many aboriginal
races, with long traditions of war and
rapine, who have clung to their primitive
customs and beliefs, have maintained their
purity of race, and still adhere to the
religion and speech of their forefathers.
It is on this account that .\ssam has

1. TIBETAN WOMAN.

3. A LADY FROM NEPAL.

Photo bv Hhmthtvaii Art Hludio.

4. A YOUNG ASSAMESE GIRI*

rlioto /•>■ /). C. nhoiliiii, Jorlmt,

2. A PAHABI LADY.

Pkolo by H. Sain.

5. LUSHAI WOMAN. 6. YOUNG KHASI GIRL. 7. WIDOW COUNTING BEADS. EASTERN BENGAL,

photos by n. C, Gh.'-biil, Joiluit.

9. BHUTIAS. 10. NBPALESB WOMAN,

Phfflv by H. sain, Photo by Vtindtrlon'tit,

8. KOOKI WOMEN, ASSAM.

photo l>y n. C. Ghoiha/, Jorkat.

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

been aptly described as " a museum of
nationalities." In modern times the tea
industry has introduced yet another
foreign element in the heterogeneous
population, the tea gardens importing a

A striking contrast to the slim, slender,
and somewhat listless Oriya is afforded
by the Himalayan races to the north of
Bengal. Here the Nepalese predominate,
a squat, sturdy people with characteristic

KHASI COOLIES.

I'luiltJ by Glwibiii Bros., S/n/Zitii^,

large labour force of Dravidian descent
from the plateau of Chota Nagpur.

The Oriyas are a quiet, law-abiding and
conservative people, Orissa having till
quite recently been so isolated that it was
a kind of " sleepy hollow." They are
intensely religious, and adhere to the
old Hindu system, with its rigid restric-
tions and rules of ceremonial purity. So
strong is immemorial tradition that the
lowest castes must build their houses on
the outskirts of the village; their children
till recently were not allowed inside the
village schools, and even now must, in
some places, sit apart from other Hindu
boys; they may not draw water from the
village tanks; the village barber will not
shave them, and the village washerman
will not wash their clothes. The Oriyas
are devout V'aishnavas, whose greatest
festival is the annual car festival of Jagan-
nath. On this occasion the image of the
god rides in procession on a car, 45 feet
in height, with 16 wheels, through a huge
concourse of people. The cases of self-
immolation under the wheels of the car
which used to take place, as well as acci-
dental deaths, have given rise to a
well-known expression in the English
language, though the god Jagannath is
often confused with the car.

Mongolian features — a bullet head, a flat
face, almond eyes, high cheek-bones, and
almost hairless chins. Energetic and
resourceful, they are ready to turn their
hands to almost any task. They have a
cheerful, merry temper, a zeal for work,
and a wiry strength, which enables them
to carry up the steepest hills loads weigh-
ing as much as 80 lb. ; the loads rest on
the back, and are suspended by a band
passed over the head. They are not true
Gurkhas, but immigrants or descendants
of immigrants from the east of Nepal, and
are divided into several tribes, each of
which is bilingual, speaking the tribal lan-
guage as well as Naipali Hindi, the lingua
franca of the hills. Other immigrants are
the Bhotias, stalwart mountaineers, burly
rather than tall, whosf; original home was
Ti:^^t, as, indeed, their name implies, Bhot
being merely an Indian form of Tibet,
which is a corruption of the Mongolian
Thubot. The real aboriginals are the
Lepchas of Sikkim, a peaceful, timid
people of effeminate appearance ; it is
often difificult to distinguish men from
women (both wearing pigtails), except
from their dress. They dwell in the
valleys, and are true men of the woods.
Forest fruits, fungi, and roots enter
largely into their dietary: more than 100

different kinds are eaten by them. They
have separate names for practically every
bird, orchid, and butterfly, and, with
training, make excellent naturalists and
entomologists.

Both the Bhotias and Lepchas are
Buddhists, who revere the Dalai Lama
of Tibet, not only as an arch-pontiff, but
also as an incarnation of the deity. There
is a hierarchy of priests called Lamas,
who live in monasteries, and in their
temples observe a ceremonial reminiscent
of the Roman Catholic Church. Mitres
and vestments are worn, incense is burnt,
bells are rung, and the priests prostrate
themselves before altars on which are
images and burning lamps, .^.n ingenious
method of prayer is followed by the
people. Prayers are printed on strips
of cotton, which are attached to bamboo
poles and aptly named " horses of the
wind," for as they flutter in the breeze
the petitions are borne to the gods.
Another device consists of enclosing rolls
of printed prayers or pious passages in
cylinders, great and small. Some of
these, about the size of a round cigarette-
tin, are carried in the hand, and revolve
with a twist of the wrist. Others are
huge barrels, which are turned by water-
power like the wheels of a mill. With
each turn the prayers are borne to the
gods without any personal exertion of the
worshipper. Demonolatry enters largely
into their religion, but its terrors are
relieved by the cheerful outlook on life
that so many of the hillmen have. .■\
typical instance of this came recently to
the writer's notice. A Lama had been
engaged to drive out a devil that was
thought to have taken possession of a
house. In answer to an inquiry how long
the operation would take, it was explained
with a hearty laugh that the Lama would
stay in the house till the devil was
expelled, and that it would probably take
a long time as the good woman of the
house kept a good table.

To the ethnologist the most interesting
races are the Mongoloid tribes of Assam
and the DravLdians, who are found in
Chota Nagpur, the Santal Parganas, and
the hilly hinterland lying between the
coast districts of Orissa and the Central
Provinces. They follow that primitive
form of religion known as Animism that
peoples the valleys, the hills, and the
streams with spirits, chiefly malignant,
which have to be propitiated with offer-
ings and sacrifices. It is scarcely to be
distinguished from demonolatry, and finds
practical expression in a rooted belief in

NATIVE RACES

the powers of exorcism. Sickness, for
instance, is not due to insanitary sur-
roundings, but to the anger or malice of
an evil spirit. Many have a faint belief
in a Creator, but he is a roi faineant, and
does not trouble himself with the petty
affairs of men. Many of their customs
and superstitions are weird, and some are
repulsive. The Sauria Paharias of the
Santal Parganas imagine that epidemics
of disease are due to evil spirits, which
come by train. The remedy is found in
making a rude model of a train, which
they wheel into the forest. Thus the
demon of disease is expelled from the
village. The Oraons of Chota Nagpur
believe in a spirit called Murkuri, i.e.
" the thumper," which is thought to exer-
cise its power if a European slaps a man
on the back. The result is fever or illness,
to cure which the spirit has to be exor-
cised. Among the Khasis of Assam there
is an order of men called Thlens, who
are said to have sprung from a gigantic
and ravenous snake. It is believed that,
like their ancestor, they have a craving
for human blood. This ghastly super-
stition leads to cold-blooded murders, the
offerings to the Thlcn being some of the
victim's blood, hair, and the tips of
the fingers. Equally strange are the
beliefs regarding the future state and
the customs observed at death. Accord-
ing to the Lushais of Assam, the soul is
born again in the shape of a hornet, which
is eventually transformed into water. If
it falls as dew upon a man, the soul is
born again in his son. One Naga tribe
smoke their dead and place the body in
a bamboo coffin, which is kept in the house
for some weeks before it is taken to the
village cemetery. A similar insanitary
practice is followed when wealthy Lushais
die. The corpse is placed in a hollow tree
trunk, with a lid carefully plastered with
mud. This strange coffin is kept beside
a fire inside the house for three months,
after which the bones are taken out and
kept in a basket. One section of the
Lushais smear a preservative grease over
the corpse, dress it up, and pour rice-
beer down the throat, while the people
dance round it every evening, sometimes
for months together.

The most warlike and independent of
the aboriginal tribes are found in the hills
of Assam. From time immemorial they
have indulged in rapine, and some of their
names are grim reminders of their old
marauding life. One of the Aka tribes,
for instance, is called " the devourers of
a thousand homes." Another bears the

sobriquet of " the thieves who lurk in the
cotton fields." Their ferocity has led to
many a raid on the peaceful villages of
the plains, the motive being sometimes
the desire to carry off plunder, women,
or slaves, and sometimes a murderous
thirst for blood, their incursions beihg
simply head-hunting expeditions. The
necessity for maintaining the pax
Britannica against these savage caterans
has caused several punitive expeditions
and small frontier campaigns, such as the
Lushai Hills Expedition of 187 1-2, the
Garo Hills Expedition of 1872, the Naga
Hills Expedition of 1879-80, the Aka
Expedition of 1883-4, the Chin-Lushai
Expedition of 1889-90, the Lushai (Lal-
bura) Expedition of 1892, and the .'Xbor
Expedition of 191 1-12. To this list
should be added the Manipur Expedition
of 1891, which was due to the cold-
blooded murder of the Chief Commis-
sioner and other officers by a claimant
of the chieftainship. The Manipuris,

are not regarded ; there are often no goal-
posts, and the rush of a Manipuri team
sweeping down the field, careless of rules
about crossing and fouling, has been
likened to the shock tactics of a cavalry
regiment.

The Nagas are, perhaps, the most
primitive of these Mongolian races, and
the least affected by outside influences.
Their villages are typical of a gladiatorial
type of life, being built on the tops of
hills and strongly fortified with a stockade
and a moat filled with bamboo caltrops.
Until brought under British rule they
were bloodthirsty head-hunters. No head
came amiss, whatever the age or sex, and
whether taken in fair fight or by
treachery. One Naga, who afterwards
became an interpreter in a British Court
of Justice, is said to have taken eighteen
heads in his younger days. The same
savage custom still obtains among the
Nagas living beyond the frontier, who are
also addicted to human sacrifices, which,

KHASI ORNAMENTS.

I'lu^tj hv (ilw.^liiit tlio>., SInlhtt,!;.

though of Mongolian descent, are not,
however, wild primitive people like those
above mentioned. They are best known
for the zeal with which they play polo,
which is, indeed, thought to have been
introduced into Europe from this remote
corner of India. The niceties of the game

they believe, ensure good harvests.
Scanty clothing is the fashion, and the
men of one or two tribes are often stark
naked except for a small bone ring,
through which the foreskin is drawn. It
has been said that the Naga is three-parts
a savage, and that if you judge savagery

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

by the superficial area of a man's naked-
ness the fraction that is not savage would
be small indeed ! They have, however,
a real standard of decency, a code of
morals which is by no means low, a
regular social organization, and consider-
able intelligence. They love ornaments,
and their ear-rings are extraordinary, the
lobe being pierced and distended to such
an extent that it will hold bulky articles;
even a shaving-soap cylinder will find a
place in it !

man's social status being often gauged
by the number he possesses. A man's
corpse is laid out on rows of gongs before
cremation, and old gongs fetch fancy
prices out of all proportion to their real
value, Rs. loo being sometimes paid,
though the value of the metal may be
only Rs. lo. When a man dies it is a
common practice for a hole to be made
in one of his gongs, which is then put on
a stick close to his memorial-post. The
top of the latter is carved into the likeness

in length. In every village there is a
bachelors' house, for young unmarried
men may not live with their parents. The
bachelors' houses are built on higher plat-
forms than the ordinary houses, and the
young men climb up by rude staircases
made of notched logs of wood, often
assisted by lengths of cane suspended
from an overhanging beam.

The Khasis, who live in the Khasi and
Jaintia Hills, are a race totally distinct
from the neighbouring hill tribes, and are

t KHASI WOMEN'S DANCES.

2. KHASI DANCE.

I'hotci by Ghoshal Bros., Sl.ilhng.

3. KHASI WOMEN'S DANCB.

niolc '-v l>. I'- GlwiluU, JoriuU.

The costume of the Garos is also as
scanty as is compatible with decency, and
they have an equal love of ornaments.
The women wear masses of brass-wire
ear-rings; fifty brass rings weighing i lb.
to 2 lb. will sometimes be seen hanging
from the lobe of each ear. The lobes
often break under the weight, and the
rings are then supported by a double
string over the head. The system of
matriarchy prevails among the Garos,
descent being traced through the mother,
while inheritance is restricted to the
female line. A man may not inherit
property, and can only possess what he
has acquired by his own labour. Gongs
arc a highly valued form of property, a

of a human face intended to represent the
deceased, and is dressed up in some of his
clothes. Close to it is another post, on
which are placed the horns of the buffalo
which is sacrificed at the time of crema-
tion. The Garos have, as a rule, two
houses — one in the village and another
in the fields. They live in the latter
during the cultivating season, so as to be
near their crops and protect them from
wild animals. Sometimes the field houses
are perched in the tops of trees, 20 or
30 feet above the ground, so as to be
safe from the attacks of wild animals, and
access is obtained by means of a bamboo
ladder. The houses in the villages are
built on piles, and often exceed 100 feet
48

certainly of different origin. Their speech
is intimately connected with the languages
of the Mon-Khmer group of Burma and
the Malay Peninsula, while they are
decidedly Malay in appearance. The
Khasi language has also affinities with
that of the Hos and Mundas of Chota
Nagpur, and there is a further sign of
connection between these widely separated
tribes in the common practice of erecting
memorial stones. These are megalithic
monuments dedicated to the spirits of the
dead. The groups of menhirs, or vertical
monoliths, dolmens, or table stones, and
cromlechs, or cairns, which are met v.ith
throughout their country, are strangely
reminiscent of those which are a familiar

NATIVE RACES

sight in Brittany. Ancestor-worship is
a marked feature of their religion, and
goes on side by side with the propitiation

KHASI WOMAN AND BABY.

rlwij I'y (;/i.>>/i,i/ Br<ji., Shillntig.

of other spirits. They obtain auguries
by examining the entrails of animals and
birds, like the Romans. Another form
of divination, which was also practised
by the Romans, is the breaking of eggs,
the events of the future being discerned
from the position of the fragments of the
broken egg-shells. So firm is the belief
in the efficacy of divination by eggs that
a KhasL will undertake nothing of im-
portance— e.g. building a house and
taking a journey — until he has broken
some eggs and found whether the venture
\^•ill be lucky or not. The Khasis, like the
Garos, observe tlie matriarchal system
under which women inherit property. A
national saying is, " From the woman
sprang the clan." This institution has
far-reaching effects on the social organi-
zation. Even the property which a man
acquires before marriage is held to belong
to his mother. The husband can take no
part in the rites and ceremonies of his
wife's family. After death his ashes are
deposited in the cromlech of his mother's

kin, and can, with few exceptions, find
no place in the wife's family tomb. Cere-
monial religion is conducted by women,
especially in the home, and male priests
are merely their deputies. The ancestress
of the tribe receives special veneration,
and the spirits of sickness and death, who
are most frecjuently worshipped, are
female. In one Khasi State a woman is
both spiritual and temporal head of the
people ; her regal functions are, in prac-
tice, delegated to a son or nephew, but
her sacerdotal supremacy is not trans-
ferred. The order of succession to this
post of queen and arch-pontiff is typical
of female primogeniture. She is succeeded
by the eldest surviving daughter; failing
daughters, by the eldest daughter of the
eldest daughter; failing the latter, by the
eldest daughter of her second daughter,
and so on. If there are no daughters or
granddaughters in the female line, she is
succeeded by her eldest sister, and if she

Abor, whose land was until recently
almost a terra incognita, while their name,
meaning " unknown savage," is signifi-
cant. The men are pale and hairless;
most have large goitres on their neck;
and some are tattooed on the face with a
sign resembling a cross. The natural
ugliness of the woman is enhanced by blue
lines tattooed on the face, which gives
their features a curious twisted expres-
sion; their wedding-ring consists of a
spiral gaiter of thin twisted bark bound
round the calf of the leg. They have a
high opinion of their own strength and
importance, but when, after their murder
of a Political Officer and a doctor, a puni-
tive expedition was sent aganist them, in
191 I- I 2, they put up a poor fight. Their
tactics consisted of sniping with poisoned
arrows, discharging great boulders and
tree trunks from booby-traps, and making
a short stand behind stockades. The fines
then levied on the villages show how rudi-

NEPALI

I'iato by U. C

has no sister, by the eldest daughter of
her mother's eldest sister, and so on.

Another tribe with whom the British
have recently come into conflict is the

WOMEN.

(;/(iis;j.i/, J^rhat.

mentary is their currency, being paid in
arrows, the jungle knives called daos, and
semi-domesticated bisons and pigs.
The other great and distinctive group

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

of alxiriginal tribes consists of the Juangs," wrote Colonel Dalton, "are
Dravidian races, whose home is in Chota about the smallest that human beings ever
Nagpur. the Santal Parganas, and the deliberately constructed as dwellings.

TIBETANS.

I'licto bv Hi'ttnliivtu Art Stti.Uo,

Orissa States. Of these the largest and
most representative are the Santals,
Mundas, Hos, Oraons, and Khonds, or
Kandhs. Their main physical charac-
teristics are a long head, a broad, bridge-
less nose, a low, narrow forehead, thick,
protruding lips, hair inclined to be woolly,
a low stature, and long arms. Huxley
surmised that they might be related to
the aborigines of Australia, but the latest
conclusion of ethnologists is that they are
autochthonous, the earliest inhabitants of
India of whom we have knowledge. It
has, indeed, been suggested that the tiny
huts in which some live, with low doors so
small that the owner has to crawl in on all
fours, arc an indication that originally
they were troglodyte cave-dwellers. In
the huts of the Oraons, which are only
about 7 feet in height, a hole, 4J feet
high, serves as an entrance; it is kept
from falling in by a log above, which is
aptly called the kaparphora, or " fore-
head-breaker." " The huts of the

They measure about 6 feet by 8 feet, and
are very low, with doors so small as to
preclude the idea of a corpulent house-
holder. The paterfamilias and all his
belongings of the female sex huddle to-
gether in this one stall, not much larger
than a dog-kcnnel. For the boys there
is a separate dormitory."

The village " dormitory " system also
obtains among other tribes, and is the
result of the houses being too small to
contain large families. Among the
Khonds, for instance, the youtlis of a vil-
lage sleep in one dormitory, and the
grown-up girls in another, under the
cliarge of an old woman. The same
custom is observed by the Oraons.
Before admission to the bachelor hall the
boys have to be branded on the arm, the
scars being the mark by which, after
death, they will be recognized as Oraons
by other Oraon spirits. Once admitted,
they form a close fraternity, bound down
to secrecy about all that goes on inside.

It is known, however, that there is a
regular system of " fagging," the small
boys serving the elder, and being
punished for slackness. It is also known
that the girls slip off at night to the
bachelors' hall, sexual intercourse before
marriage being common.

One and all of these races have the
greatest attachment to their land, com-
bined with a dislike of foreigners, and
esiH-cially of foreign landlords. The land,
in their view, belongs solely to the
descendants of the men who cleared and
reclaimed it from the forest — a belief
which clearly shows their role as pioneers
in forest tracts. Not all have been able
to retain their land, and a large propor-
tion of these landless men have had to
migrate and earn their bread by the sweat
of the brow in distant countries. Nearly
half a million are found in Bengal
and a quarter of a million in Assam
" Lal)our," writes Sir Herbert Risley, " is
tlic birthright of the pure Dravidian, and
as a coolie he is in great demand wherever
one meets him. Whether hoeing tea in
.\ssam, the Duars, and Ceylon, planting
sugar-cane in far Fiji, cutting rice in the
swamps of Eastern Bengal, or doing
scavenger's work in the streets of Cal-
cutta, Rangoon, and Singapore, he is
recognizable at a glance by his black skin,
his squat figure, and the negro-like
proiJortions of his nose."

This love of the land plays a great
part in their history, and has led to more
than one rising. The loss of the fields
wliich the Santals of the Santal Parganas
had cleared, but from which they were
ousted by Hindu landlords and money-
lenders, led to the Santal War of 1855.
The Santals rose with the idea of aveng-
ing themselves on the land-jol)bers and
usurers who oppressed them, and, to their
surprise, found themselves at war with the
British, with whom, as they said, they
had no quarrel. When a Hindu money-
lender was captured, they treated him
with a grim and ghastly humour. First
they cut off his feet, saying, " That is
four annas in the rupee " ; next they
lopped off his legs, shouting, " Eight
annas have been paid " ; and then they
cut through his body at the waist to make
up another four annas. Finally he was
beheaded, to the accompaniment of yells
that his bill was paid in full. To the
English they often acted in a spirit of
chivalry. Notice, for instance, was sent
to some indigo-planters that, as they cul-
tivated the land like the Santals them-
selves, they would not be molested if they

NATIVE RACES

stayed at home and gave the Santals
supplies. On another occasion they sent
a message to a town they intended to
attack, viz. a branch bearing three leaves,
to show that they would attack in three
days and that the inhabitants had three
days' warning. It is also significant that,
though it is their custom to use poisoned
arrows in the chase, they never used them
against the troops.

More recently, in 1899, there was an
cnieute among the Mundas of Chota
Nagpur, who rose under a semi-religious
leader called Birsa, who proclaimed,
among other things, their ancient rights
over the land and forests. \\\ land was
to be rent-free, all foreigners were to
be slain or driven out, and the people
would have their Utopia. A similar spirit
has led to a more salutary movement
among the Khonds, who some years ago
took a vow to become teetotallers.
Drunkenness, they said, led to wife-
beating, poverty, and — worst of all— the

have had a twofold basis. The object
was partly to expel from the Oraon
country the evil spirits who were believed
to be responsible for bad crops and high
prices, and partly to raise the social
position of the Oraons to the higher level
occupied by Christian and Hindu con-
verts of the race. The former object was
to be attained by the recitation of certain
powerful spells {mantras), the latter by
the abandonment of degrading practices
such as the keeping and eating of pigs
and fowls and the use of intoxicants. The
excitement was aggravated by the general
attnosphere of unrest caused by the war,
and an invocation of the German Kaiser
crept into the mantras. The drafting of
extra police into the chief centres of
unrest had a reassuring effect, and with
the harvesting of the winter crops, which
were unusually good, the movement began
to subside. It did not, however, die out
altogether, for the people thought that
the expulsion of evil spirits from one

part, and several brutal murders of
supposed witches occurred.

The belief in the mischief done by
witches and in the power of wizards, who,
like the African medicine-men, can
" smell out " witches, is common to all
these tribes. A similar campaign took
place in 1857, when the Hos of Singh-
bhum took the opportunity of the tcin-
porary breakdown of law and authority
during the Mutiny io make a clean sweep
of all women suspected of witchcraft.
Even now among the Santals not a year
passes without some woman being killed,
frequently by being beaten to death, for
the mysterious mischief she is believed
to have done. A simple and efficacious
way of stopping this practice was em-
ployed by a magistrate many years ago.
When he heard that a woman liad been
denounced as a witch, he called the vil-
lagers together and produced a galvanic
battery. The woman was told to hold
the handles and the current was discon-

1. ORIYA GIRL, ORISSA.

2. A SANTAL GIRL, ORISSA.

PUotoi by Viinltrlojftri.

a HILL TRIBES, ORISSA.

loss of their lands. A still stranger village resulted in their transfer to others. nected. Then her accuser did the same

movement sprang up in 1915-16 among The inovement accordingly continued with and the current was turned on. He got

the Oraons of Chota Nagpur, and spread a campaign of witch-hunting, in which the a galvanic shock, and was unable to

to their brethren in the Duars of Bengal. whole populace, and not merely the release his hands till he acknowledged

The original inspiring idea appears to sok/ias, or special witch-hunters, took that he had made a mistake.

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

The Khonds believe that witches have
power to take the shape of tigers,
leopards, and wolves, and put down to
them the deaths of cattle and human
beings from wild animals. Old women
and men are often declared to be evil
spirits in human form or mctamorplioscd
tigers. If a death occurs and some one
is definitely suspected of causing it, a fowl
is taken and its legs are plunged into
boiling water and rapidly withdrawn. If
the skin peels off the suspected person is
held to be guilty, and he is turned out
of the village unless he undertakes to
undergo the ordeal by fire. For this pur-
pose a long, narrow trench is dug and
filled with burning embers. The legs of
the accused are smeared with ghi
(clarified butter), and he is made to walk
twice through the trench. If he is burned
it is a proof of his guilt. If no one in
particular is suspected, the ordeal by iron
is resorted to. A bar of iron is put into
the blacksmith's furnace, the witch-finder
working the bellows. The names of the
villagers arc called out one after another,
and the person at whose name the iron
melts is held to be guilty.

The Khonds are particularly afraid of
the spirits of pregnant women. Their
bodies are buried far away from the
village across a stream, the idea being
that no spirit can cross water ; as a further
precaution, pieces of iron are driven into
the leg and a perforated iron spoon is
placed inside the breast. The same belief
that women who die in pregnancy
become evil spirits is common to other
tribes, and has caused the ghastly prac-
tice of the womb being ripped open and
the foetus extracted. The husband him-
self is charged with this sickening task.
The Bhuiyas of the Orissa States, who
usually burn their dead, bury the embryo
and the woman's iKidy on opposite sides
of a stream, because they think that the
mother will be unable to become an evil
spirit without union with her child, and
that the water will be an impassable
barrier. Again, when a pregnant Oraon
woman dies her ankles are broken and
her feet wrenched backwards to prevent
her spirit walking; and, to make doubly
sure, a heavy stone and a bundle of thorns
are placed over the grave to prevent her
spirit getting out.

Another belief is that souls return to
animate human forms in families in which
they were first born. The Gonds think
that the soul of a man comes back to the
house on the fifth day after death. HLs
relations go to the side of a river or

stream and call him by name, after which
they catch a fish or an insect and take it
home. There they either place it in a
room reserved for the spirits of dead
ancestors or eat it in the belief that the
dead man will again be born in the
family.

The Hos have a similar idea that the
spirits of the dead return to the house,
and seven days after death the spirit is
solemnly recalled. Ashes are spread on
the floor of the house, a woman sitting at
each corner, while the family and their
guests sit outside. Two go out and call to
the hongas, or evil spirits, praying that
if any have taken the deceased they will
allow him to come back. The house is
kept dark, and suddenly the women cry
out, " The spirit has come I " They then
light a lamp and look for the marks the
spirit has left on the ashes. Some spirits
leave the footprints of birds, some of
snakes or cats, others of dogs. These
footmarks show whether the spirit is
happy or not. The greatest happiness
is indicated by the footprints of birds,
then of cats, and then of dogs, but the
mark of a snake shows that the spirit is
in great misery. .\fter this, the spirit
is supposed to remain in an invisible
form in the house, and a space is set
aside for him in the inner room, which
no one but members of the family may
enter.

The Khonds are convinced that the
souls of deceased persons return to
animate human bodies, but such persons
must have been married, or at least have
had sexual intercourse, during their life-
time. The souls of unmarried persons
cannot enter the circle of family spirits,
but are malevolent spirits, causing fever,
ague, apoplexy, and other ailments. The
spirits of married people animate the
foetus as soon as it is fully formed. This
belief was formerly the cause of female
infanticide, which was so common that in
many villages there was not a single
female child. Girls were killed imme-
diately after birth by exposure in the
jungle ravines, because the Khonds, who
ardently desire male offspring, thought
that this was an effectual way of reducing
the number of females which would be
reborn.

The Khonds also used to practise
human sacrifice. The victims, who were
called Meriahs, were purchased, as an
ancient ordinance lay down that they must
be bought with a price. The purveyors
were a servile race called Pans, who in
their turn bought up children or kid-

napped them. The sacrifice was made to
propitiate the earth-goddess and ensure
good crops, the flesh of the victims being
buried in the fields. In whatever way
the rite was performed, it was invariably
accompanied by the most revolting
cruelty. One method was to tie the
victim — who had previously been stuiiefied
— by his hair to a stout wooden post on
the ground. His arms and legs were then
seized by four men and the body was held
out horizontally from the post, face down-
wards. The priest took the sacrificial
knife and, amid the yells of the victim,
commenced hacking him on the back of
the neck, shouting in his ear, " We bought
you with a price ; no sin rests on us."
Once the blood flowed the Khonds rushed
in, intoxicated and wildly excited, every
man's object being to cut a morsel from
the living victim to bury in his fields.
At times, when the gathering was large
and it was feared that the blood and flesh
of the victim would not go round, a dis-
appointed Khond would, it is said, as the
next best thing, slice off a piece from
another Khond who was hacking at the
victim.

Another method was to dig a shallow
pit long enough to contain the victim.
Into this was poured the blood of a freshly
slaughtered hog. The victim, bound hand
and foot, was suffocated by having his
face pressed down in the blood. Still
another method was to drag the living
victim over the fields, followed by drunken
and excited Khonds, who cut pieces from
him, taking care to avoid the head and
bowels in order not to kill him outright.

This hideous practice has long since
been given up, and the sacrifice of
buffaloes, which has been substituted for
it, is found to produce just as good har-
vests as the immolation of human beings.
In the rites many of the old Meriah
customs are preserved. The buffalo is
smeared with oil and garlanded, and the
people dance before it to the deafening
noise of drums and cymbals. The Meriah
songs are chanted in its ears, and the
invocations are the same as those which
used to be made at the human sacrifice.
Everybody tries to induce the animal to
eat a portion of the offering he has
brought, and after touching its anointed
body they smear the oil on their fore-
heads. The victim is driven round the
boundaries of the village, or the pole to
which it has been bound is carried round
it, accompanied by a band of Pan
musicians. It is then led to the sacred
grove, on the outskirts of the village.

NATIVE RACES

^vhere a pit has been previously dug and
filled with the blood of a pig. The priest
cuts off a small piece of the flesh from
the back of the head and buries it at the
shrine of the goddess. The poor animal
is immediately borne to the ground, and

is partially flayed alive for the purjxjse
of collecting its blood, while the
assembled people hack off lumps of its
flesh, which they carry away in great haste
and bury with much ceremony at the
shrine of the goddess and on the boun-

daries of their villages. The remains of
the victim, with the unmutilated head, are
buried in the bloody pit. A great feast
and a bout of heavy drinking, in which
both men and women join, close the
sacrifice.

1. WRESTLING BY RAJPDTS.

I-hi'lo by IK C. Uhaktit, Joihid.

2. LUTHA NAGAS, FROM THE NAGA HILLS.

I'htiia I'v Oho^ha! Hios.

.S3

PALM AVENUE, BOTANICAL GARDENS, CALCUTTA.

I'liclo hy Johnston & HoJJm

THE VEGETATION OF BENGAL, ASSAM,

BEHAR AND ORISSA

By HUMPHREY G. CARTER, M.B., Ch.B., Officiating Director, Botanical Survey of India

LANTS usually live in
communities of suffi-
cient bulk and extent
to determine the
landscape of vast
tracts of country.
For this reason the
botany of a district
may be looked upon from points of view
from which its zoology cannot be studied.
A fauna of a country is a list of the
animals in it and a flora a list of its plants.
But the vegetation of a district is some-
thing quite distinct from its flora; each,
moreover, is determined by separate
climatic factors.

As we shall here deal chiefly with vege-
tation, let us at once make clear the dif-
ference between it and flora.

Now the woodland, let us .say, of Upper
Assam belongs essentially to the same
type of vegetation as an English oak-
wood, but the flora of the two is entirely
different. The two woodlands among
their conspicuous plants have no two
species in common.

Further the flora of each of these wood-
lands is made up of trees, shrubs, and
herbs. It would be conceivable that either
of these floras, by reducing the number of
trees and shrubs and multiplying the herbs
and grasses, might make up a totally dif-
ferent type of vegetation, namely, grass-
land.

In general, the factor determining the
vegetation of a district is rainfall ; that
determining its flora is temperature.
Assam and England have the same type
of vegetation, chiefly because they both
have wet climates. Their floras differ
chiefly because the climate of Assam is
hot while that of England is cold.

The three chief types of vegetation are:
(i) Woodland, often called forest, domi-
nated by trees; (2) Grassland, made up
chiefly of grasses and sedges; and (3)
Desert, containing only scattered and
stunted shrubs and herbs. Woodland
occurs where inuch rain falls; grassland
occurs where the rainfall is insufficient
for woodland but is evenly distributed
throughout the year; desert occurs where

rain is deficient for the needs of either
woodland or grassland.

Woodland of one type or another is
probably the characteristic vegetation of
our area. In India, chiefly owing to the
wet monsoon, alternating with a long, dry
season, typical grassland does not occur,'
but all transitions are seen from the most
luxuriantly developed woodland to desert.
The reason that woodland needs heavy
rainfall is that trees with their heavy
crowns of leaves evaporate much water,
and this loss must be made good. The
roots of trees penetrate so deeply into the
ground that they are not, like grasses,
dependent on constant rain. Furthermore,
the heavier the rainfall the more luxurious
the woodland. This is well seen where we
leave the plains to go up the hills.

As one ascends, the temperature falls.
But at the foot of the hills the first slight
fall of temperature, while still insufficient

' There are large tracts of swamp within our area,
and these tracts support a vegetation wliich often
loisists largely of grasses. These swamp associa-
tions are \'ei-y unstahle, and are not to he connected
with the "grass land " of, let us say. South America.

1. WOODLAND IN UPPER ASSAM. (THE TALL STRAIGHT-STEMMED TREES ARE " DIPTEROCARPUS PILOSUS," ROXB/
2. SHILLONG, SHOWING EXAMPLES OF " PINUS KHASYA." 3. BENGAL PLAINS. 4. A BENGAL ROADSIDE.

5. A JHEEL, SHOWING FLOATING MASSES lOF " EICHHORNIA CRASSIPES."
a. A BEBD SWAMP, OR " TYPHA AUGUSTATA."

Phcli^ by D. X. Carter.

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

to affect the flora, brings about a great
increase of rainfall. This determines
woodland, or larger and better woodland.

rainfall, owing to the low air pressure,
has begun to decrease, and a correspond-
ing decline is seen in the luxuriance of the

WOODLAND SCENERY, NEAR SHILLONG.

PUch hy Ikiilutl tlroi.

Let us take for e.\ample the journey be-
tween Siliguri and IJarjecling. In this
region the plains are much cultivated, but
doubtless their primitive vegetation would
be a poor type of woodland.

A slight rise brings us into a region of
increased rainfall, hence of better wood-
land. It is here (about i,ooo feet) that
the sal (Shorea robusta) becomes gre-
garious and covers large areas. Higher
up still the woodland becomes much better
developed and shows a magnificent con-
fusion of huge trees, tangled creepers, and
shrubs and herbs, which not only bedeck
the ground but often cover the branches
of the trees. At this altitude (2,000 to
3,000 feet) the flora is practically that of
the plains .serried and massed together to
form a diff^erent kind of vegetation.

At Darjeeling (about 7,000 feet) the

forest. The temperature is much lower
and is beginning to affect the flora.
Whereas the flora of the plains and of the
forests at the base of the hills is tropical,
at the altitude of Darjeeling the temperate
element becomes evident in the flora.

Many British genera are at once recog-
nized: Quercus (oak), Aliins (alder),
Poteniilla acer (iriaple), Epilobium
(willow herb), Heracleum (hog-wced),
Viburnum ajuga (bugle), Scutellaria
(skull-cap), occur to one at once as British
genera easily re^^ognized by non-botanical
Britishers in Darjeeling.

Much the same changes are seen in
going up the Khasya Hills. At .Sliillong
(5,000 feet) most of the above genera are
present, and in addition to them the
woodland is dominated by a pine [Pinus
Khasya, Royle). In the Darjeeling part

of the Himalayas, conifers begin at about
9,000 feet, which carries us over the
political boundary of Bengal. The
conifer which is so conspicuous at Dar-
jeeling is a Japanese tree, Cryptomeria
japonica, which has been planted there.

In the hilly district of Chutia Nagpur
(he rainfall is much less than it is in the
lower Himalayas and Assamese hills, and
the forest is of a much less luxuriant type.
At the base of all these hills there is
often a swampy zone covered by tall
grasses, tamarix, and scattered trees, a
kind of vegetation similar to that whicli
often flanks our rivers and also occurs in
the Sunderbans.

In general the landscape of the plains
is the result of agriculture and not of
natural vegetation. Woodland, especially
in Assam, covers large areas and in
Assam, too, wide expanses of sandy soil
by the Brahmaputra are clad with a kind
of savannah of tall grasses and scattered
trees alternating with large tracts of
Tamarix. But a great part of the plains
has been cultivated for many centuries,
and even many of the trees which diversify
their landscape are introduced plants.
Four palms are everywhere in evidence.
The coco-nut palm {Cocos nucijera) is
found chiefly near the sea; it has a smooth
stem which seldom stands quite straight
and a crown of feather-leaves. Phanix
sylvestris has straight stems which are clad
in an armour plating of leaf bases so that
the actual surface of the stem is not seen.
It, too, has feather-leaves. The Palmyra
palm ( Borassus flabellifer) has a straight,
smooth stem surmounted by a handsome
crown of fan leaves. Areca catechu which
yields the betel-nut which Indians love to
chew may be known by its very slender
stems, which Sir Joseph Hooker compared
to " arrows shot down from heaven." It
is often planted in groups near houses.

Other common trees seen, esi)ccially
about villages, are Artocarpus iiitegrijoliiis
(the jack fruit), Nephelium litchi (the
litchi), Mangifera indica (the mango),
Terminatia catappa (the country almond),
Bomhax malabaricum, and many species of
I'icus, of which perhaps the best known
are Ficus benalensis (the banyan) an;l
t'icus religiosa (the pipal).

The banana ( Musa sapientum) is always
seen near habitations, and clumps of
bamljoos are ubiquitous.

The " jheels " or swamp-lakes of the
plains show natural vegetation. Plants
which live partially or entirely in water
have many peculiarities. Structural
changes are present, some of which are

THE VEGETATION OF BENGAL, ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

connected with the fact that the roots live
in mud, which is deficient in oxygen. Such
plants have in their stems hollow channels
which, connecting with similar channels in
their roots, form a regular system of air
canals. Some plants have some of their
leaves submerged, and these leaves arc
very different from those which are born
in the air. The submerged leaves are
often finely divided as in Cardanthera.
Other plants, as the water-lilies, have
floating leaves. Others, again, are floating
plants, whose roots instead of being fast
in the mud are free in the water. Such
plants are Pistia stratoides, an aroid com-
mon on all jheels,andf /c/;//o/'/2/a crassipcs
(water hyacinth), an American plant which
is spreading rapidly over watery tracts in
India and Burma.

Allied to the "jheel " vegetation are the
communities of Typha, Phragmites, etc.,
which often cover wet, low-lying ground
on the plains.

Throughout the plains, and especially
in Bengal, one is struck by the vast host of
alien plants to be seen. They bulk so
large in the flora that one wonders what
the land looked like before they came.
Briihl in 1908 wrote an account of two
hundred and thirty-four " recent plant im-
migrants," and others have got a footing
since then.

Our area abuts on the sea and we must
say something about its sea-shore vege-
tation. The sea, chiefly owing to the salt
it contains, has a profound effect on
plants. Sandy foreshores are almost
devoid of vegetation. What plant can
root itself in sand firmly enough to enable
it to stand the scour of the tide and the
thrashing of the waves on the Puri beach ?
Above high-water mark, however, plants
get a hold.

The commonest seashore plant in our
area, and perhaps in all tropical regions,
is Ipomcea bilol}a, Forsk, called by Lin-
nicus Convolvulus pes-Caprce, from a
fancied likeness of its leaves to goats'
cloven hoofs. Its stems form great
tangled masses which bind the sand so
admirably that persons whose houses arc
near the beach welcome it in their gardens.
All who have ever seen a tropical sea-beach
nuist know its purple trumpet flowers.
In our area Hydro phylax maritima and
Cyperus arenarius also are very common.
.All these plants have extensively growing
stems which can carry the growing point
quickly through shifting masses of sand to
bring it up to the light. The stems of
Ipomcea and Hydrophylax spread in all
directions, those of Cyperus arenarius

travel in straight lines so that the sedge
tufts of this plant are seen ranged on the
beach in long rows as if they had been
planted out with a tape.

These plants play an important role in
the formation of " dunes." The drifting
sand becomes heaped up on the side of
the plant and threatens to bury it; the
plant grows to keep pace with the encum-
brance. More sand becomes heaped up,
the plant grows more, and the larger the
sand heap the more sand is it able to. stop.
.\ large sand hill or dune is eventually
formed in which the stems and roots of
the dune plant ramify in all directions.
On the more sheltered parts of this dune
other plants are able to get footing.
These plants living and dying bind the

Before leaving the I'uri dunes mention
must be made of Spinifex squarrosus, L.,
a curious grass very common there. Its
fruits are arranged on stiff rays which
make up balls about the size of a child's
head. When the fruit is ripe the head
falls off, and bounding and dancing about
on its rays ensures dispersal for its seeds.
All visitors to I'uri must have seen these
independent, toy-like objects racing along
the beach.

Salt water makes its effects felt in
situations more sheltered than dunes and
beaches. Sluggish tropical estuaries are
inhabited by a kind of vegetation totally
distinct from anything else in the world.
This " mangrove vegetation," as it is
called, occurs in the tropics where " salt

TAPPING DATE TREES.

sand and make humus on which grasses
and other herbs can grow. In this way,
out of sandy waste good pastures are
eventually formed. These processes can
be seen going on at Puri.

marsh " would occur in temperate regions.
In our area it is extensively developed
about the delta of the Ganges in the low,
swampy region called the Sundribuns.
Mangrove-trees, though they belong to

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

various families, resemble one another
closely. The seeds of these plants ger-
minate while the fruit is still attached to
the tree and continue to grow until the
young roots hang down, sometimes attain-
ing more than a foot in length. The
young roots are thickened towards the end
so that when the fruit drops the root sticks
fast in the mud. It is by this curious con-
trivance that the seedlings are able to get
a hold in the tidal wash.

Mangrove-trees belonging to the family
Rhizophoracea develop early in their life
history a remarkable scaffolding of roots
which grow out from their main stem
obliquely down into the mud, branching
as they go. Eventually the base of the
main stem dies away and the tree appears

to be growing on a frame of basket-
work.

In Sonneratia (Sonneratiacex), Bru-
guiera (Rhizophoracea:), and Avicennia
(V'erbenacea?), peculiar roots of another
kind are present. These rise vertically
out of the mud ; it is their function to
carry oxygen to the normally situated
roots embedded as they are in unaerated
mud.

Heriticra minor, Koxb. (Sterculiacca:)
is one of the most abundant mangrove-
trees in our area, and it is from the ver-
nacular name of this tree (Sundri) that
the Sundribuns derive their name.

Those interested in the vegetation of
the district and desirous of making a
thorough investigation of the subject,

will find more detailed information in
the following books: —

Briihl, P., " Recent Plant Immigrants "
(Journ. As. Soc. Beng., ])p. 603-656,
December 1908); Gamie, G. A., Re]>ort
on a Botanical Tour in the Lakhinipur
District, Assam (Records, Bot. Surv. Ind.,
1895, vol. i.. No. 5, pp. 61-88); Haines,
H. H., "A Forest Flora of Chota Nagpur,
including Gangpur and the Santal-Par-
ganah'"; I^rain, D., "Bengal Plants"
(unfortunately out of print); "Flora of
the Sundribuns " (Records, Bot. Surv.
Ind., vol. ii.. No. 4, 1903); " fhe Vege-
tation of the Districts of Hughly-Howrali
and the Twenty-four Pergunnahs "
(Records, Bot. Surv. Ind., vol. iii., No. 2,
1905).

1. A FINE FLOWERINQ MASS OF PHRAGMITES (ON RIGHT).
2. A SMALL SAND-DUNE ON PURI BEACH, SHOWING " HYDROPHYLAX MARITIMA."

/'/; j/i)j by It. \. Ctrl, r.

3. MANGROVE VEGETATION. "AVICENNIA OFFICINALIS," SHOWING THE ERECT AERATING ROOTS.

I'licio hv y. II'. i^nnrlfv

CHOWRINGHEE AND THE MAIDAN, CALCUTTA.

Phoio by yohnsloH if- Hqff'matm Calcutta.

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

ALCUTTA is one of
those cities whose
histories are synony-
mous with the making
of empires ; their
birth has in many in-
stances been ushered
in to the accompani-
ment of turmoil and conflict between
opposing military forces ; attempts to
develop them socially, industrially; and
politically have been frustrated again
and again by the jealousy and subsequent
invasions of foreign foes; and it has only
been after continuous struggles on the
part of the founders of these places that
solid commercial foundations were even-
tually obtained, upon which imposing
superstructures have subsequently been
raised. Such cities, however, are monu-
ments to-day of the indomitable energy
of those who had sufficient confidence in
their own ideas to resist all opposition
to their schemes, and they are now found
in nearly every country of the world,
standing as e.xamples of the steady pro-
gress made in private and public life.
" Mushroom " cities which have sprung up
in a night are not of the above-mentioned
class, and these notes are concerned only
with Calcutta, one of many Eastern cities
which have centuries of history behind
them.

Calcutta, in common with many other

Eastern cities, has its legend, which,
according to the late Dr. C. R. Wilson.,
in " The Early Annals of the English in
Bengal," is as follows : " Long, long ago,
in the age of truth, Daksha, one of the
Hindu Patriarchs, made a sacrifice to
obtain a son, but he omitted to invite the
god Siva to attend. Now, Sati, the
daughter of Daksha, was married to Siva.
and she was indignant that so great an
insult should have been offered to her
divine husband, and deeply grieved that
such a slight should have passed upon
him through her kindred. In vain did she
expostulate with her father. ' Why,' she
asked, ' is my husband not invited ? Why
are no offerings to be made to him?'
' Thy husband,' was the reply,, ' wears a
necklace of skulls; how can-he be invited
to a sacrifice ? ' Then in grief and indig-
nation she shrieked out, ' This father of
mine is a villain; what profit have I in
this carcass sprung from him? ' She puts
an end to her life ; and Siva, ' drunk with
loss,' transfixed her dead body on the
point of his trident and rushed hither and
thither through the realms of Nature. The
whole world was threatened with destruc-
tion, but Vishnu, the Preserver, came to
the rescue. He flung his disk at the body
of Sati and broke it into pieces, when it
fell scattered over the earth. Every place
where any of the ornaments of Sati fell
became a sanctuary, a sacred spot full of

the divine spirit of Sati. The names of
these sacred places are preserved in the
garlands of sanctuaries. Some of them
are well-known places of pilgrimage,
others are obscure and forgotten ; but
to-day the most celebrated of them is in
Calcutta (or Kalighat), the spot which
received the toes of the right foot of Sati,
that is Kali."

It will be unnecessary here to refer at
length to historical events connected with
the rise of Calcutta, as they are fully
dealt with on another page ; but some
particulars may be given as to the estab-
lishment of commercial relationships
between the native population and visiting
traders.

Direct trading between England and
Bengal appears to liave been firmly estab-
lished in or about the year 1645, ^"J '''c
English flag was first hoisted in 1690, by
one Job Charnock, on the spot where the
Royal Mint now stands at Nimtollah, at
the northern end of the Strand Road, and
practically on the eastern bank of the
River Hooghly.

The site of Calcutta was selected after
several attempts had been made to estab-
lish a port and city in other places on or
near the Hooghly, and the decision was
arrived at because the spot chosen was
the highest point at which the river
was navigable for sea-going vessels.
There is an ancient fallacy that the site

^ I HilhWiiiMMiAffl %\^iJ%m mmmhb^m

1. THE BENGAL CLUB, CALCUTTA. S. OLIVE STREET, CALCUTTA, LOOKING NORTH.

2. DALHOU8IE SQUARE, EAST, AND TANK, SHOWING ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH, CALCUTTA.

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

was chosen by chance on account of a
midday halt by Charnock, but nothing
could be farther from the truth than this.
Kipling, in his "Departmental Ditties,"
makes an ignominious splash in this sea
of error when he says : —

"Tims tile mill-day heat of Charnock, more's the
pity.

Grew a city ;
As the fungus sprouts chaotic from its bed.

So it spread ;
Chance-directed, chance-erected, hiid and built,

On the silt.
Palace, bvre. hovel — poverty and jiride,

Side by side ;
And above the packed and pestilential town.

Death looked down."

Calcutta, the second city in the British
Empire as regards population, extends for
several miles on the east bank of the River
Hooghly — an arm of the mighty Ganges—
and the approaches, either by river or
railway, present a striking variety of
pleasing effects. The eighty miles
journey by passenger steamer from the
Sunderbunds — the delta of the Ganges,
Brahmaputra, and Hooghly — will enable
the visitor to appreciate to some extent
the great difficulties, owing to the large
number of shoals, which confront the
skippers of sea-going vessels. These
treacherous banks have been the cause
of destruction of a large number of ships,
and this river has been frequently
described by mariners as the most difficult
in the world for navigators.

When nearing Calcutta by steamer,
attention will be drawn to the beautiful
Botanical Gardens on the west bank of
the river, while on the opposite side is
Garden Reach, now occupied by tidal
docks and the extensive wharf accommo-
dation for which the port is famous, the
arsenal, the Maidan, with its beautiful
drives, and the Eden Gardens, with their
tropical plants and trees. Still sailing
in a northerly direction, one notices the
magnificent pile of Government House
buildings, erected in 1802 ; while on
either side of the river are ghats, docks,
shipbuilding yards, foundries, mills of all
kinds, timber yards, goods sheds, landing
stations for large steamers, warehouses,
and other buildings, which are continued
past the Howrah pontoon bridge for a
distance of about two miles.

The entrance to the city, too, by the
railway systems or roads, affords a view
of extensive warehouses, factories with
chimney-stacks emitting volumes of
smoke, and yards in which passenger
and cargo steamers, launches, and other
craft are being constructed ; while the

large thoroughfares and narrower streets
through which one drives are teeming with
inhabitants on business bent.

The city of Calcutta is a curious mix-
ture of magnificent buildings of imposing
architectural designs on the one hand
and of squalid tenements on the other.
Nothing could be finer than the palatial
commercial houses of the Esplanade, Old
Court House Street, Clivc Street, or
Chowringhee ; nor could anything be
more unsightly than the insanitary, un-
stable, and primitive dens — constructed

and North ; Chowringhee, the Esplanade,
Mayo and Outram Roads, Camac Street,
Loudon Street, Park Street, Old Court
House Street, Council House Street, Clive
Street, Welleslcy Street, Auckland Road,
and several others ; and it will be
observed that many of these are named
after noted Englishmen who have been
connected with the earlier history of
India. The narrower streets and bazaars,
in which the native element reigns
supreme, are anything but attractive; yet
they are full of interest to the Westerner

SITE OF THE BLACK HOLE, CALOUTTA.

Photo by yohnston &• ItuJ/'iitanit, Cakiitttit

chiefly of mud, bamboo, and matting —
which may be seen in numberless streets
and lanes. Families are huddled together,
and the absence of the barest necessities
which make for cleanliness and health is
a blot upon twentieth-century civilization.
One might point to . some of these
abominations in Harrison Road, Chitpore,
and the northern portion of the city gene-
rally, to portions of Free School Street,
Market Street, Corporation Street, Upper
and Lower Circular Road, and in the
alleys — distinguished as a rule by the
word " lanes " — and it is doubtful if any-
thing less salutary than a fierce fire in
these quarters will ever purge them of
the countless millions of germs with which
they must be infested.

Many of the principal thoroughfares,
however, are of considerable width, and
are usually kept in good order. These
include Government I'lace East, West,

who gazes for the first time upon Oriental
faces, customs, dress, and methods of
conducting business.

The number of separate residences for
])ersoni of the so-called " middle " class
is amazingly small, and entirely out of
proportion to the vast number of families
for wliom a private residence is so desir-
able. The consequence is that these
people are compelled to live in flats, or
suites of apartments — a most unsatisfac-
tory arrangement to those who are blessed
with children.

There are, of course, many very hand-
some private residences belonging to the
wealthy classes, which have been substan-
tially erected in spacious compounds,
where the luxuriant vegetation of the East
is seen in the richest profusion. The
majority of these are in the neighbour-
hood of Chowringhee, as, for instance, in
Lower Circular Road, Theatre Road,

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORlSSA

Camac Street, Wood Street, Park Street,
Loudon Street, and others. Somewhat
farther afield, however, there are private
palatial residences of great architectural "
beauty, and of immensely valuable con-
tents, whose owners occupy an honoured
position among the nobility of India. The
majority of these have been erected in
comparatively recent years, and while
English designs in architecture have been
followed to a very large extent, the
builders have not overlooked the fact that
certain alterations were necessary in order

tive room upholstered in dark blue
leather, and crammed with volumes of a
general historic character, political law,
and a miscellaneous host of good readable
literature of a general character. The
truly artistic and a-sthetic tastes of its
owner are manifested in the architectural
beauties of this feudal-like castle, with
its battlements, towers, and other emblems
of a bygone age.

" Emerald Bower," the country scat of
the Maharaja of Tagore, is situated on the
Barrackpore Road, on the north-eastern

C<.i:.: : ' K : s I'UK THE THOOPa BEIXG DISPATCHED BY LADY
CARMICHAEL'S BENGAL WOMEN'S WAR FUND, CALCUTTA.

Vliolo by T. P. Sri:.

that the structures should be suitable for
the Indian climate. One of these is the
handsome palace of the Maharaja Baha-
dur Sir Jotindra Mohun Tagore, K.C.S.I.,
which is situated on the left-hand side of
Chitpore Road, between Lai Bazar Street
and Beadon Square, in Calcutta. Entry
is gained under a massive portico with six
Corinthian columns supporting a pedi-
ment in which is a representation of the
Star of India in bas relief. The mansion
is luxuriously furnished throughout, and
on every hand one sees priceless old pic-
tures, statuary, and other artistic contents.
Opposite the palace is Tagore Castle,
built in the year 1886 at a cost, including
furniture, of more than 1 1 lakhs of rupees.
A very finely polished granite floor is laid
in the entrance hall, while all around is
a fine collection of old armour, busts, and
paintings. The library is a most attrac-

border of Calcutta, and is one of the
" show " places of Bengal. The grounds
are beautifully laid out, and the interior
of the residence is sumptuously fur-
nished ; but many visitors will be
attracted chiefly by the magnificent col-
lection of about seven hundred valuable
paintings, than which there is no finer in
India. Van Dyck, AJurillo, Ribara, Mol-
tino, Daniel, Rubens, and other noted
masters are represented; but the gem is a
work by Sir John Opic, R.A., which was
formerly in the possession of His late
Majesty King George IV, and is believed
to have cost no less than £12,000.

No more gorgeously furnished palace
in Calcutta can be found than the marble
one in Mooktaram Babu's street belong-
mg to the ancient Mullick family, who
belong to the Siibortwbanik (or banker)
caste of Bengal, and are justly renowned

for their enterprise, wealth, and great
liberality. Thirteen generations ago their
ancestor Jadab Sil was honoured by the
Mahommedan Government of the day with
the hereditary title of Mullick, but the
name of Sil is retained for use in religious
and matrimonial ceremonies. The man-
sion is approached through exceedingly
massive gates, and from entering to
leaving this mansion visitors will be
deeply interested in the priceless collec-
tion of paintings and art treasures of
great variety.

In attempting a description of the prin-
cipal buildings, mention must be made
first of all of Government House, a
handsome building constructed at the
beginning of the nineteenth century and
modelled upon the designs of Keddleston
Hall, in the county of Derby, England.
The Throne Room — so called from the
fact that it contains the throne of Sultan
Tipu Tib — is an exceedingly noble
apartment, containing portraits of their
late Majesties Queen Victoria, King
George III, and Queen Charlotte, and
of Sir Arthur Wellesley and others; while
the Council Room is adorned with i)or-
traits of viceroys and notabilities, includ-
ing the Earl of Minto, Lord Hardinge, Sir
Eyre Coote, Lord Cornwallis, Warren
Hastings, the Earl of Auckland, the Mar-
quis of Wellesley, Lord Clive, and Lord
William Bentinck. There are many
objects of great historical interest both
in the house and the grounds, among them
being subsidiary treaties of Hyderabad,
Mysore, and Seringapatam relating to the
years 1798 and 1799; several guns rap-
tured during the wars with Hyder .-Mi and
his warlike son Tipu ; on the south side is
a fine brass 32-pounder taken at Aliwal
in 1846, and on the north is a huge iron
gun with carriage representing a dragon.

The State entrance is approached by
a grand flight of 33 steps, 100 feet in
width at the bottom and 67 feet at the
top, where there is a noble portico with
pillars 45 feet in height, of the Ionic
order. The portico opens on to the first
floor, where may be seen the vestibule,
used as a breakfast-room, and the Grand
Durbar Hall with beautifully polished
marble floor. This apartment is known
as the " Hall of the Caesars," from the
1 2 marble busts (believed to have been
taken firom a French vessel by Admiral
Watson in 1757) which adorn the side
circles. The public drawing-room is one
of the finest in the building, and from it
is obtained a lovely view of the Maidan
and Fort William.

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BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

The Town Hall, on the western side of
Government House, is Doric in style of
architecture, and it is the home of fine
statues and paintings of {inter alia)
Warren Hastings, Lord Cornwallis, Lord
Gough, Bishop Wilson, and Sir C.
Metcalfe. . Old Post Office Street sepa-
rates this building from the High Court,
which is a most imposing structure erected
in the year 1872, somewhat after the style
of the Town Hall of Yprcs, in Belgium.
Accommodation has l)een found for seven

personal influence of Warren Hastings,
and while the eastern and western
entrances have a noble appearance with
their perfect Corinthian columns, the in-
terior offers an infinity of attractions.
There are a number of valuable paintings,
but the tablets and tombs will be the
chief attraction to the historian; and con-
spicuous among the latter are the resting-
places of Admiral Watson, who assisted
Clive in retaking Calcutta from Suraj-ud-
Daulah, Nawab of Bengal, at the battle

Within a radius of two or three hundred
yards of the Post Office arc the handsome
new structures of the Telegraph Depart-
ment, the Royal E.xchange, Writers'
Buildings or the Bengal Secretariat, and
the magnificent premises belonging to
practically all the banking companies in
Calcutta. It would be a great oversight
if one were at this juncture to omit
reference to the " Old Mission Church " —
situated in Mission Row, a street on the
eastern side of Dalhousie Square — the

1. HIGH COURT, CALCUTTA

2. CLIVE STREET, CALCUTTA, LOOKING SOUTH.

photos by yoknstoti & lio/Jinann. CitUufia,

courts, libraries for judges and the Bar,
and numerous other rooms which are
occupied by officials. The exterior of the
building is worthy of close attention, as
it presents a most pleasing effect of the
combination of Western and Eastern
ideas; but the interesting collection of
portraits of judges and other celebrities
Tn the various rooms should not be over-
looked. It has a tower, 180 feet in height,
from which very extensive views are
obtained.

A walk of five minutes will take the
visitor to St. John's Church. This is one
of the most interesting buildings in Cal-
cutta, and dates from the year 1788. Its
construction was due very largely to the

of Plassey in 1757, and of Job Charnock,
the founder of Calcutta.

One cannot gaze at the General Post
Office — facing Dalhousie Square — without
being reminded of the terrible horrors of
the massacre of more than 120 British
subjects in what is known in history as
the " Black Hole of Calcutta," a spot
within the precincts of the Old Fort
William, now included in the area of the
Post Office premises and denoted by a
mural tablet erected by one of the few
survivors to the memory of those who
perished. The modern portion of the
present Post Office, distinguished by its
fine Corinthian pillars, was completed in
the year 1870 at a cost of Rs. 6,30,000.
64

Ijuilding of which was commenced in the
year i 767 by a Swedish missionary named
Keirnander. Financial troubles overtook
this gentleman at a later date, and his
creditors took possession of the edifice,
although it was afterwards redeemed at
a cost of Rs. 10,000 by Mr. Charles
Grant, father of Lord Glenelg. While in
this portion of the city, a visit should be
paid to the Imperial Library at the corner
of Strand Road and Hare Street, which
contains a large number of very valuable
works; special notice should be taken of
the collection of ancient prints hanging
on the walls of the principal staircase.

The foundations of the Royal Mint were
laid in the year 1824, and the constructioE

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

of the central portico, which is a copy
of the Temple of Minerva at Athens,
covered a period of six years. While in
this neighbourhood, a visit should be paid
to the floating pontoon bridge which
unites Calcutta with the Municipality of
Howrah. It is 1,530 feet in length be-
tween abutments, and the width (includ-
ing wood pavements and roadway) is
about 75 feet. The vehicular and
pedestrian trafHc is exceedingly great
from early morn until nearly midnight,

way Company, abuts upon Lower Circular
Road, in which there are 'not any buildings
of particular importance; but proceeding
in a westerly direction through Dhurrum-
tollah, one arrives at the splendid
thoroughfare known as Chowringhee
Road, in which the leading clubs, hotels,
and shops are situated. On the western
side of this fine road is the splendid
Maidan, while on the opposite side may
be seen the very extensive business
premises of Messrs. Leslie & Co., White-

a very handsome building, mainly in the
Gothic style, but with certain deviations
calculated to suit the exigencies of the
Indian climate. The chief attraction for
visitors will be the western window, which
was erected in the year 1880 as a
memorial to Lord Mayo, a former Viceroy.
An historian has written : " The library
is perhaps the oldest in India. In the
transept will be seen Chantrey's colossal
statue of Bishop Hebcr, also a black
marble tablet to the memory of sixteen

and as it provides the only means of
crossing the Hooghly— excepting by ferry
steamers— for several miles from the city
in either direction, it is not surprising that
the authorities have decided to replace
the pontoon by a permanent structure.
Elaborate designs have been prepared,
and it is expected that the work of con-
struction will be put in hand in due
course. On the Howrah side of the
bridge are the passenger station and
terminus of the systems of the Bengal-
Nagpur and East Indian Railway Com-
panies, but this is referred to elsewhere.
The entrance to Sealdah Station, the
city terminus of the Eastern Bengal Rail-

THE HOWEAH BRIDGE, CALCUTTA.

Photo by yohnston &■ Hojfntaittt, Catcutla,

away, Laidlaw & Co., Ltd., Messrs. G. F.
Kellner & Co., Ltd., Messrs. Hall and
Anderson, Ltd., the Continental and
Grand Hotels, the Theatre Royal, the
Young Men's Christian Association, the
Indian Museum (housing zoological, an-
thropological, industrial, art, and arch-
ajological collections; and also a fine
collection of minerals, fossils, and an-
tiquities, among which are Buddhist
remains believed to be more than 2,000
years of age), the United Service and
Bengal Clubs, the Army and Navy Stores,
and the Bishop's Palace.

St. Paul's Cathedral is situated between
Chowringhee and Cathedral Road, and is

officers who fell during the Indian Mutiny.
It is ornamented with sixteen bronze
medallions representing the blowing-up of
the Cashmir Gate by Lieutenant Salkeld
at the siege of Delhi. Near to the tablet
is one to the memory of fifteen officers who
fell in the Bhutan Campaign, and adjoin-
ing this is a peculiar and elaborate
monument of John Paxton Norman,
Officiating Chief Justice of Bengal, who
was assassinated on the steps of the Town
Hall, Calcutta, on September 20, 1871."

The Victoria Memorial Hall. — If there
is an incident in the modern history of
British India, other than the magnificent
support given to Great Britain in the

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

bloodiest war the world has ever seen,
which commenced in August 1914, it is
the unexampled outburst of loyalty and
devotion to the Throne of England mani-
fested in the hearty co-operation of
Europeans and Indians of all castes and
creeds, from princes to peasants, who
have contributed of their wealth towards
the erection of a permanent memorial in
honour of Her late Majesty Queen
Victoria, Empress of India, which will,
as Lord Curzon, \'iceroy of India, said in
a speech delivered in Calcutta in February
1901, afford India an opportunity " not
merely to express its devotion to the late
Queen's memory, but also to demonstrate
to the world in some striking manner the
truth of that Imperial unity which was
so largely the creation of her personality
and reign."

from Sir William Emerson, the President
at the time of the Royal Institute of
British Architects ; and the plans eventu-
ally accepted, which followed the Italian
Renaissance style, blended with a sugges-
tion of Oriental feeling in some details,
provided for: (i) a Hall of Sculpture;
(2) a Hall of Paintings; (3) the Hall of
Princes, to be devoted to collections pre-
sented or lent by Indian Chiefs; (4) a
Hall of Arms; (5) galleries or apartments
to be devoted to the exhibition of minor
objects; and (6) a Durbar Hall for in-
vestitures or public meetings. The con-
tents will include statuary and sculpture,
paintings, engravings, prints, miniatures,
photographs, maps, documents, manu-
scripts, letters, treaties, flags, models, and
personal relics and mementoes appertain-
ing particularly to British rule in India

Lord Curzon — who has been indefatigable
in his exertions to further the project —
and the leading Rulers and nobility in
India, exclusive of many persons in
England, some of whose ancestors have
been closely identified with the making of
political and commercial history in the
East.

The total cost of the Memorial is ex-
pected to be between £300,000 and
£400,000; and although an undertaking
of this character must necessarily extend
over many years, the Trustees have every
reason to be highly satisfied with the pro-
gress of the work and with the handsome
manner in which donations in money and
kind have been received or promised.

The Secretary to the Trustees is Mr.
C. B. Bayley, C.V.O.

On the south side of Lower Circular

A VIEW OF OLD COUET-HOUSE STREET IN THE NINETIES.

I'holo by Johnston &- HojfvtanH, Calcutta.

The proposal for the erection of a
Memorial assumed concrete form by the
appointment of a large and representa-
tive committee upon which every portion
of India was represented, and donations
forthwith began to flow in from all
quarters.

The question of a suitable site was dis-
cussed at a number of meetings, but the
feeling was practically unanimous that it
should be erected at Calcutta, as the then
capital of India, and that it should stand
on that part of the Maidan west of the
cathedral where the unsightly jail then
stood. It was intended that there should
be a beautiful and spacious park, in the
middle of which would rise the glittering
marble structure, standing upon a terrace
of white marble and facing northwards
across the parade-ground, with its cen-
tral dome of 160 feet in height, and
visible from every part of the river and
the Maidan.

Designs for the building were obtained

up to the end of Queen Victoria's reign.
The whole of the beautiful white marble
used in construction is being obtained
from the Makrana quarries, in the State
of H.H. the Maharaja of Jodhpur, in
Rajputana, and about a mile distant from
the railway station at Makrana. His late
Majesty King Edward VI 1 was the first
patron of and donor to the proposed
Memorial, and his personal gifts included
a number of oil paintings depicting scenes
in the life of the " Good Queen," and
these will ultimately be hung in the vesti-
bule of the Central Hall— which will be
called the Queen's Vestibule — and will be
set apart for memorials personal to
herself.

An immense number of objects have
already (November 191 6) been presented
to or acquired by the Trustees of the Hall,
and among the names of other donors of
arts, treasures, and relics, many of which
are priceless, are His Majesty King
George V and Her Majesty Queen Mary,

Road is Belvedere House, at Alipore. near
to the Calcutta racecourse, in whose
grounds was fought the duel between
Warren Hastings and Sir Philip Francis.
This noble mansion was the residence of
the Lieutenant-Governors of Bengal until
that portion of India was converted into
a Presidency with a Governor of its own.
The rooms are now used as a temporary
home for the exhibits, which will be trans-
ferred to the Victoria Memorial Hall upon
its completion.

Not far from Belvedere is Hastings
House, originally the country seat of
Warren Hastings, the first Governor-
General of Fort William in Bengal during
the years 1774-85 ; and within a few
rriinutes' drive in Thackeray Road is
" Magistrate's House," where the famous
novelist lived when a child.

Returning citywards, one notices the
Presidency General and the Military Hos-
pitals. The original General Hospital
was the property of the East India Com-

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

pany, and was situated at the north-east
corner of and adjoining what is now
St. John's Churchyard. Concerning it,
Hamilton, who wrote in i r ' 7, says : " The
Company have a pretty good Hospital at
Calcutta where many go to undergo the
grievance of physic, but few come out
to give an account of its operation."
Another satire, probably of the same
period, ran : —

"In a verj- few days you're released from all

cares.
If the Padre's asleep Mr. Oldham reads prayers ;
To the grave you're let down with a sweet,

pleasant thump.
Anil there you may lie till you hear the last

trump."

It may be mentioned that Mr. Oldham
was Calcutta's first recognized under-
taker.

The new hospital is near to the southern
end of Chowringhee, and is a handsome

red-brick building with very large airy
wards and private rooms. It is 555 feet
in length, with an extreme width in the
centre of 69 feet; and it was opened in
the year 1901 by Sir John Woodburn,
then Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal.

Turning to the north, with the race-
course on the left hand, Fort William —
the largest fortress in India — next claims
one's notice. Its construction was com-
menced in the year 1757, but completion
did not take place until the year 1781.
One of the first buildings to be seen on
entering l)y the Chowringhee Gate is a
massively constructed warehouse, which
bears upon one of its walls a tablet with
the following inscription : " This build-
ing contains 51,258 mans of rice and
20,023^ mans of paddy, which were de-
posited by order of the Governor-General
and Council, under the charge of John

Belli, agent for providing victualling
stores to the garrison, in the months of
March, ."Xpril, and May 1782." Visitors
should also find time to see St. Peter's
Church, which is an exceedingly pretty
building ; and, by permission, they may
inspect the armoury and arsenal.

One of the sights of the city is un-
doubtedly the Sir Stuart Hogg Market,
situated between Lindsay and Free
School Streets and Corporation Place,
and not more than 100 yards distant
from the principal business section of
Chowringhee. The building is most sub-
stantially built of good red bricks, and
neatly arranged stalls, in avenues running
at right angles, are crammed with goods
of all descriptions, ranging from fish,
meat, and vegetables for the kitchen to
ornamental articles for the drawing-room,
and from a packet of needles to a com-

fHB CATHEDRAL, INTBBIOR, CALCUTTA.

/'/lotff by yohttston &■ Hoffmann, Caldttia.

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

plete costume or suit of clothing. Tiie
market is under the control of a Super-
intendent appointed by the Calcutta
Municipality.

Calcutta is remarkably well provided
with open spaces and squares, and few
cities in the East can boast of such a
magnificent area for sporting and recrea-
tion purposes as is furnished by the
Maidan, which is four square miles in
extent. It was dense jungle until the
year 1757, when the work of clearing was
commenced ; but now it provides ample
accommodation for the racecourse of the
Calcutta Turf Club, golf links, and
grounds for numerous cricket, football,
and tennis clubs ; while several well-kept
roads are thronged every evening from
about 5.30 to 7.30 with stylish carriages,
motor-cars, and cycles. Further than
this, there are thousands of individuals
of all ages who take advantage of the
quiet of the day in order to enjoy the

JAIN TEMPLE, CALCUTTA.

Pkot;> by yohnslon &■ Hoffmann, Crtaitta.

ever-green turf and the welcome shade of
a large number of noble trees, which were
reprieved when the felling-axe opened out
this delightful breathing-spot.

The Eden Gardens, situated at the
north-west corner of the Maidan and
separated by the Strand Road from the
River Hooghly, contain a rare variety of
tropical and other trees and plants, to-
gether with artificial lakes and a finely
carved pagoda, which was brought from
Burma in the year 1856. The bandstand
is occupied by a detachment of the City
Volunteers, which plays selections of
music from six to seven o'clock each even-
ing; and the surrounding lawns are the
nightly rendezvous of the belles of Cal-
cutta and their gallant swains. Dalhousie,
Wellington, Wellesley, Beadon, Rawdon,
and Auckland Squares, situated in thickly
populated districts of the city, are
veritable oases in the wilderness of
streets, and the inhabitants are not slow

in taking advantage of these pleasant
retreats.

The Botanical Gardens are situated on
the west bank of the River Hooghly, and
they may be reached by ferry steamer
from the principal landing-stages or by
driving through Howrah. Several hours
may be passed enjoyably in these beauti-
ful grounds, but visitors should make a
point of seeing the Herbarium, the finest
in the East, which contains about 40,000
choice specimens. Then the famous
banyan-tree must be inspected ; it is
about 235 years of age; the girth of the
trunk is 52 feet, the height is 85 feet,
and the circumference at the crown is
nearly 1,000 feet.

The development of India under British
rule is associated with the names of illus-
trious men, whose records are inefTaceably
written on the pages of history; but the
memory of many of these statesmen,
soldiers, and others is perpetuated by a

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

number of statues which have been erected
in various parts of Calcutta, but chiefly
on the Maidan. These include monu-
ments dedicated to Lords Canning, Mayo,
Lansdowne, Auckland, Roberts, Dufferin,
Dalhousie, and Kitchener, together with
an excellent one representing Her Majesty
the late Queen Victoria ; while on the
eastern side of the Maidan there is a very
fine obelisk— 1 65 feet in height— in honour
of Sir David Ochterlony, who was largely
responsible for the termination of the
Nepal War in 18 14-16, and who was
British Resident in Rajputana in the year

1823.

The Zoological Gardens are situated
within five minutes" walk from the Kidder-

Not far from these gardens is the cele-
brated temple at Kalighat, which was built
on the bank of Tolly's Nullah in honour
of Kali, the wife of Siva. During the
Durga Puja festival in the month of
October a very large number of pilgrims
assemble to take part in the religious pro-
ceedings which are conducted then. There
are other shrines of the goddess Kali in
Bowbazar Street and elsewhere in the city,
but none of them are of great importance.

One must not, however, forget to men-
tion the Mahommcdan mosque at the
corner of Bentinck and Dhurrumtollah
Streets, which was endowed in 1842 by
Prince Gholam Muhammad, son of the
famous Sultan Tipu Tib. An inscription

UNIVERSITY HALL, CALCUTTA.

Photo I'y ytthitiloit ir- Hcflfnattii Cahutta.

pore Bridge, which can be reached by
tram from any part of the city, and they
were opened in 1876 by His Majesty the
late King Edward VII when Prince of
Wales. The gardens are very prettily
laid out, and the collection of animals,
birds, fish, and snakes contains many
remarkably fine specimens. E.xcellent
accommodation is provided for beasts and
birds alike ; the mammoth rhinoceros
revels in his boggy paddock; deer, ante-
lopes, wallabies, and others roam about
in spacious turf-covered arenas ; lions,
tigers, leopards, and other fera naturce
are comfortably housed in quarters pro-
vided with ample space for exercise ;
and monkeys, birds, and reptiles appear
as happy in confinement — and probably
happier — than their uncaged fellows.

upon It reads as follows : " This Musjid
was erected during the Government of
Lord Auckland by the Prince Gholam
Muhammad, son of the late Tipu Sultan,
in gratitude to God and in commemora-
tion of the Honourable Court of Directors
granting him the arrears of his stipend in
1840."

One of the most beautiful temples in
Calcutta is the celebrated one near Halsi
Bagan Road, which branches off from
Upper Circular Road. It is in the Jain
style of architecture, and was founded in
1867 by Rai Budree Dass Bahadur,
Mookim and Court Jeweller to the
Government of India. The whole build-
ing, from ground to ceiling, consists of
pure white marble and mosaic work. The
temple is dedicated to one of the Jain

prophets, whose image is placed in the
innermost portion of the sanctuary. The
grounds in front of the temple are very
picturesque in character, and it is worthy
of notice that this most restful garden,
with its fountains and statuary, is thrown
open to the public during the greater part
of each day.

The Municipal Offices of Calcutta are
situated in a handsome red-brick building,
with frontages on Corporation, Hogg, and
Fenwick Bazar Streets and Corporation
Place. The officials include a Chairman,
Vice-Chairman, and twenty-five Ward
Commissioners, together with Executive
Officers in the following Departments ;
Secretary's, Engineer's, Medical Officers
of Health, Drainage, Accounts, Provident
Fund Accounts, Assessors, City Architect
and Surveyor's, Collection, Licences,
Hackney Carriage and Carts, Treasury,
and Waterworks. The Health Depart-
ment, it may be mentioned, has, in a city
like Calcutta, which contains so many un-
savoury localities, and in which so large
a proportion of the population exhibit
supreme indifference to the primary laws
of sanitary science and hygiene, a good
deal of responsibility on its hands; but
the Chief Health Officer and his assistants
are fighting bravely against the stubborn
foes of disease — overcrowding, uncleanli-
ness, and wilful carelessness as to the dis-
posal of decaying garbage. The various
branches of this department, staffed by
competent officials, comprise experts in
analytical work, medical, sanitary, food,
and Disinfecting Inspectors, and mid-
wives. Other departments are con-
cerned with the burning ghat, burial-
grounds, and lighting of streets.

The High Court of Judicature of
Bengal, situated in Esplanade West, is
presided over by the Chief Justice, the
Honourable Sir Lancelot Sanderson, Kt.,
K.C., who is assisted by seventeen Puisne
Judges. The Court of Small Causes has
its headquarters at 3, Bankshall Street,
but there is a suburban court at 136,
Lower Circular Road. There are about
half a dozen judges, who sit in their
respective courts, and the chief judge is
Dr. T. Thornhill, LL.D.

Manufacturing and industrial enter-
prises have increased rapidly during the
past half-century, since the opening of
railways in the interior of Bengal and
other Provinces has provided greater
facilities for the transfer of raw materials
and produce to commercial centres, and
has given increased opportunities to
merchants for the consignment of mer-

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

chandise to markets. The manufacture
of jute is the most valuable industrial
concern in Calcutta, and a history of the
cultivation of this plant and the subse-
quent treatment of fibre in the mills on
the Hooghly is the subject-matter of
special notes on another page. Other im-
portant concerns in or near to the city
include mills and factories for crushing
bones, spinning cotton, the manufacture
of flour, sugar, ice, pottery tiles, bricks,
and ropes, and the crushing of oil-seeds,
together with shipbuilding and iron and
brass foundries.

The Calcutta Tramways Company,
Ltd., was registered in England in
December 1880, having obtained a " run-
ning " concession for twenty-one years,
and operations were commenced in cer-
tain portions of the city with a service of
steam trams and horse cars. Two years
before the expiry of that period, how-
ever, an agreement was entered into with
the Calcutta Corporation, under which the
company was granted a " new concession
for thirty years, dating from January i,
1 90 1, in consideration of the system being
converted from steam- and horse-power to
electric traction within three years."

The installation of electric motive
power — conveyed to cars by an overhead
trolley system — was commenced in the
year 1900, and the whole of the work was
completed for regular service in Novem-
ber 1902. The company have from time
to time linked the central portions of the
city with rising suburbs, and at the
present time (November igi6) the routes
cover a distance of 30.^ miles of double-
track lines, inclusive of the system in the
town of Howrah, in which there are nearly
five miles of permanent way. First- and
second-class cars (the latter " trailers ")
are run on every trip on all sections, and
the convenience of the travelling public
has been further considered by the issue
of transfer tickets, which arc available for
one change of cars on a journey involving
travel on two distinct sections, of which
there are eleven in Calcutta and three
in Howrah.

The service is, on the whole, a satisfac-
tory one, and punctuality is observed in
the running of the cars. During the
summer months the cars start from their
respective stations at five o'clock in the
morning, and in winter the time is 5.30,
but they continue to run until i 1.30 p.m.
throughout the whole of the year.

Hackney carriages and taxis can be
engaged at appointed places in nearly all
the principal streets, while private vehicles

and saddle-horses may be obtained from
a numlier of first-class livery stables.

Very enjoyable trips can be made in
ferry steamers on the Hooghly, and
among the interesting places to be visited
are: Matiabrooze, 40 minutes' journey;
Rajabagan, noted for its shipbuilding
yards and factories; Rajgunge, centre of
fishing and coconut industries; and
Cossipore, where there is a gun factory,
in addition to a sugar factory and a
number of jute presses. These and a few
other places can be reached in less than
an hour, but longer trips may be made to
Chandernagore, a French settlement, 21
miles distant from Calcutta ; Hooghly,

portion of whom are engaged in the busy
shipbuilding yards, foundries, and fac-
tories on the Hooghly.

Various schemes for the improvement
of streets and other highly necessary
works have repeatedly been placed before
the citizens, but there appear to be many
urgent reasons for the pigeon-holing of
the proposals for a practically indefinite
period.

Garden Reach, also on the Hooghly,
was formerly the principal residential
quarter of the fashionable inhabitants of
Calcutta ; but almost the whole area —
including a very beautiful house and
grounds occupied about the year 1856

THE BAKB-ID FESTIVAL : MAHOMMEDANS AT PRAYER ON THE
CALCUTTA MAIDAN.

I'holo Ity T. r. Sill,

founded by the Portuguese in 1457;
Chinsurah, formerly belonging to the
Dutch, and containing quaint old speci-
mens of architecture ; Oolooberria, 20
miles, and Fultah, 36 miles, both in the
direction of the outlet of the river into
the Bay of Bengal.

The majority of the suburbs of Calcutta
are situated in the districts in which busy
native bazaars predominate, but a brief
reference may be made to the following: —

Howrah, which might almost be taken
as a part of Calcutta, is the chief town
in the district of Howrah, which extends
for a distance of about eight miles along
the right bank of the River Hooghly. It
is a municipal borough with a population
of about 180,000 inhabitants, a large pro-

by a former king of Oudh — is now a busy
commercial centre, in which are jute and
cotton mills, soap-works, coolie lines, and
the Army Remount Department. The
palatial offices of the Bengal-Nagpur
Railway Company are situated here, and
the Kidderpore Docks are entered from
Garden Reach Road. Proceeding in a
northwardly direction past Calcutta, but
within a distance of four and a half miles
from the city, is Dum-Duaii, a cantonment
with station on the Eastern Bengal
Railway system. There is a small-arms
ammunition factory here, which gives em-
ployment to a large number of hands.
Here are also several attractive bungalows
with gardens and grounds, which are used
largely by picnic parties from Calcutta.

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Tollygunge is one of those well-
tinibered beauty-spots, with scores of
acres of velvety sward, which are never
too numerous in the vicinity of largely
populated towns and cities. It is within
half an hour's drive from Calcutta, along
a road which is being widened and im-
proved. Upon arrival one notices a fine
open stretch of park-like grounds, flanked
by beautiful trees of all kinds; and in the
distance is a large building known as the
Club House, which is the headquarters

The wqrkshops cover an area of about
95 acres, and upwards of 5,000 men are
employed in construction and maintenance
work. An idea of the importance of the
establishment is conveyed by the state-
ment that the output of new work at the
shops is equivalent to one carriage and
five wagons daily throughout the year.

Chief among the suburbs within five
miles from Calcutta, and situated in
easterly and north-easterly directions, are
Entally, Shambazar, Chitpore, Baghbazar,

until 1915, when his manager, Mr. A.
Prati, became owner.

The firm are dealers in Italian marble
tiles of all descriptions, slabs, flooring
tiles, tablesj and pillars, and they under-
take any kind of work in " Excelsior "
mosaic or patent stone, among which may
be mentioned : ordinary patent stone for
floors, footpaths, roads, kerbs, channels,
and balustrades : reinforced ferro-
concrete for walls, railway sleepers,
cargo boats, pontoons, and roofing ; red

1. GENERAL POST OFFICE, CALCUTTA. 2. PAGODA, EDEN GARDENS, CALCUTTA. 3. KALI TEMPLE. CALCUTTA.

for members who indulge in racing, golf,
archery, polo, tennis, and other games.

Three miles from Calcutta is Lillooah,
the headquarters, with office and work-
shops of the carriage and wagon
department of the East Indian Railway
Company. It is with pardonable pride
that the officials of this company are able
to point to exceedingly superior work-
manship manifested here in the construc-
tion of a most luxuriantly furnished
broad-gauge State railway train of ten
bogie vehicles, for the use of their
Imperial Majesties on the occusion of the
Coronation Durbar in 1911-12. The
total weight of the train was 428 tons,
and it had an extreme length of 700 feet.

Jorabagan, Manicktollah, and Belgatchia;
but all of these are business centres, with
little of importance to recommend them
as visiting-places for tourists.

F. ACERBONI & CO.

The manufacture of " Excelsior "
mosaic walling, laid plastically, and
proof against damp, is a special feature
of the business enterprise of Messrs. F.
Acerboni & Co., of 2 Watkins Lane, How-
rah, near Calcutta. The firm was estab-
lished more than fifty years ago by Mr.
F. Acerboni, and he was succeeded by
Mr. C. Albertini, who was sole proprietor
72

patent stone polished for floors and
walls ; white polished imitation marble
for floors and walls ; imitation coloured
marble for walls, pillars, and ornamental
works ; mosaic stone polished in any
colour laid down plastically, and also sup-
plied in tiles for floors, pillars, basins,
and dissecting and other tables ; and
polished white cement plastering.

Messrs. .Acerboni & Co. carried out the
greater portion of the marble and mosaic
work at Government House, Calcutta, at
a number of Government buildings, for
the Calcutta Port Commissioners, and at
several stations on the principal railway
systems in India ; and they are con-
tractors to the Government of Bengal,

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

the Public Works Department, railway
authorities, and the Howrah Municipality.

A gold medal and a first-class certifi-
cate for excellence of works were awarded
to this firm at the Calcutta Industrial
and Agricultural Exhibition held in
1906-7.

Very fine marble and " Excelsior "
mosaic works have been done at many
of the principal buildings in India,
including the Presidency General Hos-
pital, Medical College Hospital, Lady
Dufferin's Victoria Hospital, Eden Hos-
pital, Campbell Hospital, Imperial
Library, the Foreign and Military
Offices, the palace of the Lord Bishop
of the Diocese, the General Post Ofiice,
High Court, Paper Currency Office, His
Majesty's Mint, the palaces of H.H. the
Governor of Bengal and H.H. the
Maharaja of Nattore, Writers' Building in
Calcutta, Pilgrim Hospital at Puri, the
Curzon Hall at Dacca, the palaces of the
Bettiah Raj at Bettiah, the palace at
Dacca of the late Governor of Eastern
Bengal, General Hospital at Howrah,
East Indian Railway stations, and at the
Bengal-Nagpur Railway new station at
Howrah.

A large supply of marble is kept in
stock at the firm's workshops, godowns,
and showrooms in Watkins "Lane, and the
daily output of their well-known manu-
factures has reached very large dimen-
sions, owing to the first-class quality
of materials and to the exceedingly
satisfactory manner in which commissions
are executed.

The telegraphic address is " Acerboni,
Watkins Lane, Howrah."

AHMUTY & CO.

" The original ship-chandlers of the
East " is the designation by which the
old-established and reputable firm of
Messrs. Ahmuty & Co., of 6 Church
Lane, Calcutta, is widely known. The
title is pregnant with meaning when it is
remembered that the firm have been in
existence since the memorable year of
Waterloo, and that in those days sailing
ships, after long and tedious voyages
from England by way of the Cape, de-
pended largely upon Calcutta for stores,
and occasionally equipment, before they
could set forth on their return journeys.

Imperial troops were being conveyed to
the Old Country about this time, and con-
tracts for provisioning the men were
entrusted to Messrs. Ahmuty & Co., who

forthwith established a bakery and dis-
tillery for the supply of biscuits and rum
respectively, and the factories were known
by the name of " The .'Mbion Works."

What a history is wrapped up in these
hundred years ! " Wind-jammers " are
rarely seen to-day ; Calcutta is now a
huge city with extensive dock accommo-
dation, and not a mere settlement on the
muddy banks of the Hooghly as it was
then ; and the small ship-chandlery store

and saw-mills, and tea and indigo
factories.

A special feature is made of the supply
of manila, coir, cotton, and wire ropes,
paulins, ships* composition, waterproof
and rot-proof canvas, paints, oils, fine
varnishes, enamels, cement, signal lamps,
rockets, blue lights, fog-signals, wood-
working machinery, lathes, drilling
machines, and practically all engineer-
ing requirements.

I. The F.\croKY at Howrah.

F. ACERBONI & CO.
2. Mosaic Walling by F. Acerbom & Co. at Du.ncax Bros, & Co.s
BciLDiNG, Clivk Street, Calcitta.

opened by Messrs. Ahmuty & Co. has
grown into one of the most important
trading establishments in India.

The firm had the valuable support of
the East India Company, which was a
substantial asset to a newly started busi-
ness, and from that time to the present
(April 19 1 6) the transactions of the cen-
tury reveal a record of uninterrupted
progress.

Briefly, Messrs. Ahmuty & Co. may
now be described as engineers, machinery,
metal, and hardware merchants. Govern-
ment and railway contractors, ships'
chandlers, general storekeepers, sup-
pliers of rum, spirits of wine, and Indian
condiments, and contractors to His
Majesty's Royal Indian Marine Dock-
yard, the Ordnance Department, .'\rsenals,
Indian Government factories, the Supply
and Transport Departments, State rail-
ways, steamship companies, jute, cotton,

The agencies held by the firm arc of a
very important character, and include :
The Silicate Paint Company and Messrs.
Colthurst and Harding, of London, for
varnishes and paints ; Messrs. Storry,
Smithson & Co., Ltd., of Hull, for protec-
tive compositions for the bottoms of ships ;
Messrs. Hamilton & Co., of London, for
paint brushes and sash tools ; Messrs.
W. B. Brown & Co., of Liverpool, for
steel wire ropes for hauling or mining
purposes ; Messrs. Platts and Lowther,
London, for packings ; Messrs. Crawshaw
& Sons, Dewsbury, for belting for mills ;
the Willesden Paper and Canvas Works,
Ltd., London, Messrs. Samuel Wills &
Co., Ltd., Bristol, Messrs. Pinchin,
Johnson & Co., London, for paints and
enamels ; and Messrs. John Pickles &
Son, Hebden Bridge, England, for saw-
mill and wood-working machinery.

The manager, Mr. C. F. Jordan, has

I. TaE HxAD Office.

AHMUTY & CO. (THE SHALIMAB ROPEWOKKS).

2. A POHTIOX OF THE SEI AI.I.MAK ROPEWORKS. 3. HOLSE-ROPE MACHINE ROOM.

AHMUTY & CO. (THE SHALIMAR BOPBWOEKS).
I. THE Rope Walk. 2. spinning Room. 3, PBEPARinr, Department, ■ 4. ExtiixE Room.

5. Coir Opexi.ng,

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

been connected with Messrs. Ahmuty &
Co. for a very lengthy period, and his
practical experience, combined with per-
sonal attention, is an ample guarantee
that the requirements of customers will
receive the utmost consideration.

THE SHALIMAR ROPE WORKS

It is somewhat curious to notice that
many important firms in Calcutta are un-
able to produce authentic records of their
early history when Calcutta was " in the
making," but this is no fault of the pro-
prietors, as there have been two deadly
enemies at work, namely, fire and white

Belfast. With such an equipment as this
the proprietors are justified in their con-
tention that one of the largest and most
complete roperies in the East is to be
found at the Shalimar Works.

Nearly all the ropes manufactured in
Calcutta are made from Manila, New
Zealand, or country-grown hemp, from
sisal or aloe fibre, and from coir, and
each rope when completed is coiled
neatly, packed, and then sent to the
weighing-room to be scaled, and subse-
quently dispatched to its destination.

Some interesting figures may be given
here as to the breaking strains of Manila
cordage ; a rope having a circumference

THE ALL-INDIA HOSIERY CO. (F. L. HARCOURT).
WoRKiNt; ox Hand Machines.

ants. The Shalimar Rope Works, as a
case in point, were established many
decades ago, but old documents and
books were destroyed, and definite in-
formation can only be obtained from the
time when Messrs. Ahmuty & Co., of 6
Church Lane, Calcutta, came into posses-
sion of them, about the year 1850.

The ropery is situated at Howrah, on
the western bank of the River Hooghly,
near to the beautiful Botanical (hardens.
Between the years 1905 and 1906 the
premises were entirely rebuilt and refitted
with modern rope-making plant, and new
engines and boilers of the latest type,
which were obtained from the well-known
firm of Messrs. Fairburn, Lawson,
Coombe, Barbour, Ltd., of Leeds and

of 2 in. yields to a pull of i ton 4 cwt.,
and a 10 in. one withstands 30 tons ;
while a i6-in. cable will not snap under
76 tons.

Contracts are held for the annual
supply of Manila and country hemp, coir
and wire ropes and lines to the Indian
Government Dockyard, the Ordnance and
Supply and Transport Departments, to
Arsenals and the Indian Government fac-
tories. State railways, and steamship and
other companies ; but products are also
consigned to Burma, the Straits Settle-
ments, Siam, Java, Borneo, Sumatra,
Hong Kong, the Philippine Islands,
Karachi, Bushire, Aden, Australia, New
Zealand, and South and East Africa.

The paulin factory, situated on the

premises of the rope works, has for many
years supplied goods to Government
departments. State railways, and factories
and steamship and other companies, but
there is a very large demand from private
firms in the principal cities and towns of
India. English canvas is used for these
covers, which are dressed with a patent
preparation in black, blue, green, khaki,
or red colours, which are guaranteed to
be free from adhesiveness in sunshine or
rain, and also from any matter likely to
cause spontaneous combustion. Tar was
formerly used to render such sheets
waterproof, but that substance was dis-
carded owing to its viscid qualities, and
the composition just referred to was sub-
stituted.

Other products of the factory are tents,
awnings, boat and wagon covers, purdahs,
and screens.

THE ALL-INDIA HOSIERY MANU-
FACTURING COMPANY

It is an undoubted fact that India has
throughout a long period of years been
importing necessaries as well as luxuries
when she herself might have manufactured
them from the wealth of raw material
within her own borders, and it is satis-
factory to note that interest has lately been
aroused in the promotion of industries
which will present good investments for
capitalists, and will find profitable occu-
pation for thousands of her population.

What are known as " cottage " indus-
tries have had a distinct check placed
upon them by the introduction of
machinery, but on the other hand it lias
been shown that it is possible for families
to produce practically everything required
for their own homes and thus become
self-supporting.

The manufacture of hosiery and under-
wear is an imported industry, but special
machines have been introduced into India
for use in factories and schools and in
private houses, with the result that a very
large number of articles are now being
knitted and placed upon the Indian market
where ready sales are eff'ected. The All-
India Hosiery Manufacturing Company, of
li/i and 1 1/2 Lindsay Street, Calcutta,
have introduced very efficient hand-knit-
ting machines, and they have supplied
more than a thousand of these in various
parts of the country from Tinnevelly to
Peshawar.

During the year 1916 more than
500,000 pairs of socks were manufactured
for the company on those machines, while

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

thousands of other pairs were disposed of
to local traders. The company keep a
large number of these machines on their
premises, and they are prepared, at a
moment's notice, to send out trained
workmen for the equipment of large or
small factories. The hand machines are
so simple that even children can quickly
learn the art of knitting, and it may be
added that a number of them are now in
use in schools for the deaf and dumb and
blind in Calcutta and other cities.
Expert knitters can in their own homes

ALLIANCE JUTE HILLS COMPANY, LTD.

This company was formed towards the
end of 1895 by Messrs. Begg, Dunlop
& Co., of 12 Mission Row, Calcutta, who
conduct the affairs of the company as its
managing agents.

The original mill, containing a full
complement of all classes of preparing
and finishing machinery and three hun-
dred looms, was built during 1896, and
completed in titiie to allow manufacturing
to be commenced in May 1897. Subse-
quent extensions and the building of a

There is electric lighting throughout, the
company having its own generating plant.
The repair shops are well equipped
with up-to-date tools, including gear-
cutting and milling machines, power
hammer, and other plant, and there is
also a foundry with a cupola capacity of
4 tons of molten metal per hour. The
mill buildings and warehouses are pro-
tected against fire by a complete instal-
lation of " Grinnell " automatic sprink-
lers, chemical extincteurs, and the neces-
sary buckets to meet the requirements of

THE ALLIANCE JUTE MILLS COMPANY, LTD. (BEGG, DUNLOP & CO.).
1. Soi'iH Mill Exgine, 2,200 h.p. 2, Overhead T.^nk for Filtering Drinking Waiek.

earn Rs. 50 or Rs. 60 monthly, while
capitalists may secure a good return upon
their investments from the manufacture of
all kinds of underwear, banians, sweaters,
neckties, gas mantles, and other articles.

The company are agents in India for
general goods of all kinds, including agri-
cultural and other machinery and imple-
ments, electrical goods, hardware, metals,
windmills, lamps, fans, motor-cars and
cycles, leather goods, harness, saddles,
wearing apparel, clocks, watches, musical
instruments, and boots and shoes.

The telegraphic address of the company
is " Bobbins," Calcutta.

second mill in 1904 have brought the
property up to a spinning power of
22,459 spindles and 1,073 looms, with
buildings capable of accommodating 200
more looms and other necessary
machinery. The daily out-turn of the
mill is 100 tons of manufactured cloth,
equalling 270,000 yards, with sewing
machines equal to the production of
120,000 bags per day.

The power for driving the machinery
is generated by three compound condens-
ing steam engines developing 4,400 i.h.p.,
and the steam is raised by two batteries
of ten and nine boilers respectively.

the fire insurance offices. A hydrant ser-
vice of eighty-one stand-pipes surrounds
the mill buildings, and is fed by three
lai'ge steam pumps, drawing a practically
unlimited supply from the mill tanks,
which can be readily replenished from
the River Hooghly. In addition twenty-
four hydrants are distributed in the coolie
lines.

The warehouses for carrying stocks of
raw jute have a capacity of 3,678,375
cub. ft., and there are also two large
warehouses, fitted with travelling cranes,
for accommodating bales of manufactured
goods awaiting shipment.

THE ALLIANCE JDTB MILLS COMPANY, LTD, (BEQG, DUNLOP & CO.).
I, OFFICE. i. North Factory, 3, avf.xie.

I. Yarn

THE ALLIANCE JUTE MILLS COMPANY, LTD. (BEGG, DUNLOP & CO.).

Pressing. 2, Looms. 3. Hvdkaulic Press, also War Bags and Trusses, each containing 250 British War Bags. 4. Sewing Shed, with War B.\gs.

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

A water filter plant of 40,000 gallons
per hour capacity supplies the residents
in the compound, the coolie lines, and
the immediate neighbourhood with a
plentiful supply of pure drinking water.

A dispensary, free to all workers, is
tinder the charge of a qualified medical
officer and compounder, and there is an
operating theatre where first aid can be
given in cases of accidents, while sanitary
arrangements are provided in four large
septic tank latrines, the filters of the in-
stallations being automatically fed by
revolving spreaders.

Otiier buildings consist of a central
office, dwellings for the European staff,
a block of houses for Indian clerks, and
1,025 brick-built huts for mill coolies.
The Indian establishment consists of over
6,400 workers.

The property consists of 61 acres of
land abutting on the River Hooghly at
Jagatdal, Shamnagar, in the District of
Twenty-four Pergannas, Bengal, and is
22 miles distant by road from the city
of Calcutta. Two railway sidings connect
the property with the main line of the
Eastern Bengal Railway, by which route
all coal required and the greater part of
the mills' requirements in raw jute come
forward, while, owing to inter-railway
running, a direct route is available for
the dispatch of goods to any part of
India served by a railway system. For
the dispatch of goods for export froan
Calcutta the company has two loading
berths on the river, and they own a fleet
of sixteen 50-ton cargo boats and a
powerful steam tug for conveying the
goods by river to the side of the export
vessel. Raw jute is also transported by
the river routes.

The managing agents are assisted in
the conduct of the company's business
by a staff of Scotsmen, consisting of a
commercial manager and assistant, a mill
manager, two assistant managers, three
clerks, two engineers, and eighteen
departmental overseers and mechanics.

It may be incidentally mentioned that
this company have been largely employed
in the manufacture of sand and other
bags for the .Allied Governments during
the prosecution of the great European
War.

•««
ALLEN, BERRY & CO.

The history of this firm, who com-
menced business some years ago as
general engineers at Behala, a suburb of
Calcutta, is a record of consistent de-
velopment, due to the impetus given to

mechanical enterprises by the firm grip
which the motor industry lias obtained in
commercial circles throughout the world.
Motor-cars and cycles are seen in
increasing numbers in our streets, and
their advent has changed the whole char-
acter of the majority of the engineering
workshops in this and other countries.

Mr. P. Gibson became proprietor of
the concern in 1910, and he removed the
factory to Ballygunge, where repairs to
motor vehicles were made a special
feature, although a commodious garage
was at the same time opened in Wellesley
Street, Calcutta. It was subsequently
found that the latter site possessed
superior advantages for the conduct of
business, and the owner thereupon en-
larged the garage, and removed all his
machinery and plant to the city premises.
During the next three years progress was
so rapid that greater building accommo-
dation became a necessity, and a large
depot was accordingly secured in Free
School Street, where additional machinery
and a complete oxy-acetylene welding
plant were installed.

About the close of the year 1913 Mr.
Gibson keenly felt the enormous respon-
sibilities which he had to bear, and, with
the view of a division of the burden, he
admitted into partnership Mr. J. A.
Thomson, who had been connected with
the Dunlop Motor Company, of Kilmar-
nock, Scotland.

A very extensive repairing connection
was then established, and, in response to
repeated inquiries for new cars, it was
decided to open showrooms in a central
portion of the city. Suitable premises
were therefore erected on a prominent
position in Park Street in the year 19 14,
and the firm then became agents for the
Hillman Motor Car Company, Ltd., of
Coventry, the Palladium Autocars, Ltd.,
of London, the Cadillac Motor Company,
Ltd., of Detroit, the James Motor Cycle
Company, of Birmingham, and the Saxon
Motor Company, of Detroit, who build
comparatively low-priced two-seater cars,
which, with their special qualifications of
cantilever springing and high ground
clearance, have proved to be particularly
suitable for the apologies for roads in
the mofussil.

These agencies necessitated a further
extension of the Park Street building, and
accommodation was also found for a sepa-
rate department for painting and coach
repairs, which had hitherto been done by
sub-contractors.

The workshops — and especially the
80

repairs branch — are under the direct
supervision of thoroughly trained Euro-
pean motor engineers, and it is believed
that the firm have as large a percentage
of competent overseers as any other firm
in the East.

Towards the close of the year 1914
the oxy-acetylene welding branch had
grown to such an extent that it was made
a separate concern by the formation of
a private limited liability company, the
shareholders comprising the partners of
the firm and a few personal friends.

Since the establishment of the Oxy-
."^cetylene Welding and Metal Cutting
Company, Ltd., a large number of im-
portant cutting and welding contracts
have been entered into, among which may
be mentioned the work done for the
Lower Ganges bridge at Sara.

Special attention is devoted to repairs
to broken machine parts, including in-
tricate castings, such as motor-car cylin-
ders and aluminium crank-cases, and, in
order that repairs to boilers and ships
may be undertaken, the services of a
competent European welder have been
obtained.

Owners of mills and factories now
realize that, by the aid of oxy-acetylene
blowpipes, broken machinery can Ije Ve-
paired at a fraction of the cost of a new
part, and with the saving of an enormous
amount of valuable time.

A considerable business is done by the
firm in the importation of carbide of
calcium for oxy-acetylene welding and
lighting purposes.

ANDERSON WRIGHT & CO.

This firm of general merchants and
agents, with offices at 22 Strand Road,
Calcutta, carry on an extensive inland and
foreign trade in the export of general mer-
chandise and produce of India, and in the
importation of various descriptions of
hard and soft goods from Europe.

They are managing agents for the
Khardal Coal Company, Ltd., Bokaro and
Ramgur. Ltd., and the Central Kurkend
Company, Ltd., and are agents for the
Alliance Assurance Co., Ltd., the Com-
mercial Union Assurance Company, Ltd.
(marine department), the West Presses,
Sulkea, and the Natal Direct Line of
steamers.

Their correspondents in London are
Messrs. Clarke, Wilson & Co.

THE ANGLO-SWISS WATCH COMPANY

The most remarkable success has
attended the efforts of Mr. E. O. Gam-

1. Park Street Showrooms

ALLEN, BERRY & CO.

::. IsTEKioR, Park Street Showroom:;. 3. The Workshops, Free School Street.

4. Interior View of Workshops, Free School Street.

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

meter, the proprietor of the Anglo-Swiss
Watch Company since he commenced
business at 4 Dalhousie Square, Calcutta,
in the month of October 1909. Little
more than seven years ago he occupied one
small room, and being fortunately well-
equipped with necessary tools and up-to-
date appliances for the watchmaking trade,
and possessing an indomitable spirit
enabling him to overcome difficulties, he

and cleaning of an ordinary timekeeper or
the manufacture of a wheel or some other
intricate piece of mechanism of the most
delicately made watch. The watch-making
department is fitted with up-to-date
labour-saving appliances, and that im-
portant work, as well as the execution of
repairs, is either personally executed or
is controlled by highly qualified Euro-
peans who hold diplomas for conspicuous

A special feature is made of the
" Cavalry " lever wrist watch, which has
made a coveted name for itself in the
East as a reliable, durable, accurate, and
distinctly serviceable timekeeper. These
watches have recently been provided with
" Tropical " non-oxidising silver cases,
guaranteed not to become black, even in
India, where the climate plays havoc with
the best silver of the ordinary kind. The

THE ANGLO-SWISS WATCH COMPANY.
A Portion of the Showroom. ::. A Corxf.r of thf. Indi.\s Watchm.^king Section.

^. Where the most Frail Paf.ts of a Watch can be Manufactured.

soon proved himself to be a man who was
confident that his practical experience in
his own line of business would eventually
be widely recognized by the inhabitants
of the city.

Four assistants provided all the help
that Mr. Gammeter required in those
days, but no better proof can be given
of the immense expansion of the business
than to point to the fact that employment
is now found for about fifty Indian work-
men and clerks and some ten European
assistants.

All employees are of the highest ability
in their respective grades, and expert
Europeans super\'ise all work carried out
on the premises, whether it be the oiling

skill in both theoretical and practical
knowledge.

The company's claim to be the largest
importers of watches and clocks in the
East is not difficult to be understood when
one sees the huge stock of all classes of
goods which they always maintain, and is,
further, made acquainted with the very
wide area of the firm's activities.

As wholesale watchmakers and jewellers
they supply more than five hundred Euro-
pean and Indian firms in the trade with
their requirements, while their business
connections extend throughout the whole
of India, as well as in Burma, Ceylon, the
Straits Settlements, Java, Sumatra, and
even as far as British East Africa.

company are patentees and sole manufac-
turers of the " Novelty," " Simplex," and
" Saddle Novelty " wrist watch bands.

The jewellery manufacturing depart-
ment is a comparatively new venture, but
it is already full of promise of success,
and the most intricate and frail pieces
of plain gold and gem-set jewellery
(hitherto obtained from Birmingham or
the Continent of Europe) is being manu-
factured by the company in their work-
shops by highly skilled Indian workmen
under the supervision of a European
lapidarist.

The company have been compelled to
enlarge their accommodation from time to
time, and although the floor space occu-

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

pied by offices, show, and workrooms to-
day is fully twelve times greater than in
1909, the need for further room is keenly
felt by the proprietor, and it cannot be
long before he will be under the necessity
of meeting this deficiency.

The home offices and factory of the
company are at Quartier de I'lndustric,
Soleure, Switzerland.

^«

GEO. BEAVER & CO.

This firm was established in Calcutta
in the year 1899 by Mr. Geo. Beaver and
Mr. J. N. Vinall, who commenced trading
as importers of every description of india-
rubber goods for mechanical purposes,
hoses, tubings, packings, beltings, and
railway, shipping, colliery, mills, and
general engineering requisites. Mr.
Beaver retired from the firm in 1910,
and the business was continued by Mr.

importers of rubber goods in Calcutta,
and their reputation is such that their
regular customers now include various
Government departments in India and
Burma, the principal railway systems,
shell and arms factories, jute and other
mills, collieries, municipalities, and dis-
trict boards.

Messrs. Beaver & Co. have been nearly
twenty years in the Indian market, and
they have made the best possible use of
their experience, with the result that the
quality of their wares is such that the
peculiarly trying climatic conditions of
the East have no deteriorating effect upon
them.

A special feature is made of vulcanized
indiarubber and canvas hose, air and
water valves, and " Karmal " high-pres-
sure packing for steam power service from
80 to 120 lb. The firm's stores and
godovvns, situated behind their offices,
carry a very large stock of imported

other buffers ; solid indiarubber mats for
hotels, mansions, public buildings, steam-
ships, railway saloons, carriages, and
cabs ; matting for staircases ; specially
hardened solid rubber tyres ; tubing for
acids and other chemicals ; armoured and
plain delivery hose, seamless woven
canvas hose for use in mills, brass hose
fittings, including branches, taps, cones,
couplings, and rings ; sheet indiarubber ;
and asbestos millboard, gaskets, fibre,
block packing, woven tape, and thread
and cord.

A brief reference should be made to
the " Karmal " engine packing, which
withstands the highest pressure of steam,
and, being a self-lubricating substance,
it does not require oil, tallow, or any
other kind of grease.

Messrs. Beaver & Co. also supply best
English leather belting, oak tanned and
well shrunk, woven hair, cotton, lami-
nated and other beltings suitable for jute

GEOHQE BEAVER & CO.

I. Exterior of the Premises.

A Portion of the Warehouse.

Vinall and Mr. D. A. Bailing until the
death of the former in March 1914, since
which date Mr. Bailing has been sole
proprietor.

The firm are the largest independent

goods, and a cursory inspection reveals
a marvellous display of manufactures of
first-class quality.

One notices concentric ring springs,
wagon, Board of Trade regulation and

mills, brattice cloth, and cast steel hooks
and eyes.

One must not overlook Bishop's
adamant gauge glasses, which will resist
the highest steam pressure, the greatest

THE BENGAL TELEPHONE COMPANY, LTD.
I. Opzrators' Rbiiiuno Room. a. Excha.soe.

3. Test Room.

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

heat, and all variations of temperature.
Testimonials as to their superiority over
all others have been given by the
Admiralty authorities at the Royal Dock-
yard, Portsmouth, Messrs. Vickers Sons
& Maxim, Ltd., and by several com-
manders and engineers of the leading
shipping companies of the world.

Mr. Dalling has the management of
the business in his own hands, and he
employs three European assistants and a
large number of Indian labourers.

■*^

THE BENGAL TELEPHONE COMPANY,
LTD.

The Bengal Telephone Company, Ltd.,
was formed in the year 1883, with
registered offices at 7 Council House
Street, Calcutta. The paid-up capital at
that time was Rs. 8,80,000, but in 191 1
this was increased by the issue of new
shares to Rs. 10,00,000, and, in addi-
tion, debenture loans amounting to
Rs. 7,50,000 have been issued. The
authorized capital was enlarged in 19 14
to the extent of Rs. 10,00,000, of which
sum one-half was issued to members of
the company. The whole of the com-
pany's plant has been selected with the
greatest care, and there is nothing of a
modern character in connection with
cables, fittings, and other appliances
which has not been secured, provided it
is suitable for Indian requirements. The
service is metallic circuit underground,
and the efficiency with which it has been
laid is proved by the fact that the system
is being largely extended in order to meet
the ever-increasing demand by residents
in suburban districts for telephonic con-
nection with the city.

In order to illustrate this growth it may
be said that on June 30, 191 5, there
were 4,607 exchange and private lines
in operation, whereas in the year 1901
the number was only 800. The company
are holders of a new licence for a period
of sixty years, which was granted by the
Government of India on April i, 1903.
In addition to the very large number
of installations in private and public
buildings which have been undertaken by
the company, it may be added that they
have also provided and maintain the
police and fire alarm systems in and
around Calcutta.

The directors are Mr. Shirley Tre-
mearne (chairman), Messrs. S. C. Ber-
ridge, A. E. Mitchell, and J. B. Saunders.

BIRKMYRE BROTHERS (HASTINGS JUTE

MILLS)

These mills, situated at Rishra, near
Calcutta, of which Birkmyre Brothers, 6
Clive Row, Calcutta, are the proprietors,
were established in 1874 by Messrs.
William and Adam Birkmyre. They had
owned a small jute works, called the
Greenock Sacking Company, in Lyndoch
Street, Greenock, driven by a water
turbine. Foreseeing the development and
future importance of the jute manufactur-
ing industry in Bengal, they decided to
dismantle the works and transfer their
entire machinery to Calcutta for re-
erection on the banks of the Hooghly.

The machinery of the Greenock Sacking
Company was therefore installed in the
buildings prepared at Rishra, and the new
works were named the Hastings Jute
Mills from the circumstance of the land
having formerly belonged to Warren
Hastings, as evidenced by two leases,
forming part of the title-deeds, which bear
his signature and seal in a perfect state
of preservation.

Messrs. William and Adam Birkmyre
associated with them, in the new under-
taking, their brothers Henry and John,
and founded in Calcutta, simultaneously
with the starting of the new jute mills,
the now well-known firm of Birkmyre
Brothers.

The Hastings Jute Mills prospered
from the start. In 1893 the plant had
been increased to over 500 looms, with
other machinery in proportion. Electric
lighting was in that year installed, and
from 1894 to 1904 the works were run at
night by artificial light, the average work-
ing time being about 22 hours per diem.
It was the first Indian jute mill to have
electric lighting introduced, and the only
one that attempted working at night, but
labour difficulties occurring in 1904 com-
pelled the cessation of this practice.

The proprietors of the Hastings Jute
Mills then proceeded further to enlarge
the mill and factory, at the same time
discarding the old steam-power engines,
replacing them by electric generators
driven by steam turbines, giving about
4,000 h.p. There is, at date, a perfectly
equipped factory of 1,050 looms, with the
relative preparing, spinning, and finish-
ing machinery, all electrically driven.

There is in addition to the manufacture
of jute, a separate department at Hastings
Mill for making up all descriptions of
canvas and waterproof paulins, kit bags,
and other military equipment, the well-
known Birkmyre patent waterproof canvas

being now extensively used by the Indian
Government for military, postal, and other
purposes.

Connected with this department there
is special machinery for weaving and pre-
paring the " Hastings " camel-hair and
cotton-belting, which commands a ready
and steadily increasing sale throughout
India.

In the Calcutta office, Messrs. Birkmyre
Brothers, in addition to managing the
Hastings Jute Mills, direct jute buying
agencies in Naraingunge, Sharishabari,
Northern Bengal, Purnea, and Jessore, for
the purchase of the raw material for the
Hastings mills. There are also the canvas
and belting, the gunny export, and the
piece goods departments, which have been
established for some years. Recently
Messrs. Birkmyre Brothers have given
their attention to the baling of their
own marks of jute for export to Dundee
and the Continent, and they have already
been successful in introducing these to the
favourable notice of spinners.

The telegraphic address of the firm is
" Birkmyres," Calcutta.

-«^

BIRD & CO.

This firm, which was originally founded
some sixty years ago by the late Mr.
Samuel Bird, associated later with his
brother, Mr. Paul Bird, may justly claim
to have taken a prominent part in the
development of local industries on the
eastern side of India. The present
partners are Sir Ernest Cable, Mr. W. A.
Ironside, Mr. B. A. White, Mr. J. Bell-
Robertson, Mr. H. M. Peat, and Mr.
H. F. Wheeler.

For several years after its establish-
ment the firm's main business was the
supply of labour, but later, and notably
since 1885, many other and various enter-
prises have been progressively taken up
and pushed until the present time, when
its management and operations extend to
the following concerns and businesses :
Contractors for the supply of labour for
the loading and unloading of goods at
docks, railways, and warehouses; control-
ling agencies of collieries, with an annual
output of 1,500,000 tons ; controlling
agencies of jute mills, aggregating 5,981
looms and 122,021 spindles, with a daily
output of 450 tons, or 1,500,000 yards;
jute baling, raw jute exports, manufac-
tured jute exports, raw hides and skins
exports and semi-tanned leather exports,
general produce e.xports, timber import
and exports, woollen manufacture, metal-

THE BENGAL TELEPHONE COMPANY, LTD.
I. I'oKiioN OF Main Distributing Fkahe. 2, Repair Shop.

3. Workshop,

I. Nos. I AND 2. Turbo Generators.

BIRKMYRE BROTHERS.
2. Main Swiichboard. 3- Batching and Preparing.

4. Weaving Department.

BIRD ft CO. (INDIAN PATENT STONE COMPANY, LTD.).
1. Gbxiral View. 2. Osciu.AtI.xc Tables and Co.screie .Mixer. 3. Crushing Mills. 4. .\rmoured Tubular Flooring (Tube Department).

5. Reinforced Concrete (Stone Depart.ment).

BIED & CO. (CROWN WOOLLEN MILLS).
I. Crown Woollen Mills. 2- Carding and Weaving Room.

3. Spinning Room.

z ^

8--

Q
(4

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

liferous mining, engineering works, elec-
tric power supply, regenerative coke oven
and by-product manufacture, pottery, etc.,
manufacture, artificial stone and ferro-
concrete construction works, sanitary
engineering, sawmills and veneer timber
factories, limestone quarries and lime-
kilns, oil mills, graphite mines, sugar
factories, insurance company agencies, etc.

INDIAN PATENT STONE COMPANY

This concern, which is under the control
of Messrs. Bird & Co., Calcutta, is
engaged in the manufacture of artificial
stone floors and floorwork in every form
of moulded and concrete construction,
much used in modern Calcutta dwelling-
houses and mercantile premises. About
400 hands are employed, and about
1,000,000 square feet of artificial stone
flooring alone is laid every year, whilst
several hundred miles of pavement in
Calcutta testify to its general and exten-
sive use.

■««
CROWN WOOLLEN MILLS

This concern is under the control of
Messrs. Bird & Co., and is at present
solely engaged upon the manufacture of
blankets and cloth for military purposes.

LAWRENCE JUTE MILLS

One of the extensive group of mills
I under the control of Messrs. Bird & Co...
Calcutta.

•^
^p BURN & CO., LTD.

" This building was the town residence
of Warren Hastings, Governor-General of
Fort William in Bengal 1774-85."

These words are inscribed on a mural
tablet on the offices of the well-known
firm of Messrs. Burn & Co., Ltd., in
Hastings Street, Calcutta, and in
Blei hynden's work on " Calcutta Past
and Present " the following paragraph
occurs : " Mrs. Hastings, whose ' Town
House,' which she had occupied in earlier
years as Mrs. Imhoff, was at No. 7
Hastings Street, where some ancient
punkahs, quaintly painted in crimson and
gold, still remain, stranded waifs of the
itide of fashion which once filled the old
Ihouse with its flood."

I The historic residence, seen to-day,
carries one's thoughts back to the period
when English and French struggled
jstrenuously for supremacy in India ; it
'brings to mind the attack on Calcutta
made in June 1756 by Suraj-ud-daulah,

Nawab of Bengal; it throws on the screen
the tragedy of the " Black Hole," the
Battle of Plassey in 1757 when Clive
avenged that disaster; and it also
directs one's thoughts to the time when
the firm but wise policy of Hastings con-
tributed very largely to the ultimate
peaceful state of the country. Would it
be drawing too much on the imagination
to suggest that these associations with a
period so pregnant with possibilities for
the future of India have had a stimulating
effect upon those who have been engaged
in that very house in the building up of
the colossal enterprise now controlled by
Messrs. Burn & Co. ?

The founder of the business was
Colonel Archibald Swinton, who, in the
year 1781, established an iron foundry
and other works at Howrah, which, at
that time was a mere settlement on the
west side of the River Hooghly, imme-
diately opposite the site which had been
selected by Job Charnock, about a hun-
dred years previously, as the place where
the town of Calcutta should be built. It
is unfortunate that the early records of
the progress of the concern are not
as complete as one would wish, but
they show that the name of " Burn "
"appears for the first time in 1799,
when Mr. Alexander Burn became
chief partner, with a Mr. Currie as
his colleague. The business grew at a
remarkably rapid rate during following
years, and many changes took place in
the personnel of the partnership owing
to death or retirement, but like the
banyan-tree, which spreads by striking
fresh roots, so the firm enlarged their
operations by increasing the number of
their activities.

The development of the agricultural
and industrial resources of India was
most marked in the early nineties of last
century ; railways were being projected ;
rivers had to be bridged ; manufacturers
required machinery of a more modern
character ; new ventures had to be fitted
with up-to-date plant ; and this firm, who
had already gained a great reputation in
the world of iron and steel, and deter-
mining to keep in the van in meeting
these demands, formed a joint stock
company in the year 1895.

The concern with which the company
is most closely identified is the Howrah
Ironworks, which comprise the following
departments : (l) metals, machinery, and
engineering stores ; (2) ship-yard ; (3)
forge and smithy ; {4) ^ool and light
structural iron works ; (5) girder shops ;

(6) wagon shops ; (7) engine shops ;
(8) conservancy shop ; (g) general office
and accounts ; and (10) costs branch.
In order that an account of the magni-
tude of the operations of the company
may be made as intelligible as possible,
it will perhaps be advisable to refer to
each of the above ten sections in the
order in which they are placed above.

The stores and the yard connected
therewith claim attention on passing
through the main entrance, and the first
thing to be noticed is the extensive floor
area, which covers 64,800 sq. ft., and
is devoted entirely to a large stock of
angle bars, rounds and squares, cast iron
and lap-welded steel spigot and socket
pipes, while a covered rack is provided
for gas and steam pipes and boring tubes.
A very fine godown on the left-hand side
of the stores, 220 ft. in length and 90 ft.
in width, contains portable engines, oil
engines, pumps, sinking and centrifugal
pumps, hand pumps in endless variety,
colliery winding engines of sizes from a
9-in. diameter cylinder by i8-in. stroke
up to 20-in. diameter cylinder by 44-in.
stroke, locomotive and vertical boilers,
disintegrators, horizontal steam engines,
saw benches, ice-making machines,
lathes, pulley blocks, shafting, coupling,
plumber-blocks, steam fittings, piles, and
a sundry assortment of other manufac-
tures too numerous to mention. Hard
by is the rolled steam beam store-yard,
measuring 386 ft. by 120 ft., which con-
tains a stock of about 4,000 tons of joists,
and adjoining is the store in which plates
of varying lengths and thicknesses are
kept. The company have special facili-
ties for the quick dispatch of goods from
this section, consisting of an electric
gantry crane with a clear span of 120 ft.,
which runs the entire length of the yard,
together with a large number of extra
strong bullock carts for service between
the works and railway stations.

The ship-yard has a frontage upon the
River Hooghly of 750 ft., and there is
ample water at high tides for the launch-
ing of vessels of very considerable
tonnage, made up of all classes of
steamers, launches, barges, flats, tugs,
pontoons, landing stages, wagon ferries,
and yachts and boats of every descrip-
tion, in addition to tanks, well curbs,
caissons, and oil tanks. The machinery,
which is thoroughly up to date in every
respect, is fixed in a large shed 325 ft.
in length and 100 ft. in width, and the
greater portion of it is driven separately
by its own engine, although other parts

BURN & CO.
Part op av Okdkr pod 500 Jite Wagons built pok the Eastern Bengal State Railwav. 2. Sittino-koom of Broad Galce Saioos Coach built

rcR H.H. The Maharaja op Ben-ares. 3. Bedroom, Broad Gauge Saloon Carriage uuut por H.H. The Maharaja op Benares.

4. Frivatx O1M.NQ Saloon (68 ft.), Bkoad Gauge Bogie. Built For H.H. The Maharaja'op Mysore.

BUBN & CO.
I. IsTtaioR View of Carriage Repair Shop, Eastern Bengal State Railway, Kanchrapaxa. i. Three-track Rah way Bridge, Eastern' Bengal State Railway.

3. Twin-Screw Passenger Steamer. 4. Paddle Ste.\mer for .Assam.

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

are grouped together and derive their
motive power from a compound hori-
zontal engine, the steam being obtained
from four Lancashire boilers. As an
illustration of the variety of the excellent
work turned out by the company, men-
tion may be made of some important con-
tracts which have been carried out in
this department in recent years. A large
dock caisson of exceptionally strong de-
sign and of heavy scantlings has been
completed for the Calcutta Port Com-
missioners to suit the entrance lock of
the Kidderpore Docks. A pontoon
280 ft. in length and 40 ft. in width
and 10 ft. in depth was built for the
Bengal-Nagpur Railway Company, and
this was used at first for floating heavy
bridge girders into position on their
piers, but after several additions had
been made it became one of the landing
stages of that company's wagon ferry at
Calcutta. Landing stages composed of
pontoons 10 ft. in width by 5 ft. in depth,
and varying in length from 40 ft. to
59 ft., have been built for the Rangoon
Port Commissioners, and each of the
stages is connected with the shore by two
bridges of 150 ft. span and a width of
12 ft. Messrs. Burn & Co. earned an
enviable reputation by their construction
of a number of first-class paddle
steamers, among which are the Bassein,
190 ft. in length, 45 ft. in breadth, and
drawing 8 ft. 2 in. of water ; the Buck-
land and Howrah (built for the Port
Commissioners), designed to carry 1,200
passengers, and specially constructed with
bow and stern rudders so that they can
be navigated from either end ; also the
Barbara and Marjorie, built for the
Assam Bengal Railway for ferry service
between Bhairab and Azimgunge. A
large contract carried out successfully for
the Burma Railway Company was for the
building of the Henzada Wagon Ferry,
which comprised four barges, two landing
stages, and two pontoon bridges, together
with all the shore connections, trolley
girders, and other adjuncts for uniting
the railway lines to the stages.

The stages and barges within a period
of twelve months were built, launched,
and towed by tug to Rangoon and suc-
cessfully installed at Henzada, a distance
of more than 800 miles. Other, large
wagon ferries have since been designed
and constructed. These include standard
and metre gauge ferries for the Eastern
Bengal Railway, metre gauge ferry for the
Assam Bengal Railway, 2 ft. 6 in. gauge
ferry for the North-Western Railway.

There are very large tracts of land
in Eastern Bengal and Assam yielding
crops of jute, tea, and other produce
which are many miles distant from any
railway, and whose sole means of com-
munication with the outer world is by
means of numerous rivers and canals.
Here, again, Messrs. Burn & Co. led the
way in constructing steamers, barges, and
flats for transport purposes, cargo flats,
varying in length from 130 ft. to 200 ft.,
being towed by specially constructed
twin-screw steamers along the numerous
waterways and creeks. A special feature,
too, is made of strongly built steam
launches, in which Government officials
occasionally spend some weeks when their
duties call them into outlying districts,
and of harbour tugs, which may be seen
in nearly all Indian ports. It will be
understood that, with the immense
number of sea-going vessels which call
at Calcutta, there must necessarily be
repairs of all kinds to be effected, and
Messrs Burn & Co. have been entrusted
with a large number of important con-
tracts in this line. Among these which
have been successfully carried out were
the repairing of the bow of the P. & O.
steamer Somali, which was seriously
damaged in collision with the s.s. Delta
at Colombo.

Leaving the ship-yard we enter the
forge and smithy. The building contain-
ing the forge and smithy is 460 ft. in
length and 182 ft. in width, and it com-
prises more than a hundred smiths'
hearths, forge, oil and coke furnaces,
plate and angle furnaces, steam hammers
of all sizes up to 25 cwt., Pilkington's
pneumatic and hydraulic hammers,
batteries of Bretts' drop stamps
ranging from 7 to 30 cwt., a 15 cwt.
Massey stamp, power trimming and
hydraulic presses, hot saw tyre benders,
steam strikers, and welding and other
machines. Great attention has been paid
in recent years to railway wagon forgings,
and the smithy can now turn out 1,200
sets of these in a year. In this branch
there is an almost endless variety of
forgings for ship, engine, railway, army
transport, commissariat, contractors, and
irrigation work, boring tools, gates, rail-
ways, tree guards, doors, windows, light-
ning conductors, and other necessaries in
constructional or building enterprises.

The roof and light structural depart-
ment is in a building measuring 100 ft.
in length and 600 ft. in width, and it is
equipped with radial drills, saws, shears,
and all other requisite plant and tools

for securing well finished work. Messrs.
Burn & Co. can point with some pride to
several most important structures which
have been erected by them in various
parts of India, but mention need only be
made of eleven roofs for the Ischapore
rifle factory, the platform roofs for the
remodelling of the Delhi railway station,
the Manipur Durbar hall, and the
immense roof over the Gautama, a
reclining figure sacred to the Burmese
at Pegu in Burma. Tanks for water-
works and oil installations have been
erected for the Umballa, Howrah,
Bhandra, Benares, and Amritsar water-
works ; and oil storage tanks (with a
capacity of more than four million
gallons) for the Standard Oil Company
and the Burma Oil Company at their
Budge Budge depots.

The girder shops, which compare most
favourably with similar ones in Great
Britain or America, have a covered area
of more than two acres, and here the
visitor may observe a constant supply of
raw material being landed from boats on
the river, while there is at the other end
of the buildings a never-ceasing output
of finished constructional work which is
being loaded into railway trucks for dis-
patch to all parts of India. Powerful
cranes remove steel plates and bars from
country boats and place them at the
various machines. The three principal
shops have twelve lo-ton electric cranes,
radial drills, hydraulic portable riveters,
cold saws, plate-edge planers, butting
machines, and machines for notching ends
of joists to fit into each other. The firm
is in a position to deal with inquiries of
any nature, and to give expert technical
advice on the building of bridges
spanning 6 ft. to 450 ft. The
Diroontah suspension bridge may be
mentioned to illustrate the difficult prob-
lems which have at times to be faced.
This was the first steel rope suspension
bridge to be erected in .Afghanistan, and
it spans the Kabul River at the mouth
of the Diroontah Gorge, about seven miles
distant from Jellalabad. This structure
has a span of 306 ft., and as it is 10 ft.
in width between the centres of the towers
and the roadway it is suitable for light
cart traffic. Other recent contracts for
constructional work at Howrah include
the Ganges Mill, 974 ft. in length, con-
sisting of 3,000 tons of material ; the
East Indian Railway's riverside ware-
house, 650 ft. in length, with 3,000 tons ;
the Buckland Bridge, Howrah, East
Indian Railway, having spans of 75 ft..

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

with 2,500 tons ; together with truss
bridges, carriage and wagon shops, piers,
boiler shops, steel tube syphons, and
foundry sheds and other work of a
similar description.

The wagon shops have lately been re-
modelled, and now consist of a machine
shop capable of dealing with a large
number of complete sets of wagon
materials per month, an underframe erec-
tion shop connected up to the machine
shop by overhead electric cranes, a panel
shop where all plate work is dealt with,
and the wagon erection and riveting
shop, painting shop, and finishing and
inspection shop. The carriage shops are
arranged in close proximity to the wagon
department, and consist of a wood-
machining shop, all the machines being
electrically driven ; alongside the
machine shop is the finishing shop,
where all work is completed on the
separate parts before they are assembled.

The carriage erection shop contains
space for twenty standard gauge coaches
to be laid down at once. An electrically
worked traverser is used for removing
the coaches from the erecting shop to the
painting and varnishing shop.

The output of the wagon departments
consists mainly of standard gauge wagons
for the State and company-owned lines.
In the carriage shops besides work for
State and company-owned lines very well
equipped private saloons have been de-
signed and built for the Maharaja of
Mysore, Maharaja of Rewah, and the
Maharaja of Benares.

From the wagon shops the visitor is
conducted to the engine shops. These
include the iron and brass foundries,
pattern shops, smithy, turning and fitting
shops. The iron foundry has three sepa-
rate moulding shops, and here one sees a
general class of work going through,
such as bed-plates for winding engines,
road rollers (5 tons in weight), engine
cylinders, rope and bell pulleys, orna-
mental railings, water and steam pipes,
and rainwater gutters. The brass
foundry is a brick building fitted with
all necessary tools for moulding engine
and wagon bearing brasses, hydraulic ram
plungers, pump valves, and other sun-
dries. The smithy for engine shop work
is equipped with steam hammers, forging
furnaces, hydraulic presses and other
machinery. Castings and forgings are
received at the western end of the new
engine shops, and after they have been
marked off they are passed through the
various machines towards the eastern end.

where the fitting department resolves
them into jute presses, winding engines,
mill gearing, and other plant. A wing
extends along the northern side of the
shops, and this is divided on the ground
floor into brass stores, tool-making shop,
and offices for foremen. Thesei shops
cover an area of 52,000 sq. ft., and
are the finest and most up to date of
their kind in India.

The conservancy branch deals solely
with the manufacture of sanitary and
municipal requirements, and it is respon-
sible for the output of a very large
number of carts for night-soil, water,
refuse, and other purposes, incinerators,
and latrine and other fittings.

The general office is the oldest struc-
ture in the works, and many years ago
it was occupied as a bungalow by some
of the partners. Drawing and costs
offices have been erected round the above
bungalow, the whole block now cover-
ing an area of 1,480 sq. ft. The
drawing office is divided into four main
sections, namely, structural, mechanical,
shipbuilding, and railways, and each of
these sections is primarily controlled by
a manager, who is also in charge of the
shops to which the particular work
belongs. There are about 25 European
and more than 60 Indian expert draughts-
men who have specialized in their several
departments, while the accounts office
employs 2 Europeans and nearly 60
Indians. It will be seen from the above
notes that Messrs. Burn & Co. are
thorough masters of every detail of work
undertaken in the Howrah Works, and are
as well prepared to supply a steamer)
a bridge, or a warehouse, as to hand
to a purchaser a steel nut or rivet.

A reference to another section in this
volume contains an account of the
famous Raneegunge Pottery Works,
owned by Messrs. Burn & Co., which are
the most important of their kind in the
East.

THE CHARTERED BANK OF INDIA,
AUSTRALIA, AND CHINA

The practice of securing a Royal
Charter on the establishment of banking
businesses was quite a common event in
the days when financial institutions of im-
portance were rapidly coming into exist-
ence, and a certain amount of definite
control of the management of their
internal affairs gave confidence to
investors and clients generally.

The Chartered Bank now under notice

obtained Royal assent upon its founda-
tion in the year 1853, and its head-
quarters were at that time situated in
Hatton Court, London. The original
prospectus stated that the bank was
" established chiefly in order to extend
the legitimate facilities of banking to the
vast and rapidly extending trade between
the Australian colonies, British East
India, China, and other parts of the
Eastern .Archipelago, a field at present
wholly unoccupied by any similar insti-
tution. The objects of the company will,
however, also embrace in connection
therewith the extension of banking
accommodation to the direct trade of
British India, China, and Australia with
this country (England), at present so
inadequately provided for." The pro-
moters regarded this as " an ambitious
programme," but it may be observed that,
with the exception of the three Presidency
banks, there were then only three other
similar institutions in India, namely, the
Commercial Bank of Bombay, the
Oriental Bank Corporation, and the
Agra and United Services Bank.

Initial difficulties were experienced by
the Chartered Bank, partly owing to
certain exacting conditions in the Charter,
and in part with regard to the subscrip-
tion of the necessary capital, but actual
business was commenced in 1857, and
in the same year offices were opened in
Calcutta, Bombay, and Shanghai.

The early history of the bank is a
record of unexampled prosperity, and
other branches in various parts of the
world were established in order to cope
with the rapid advancement made in those
days. These places include Amritsar,
Bangkok, Batavia, Canton, Cebu,
Colombo, Delhi, Foochow, Haiphong,
Hankow, Hongkong, Ilo-ilo, Ipoh, and
Klang (in the Federated Malay States),
Karachi, Kobe, Kuala Lumpur, Madras,
Malacca, Manila, Medan (Sumatra), New
York, Penang, Puket, Rangoon, Saigon,
Seremban (Federated Malay States),
Singapore, Sourabaya, Taiping, Tientsin,
and Yokohama. It will be seen from this
list that India, China, the Straits, Siam,
the Dutch East Indies, and Japan are
brought within the sphere of the bank's
operations, and as each new agency has
been formed a considerable growth in
business has been the result.

Banking experiences in India have not
by any means been a bed of roses, as
there have been financial crises which
brought about the downfall of many
institutions which had hitherto borne an

THE OHABTBBBD BANK OF INDIA, AUSTRALIA, AND CHINA.
The Caicoita Aoency.

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

unquestionable reputation for stability.
One might mention the financial up-
heaval between the years 1865 and 1866
which caused six Calcutta banks to close
their doors. In this disastrous period
the Chartered Bank weathered the storm,
although the whole of its reserve fund
was swept away during the next few
years. The depreciation in silver which
occurred about the year 1869 was even
more serious in several aspects, as un-
debased coinage in several countries was
reduced in value by 30 or 40 per cent.

Mr. John Howard Gwyther became
mrinager of the Chartered Bank in 1870,
and by the exercise of strict economy
he succeeded in paying a fair dividend
two years later, and in establishing a
substantial reserve fund on a new basis.
The latter was built up out of profits,
and not by means of premiums on new
issues, a practice which was very largely
indulged in by other financial institutions.

The directors exercised the greatest
caution during these troublous times, and
they limited all dividends to 8 per cent,
until the reserve had reached an amount
equivalent to half of the paid-up capital,
and even 10 per cent, was not paid until
the capital was equalled by the reserve.
Periodical balance sheets show that re-
turning prosperity has been gradual but
sure ; earnings have been increasing year
by year ; and so secure are the founda-
tions upon which the bank constructed
its business that it occupies at the present
time a most honourable position among
the leading financial institutions of the
world.

A report of the directors and state-
ments of accounts were presented at the
sixty-first ordinary general meeting of
shareholders held on March 31, 191 5, and
the following particulars have been ex-
tracted therefrom :^

The net profit, after providing for bad
and doubtful debts, was £492,333, inclu-
sive of £120,253 brought forward from
the previous year. An interim dividend
at the rate of 12 per cent, per annum,
paid in the previous September, absorbed
£72,000 ; £24,000 had been appro-
priated as a bonus to the stafi^ ; and the
directors proposed to deal with the
available balance of £396,333 as follows :
To pay a final dividend at the rate of
16 per cent, per annum (making 14 per
cent, for the year), to place £150,000 to
a special fund to meet contingencies, to
write off premises account the sum of
£25,000, and to carry forward an amount
of £125,333. The report was adopted

unanimously, and the proposals of the
directors were concurred in heartily.

The paid-up capital of £1,200,000 con-
sists of 60,000 shares of £20 each, the
reserve fund stands at £1,800,000, and
the reserve liability account of the pro-
prietors amounts to £1,200,000.

Fixed deposits are received by the bank
for twelve months, or shorter periods,
upon terms which may be ascertained on
application at any of the offices. Drafts
are granted payable at any of the agencies
or branches, approved bills of exchange
are purchased or are received for col-
lection, letters of credit are issued, and
Indian Government and other securities
are bought or held in safe custody.

The London offices were some time ago
found to be much too small, and a re-
markably fine building was erected on
the site of the once famous Crosby Hall,
38 Bishopsgate, E.C. It is situated in
the centre of a large number of the lead-
ing banking houses of the metropolis, and
it is not less pleasing in its general
appearance or less commodious in its
internal arrangements than those by
which it is surrounded. It is in the
Italian Renaissance style of architecture,
and the Corinthian pilasters above the
ground floor form a distinctive feature of
its design, while the Avhole of the frontage
is built in Portland stone with a base of
Aberdeen granite. The banking hall is
lofty and not less than 23 ft. in height,
while an abundance of light is obtained
from windows of exceptional size. This
room measures 56 by 68 ft., the walls are
of white marble relieved by columns and
pilasters of Pavanazzo ■ marble, and the
dado consists of Vertantico marble with
a black marble plinth. The security of
bullion and documents is assured in the
strong-room, which is not excelled by
any other in London. Within this
chamber is the " inner treasury," which
is said by experts to be proof against
any efforts of the modern burglar in the
space of time that could be gained by
him for his adventurous attack. The
twentieth-century marauder makes use of
oxy-acetylene plant for forcing his way
through doors and walls, but it has been
proved by the makers of this powerful
apparatus that " intersected " steel
(which has been used in the treasury
chamber) is able to resist the severest
forms in which midnight visitors prose-
cute their dangerous avocations.

The Chartered Bank building in Clive
Street, Calcutta, is one of the most im-
posing structures in the East. It domi-

nates the principal business quarter of
the city, being immediately opposite the
Royal Exchange.

The bankers of the company are the
Bank of England, the London, City, and
Midland Bank, Ltd., the London County
and Westminster Bank, Ltd., the National
Provincial Bank of England, Ltd., and
the National Bank of Scotland, Ltd.
Corresponding agents have been ap-
pointed as follows : The Bank of Austra-
lasia, the Bank of New South Wales, the
Bank of Victoria, Ltd., the Colonial Bank
of Australasia, Ltd., the Commercial Bank
of Australia, Ltd., the Commercial Bank-
ing Company of Sydney, Ltd., the Eng-
lish, Scottish, and Australian Bank, Ltd.,
the London Bank of Australia, Ltd., the
Union Bank of Australia, Ltd., the Bank
of New Zealand, and the National Bank
of New Zealand, Ltd.

The court of directors is composed of
Sir Montagu Cornish Turner (chairman),
Sir Henry S. Cunningham, K.C.I.E.,
Mr. Thomas Cuthbertson, Sir Henry
Dent, K.C.M.G., Mr. William Henry
Neville Goschen, the Right Hon. Lord
George Hamilton, G.C.S.I., Mr. William
Foot Mitchell, and Mr. Lewis Alexander
Wallace. Messrs. T. H. Whitehead and
T. Fraser are joint general managers,
and Mr. H. Harris is the agent of the
Calcutta branch.

CONTINENTAL HOTKL

Calcutta is not overburdened with first-
class residential hotels, but there is a con-
sensus of opinion that the premier city in
India is fortunate indeed in having such
an extremely comfortable and well-ap-
pointed one as the " Continental," which
is situated in one of the best positions in
Chowringhee, the leading thoroughfare in
the city.

It has a very extensive frontage ,upon
the maidan, a fine open space of nearly
3,000 acres of grass land beautifully tim-
bered with magnificent old trees, and from
its front windows excellent views are
obtained of Government House, of the
Curzon Gardens, of a portion of the
Esplanade, of Fort William with its
bastions and mounted guns, of the
" Rotten Row " of Calcutta, of the charm-
ing Eden Gardens (where an efficient
band plays nightly), while a long stretch
of the River Hooghly with its incessant
flotilla of merchant and passenger
steamers and native craft of all descrip-
tions is plainly visible.

The " Continental " practically adjoins

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

the principal theatres and picture houses,
and carriages, cabs and taxis may be en-
gaged on the stand immediately opposite
the chief entrance.

The hotel, established in the year 1874
by Mr. F. Boscolo, was recently purchased
by Mr. Makertich John, and during the
short period of his tenure he has caused
the house to be widely known throughout
the East as one in which the owner's
personal supervision and thoroughly
practical experience are constantly being

ever, does not come in the category of
those failures; Mr. Makertich John is an
ideal host, the comfort of his visitors is his
first consideration, and he is astute enough
to know that the most reputable purveyors
and the best servants are in constant need
of the keenest watchfulness.

The hotel has accommodation for 1 40
guests, and all the rooms are elegantly
furnished with modern appointments, in-
cluding electric lighting and fans. Special
mention should be made of a very large

It is worthy of note that the immense
frontage of the building has enabled the
architect to arrange for a very large
number of the bedrooms to have a full
view of the maidan and other places of
interest which have already been men-
tioned, and each of these rooms is pro-
vided with an electric bell, and has a
separate bathroom, which is fitted with
complete sanitary appliances.

Hotel runners meet all trains and
steamers and visitors are attended to by

CONTINENTAL HOTEL.

I. CONTIXEXTAI- HOTHI..

2. The CAFt Royal.

manifested in order to secure the entire
approval of his numerous patrons.

It is a common experience of travellers
in all parts of the world that railway and
other guide books frequently refer to
certain hotels as being unparalleled for
comfort, cleanliness, exceptional cuisine,
and civility of servants, while the prac-
tical experience of visitors goes to show
that in the majority of instances these
much-belauded houses do not offer any
entertainment which can by a liberal
stretch of the imagination be said to coin-
cide with the rosy descriptions given of
them.

The " Continental " at Calcutta, how-

drawing-room, an upstairs dining-room
for permanent residents, another one on
the ground floor for casual visitors (these
having seating room for a hundred and
fifty and a hundred guests respectively),
a commodious lounge suitable for re-
ceptions, public and private bars, and a
billiard-room with two Burroughes and
Watts tables.

Excellent arrangements are made for
catering in a thoroughly up-to-date
manner for picnic and wedding-parties.
Lodge dinners, and banquets, while the
" Continental " mid-day lunches are very
rightly considered to be unsurpassed in
Calcutta.

a large staff of well-trained servants, who
are most assiduous in their attentions.

CRAWFORD & CO.

It is not more than seven years since
the firm of Messrs. Crawford & Co.,
general merchants, engineers, contractors,
and stevedores, was established by Mr.
A. F. Newell in Calcutta, but they have
already become widely known on account
of the large variety of the machinery,
implements, hardware, and other goods
supplied by them, which for sterling
quality and reasonable prices cannot
easily be excelled. The principal offices

CRAWFORD & CO.

I AXI> 2. GOVERXMKNT TlRPE.NTINE DlSTII.I.ERY, BHOWAl.l. 3- A POKTION OK CRAWFOKD & CO.S CALCUITA WAREUOLSE.

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

of the firm are in Clive Buildings, Clive
Street, and very commodious godovvns
have been secured at No. 87A in the
same street.

Contracts are undertaken for tlie
building of steam launches, tugs, and
barges, and most favourable quotations.
may always be depended upon for struc-
tural steel and ironwork of every descrip-
tion. Messrs. Crawford & Co. are sole
agents for Messrs. James & John G.
Scott, paint manufacturers, Glasgow ;
Messrs. Loudon Brothers, Ltd., makers
of engines, boilers, and machine tools ;
Messrs. John Ferguson & Sons, manu-

Such a list should include traction,
portable, horizontal, and other engines,
bridges, cranes, Lancashire and vertical
boilers, jute presses, steam excavators,
iron fencing, hydraulic jacks, drilling
machines, saw benches, sugar, rice, and
flour mills, pontoons, steam and petrol
pumps, manila, coir, and wire ropes,
shafting, wrought iron tanks, weighing
machines, winches, paulins, canvas, sail-
cloth, and numerous other sundries.

A word or two might perhaps be added
with regard to the firm's agency for
" Crown " brand paints of brilliant and
permanent shades, which are suitable for

S. CURLBNDER & CO.

ViKW OF THE BOXE MlLI.S.

facturers of painting brushes ; Messrs.
Binks Brothers, London, wire rope manu-
facturers ; Messrs. Hamilton & Co.,
Chemical Works, Glasgow ; Messrs. J.
and R. Wilson & Co., Ship Stores and
Export Merchants, London ; and the
British Anti-Fouling Composition and
Paint Company, Ltd. The firm have
recently secured the sole agency for
Bengal and surrounding territory of the
Indian Government Turpentine and Rosin
Distillery, Bhowali, and hold large stocks
of their manufactures in Calcutta. It
would be impossible to specify even a
thousandth part of the hardware and
other goods which may be obtained from
this firm, but reference may be made to
some which are in constant demand in
agricultural, shipping, and commercial
centres in India.

steamers, bridges, railways, and iron and
wooden buildings. The " Corona " dis-
temper paint, too, is a most effective and
durable preparation for any class of work,
and it is guaranteed that it will not blister
or peel off, even though brought into con-
tact with lime.

All work undertaken by the firm is
entrusted only to fully qualified artisans,
and Mr. Newell gives strict personal
attention to the requirements of cus-
tomers.

Gunny bags, Hessian cloth, and other
Indian produce are among the principal
exports, and consignees may always rely
upon the most favourable rates being
obtained for the shipment of their goods.

100

S. CURLENDER & CO.

The use of bones for fertilizing soils
has now become almost universal, and
there is scarcely a single crop of cereals
or legumes which does not derive very
considerable benefit from a liberal dress-
ing of this manure.

The Bengal Bone Mills, which is a
private concern, was founded in Calcutta
in 1897 by Messrs. S. Curlender & Co.,
who are the sole proprietors and who
personally manage the works.

There are two separate mills with up-
to-date steam-driven machinery They
stand upon the bank of the company's
waterway, which is an outlet from the
Belliaghatta Circular Canal. One mill
is used entirely for steamed and steril-
ized bone meal which is shipped chiefly to
New Zealand and Japan, while the other
is used for crushed bones and unsteamed
bone meal. The crushed bones are
shipped to Europe and America for manu-
facturing purposes, and the bone meal
is used for manuring soils. The monthly
output of the mills is now about 1,500
tons of crushed bones and 750 tons of
meal, and constant employment is found
for some three hundred hands.

•*«

CROMPTON & CO., LTD.

Electricity as a means for lighting and
other purposes was practically unknown
in India up to about twenty years ago
when the well-known firm in England of
Messrs. Crompton & Co., Ltd., estab-
lished a business in Calcutta which has
been instrumental in fitting up many
electric installations, plant, and other
appliances in the principal cities in the
country. They were the first to intro-
duce hydro-electric alternating plant, and
to commence the lighting of jute and
other mills by electricity ; they inaugu-
rated in India the present type of ceiling
fan ; and, without unnecessarily prolong-
ing this list, it may, in a word, be said
that Messrs. Crompton & Co. were
pioneers with regard to electricty in this
continent. Inhabitants of cities and towns
clamoured for the new brilliant illuminant
to supersede the gas and oil which had
served them for so long in their streets
and dwelling houses ; factories required
an improved light at looms and benches ;
and manufacturers recognized the fact
that the cumbrous and old-fashioned
machinery then in use could — with ad-
vantage to themselves — be replaced by
electrically driven plant of more modern
designs. Numerous contracts were taken

CROMPTON & CO., LTD.

I. Typical Generating Plant for Lighting, Traction, and Power Purposes. 2. Tvi'ical Generating Plant ior Lighting, Traction, and Power Purposes.

3. TvpicAL Central Station Switchboard. 4, Motors for Driving Rice-hulling and Polishing Machines introduced by Crompton & Co., Ltd.

lOI

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

in hand by the firm, and among the
earlier ones were the electrification of
Calcutta, Madrar., Nagpur, Karachi, and
Cawnpore, while they are now (19 '6) en-
gaged upon similar works at Lucknow,
Allahabad, and Agra. It is deserving
of notice that the hydro-electric alter-
nating plant which was put down by
Messrs. Crompton & Co. at Darjeeling
in the year 1903 has been in continuous
work ever since.

Among other important enterprises

manufactured at their workshops at
Chelmsford in Essex, England. The
premises of the firm at 6 and 7 Clive
Street, Calcutta, have been occupied by
them since the year 1910, and here they
have a large staff of competent Euro-
pean engineers and Indian mistries.
Other branches have been established at
Bombay and Madras, but agencies have
been opened in every part of the world.
The head offices are at Salisbury House,
London Wall, E.G.

was established in the year 1900 by Mr.
R. A. Dickie, who commenced business
as an importer of hardware, milling plant,
and ironware of every description, but the
most important branch to-day is the sole
agency held for Messrs. BuUivant & Co.,
Ltd., of London, who are recognized
throughout the world as the leading
marine engineers and makers of wire
ropes. This noted company are inventors
and manufacturers of flexible steel wire
ropes for ships' hawsers, cables, running

ill

I. Head Ofuce.

which have been successfully completed
are : the electrification of Government
rifle and ammunition factories at Isha-
pore and Dum Dum respectively, of
several Hindu temples, of the Bengal Iron
and Steel works at Kulti, in the district of
Burdwan, of a completed plant at the
Government gun and shell factory at
Cossipore, of arc lamps on the Howrah
bridge, and of the principal theatres in
Calcutta. The firm have extensive go-
downs in which all kinds of machinery
and accessories are stored, and, in fact,
they keep on hand spare parts of every-
thing connected with electric plant which
may possibly be needed, all of which are

A. DICKIE & CO.

2. BULLIVAXT'S WIRE ROPES BEING D1SP.\TCHED FROM GODOWN.

Messrs. Crompton & Co. are con-
tractors to the Calcutta Electric Supply
Corporation, the Karachi Electric Supply
Corporation, Ltd., the Madras Electric
Supply Corporation, Ltd., and the Nag-
pur Electric Light and Power Com-
pany, Ltd.

The managing agents in Calcutta are
Messrs. Martin & Co., 6 and 7 Clivc
Street, and Mr. W. Bent, A.M.I.M.E.,
A.M.I.E.E., is manager.

R. A. DICKIE & CO.

This firm, whose headquarters are at
Canning House, Clive Street, Calcutta,

J 02

and salvage ropes, cranes, lifts, hoists,,
derricks, collieries, suspension bridges,
cable tramways, and aerial ropeways, and
they are also makers of blocks, pulleys,,
crab-winches, and wire rope cutting and
other machineries. Bullivant's system of
protecting vessels from the attack of
torpedoes was invented and patented by
this company, and they are, further, con-
tractors to the Admiralty, the War and
India Offices in London, the Crown
Agents for the Colonies, and other British
and foreign Government departments.
Several of the largest vessels afloat, in-
cluding H.M.S. Thunderer and the White-
Star liner Olympic, have been launched

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

by Bullivant's ropes; and among many
gigantic undertakings carried out by that
firm the following may be mentioned : the
dry dock " Dewey " was towed by means
of this company's hawsers from Baltimore
to the Philippine Islands; the successful
salving of H.M.S. Gladiator in the Solent
in igo8 was attributed mainly to the
excellent quality of their galvanized extra
flexible steel wire ropes; and the dredger
Octopus was raised after being sunk near
Bombay.

Messrs. Dickie & Co. are, further, sole
agents for Messrs. Campbell, Achnach &
Co., of the " Thistle " Rubber Works,
Glasgow, who are manufacturers of sheet
rubber asbestos packings, rubber inser-
tions, and jointings, and a large stock
of these and other goods of a similar
character is always kept on hand.

" Victor " motor cycles, tyres, and
other accessories are always procurable,
and regular shipments from England
enable the firm to compete on favourable
terms with any other garage and repair-
ing and outfitting shops in Calcutta.

Messrs. Dickie & Co. have extensive
business connections with practically
every engineering and milling company
in Eastern Bengal, and in further pur-
suance of their increasing trade they have
recently opened a branch establishment
at 58 West Regent Street, Glasgow.

The present managing proprietor is Mr.
H. Ilartopp.

•*«
THOMAS DUFF & CO., LTD.

This company was formed and. regis-
tered in Scotland in the year 1883, for
the purpose of carrying on the business of
managing agents of jute mills in India.
At the present time it has under its con-
trol all the mills — seven in number —
belonging to the Samnuggur Jute Factory
Company, Ltd., the Titaghur Jute Fac-
tory Company, Ltd., and the Victoria
Jute Company, Ltd.

The process of manufacture is practic-
ally identical in all the mills belonging
to these companies, the raw material,
which is chiefly obtained from Eastern
Bengal, being brought down by boat or
rail to the mills, where, after a careful
process, it emerges in the shape of Hes-
sian cloth, bags, and sacking goods. The
produce is sent to all parts of the world,
and at the present time very large
quantities of British, French, and Russian
bags are being turned out by these mills
and delivered to the order of the British
Government at a material discount on

current market rates. The average out-
put from the mills of the above three
concerns is over 10,000 tons per month.
Thoroughly up-to-date machinery has
been installed in the mills, and some idea
of the magnitude of these industrial con-
cerns may be gathered from the fact that
the monthly consumption of coal in the
three mills is between 9,000 and 10,000
tons, and that more than 100 European
and 31,000 native labourers are employed
constantly. Each mill has its own private
railway siding and its own steam-launch
and fleet of boats for transport purposes,
the latter being used for conveying the
manufactured goods to ocean - going
steamers at Calcutta.

The managing agents pay careful atten-
tion to the welfare of tlieir employees,
each mill being provided with a dis-
pensary in charge of Indian medical
officers, together with quarters for
workers, with efficient sanitary arrange-
ments, including a filtered water supply.

Each mill is within the limits of a
municipality, and the children within the
several areas receive free instruction in
the primary schools.

The Samnuggur Company own three
mills, two of which are on the left bank
and one on the right bank of the River
Hooghly, about 21 miles from Calcutta,
and containing altogether 1,572 looms.

The company held its Forty-third
Annual Ordinary General Meeting of
Shareholders on March 16, 19 16, when
the report of the directors and statement
of accounts were presented. The directors
reported that the year ending December
3 1, 19 1 5, opened with a healthy demand
for all classes of goods, and orders con-
tinued plentiful. Although the average
price per ton of the manufactured article
was under the average of the preceding
three years, the results were much in
excess of any previous year, this being
due chiefly to favourable purchases of the
raw material, of which the company hold
large stocks at cost prices considerably
lower than current market values.

The capital consists of £300,000 in
ordinary shares of £10, each fully paid,
and £150,000 in 5 per cent, cumulative
preference shares of £10, each fully paid.
The profit for the year, including a credit
balance brought forward from the pre-
vious 12 months, was £313,753. After
placing £45,000 to the Reserve Fund,
£30,683 towards depreciation on plant,
£100,000 to .Suspense Account to meet
contingencies, writing off £2,818 for
special replacements, and the payment of

103

a dividend at the rate of 30 per cent, on
the ordinary shares and 5 per cent, on
preference shares for the year, a balance
of £37,752 was carried forward.

The Titaghur Company own two large
mills situated at Titaghur, about 14 miles
from Calcutta, and containing altogether
1,718 looms. This company held its
Thirty-third Annual Ordinary General
Meeting of Shareholders on March 16,
19 1 6, when the directors' report was sub-
mitted in terms similar to that of
Samnuggur above detailed.

The capital consists of £300,000 in
ordinary shares of £10, each fully paid,
and £150,000 in 5 per cent, cumulative
preference shares of £10, each fully paid.
The profit for the year, including a credit
balance brought forward, was £340,575.
After placing £30,000 to depreciation on
plant, £50,000 to Reserve Fund, and
£100,000 to Suspense Account to meet
contingencies, writing off £770 for
special replacements, and the payment of
a dividend at the rate of 30 per cent, on
the ordinary shares and 5 per cent, on
the preference shares for the year, a
balance of £52,305 was carried forward.

The Victoria Company own two mills,
situated at Telinipara, about 21 miles
from Calcutta, and containing altogether
1,053 looms. The Thirty-third Annual
Ordinary General Meeting of the Share-
holders was held on March 17, 191 6,
when the directors' report and statement
of accounts were presented.

The capital of the company consists of
£200,000 in ordinary shares of £10, each
fully paid, and £150,000 in 5 per cent,
cumulative preference shares of £10, each
fully paid. The statement of accounts
showed a balance at credit of Profit and
Loss of £205,181. After writing off
£323 from Steam Launch and Boats
Accounts, and placing £20,000 to Depre-
ciation Account and Reserve Fund respec-
tively, and paying a dividend of 30 per
cent, on the ordinary shares and 5 per
cent, on preference shares, a balance of
£97.357 was carried forward.

From the foregoing particulars it will
be seen that these companies, in common
with other jute concerns, are enjoying the
benefits of increasing and more profitable
trade returns between India and other
parts of the world.

THE DUNLOP RUBBER COMPANY, LTD.

Travelling in the days of our grand-
parents was a very different matter from
taking a journey almost at the close of

THOMAS DUFF & CO., LTD.— TITAQHUR NO. 2 JUTE MILL.
I. Prbparing Department 2. Shixxixg Department. 3. Factory Department.

4. Sewino Department.

104

I. Exterior.

THE DUNLOP RUBBER COMPANY, LTD.

2. Solid Tire Press. 3. maix Motor-tvre Godowx.

105

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

the second decade of the twentieth cen-
tury. It is perfectly safe to say that
those aiKestors possessed the same
characteristic which is found to-day in the
well-balanced minds of practically all
individuals of the civilized world, namely,
a desire for as much comfort as possible,
but they had fewer facilities, and scarcely
any of the luxuries which are now asso-
ciated with trips by land or sea. The
lumbering old mail or family coaches
which were objects of the special atten-
tion of intrepid knights of the road, gave
place to lighter-made vehicles of various
descriptions, but even these conveyances
were wonderfully improved about the
'eighties of last century by the fixing of
india-rubber tyres on wood or iron wheels.
The days of rough jolting over badly con-
structed thoroughfares came to an end, and
the credit for perfecting, manufacturing,
and inaugurating the use of pneumatic
tyres for nearly every kind of vehicle is
due to the Dunlop Rubber Company, Ltd.

The registered offices of the company
arc at 150 and 152 Clerkenwell Road,
London, E.C., their works are at the
Para Mills, Aston Cross, and Manor
Mills, Salford Street, Aston, both in
Birmingham, and at Alma Street, Coven-
try; and they have branch depots at
Nottingham, Manchester, Newcastle-on-
Tyne, Glasgow, Dublin, Belfast, Bristol,
Leeds, Norwich, and Liverpool. The head
offices in India are at Bombay, while
braiKh depots have been opened at Cal-
cutta, Delhi, Madras, and Colombo, in
Ceylon.

The company are manufacturers of
pneumatic and solid Dunlop cycle, motor-
cycle, and aeroplane tyres, of solid band
tyres, of Dunlop detachable wire wheels,
steel and wooden motor wheels, rims,
valves, inflators, golf balls, and sundry
other goods.

The company were the founders of the
pneumatic tyre industry in the year 1888,
and tlii? name " Dunlop " is inseparably
connected with tyres for motor-cars or
cycles of all kinds. The chief factor in
the amazing progress of the company is
the fact that the utmost care is always
exercised throughout the whole process of
manufacture in order to ensure that all
products shall be free from any defect, and
shall be in every way suitable for the
purposes for which they are intended. The
very best jnaterials procurable are used
in the works, and highly qualified em-
ployees are engaged in every branch.

A special feature is made by the com-
pany of the Dunlop grooved tyre, which

was the forerunner of all the present non-
skidding patterns. It is claimed that this
tyre provides a cut-resisting and very
durable tread, which, apart from its
superiority over a plain tread in the pre-
vention or mitigation of lateral skidding,
provides a fore and aft non-skid of a very
real character, as well as an extra thick-
ness of rubber. It secures a thorough
grip of roads, and this is of peculiar ad-
vantage when surfaces are greasy or when
vehicles are climbing hills. The Dunlop
plain tyre also commands an enormous
sale, and it represents the highest grade
of tyre in its least expensive form, and
while it has not the special features of the
grooved one, it is an excellent cover for
those who do not experience the necessity
for anything more than it gives. The
Dunlop " Limousine " tyre, manufactured
in either a grooved or plain style, is made
in various sizes and of extra strength, and
it is exceptionally suitable for heavy cars.

The company manufacture all descrip-
tions of accessories, and a large stock of
them is kept at their works as well as at
their branches. These include forked
levers, tyre manipulators, security bolts,
wing nuts, leather and metal washers,
spare parts of large or small valves, pump
tubing and adaptors, tyre pumps and
jacks, repair outfits containing every-
requisite to cope with breakdowns, " Sure-
patch " solutions, patches, canvas repair
rolls, vulcanising material and outfit, tyre
testers, cover bags, and numerous other
articles.

The company have a large hydraulic
press by which solid band tyres are rigidly
fixed on wheels for motor lorries and other
vehicles.

The directors of the Dunlop Company
have always been alive to the fact that an
apparently perfect tyre may, owing to new
discoveries or improved methods of manu-
facture, be excelled in some particular,
and, having acted on this principle, the
goods offered by them may be guaranteed
to be up-to-date in every respect.

That which has already been said in
favour of the high-class tyres and acces-
sories for motor-cars might with equal
truth be applied to motor and ordinary
cycle tyres and sundries. In this branch
the company manufacture Dunlop " Mag-
num," " Roadster," " Juvenile," auto-
wheel, rubber-studded, three-ribbed, side-
car, combination and ribbed racing tyres,
all of which are thoroughly efficient as
regards anti-slipping qualities and resili-
ency, while experiments directed towards
obtaining an extremely high degree of
106

resistance to wear have been crowned with
conspicuous success.

Spare parts and sundries, similar to
those prepared for motor-cars, are also
manufactured.

Re-treading and repairs of all kinds are
promptly attended to by skilled artisans
under thoroughly efficient supervision.

Dunlop golf balls have justly earned
the highest reputation among players, and
it would be difficult to find an exponent of
the game who is not aware of the prac-
tically unchallenged preference for them.

It should be added that the Dunlop
Company have, during the past two or
three years, supplied an immense quan-
tity of goods of all descriptions for war
requirements, and although this excep-
tional strain has fallen with some force
upon the Calcutta establishment, motor
and cycle owners in Bengal have had little
reason to complain that their orders have
not been executed with that promptness
for which the company have earned so
great a reputation.

The company occupy extensive offices,
store rooms, warehouses, and godowns, at
3 and 3/1 Mangoe Lane, Calcutta.

*;^

DYKES & CO., LTD.

One cannot be in the streets of Calcutta
for even an hour without being im-
pressed by the immense number of motor-
cars which are seen flying along in all
directions, and the mind naturally reverts
to those days when — according to his-
tory— the only means of transport for
either human beings or goods were of
the most primitive description. From the
very beginning of things, the coolie has,
in India and other similar countries, been
the ordinary beast of burden, and he can
still hold his own in places where no
wheeled vehicle could possibly travel.

Even in the year 1773 when the well-
known firm of Dykes & Co., Ltd., of
Calcutta, was formed by Mr. Robert
Dykes, there were no carriages on the
roads, and any one desiring to go on a
journey of two miles or twenty had to
make his choice between the box-like
palki or the clumsy and most uncomfort-
able bullock cart. The first attempt to
produce anything which had the slightest
claim to be called an improvement was
made a few years later by a Mr. Brown-
berry, an assistant in this firm, who
designed a four-wheeled carriage which
came to be known as the " Brownberry,"
or " office juan," and these useful, if un-

1 Exterior ok Motor Showroom.

DYKES & CO., LTD.

2. EXIKRIOR OK CARRIAOE SHOWROOM. i, EXTERIOR OK CARRIAGE AND MOIOR SllOl'.

5. Motor Exgi.neerinu Shop.

4. BODY-BIILDI.VG SHOI".

107

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

attractive, vehicles appear to be unlikely
for some time to lose favour in Bengal.
Messrs. Dykes & Co. engaged in the
building of carriages of all descriptions
for a considerable number of years, new
styles being introduced from time to
time, and they were in the van in
connection with the importation and
manufacture of broughams, landaus,
victorias, barouches, and phaetons, in
addition to two-wheeled carts and cars
such as the Norfolk, Ralli, and many
others. In the year 1897, when motor-
cars were first imported into Calcutta, it
was suggested to Mr. Newing (since
deceased), who was then head of the firm,
that he should seriously take into con-
sideration the question of entering into
the motor business, but that gentleman
scoffed at the idea, and said that " motors
would never take the place of carriages
in this country." Very few cars (and
they were far from being perfect) were
imported during the ne.xt six or seven
years, but about the time of Mr. Newing's
retirement in 1905 it was evident to in-
telligent men of business that, while horse
vehicles would always have a place in
India, motor-cars were gaining in popu-
larity and were destined to play an
important part as a means of conveyance
for individuals or in the transport of
merchandise. The senior partner at that
time, Mr. Coward, clearly recognized the
change that was taking place, and, during
the time that he was on leave in England,
he purchased a few reliable cars which,
on their arrival at Calcutta, very quickly
found customers.

One would imagine that these transac-
tions furnished abundant proof that
motor-cars had now really got a hold
upon the wealthy classes of Calcutta, but
one and all seemed to be imbued with the
ultra-conservatism of India, and they ap-
peared to be unwilling to give up their
carriages in favour of a somewhat costly
vehicle of whose management they were
entirely ignorant.

About three years later, that is in 1908,
Mr. Coward left India, and he was suc-
ceeded by Mr. Ferris, a keen motorist,
who accepted on behalf of the firm a
niunber of agencies for motor-cars of
repute, among them being the world-
renowned " Wolseley," several hundreds
of which have been sold by Messrs.
Dykes & Co.

A stroll through the very extensive
works of the firm reveals the fact that
while the carriage-building and repairing
industry is still an exceedingly busy and

important branch, the motor department
has grown to enormous dimensions, the
employees numbering some hundreds of
men.

After passing through the boiler and
engine houses one notices smiths, fitters
and others busy as bees in their respective
places, but all of them evidently keenly
alive to the fact that careful and not
slipshod work is expected from them.

In one shed there was a row of
" Brownberrys " in various stages of con-
struction, and, pointing to them, Mr.
James, the energetic and courteous
manager of the firm, said : " I do not
think these carriages will ever go out of
fashion in Calcutta." Farther along
there were broughams, victorias, and
other European types, beautifully finished
and simply marvellous in the luxuriance
of their appointments.

Messrs. Dykes & Co. make motor-car
bodies for any description of chassis, and
every detail of work, from the commence-
ment in the engineering shops to the
final touch of upholstering, is carried out
on the firm's premises by thoroughly
skilled workmen. A stock of 150 cars
may usually be seen in the large garages
and stores in Waterloo Street, and these
include motors belonging to clients, in
addition to a number of " Wolseley,"
" Vinot," " Arrol-Johnston," " Stellite,"
" Swift," and " Buick " cars, for all of
which the firm are agents in Bengal,
Bihar, and Assam.

It should be mentioned that Messrs.
Dykes & Co. have supplied a large num-
ber of motor vehicles of various kinds for
use in the present European War, but
particular reference should be made to
a wagon designed for use in the trans-
port of munitions and stores along roads,
but which forms a pontoon for the cross-
ing of rivers as soon as the wheels have
been removed and a few other slight
alterations have been made.

All kinds of repairs to carriages and
motor vehicles are executed by fully
qualified artisans, and accessories and
fittings of every description are always
kept in stock.

The firm constructed a particu-
larly beautiful royal carriage for the use
of His Majesty King George V, on the
occasion of the Coronation Durbar at
Delhi in 191 1, and the Royal Coat of
Arms over the entrance to the works
proclaims the fact of the patronage of
the King-Emperor. The firm also hold
appointments from the late Viceroy,
Baron Hardinge of Penshurst, and the
108

Governors of the several Provinces and
the predecessors of these officials for
many years past also conferred similar
honours.

Messrs. Dykes & Co. are now a private
limited liability company whose directors
are Messrs. W. T. Coward, G. T. Hor-
ton, and W. Ferris, while Mr. P. James
is Secretary and General Manager.

The firm have very large engineering
shops in Circular Road, Calcutta, while
the Waterloo Street premises are in the
very heart of the city, near to Government
House, and surrounded by all the leading
banking and other companies.

The telegraphic address is " Dykes-
anko," Calcutta.

•«^

THE EAST BENGAL ENGINEERING
WORKS

From time immemorial the vast water-
ways of Bengal have been largely used
for the transfer of agricultural produce
and general merchandise between Cal-
cutta and towns and villages in the
interior, and many barges, junks, and flats
which were in use nearly a century ago
were prototypes of some of those seen
to-day, but the development of the land
and of milling and other industries has
necessitated the construction of larger and
faster craft.

Shipbuilding yards, with their comple-
ment of iron and brass foundries and
timber-sawing mills, have sprung into
existence on the banks of the Hooghly in
and near to Calcutta, and at the close of
the year 191 6 there are remarkable
evidences of activity in all that concerns
the supply of steam, motor, and other
vessels for the conveyance of both
passengers and goods.

One of these yards is owned by the
East Bengal Engineering Works, who
have engineering workshops, a slipway for
the drawing up of boats from the river,
and a thriving shipbuilding business on
the Rustomjee Parsi Road, at Cossipore,
some four miles from Calcutta.

The works were built in the year 1907
by Messrs. Raja Sreenath Roy and Bros.,
of Sova Bazar Street, Calcutta, who are
the managing agents, while Mr. G. S.
Thompson has held the position of
superintending engineer since igil. The
shipbuilding yard is designed for the con-
struction of all classes of river craft,
including steam and motor launches and
boats, cargo flats, and other vessels suit-
able for the very heavy traffic now carried
on upon the waters of the great rivers
hereinbefore mentioned.

1. Entrance to Slipway.

EAST BENGAL ENGINEERING WORKS.
2. Twix-scKEW Steamer, no ft. x 17 ft., axd Cargo-flat, 150 it, x 26 ft., under CoxsTRncTiox ON Slipway.
3, Steamer on Carriage Ready for Launching.

109

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

The workshops comprise iron and brass
foundries, shops for blacksmiths, car-
penters, and pattern-makers ; and the
machinery — driven by steam from a boiler
of 40 h.p. — consists of lathes, planes,
drills, gear-cutters, shearers, grinders,
punches, hammers, and other plant of the
usual character.

Component parts of all kinds of struc-
tural work are manufactured in the shops,
while a portion of the premises is set
apart for general repairs, not only to

conveniences they afford, rendered very
great assistance by enabling agriculturists
to obtain good markets for their produce
by providing Calcutta and other mer-
chants with the means of forwarding
goods of all kinds to various places in
the interior.

<*^

THE EASTERN BANK, LTD.

The most important feature connected
with this bank is the remarkable progress

Bromley-Martin, J. C. Georges Bouillat,
Emile Francqui, J. S. Haskell, and J.
Leigh Wood, C.M.G. The bank was
incorporated in England, and its head
offices are at 4 Crosby Square, London,
E.C., with branches at Calcutta, Bombay,
Bagdad, and Basra.

The fifth annual general meeting of
the shareholders of the bank was held in
London on March 18, 191 5, when the
report of the directors and the balance-
sheet for the year ending December 31,

THE EASTERN BANK,
I. Exterior.

LTD.

2. iXTERlOR.

boats, but also to machinery, motor-cars,
and other steam or petrol driven vehicles.
This workshop is conveniently situated in
the midst of several jute presses and
other factories, and has every facility for
dealing with their heavy and urgent
repairs.

Iron is imported from England and
worked up in the foundry, and brass
castings and fittings are entirely made by
skilled artificers at Cossipore. Between
250 and 300 hands are in constant
employment.

Enterprising companies, such as the
one now under notice, have, by the

which has been made during the five years
of its existence, and it is believed that
such an advance made in so short a
period is unparalleled in the history of
Indian banks. The company is, without
doubt, fortunate in having on its director-
ate several exceedingly well-known men
in financial circles in England and on
the continent of Europe, who, not content
with being mere figure-heads, take an
intelligent and active interest in concerns
in which they invest capital. The chair-
man is the Right Hon. Lord Balfour of
Burleigh, K.T., and his colleagues are
Sir Jacob E. Sassoon, Bart., Messrs. G.

1914, were duly presented. Lord Balfour
of Burleigh, in moving the adoption of
the report, pointed out that the profits
of the bank for the first six months of
the year were most satisfactory, but that
on the outbreak of war in Europe the
directors and other officials had a most
anxious time, as a considerable amount
of produce upon which money had been
advanced was shipped in German and
.Austrian vessels, the majority of which
had either been captured by the British
Navy or had been compelled to enter
neutral ports, thus making it difficult tn
obtain delivery of cargoes. The outlook

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

as regards the release of this temporarily
locked-up capital proved to be more
favourable at the date of the meeting, and
the chairman added that both imports
and exports had greatly improved, and
he looked forward with some confidence
to a period of prosperity, owing, in part,
to the prospect of a record wheat crop
in India between May and December 191 5
— estimated at from three to six million
tons — which, with the high prices pre-
vailing in Europe for grain, might be ex-
pected to benefit agriculture to such an
extent that the bank would eventually
participate therein. A net profit for the
year of £45,123 6s. 2d. (including
£8,152 8s. I id. brought forward from
the previous year) was declared, and the
board, feeling that a policy of extreme
caution was necessary owing to the den-
sity of the war-cloud, had placed £15,000
to a reserve fund for contingencies. After
carrying forward a sum of £6,477 9S- 6d.,
a dividend at the rate of 5 per cent, per
annum was proposed by the chairman,
and subsequent speakers, in supporting
the motion, expressed the opinion that
the result of the year's working reflected
the greatest credit on the entire manage-
ment of the bank.

Current deposit accounts are opened
at the head office or at any of the"
branches, and interest is allowed at 2 per
cent, per annum on daily balances be-
tween Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 1,00,000, pro-
vided that the interest for the half year
is not less than Rs. 5. Fixed deposits
are received for one year at 4I per cent.,
but special rates for shorter periods -may
be obtained on application. British and
foreign stocks and bills of exchange are
purchased or sold, and dividends are
collected on behalf of clients.

General banking and exchange business
is carried on, and loans and credits are
granted on approved security. The
authorized capital of the company is
£1,500,000 (in shares of £10), the
amount called up is £600,000, the
reserve liability of shareholders is
£900,000, and the reserve fund stands
at £55,000.

The bankers of the company are the
Bank of England, the Bank of Scotland,
the London Joint Stock Bank, Ltd., the
County and Westminster Bank, Ltd., the
National Provincial Bank of England,
Ltd., and the London and South-Western
Bank, Ltd.

The Calcutta branch is situated at 9
Clive Street.

THE FRENCH HOTOR-CAR AND
ELECTRIC COMPANY, LTD.

Not many years have elapsed since the
first motor-car was placed upon the
streets as an established form of trans-
port, but the rate of progress which has
been made in perfecting it to the standard
of excellence of the present day is nothing
less than remarkable. Prejudice against
horseless vehicles on town and country
roads was e.xceedingly strong and active,
and motor pioneers had to run the gaunt-
let of biassed criticisms which were as
unreasonable as they were untrue. Many
persons will call to mind a drawing in the
" London Charivari," or Punch, in which
were depicted the anguish of mind, and
a kind of " I-wish-I -were-anywhere-else-
but-here " feeling of a motorist whose car
had broken down and was being ignomin-
iously towed along by a couple of proud-
looking farm-horses in the centre of a
crowd of jeering yokels. Accidents hap-
pen to the motor-car even now, as they
do to the railway train, the four-in-hand,
or the costermonger's barrow, but prac-
tical experience, backed up by improved
scientific methods, have greatly reduced
the number of casualties. When speed,
comfort, and a certain amount of relia-
bility had been secured, India at once
availed itself of the opportunity of re-
lieving horses and oxen of a tremendous
quantity of hard work in a tropical sun,
and agencies for the sale of continental
cars by the best makers were soon opened
in the principal centres of the country.

The city of Calcutta was in the van in
this enterprise, but it was found that there
were many features in imported cars
which were not suitable for the climate of
India ; there were individual preferences
for pattern of body, colour, upholstery,
and mechanism ; and the consequence was
that customers were not always supplied
with the kind of vehicle most in accord-
ance with their tastes and requirements.

It was in April 1905 that the Prench
Motor-Car and Electric Company, Ltd.,
came upon the scene in Calcutta, and
commenced business at 55 Bentinck Street
as motor-car importers and repairers,
coach-builders, electrical engineers, con-
tractors, and general merchants. They
began in quite a modest way with about
twenty workmen, a stock of ten cars, and
floor space of only 2,500 sq. ft., but as
they quickly realized that " bodies " made
in Europe were unsuited to India, they
began manufacturing them in their works
from teakwood and then having them
attached to selected imported chassis, thus

III

obtaining for the company premier posi-
tion in the coach-building trade in India.

This use of indigenous timber was fully
appreciated by motorists in Calcutta, and
very rapid expansion of business com-
pelled the company to obtain further
larger premises at 35 and 36 Ripon
Street and 3 Sharriff Lane.

The workshops — which occupy a floor
space of 62,000 sq. ft., and yet are too
small for present requirements — are
models of their kind, and they are
equipped with all up-to-date and labour-
saving machinery and appliances.

The company opened a branch in
Bombay in the year 1910, in order to keep
in touch with the increasing circle of their
customers, and in the two cities already
mentioned they now employ seven hun-
dred workmen, as well as over fifty
assistants and six European engineers,
and keep a stock of some ninety cars
of all descriptions.

Agencies are held for Automobiles Ber-
liet, Lyons, France ; Automobiles Mors,
Ltd., France ; Automobile Clement
Bayard, France ; Minerva Motors, Ltd.,
Belgium ; Vulcan cars, London ; Auto-
mobiles Panhard, France ; Automobiles
Bianchi, Milan • Philip's metal filament
lamps, Holland ; Ercole Marelli, Ltd.,
Milan ; Mawdsleys, Ltd., Dursley,
England ; Electric motors and dynamos
and the Westinghouse Brake Company,
Ltd., London.

The company is incorporated in Bel-
gium, and its principal offices and garages
are : Calcutta, 55 Bentinck Street ; Bom-
bay, New Queen's Road, Girgaum ; and
Paris, 56 Rue Lafayette.

J. C. GALSTAUN

The manufacture of shellac is an in-
dustry which is practically confined to
the East, where the raw material for the
factory is somewhat extensively produced.
In the year 1886, the production of this
valuable commodity was commenced by
Mr. J. C. Galstaun of Calcutta at the
same time as he opened up his business
as a general merchant.

Lac is obtained in a crude form from
Assam, the Central and North-Western
Provinces, and Nagpur, and, after it has
been crushed into seed, it is washed,
boiled, and subsequently rolled into
" garnet " or thin sheets, the product
being known as shellac. Four crops are
obtained in the course of a year ; one,
found in the Central Province and North-
Western Provinces, arrives in April and

He ID Office, Calcutta.

THE FRENCH MOTOE-CAR AND ELECTRIC COMPANY, LTD.
2. SHOw.tooM. 3. Motor Rei'Air S;iop. 4. Machine Shoi'. 5. Coach-biildixg Shop.

6. Motor Repair Shop.

113

(

^f^^_ -^.iJL;*':

•M**-;

',-,.■ -»J;2g^,'. ?j:"^'?'i''J'^JtWMW

1. MAXAtJEKS QCARTtKS.

J. C. GALSTAUN (SHELLAC DEPARTMENT).

2. SUhXLAC MAXUFACTUKIXU.

3. KXTERIOK OV FACIORV.

OOTAVIUS STEEL & CO. (GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY (INDIA), LTD.).
I. 250-KlU)WATT Set at H.M. Mint, Caixitta. 2- looH.R Motor Driving Set at H.M. Mint, Calcutta.

J. 5oo-Kiu>WArr.SET Erected i-or the Port Commissioxkrs, CALCurrA. 4. small lo-KaowAn Lighting Set.

S. 250-KiLOWATr Set IxsTALLEU for the Roval Ulrbar at Delhi.

114

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

May ; rungeen, and a small yield of jetu
of superior quality, come in the month of
August ; while kusmee is produced in
November and December, and, as the last
named is the most valuable of the series,
it is made up entirely by hand and is
afterwards consigned to purchasers in the
United States of America. Statistics
recently published show that all the ex-
ports of shellac from India — amounting
to 250,000 cases annually — are shipped at
the port of Calcutta, and of this total,
Mr. Galstaun is responsible for from
12,000 to 15,000 cases.

The factory is situated at Ultadinghi,
near Calcutta, and it contains first class
steam-driven machinery which is capable
of manufacturing about five tons of shellac
daily. About 150 hands are constantly
employed on the premises, and it is
worthy of note that if the proprietor had
to depend upon manual labour alone, he
would require at least one thousand
employees.

Mr. Galstaun is the owner of a con-
siderable quantity of landed and other
property, in and around Calcutta, and
one building, the warehouse occupied by
Messrs. Ralli Brothers, in Lall Bazar, is
the largest of its kind in the city. His
.offices are situated at 58 Radha Bazar
Street.

THE GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY
(INDIA) LTD. (OCTAYIUS STEEL & CO.)

The pioneers of the electric installa-
tion work in Bengal were Messrs. Octavius
Steel & Co., 14 Old Court House Street,
Calcutta, who twenty-five years ago (i.e.
1890) introduced the now universal light-
ing system into the second city of the
British Empire by installing plant for the
electric lighting of the Kidderpore Docks
and Howrah Bridge for the Calcutta Port
Commissioners; Harrison Road was
undertaken ne.\t, and plant was afterwards
fixed in the station yard at Howrah for
,e East Indian Railway Company.

Subsequently very many important con-
Tracts were carried out — chiefly for the
Government — including the electrification
of Meerut Cantonment, His Majesty's
Mint, Calcutta, and installations in
numerous Native States, jute mills, and
other industrial concerns.

With the development of the business,
the firm entered into an arrangement with
the General Electric Company, London,
in order that they might secure the latest
design and manufacture of every class of
electrical plant, fittings, and accessories

as soon as they were placed on the market,
and so rapidly did this venture progress
in India that Messrs. Octavius Steel &
Co. were successful in executing contracts
for every class of electric power and light
installations from one end of India to the
other. The great expansion thus created
led to the formation in 191 1 of the
General Electric Company (India), Ltd.,
which acquired the whole of the business,
but Messrs. Octavius Steel & Co. retained
the position of managing agents of the
concern. The new company was at the
same time affiliated with the parent com-
pany. The General Electric Company,
London, which is known all over the world
as the " G.E.C."

The G. E. C. (India), Ltd., holds the
largest stock in the East of everything
of an electrical character connected with
electric power and lighting in central
power stations, towns, industrial concerns,
palaces, residences, and offices — in a word,
from a power-house to a bell-push, not
to mention the numerous labour-saving
and comfort-affording devices such as the
" Swan " ceiling and " Freezor " desk
fans, and electric heating and cooking
apparatus.

The showrooms and extensive godowns
at 14 Old Court House Street, contain a
most comprehensive and unique assort-
ment of every class of electrical requisite,
of which reference may be made to the
display of electric light fittings, " Mag-
net " electric heating and cooking ap-
paratus, switchgear, radiators, telephones,
bells, instruments, and the world-famous
" Osram " drawn-wire filament lamp,
which has many imitators, but no equal.
It would be impossible in this brief note
to give a full list of all the important
work carried out by this interesting con-
cern, but the following may be taken as
typical enterprises: (i) His Majesty's
Mint — three 250-kw. Belliss and Morcom
G.E.C. steam dynamos with boiler-house
equipment complete, also numerous
motors from 5 to 150 h.p. (2) 500 kw.
set direct coupled to G.E.C. generator
with Belliss and Morcom engine, also
boilers, for the Port Commissioners,
Kidderpore; (3) a similar combination,
but for 250 kw., for the Delhi Durbar,
and (4) 16 jib electric cranes for the East
Indian Railway, Howrah.

The General Electric Company, London,
of which the Indian company may be con-
sidered an adjunct, has enormous engin-
eering works at Witton, near Birmingham,
where also are situated carbon, conduit,
switchgear, and " Arc " lamp works. The

115

fittings works are in Birmingham, the tele-
phone and instrument works in .Salford,
the " Osram " lamp, and Robertson car-
bon filament lamp works at Hammersmith,
London, and the general accessories works
are at Southwark, while the Pirelli general
cable works are at Southampton. More
than ten thousand hands are employed in
these establishments.

There are branches in all the principal
cities throughout the British and other
chief centres in Europe, Asia, Australasia,
Canada, and South America, and these are
in the hands of the General Electric Com-
panies of France, Spain, Belgium, and
other European countries. The General
Electric Company (India), Ltd., The
General Electric Company (China), The
British General Electric Company, South
Africa, The British General Electric Com-
pany, Australia, and the British General
Electric Company, Canada.

The manager of the General Electric
Company (India), Ltd., is Mr. Francis
Holt, and the telegraphic address is
" Kilowatt," Calcutta or Madras.

•^^
P. E. GUZDAR & CO.

The merchant — or " middle man," as
he is frequently termed — who purchases
agricultural produce from growers and
then either deals with it himself or sells
to mill-owners, is an absolute necessity
in nearly every country in the world,
but he is especially indispensable in India,
where the majority of the landholders
are cultivators of exceedingly small areas.
The fields of paddy, jute, wheat, and
other cereals are frequently many miles
from a centre touched by railway or river,
and it would be impossible for small con-
signments to be transported to market or
factory excepting at a ruinous cost to the
producer.

Here it is that the middle-man steps
in, who can afford to clear the country-
side of small lots and then send them
collectively to such places as he may
desire. It is therefore of the utmost im-
portance that these merchants should be
men of strict integrity in order that ryots
may obtain a fair price for their crops,
and it is satisfactory to note that here in
Bengal there are hundreds of such buyers
who have gained the entire confidence of
dwellers upon the soil.

Among those who enjoy this highly
desirable reputation is the firm whose
name appears at the commencement of
these notes, and it is no mere figure of
speech to say that the partners are fully

p. B. GUZDAR & CO.
I. The Gl'zpar Ghooerv Jute Pre^ House. 2. Jute Presses. 3. Victoria Corrox Mills,

4. The Howrah Hvdravuc Phesh. j. Jute Presses.

116

Blow Room.

P. E. GDZDAB & CO.
s. CARnixu Depaktment. 3. SI'I.nni.ng Depahtmext.

5. Bundling ANn Baling DEi'ARTMr..\T,

4. REELIXO DEI'ART.ME.\r.

i'7

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

entitled to the highest credit for the
honourable position which they have
attained.

Messrs. Guzdar & Co. are not only
purchasers of large quantities of agri-
cultural and general produce, but they are
proprietors of the V'ictoria Cotton Mills
and the Ghoosery and Howrah Jute
Presses, all of which are on the banks
of the River Hooghly in Calcutta.

The firm was established in the year
1865 by Messrs. P. E. and C. E. Guzdar,
who were concerned chiefly in the export
of rice, pucca jute bales, and other com-
modities.

Their business connections increased
gradually but surely, and in 1886 they
established a jute press, which, owing to
greater accommodation which has since
been provided, is now capable of turning
out some two thousand bales in a working
day of twelve hours.

This venture proved to be such a suc-
cess that two years later the firm erected
a cotton-mill containing 12,000 spindles,
and which gives constant employment to
about 520 labourers. Full of energy and
with a laudable desire to enlarge their
environment, they purchased in the year
1904 the Howrah Hydraulic Press, which
is able to send forth, day by day, no fewer
than 1,200 bales of jute.

The activities of the partners did not,
however, rest with cotton and jute-mills ;
they recognized the fact that there was
a great future in industrial enterprise in
India in the mining of coal which had not,
twenty or thirty years ago, assumed that
degree of importance which the extent
of payable seams and the accessibility
of the fields appeared to warrant. They
therefore in the year 1908 formed the
Kajora Coal Company for the working
of a colliery in the Raneegunge district,
and when the machinery is employed con-
stantly the average monthly yield of very
good second-class coal is not less than
6,000 tons.

The present partners are Messrs. C. E.,
E. P., and M. C. Guzdar, and their offices
are situated at 44 Ezra Street, Calcutta.

■*«

J. H. R. HARLEY & CO.

Old China Bazar Street in Calcutta
is not by any means a pretentious-looking
thoroughfare and as it is situated in a
densely populated portion of the city, in
which the majority of the buildings have
no imposing exteriors, one is all the more
surprised to find such commodious and

well-arranged business premises as those
occupied at 87 by Messrs. J. H. R.
Harley & Co., manufacturers of paulins
and waterproof canvas. Government con-
tractors, and general merchants.

The firm was founded in the early
eighties of last century by Mr. J. H. R.
Harley, and the proprietor's name soon
became a household word throughout the
East in connection with the making of
paulins for all commercial purposes.

The present European war has made
enormous claims upon the resources of
manufacturers of machinery and goods
of all descriptions, ranging from aero-
planes and heavy guns to the most
common-place article of domestic use, and
Messrs. Harley & Co., who have had the
honour of being one of the selected firms
to receive Government contracts, have
been entrusted with the largest single
order given by the Government of India
for canvas waterproofed locally, this
being for no fewer than 60,000 yards of
that substance. The major portion of
this material is required for use in the
commissariat departments of the various
expeditions, chiefly as covers for mules
and other transport animals. Apart from
the war, however, Messrs. Harley & Co.
have purchasers for their waterproofed
goods throughout the whole of the East,
although India and Burma contain the
most important markets. The firm's
waterproofing factory is situated in the
Grand Trunk Road, Howrah, near Cal-
cutta, and the extensive premises cover
an area of about 400 sq. yds. The
number of daily labourers constantly
employed is about one hundred.

Mr. J. H. R. Harley died in the year
191 1, and he was succeeded by his son,
Mr. W. S. G. Harley, who is now sole
proprietor.

The latter established the " Harle-
quin " printing press on the property in
China Bazar Street in the year 19 13,
and he undertakes all kinds of job and
artistic printing, book-binding, and other
similar works.

Messrs. Harley & Co. have agencies
for the sale of their paulins in Burma
and in the Province of Madras, while they
are representatives in India of Messrs.
David Corsair and Sons, Ltd., of
Arbroath, Scotland, for their waterproof
canvas, and for the Swiss Silk Bolting
Cloth Manufacturing Company, of Zurich,
Switzerland.

Mr. Harley gives personal supervision
in every department, and he is assisted by
several reliable foremen.

118

The London correspondents of the firm
are Messrs. Henry W. Bush & Co., Ltd.,
and the local telegraphic address is
" Harlequin," Calcutta.

*;;

W. H. HARTON & CO.

Rope was manufactured by hand in
Calcutta very many years ago, and it is
not surprising that this was the case
seeing that sisal, Manila hemp, aloe,
cotton, country hemp, jute, various
descriptions of fibre, and other raw pro-
duce are found in luxurious abundance in
the East. Another contributing cause was
the extremely plentiful supply of cheap
labour, and thus an industry was started
which has largely increased the revenue
of the State and has indirectly been the
means of providing improved conditions
of living for thousands of workers.

The Ghoosery Rope Works are the
oldest of the kind in India. They were
established in the year 1780 by Mr.
W. H. Harton, upon an area of about
68 acres on the west bank of the River
Hooghly, within the municipality of How-
rah. They have a frontage upon the
river of 1,977 ft., and the property
extends inland for a distance of some
700 ft., the municipal main road dividing
the works into two parts. A building,
which tradition says was a church
during the period of the Danish settle-
mem, is still standing on the premises,
and is now used for the storage of yarn,
hemp, and other goods.

The business was commenced and is
still being carried on under the name of
W. H. Harton & Co., but the proprietor,
Mr. J. C. Stalkaart, is a grandson of
Marmaduke Stalkaart (Naval Architect
to King George 111), who joined the firm
in 181 2.

" Harton's " ropes are looked upon as
representing the standard of excellence
in every part of the civilized world, and
their reputation for sterling quality and
strength is unsurpassed by any other
make : " Heave me a Harton " cries the
skipper as he approaches the wharf, and
when he has one of the Ghoosery cables
firmly secured to his stanchions he defies
all sorts of weather, and all resistance
too.

Manila hemp is imported in bales from
the Philippine Islands, and it is used for
making high-class ropes, while paulins
are made from specially prepared canvas
and composition. The hemp is passed
through spinning, heckling, and softing
machines, and the whole of the plant con-

I. The Older Method of Hand Labour.

J. H. HARLEY & CO.

2. Machine and Labourers. 3. Closer View ok Machine at Work.

4. Ix THE Printing DEi'ART.MENr

119

W. H. HARTON & CO.
I. tlxiiiiiiT. Paris ExHiiuriox, 1900 ; the Largest Rope ever Made.

2. A General View.

I. Si'i.vxiNG Manilla.

W. H. HARTON & CO.

2. COIK SHEU. 3- WIRE RoPE MAKLNO.

4. Kul'E Makino.

121

I. HOfSE.

W. H. HABTON & CO.

2. Fernery. 3- Lawn axj) Grounds.

122

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

nected with these premises is driven by-
steam. Women engaged in spinning are
paid according to the quantity turned out,
but all other labour is engaged at a daily
rate of remuneration.

Country hemp is used for small lines
of all descriptions, such as lead and log
lines, signal halyards, house-lines, and
others of a similar diameter, while tow
from Central Provinces hemp is made
into oakum.

Messrs. Harton & Co. were pioneers in
the importation of coir yarn from the
convict settlements in the Andaman
Islands, but at the same time large quan-
tities are received from Calicut and other
places on the western coast of India. The
yarn arrives in lengths of from 80 ft.
to 90 ft. being knotted up to 1,400 ft.,
and after it has been shaped like a ball,
it is subsequently made into ropes.

The extent of these works is of the
great advantage, as it has been possible
to arrange for five rope-walks (each of
which is a quarter of a mile in length).
So spacious are the premises that they
can, without undue trouble, be utilized
for turning out a single rope measuring
1,800 ft. from end to end.

Ordinary ropes range from 1 in. to
26 in. in circumference, but, at the
last exhibition in Paris in the year 1906,
the firm had a magnificent display of
rope products which included a rope of
16 in. in diameter, this being the largest
size that the commercial or shipping
world has ever seen. First-class
machinery has been installed for the
making of flexible steel ropes varying in
size from i to 6 in. in circumference.

The plant in the works is of modern
design and includes twenty-four spinning
and four heckling and softing machines,
and the steam engine and boiler which
have been fixed are available also for
the carpenters', fitting, and engineering
shops.

A special feature is made of coir cables,
from 12 in. to 26 in., which are sup-
plied to the Harbour Boards in New
Zealand, San Francisco, Seattle, Man-
chester Ship Canal, and to a considerable
—pumber of South African ports.
■ A system of rollers has been adopted
for the transport of rope from the works
to barges on the river, and the output
of the various products is now so great
that weekly shipments are made to nearly
every country in the world.

Messrs. Harton & Co. are contractors
H.M. arsenals in India, to the Royal
Indian Marine, the Port Commissioners,

and Government railways in India and
Burma, to leading firms in Calcutta, and
to the following steamship companies :
The British India Steam Navigation Com-
pany, Ltd., the Asiatic Steamship Com-
pany, the River Steam Navigation
Company, and to the services of Messrs.
Donald Currie, Apcar, Mcllwraith,
McEachern & Co., of Melbourne, and
other owners trading to Calcutta. Sole
agencies for Bengal are held for Suter
Hartmann's Red Hand Brand of anti-
corrosive and anti-fouling compositions,
for the bottoms of ships ; for anti-corro-
sive paints mixed ready for use ; and for
the famous Lacvelva enamel.

If further proof were needed as to the
high position in the world's markets held
by Messrs. Harton's ropes, it may be
gained from the fact that the following —
among other awards of merit — have been
received : bronze and gold medals at the
Calcutta Exhibition of 1882 ; four gold
and two silver medals at the Calcutta
International Exhibition, 1883-4 ; a gold
medal at Amsterdam in 1883 ; a bronze
medal at the Colonial and Indian Ex-
hibition held in London in 1886 ; and the
never-to-be-forgotten bronze medal of the
Rc-piiblique Frangaise of 1900.

Mr. Stalkaart's private residence is a
dream of luxury combined with that com-
fort which is only obtainable in a well-
appointed house. It stands in the midst
of spacious and beautifully kept lawns ;
and the tanks — of which there are seven
— are nearly all full of fish.

*?;

HEATLY AND GRESHAM, LTD.

The history of railways in India is an
interesting one; and closely bound up
with the various devices to secure the
safe working of them which have been
introduced upon them during the last
quarter of a century, the name of Heatly
and Gresham, Ltd., railway engineers
and specialists, of Calcutta and Bombay,
has come to be familiarly known.

This company had its inception at the
time when comparative trials were con-
ducted in India to determine the relative
advantages of the vacuum and the
Westinghouse brake. The representa-
tives sent out on behalf of the former
company were Mr. H. Heatly and Mr.
S. T. Gresham, who subsequently formed
the company which forms the subject
of this article.

The battle of the brakes in India is now
old history, and it is sufficient to say in
connection with it that it resulted in the

123

universal adoption of the vacuum brake
which has now been made " standard "
and is exclusively employed on every
broad, metre, and narrow-gauge railway
system throughout the country, while its
adoption for feeder lines is being rapidly
proceeded with.

The efforts of the new company were
originally and primarily directed towards
the exploitation and proper maintenance
of the vacuum brake in India, but this
was supplemented by an extension to
other branches of railway engineering,
embracing improvements to cover the re-
quirements of the engineering, locomotive,
and carriage and wagon departments of
the Indian railways ; in short, Messrs.
Heatly and Gresham became pioneers in
the supply of railway equipment, and, with
the experience they possessed, were suc-
cessful in introducing improvements that
have withstood the most severe tests as
to efficiency, in addition to which, their
expert advice has always been greatly
valued by departmental officials.

Another branch of railway engineering
to which the company turned their atten-
tion was the provision of efficient signal-
ling and interlocking equipment to the
Indian railways, and in this connection
they were entrusted with the agency, and,
later, the managing agency of Messrs.
Saxby and Farmer (India), Ltd., the well-
known firm of railway signal engineers.
They are also agents for the Vaughan
rail anchor, which has long passed the
experimental stage and is now in regular
use on many of the Indian railways.

Attention was early devoted to the
better lighting and equipment of railway
coaching stock and Messrs. Heatly and
Gresham took up the agency, which they
still hold, of the patent Lighting Com-
pany, who for many years past have
devoted special attention to the illu-
mination of railway carriages by com-
pressed oil gas, and, later, interested
themselves specially in the lighting and
ventilation of coaching stock by elec-
tricity. In addition to railway carriage
lighting, the Patent Lighting Company
have for many years past specialized in
coast and harbour lighting, and here
again Messrs. Heatly and Gresham have
rendered valuable service in improve-
ments which had for their object the
better lighting of the various ports, har-
bours, and river approaches around the
coast of India.

In the field of locomotive engineering,
the name of this firm has for many years
been a household word. As represent^-

View or THE WORKS.

BEATLT & OSESHAM, LTD.

a. MAtHiNK Shop,

3. Gauvaxbixo Shop,

124

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

lives for the Vulcan Foundry, Ltd., the
well-known locomotive builders of Newton-
le-Willows, Lancashire, they have been
able to keep in touch with the latest de-
velopments in locomotive designs and
practice.

Foremost among locomotive cab fit-
tings, in which they specialize, is the well-
known Gresham and Craven injector, for
which they have been agents from the
date of the company's inception. This
particular injector is now practically a
standard requirement on all Indian rail-
ways.

Still dealing with the subject of engine
equipment, mention must be made of the
Wakefield mechanical lubricator, which
Messrs. Heatly and Gresham have suc-
cessfully exploited for several years past
and which has attained as much favour in
India as it has on the railways at home.
The same may be said of the " Robinson "
locomotive superheater, the agency for
which has been placed with the same firm
in whose hands it has made considerable
progress, and has now been made the
" standard " for Indian railways.

Then, too, there are the manufacturers
of Messrs. Taylor Brothers & Co., Ltd.,
steel manufacturers, who for many years
past have specialized in high tonnage
tyres and axles for locomotive, carriage,
and wagon stock, and in solid rolled steel
wheel disc centres, for which Messrs.
Heatly and Gresham are representatives
also ; while in connection with the Eco-
nomical Boiler Company, Ltd., they have
been instrumental in arranging for the
installation of several large plants, that
are now in satisfactory operation, for the
automatic washing-out of locomotive
boilers.

At the same time the Hasler Tele-
graph Works have, through Messrs.
Heatly and Gresham, been successful in
placing a large number of their speed
recorders on the Indian railways ; while
the requirements of boiler lagging, or
covering, are catered for by the company
who represent the Keasbey and Mattison
Company, Messrs. Newalls Insulation
Company, and Messrs. J. Dampney &
Co., for their boiler-washing compound.

Turning to the fields of carriage and
wagon building, there are considerable
improvements and progress to be re-
ported, for the standard type of bogie
carriage now turned out by Indian rail-
way workshops compares favourably, both
in design and construction, with the out-

It of the leading railways in England.

on India coaching stock, is explained to
a large extent by the employment of
bolster bogies patented by Mr. Alex.
Spencer, of the well-known firm of
Messrs. George Spencer, Moulton & Co.,
Ltd. This company also specialize in
railway carriage springs, produced of the
highest grade of rubber, large quantities
of which have for many years past been
supplied to the Indian railways through
the agency of the firm at present under
review.

The avoidance of hot boxes on coaching
and wagon stock is accounted for by the
employment of the .Armstrong oiler, which
Messrs. Heatly and Gresham have been
instrumental in introducing on many of
the principal Indian railways, on several
of which no other form of axle-box lubri -
cation is now employed.

Artistic carriage furnishing is also a
matter to which Messrs. Heatly and
Gresham have devoted special attention.

In connection with this branch of their
business, they have identified themselves
with such well-known firms as the General
Seating Company, Ltd., Messrs. Jas.
Mcllwraith & Co., Ltd., for carriage
roofing ; Messrs. Jas. Beresford & Son,
Ltd., for carriage fittings; Messrs. Mead,
McLean & Co., for patent ventilators ;
and Messrs. Lewis Berger & Sons, Ltd.,
for paint and varnishes ; while their
efforts have been largely instrumental in
the adoption of the patent Watson-Jones
coupler, which is to-day practically the
standard coupling for metre and narrow
gauge stock in India. In addition to this
coupler, the A. B.C. Coupler Company,
the makers of the Patent Watson-Jones
coupling, have also, through this firm,
supplied many sets of the automatic
A. B.C. coupler both to broad and narrow-
gauge lines.

To the proper equipment of the loco-
motive and carriage and wagon work-
shop, Messrs. Heatly and Gresham have
also devoted special attention, being
representatives in this country for such
well-known firms as Messrs. Brett's
Patent Lifter Company, power drop
stamps ; the Howard Pneumatic Engin-
eering Company, Ltd., for pneumatic
tools and accessories ; Messrs. H. W.
Ward & Co., Ltd. ; Messrs. Webster and
Bennett, Ltd., for machine tools;
Messrs. Kynoch, Ltd., for gas engines ;
Messrs. Broom and Wade, for air com-
pressors ; and Electromotors, Ltd., the
well-known makers of motors and
dynamos.

The connection that Messrs. Heatly

125

and Gresham have built up with Indian
railways for the supply of material and
fittings has led them to turn their atten-
tion to the development of feeder lines,
in the survey of several of which they are
at present interested, and a further
earnest of their enterprise is afforded by
the flotation of a company with a factory
in Calcutta for the manufacture of gal-
vanized iron utensils of all descriptions.
The articles now being produced by the
Indian Galvanizing Company, Ltd., are as
good in point of strength, quality, and
galvanizing as those previously imported
into this country from English makers.
The success of the project has been so
marked that arrangements are at present
being made for the installation of further
machinery with a view of obtaining a
greater output.

Although essentially railway engineers,
specializing in the supply and equipment
of fittings for all branches of railway re-
quirements, Messrs. Heatly and Gresham,
Ltd., have within recent years been ex-
tending their sphere of operations to
general engineering, being representatives
in this country for such firms as
Engineering and Arc Lamps, Ltd., the
New Phonopore Telephone Company
(patentees and manufacturers of the long-
distance telephone which bears their
name), the Silent Electric Clock Com-
pany (of which several installations are
now fitted up throughout India), the
Ironite Company, Ltd., who have suc-
cessfully interested themselves in a water-
proofing composition which is largely
employed for the covering of roofs and
for station platforms, the Langdon Davies
Motor Company, and the Asbestos Manu-
factures Company, Ltd., in connection
with which Messrs. Heatly and Gresham
were the pioneers and original intro-
ducers into the Indian market of asbestos
cement corrugated sheeting, very large
quantities of which are now employed for
the covering of engine shed roofs, work-
shops, and other buildings, and which is
also rapidly replacing galvanized corru-
gated iron on account of its heat-resisting
properties and its practically indefinite
length of life.

The care and upkeep of roads
have also received Messrs. Heatly and
Gresham 's attention, they having supplied
a number of Messrs. Clayton and Shuttle-
worth's steam wagons for the transport
of stores on the North-West Frontier, to
municipalities and to private contractors ;
while their connection with Hill's Patent
Vacuum Road Cleanser, Ltd., places them

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

in a position to render expert advice on
the maintenance of roads in a clean and
dustless condition.

The firm undtr notice have a branch in
Bombay, where matters in connection with
railways on the western side of India are
given every attention. Extensive stocks
of railway and other fittings are also held
in that city, in which the offices of the
company are located at 75 Hornby Road.
These premises were opened in 1909 with
a view of extending operations in that
portion of India, and their establishment
has fully justified the venture.

gardens, and collieries. They also act as
managing agents for the Star Foundry
Company, of Lillooah, who have a large
business in cast and wrought-iron work
of all descriptions.

In 1916, Mr. Holmes, in conjunction
with Mr. J. H. Simpson and Babu
Mahendra Nath Dutt, initiated the
Britannia Brass Foundry at 5, Bhowani-
pore Road, Calcutta, for the manufacture
of all kinds of brass articles, specializing
particularly in art brass and copper work.

The company, although in its infancy,
has already carried out some important

HOLMES, WILSON & CO.
I. St.ar Kolxdry at Ulooaii. 2. Britannia Fouxprv at Bhownipore, Calcutta,

HOLMES, WILSON & CO.

This firm was established by Mr.
Charles H. Holmes, at 15 Canning Street,
Calcutta, on January i, 191 5, in conjunc-
tion with Mr. A. D. Wilson, of loi
Leadenhall Street, London, E.C., who acts
as the representative and correspondent
of the firm in England.

Shortly after their establishment, Mr.
Holmes and Mr. Wilson purchased the
goodwill and trade marks of the busmess
of Messrs. J. H. Elliott & Co., Ltd., of
Birmingham, who for many years had been
trading as merchants in India with branch
offices and connections in the principal
trade centres in that country.

In addition to trading as import metal
and hardware merchants, Messrs. Holmes,
Wilson & Co. carry on an extensive local
trade, principally with railways, tea

art brass work for the Alliance Bank of
Simla, the Government House at Banki-
pore, and other establishments.

The telegraphic address of the firm is
" Benelliott," Calcutta.

THE HONGKONG AND SHANGHAI
BANKING CORPORATION

The headquarters of this corporation
are at Hongkong, but branches or agen-
cies have been established at Amoy,
Bangkok, Batavia, Bombay, Calcutta,
Canton, Colombo, Foocjiow, Hamburg,
Hankow, Hongkew (Shanghai), Harbin
(Manchuria), Ilo-ilo, Ipoh, Johore, Kobe,
Kuala Lumpur, London, Lyons, Malacca,
Manila, Nagasaki, New York, Pekin,
Penang, Rangoon, Saigon, San Francisco,
Shanghai, Singapore, Sourabaya, Tientsin,
136

Taipeh, Tsingtau, and Yokohama. Every
description of banking and exchange
business is carried on, including the
negotiation and collection of bills, the
issue of letters of credit for the accom-
modation of clients who travel in various
parts of the world, the payment of inter-
est on fixed deposits, and the safe custody
of title-deeds, shares, and other securities.
Credits are granted on approved securi-
ties, and interest is allowed on daily
balance of current accounts. The ninety-
ninth report of the directors and a state-
ment of accounts for the half year ending
on December 31, 19 14, were presented
to a general meeting of shareholders held
at Hongkong on the 20th of February,
and it was shown that the net profits
for that period, including a balance
brought forward, and after paying all
charges, deducting interest paid and due,
and making provision for bad and doubt-
ful accounts and contingencies, amounted
to $5,894,227. After deducting the re-
muneration to directors, there remained a
sum sufficient for the payment of a divi-
dend of £2 3s. and a bonus of 5s. per
share, leaving a balance of $2,607,274 to
be carried to new profit and loss accounts.
In order to effect adjustments caused by
the writing down of Consols, and to
enable the reserve fund to be maintained
at the sum of £1,500,000, war loan 3^ per
cent, stock was purchased, and this left
the amount of " other sterling securities "
at £371,100. The whole of this expendi-
ture was provided for out of the earnings
of the half year.

The London bankers of the corpora-
tion are the London, County, and West-
minster Bank, Ltd.

The accounts, which were audited in
Hongkong in the month of February
1915, were signed by Messrs. David
Landale, W. L. Pattenden, and P. H.
Holyoak, directors, and by Mr. N. J.
Stabb, the chief manager.

"*«

GEO. F. JAMES & CO.

Only a few months before the prepara-
tion of this notice, Mr. George F. James
established a business under the style of
George F. James & Co., the firm com-
mencing to trade as motor, mechanical,
and electrical engineers. Premises were
secured at 14 Wellesley Street, in Cal-
cutta, with a staff, including the manager,
of not more than twelve persons, but the
sound practical experience of Mr. James,
who has been connected with automobilisra

HONG KONG AND SHANGHAI BANKING COEPOEATION.

, The Pkesext Premises. 2. Pkoi'Osed New Builuixg ix Dalhoisie Sji aue.

1-7

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

since its introduction into India, caused
the business to expand so rapidly that
within a few weeks it became necessary
to obtain a building with more accommo-
dation, and that was secured at 46
Wellesley Street. The firm began well
by adopting as their motto " promptitude
and diligence," and by coupling with it
a determination to give careful personal
attention to the wishes of clients, their
name soon became a household word in

any other form to suit the diversified tastes
of their patrons. Special attention is given
to ensure quality in all materials employed,
as it is common knowledge that " tinker-
ing " is practised by many unscrupulous
traders, but Messrs. James & Co. point
with pride to the names of their regular
customers as evidence of the thorough
manner in which they execute all orders
entrusted to them.

The extensive warehouses occupied by

early forties of the nineteenth century was
Mr. David Jardine, the founder of the
firm of Messrs. Jardine, Skinner & Co.
That gentleman commenced trading in
1843 as a general merchant and commis-
sion agent, and in January 1845 he
admitted Mr. Charles Binny Skinner into
partnership, the title of the firm being
Jardine, Skinner & Co.

The present partners of the firm are:
Messrs. F. G. Steuart, R. Jardine Pater-

GEO. F.

]. Pkemisks.

JAMES & CO.

Garage.

3. WORKBIIOP

all matters pertaining to motor and elec-
trical engineering.

The business, firmly established on a
sound basis, continued to grow, and once
again the firm are compelled to look for
considerably larger premises in order to
provide space for the additional machinery
which is about to be erected, and to meet
the abnormal demands which are made
upon them.

There is as yet no particular type of
motor which can claim a monopoly of
popularity, and therefore the firm, by
keeping in touch with leading manufac-
turers, may be relied upon, with all pos-
sible dispatch, to supply a car of any
recognized build in its normal stylo, or in

the firm are replete with a valuable stock
of accessories of every description, and
by forethought the management have been
able to anticipate an adequate supply for
a constant and cotitinuous demand.

An idea of the extent to which the busi-
ness has progressed may be gathered
from the fact that the staff, which
originally consisted of a dozen persons,
now numbers nearly a hundred.

JARDINE, SKINNER & CO.

."^mong the many keen and progressive

men of business who left the Old Country

for India for the purpose of establishing

a commercial house in Calcutta in the

128

son, and W. A. Bankier (residing in
Europe), and Messrs. J. A. Home, F. E.
Phillips, and P. W. Newson, of Calcutta,
and their offices at 4 Clive Row, in that
city, are situated in a substantial block
of buildings specially erected for them in
the year 1869.

By reason of the large number of
managing and general agencies for com-
panies held by the firm, it follows that
the businesses in which they are concerned
are of an exceedingly varied character,
and that the area over which their
activities extend is an exceedingly wide
one.

In commencing with jute, which is the
special product of the Bengal Presidency,

JARDINE. SKINNER & CO.

' I. East Ixdiax Coal Co., Ltd.— Bararke Pits. ». East I.sdian Coal Co.. Ltd.— South Billiakke Pits. 3. Isdo-China S.N. Co., Ltd.— s.s. "Lai Sang.'
4. 4 Clive Row, Calcutta. 5. Ebxgal Timber Tradi.ng Co., Ltd.— Sawing Sleepers.

129

I, Kamarhatty Mill— Traveller.

JAKDINE, SKINNER & CO,
Kamarhatty mill— Weavixg, 3, Kankxarrah Mill— Finishing

4. Kanknarrah Mill— Spinning.

130

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

the Kamarhatty Company, Ltd., may be
mentioned as their mill was the first one to
be erected after the industry had been
well nigh extinguished owing to the
abnormal increase of factories between the
years 1872 and 1875. I" ^^^^ period
several companies were compelled to close
their doors, while all the others had a
terrible struggle with the most adverse
circumstances which had arisen.

The Kamarhatty Company was regis-
tered in Calcutta in the year 1877, and the
mill at Kamarhatty on the Hooghly River
had at that time 320 looms. Twenty
years later these had been increased to
500; in 1904 a new mill was erected with
300 looms; and at the close of the year
1916 the two factories contained a total
of 1,710 looms and 32,632 spindles.

The Kanknarrah Company, Ltd., was
started in 1882, when the mill at Bhatpara
in the district of the Twenty-four Per-
gannas, near Calcutta, had not more than
250 looms, although there was accom-
modation for 420. The capital, which
originally stood at Rs. 14,00,000, has at
various times been increased to the present
sum of Rs. 40,00,000. A second mill has
been erected, necessitating additional
looms, and the last-named have increased
in number simultaneously with other exr
tensions, until there is now a total of
1,521, together with 27,720 spindles.
The two above-mentioned companies (for
whom Messrs. Jardine, Skinner & Co. are
managing agents) have also jute-buying
and baling agencies at Naraingunge and
Chandpore working in connection, with
their mills.

Tea is the next commodity to be dealt
with, and the firm now under notice are
managing agents for the following eight
companies: — •

The Bengal United Tea Company, Ltd.,
was registered in London in 1897, upon
the amalgamation of several small com-
panies, and owns tea estates in the district
of Darjeeling, and in Cachar and else-
where in Assam.

The Cachar and Dooars Tea Company,
Ltd., registered in London in the year
1895, are owners of tea estates in the
district of the Dooars, and Cachar, in
Assam.

The Rydak Tea Syndicate, Ltd., ac-
uired their two gardens, Rydak and
Kartik, in the Dooars, in 1897, and the
company was registered in Calcutta in the
following year. The whole estate com-
prises about 2,300 acres, of which nearly
^Kjoo acres are under cultivation for tea.

As:
^^ui

formed in 1910, have gardens at Balla-
cherra, Narencherra, Heroncherra, and
Panicherra, in the Surma Valley dis-
tricts of Cachar, comprising a gross area
of 7,500 acres, about 491 of which are
under tea.

The Baradighi Tea Company, Ltd., are
owners of a tea garden of about 850
acres at Baradighi in the Dooars. Regis-
tration took place in Calcutta in 1893.

The Central Cachar Tea Company, Ltd.,
was formed in 1863 for the purpose of
taking over the tea estates of Burnie
Braes, Mohunpore, Serispore, and Ratta-
kandi belonging to the old Assam com-
pany, and comprising 1,457 acres.

The Chandypore Tea Company, Ltd.,
was registered in Calcutta in the year
1867, and in this instance there was an
amalgamation of the gardens known as
Chandypore, Ballykandy, and Ferdinand-
pore in Cachar. The estate is about 8,000
acres in extent, of which 734 acres are
under tea.

The Kallinugger and Khoreel Tea Com-
pany, Ltd., have gardens at Kallinugger,
Khoreel, Massempore, and Kina Tillah, in
Cachar, comprising about 640 acres.

Messrs. Jardine, Skinner & Co. are,
further, managing agents for the Bengal
Timber Trading Company, Ltd., which was
registered in 1897, upon the acquisition of
the undertakings of the old Bengal Timber
Trading Company, Ltd., and the Nagra
Timber Company, Ltd. The company
have large forest concessions over an ex-
tensive area stretching in a northerly
direction from near Panposh in Gangpur,
one of the feudatory States in Northern
Orissa, to and along the (erai of the
Ranchi plateau, and their rights include
the extraction of sal for the making of
railway sleepers. In addition to the forest
concessions the company deal largely in
imported timbers such as teak, pine,
padouk, and others.

The coal-mining industry has for a
number of years claimed the attention of
Messrs. Jardine, Skinner & Co., and they
are managing agents for three important
coal companies.

The East Indian Coal Company, Ltd.,
registered in England in 1893, have col-
lieries in the centre of the famous Jherria
fields in the district of Manbhum, in the
Province of Behar and Orissa, which in-
clude those known as Kendwadih, Khoira,
Dheriajoba, Kurkend, Brahmanbararee,
Bhulanbararee, Jealgorah, South Bulli-
aree, and Pandra. The output of the
company's collieries for some time reached
a total of nearly 40,000 tons a month, but

131

when in full work they are capable pf
raising no less than 60,000 tons.

The Sutkidih Coal Company, Ltd., are
owners of mines of first-class coal in the
Jherria fields which have an annual output
of from 60,000 to 80,000 tons. The
company was registered in Calcutta in
1908.

The Bansdeopur Coal Company, Ltd.,
was registered in Calcutta at the com-
mencement of the present year, 19 17, and
the Bansdeopur Colliery, also situated in
Jherria, raises from 60,000 to 80,000 tons
of steam coal per annum.

Messrs. Jardine, Skinner & Co. have
for a number of years been agents in
Calcutta for a regular service of ships to
China, their records going back as far as
the year 1869; this line is now the Indo-
China Steam Navigation Company, Ltd.,
and the firm are its agents. A joint
mail service is worked with the Af>car
Line, whose steamers were formerly owned
by Messrs. Apcar & Co., but now belong
to the British Indian Steam Navigation
Company, Ltd. The service was a few
years ago extended to Japanese ports.

Agencies are also held for the Pacific
lines of the Royal Mail Steam Packet
Company, the " Glen " Line, and the Toyo
Kisen Kaisha, and the firm are also secre-
taries in, Calcutta for the Calcutta -Trans-
Pacific Conference.

The firm are largely interested in fire
and marine insurance, being managing
agents for the Triton Insurance Company,
Ltd. — the result of a combination in 1905
of the Triton Insurance Company and the
Eastern Insurance Company, Ltd. — and
agents for the Manchester Assurance Com-
pany, Ltd. (incorporated with the Atlas
Assurance Company, Ltd.), the Canton
Insurance Office, Ltd., the Hongkong Fire
Insurance Company, Ltd., and the South
British Insurance Company, Ltd.

The firm are importers on an extensive
scale of Manchester piece goods, while the
chief exports consist of gunnies and tea.

Messrs. Jardine, Skinner & Co.'s
London agents are Messrs. Matheson &
Co., Ltd., of 3 Lombard Street, E.C., and
their telegraphic address is " Jardines,"
Calcutta. Their China agents are Messrs.
Jardine, Matheson & Co., Ltd.

G. F. KELLNER & CO.

It is probable that no greater change
in any branch of industry has been more
noticeable during the past forty or fifty
years than that which has been manifested
in the manner in which articles of food

I. Tub Premises.

G. F. KELLNER & CO.
2. Showroom. 3. Bonded Wakehoise. 4. collection of Kellner's Specialities.

5 Refreshment Room at Howrah (Calcutta) Station.

132

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

and drink have been prepared and served
to the general public. This is the out-
come of a truer conception of the laws
of hygiene and sanitation ; and applied
science has, through its multifarious chan-
nels, been called to the aid of law-makers
for the enforcement of medical inspec-
tion not only of the buildings in which
food is handled, but also of the goods
which are intended for the public
market.

Prominent among merchants in the
East who have been successful in re-
moving all causes of complaint as to the
manner in which tinned goods were pre-
pared some years ago, are Messrs. G. F.
Kellncr & Co., of Chowringhee Road in
the city of Calcutta. They went to the
root of the evil, and determined that at
all costs they would completely remodel
the various processes of selection, pre-
paration, preservation, and packing which
had previously been in vogue. Absolute
purity of food was insisted upon, and
the highest scientific skill was displayed
in manufacturing the goods, in packing,
and in hermetically sealing the cans or
tins before they were allowed to be
offered for sale. As a result of this
extreme care, Messrs. Kellner & Co. now
have the supreme satisfaction of seeing
that their efforts have enabled them to
place before the public, in a perfectly
fresh and palatable condition, certain
delicacies, as well as the more solid foods,
of the leading countries of the world.
Public opinion — an unerring guide — has
voted solidly for " Kellners," and as a
consequence the trade of the firm in this
particular branch has increased to such
an e.xtent that they are justified in saying
that they have gained the confidence of
their customers in a manner unparalleled
by any other firm in India.

Messrs. Kellner & Co. are, further,
widely known as proprietors of and
caterers for refreshment-rooms and cars
on the East Indian, Delhi-Umbala-Kalka,
and Simla-Kalka Railways. It must not
be forgotten that the responsibility of
providing meals and refreshments in
trains in Europe is child's-play compared
to similar duties in India. In this country
there is a tropical climate to contend
with ; there are endless worries insepar-
able from the employment of native
servants, and there are innumerable
difficulties connected with the obtaining
of fresh food during long journeys, but
Messrs Kellner & Co. spare neither pains
nor expense in order to make this depart-
ment equally as efficient as that upon any

other railway system in the world, and in
this they have succeeded admirably.

It should be added that the resources
of this firm as caterers are not by any
means limited to dining-cars or refresh-
ment-rooms, as they have been entrusted
with some of the most important contracts
in India, among which the following may
be instanced. They were contractors for
the camp, in the Nepal jungles, of
H.M. the King-Emperor, when he visited
India as Prince of Wales ; and they sup-
plied several other camps at the Delhi
Durbar ; while one undertaking which is
specially deserving of mention was the
" Princes Restaurant " at the Minto fete
at Cal<:utta, when dinners were served
nightly to more than two hundred of the
(51ite of that city, including the Vice-
regal party and Lord Kitchener.

Another branch of this important com-
mercial establishment in the " city of
palaces " is the importation of wines and
spirits, and let it be at once understood
that nothing less than lengthy practical
experience, and sound judgment in blend-
ing, maturing, and bottling would have
enabled Messrs. Kellner & Co. to reach
the proud position which they occupy
to-day as the leading firm of wine and
spirit merchants in Eastern India.

Wines, such as port, sherry, and
Madeira, are imported in bulk, and as
during the voyage they obtain an in-
creased maturity equivalent to about
50 per cent, of their original value, they
can be bottled in the firm's godowns
as required, with the assurance that
freshness and quality cannot be sur-
passed.

The firm's bonded warehouses in Cal-
cutta contain an enormous reserve of a
variety of Highland malt and other
whiskies, and their sixty years of ex-
perience place them in a unique position
with regard to blending and bottling in a
manner suited to the Indian climate. The
last two-mentioned processes are carried
out under the immediate supervision of
expert Europeans, and each cask is sub-
mitted to a thorough test before any of
the spirit is withdrawn for consumption.
Some of the favourite brands issued by
Messrs. Kellner are: "O.H.M.S.,"
" Green Seal," " Red Seal," and " White
Seal," and as a proof of their popularity
it may be said that the quantity of
whisky imported by this firm is three
times greater than that of their nearest
competitor.

Agencies are held for the following
w«ll-known shippers : Pommery, Et

133

Greno, Ayala & Co., St. Marceaux & Co.,
Lalande et Cie, Bordeaux ; Marie et Fils,
Beaunc ; Mackenzie & Co., Jerez de la
Frontera ; Mackenzie DriscoU & Co.,
Oporto ; Blandy Brothers, Madeira ; the
Distillers Company, Ltd., Edinburgh ;
Bass & Co., Burton-on-Trent ; and many
others.

THE KINNIBON JUTE MILLS COMPANY,
LTD.

This company, for whom Messrs. F. W.
Heilgers & Co., of Chartered Bank Build-
ings, Calcutta, are managing agents, was
incorporated on September 14, 1899, with
an authorized capital of Rs. 15,00,000,
divided into 10,000 ordinary shares and
5,000 preference shares, each of Rs. 100.

All kinds of sacking and hcssian cloth
are manufactured in two mills situated
side by side on the left bank of the River
Hooghly at Titaghur, on the Eastern
Bengal State Railway, and about 14 miles
distant from Calcutta. The original mill,
which may be called No. i, was started in
the year 1899, while the foundations of
No. 2 were laid on September 7, 191 2,
and work was commenced about eleven
months later.

Referring to the whole block, it may be
said that the buildings have been con-
structed in a very substantial manner;
they are fitted with the most modern type
of jute machinery and plant, driven by
engines of 4,600 h.p., constructed by
Messrs. Carmichael & Co., of Dundee,
Scotland. There are no fewer than 1,220
looms ; there is a complete up-to-date
installation of electric light, and a private
fire service consisting of modern appli-
ances, in addition to patent " Grinnell "
sprinklers, which have been provided by
Messrs. Mather and Piatt, Ltd., of
London and Calcutta.

Messrs. Heilgers & Co. have their own
launches and lighters between the mills
and Calcutta, whence consignments are
shipped for export to the world's consum-
ing markets ; and great saving in time
and expense is secured owing to the fact
that the mills are connected with the River
Hooghly by a private jetty, and with the
Eastern Bengal State Railway by a branch
siding, these two auxiliaries facilitating
the removal of raw material into the mills
and the transfer of the products of the
looms to the river boats. The daily
average number of labourers is 7,500.

Mill No. 1 had about 360 looms in full
work at the close of the year 1901, but
such steady progress was made that this

P, W. HBILQERS & CO.
1. KiXNiso.v JL'TE Mills, Titaghur. 2. Naiiiati Jute Mills.

134

I. So. I Mill, Titaghir Paper Mills.

F. W. HEILGEBS & CO.
a. Beater House, No. 2 Mill, Titaghir Paper Mills.

3. Xo. 4 M.ACHINE, No. I Mill, Titaghir Paper Mills.

'35

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

number had to be increased from time to
time, until the end of 1915 there were
about 750. The first ordinary dividend,
declared for the year ended on September

30, 1901, was at th« rate of Rs. 10 per
share, and this amount was paid during
the four following years. It should be
mentioned that the increase in the number
of looms just referred to necessitated the
expenditure of considerable sums of
money, and that the greater portion of
such amounts was paid out of revenue.
During the following years the dividend
was Rs. 12 a share, and in 191 2 it was
Rs. 15. The capital of the company was
increased in November 1912 (owing to the
building of mill No. 2) to Rs. 30,00,000,
divided into 15,000 ordinary and a similar
number of preference shares, each of
Rs. 100.

The balance-sheets of that date give
the following satisfactory particulars : On
September 30, 1913, a sum of Rs. 25 per
share was paid on the old ordinary share
capital of Rs. 10,00,000, and on the new
issu« of Rs. 5,00,000 a dividend was paid
of Rs. 10 per share for the half-year end-
ing on March 31, 19 14 (equal to 20 per
cent, per annum); a similar amount was
declared six months later; and on March

31, 191 5, there was another payment of
Rs. 10 per share, together with a bonus, at
the same rate, on all ordinary shares,
while another Rs. 30 per share has just
been declared for the half-year ending
September 30, 191 5, making a total dis-
tribution of Rs. 50 per share on the
ordinary share capital for the year ending
on that date.

During the whole of this period a very
considerable amount has been transferred
annually to depreciation and reserve fund
accounts, and these payments are a sure
indication of the prosperotus condition of
the company's affairs.

The directors of the company, whose
registered offices are at Chartered Bank
Buildings, Calcutta, are Sir Allan Arthur,
Mr. T. E. T. Upton, and Mr. W. L.
Carey.

THE NAIHATI JUTE HILLS COMPANY,
LTD.

The mills owned by this company are
situated at Hajeenuggar, near Naihati, a
station on the Eastern Bengal State Rail-
way, and 24 miles distant from Calcutta.

The capital (issued) consists of ordinary
and preference shares amounting respec-
tively to Rs. 6,00,000 and Rs. 7,50,000,
making a total of Rs. 13,50,000, and

ordinary dividends have been paid as
follows : for half-year ended December
31, 1907, the suni of Rs. 3 per share',
similar amounts on June 30 and Decem-
ber 31, 1908 and 1909, Rs. 5 on
December 31, 1914, and Rs.5 on June 30,
1915.

The mill was erected in 1905, and in
the following year work was commenced
with 350 looms, but the excellent and
up-to-date plant now consists of 430
looms and 8,544 spindles.

The managing agents are Messrs.
F. W. Hqilgers & Co., and they have
had the buildings fitted with all modern
improvements (similar to the Kinnison
mills), including electric lighting appa-
ratus and a private fire service ; and as
the mill is situated on a bank of the River
Hooghly and practically adjoins the rail-
way, it has the benefit of being secured',
in the movement of produce, by a jetty
connecting with barges and by a branch
railway siding.

Steam is the motive power of the
machinery, among which is an engine (by
Carmichael, of Dundee) of 1,800 h.p.;
and some 12,000 tons of sacking and
hessian goods are manufactured annually.

About 3,800 labourers are employed
constantly. The registered offices of the
company are at Chartered Bank Build-
ings, Calcutta, and the directors' are
Messrs. Shirley Tremearne, H. F.
Yeoman, and W. L. Carey.

THE TITAGHUR PAPER MILLS COMPANY,
LTD.

Industrial concerns in India using in-
digenous raw materials for consumption,
and depending almost wholly upon local
markets for the disposal of their products,
are remarkably few in number in com-
parison with the vast material wealth of
the country.

Development has taken place in certain
directions since the middle of the nine-
teenth century, but much remains to be
done, especially with regard to the manu-
facture of articles necessary for domestic
purposes.

Printing, wrapping, writing, and other
papers are required in business houses,
offices, and private residences every day
throughout the year; but large quantities
are being imported from Europe, although
the necessity for this should not arise,
seeing that an abundance of suitable fibres
are available in this country. It is there-
fore refreshing to witness the activities
of the Titaghur Paper Mills Company,
J 36

Ltd., which is one of the largest concerns
of its kind in the British Empire, and
which depends entirely upon local sources
for its supplies.

The company are owners of two mills,
situated at Titaghur and Kankinara, which
are 14 miles and 25 miles distant from
Calcutta respectively, and each of these
has four paper-making machines.

The first-named mill was started in
July 1884 with one machine; a second
and third were added in 1886 and 1893;
while the other mill, having three
machines, was constructed in the year
1893 by the Imperial Paper Mills Com-
pany, who went into liquidation in 1903,
when the property was acquired by the
Titaghur Company.

Three years later the Bally Paper Mills
— the oldest in Bengal — were in the
market, and, with the view of controlling
production and of restricting competition,
the Titaghur directors purchased the
undertaking and removed its two manu-
facturing machines to Titaghur and
Kankinara.

The machinery at Titaghur is now
driven by electricity, the power being
derived from steam turbines, while at
Kankinara the main drive is accomplished
by one triple-expansion 1,100 h.p. engine
with rope drives throughout. There are
four Lancashire boilers working at a pres-
sure of 100 lb., three others at 120 lb.,
and four at 160 lb. The mills not only
have the advantage of an unfailing supply
of water from the River Hooghly, upon
whose bank they are erected, but they
have, further, sidings upon the Eastern
Bengal Railway system and river jetties
to facilitate the dispatch of goods.

Each property has excellent workshops
for mechanics, blacksmiths, joiners, and
plumbers ; the shops contain an unlimited
supply of tools of the latest approved
pattern, and the staff of trained work-
people are under the constant supervision
of four European superintendents.

The annual output of the two mills is
about 1 9, 000 tons, and the products,
which are of admirable quality, comprise
papers known as engine and tub-sized
cream wove, cream laid, bank posts, azure
laid, white and toned printing, coloured
printing, white and brown cartridges,
Badami, Manila, and glazed art. All the
raw materials are obtained locally, and
they consist chiefly of Sabai grass, hemp,
and cotton and jute rags; but when the
price of sulphite wood is suitable certain
quantities are imported, though the mills
are in no way dependent upon this supply.

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

The labour question here is not the
same serious difficulty as it is in many
parts of India, and even in Bengal, hence
it is tliat the company have no trouble in
obtaining a sufficient number of intelligent
workmen who readily adapt themselves to
all the processes of manufacture. Climatic
conditions naturally have a somewhat
prejudicial effect upon the physical
powers of the average Indian labourer,
and thus it is found that three nativeiS
are required at Titaghur to accomplish
the same amount of work as would be
done by one operative in an English
factory.

The European staff — consisting of
married and single men — have been pro-
vided by the company with comfortably
furnished dwelling-houses, and they
reciprocate the thoughtful care of the
directors by vieing with one another in
making their quarters as neat and
attractive as possible.

Each mill has a soda-recovery plant on
the multiple evaporator principle, and a
thoroughly efficient fire service gives the
utmost protection to employees as well
as to the premises and their contents,
while ample accommodation in the shape
of godowns is provided for the storage
of raw materials, chemicals, and products
of the mills. In short, the whole concern
compares most favourably with others of
its kind in Europe or elsewhere.

The Titaghur Paper Mills Company,
Ltd., with head offices at Chartered Bank
Buildings, in Calcutta (the managing
agents being Messrs. F. W. Heilgers &
Co.), was registered in the year 1882, the
local directors Ix-ing Mr. Guy Shorrock,
the Hon. J. C. Shorrock, Mr. R. H. A.
Gresson, Mr. Shirley Tremearne, and a
member of the firm. The general manager
at the mills is Mr. William Bryce.

EDWARD KEVENTEB

Dairying is not, and it is doubtful if
it ever can be, carried on in India as it
is in New Zealand, Australia, the British
Isles, and in many other countries of
Europe where this exceedingly profitable
industry is conducted on truly scientific
principles.

There are many conditions existing in
India which seem to preclude all possi-
bility of its becoming a payable branch
of agriculture, and in the forefront of un-
favourable features is the climate of this
vast country. There are huge tracts where

ie intense heat dries up all vegetation,
:■"""■■■■"■"■■■""■■'""■"

to starvation; then there are monsoons
which turn thousands of acres into huge
lakes, or they form roaring torrents of
water which sweep away herds, flocks, and
studs; and finally the indigenous cattle
consist very largely of animals which are
unable to yield returns of greater value
than the cost of their keep. It must be
remembered that dairying is largely a
question of feeding, and in order that a
cow may give a large quantity of milk,
rich in butter fat, it must have good food.
Dairying as an industry is inseparable
from scientific agriculture, and with agri-
cultural methods such as are commonly
practised in India it is obviously impos-
sible to expect great things at present.

Then again, there is an unusually large
proportion of small holdings — plots they
are in reality, but called " holdings " by
courtesy, upon which it would be nothing
short of a miracle for a single cow to be
reared. At the same time it is admitted
that one does occasionally see a dairy
farm conducted on modern principles, but
they are few and far between, a leading
directory stating that there are not more
than about eighty in the whole of India.

One of the principal dairy farmers in
India is Mr. Edward Keventer, of the
Aligarh Dairy Farm in the United Pro-
vinces of Agra and Oudh, who has similar
concerns at Ballygunge, in the muni-
cipality of Tollygunge, near Calcutta, and
at Delhi, Simla, Karachi, and Darjeeling.

Mr. Keventer experienced the greatest
difficulty in obtaining land for a farm near
Calcutta, but eventually he succeeded in
purchasing about fifteen acres of land at
Ballygunge, about five miles from the city,
and as the area is so small it can only be
regarded as a kind of exercising place
for the cattle. A small quantity of arti-
ficial food is produced, but the major por-
tion is purchased elsewhere.

There are about a hundred cows in full
milk, the majority of which are of the
Montgomery or Hissar strains, and the
whole of the milk is sent twice daily to
the proprietor's retail shop in Lindsay
Street, Calcutta. A couple of fine bulls
are kept on the farm, but Mr. Keventer
draws largely upon his stud property at
Aligarh for newly calved cows to fill
vacancies at Ballygunge.

An imported Ayrshire bull was used,
as an experiment, at Tara Devi Farm,
Simla, and the heifers resulting from the
cross give great promise of becoming very
valuable cows for dairy purposes.

The dairy is a model of cleanliness;
there is an abundance of fresh air, and

'37

the cemented floors are constantly washed
with a plentiful supply of water. All
pails, bottles, tins, and other utensils are
thoroughly cleansed twice daily; they are
first rinsed out with clean water, then they
are placed in a tub containing water with
an admixture of soda, in which the
interiors are steamed three times; that
operation is followed by a washing with a
solution of Condy's fluid, then they are
carefully brushed out with freshwater, and
finally they are sterilized.

Few dairies can boast of such complete
processes of purification, and this fact —
coupled with the extremely satisfactory
quality of the milk — accounts for the fact
that Mr. Keventer always has a long list
of names of persons waiting to become
regular customers.

A steam boiler is used for providing a
sufficient supply of hot water, and an oil
engine is employed for cutting fodder and
crushing grain.

Mr. Keventer realizes that the most pro-
fitable cow is very rarely the heaviest
milker, and that the only method of ascer-
taining whether an animal is paying its
way is to keep careful records of the tests
made of its daily yield. The milk of
each cow is weighed as soon as it is given,
and a discrepancy between the yields of
successive days is followed by a strict
examination of the manner in which the
servants perform the operation of milking.
When the process of testing reveals the
fact that there is a diminution in the per-
centage of butter fat, a change of diet
may be tried, but the more usual plan
is to replace the cow by a newly calved
animal.

Mr. Keventer exercises the greatest care
in the selection of his breeding stock, and
bulls as well as cows must give evidence
that they belong to good milking strains.

The large shed which is used at milk-
ing and feeding times consists of a cor-
rugated iron roof supported on substan-
tial brick pillars, and the cows are chained
on either side of a cemented double
manger which runs the whole length of
the building, while the floor and drainage
channels are also of brickwork.

There is another shed of smaller dimen-
sions, together with a few well-constructed
separate enclosures, or loose boxes, which
are occupied by about sixty calves and
young heifers. The floors of all build-
ings are kept scrupulously clean by wash-
ing and scrubbing, and all superfluous
water is quickly removed along the
numerous excellent channels which have
been constructed.

EDWARD KEVENTER.
I, The Calcitta Shop (Lindsay Street). 2. Ballyglnge Farm. 3, Ballvglnge Farm Cattle.

5. Headquarters, Aligarh, UP. 0. i.n the Dairy.

4. Ballyginge Farm Cattle.

138

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

Few farm servants can boast of finer
or more airy quarters, with brick walls,
corrugated iron roofs, and cemented floors,
than those here provided, but Mr.
Keventer believes in doing things
thoroughly, and he has no sympathy with
primitive bamboo or grass huts with
ordinary mud floors.

The farm, which is ably managed by
Mr. R. VV'ernlund, is connected by tele-
phone with the retail stores in Calcutta.

Mr. Keventer's dairy stores in Calcutta
are situated at 6 Lindsay Street, a busy
thoroughfare in the centre of the city and
almost adjoining the Sir Stewart Hogg
market.

The fresh milk yielded at Ballygunge is
sent twice daily to the stores for dispatch
to the owner's regular customers, while
daily supplies of sterilized milk, JFresh
butter in packets and tins, and of cream
and cream cheese are received from
.•Vligarh. Ice chests are kept in the shop
for the storage of butter, cheese, and
cream, and a large number of bottles of
sterilized milk are always on hand in order
that extra demands may be fully met.

A very extensive connection has been
established between the stores and ship-
ping authorities, the principal hotels,
restaurants, clubs, and scholastic and other
institutions, while dozens of bottles of
sterilized milk are — in normal times-
supplied to persons who are taking
young children to European and other
countries.

Mr. Keventer is agent for the Dairy
Supply Company, Ltd., of London, and
keeps in stock a large quantity of dairy
appliances, such as " Alfa-Laval " cream
separators, pasteurizers, coolers, milk and
cream vessels of all descriptions, milk-
testing appliances and other sundries,
while he is also agent for the well-known
Darjeeling tea obtained from the Lopchu
Estate belonging to Messrs. Langmore
Brothers.

Mustard oil for cooking, medical, and
other purposes (manufactured at the
Aligarh farm) is also kept for sale in the
stores.

Scores of medals and certificates have
been awarded to Mr. Keventer's produce
at exhibitions, and the proprietor has had
the honour of receiving appointments as
purveyor to His Majesty the King-
Emperor, King George V, the Right Hon.
Baron Hardinge of Penshurst, G.C.LE.,
G.C.S.L, the Right Hon. the Earl of
Elgin, P.C, the Right Hon. the Earl of
Minto, P.C, and a number of other
notable personages.

The manager of the stores is Mr. A.
Shepherd.

KILBURN & CO.

The premises at 4 Fairlie Place, Cal-
cutta, occupied by Messrs. Kilburn & Co.,
general merchants and agents, were in
existence when Calcutta was in the
making, when the mud-staimed waters of
the Hooghly were free from intrusions by
ocean-going cargo or passenger steamers,
and when the pioneers of industrial enter-
prise in Bengal were few in number. The
very walls must be saturated with his-
tory, and if it were possible to glean
secrets from them there would be revealed
many stories of mercantile enterprise and
of vicissitudes in commercial life; but as
far as Messrs. Kilburn & Co.'s property
is concerned there can be no more soul-
stirring episode than that which occurred
during the Mutiny, when a meeting of
merchants was held in the old drawing-
room to consider the question of defence,
with the result that Mr. Edward Dunbar
Kilburn was instrumental in enrolling the
Calcutta Volunteer Cavalry for service in
case of necessity.

The firm was founded in the year 1842
by Mr. C. E. Schoene, who opened ofiices
at 4 Garstin's Place, business premises
at 4 Fairlie Place, and godowns at the
last-named address and in Clive Street.
Mr. E. D. Kilburn commenced his busi-
ness career in London with his uncle, who
was trading in silk and silk piece goods,
and on his arrival in India, in 1847, he
at once entered into commercial relation-
ships with Mr. Schoene, who admitted
him as partner a couple of years later,
the style of the firm being Schoene,
Kilburn & Co.

The partners confined their early busi-
ness transactions to commission agencies,
and to orders for produce and sales of
imported goods.

With regard to indigo, the firm em-
ployed an expert during the summer
months, who visited continental merchants
dealing in this substance in order to
ascertain their probable requirements, and
the latter were met by Messrs. Schoene
and Kilburn purchasing the necessary
quantity at the autumn sales in Calcutta.

Silk and silk piece goods were pur-
chased respectively in France and
England, cotton was shipped against
orders from Liverpool, and rice was sent
to Melbourne and to Colombo. Orders
for jute were obtained by an agent Sn
Dundee, under cover of credit with

139

London bankers ; shellac, lac-dye, saf-
flower, and other produce were shipped
in small quantities ; hides were consigned
to London and the continent of Europe;
and opium was sent upon instructions
from firms of merchants in Shanghai.

The goods imported and sold on com-
mission about this time included cotton
goods and yarns, French wines and
brandies in large quantities, occasional
copper consignments from Melbourne,
and silk filatures from Messrs. Springfield
Son and Nephew, London. The business
of the firm expanded very rapidly during
the first 20 years of the partnership, and
it is noted that in the year 1865 Messrs.
Schoene, Kilburn & Co. shipped in Cal-
cutta a greater quantity of indigo than
any other firm.

It was in or about that year, too, that
the firm opened a branch establishment
at Manchester, in England, under the
management of Mr. Tolputt, who had
been connected with the Calcutta house
for a number of years, and this step had
a very far-reaching effect upon the turn-
over of the firm. Advance in one direc-
tion led to a corresponding movement in
another, as the firm opened up a trade
in the mofussil which has, in its growth,
exceeded all expectations.

Indigo planters were at this time
making huge annual profits, and many
of them, confident in the security of their
invested capital, resided in England,
leaving the supervision of their concerns
to managers whose names are still held
in the highest esteem, especially in Behar
and Orissa. Parenthetically, it should be
mentioned here that this prosperity con-
tinued, with few interruptions, until the
year 1899, when the discovery of syn-
thetic dye temporarily checked the
cultivation of indigo and caused planters
to resort to the manufacture of sugar.
The export of this dye continued to be
one of the most important branches of
the firm's business, although consign-
ments of general produce, including
Bengal silk, cotton, hides, and tobacco,
were sent more frequently and in larger
quantities to Europe.

In the earlier years of the firm's exist-
ence, shipping matters generally played
an important part in general commercial
enterprise, and Messrs. Schoene, Kilburn
& Co. became representatives of the then
famous East Indiamen frigate-built ships,
among which were the Hotspur and St.
Lawrence (commanded respectively by
those well-known mariners Captains
Henry and Joseph Toynbee), the Lord

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Warden (Captain Smith), the Superb
(Captain Jones), the Winchester, Essex,
and many others. Further, the firm had
the honour of receiving in Calcutta
waters, in the year 1870, the first
steamers of the Blue Cross Line which
made the voyage to India by way of the
Suez Canal.

The earliest direct agencies undertaken
by the firm were the Durrung Tea Com-
pany, Ltd., in the year 1865, and the
Assam Company, in 1867; while now
(1916) they are managing agents for the
India General Navigation and Railway
Company, Ltd., which issues bookings on
steamships and railways between Calcutta
and Eastern Bengal, Assam, Cachar, and
the Ganges ; the Raneegunge Coal
Association, Ltd. ; the Indian Collieries
Syndicate, Ltd.; the Bansra Coal Com-
pany, Ltd. ; the Darjeeling Tea and Cin-
chona Association, Ltd. ; the Kuturi Tea
Company Ltd. ; the Kornauli Association,
Ltd.; Kodala, Ltd.; the Pashok Tea
Company, Ltd.; Oodaleah, Ltd.; the
Pahargoomiah Tea Association, Ltd. ; the
Rampore Tea Estate, Ltd.; the Sylhet
Lime Company, Ltd. ; the Russa En-
gineering Works, Ltd.; the Assam Com-
pany; the Lopchu Tea Estate; the New
Terai Association, Ltd.; the Maul vie Tea
Estate; the Norwich Union Fire Insur-
ance Society, Ltd. ; the Commercial
Union Assurance Company, Ltd.; the
Diamond Drill Syndicate; Messrs. H.
Bull & Co., Ltd. ; and the Crushed Lime-
stone Syndicate ; while they are general
agents and supervising engineers of the
Indian Electric Supply and Traction
Company, Ltd.

The changes in the personnel of the
partnership have been numerous during
the three-quarters of a century of the
firm's history, and the following refer-
ences have been obtained from private
documents. Mr. C. E. Schoene com-
menced business in 1842; he admitted
Mr. Edward Dunbar Kilburn as a partner
on May l, 1849, and the latter retired in
1900. Messrs. George Adie and R. L.
Eglinton joined the firm after the retire-
ment of Mr. F. A. Jung in 1863; Mr.
Robert Brown Mackay and Henry Tolputt
were given shares in the business in 1865 ;
Mr. Henry Francis Brown held interests
from May 1866 until his retirement in
April 1911; Messrs. W. R. Brown and
Charles Kilburn were admitted in May
1873 ; Messrs. John Macfadyen and
Alfred Simson followed in 1883; Mr.
William Henry Chcetham in 1889;
Messrs. W. D. Kilburn and Charles Con-

ning Kilburn in May 1893; Sir Ralph
P. Ashton in 1900; Messrs. Charles
John Elton and Seton George Legge
Eustace in 191 1; while the partners at
the present time are Messrs. A. Simson,
W. H. Cheetham, C. C. Kilburn, Sir
R. P. Ashton, Kt., C. J. Elton (London),
S. G. L. Eustace, and E. P. J. de B.
Oakley (Calcutta).

Mr. Edward Dunbar Kilburn, who
played a most important part in the
establishment and the subsequent activi-
ties of the firm now under notice, had
an almost inexhaustible fund of historical
incidents relating to the early days of
Calcutta, but he will be best remembered
for the spirit of intense loyalty which he
exhibited during the troublous days lead-
ing up to the Mutiny. Mr. Kilburn went
on a business visit to China in the year
1856, and upon hearing, on his return, of
the disaffection which was spreading in
certain parts of India, he called upon
Lord Canning at Government House and
offered his personal services, and any
other help which he might be able to
obtain, in order to protect the lives of
peaceable and law-abiding citizens. The
result of the interview was that Mr.
Kilburn, with characteristic enthusiasm,
summoned a meeting of leading commer-
cial men, and the old drawing-room in
Fairlie Place witnessed the formation of
the Calcutta Volunteer Cavalry, of which
Mr. Kilburn was gazetted captain. This
gentleman lavishly spent both time and
money in assisting the Government to
suppress disloyalty, and the services
rendered by him were so highly appre-
ciated by the Viceroy that the latter
decided to recommend Mr. Kilburn for
the distinguished honour of a Com-
panionship of the Bath. Lord Canning,
however, died before effect could be given
to his desire, and thus a patriotic and
devoted servant of the Crown was denied
that official recognition which his meri-
torious conduct richly deserved.

*?;

THE RUSSA ENGINEERING WORKS,
LTD.

The Russa Engineering Works, Ltd.,
was founded as a private company in
1904, but it may be described as a branch
of the engineering department of Messrs.
Kilburn & Co., of 4 Fairlie Place, Cal-
cutta, who are now the managing agents
of the concern.

Originally the bulk of the work under-
taken consisted of contracts for electric
installations in mills and factories
140

throughout India, and Messrs. Kilburn &
Co. were the pioneers of electric enter-
prises in the Indian Empire. In about
the year 1898 they obtained the conces-
sion for the public supply of electricity
in Calcutta, and they floated and were
the first managing agents of the Calcutta
Electric Supply Corporation, Ltd. The
installation of electric lights and fans in
Calcutta was an important branch of their
business, and this branch is continued,
coupled with the work of complete elec-
tric installations in the collieries of
Bengal and in jute and cotton mills.

The advent of the motor-car neces-
sitated the building of workshops, and
the mechanical engineering side of the
Russa Engineering Works started opera-
tions with a small plant consisting of
three machines. The work turned out
gave such satisfaction to clients that
extensions of the premises soon became
necessary. These were duly carried out
prior to the year 1906, when the original
company was formed into a limited
liability company, with a capital of
Rs. 3,25,000, and from that date the
works have steadily increased in size and
prosperity. In 191 2 the works consisted
of 8 bays, three of which were
occupied by the machine-shop, holding
22 machine tools of various types, and
the remainder of the buildings were
devoted to motor-car repair work.

At this date there was a large tank on
the west side of the actual buildings, but
this was filled up in order to provide
ground for further extensions; and at the
end of 19 1 5 the premises consisted of
13 bays, arrangements having been made
for large stores and car body building
and painting departments. In this
department there are two universal wood-
working machines, circular and band
saws, and all types of motor-car bodies
are now being made and completed
throughout under expert European super-
vision.

A special type of body has been
adopted for fitting to the standard Ford
model chassis, and a large demand has
been met for high-class body-work of this
description. Platform and charabanc
bodies are also under construction for
fitting to commercial cars' chassis, and
this business, too, shows an ever-
increasing growth throughout India.
During the year 191 5 the machine-shop
had been expanded to four bays, and
further provision having been found
necessary for repairs to motor-cars and
lorries (particularly the latter), a new

THE BUS8A ENGINEERING WORKS (KILBURN & CO.).
I. General View of Works from Roadway. 2. Motor-car Repair Shop. 3. View ok Machine Shop.

4. View of Machine SHor.

141

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

erecting and testing shed was added to
the buildings early in 191 6. This shed
measures 150 feet by 50 feet, with
height of 40 feet, and is probably the
largest building in India devoted to the
special purpose of testing and overhauling
cars. The works also comprise a large
blacksmith's shop with pneumatic-power
hammer, as well as an up-to-date foundry,
which deals with all the castings required
by the machine-shop, whether in cast iron,
brass, or gun-metal. It should be noted
that very special attention is given in this
foundry to high-class castings for gear
wheels used in jute-mill machinery.

One might observe here that it is a
matter of general interest to note the in-
creased size and output of the machine-
shop of the Russa Engineering Works,
Ltd. Primarily the machine-shop was
opened to meet the demands of the motor-
car repairing department for spare parts
of cars, and it was therefore equipped
with the latest type of machine tools
and gear-cutting plant, the number of
machines in work in 191 1 being 20.
About this time the question of manufac-
turing spares for jute-mill machinery was
taken in hand, and the result of the first
move in this direction was an immediate
and ever-growing demand for spares, such
as necks and step bearings, spinning
spindles, cop spindles, faller bars, roving
spindles, roving necks, sack sewing-
machine gears (worm and bevel), mangle
pinions, and other accessories. This
demand was met by the introduction of
new machinery of the very latest types,
comprising turret and engine lathes, also
universal milling machines and grinding
plant, and the machine-shop has now
the most up-to-date and complete plant
for light, accurate machine work in
India.

The following machinery has been
erected : engine lathes, 22; turret lathes,
II; machines for milling, 4; gear cut-
ting, 3 ; drilling, 5 ; grinding, 8 ;
woodworking, 4 ; slotting, i ; hand-
tajxping, 2 ; hand-milling, 2 ; power
metal saws, 2; straightening presses, 2;
hardening furnaces, 2. The latest
methods have also been adopted for
hardening gears by the use of gas-fired
furnaces, controlled by electrical pyro-
meters, and a very high reputation has
been gained for gear cutting of all types.
Motor-car gears naturally predominate,
but worm gears for lifts, collieries, and
heavy duties generally are now part of
the regular output of the shops. Oxy-
acetylene plant has also been installed.

and is largely used for repairing broken
castings in cast iron and aluminium.

Owing to the special facilities afforded
by this machine-shop, the car-repairing
department has also steadily increased its
output, and holds a very high reputation
all over India. The ever-increasing
demand for motor-cars in Calcutta during
the past five years has been met by the
Russa Engineering Works taking up
agencies for such well-known cars as the
Siddeley-Deasy, the Rover, the Humber,
the Briton, the Autocarrier, and the
Singer cars from England, and the Hud-
son, the Jeffery, the Regal, and the all-
popular Ford car from America. The
sales of this last make of car have
now reached an average of 30 per
month.

Commercial cars have also not been
overlooked, and the firm hold the agency
for the famous Albion lorries, which are
so highly appreciated by the War Office
in England that the factory is solely
engaged in supplying their requirements,
and are unable to accept orders for ship-
ment to India. The Chase motor-lorry
is also being imported from America in
the i-ton, 2-ton, and 35-ton models, and
many sales have been effected of these
useful cars. In general, it can be said
that the Russa Engineering Works, Ltd.,
have kept in touch with ,all the latest
movements in the motor engineering
world.

Reference has already been made to the
very fine machine-shop installed at the
works, and since February 1915 the major
portion of its plant has been solely
engaged on munition work. A night shift
has been in operation since July 191 5,
and a steadily increasing output is given
to the Government authorities. Primarily
the plant is engaged in manufacturing
fuse needle holders for shrapnel shell, and
at a recent date large orders have been
received from the Gun Carriage Factory.
Jubbulpore, for elevating gear for gun-
carriages, which work involves the utmost
accuracy in screw cutting, gear making,
and other operations. A larger output
on munitions work has been engaging the
attention of the directors for some time
past, but the management is unfortunately
much handicapped by the shortage of
skilled native labour at the present time
in Calcutta.

Agencies have been established at
Lahore, Karachi, and Dibrugarh, thus
affording facilities for the numerous
clients of the company who live at a
distance from the capital city.

■142

The managing agents of the company
are Messrs. Kilburn & Co.

"««

W. LESLIE & CO. m

Chowringhee Road, Calcutta, contains
some remarkably fine residential mansions
and business establishments, and promi-
nent among the latter are the two capa-
cious buildings, 3 and 5, occupied as
shops and storerooms by Messrs. W.
Leslie & Co., hardware and metal mer-
chants, mechanical engineers. Government
contractors, and agents for motor-cars
and cycles. Their works are situated at
60 Dhurrumtollah Street, and the shops
for blacksmiths, fitters, turners, foundry-
men, and plumbers are fitted with
thoroughly up-to-date machinery, which
is controlled by European engineers.
The firm's godowns in Mali Sil Street
are connected with the premises, 3
Chowringhee Road, and they are literally
packed from roof to floor with an almost
endless quantity of hardware goods of
all descriptions, of which Messrs. Leslie
& Co. are said to be the largest importers
in Calcutta.

The business, established in the year
1890, has increased with great rapidity,
and, in addition to the magnitude of their
trade relationships in every district in
India, the firm are now supplying
immense quantities of stores for the
military and railway authorities. It is
only recently that the British Government
ordered piping, many miles in length, for
war purposes in Mesopotamia, but this is
only an individual item culled from a
lengthy list of orders for goods of a
similar character.

It is extremely difficult to know where
to commence in attempting to give even a
brief description of the mass of the con-
tents of Messrs. Leslie & Co.'s premises.
They supply portable, fixed, vertical, and
horizontal steam engines, vertical and
other boilers, oil engines, saw benches,
screw-cutting lathes, pneumatic-power
hammers, and Morgans' crucibles and
furnaces. The motor department com-
prises Scripps, Booth, Singer, Belsizc.
Delage, Hotchkiss, Rudge-Multi, and
other motor-cycles, auto-wheels, oil and
acetylene lamps, tyres, saddles, and, in
fact, numerous accessories for motor-cars.
A special feature is made of the sale of
tools for carpenters, blacksmiths, plate-
layers, tinsmiths, and boilermakers, and
they are agents for Messrs. Cammell,
Laird & Co.'s files, Sir Joseph Jonas and
Colver's files and steel sets of engineering

2, Showroom (Klrnishing).

W. LESLIE & CO.
3. Showroom (Motor-cars, Bicvcles, and Typewriters;.
5. Machine Tool Department,

4, Metals and Timber Store,

143

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

and carpenters' tools. Household fur-
nishings and appointments include writing
and roll-top desks, silver and electro-
plated goods, chairs, tables, brackets,
lamps, cutlery, ice-chests, churns, glass-
ware, bedsteads, mattresses, matting, and
cooking utensils of all descriptions. The
requirements of planters, contractors, and
agriculturists have been fully considered,
and one can select the best types of
weighing machines, axes, bellows, belting,
benches, cement, chains, forges, hammers,
tea sieves (imported from Japan),
pruning knives, lawn-mowers, kodallies,
jacks, crushing-mills, rice-huUers, hoes,
spades, and almost every description of
machinery. The godowns contain a very
large quantity of bolts and nuts, the
largest stock of wire nails in India, more
than loo tons of paint, iron rods, wire
for fencing, barbed wire, iron hooping
for tea chests, pumps, cisterns, files, and
a miscellaneous assortment of hardware
goods.

Messrs. W. Leslie & Co. are agents in
Calcutta for the famous " Underwood "
and " Bijou " typewriters, each of which
has become exceedingly popular in its
own sphere of work. The foolscap model
(No. 5) of the first-named machine takes
a sheet of paper 10 in. in width, and it is
found in nearly all Government offices
in India as well as in many other coun-
tries. Other sizes are kept in stock, and
one of these will write a single line not
less than 24 in. in length. Grand and
gold medals, prizes, and diplomas have
been awarded to the manufacturers during
the past fifteen or twenty years at exhi-
bitions held at places situated so widely
apart as Paris, Buffalo, Venice, Rome,
St. Louis, Jamestown, Oregon, Petrograd,
Philadelphia, Buenos Ayres, Barcelona,
Glasgow, and London.

The " Bijou " machine, weighing about
8 lb., is a great boon to the traveller, as
its bulk can be so reduced that it can be
fitted into a neat and compact leather
travelling case, similar to a handbag, and
when folded it measures only loj by 5
by 8 in. More than sixteen thousand of
these typewriters have been sold in the
course of twelve months.

One might extend this list almost in-
definitely, but sufficient has been said to
show that Messrs. W. Leslie & Co. have
built up a very large and prosperous con-
nection with customers in all parts of
India, and the fact that a very lar.ge
number of their patrons have supported
them continuously for a number of years
is abundant evidence of the sterling

worth of the goods sold by the firm,
and of the careful and expeditious manner
with which all commissions are executed.

The proprietor of the concern is Mr.
W. Leslie, who is assisted by his partners,
Mr. M. J. Leslie and Mr. J. F. Greig.

About 500 hands are employed in the
engineering works in Dhurrumtollah
Street, and about 150 in the shops and
stores in Chowringhee Road.

THE LINDE BRITISH REFRIGERATION
COMPANY, LTD.

This company, whose head offices are
at 35 Queen Victoria Street, London,
E.C., had works in England, at Shadwell
and Birmingham, before establishing their
first factory in India in 1901, at 138 Bal-
liaghatta Road, Calcutta, when a Linde
Refrigerating Plant on the ammonia
system was installed to produce 26 to
27 tons of ice daily and with, in addition,
refrigerated stores for about 800 tons of
ice. In this plant two single-acting hori-
zontal compressors were driven direct
from the crank-shaft of a marine type
inverted, triple-expansion, jet-condensing
engine, working with steam at i6o lb.
pressure from two " Economic " boilers
fitted with return tubes. The ice was
manufactured on the " can system " in
blocks of 250 lb. and 18 of these cans or,
2 tons, constituted one lift, or about one
hour's working from the ice tank.

In 1903 it was found that increasing
business demanded extension of plant, and
a second unit, almost exactly similar to
the first, was installed, thus raising the
ice production to 52 or 54 tons per day.

Ten years later a third extension was
n'.ide bringing the out-turn of ice up to
more than 80 tons daily, but instead of
using steam in this last unit, two Diesel
engines were fitted, one operating the
ammonia compressor through a rope
drive, and the other coupled direct to a
dynamo generating the electric current
for driving the auxiliary gear, the electric
ice-lifting crane, and other machinery.
The compressors, condensers, and ice
tank evaporators of the three units are
so arranged as to allow the different com-
pressors to be used in conjunction with
any of the ice tanks or condensers. The
ice produced is very clear and hard and
is of a readily marketable size for all pur-
poses, the blocks being 43 in. by 24 in.
by 8 in., and arc easily cut to suit smaller
requirements.

In 1912 the Linde Company opened an
ice factory at Byculla Bridge, Bombay,
144

where the most modern ice-making plant
in India was installed. This was on the
" plate system," whereby absolutely
transparent blocks of ice 12 in. in thick-
ness and weighing about 5 tons each are
made. The Bombay works can produce
a daily quantity of 70 tons, and they also
have refrigerated storage capacity for a
stock of about 700 tons. Plans are
already out for a duplication of this plant.
Internal combustion engines are employed
to drive the ammonia compressors and
auxiliaries, and the engine-room is well
laid out and ranks with the finest in India.
In addition to ice-producing plants, the
Linde Company have, at the same
addresses in Calcutta and Bombay, sepa-
rate factories wherein oxygen of high
purity is mechanically produced from
liquid air. The first of these works (and
the first to be established in India) was
started in 191 2, and for some time the
Calcutta works forwarded supplies to
Bombay, but as the demands for oxygen
gas by engineering firms and shipyards
in the latter city increased, an oxygen
factory was built at Byculla Bridge, Bom-
bay, in 19 1 4. The air and oxygen com-
pressors and auxiliaries are, in both
places, driven by internal combustion
engines, and these works undoubtedly
established the use of oxygen for welding
and metal-cutting in India and developed
its employment for other purposes, as,
prior to their erection, all the oxygen
for India was imported from England or
the continent of Europe, and the freight
and charges prohibited it from being em-
ployed to any extent. Oxygen is supplied
in cylinders containing 20, 40, 100, and
200 cub. ft. at a pressure of 120 atmo-
spheres, the two smaller sizes being used
for medical and limelight work, and the
two larger for welding and metal cutting.
Describing the process of manufacture of
the gas, notes in a Journal of Proceedings
of the Institution of Mechanical Engin-
eers, dated Calcutta 19 12- 13, say that
" the plant depends upon a method by
which a moderate amount of refrigeration,
produced by the expansion of a gas which
has been previously cooled, may be accu-
mulated and intensified until it reaches
the point at which the gas becomes liquid,
at, or slightly above, atmospheric pres-
sure. The expanded gas is directed over
coils which contain the compressed gas,
and a much lower temperature is the
result. The intensification of cooling con-
tinues, and the effect is so powerful that
even the small amount of cooling, due
to the free expansion of gas through a

THE -LINDE BRITISH REFRIGERATOR COMPANY, LTD.
I. THE Ice Factory in Caixl-jta. 2. Oxyhf.x Factoky ix Cai.citta. 3. Some oi- thk Machinery in the Ice Factory Engine-room.

4. General View of, Machinery in the Oxygen Factory. 5- Native Mistry .Welding by ;he Oxy-Acktu i-.ne Pkcckss.

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

throttle valve, may be made to liquefy
air without using any other refrigeration.
After passing through lime purifiers,
atmospheric air enters the first stage of
the air compressor, and is delivered
through water-cooled coils before enter-
ing the second stage. When the com-
pressor is first started, the final pressure
is 2,000 lb. to the sq. in., but, after
liquefaction has taken place, the normal
working pressure during the actual
separation of the oxygen and nitrogen
falls to about 720 lb. per sq. in."

The oxygen gas is drawn by a three-
stage compressor from a large gas-holder,
and is compressed into steel cylinders
to a pressure of 120 atmospheres
(1,800 lb.) to the sq. in.

Air contains about 79" i per cent, of
nitrogen, and 20"9 per cent, of oxygen,
and a healthy person consumes about
20 ft. of the latter in the course of 24
hours. An individual may suffer through
the presence of noxious gases in the
atmosphere, or through enfeebled res-
piration, and as the inhalation of oxygen
is then of vital importance, it will be
understood that the company have, by
providing this chemically pure gas (com-
pressed into cylinders so as to be readily
transported), furnished the medical pro-
fession with a therapeutic agent of which
they have not been slow to avail them-
selves. Oxygen is now used with signal
success in cases of asphyxia, in the treat-
ment of wounds and sores, or for many
maladies not connected with the respira-
tory organs, and it is gratifying to know
that many lives have been saved by the
prompt administration of gas. The com-
pany are in a position to supply, together
•with the oxygen, the necessary india-
rubber tubing, nipples, adjustment valves,
and other accessories in order that the
gas may be inhaled direct from the
cylinder. These can be obtained from
the works in Calcutta or Bombay.

We now come to the consideration of
the use of oxygen in welding joints and
cutting metals by the oxy-acetylene blow-
pipe process, but before entering into
details upon this point it may be observed
that among the purposes to which
this practice may be advantageously
employed arc (says the Mechanical
Engineer's Journal above referred to) :
the manufacture of iron or steel bolts
as a substitute for rivets ; the repair of
steam boilers in situ ; the manufacture
of safes ; the fusion welding of all joints
in metallic casks or drums ; as a substi-
tute for rivets in their sheet-iron work ;

for adding metal to worn parts ; the
fusion welding of tanks and hot-water
boilers ; the welding of hospital furni-
ture as a substitute for joints and rivets ;
for artistic iron work ; in welding new
teeth in broken gear wheels ; and the
repairing of differential and other gear
boxes. In the year 1899 it was demon-
strated that, after heating an iron plate
to incandescence by means of the oxygen
and coal-gas flame obtained with a blow-
pipe, it was possible, by largely in-
creasing the supply of oxygen, to " fuse "
holes in the plate. These investigations
paved the way for a general use of
the blowpipe for welding purposes, and
engineers are now discovering innumer-
able ways in which it can be used in
construction work as well as in general
repairs. The Linde Company assert that
autogenous welds can be effected by
means of the oxy-acetylenc blowpipe
without any injurious effect upon the
metal, and it is now fully established
that defects or breakages in machinery
or plant can be remedied, and thus the
scrap-heap is robbed of further additions.
Engineers have repeatedly shown their
approval of this rapid and effective
system of welding, and the extraordinary
demand from all parts of the world for
blowpipes is a striking testimony to their
worth. The Linde Company are not
makers of dissolved acetylene, but they
are in a position to supply cylinders of
this agent in quantities varying from 100
to 200 cub. ft.

It will naturally occur to many persons
to ask questions as to the possible
strength of an oxy-acetylene blowpipe
joint, and the answer would be that bars
of Staffordshire iron, fused together by
this system, have given tests of more than
29 tons per sq. in. at the joint, and
plates of iron and steel varying in thick-
ness from 20 gauge upwards, when thus
welded together, have proved stronger at
the joint than in the body of the plate.

In cutting through metal, an ordinary
lilowpipe, with an additional passage
through which an independent and
separately-controlled stream of oxygen is
supplied at the discretion of the operator,
is employed, and this gas may be dis-
charged through the centre of the blow-
pipe, or the supply may be brought into
a passage immediately behind the heating
flame.

The Linde Company keep a large stock

of seamless steel oxygen cylinders, gas

pressure gauges, automatic regulators,

" Universal " blowpipes with welding

i.|6

range on mild steel-plate, hydraulic back-
pressure valves, self-adjusting cylinder
stands for use in hospitals, and oxygen
respirating apparatus for working in
noxious or irrespirable gases, together
with an extensive and varied assortment
of accessories.

Experienced workmen are sent to give
demonstrations and instruction in the
event of an installation of plant being
contemplated, and visitors to the com-
pany's works are courteously received and
are permitted to witness the welding of
joints and the cutting of metal or any
other work which the blowpipe may be
called upon to perform.

The company are also large suppliers
of refrigerating machinery for all pur-
poses and accessories and stores for same.
Machines constructed according to the
Linde system may be seen at work in
Delhi, Lahore, Peshawar, Allahabad,
Lucknow, Agra, Cawnpore, Gwalior,
Hyderabad, Meerut, Fyzabad, Mysore,
Sealkot, Ambala-, Aligarh, Simla, Bare-
illy, Moradabad, Jhansi, Malabar, Poona,
Ludhiana, Surat, Chittagong, Madras,
Rangoon, and many other places.

The telegraphic addresses of the com-
pany are : " Lindfrost " Calcutta and
" Lindeice " Bombay.

LLEWELYN & CO.

In the year 1800 a certain Rajah in
Northern India brought across the seas
one Jenkin Llewelyn, a Welsh artist and
sculptor, for the purpose of utilizing his
services in the production of a number
of paintings and statuary work, and, on
the termination of this engagement in the
year 1804, Mr. Llewelyn removed to Cal-
cutta and began to practise his art on his
own account in a building in Bentinrk
Street, which is now occupied by the
Savoy Hotel. A special feature was made
of monumental masonry, but progress was
so disappointingly slow that two years
later he entered into partnership with an
undertaker named Simpson, who was then
occupying premises (immediately oppo-
site his own place of business), which from
that time to this day have been in the
hands of Llewelyn & Co.

Incidentally it may be mentioned that
the building tenanted by the partners
had previously been the residence of
Governors of Bengal, and even to-day
(1916) one can see the old throne and
other rooms which were used by their
Excellencies during meetings of council.

The style of the new firm was " Simp-

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

son and Llewelyn," and unmistakable
proof of the excellent quality of their
work is found in the fact that memorial
stones prepared by them more than a
hundred years ago are still in a sound
condition and may be inspected in the
Old Park Street and numerous other
burial-grounds. Mr. Simpson, unfortu-

and an enviable reputation has been
gained by them for the quality of the
materials used and for the first-class
manner in which all work is carried out.
The firm's showrooms contain an exceed-
ingly large quantity of decorative statuary
and memorial stones in marble, granite,
and stone, and their workshops — the

theirs is " the largest concern in India
dealing purely in sporting goods."

The business was commenced in the
year 1888 at the present address, in a
very fine building situated near to the
handsome block erected by the Govern-
ment for the Foreign Office and Military
Departments, and the firm began with

nate

I. The HE^n Ofkice.

ely, died in 1812, and the surviving
partner continued the business under the
style of Llewelyn & Co. Mr. Llewelyn
subsequently admitted two of his
brothers, and, at a later date, two of
his sons, into the concern, and a member
of the family was associated with the
firm until the death of Mr. John Griffith
Llewelyn in 1880, when Mr. J. H. Her-
bert became sole proprietor. Several
other changes took place prior to the
latter part of the year 1914, when Mr.
James Reid, the present owner, whose con-
nection with the firm dates from the early
part of the year 1911, entered into sole
possession.

Messrs. Llewelyn & Co. (whose firm
was one of the oldest members of the
Calcutta Trades Association) import the
choicest marble direct from the quarries,

LLEWELYN & CO.

2. IXTERIOR, SHOWIXG STONEMASOXS AT WOKU.

largest in the trade in Calcutta — are the
only ones of their kind in the city which
contain machinery driven by electricity.
The importance of the undertaking and
funeral furnishing department is mani-
fested by the punctilious care which is
exercised in carrying out the desires of
the firm's patrons, and Mr. Reid's per-
sonal supervision of arrangements is a
guarantee that all duties will be satis-
factorily performed.

<^^

WALTER LOCKE & CO., LTD.

It is not a difficult matter, after stroll-
ing through the extensive premises in
Esplanade East, Calcutta, occupied by
Messrs. Walter Locke & Co., Ltd., to
realize the correctness of their claim tliat

147

3. IXTERioR— Polishers .vr Work.

the importation and handling of guns and
sporting goods generally.

The history of the firm may be summed
up in the one word " progress " ; their
business having increased steadily and
rapidly to the present time, when they
are rightly regarded as being in the van
of commercial enterprises in Calcutta.

Messrs. Walter Locke & Co. are
dealers in every description of sporting
gear, guns, rifles, and ammunition, and
in appliances for cricket, lawn tennis,
bowls, fencing, rackets, hockey, Badmin-
ton, golf, cycling, football, croquet,
boxing, polo, and other amusements.

The firm are agents in India for
Messrs. Holland and Holland, Westley-
Richards, and Cogswell and Harrison for
guns and rifles ; and for Messrs. Kynoch,
Eleys Ltd., and Curtis and Harvey, Ltd.,

WALTER LOCKE & CO., LTD.

I THK HKAI) Ol-KICF., CALCUTTA. 2- ^ KET OV MACHINE-GIN SIDECARS, MAnVfACTIKED ENTIRELY BY WALTER LOCKE & CO. FOR GOVERXMEXI.

niTED TO 'ARIEL" MOTOR CYCLES, 3- Ol'EXIN« UP A SHIPMENT OF " INDIAN" MACHINES AT THE GAR.^GE,

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

for sporting ammunition. Guns and rifles
recommended by the firm include : The
H. and R. Arms Company single-barrel
automatic ejector shot-gun, an ideal
weapon for a shikari ; the Locke " Won-
der " gun, 12 bore, of best English manu-
facture ; the Locke " Improved Marvel "
double-barrel breech -loading gun in 12,
16, or 20 bores, specially bored for long
range and great penetration ; Locke's
hammerless ejector, a handsome double-
barrel gun with latest improvements ; the
Westley-Richards special model high-
grade hammerless ejector gun ; the
famous Ross high velocity rifle, noted for
its great killing power ; the Westley-
Richards '318 accelerated express maga-
zine rifle ; Jafl^rey's " Mauser " maga-
zine-action rifle '334 and '404 bores ; and
Winchester and other first-class weapons.
The firm carry a large stock of English
and American revolvers by Webley,
Colt, Ivor Johnson, Harrington, and
Richardson, and they supply all kinds of
cartridges, gun cases, bullets, and acces-
sories. Other sporting requisites com-
prise {inter alia) bullet moulds, cleaning
rods, decoy ducks, game carriers, hog
spears, hunting-knives, powder-flasks,
shooting seats, and a host of other
sundries.

Messrs. Walter Locke & Co. held
the first agency in India for Messrs.
Slazenger & Co.'s tennis rackets and
balls ; and it may be mentioned here
that the latter were used for the twelfth
successive year for the World's Chatn-
pionship meeting in 19 13. Many other
varieties of rackets are kept in stock, such
as " The Spalding Gold Medal," " The
Doherty," " The Phenomenon," " The
Riseley," " The Demon," and others.

This department of sporting goods of
a general character is so well stocked
that an accomplished athlete or the boy
or girl emerging from the nursery would
have little difficulty in finding exactly
what was fancied for the development of
already hardened muscles or for mere
amusement during hours of cessation from
studies.

The six-foot " blue " might look with

casant recollections of 'Varsity days at
a grand selection of boxing and batting
gloves ; cricket bats by well-known
makers would remind him of centuries
made at Lord's or the Oval ; and he
would gaze with keen delight upon
fencing foils, horizontal bars, polo sticks,
or Indian clubs ; while the youngsters

Iould be seized with a desire to charter
..,...,„......,

stu<

boxes of games, skipping ropes, cricket
and crocjuet sets, footballs, and numerous
otlier attractions.

At this juncture one is reminded that
when the boom in motor cycling com-
menced in India Messrs. Walter Locke
wore early in the field with agencies for
several of the leading manufacturers in
England, and they are now agents for
the " Triumph," and sole agents on the
eastern side of India for the famous
" Indian," the " Lea Francis," the
" Ariel," the " Levis," and many other
machines of the highest quality. They
are the largest importers of, and
specialize in, motor-cycles. The

Indian," a leading cycle on the inarket
to-day, is supplied in six different
models, and it has stood many remark-
ably severe tests as to durability, speed,
and ease in running. At the time of
writing (.April 191 6) the firm have
seventy-five of these machines on the sea
en route for Calcutta. Again, riders of
" Ariel " machines won the team prize
in the Scottish and English six days'
trials in 19 13, thus beating all records.
No fewer than eight gold medals were
awarded during these contests. Spare
parts and accessories are kept in stock,
and repairs of all kinds are attended to
by thoroughly skilled workmen serving
under European motor engineers.

Messrs. Walter I^ocke & Co. are,
further, agents in India for Messrs.
Elkington & Co., Ltd., the well-known
manufacturing jewellers, gold and silver-
smiths, and originators of electro-plating,
who are specialists in medals in bronze,
gold, and silver, cups, bowls, trophies,
shields, and prizes for every branch of
sport, jewels, watches, clocks, silverware,
" Elkington " plate cutlery, and other
articles of a similar nature.

Reference must be made before closing
to the " True Life Targets," for which
this firm have been appointed sole agents
in India. These targets approach as
nearly as possible to the shape, colour
of uniforms, and movements of soldiers,
and they present such unexampled oppor-
tunities for practice in rifle shooting that
they have been approved by the Hythe
School of Musketry and various Govern-
ment departments in England.

The South African War, and now the
tremendous conflict in Europe, have
shown that ordinary targets are practi-
cally out of date for instruction purposes
in modern warfare, but the inventions
just referred to give a reality to the
object of the firing by dejjicting a sup-

149

posed enemy in uniforms corresponding
in colour to trees, bare land, rocks, road-
ways, or buildings, and thus a soldier in
training gains a very vivid representation
of scenes with which he will be confronted
on active sefvice.

It should be added that the fii'm have
a garage at 14 British Indian Street,
Calcutta, and this building not only pro-
vides ample space for the storage of
motor-cars and cycles, but it also con-
tains extensive workshops where these
machines can be refitted or repaired—
however badly damaged — in the shortest
possible time.

The firm are sole agents in Bengal,
Bihar and Orissa, Assam, the United
Provinces, and the Punjab for the Lister-
Bruston Automatic Electric Lighting and
Pumping Installation, and the special
feature of this patent system is that it
generates electricity automatically imme-
diately it is required for lighting or any
other purpose, and thus removes the
necessity for expensive storage batteries.

Other important agencies are those for
direct-current motors supplied by the
Rhodes Motors, Ltd., of Doncaster, Eng-
land, and of .Hart's celebrated storage
batteries, which are designed more par-
ticularly for motor-cars, boats, auto-
mobiles, small plating work, and other
light loads.

The " Locke " electric ceiling fan
possesses three distinct features: (l)
reliability, as it has a minimum of
separate parts, and consequently a
minimum of risk of disorder ; (2) acces-
sibility, it being unnecessary to take the
fan to pieces in order to get at the com-
mutator and brushes ; and (3) simplicity,
because there are no loose ornamental
castings to cause noise or to harbour dust.
The firm's electric cooking apparatus is
highly appreciated wherever it has been
introduced, and it includes combined grill
and toaster, electric irons, saucepans,
frying-pans, hot -water jugs, cooker,
kettles, and sundry other articles.

Many important contracts for electric
work have been carried out for the
Governments of India and Bengal, for
several hospitals, the Treasury buildings,
the Telegraph Office, the Presidency
College, and other buildings, as well as
for leading business houses in Calcutta.

The firm retain a stafl^ of highly
qualified electrical engineers who were
trained in the Old Country, although two
of these have received commissions since
the outbreak of war.

Messrs. Walter Locke & Co. have

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

branches at Lahore and Delhi, and the
managing director is Mr. W. J. Bradshaw,
who has for many years past taken an
active part in the administration of local
affairs in Calcutta. He was President of
the Market Committee when important
additions were made to the Stewart Hogg
Market Buildings; he has served on the
Port Trust as the representative of the
Calcutta Trades Association, and he has
been a municipal commissioner for many
years, and was the first elected repre-
sentative of the Calcutta Trades Asso-
ciation on the Bengal Council.

The telegraphic address of the firm is
" Waltlocke," Calcutta.

■*«
H. P. HAITRA & CO.

The sole proprietor of this firm, Mr.
H. P. Maitra, was formerly financially
interested in certain commercial concerns
in Calcutta, but in the year 1906 he com-
menced business on his own account,
trading as H. P. Maitra & Co., as a
general merchant and commission agent,
dealing in stone lime, coal, timber, and
Manchester piece and other goods.

The premises are situated at the junc-
tion of Clive Row with Clive Street, two
of the busiest thoroughfares in Calcutta,
and within a couple of minutes' walk of
the Royal Excliange and the principal
banks of the city.

The firm are managing agents for the
Gonesh Cotton Mills Company, Ltd., and
for the Maitra Stone and Lime Company,
Ltd., whose kilns, built in 191 2, are
situated at Maihar, on the East Indian
Railway, about 96 miles distant from the
important junction of Jubbulpore and 637
miles from Calcutta. The Maihar lime
is one of the very best stone limes of
India, and is extensively used by the
Government Public Works Department,
District Boards, railways, municipalities,
and other public bodies, as well as by
the most eminent architects, builders, and
contractors of Bengal and the United
Provinces. It is also used largely upon
tea gardens and indigo and sugar estates
for manuring purposes, and it constitutes
one of the principal ingredients in the
manufacture of the different manures and
fertilizers.

Coal, which is obtained from collieries
in the Jherria fields (for which the firm
are managing agents), is sold chiefly in
wholesale quantities to the Government
and to mills, and imported timber is dis-
posed of to the Ordnance and Public
Works Departments, to the Calcutta and

other Municipalities, some of the District
Boards, and also to the principal
contractors and shipbuilders.

Messrs. Maitra & Co. are, further, pro-
prietors of the Bay Fishery at Balugaon,
on the Chilkah Lake, in the Province of
Orissa. Motor-boats are used in fishing,
and the catches are packed in ice and
forwarded by rail to Calcutta and other
places, where they are sold wholesale only
to merchants in the fish markets. They
also prepare cured, dried, and salted fish
for the Burma and Straits markets and
for export to other countries.

The firm have a very valuable asset
in the monopoly which they enjoy for
the sale of cigarettes in the Independent
Kingdom of Nepal. They purchase a
certain brand from the manufacturers in
India, and the latter, according to agree-
ment with Messrs. Maitra & Co., are pre-
cluded from making any of the same kind
for any other firm.

Mr. Maitra undertakes personal
management of the business, and he
usually employs altogether about 250
hands in his different businesses.

The telegraphic address is " Maitraph,
Calcutta," and the London corre-
spondents are Messrs. Alfred Voung
& Co.

■%^

MARSHALL, SONS & CO., LTD.

It is believed that fully 80 per cent.
of the steam engines in India have been
manufactured by Messrs. Marshall, Sons
& Co., Ltd., of the Britannia Works,
Gainsborough, in England, where they
established themselves in the year 1848.
Their premises in that Lincolnshire town,
abutting on the banks of the River Trent,
cover an area of nearly 40 aores, and
about five thousand skilled workmen and
labourers are constantly employed ; or,
in other words, one-quarter of the total
population of the town are found in the
Britannia workshops, yards, and offices.

The firm are amongst the largest
makers of industrial and agricultural
machinery in the world, and they were
pioneers in India with their well-known
steam threshing machines. Their Cal-
cutta branch was opened in Lai Bazar
in the year 1889, and about seven years
later they removed to their present com-
modious quarters at 99 Clive Street,
where they occupy extremely well-
appointed offices, together with extensive
godowns, in which is stored a large and
varied selection of the productions of the
Gainsborough factories.

1^0

The firm are manufacturers of {inter
alia) high-class horizontal engines up to
2,000 h.p. ; Lancashire, Cornish, loco-
motive multi-tubular, vertical, and other
boilers ; portable and semi-portable
engines ; oil and electric light engines ;
road rollers ; traction engines ; steam
and oil tractors ; threshing, grinding,
and sawing machinery ; disintegrators ;
pumps of all descriptions ; and, in fact,
almost everything in the way of
mechanical plant known to modern
engineers.

One of the most important economic
questions in India at the present time
is the regulating of the supply of labour
not only for mills, factories, foundries,
and other similar works, but also for
agricultural development.

Labour-saving appliances are only now
beginning to receive the recognition which
they deserve, but as the supply of
labourers in India is becoming more and
more unreliable, economists realize that
the only remedy is in the increase lof
power plants in the country.

Messrs. Marshall have devoted careful
thought to this question, and their
lengthy experience has enabled them to
come to the assistance of agriculturists,
spinners, weavers, millers, and other
leaders of industrial concerns.

A reference is called for to their
steam threshing machinery, which has
received the following, among other,
awards : First prize of £40 at the Royal
Agricultural Society's Show at Cardiff,
the only first prize and special mention
at the New Zealand International Exhi-
bition, the only first prize at the Sydney
International Exhibition, a special first
prize and gold medal at the Tasmanian
International Exhibition, five gold
medals and three silver ones at the
Calcutta International Exhibitions, and
gold and silver medals at the Omsk-
Siberian Exhibition. This threshing
machinery — including the engines— is con-
structed and equipped to meet the re-
quirements of the country in which it is
to be used, and the firm are always alert
to discover and supply any manifest
improvement.

Special mention should be made of the
thoroughly up-to-date machinery — de-
signed by the well-known inventor, Mr.
William Jackson — for the drying, rolling,
fanning, sifting, equalizing, and packing
of tea, all of which is manufactured only
by Messrs. Marshall. This plant is made
of first-class materials, and tea planters
in Bengal, Assam, Ceylon, and elsewhere

"Iv

TTJ'

I AND 2. Fishing is the Chii.ka Lakk.

H. P. MAITBA &, CO.
3. Lime Works at Maihak.

4. I.iMESToNF Quarry at Maihar.

151

I. Tea LKAF Rolling Machink,

MARSHALL,, SONS & CO., LTD.
2. Empire Tea-uryixg Machine. 3. Cross Compoind Exgixk. Class " L '

5. View ok the Works, Gainsborough, E.ngland.

4. Co.MPOiND RoAii Roller.

152

I. The Alliance Bank ok Simla, Ltd., Calcuitv.

MARTIN & CO.

2. Esplanade I Mansions, Calcltta.

Cai.ci TTA Ci.iiB. 4. Residence, Patna Capital.

153

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

have shown their appreciation of the
firm's action in placing such valuable
tea factory requirements within their
reach.

Messrs. Marshall have branches in
Bombay, Lahore, Bezwada, and Madras,
but their agencies arc found in nearly
all the principal cities and towns of the
civilized world.

During the past half century, in open
competition with other manufacturers,
Messrs. Marshall have received more
than five hundred awards for the excel-
lence of their productions, these distinc-
tions including grand prix, diplomas of
honour, and gold and silver medals.

The London offices and showrooms of
the firm are at Marshalls' Buildings, 79
Farringdon Road, E.C., while the general
manager for India is Mr. J. IL-iirper.

•<!^
MARTIN & CO.

India provides a grand field for con-
tractors and engineers, and among many
firms of note that of Messrs. Martin &
Co., of 6 and 7 Clive Street, Calcutta,
stands out most prominently in the van.
During the past thirty or forty years
there have been few undertakings of any
magnitude— whether in the construction
of systems of waterworks, light railways.
Government buildings, rajah's palaces,
private mansions, or other contract work
— with which Messrs. Martin & Co. have
not been connected in some way or
other. If they have not actually pre-
pared designs and specifications, they
have probably built the buildings, or,
failing that, they may have supplied iron
and steel fittings, or bricks, or coals, with
the result that investors and others, on
hearing of any new venture to-day, imme-
diately ask the question, " Are Martins
in it?" and if Martins are in it, then
the confidence of the public is manifested
towards a firm whose name is synonymous
with sound and honest work in straight-
forward concerns.

The firm was founded in the year 1875
by the late Sir Acquin Martin, Kt., and
the partners now (igi6) are Sir Rajendra
Mookerjce, K.C.I.E., Mr. Harold Martin,
Mr. C. VV. Walsh, and Mr. Oswald
Martin.

Messrs. Martin & Co. have carried out
most important contracts for the supply
of water and drainage schemes and other
public works in all parts of India, from
north to south and east to west, and
among the principal waterwork systems
which have been completed are those at

Allahabad, .'\gra, Arrah, Aurungabad,
Benares (drainage also), Berhanipore,
Bhagalpore, Bombay (Tansa duct), Cal-
cutta (also drainage), Cawnpore, Cossi-
pore, Delhi. Dum Dum, Hooghly-
Chinsurah, Khandwa, Lucknow, Meerut,
Mirzapur, Monghyr, Multra, Naini-Tal,
Srinagar, and Serampore.

Messrs. Martin & Co. arc deserving
of the highest credit for their pioneer
work in introducing light railways, which
are usually constructed on district roads,
and which have proved to be of immense
benefit in connecting outlying areas, rich
in agricultural produce, with main lines
of railways, and they have financed and
constructed, and are now managing, the
following : the Howrah-Amta, Howrah-
Sheakhala, Ranaghat-Krishnagar (ac-
quired by Government), Bukhtiarpuir-
Bihar, Barasct - Basirhat, Shahdara -
Saharampur, and the .^rrah-Sasaram
sections.

Not the least important branch of the
many activities in which Messrs. Martin
are engaged is that of architecture, and
the firm have a large staff of highly
trained architects, whose skill is mani-
fested in some of the handsomest build-
ings in Calcutta. A striking feature in
these edifices is the happy combination of
utility with beauty of outline, and the
adaptation of certain Characteristics of the
West which harmonize with the graceful
and artistic work of the East. The firm
have constructed the following among
other completed works : a palace built
for His Highness the Maharajah of
Tippera ; the Bank of Bengal buildings
at .-Mlahabad, Benares, and Lahore ; the
Government Secretariat Buildings at
Dacca ; the Government Agricultural
College at Bhagalpore ; the Royal
Insurance, South British Insurance,
Chartered Bank, and .Alliance Bank
premises ; the head offices of the
Bengal-Nagpur Railways ; the Sir Stuart
Hogg Market ; and the Park, Esplanade,
Harrington, and Ale.xandra Mansions.

A particularly beautiful specimen of
the firm's work is the Mysore Memorial
at Kalighat, Calcutta, which was erected
on the precise spot on the banks of
Tolly's Nullah on which the body of a
Maharajah of Mysore (who died in Cal-
cutta in 1897) was cremated. The
buildings include a Dravidian temple,
ghat, and pavilion designed by the firm's
chief architect, Mr. Edward Thornton,
r. R.I. 13. A., and the work is typical of
the best traditions of the East. The com-
mercial section of Calcutta is indebted

154

to Messrs. Martin for the erection of a
large number of jute mills, including the
Auckland, Clive, Dalhousie, Kelvin,
Kharda, Lawrence, Northbrook, Standard,
and Union factories.

The firm have, further, been entrusted
by the Government of Bihar and Orissa
with the construction of the buildings at
the new capital of Bankipur, comprising
the High Court, Government House,
Secretariat Buildings, Post and Telegraph
Offices, and residences for officials, and
these works, now in progress, are esti-
mated to cost about Rs. 55 lakhs, while
the new Government European ."Xsylum
at Ranchi was designed, and has just been
completed, by them.

Important as are the above- mentioned
contracts, they are eclipsed by one which
confers upon Messrs. Martin & Co. the
honour of erecting on the maidan in Cal-
cutta the " All-India Victoria Memorial
Hall," which was designed by Sir William
Emerson, at an estimated cost of about
Rs. 70 lakhs. Some 200,000 cub. ft. of
marble are required for this work, and
this quantity is being obtained from
Makrana. in Rajputana, where the firm
have, under expert European super-
vision, opened quarries and erected a
large factory, which is equipped with
the latest type of marble - working
machinery, including frame, rip, wire,
and diamond saws, rubbing beds, milling
machines, lathes, and plainers. It is
expected that the Hall will be completed
by the end of the year 1921.

Messrs. Martin make all their own
bricks, and the extent of their building
operations may be gauged from the fact
that during the season 1914-15 they made
at their six brickfields more than sixty
millions of bricks for their own con-
struction works.

The firm are now managing agents for
the Satpukuria and Asansol, the Samla-
Kendra. the Kosoonda and Nyadee, and
the Ghusick and Muslia collieries, tlie
Indian Manganese Company, Ltd.. the
Hooghly Docking and Engineering Com-
pany, Ltd., the National Indian Life In-
surance Company, Ltd., Messrs. Cromp-.
ton & Co., Ltd., the well-known electrical
engineers, and the Bengal Iron and Steel
Company, Ltd., which is referred to at
length hereafter. The firm have also
been appointed managing agents for the
following companies which have been
floated recently, namely, the Futwah-
Islampur Light Railway Company
(which is being constructed with Messrs.
Martin & Co. as consulting engineers).

I. Howrah-Amata Light Raiuvav.

MARTIN & CO.
2, D.iv Dock.

3. Machine Shop.

155

MARTIN & CO.

I. GOVERXJIKXT HorSE, PATXA CAIMTAI,. 2. KliSIUI'XCES FOH OllICIALS, I'ATXA CAilTAL. 3. PosT AXIl TKI KliRAPH ObFlCE, PATSA CAI'ITAI..

4. High Coi:rt, Patna Capiial.

5. SKCRKIAHIAT OHICES, PATXA CAriTAL.

Is6

■

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

the Chaparmukh-Silghat Railway Com-
pany, Ltd., and the United Provinces
Electric Supply Company, Ltd.

Messrs. Martin & Co. are, in all prob-
ability, the leading Importers of engineer-
ing tools and plant, and they hold several
very important agencies from English
manufacturers, including the Frodingham
Iron and Steel Company, Ltd., for joists
and sections ; Messrs. Laycocks, Ltd.,
for railway carriages and rolling stock ;
the Bells United Asbestos Company, Ltd.,
for " Poilite " roofing ; Messrs. Tuck &
Co., Ltd., for engine packing, belting,
and rubber goods ; Messrs. Robcirt Hud-
son, Ltd., for light railway plant ;
Messrs. Ruston, Proctor & Co., Ltd., foir
road rollers, boilers, portable, fixed, and
gas engines ; the Silent Machine and En-
gineering Company, Ltd., for specialities
in foundry requisites ; the Peerless Lock-
woven Wire Fence Company for fencing ;
Messrs. William Gumming & Co. for
moulders' requisites ; Messrs. Walkers,
Ltd., for disinfectants ; the Calls Bitmo
Company, Ltd., for anti-corrosive paints ;
Messrs. Locke, Lancaster & Co., Ltd., for
pig lead and lead yarn ; and Messrs.
Williamson, Ltd., for paints and var-
nishes. The unique position held by
Messrs. Martin & Co. in the engineering
world is proved by the fact that their
monthly metal price list and market re-
port is accepted as a standard guide, and
its circle of readers comprises the entire
engineering community of India. The
firm have always loyally supported local
industries, and their stock includes the
Tata Iron and Steel Company's sections,
together with Portland cement from the
Katni Cement and Industrial Company,
for whom they are agents for Eastern
India.

'Their London offices are at Vestry
House, Laurence Pountney Hill, E.C.

■««

THE BENGAL IRON AND STEEL
COMPANY, LTD.'

It would be far too modest an estimate
of the value of this company to regard it
merely as a commercial undertaking pro-
ducing satisfactory dividends upon in-
vested capital, as it has been the means
of bringing to light one of the richest
fields of iron ore in India, if not in the
world. The property belonged cwiginally
to the Burrakur Iron Works Company,
l)ut it was acquired by the present com-
pany in the year 1889.

' For iliustnition see page 757.

The works are situated at Kulti, on the
East Indian railway system, about 142
miles distant from Calcutta, and they
comprise blast furnaces, iron foundries,
engineering shops, by-product coke
ovens, collieries, iron ore mines, and
sulphuric acid plant.

The blast furnace plant consists of four
furnaces, 60 ft. in height, and having a
daily capacity of 300 tons, connected with
which are thirteen " Cowper " stoves for
heating the blast, the stoves being from
60 to 75 ft. in height, with a diameter
21 ft. Five blowing engines are connected
with the furnaces, with a total power
capacity of 5,050 h.p. Two of these are
vertical engines, and three are Parsons'
turbines with condensers. Two batteries
of twenty-six Lancashire boilers supply
steam to the blowing engines, the boilers
being fired by waste gas from the blast
furnaces. Iron ore, coke, and limestone
are delivered from railway wagons at the
back of the furnaces, and then raised by
three electric hoists to the charging
hoppers.

The furnace plant is able to turn out
300 tons of pig-iron daily, and the pro-
duct, marked with the brand " Bengal,"
is made from selected ores, and compares
favourably in quality with the best
Middlesbrough foundry iron. The com-
pany has recently put on the market
several special kinds of iron, some of
which are known by the names Manhar-
pur, Burrakur, high manganese, high
phosphorus, and low silicon. The pig-
iron is supplied to all the principal rail-
ways and iron foundries in India, and,
in addition, the iron is exported to
Ceylon, the Straits Settlements, Australia,
New Zealand, Japan, and South America.

All the iron ores used in the works
are obtained from the company's own
properties in the district of Singhbhooni.
A new deposit of high-grade ore has
recently been opened up in an area which
is connected with the Bengal-Nagpur
Railway by a light line, 16 miles in
length, constructed by the company, the
ore being loaded in trucks by an aerial
ropeway 5,000 ft. in length. With the
high-class ores now at the disposal of
the company it is possible to supply pig-
iron of almost any analysis, excepting
only hematite iron.

The coke plant consists of two batteries
of thirty-four Simon Carves' by-product
ovens, which are able to turn out 100,000
tons yearly. The coal is discharged from
the railway wagons into hoppers, whence
it is elevated to the storage bunkers.

which have a capacity ot 600 tons, and
is then transferred to the compressor,
where it is pressed under the stampers
into a cake to be placed in the ovens.
The waste gases from the ovens, after
the by-products of coal-tar and sulphate
of ammonia have been extracted, pass to
the battery of boilers, where they are
utilized for raising steam for the genera-
tion of electric power for the whole works,
while the crusher, elevators, and com-
pressor are operated by electric power.

The sulphuric acid plant has been in-
stalled for the purpose of manufacturing
the acid required for the recovery of
sulphate of ammonia, and the annual out-
put of 2,500 tons allows an ample margin
for future extensions or outside orders.

The foundries comprise those for pipes,
railway sleepers, and chairs, general cast-
ings, and brass, and they cover an area
of 160,000 sq. ft.

There are two plants for the manu-
facture of cast-iron pipes made in dry
saaid moulds and cast vertically, and they
are respectively fitted with hydraulic and
electric power. All pipes are coated with
Dr. Angus Smith's solution, and are
tested to any hydrostatic pressure re-
quired, while very large numbers of
flanged pipes of all sizes suitable for
steam or water mains are constantly being
made at the works.

Another section of the foundries is
fitted with moulding machines for making
cast-iron railway sleepers — either plate or
bowl designs — and railway chairs of any
type or size, while in the general foundry
(which measures 500 by 100 ft.) all kinds
of castings, up to 25 tons in weight, are
made, including columns for public build-
ings and mills, straining posts and sockets
for railway fencing, mortar-mills, road
rollers, ornamental columns, lamp posts,
railing and machinery castings for
engineers.

The brass foundry is able to supply
every description of castings which may
he required in engineering works. The
annual collective output of the foundries
is from 50,000 ito 60,000 tons of castings,
as follows : pipes, 8,000 tons ; sleepers
and chairs, 40,000 to 45,000 tons ; and
general castings, from 6,000 to 7,000
tons.

Messrs. Martin & Co. always keep a
large stock of engineering requisites of
all kinds, including more than 3,000 tons
of cast-iron pipes from 2 to 12 in. bore,
with planed, turned, and bored or double-
flanged joints, in addition to a large
quantity of " I.S.R." fencing sockets.

I. Calcutta Premises.

MANTON & CO.
1. Showroom.

3. I'OKTiox OK Workshops,

158

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

straining posts, railway chairs, and other
sundries.

The engineering department embraces
machine shop (290 by 90 ft.), smiths'
shops, and riveting and erecting yards,
and all these buildings are fully equipped
with up-to-date appliances for general
work and repairs.

The company's collieries are situated
at Ramnagore, in the Raneegunge field,
and at Noonoodih and Jeetpore in the
Jhcrria coal-producing area, and supplies
are drawn from them for the company's
requirements and for disposal to railway
authorities and private consumers. .About
150,000 tons of first-class coal are raised
annually.

Excellent facilities for the dispatch of
goods to any part of India have been pro-
vided by private sidings between the
works and the East Indian and Bengal-
Nagpur Railways.

MANTON & CO.

The founder of the well-known firm of
Messrs. Manton & Co., of Old Court
House Street, Calcutta — the premier gun-
makers in the East — was one Joe Manton,
who was regarded by sportsmen of his
day as " the greatest artist in firearms
that the world has ever produced." A
contributor to Land and Water wrote
years ago that " if asked who were the
fathers of modern shooters and gun-
makers, ninety-nine out of every hundred
men qualified to e.\press an opinion would
name Colonel Hawker and Joe Manton."
The latter originated and perfected more
inventions in small arms than any other
maker in England, and it was commonly
said that if Joe Manton had expressed
approval of a weapon there was nothing
wrong with it.

This pioneer maker of all kinds of guns
sent his nephew, Frederick Manton, to
India in the year 1820, and the latter
commenced a business which is still
known as Manton & Co., and which,
since its foundation, has been the means
of supplying firearms and other sporting
requisites to thousands of sportsmen in
India. The uncle died in the month of
June 1835, and his chief friend and sup-
porter. Colonel Hawker, wrote of him that
"an everlasting monument to his un-
rivalled genius is already established in
every quarter of the globe by his celebrity
! as the founder and father of the modern
gun trade, and as a most scientific
inventor in other departments."

The business of Manton & Co. in Cal-

cutta was, in 1847, purchased by William
Robert Wallis (and is still held by his
relatives), who, after some thirty years
of most successful trading, retired in
favour of his sons. In the year 1850
Mr. W. R. Wallis acquired the goodwill
of the very old-established business of
Samuel Nock, of Regent Circus, London
(gunmaker by Royal Warrant to Her late
Majesty Queen Victoria, 1838), now the
property of Messrs. Manton & Co.

The original premises of the firm were
situated in that portion of Calcutta now
called Bentinck Street (formerly known
as Cossitollah), but the extensive build-
ing now occupied by Messrs. Manton &
Co. is situated in a most commanding
position in Old Court House Street and
Mangoe Lane, in Calcutta ; and it is
stocked with an immense quantity of rifles,
shot-guns, revolvers, pistols, ammunition,
and all kinds of sporting requisites and
accessories for every outdoor game
enjoyed by man or woman.

Messrs. Manton & Co. make a special
feature of the manufacture of their
" Standard " cartridges, which are tlie
best sporting ammunition in India. .An
immense amount of time and money has
been expended in making these car-
tridges as perfect as possible, and too
much importance cannot be attached to
the necessity for absolute accuracy in
measurements of cases and in the quality
and quantity of powder and shot. With
regard to the cases, which are manufac-
tured by the famous firm of Eley Brothers,
Ltd., of London, the principal conditions
to which a perfectly made shot-gun case
must conform are : (fl) superiority in the
quality of paper used in the manufacture
of the tube, enabling it to resist, as far as
possible, climatic influences ; [b) the
lining of the head of the case and a
considerable portion of the inside of the
tube with metal ; {c) the selection of
a suitable cap which may be relied upon
on ignition to give a regular flash; and
[d) conformation of all component parts
of the case to the standard measurements.
Space will not permit any detailed refer-
ence to the whole process of manufac-.
ture, but the utmost care is taken to use
powder which possesses the maximum
stability, to place the loading of the
cases under strict European supervision,
to have the shotting, wadding, and ram-
ming machines in correct working order,
and to give the minutest attention to all
detail work to ensure the continued sup-
port of their very large and influential
client el v.

159

I'hc repairs department is an exceed-
ingly important branch in a business
which annually receives hundreds of
weapons requiring attention, and skilled
artisans who have been specially trained
on the firm's own premises for a numljer
of years arc constantly employed upon
this work.

Any one uiiacquainted with the com-
ponent parts of, say, a shot-gun or rifle
would be astounded to see the delicate
nature of the mechanism and the pre-
cision with which the various fittings are
placed in position, but after such an in-
spection he would realize that a very high
degree of skill was necessary to manu-
facture or even to repair a firearm of
modern construction.

In the repairing workshops one sees
men employed in rejointing or tightening
action and barrels, replacing broken
springs, regulating ejectors, fitting new
hammers and strikers, correcting a faulty
pull-off, removing dents from barrels,
adjusting sights, and a quantity of other
mechanical work too bewildering for a
novice to understand. Messrs. Manton
& Co. never allow a rifle or gun to leave
their workshops' until it has been tested,
sighted, and regulated at their private
range, which is provided with fixed and
disappearing targets of all kinds.

The firm holds warrants of appoint-
ment to the following Viceroys of India :
Lord Northbrook, 1872-6; Lord Lytton,
1876-80 ; Marquis of Ripon, 1880-84 ;
Earl of Dufferin, 1884-8 ; Marquis of
Lansdowne, 1888-94 ; Earl of Elgin.
1894-9 ; Earl Curzon of Kedleston,
1899-1905 ; Earl of Minto, 1905-10;
and Baron Hardinge of Penshurst, 191 i-
16 ; and also to the undermentioned
Commanders-in-Chief, namely : General
Sir William Lockhart, 1898-1900 ;
General Viscount Kitchener of Khar-
toum, 1902-9 ; and General Sir O'Moore
Creagh in 1909.

At the Calcutta International Exhibi-
tion held in 1883-4, Messrs. Manton &
Co. were awarded three silver medals for
local and other manufactures, while a
bronze medal and diploma were gained
at the Indian and Colonial Exhibition in
London in 1886.

-*«
MATHER AND PLATT, LTD.

This firm, whose hedd offices for India
are situated in Wallace House, 5 Banks-
hall Street, Calcutta, are a branch of the
well-known house which was established
in Salford, Manchester, early in the last

BENGAI. AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

century by the grandfather of the present
chairman. Sir William Mather. They
were at first chiefly concerned in the
manufacture of machinery for bleaching,
dyeing, printing, and finishing textile
materials. It was not until many years
afterwards that their energies were
directed into new channels, and the first
departure was the establishment of the
electrical engineering department, which
has subsequently developed into a very
important branch.

The firm's next undertaking was to
specialize in hydraulic plant, including
the manufacture of water filters (both
pressure and gravity), of sewage distri-
bution plant, well-boring apparatus, and
almost every known description of pump ;
and here they were pioneers, in that they
were the first to introduce and manufac-
ture the turbine high-lift pump.

Pursuing their progressive policy, the
firm next turned their attention (and it
is now thirty years since they did so)
to the all-important problem of fire pro-
tection— a question which then commenced
to loom very large owing to the enormous
losses that were being sustained by the
insurance companies, more especially
through fires in textile mills, which had
raised the rates of premium to such an
extent that they became a heavy burden
on industries. These losses to the in-
dividual, as well as to the commimity,
led to a demand for some drastic improve-
ment in the means of extinguishing fire,
and Messrs. Mather and Piatt were first
in the field with the " Grinnell "
sprinkler, which has since won for itself
so world-wide a reputation, and may be
said to have revolutionized fire insurance.

In 1900 the whole of the available
space on the old site at Salford had
become quite exhausted, and as there was
no room for extension except in an up-
ward direction, it was then decided to
secure fresh land on which to build works
more suited to the advancing require-
ments of the business.

The question of where these were to be
placed exercised the mind of the board
for a long time, many sites being in-
spected, and ultimately a fine block of
land at Park, Manchester, almost level,
surrounded by roads, and bounded on
one side by a canal and on the other by
three railways, and comprising 50 acres,
was acquired by the company, and was
destined to he the site of one of the finest
machine shops of modern times.

One by one the various departments
were transferred to the new works at

Park ; in 1909 it was finally decided to
make provision for the removal of all
remaining branches from Salford ; and
in 1910 seven more shops were con-
structed. Subsequently various other
buildings were added, including a large
foundry.

A summary of the production of the
various departments of the new works
will probably be of interest.

Textile Depart me nt,~\\\ this section
is undertaken the equipment of com-
plete works for bleaching, calico print-
ing, dyeing, and finishing, including
power plant with large gas engines or
electric motors. No engineering firm has
had more practical experience than
Messrs. Mather and Piatt in arranging
and equipping throughout such works,
and the new extensive machine shops,
replete with every modern appliance, are
capable of producing the highest class
of manufacture. Some specialities are as
follows : Gas-singeing machine, Mather
kiers, open-width bleaching machinery,
duplex and intermittent printing
machines, high-speed stentering and
beetling machines, open soaping and
mercerizing ranges, dyeing machines for
cops, cheeses, raw cotton, and other
articles, spray damping machines,
calendars for all purposes, and warp
stop motion for looms. In the " Vortex "
automatic self-cleansing system of
humidification and ventilation for
moistening and cooling the atmosphere
of textile workrooms, the humid condi-
tions are produced by the diffusion of
" atomized " water, thus ensuring great
economy in working charges and in
maintaining pleasant working conditions
during the hot months of the year.
Numerous textile mills in India have been
equipped with the various specialities
turned out by this department.

Electrical Department. ~- Messrs.

Mather and Piatt's long experience
(over thirty years) in the manufacture
and installation of electrical machinery
enables them to give expert advice on
all matters relating to economical electric
driving. Electrical plant of every de-
scription is manufactured for the com-
plete electrification of collieries and
mines, paper-mills, bleaching and finish-
ing works, and spinning, weaving, and
other mills. The products of the elec-
trical shops comprise direct current and
alternating current generating plants and
motors, dynamos for chemical and weld-
ing processes, and train lighting equip-
ments. In the latter field the firm's
160

patent system is being used by a consider-
able number of railways in India, Ceylon.
Great Britain, and in other parts of
the world, and because of its simplicity
and robustness is giving every satisfac-
tion. Many mills and factories in India
are equipped throughout with electrical
drive apparatus manufactured by Messrs.
Mather and Piatt.

Hydraulic Department. High-lift tur-
bine pumps are supplied for collieries,
mines, and water supply (high and low
pressure services). The practical results
of a very wide experience of the con-
struction of high and low-lift turbine
pumps are embodied in the modern pumps
made by Messrs. Mather and Piatt (the
original makers of the turbine pump).
In the latest type there are no thrust
bearings of any kind, and all end thrust
is avoided by an effectual hydraulic
balancing arrangement. The special
features of the pumps are absence of
thrust bearings, automatic differential
hydraulic balance, high efliciency, low first
cost, and accessibility and adaptability
for increased or decreased number of
chambers. These pumps can be made for
any conceivable duty. Patent centrifugal
pumps for low lifts, which possess the
following special merits as compared with
all other makes : efficiency, greater sim-
plicity, less total weight, smaller dimen-
sions (the pumps combine the advantages
of the volute and turbine designs).
Patent mechanical filters for town
supplies and all industrial purposes.
For many years the firm have been en-
gaged in the construction of mechanical
filters and auxiliary plant. They have
tested the merits of numerous processes
of filtration, and these have led to their
putting on the market their patent filter,
which embodies many points of
superiority over others. Water soften-
ing and purification are obtained by the
Archbutt-Deeley process for municipal
supplies, boiler feeding, and any other
purpose for which a soft and pure water
is required.

In regard to the working of this
department, many electrically-driven tur-
bine pumping sets are at work in the
colliery district of Bengal and in mills
and factories in and around Calcutta.
Several installations of these pumps are
now being erected for municipal water
supply schemes in connection with tube
well supplies, which are now being so
prominently adopted in the United
Provinces and elsewhere.

A typical gravity type meclianical

MATHER & PLATT, LTD.
^^^i. Ai.ToiiATic Sewage DisiKiBiroii as adopted for Disposal of Effllext at Mills axd Factories ix Bexgal. 2. Partlil View of Mather & Platt's

I^Hr Ukcuanical Kilter Ixstallatio.v in a Jlte Mill xeah Calcutta. 3 Bird seve View of Mather & Platt's New Works, Maxchester.

I^^K 4. GovEHXME.vr Stamp and Stationery Blildinus, Calcutta; Protected against Fire by "Grixxell" Automatic Sprinklers.

j^^H 3- Electkicallv driven High-lut Turuixe Pump, .\s supplied to many Collieries, Mills, and Factories in Bengal.

^f 161

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

filter plant, supplied and erected by
Messrs. Mather and Piatt, is that which
has been working since 1914 at the
Alliance Jute Mills, near Calcutta. This
plant is dealing with water from the
River Hooghly, which is undoubtedly one
of the most difficult waters to treat in an
efficient manner, but the results which
have been obtained have shown that
with a properly designed scheme and
appliances such as liave been put in by
the firm the treatment is a very simple
matter. Further, the results obtained
with this plant show a higher degree of
bacteriological as well as chemical puri-
fication than has been obtained previously
on this river.

The important question of tlie satis-
factory disposal of latrine effluent as well
as of town's sewage, particularly in
Bengal, has been dealt with by the adop-
tion of the open-type filter-beds (oxidiza-
tion process), fitted with Messrs. Mather
and Piatt's patent automatic rotary
sewage distributors.

Fire Department —Messrs. Mather and
Piatt arc manufacturers of the " GrLn-
nell " automatic sprinkler and fire alarm,
which absolutely prevents serious fires.
This sprinkler has been adopted exten-
sively in every part of the world, and
reports of fires successfully extinguished
come in daily. More than 50,000 build-
ings are now protected, and it has
operated in over 1 7,000 actual fires, has
never failed, and the average amount of
damage is under £60 per fire. All in-
surance companies accept risks upon
premises protected with " Grinnell "
sprinklers at greatly reduced premiums,
which are sufficient in many cases to pay
the whole cost of the installation in a few
years. Sprinkler installations are sup-
plied by water from town mains, elevated
tanks, pressure tanks, electrical and steam
fire pumps, and they are fitted in accord-
ance with insurance regulations. All sizes
of standard cast-iron tanks can be sup-
plied from stock, and these are made up
of a scries of tank units of high-grade
quality, machined true to within a thou-
sandth of an inch, from which tanks of
almost every size and shape may be con-
structed. Plates 2 ft. and 2 ft. 6 in.
square respectively are used for the most
part, and no heavy hoisting tackle is
required for erection. " Underwriter "
steam fire pumps, fire hydrants, hose and
appliances, and " Simplex " chemical fire
extinguishers. Self-closing armoured fire
doors, fitted with Messrs. Mather and
Piatt's apparatus for self-closing in case

of fire, form the best possible means of
preventing an outbreak from spreading
from one building to another.

It is interesting to note that, in the
Calcutta mill district alone, there are
installations of " Grinnell " sprinklers
numbering 150,000 heads. More than
half of the jute-mills in Bengal, and
their respective godowns, are protected
against fire by this system, in addition to
a considerable quantity of Government
property, flour, cotton, and othea- mills.

All these various departments in Cal-
cutta are efficiently represented by a
fully technical and commercial staff. .\
large stock of materials is held in the
firm's godowns, which are fitted with the
most modern tools and appliances for the
cutting and screwing of pipes and fittings
for use in sprinkler equipments, in " Vor-
tex " humidifier installations, and in the
manufacture of fire doors. One of the
latest pattern patent " Diamond " me-
chanical filters, specially suitable for use
on tea and rubber estates, can be in-
spected at work in the godowns,- and a
large number of standardized cast-iron
tank plates (2 ft. square), from which
almost any size of tank cafi be con-
structed without difficuky, are always
available. ^^

Messrs. Mather and Piatt also have an
ofiice in Bombay at 10 Forbes Street,
where all departments are efficiently
represented, as in Calcutta, by a large
technical and commercial staff.

MACNEILL & CO.

The original founders of this firm were
Messrs. Duncan Macneill and John Mac-
kinnon, who established themselves in
Strand Road, Calcutta, in the year 1872,
and traded as general merchants and
agents under the title of Macneill & Co,
Head offices were opened at Winchester
House, London, E.C., under the style of
Duncan Macneill & Co., and a very exten-
sive business has been built up by the
energy and foresight of the various
partners. The firm are very largely in-
terested in the management of a number
of tea gardens, in coal mines, in the
manufacture of ropes and lines, the
weaving of cloth and sacks from jute,
in controlling inland navigation and rail-
way companies, and in general agency
work. Special reference is made on other
pages in this volume to several of the
above-named branches of industry, and
it will be seen that the firm have, by the
magnitude of trade which passes through
162

their hands, assisted greatly in building
up that immense commercial fabric which
places India in such a favourable position
among British dependencies and colonies.

The present partners are managing
agents for nearly 40 tea gardens in Assam
and Eastern Bengal, which are yielding
an annual crop of nearly 180,000
maunds. They control the work of the
Ganges Rope Company, which has a very
large output of ropes and lines of all
kinds; they are agents for the River
Steam Navigation Company, Ltd., whose
splendid steamers for passenger and
freight traffic ply between Calcutta.
.\ssam, and Cachar, as well as on the
Ganges and on all the rivers and creeks
in the delta of Bengal ; they are the
representatives in Calcutta for the old-
established and renowned Atlas Assurance
Company; and they own saw-mills in
Cachar, in which chests are made for the
tea which is grown on the plantations
in which they are concerned. They are
also largely interested in coal mining.

Mr. Duncan Macneill, one of the
founders, died in 1892, and Mr. Mac-
kinnon became senior partner until his
death in 1908. when the business was
continued by his trustees. In the year
19 14 Lord Inchcape took over the
interests of the latter, and he is now
senior partner, the remaining members of
the firm being Mr. D. F. Mackenzie, Mr.
George Lyell, Mr. Dan Currie, Mr.
Alexander Topping, Mr. John Taylor,
Mr. J. Mackenzie, Mr. Duncan Mac-
kinnon, jun., Mr. VV. Mackinnon, and the
Hon. Kenneth Mackay.

The premises now occupied by the firm
are at 2 Clive Ghat Street, Calcutta.

THE GANGES ROPE COMPANY, LTD.

Although there does not appear to be
any definite information as to the time
when the rope-making industry was com-
inenced in India, there is no doubt that it
must have been at a very early period ;
and as the raw materials are grown so
largely in the East, it is not surprising
that the manufacture of all kinds of ropes,
lines, twines, and paulins should have be-
come such a prosperous undertaking, and
especially near Calcutta, where shipping-
masters and others are ready purchasers
of the finished products.

The Ganges Rope Company, Ltd., was
established m 1904, and Messrs. Macneill
& Co., of 2 Clive Ghat Street, Calcutta,-
who were appointed managing agents,
were confident that there was a promising

MACNSILL & CO.

1 The Gan'gks Rope CoupanV, Lid. 2. Jute Weaving Department (Ganges MAXfhAcTiKiNO Company, Ltd.).

3. JiTE Preparing Depaktjiext (Ganges MANrFACTVRiNO Ccmpany, Ltd.). 4. Narainpore Tea Estate Bingalow.,

5. IJiLKiioosH Ghat Crossing, Barak River. <i. Narainpore BhIl Garden, Cachar.

163

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

future for the making of ropes, provided
that the old system of manual labour was
superseded by machinery which would
materially increase the output and save
much valuable time. A ropewalk was
therefore opened, which is 1,250 feet from
end to end. and therefore is sufficiently
large to allow the spinning of lines to a
length of about a quarter of a mile, and
of any circumference, without their being
spliced in any way. The preparing and
spinning plant was supplied by Messrs.
Lawson and Sons, of Leeds, and the
ropewalk machinery was obtained from
Messrs. Coombe, Barbour & Co.; and
the works, which cover an area of 1 2
acres, are undoubtedly the largest and
the most modern of their kind in the
whole of Asia.

Ropes are made from manila-hemp,
sisal, aloe, cotton, country hemps, jute,
and various descriptions of coir fibres,
and the company guarantee their manila
ropes to be made entirely from the hemp
of that district. Other products of the
factory include aloe and coir ropes (the
latter being dry or oiled), ratlines, tarred
bolt ropes, hand lead lines, deep-sea
lead lines, signal halyards, seizing and
log lines, spun yarn, manila and hemp
sash cords, tarred hambrolines, house
lines, marlines, fishing lines, superior jute.
gasketings, iron wire seizings, rope and
cork fenders, green and white prepared
canvas, dressed paulins in black or any
other colour, hatch covers, awnings, and
sundry other articles.

It may be well to observe at this junc-
ture that the owners of Indian rope manu-
factories have a distinct advantage over
European makers, inasmuch as the former
are practically on the ground where the
raw material is produced, and further,
that the cost of labour and freightage is
considerably less than that which the
Westerner is called upon to pay. The
question might naturally occur as to
whether the Eastern manufactures are,
price for price, equal in quality to others
on the market, but this doubt can be
removed very quickly by observing that
the Ganges Company are, at the present
time, exporting a considerable quantity of
their goods to England. Shipowners are
the largest customers, but large orders
are received from timber-yard proprietors
in Burmah, and from all the leading
shipping, railway, and milling companies
in the East, while contracts are held
for supplying His Majesty's dockyard
authorities and Government arsenals and
factories.

The average daily output is about 12
tons, and some 600 hands are employed.

The Twenty-fifth Ordinary General
Meeting of the shareholders of the com-
pany was held at Calcutta on June 14,
191 5, and a report and statements of
accounts for the half-year ended on
April 30th preceding were then sub-
mitted. The directors have had an uphill
battle to fight owing to the heavy cost of
land, buildings, and machinery, and on
account of the exceedingly severe com-
petition which had to be faced in the
early days of the company; but at this
meeting they were able to show that pre-
liminary difficulties had been overcome,
that trade was increasing by leaps and
bounds, and that the finances were in a
far more satisfactory state than at any
previous time. All the buildings and
machinery were said to be in a thorough
state of repair, and the future of the
company was full of promise.

The accounts showed a balance of
Rs. 1,06,637 to the credit of the trading
account, as compared with Rs. 70,826 for
the corresponding period of the previous
year. After providing for depreciation
and other charges, the profit and loss
account presented a credit balance of
Rs. 57,889 (including Rs. 19,588 brought
forward), which the directors recommended
should be dealt with as follows : dividend
at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum,
equivalent to Rs. 3 per share, amounting
to Rs. 21,000 ; transfer to Debenture
Redemption Fund, Rs. 20,000; and a
balance of Rs. 16,889 to be carried
forward.

The accounts had been duly audited,
and they were signed by J. Mackenzie,
D. Carmichael, and L. VVarlow Harry,
directors, and by Messrs. Macneill & Co.
as managing agents.

THE GANGES MANUFACTURING
COMPANY, LTD.

This company — of which Messrs. Mac-
neill & Co., of 2 Clive Ghat Street,
Calcutta, are managing agents — was
established in the year 1876, and a mill
and factory were opened at Seebpore, on
the right bank of the Hooghly River, in
the same year. The first directors were
Messrs. W. Mackinnon, J. Macdonald,
Eli Lees, A. R. Young, W. Haworth, and
D. Macneill.

The mill started with 200 looms, and

this number has been gradually increased

until it now stands at 568, but in 1908 a

new mill was erected on about 30 acres

J 64

of land adjoining the original premises.
The machinery in the new building was
set in motion towards the close of 1909,
and it now contains 726 looms. Steam
power is used in each mill, with engines
of 2,000 h.p. and 2,500 h.p. respectively,
and the wages-roll contains the names
of about 8,300 hands.

Specialities are a feature of the pro-
ducts of this mill, and among these are
twill cloth for the making of cement bags,
articles chiefly exported to London, and
hop pocketing, the greater portion of
which is sent to San Francisco. Other
products are gunny bags of all descrip-
tions; Hessian cloth, the chief markets
for which are North and South ■•\mcrica;
and wool sheets for Australia, New Zea-
land, and South Africa. During the year
1914 about 30,000 tons of raw jute were
used, to the value of £463,000, and the
manufactured output for the same was of
the value of £800,000.

The company have a private railway
siding to the mills, in addition to two
jetties upon the River Hooghly, but
practically all finished goods are sent
away by water.

The present directors are the Right
Hon. Lord Inchcape, G.C.M.G., K.C.S.I..
K.C.I.E., Messrs. George Lyell, Dan
Currie, and Donald F. Mackenzie, and
the registered offices of the company
are at Winchester House, Old Broad
Street, London.

Jute is one of the largest crops of
Eastern Bengal, and the manufacture of
fabrics therefrom is one of the most pros-
perous industries in I ndia, as it gives
employment to many thousands of per-
sons in the numerous mills which have
been erected in close proximity to the
Hooghly River, every facility being
afforded thereby for the transport of the
raw material to the mills and for the ship-
ment of products to the United Kingdom,
America, and other countries.

The rapidity with which this industry
has grown is nothing short of marvellous,
and it may be interesting to illustrate
this advance by the following figures,
taken from returns published for the
decade between the years 1900 and 19 10.
In the former year there were 8,727 sack-
ing looms and 6,609 Hessian looms, and
the output of the mills was 257,000,000
bags and 380,000,000 yards of Hessian
cloth; while the statistics for 1910 show
13,992 and 18,719 of the two kinds of
looms, and a production of 464,000,000
bags and 1,005,000,000 yards of cloth.
The latest available particulars are as

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

follows : For the year ended December
191 5 the actual clearances of jute fabrics
from Calcutta were 734,000,000 bags and
1,148,000,000 yards of Hessian cloth.

A glance at the exports and at the
consumption of raw jute in local mills
during the same period will perhaps give
a clearer idea of the enormous trade
which has sprung up. From 1900 to
1901 the bales, each weighing 400 lb.,
consigned to the United Kingdom, num-

A. AND J. MAIN & CO., LTD.

This firm is an offshoot of the widely
known establishment of Messrs. A. and
J. Main & Co., Ltd., of Glasgow and
London, and the history of its connection
with India begins with the year 1873,
when Mr. J. A. R. Main, one of the
original founders of the company, opened
an agency in Calcutta, under the manage-
ment of Messrs. Duncan Brothers. Ten
years later, at the time of the Calcutta

in structural work in the tea gardens and
factories of India, and the improvement
that is noticeable in buildings erected in
more recent years is to a very large
extent due to the manner in which this
firm adapted designs to meet the changed
requirements of planters.

The company's workshops at Scaldah
were soon found to be altogether inade-
quate for the increasing volume of trade,
and in 1907 new works were opened at

A. & J. MAIN & CO., LTD.
IXTERiOR, New Smith Shop, Be.\gal-N.\gpur. R.\ilway, KHARGi't'R.

bered 1,512,662; those sent to the conti-
nent of Europe, 1,479,299; to America,
523,495; and to other countries, 16,173;
giving a total of 3,531,629 bales; but to
these must be added 2,415,000 and
300,000 bales used locally and in country
mills respectively, thus bringing the
aggregate number of bales of raw material
to 6,246,629. For the twelve months
from July 191 4 to June 191 5 there were
30 lakhs of bales exported, and the mills
consumption was about 48 lakhs, to which
must be added 500,000 for country con-
sumption.

Exhibition, the agency was taken over
by Messrs. McLeod' & Co., whose repre-
sentative was Mr. Alistair McNiven, and
the business was conducted by the last-
named gentleman until his death in 1900.

Up to this date nearly all work under-
taken by the firm was in connection with
the tea industry, and Main's leaf and tea
houses may be seen to-day in all districts
in which this plant is cultivated.

It was, of course, inevitable that other
manufacturing firms should enter the field
in which Messrs. Main & Co.'s enterprise
had been so successful, but the fact re-
mains that this company were the pioneers

16-;

Shalimar, on the western bank of the
River Hooghly, and about four miles
distant from Calcutta.

The first contract to be executed under
the new conditions was the superstruc-
ture of the North-Westcrn Railway car-
riage and wagon shops at Lahore, a work
which required about 7,000 tons of steel.

Other steel works of importance erected
by the company include an extensive
range of buildings for the Tata Iron and
Steel Company at Sakchi ; workshops for
the Bengal-Nagpur Railway Company at
Khargpur, having a covered area of
500,000 sq. ft. ; the Grand Oriental

A. & J. MAIN & CO., LTD.

I. IXTERIOR. XttW WaOOS-LIPTINO SHOP, UEMOAL-NAGPUR RAILWAY, KlUKOPLK. a, NUW WAGON SHOP, BeXGAL-NAQPUR RAILWAY, KHARGPCR.

3. Skaldah Station, North, Eastern Bengal Railway,

166

I. CALCfTTA PKEMISES.

MCGREGOR & BALFOUR, LTD.

VVOKKbHOl'. 3. MorOK LOKKV. 4. HEAUyUARTEKS ESTABLISHMENT.

167

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Hotel, Colombo, for which 2,500 tons of
steel were supplied ; a suspension bridge,
with a clear span of 630 ft., for the Burma
Oil Company, Rangoon ; the Scaldah
Station. Calcutta, for the Eastern Bengal
Railway Company ; the Howrah Station,
Calcutta, for the East Indian and Bengal-
Nagpur Railway systems ; and a large
niunber of bridges for railway crossings,
rivers, and roads.

Although the firm occupy a leading
position in supplying steel roofing for
all purposes, they have built up a very
extensive fencing business, and it is no
exaggeration to say that a very large pro-
portion of the fencing and railing used
in India by railway and other enterprises
is manufactured by this firm.

The company have recently extended
their activities to Bombay and other
important parts of India, and a local
business that was primarily established
to meet the requirements of the tea
industry is expanding rapidly, and now
promises to create for the firm as enviable
a reputation in the East as that which
they enjoy in Great Britain.

It should be added that designs and
estimates are specially prepared on
receipt of particulars of all kinds of
roofs, bridges, fencing, and other struc-
tural work, and quotations are given upon
designs of other engineers.

Messrs. Main & Co. — with whom is in-
corporated the business of Arrol's Bridge
and Roof Company, Ltd.— are proprietors
of the Clydesdale Iron Works, Possil-
park ; the Germiston Works, Glasgow ;
and the Calcutta BriJge and Roof Works,
Calcutta ; and they have extensive offices
at 10-15 Canning Street, Calcutta.

Their local telegraphic address is
" Mainco," Calcutta or Bombay.

McGregor and balfour, ltd.

This well-known firm, proprietors of
the North Tay Works, Dundee, Scotland,
was established in the year J 8 53, and
one is perfectly justified in saying that its
history of commercial progress is on
parallel lines with the rise and growth
of the jule manufacturing industry in that
city and in India, as there is nothing in
the way of requisites and accessories for
the machinery and plant in the mills
■which cannot be supplied by this firm.

The weaving of jute fibre by hand-
looms into clothing and other articles has
been known in India for many centuries,
but it was as late as the thirties of last

century that Dundee spinners became
convinced of the value of Indian fibre,
and by its use upon their looms a vast
amount of wealth poured into that city.
It was not, however, until the year 1855
that spinning machinery was brought to
Calcutta from Dundee, and the first jute-
mill in India was thereupon erected on
the bank of the Hooghly River upon land
formerly owned by Warren Hastings.

As soon as the pioneer jute-mills were
erected a demand arose for the thousand-
and-onc separate parts required for
running them, and Messrs. McGregor and
Balfour, Ltd., established the North Tay
Works in Dundee, and prepared them-
selves to meet the need which was mani-
fested. They can supply the machinery
itself, and they manufacture sectional
parts such as picking arms, bobbins and
ends, planetree rollers, shuttles, beech,
persimmon, and birch box backs, reeds
and cambs, lathe races, spools, swell
woods, springs, and any other similar
furnishings of a well-equipped mill.

A limited liability company was formed
in 1897, when the business had grown
10 such an extent that further capitaband
increased accommodation became neces-
sary, and in 1904 a branch office was
opened in Calcutta, together with go-
downs and workshops at 49 South Road,
Entail y. Reeds and cambs are manufac-
tured at the last-mentioned works, where
a large stock is kept in hand of the com-
pany's lines made in Dundee and of
goods of the firms they represent, such
as dyes, leather, hair, and cotton belting,
hoops and buckles, canvas hose, canvas,
felt cloths, flax twine, hydraulic hides,
rubber goods, pickers, picking bands, iron
and steel bars, plates and sectional
material, and numerous other sundries.

The company are leather factors, mill,
factory, and engineers' furnishers, fish
and whale oil merchants, and commis-
sion agents. They are representatives in
the eastern portion of India of Messrs.
Geo. Angus & Co., Ltd., of St. John's
Works, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and the
Woven Hose and Belting Works,
Bentham, Lancaster, who are the largest
manufacturers in England of all kinds
of leather goods, indiarubber and
asbestos goods, canvas hose, textile
beltings, and similar goods required for
jute, rice, cotton, and other mills.

The company are agents for Messrs.
Hunter, Doig, and Palmer, brassfounders,
Dundee, who make fittings of every de-
scription connected with steam, water,
beating, fire, in gunmetal, brass, and iron.
168

The company are, further, agents for
Messrs. Halley Brothers, Ltd., Dundee,
who make hackles, gills, wood-card cover-
ing, steel-faced card covering, hackle gill,
card pins, gill rivets, and other acces-
sories.

Mr. W. B. Edward is manager of the
Calcutta branch, and he is assisted by
.Messrs. F. M. Petrie, C. G. Ferrier, and
C. A. Crews. The Calcutta office is at 15
Clive Row, and the telegraphic addresses
of the company is " Shuttle, Dundee,"
and " Warpbobbin," Calcutta, the public
codes used being A. B.C., 4th and 5th
edition.

McLEOD & CO.

The story of the selection of the settle-
ment on the eastern bank of the Hooghly
River, which has grown into the city of
Calcutta, of the construction of dock and
wharfage accommodation at Kidderpore,
and of the rapid expansion of the ship-
ping trade between the newly established
port and the principal countries of the
world is told at length elsewhere in this
volume, and it only remains here for an
allusion to be made to the spirited action
of mercantile firms, hailing from Europe
and elsewhere, who laid the foundation
of the commercial prestige of the port
of Calcutta. These immigrants brought
with them a stock-in-trade of ability,
forcefulness, and keen business instincts,
and they soon founded establishments
whose ramifications have extended to all
parts of the East.

European goods were brought to India
and exchanged for country produce, and
in course of time extensive interests were
developed in the cultivation of rice, jute,
indigo, tea, coal, and sugar. At the
present time plantations and concerns of
the last-mentioned six commodities are
very largely in the hands of Calcutta
merchants who act as managing agents,
and thus it happens that many firms have
the control of quite a number of these
enterprises.

A case in point is that of Messrs.
McLeod & Co., of 3 1 Dalhousie Square,
Calcutta, who have been for many years
interested in the jute trade, and are
exporters of considerable quantities of
both the raw and manufactured article,
their first essay in the jute-mill industry
occurring in 1907, when they took over
the agency of the Soorah Jute Mill, a
small sacking factory of only 175
looms. The plant was by no means
modern, and a comprehensive scheme of

McLEOD & CO. (EMPIRE JUTE MILLS).
1. GE.VEKAL View ok E.mpike Jcte Mill, showing House. 2. Pkepaklsg Department.

3. Another View ok the EuriRE Mill.

i6y

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

reconstruction and extension had to be
undertaken, the results of which are
now being evidenced in reports which
for some time past, show a steady i o per
cent, per annum to the shareholders,
despite the fact that this concern is
handicapped by the absence of any
machinery for producing hessian fabrics.

Very soon after their initial venture,
Messrs. McLeod & Co. floated the Kelvin
Jute Company, Ltd., which, originally
designed as a 400-loom mill, has now
been extended to 600 looms, and the
success of this enlargement is amply
verified by the popularity of its fabrics
on the market, no less than by the fact
that the last dividend paid to its share-
holders was at the rate of 60 per cent,
per annum.

While this mill forms one of the best
representatives of its type on the
Hooghly, Messrs. McLeod & Co. made a
further advance in 19 12, when they
floated the Empire Jute Mill, which is
electrically driven throughout, the power
being generated by steam turbines, the
whole plant exemplifying the last word
to date in jute-mill design. .\lthough
this mill only started running in the early
part of 19 14, its success has been so
marked that the latest distribution on the
ordinary shares was at the rate of 30 per
cent, per annum, while reserves to the
extent of Rs. 5,00,000 had already been
accumulated.

Altogether, Messrs. McLeod & Co. now
control 1,17s looms, consuming more
than 9 lakhs of maunds of raw jute and
producing 34,750 tons of manufactured
goods per annum. Their concerns give
employment to 25 European overseers
and some 8,000 Indian workers, while
the capital invested amounts to about
Rs. 40,00,000.

THE MERCANTILE BANK OF INDIA,
LTD.

The original name of this bank was
the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India,
London, and China, and the institution
was formed at Bombay on November 30,
1853. the first notice of commencement of
operations being in the nature of an ad-
vertisement which appeared in the Tele-
graph and Courier of that city, stating
that the offices would be opened for busi-
ness on January 3, 1854. A schedule was
added in which were shown the rates of
interest on deposits repayable respec-
tively on demand, or at three, six, or
fwelve months, and reference was, further,

made to the rate of discount on bills vary-
ing in duration from fifteen days to four
months, and to cash credits being granted
(on approved security) for sums between
Rs. 5,000 and Rs. 30,000.

Records of important events connected
with the early history of the bank have
been found in files of old newspapers
and in minute and other books, and these
have been supplemented by personal
reminiscences of individuals who have a
distinct recollection of the transactions of
those days. For much of the information
thus collated we are indebted to Vol. II,
No. 5, of the Mercantile War Cry, the
" magazine of the assistants in the Cal-
cutta branch of the Mercantile Bank of
India, Limited," this being the imposing
title on the cover.

Very soon after the opening of the
bank there were highly coloured reports
as to the rich nature of the ore in newly
discovered goldfields in Ceylon, and the
directors, ready to take advantage of
every opportunity to extend business,
opened branches at Colombo and Kandy
in March and April 1854. Before the
close of that year proposals were made
by the directors of the Chartered Bank
of Asia with a view to the amalgamation
of the two institutions. The journal
above mentioned says in connection with
this matter that " a proposition was made
by dissentient shareholders of the Bank
of Asia to wind up the business, and at
this juncture Mr. Flower and Mr. Meeke,
representing the Mercantile Bank, offered
to purchase at par the interest of all
shareholders who wished to retire from
the concern, and having thereby obtained
£60,000 out of the subscribed capital of
£100,000, they held the charter of the
Bank of Asia at the command of the Mer-
cantile Bank, and the amalgamation was
accordingly carried into effect." Other
branches were formed in 1855 at Canton,
Shanghai, Calcutta, and London, and by
the close of the year i860 .Madras, Singa-
pore, Hongkong, Mauritius, and Penang
had been added to the list.

It appears that on November 26. 1857,
" a deed for winding up the Mercantile
Bank of India, London, and China was
signed by the parties concerned, and a
new deed was executed by the share-
holders of the Bank of Asia and the Mer-
cantile Bank for the establishment of a
new incorporated company to be called
the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India,
London, and China."

As the present volume relates very
largely to the Province of Bengal, one
170

may mention that the Calcutta branch was
heralded by an advertisement in the
Eastern Star of January 27, 1855, which
stated that business would be commenced
on the 1st of February following, with
Mr. D. T. Robertson as manager. The
offices at that time were at i Writers'
Buildings, immediately opposite St.
Andrew's Church, and the current
accounts were about fifty in number ;
the next few years witnessed such a large
increase of business that more extensive
and convenient premises were secured in
Council House Street ; and at the present
time (September 191 5) the officials are
housed in a handsome building at 8 Clive
Street.

Owing to serious losses following on
the closing of the Indian Mints to the
free coinage of silver, to great depression
in the Straits Settlements and Mauritius,
and to the downfall of coffee-planting
in Southern India and Ceylon, caused by
blight, it was decided to close several
of the branches and to reconstruct the
business. This was done, and the new
institution was named the Mercantile
Bank of India, Ltd.

The twenty-second annual general
meeting of the shareholders of this
bank was held at Winchester House, Old
Broad Street, London, E.C., on March 30,
191 5, when resolutions, expressive of the
deepest gratitude, were unanimously
passed to the chairman, directors, chief
manager, and the staff of the bank for
their work during the year ending Decem-
ber 31, 1 9 14. The report of the direc-
tors, signed by Mr. P. Mould, chief
manager, referred to the fact that tlie
net profits for the year, after making the
customary allowance for bad and doubtful
debts, and including a sum of £34,604
broUjjlit forward, amounted to £136,224.
An interim dividend of 4 per cent, on
" .A " and " B " , shares, amounting to
£22,500, had been paid on June 30,
1914 ; the sum of £35,000 was added to
the reserve fund (raising it to £500,000; ;
the officers' pension fund had benefited
by £4,000 ; and £5,000 had been written
off the freehold banking premises account.
After payment of a further dividend on
the " A " and " B " shares of 4 per cent,
for the second half of the year (making
8 per cent, for the year), and allowing
for the above deductions, a balance of
£47,224 would be carried forward.

The chairman, in submitting the report
and statement of accounts, referred to
the " almost overwhelming problems with
which finance and commerce were sud-

I. ESTRAXCE.

THE MERCANTILE BANK OF INDIA, LTD.
i. OkmeralBanKing Hall from the Extraxce. 3. Another View of the Baxkixg Hall,

4. Sectiox ok Gexeral Office.

171

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

denly faced in August 1914 by the out-
break of hostilities on the continent of
Europe," and he added that the greatest
praise was due to the Government of the
day for the very prompt and effective
manner in which relief was given by
emergency legislation, thus restoring con-
fidence, and saving the credit of the
country. A feature of the speech, which
was received in the heartiest fashion by
the meeting, was the statement that more
than 25 per cent, of the home staff, in
addition to a few of the foreign officers
of the bank, were then serving their
country in the field, and the directors had
undertaken to keep open the appoint-
ments for these volunteers. The chair-
man concluded his remarks by saying that
the directors had reason to be satisfied
with the result of the work during such
an abnormal and exceptional year.

The bank was registered in London,
under the Companies Acts of 1862 to
1890, on December 2, 1892, its present
offices being at 15 Gracechurch Street,
E.G.

The authorized capital is £1,500,000,
of which the sum of £1,125,000 has been
subscribed ; the paid-up capital is
£562,500 ; and the reserve fund
amounts to £500,000.

The board of directors consists of Mr.
R. J. Black (chairman), Mr. James
Campbell, Mr. J. M. Ryrie, Mr. H. Mel-
vill Simons, and Sir David Yule. The
London bankers are the Bank of England
and the London Joint Stock Bank, Ltd.,
while in Scotland the agents are Messrs.
R. and E. Scott, Queen Street, Edin-
burgh.

The following are the branches and
agencies : Bombay, Calcutta, Howrah,
Delhi, Madras, Karachi, Rangoon,
Colombo, Kandy, Galle, Singapore,
Penang, Kota Bharu, Kuala Lumpur,
Batavia, Hongkong, and Shanghai.

The manager of the Calcutta branch is
Mr. A. Scott Smith.

A. HILTON & CO.

The telegraphic code word " Equus "
is an admirable one for such a firm as
Messrs. A. Milton & Co., as they are
recognized throughout India, Burma, the
Straits, Australia, and New Zealand as
being in the forefront of those who
purchase, sell, train, or keep at livery,
horses of every description, from the
handy pony to the thoroughbred racer.
These activities, however, do not exhaust

the list of Messrs. Milton & Co.'s opera-
tions, for they also enjoy a large and
influential practice as veterinary surgeons,
and are contractors for forage, grain, and
condiments. The business was estab-
lished in the year 1880 by the late Mr.
Richard Morgan, M.D., M.R.C.V.S., and
the present proprietor, Mr. A. M. Milton,
and the extensive premises at 156 Dhur-
rumtollah Street, in Calcutta (which have
accommodation for about two hundred
animals), are known as being one of the
most famous and best equipped reposi-
tories in the East. The firm have regular
consignments of horses from Australia
and New. Zealand, and these comprise
racers, steeplechasers, hunters, polo and
race ponies, chargers, hacks, and trappers,
together with animals suitable for form-
ing teams or pairs. The Indian horse
is not overlooked, however, as some
really excellent ponies, many of them by
English or Arab sires, are obtained from
the north-west and the Punjab, and
although these show an average height
of only about 14 hands i in., they are
extremely hardy and sure-footed. The
majority of the occupants of the stables
and paddocks aire sold privately, but
clients who are unable to pay a personal
visit to Calcutta may always rely upon
the sound judgment and care of the firm
when supplying their wants. It is 'an
old saying, but a very true one, that a
purchaser of a horse should always
appraise the seller equally as well as the
animal, but Messrs. Milton & Co. are
fortunate in possessing a well-established
reputation for the straightforward manner
in which their business is conducted, and
they have thus been able to give un-
bounded satisfaction to customers.

A most important step was taken when
the firm secured about 20 acres of land
at Ballygunge, near Calcutta, as they have
provided paddocks in which sick or over-
worked horses are turned out to graze,
and where youngsters are put through
a most complete course of breaking and
training, either harness or saddle.
Further than this, there is a special track
where horses are schooled over a series
of jumps, and when they have finished
their lessons they may be looked upon as
safe fencers. One of the fields is set
apart as a segregation camp, in which
animals suffering from any contagious
or infectious disease can be kept under
treatment, either in the open air or in
well-ventilated stables. Green barley,
oats, paddy, guinea grass, and lucerne
are cultivated at Ballygunge, and trees
172

for shelter and shade purposes have been
extensively planted.

The hack department is a great boon
to the inhabitants of Calcutta, as hirers
can always obtain very stylish broughams
or landaus (with smart pairs of horses),
comfortable gharries, phaetons, and other
vehicles, and these are turned out in the
most attractive manner.

Another branch of the business is the
importation and sale of light Australian
iron - tyred sulkies, hooded buggies,
(rubber tyres), American four-wheel
buggies, and hickory gigs, together
with English harness and stable requi-
sites of all kinds.

The firm are contractors for every
description of forage for horses or
cattle, and they keep a large stock of
oats, gram, barley, bran, linseed, com-
pressed hay, crushed and mixed grain,
chaff, hay, straw, and prepared foods for
milch cows and poultry.

Special reference should be made to
the firm's " XL condition mixture " for
horses, which is not a chemical prepara-
tion, but is a pure, wholesome food of
great efficacy in its invigorating and
muscle-forming properties ; it excels as
a digestive ingredient ; and its sustain-
ing qualities have withstood the severest
of all tests. But this preparation is not
merely an appetizing adjunct, as it
possesses certain medicinal qualities
which expel worms, tends to cure coughs
and colds, rouse the sluggish liver, and
to keep the horse in a bright and
naturally healthy condition. This con-
diment is the result of years of patient
study of the constitutional ailments com-
mon to horseflesh, and since it was placed
upon the market it has proved to be
superior to all existing foods of a similar
character. Thousands of unsolicited tes-
timonials have been received from clients
throughout India and the Far East, and
these letters of appreciation of " XL "
have been penned after actual tests as
to its value have been made.

Messrs. Milton & Co. not only supply
double and single harness, saddles,
bridles, and other leather requisites, but
they are patentees of a preservative
(specially manufactured in Australia)
which renders all these goods absolutely
impervious to water, and it is guaranteed
to keep them perfectly flexible during
several months of continual hard use.

Policies of insurance against the death
of all classes of horses from disease, or
from accidents on land or sea, during
hunting, steeplechasing, or ordinary

I. Gara(;p.

2. YARn.

A. MILTON & CO.
3. iLKiir OK Motor lorriks svm.iED to the Govermmext,

4. Paddocks,

173

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

work, or owing to surgical operations of
an intricate character, are issued by the
firm at the lowest possible rates.

As the veterinary department is in the
capable hands of Mr. Nortnan Gilford,
M.R.C.V.S., it goes without saying that
greater skill or more careful attention
in the various phases of complicated
maladies could not be offered by any
other practitioners.

Although the above branches of Messrs.
Milton & Co.'s extensive business have
been growing rapidly since their forma-
tion, the firm have gladly yielded to the
wishes of their numerous clients by estab-
lishing a motor department, and they are
now sole agents for Fiat, Crossley,
Maxwell, Dennis, Alldays motors, motor
lorries, ambulances, and Kerry-Abingdon
motor cycles.

The premises, which extend from
Dhurrumtollah Street to Princep Street,

of engines, and coach and wheel work,
together with enamelling and uphol-
stering.

Mr. A. Milton and Mr. M. B. Milton
bestow personal supervision over all
matters, and they have five European
assistants and about 250 natives in their
employ.

■«^

THE NATIONAL BANK OF INDIA, LTD.

The Calcutta City Banking Corpora-
tion, Ltd., was established at Calcutta on
September 29, 1863, but the name was
altered to the National Bank of India,
Ltd., on March 2, 1864. The original
premises were in Council House Street,
and although the staflf was largely in-
creased in number from time to time
owing to the exceedingly rapid growth
of business, it was not until the year
1902 that the company obtained further

is now available for each of the numerous
departments, and the exceedingly fine
banking hall has a floor area of 23,300
sq. ft.

The company was registered in London
under the Companies Act of 1862 on
March 23, 1866, its head offices being
at 26 Bishopsgate Street, E.C. Branches
have been established at Calcutta,
Bombay, Madras, Karachi, Chittagong,
.Amritsar, Cawnpore, Delhi, Lahore,
Tuticorin, Cochin, Rangoon, Mandalay,
Colombo, Kandy, Newera Eliya, Aden,
Steamer Point, Aden ; at Zanzibar, Mom-
basa, Nairobi, Nakura, and Kisumu in
British East Africa ; and at Entebbe,
Kampala, and Jinja in Uganda. The
ninety-fifth report of the directors
(together with a statement of accounts
to December 31, 19 14) was submitted
to the shareholders at the annual meet-
ing, held in London on March 23, 19 15,

contain airy stables, loose boxes, coach-
houses, harness-rooms, carriage-building
shops, stores, shoeing forge, garage,
offices, surgery, and other accommoda-
tion, and special attention is now being
devoted to the repairs and adjustment

THE NATIONAL BANK OP INDIA, LTD.

Thk liAXHiNii Hall. I'hofo by E. I.omiz.

accommodation by removing to their
property at 104 Clive Street. This
building, however, soon proved to be too
small for the requirements of the bank,
and it was enlarged to its present size
in the year 1914. Abundance of room

174

and, notwithstanding the crippling eflfect
upon commerce caused by the European
war, the very satisfactory position of the
bank was shown by the fact that the net
profits for the previous year, after pro-
viding for bad and doubtful debts,

'75

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

amounted to £347,995 13s. 4d., inclusive
of a balance brought forward of £78,625
2S. 4d. An ad interim dividend at the
rate of 12 per cent, per annum, free of
income tax, and amounting to £60,000,
had been paid for the half year ending
on June 30, 191 4, and the directors then
recommended a further dividend at the
rate of 16 per cent, per annum, and a
bonus of 2 per cent., making 16 per cent.
for the whole year. They further pro-

business is carried on, and stocks, shares,
and other securities are purchased, sold,
or kept in safe custody.

The board of directors consists of Mr.
Robert Campbell, chairman, Mr. Robert
Williamson, deputy chairman, and Mr.
.\. v. Dunlop Best, Sir John P. Hewett,
G.C.S.I., CLE., Mr. Robert Miller,
Mr. Alfred Simson, Mr. J. N. Stuart,
Mr. J. .A. Toomey. The bankers of
the company are the Bank of England,

tralia. The premises of the company in
Calcutta occupy an unrivalled position at
26-27 Dalhousie Square, immediately op-
posite the General Post Office, and prac-
tically in the centre of the leading mer-
cantile houses and the other exchange
banks.

Fixed deposits are received upon
favourable terms, which may be ascer-
tained from the managers. Indian Govern-
ment securities, stocks, and shares, are

BRITISH COMMERCIAL BANK, LTD.

PORIIOX OF Oll-ICK. 2. EXTEKIOK VlKW.

posed to add £75,000 to the reserve fund,
raising it to £1,175,000, to write off
£10,000 from the house property account,
and to add £10,000 to the officers' pen-
sion fund, leaving a balance of £92,995
13s. 4d. to be carried forward. The
amount of the subscribed capital is
£2,000,000, of which the sum of
£1,000,000 has been paid up by 1,231
shareholders. Interest is allowed by the
bank on current deposit accounts at the
rate of 2 per cent, per annum on balances
from Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 1,00,000, and fixed
deposits are received for definite periods
on terms which are obtainable at any of
the company's offices. General banking

the National Provincial Bank of England,
Ltd., and the National Bank of Scot-
land, Ltd., while the manager of the
Calcutta branch is Mr. \V. J. K.
Hegarty.

"*^
THE BRITISH COMMERCIAL BANK, LTD.

This enterprising institution was origin-
ally started as an adjunct to Renter's Tele-
graphic Agency Company, but its area of
operations extended so widely and with such
rapidity that it now conducts exchange and
general banking business with England
(through its head office at 43 Coleman
Street, London), South Africa, and Aus-
176

purchased or sold, and bills payable in
Europe, Africa, Australia, India, and in
other countries are negotiated or collected.
Interest, salaries, and pensions, are col-
lected, and the safe custody of valuable
documents is undertaken Current ac-
counts are opened free of charge and in-
terest is allowed at usual rates on daily
balances of Rs. 500.

The capital of the company is
£1,000,000, made up of 100,000 shares
of £10, of which the sum of £500,000 has
been fully paid.

The directors, well-known financial men
in the city of London, are Mr. Gerald
Williams (chairman), the Hon. Mark Y.

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

Napier, Mr. George Grinnell Milne, and
the Hon. Edmund W. Parlcer.

■*^
FEDERICO PELITI

Calcutta and many other Eastern cities
situated within a few degrees from the
tropics would not be so endurable were
it not for those havens of rest and refresh-
ment, in the form of high-class restaurants,
which havt come into prominence during
the past thirty or forty years. Their
elegant but comfortably furnished rooms,
sheltered from the heat of an Indian sun
and cooled by the use of electric fans,
present the most fascinating opportunities
for young and old alike to enjoy those
periods of relaxation which occasion
offers, while at the same time they are
served, in the best European style, with
delicacies of the most delectable
character, manufactured by princes in
the art of confectionery. How tongues
wag and teaspoons rattle at Peliti's in
Calcutta (every one knows Peliti's), which
is one of the most famous restaurants in
the Eastern hemisphere !

The present proprietors may perhaps
tell of the days when Mr. Federico
Peliti, the founder of the firm, left Italy
to enter the service of the Earl of Mayo —
a former Viceroy — as chief confectioner,
this being the first appointment of the
kind in Government House; they will
refer to the assassination of the Viceroy
at Port St. Blair, and then one may hear
how their predecessor commenced busi-
ness on his own account in Calcutta in
the year 1869.

This was a bold step, involving serious
difficulties, as luxuries such as Mr. Peliti
wished to place before the public were
absolutely unknown in India, and further,
there were no chances of his obtaining
skilled makers of such goods in the whole
of the country. He persevered, however,
practically single-handed, for a number
of years, and eventually he was compelled
by the increasing size of the business to
obtain qualified assistants from Italy.

A very notable expansion in the turn-
over followed very rapidly, and it was
not long before extensive premises were
secured at 1 1 Government Place, and
immediately opposite Government House.
Attention was then directed to hotel
accommodation and catering on a much
larger scale, and the founder's two sons,
Edoardo and Federico Peliti, are now
owners of the splendid restaurant build-
mg in Calcutta and of the Grand Hotel
at Simla.

A very large business is now carried on
in the manufacture of wedding and other
cakes, chocolates, an endless variety of
sweets, and pastry of all kinds, while the
stores used and exhibited for sale in the
restaurant are made in Carignano, in
Italy, and are imported specially for the
partners.

Catering is undertaken for wedding
parties, entertainments, and picnics; the
firm are caterers by Royal Appointment
to His Majesty the King-Emperor, in
addition to holding similar warrants from
all the Viceroys of India and Governors
of Bengal since the time of Lord Mayo;
they are official restaurateurs to the Turf
and other clubs in Calcutta; and they
enter into important contracts for the
supply of all refreshments to Indian
chiefs on special occasions, such as the
visits of Viceroys and Governors, and for
tiger-shooting parties.

Gold medals were awarded to Messrs.
Peliti at Exhibitions held in Paris, Turin,
and Calcutta, and they possess quite a
collection of warrants of appointment and
testimonials.

There are a spacious tearoom and shop
on the ground floor, and a fine restaurant
and balcony tearoom on the first floor, the
last named being one of the most popular
resorts in the city.

The partners give direct personal
supervision over a numerous and fully
trained staff of attendants.

THE PLANTERS' STORES AND AGENCY
COMPANY, LTD.

The Planters' Stores Company, Ltd.,
formed in the year 1872 by a number of
influential tea-planters in the district of
Dibrugarh of the Province of Assam, was,
six years later, incorporated in England
under the title at the heading of these
notes, and its business concerns have
developed with such rapidity and to such
an extent, tliat important branches or
agencies are now opened not only at i i
Clive Street, Calcutta, but also at Chitta-
gong, and practically throughout Bengal,
.Assam, and the Federated Malay States.

The company are managing or selling
agents for about twenty-five tea estates,
for several coal, stone, and lime works,
and some rubber and other companies ;
but they have for a niunber of years made
a special feature of, and have been work-
ing up a virtual monopoly for, " Sirocco "
tea machinery and fans for all the tea-
planting districts of Assam and Northern
India generally. No name is better

177

known in connection with machinery used
in all the processes of the manufacture
of tea than that of " Sirocco," the trade-
mark distinguishing the machinery made
by Messrs. Davidson & Co., Ltd., of
Belfast, for whom the Planters' Stores
and Agency Company, Ltd., are sole
representatives in Northern India.

In former days it was the usual prac-
tice in tea-drying machinery to draw the
hot air through the drying chamber by
suction, but in the " Sirocco " endless
chain pressure driers this principle is
reversed, the air being forced through
under pressure, a new departure marking
a distinct advance, in that the hot air
presses down upon the upper surfaces of
the leaves, and dries them almost as
rapidly as the lower surfaces. These
driers require no brickwork in their erec-
tion, and they comprise three distinct
parts— the heater, the fan, and the drying
chamber.

Many improvements have during recent
years been added to the heater of the
multitubular type, all of these tending to
convenience in working, to economy in
fuel consumption, and durability. The
products of cpnsumption pass from the
furnace to the right and left into two
chambers at the back of the heater, thence
through the top groups of tubes into the
front chambers, and then through the
bottom groups to the lower back
chambers, which communicate with the
chimney.

.All multitubular air heaters which are
used in conjunction with the endless chain
pressure driers, can now be supplied with
a mechanical stoker of the latest improved
type, and using forced draught. This
form of stoking possesses two chief ad-
vantages, as it effects economy both in
fuel consumption and in labour. The
consumption of coal is reduced on account
of the complete and smokeless combus-
tion of the fuel, which produces a
uniformly high furnace temperature, with
a bright, incandescent fire, and ensures
that the gases are burnt before entering
the tubes, whilst the amount of labour
required is much less than with hand-
firing, as the attendant has only to fill the
coal hopper at fairly long intervals, and
the fire has to be cleaned about twice a
day only.

The " stoker " works on the underfeed
])rinciple ; that is to say, the fresh fuel
is su]>plied continuously from below, and
is advanced upwards towards the zone of
combustion. The coal is emptied into
the hopper, the base of which communi-

F. PELITI.

1. Kt>iT»rH\VT ANI> COXFECTIOXKRV PKKMISKS, GuVKK.VMEN'T PI.ACK, CAICITTA.

). HtfVfswiUKX Pavii.iox Ar mi-: ;!oiii.ogicai. Garpexs Calcitta.

a. IXrERIOR OK RESTAl'RAXT.
4. WSKDING CAKK JIAKK BV F. PELITI.

178

t. Bu.VK STONIC AND LlUK WUKKK.

THB PLANTERS' STORES AND AGBNOY COMPANY, LTD.

1, No. II SIHOI-U) IlKAIKK WITH SlOKI'.K. 3. HlHOl C(l Kslll.WK CICAIM llUlUU (I,.MKI1'I TH'KJ.

,V Main I'it CixniM. Diiakmaiianh Coi.i.ikliy,

4. IXTKNION UC OflfKH.

I7(;

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

cates with the horizontal trough or com-
bustion retort within the furnace of the
heater. This trough contains a tapered
screw, or worm conveyer, which is
actuated by gearing connected with a
countershaft placed above the heater,
and by rotation of the worm the fuel is
advanced from the hopper into the retort,
and overflows in a rounded mound on to
the sloping firebars, where the coal is
coked, i.e. deprived of its volatile gases.
The latter, being mixed with air intro-
duced at this point, and escape being
only possible by rising through the glow-
ing coke above, are heated to such a high
temperature that they are completely con-
sumed without smoke, while the combus-
tion of the fixed carbon of the coal is
completed by the air introduced through
the apertures between the firebars. In
this manner a clear, bright surface of
incandescent fuel is always obtained, with-
out the inevitable fluctuations of tempera-
ture in the furnace consequent upon firing
by hand. The ashes and slack (of which
the quantity is usually very small) pass
down the sloping firebars to each side
of the furnace, whence they can be
periodically raked out through the two
doors in the front of the furnace.

Mr. Richard Rowe has acted as chair-
man of the company since 1904, and it is
largely due to his enterprise and shrewd
cominon sense that the expansion of the
business has been maintained so steadily.
The company occupied premises in
Mission Row, Calcutta, in earlier days,
but they removed to their present
quarters in a very fine new building in
Clive Street in the year 1913.

The London offices of the company are
at 17 St. Helen's Place, E.C., and the
telegraphic address is " Planters."

T. R. PRATT

The history of the present age is a
record of progress in all directions, but
in engineering matters (which are being
dealt with at the moment) one need not
go far afield to witness the astounding*
advance which has been made.

The old - fashioned trek - wagons of
Africa and the palanquins, the pack bul-
locks, and the coolie carriers of India,
would long ago have been swept into
oblivion if those countries had been
developed to such an extent that good
metalled roads were a possibility, hut
in the traffic of our cities and towns one
sees daily numbers of motor-lorries con-
veying huge loads of merchandise from

place to place in an incredibly short space
of time, thus displacing the horse or mule
carts for transport service, which are
almost as rare as 1 o-rupee notes on the
green sward of the maidan.

The greatest revolution, however, is
noticeable in the present-day facilities
for business or pleasure purposes afforded
by the luxurious motor-cars which are in
constant use by professional and commer-
cial men, or by private persons who are
only too glad to turn their backs upon
cvil-smelling streets scorched by high
temperatures and rendered unpleasant by
dust of roads and smoke from chimneys.
The motor vehicles of 1 9 1 6 are won-
drously fast in speed, and, by their
luxurious furnishings and fittings, extend
invitations, which one finds it impossible
to refuse, to partake of the intense
enjoyment to be derived from a spin of
40 or 50 miles amid gorgeous scenery in
various parts of the globe.

One of the leading motor establish-
ments in Bengal where one can obtain
magnificent cars with all modern improve-
ments and trolleys for heavy goods,
together with all kinds of accessories and
fittings required in the rebuilding or
repair of any kind of petrol-driven
vehicles, is that of Mr. T. R. Pratt, of
301-2 Bowbazar Street, in Calcutta.

The business as at present constructed
was established in Marcli 1907, prior to
which date Mr. T. R. Pratt, as manager
for Messrs. Davidson & Co., in Northern
India, represented in Calcutta : Messrs.
Babcock and Wilcox; Samuel Osborn &
Co., Ltd., Clyde Steel Works, Sheffield;
Messrs. G. and J. Weir, Ltd., Cathcart,
Glasgow ; the Automatic Teleplione
Manufacturing Company, Ltd., Liver-
pool ; Messrs. D. H. and G. Ilaggi/e,
Ltd., Sunderland, and other firms, whose
representation (excepting the first named)
he still holds, together with the Turbon
Patent Fan Company, Ltd., Llanmore,
Llanelly, South Wales ; the Daimler
Motor Company, Coventry; the Sunbeam
Motor Company, Wolverhampton ; the
Standard Motor Car Company, Ltd.,
Coventry; the Talbot Motor Car Com-
pany, London; Messrs. A. Darracq & Co.,
London; the Perry Motor Company, Ltd.,
Birmingham; the Commercial Cars, Ltd.,
Lviton; and the Willys-Overland, Incor-
jwrated, Toledo, Ohio, U.S.A.

Mr. Pratt is an engineer and machinery
merchant, and the scope of the l)usiness
is varied and comprehensive. Many
notable contracts liave been entrusted to
him and have been successfully carried
180

through. The Government of India pur-
chased from him T,Ti'i tons of copper wire
for aerial lighting wires at the Imperial
Durbar at Delhi in 191 I, and he was
responsible for the supply and upkeep of
64 motor-cars for the Imperial Camp at
Delhi and Nepal for His Majesty King
George V, the Nepal shikar party, and
H.H. Sir Chandra Shanlsher Jang,
G.C.B., G.C.S.I., G.C.V.O., Prime
Minister and Marslial.

The automatic telephone installation
at Simla in 1911 was an enterprise
attended with a considerable amount of
anxiety, and as it was the first equip-
ment of its kind in India its success
was imperative. The erection, when com-
pleted, found instant favour, and the
standard of efficiency achieved vindicated
the striking claims made on behalf of the
" Automatic." The service, as now pro-
vided in Simla, has resulted in other large
contracts being placed for similar installa-
tions.

From a small nucleus in the motor-car
industry, this branch of the business has
gone forward with unerring speed. Mr.
Pratt realized the potentialities of the
motor in India, and the agencies which
his enterprise secured have been ample
reward for his perspicacity. The
branches of the firm at Delhi and Dhan-
bad have contributed their quota, both as
regards motor-cars and the engineering
side of the business. The well-known
" Overland " car is chiefly responsible for
the wonderful increase and development
of the motor-car department. The Over-
land Company were among the first (if
not the original firm) to produce a reliable
car with electric starting and lighting sets,
together with complete equipment, at an
almost incredibly low price, and the
energy resulting from the concentration
of massed organization to produce such
a car has justified itself in the eminence
in which it stands in the world to-day.

The agency for " Commer " cars was
one which the firm did well to obtain.
This vehicle is one of commercial utility,
and is one of the leading transport lorries
yet produced. It is entirely British, a
triumph of British material and workman-
ship. The " Commer " has manifested
its supremacy in no uncertain way during
the present war, and its use in this
country has demonstrated how practical
and economical motor transport is as com-
pared with the slow- and unsatisfactory
service provided by indigenous methods
of conveyance.

The workshop department has also

I. Head Office and Garage.

T. R. PRATT.

2. Part of Interior ok Gakage. ,i. Corxer of Machine Shops, I.owkr Circii.ar Road

4. Corner of the Warehouse in Mission Row.

I»I

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

advanced in concert with others, and the
accommodation of the premises now occu-
pied not allowing of further extension,
the works are being transferred to a more
extensive site. The work, turned out
under skilled management, has reflected
highly on the supervision and upon the
workmen employed.

Messrs. D. H. and G. Haggie, Ltd.,
Sunderland ; The ropes manufactured by
this firm have always been more or less
known throughout the coalfields. The
quality of material used and the reliable
service they invariably provide have un-
deniably maintained the reputation they
have always enjoyed, and have secured for
them a popularity throughout the Indian
coalfields which must be intensely gratify-
ing both to the makers and to the local
agent.

Samuel Osborn & Co., Ltd., ShefKeld :
Space does not permit a record in detail
of the activities of this firm, as the rami-
fications of their business are so numerous
that reference can only be made to a
limited conspectus. They were the
original makers of " Mushet " high-speed
steel, which at the time of its inception
caused such a sensation in the engineering
world. " Mushet," though somewhat
changed in formula, has held its own
against more recent productions, and
invariably asserts an ascendancy over
similar materials against which it is
demonstrated. " Mushet " high - speed
drills are also commonly used, and
their supremacy has also been well
maintained. Mr. Pratt has been zealous
in his claims on behalf of Osborn's pro-
ducts, the high-grade materials supplied
having substantiated all assertions as to
their superiority, and have established
them throughout the country on an
unassailable footing.

The Turix)n Patent Fan Company,
Ltd., Llanelly : Mr. Pratt has only
recently acquired this agency, which,
combined with the numerous other
agencies he possesses, should turn to good
account. The " Turbon " fan follows the
latest developments in mining-fan con-
struction, one special feature being the
facility with which a damaged blade can
be extracted and replaced. Radially the
blades are narrow, and axially run the
whole width of the fan, while the cubic
discharge and pressure capacity of the
latter are unsurpassed by any other in
existence.

G. and J. Weir, Ltd., Cathcart, Glas-
gow : Every engineer is familiar with a
" Weir " auxiliary. Weir's best-known

products are boiler feed pumps, air
pumps, hydraulic pumps, locomotive feed
pumps, oil-fuel pumps, evaporators and
distilling plants, and circulating pumps
and condensers. The concentration of
expert, technical, and scientific efforts
specialized and devoted to definite lines
of research, tlie comparison and analysis
of results drawn from an ever-increasing
r;inge of examples, have all contributed
to make Weir's auxiliary machinery the
best and most reliable in the world. The
latest and most up-to-date equipment
and manufacturing facilities, a closely
systematized industrial and commercial
organization, a generous conception of
duty to their clientile, and a high ideal
of quality and character in their products,
are also factors which have obtained for
Weir's products the reputation which they
enjoy.

The Vaughan Pulley Company : This
is one of the foremost firms in Great
Britain engaged in the production of
pulleys, shafting, gearing, and high efii-
ciency power transmission. The con-
siderable experience which this firm has
accumulated is at the disposal of those
interested in the question of power trans-
mission, and they are always pleased to
diagnose any special requirements, and to
assist in settling such problems as may
arise in planning mechanical and elec-
trical power distributions. The Vaughan
Pulley Company maintain a high degree
of accuracy and unrivalled quality in
materials and workmanship, factors which
have earned for their goods an enviable
distinction.

Mr. Pratt has been resident in India
for the past 33 years, and, like most
successful commercial men, has many and
varied activities. He is keenly interested
in sport, and is a familiar figure in racing,
motoring, and golfing circles. Mr. Pratt
devotes a good deal of his leisure to
riding, and those of the old school who
were familiar with the turf in the late
eighties will still remember him as a
prominent .gentlema:n rider. He now
owns a few promising horses.

Mr. Pratt also takes a lively interest
in municipal affairs, and is one of the
four members of the Bengal Chamber of
Commerce elected by that body as repre-
sentatives on the Corporation. He has
held this honour for the past 13 years.

PYNE, HUGHMAN & CO., LTD.

It is not often that a firm with a life
of only some half a dozen years can boast
such a record of progress and important
i8j

work accomplished as that of Messrs.
Pyne, Hughman & Co., Ltd., of Grosvenor
House, Old Court House Street, in the
city of Calcutta.

The firm was established in London
in 1910 by Mr. C. A. B. Pyne and Mr.
E. M. Hughman (under the name of
Pyne, Hughman & Co.), and in the same
year they commenced business in Calcutta
at 4 Lyons Range. The founders pos-
sessed sound, practical experience, and
such boundless energy was manifested l)y
them that a most remarkable develop-
ment of their interests was noticeable even
in the first year of their existence, and
they are now {1916) well known through-
out the length and breadth of India.
They have erected more than a hundred
electric lifts in various parts of the
country, and have carried out upwards of
a hundred installations in northern dis-
tricts, among which were those at Govern-
ment Houses at Ranchi, Bankipore, and
Chittagong. Many contracts for light-
ing, involving the expenditure of con-
siderable sums of money, have been
executed in Calcutta, and chief among
these are for work done at the new offices
of Messrs. Graham & Co., the Planters'
Stores and .\gency Company, Ltd., the
.'\llahabad and National Banks, and the
Dharma Samavaya Mansions in Corpora-
tion Street, the last named being the
largest building of its kind in India.

At the present time the firm arc
engaged in the erection of thirty 2-ton
electric goods lifts and fifty-nine 2-ton
electric travelling cranes for the new-
docks now in course of construction at
Garden Reach for the Commissioners of
the Port of Calcutta. These are the
largest orders for lifts and cranes ever
placed with any individual firm of
engineering contractors in India.

Designs for a new bridge to replace
the pontoon which spans the Hooghly
River between Calcutta and Howrah were
invited recently, and the plan submitted
by Messrs. Pyne, Hughman & Co., as
agents for a large firm, was, with a few
slight variations, accepted by the Port
Commissioners of Calcutta, who awarded
a prize of £3,000 for the work.

Messrs. Pyne, Hughman & Co. com-
peted at the Allahabad Exhibition in 191 i
and obtained numerous gold, silver, and
bronze medals for their exhibits, and as
agents for the Aster Engineering Com-
pany, Ltd., they were awarded the gold
medal for the famous " ."^ster " engine,
which also received the Grand Prix .it the
Brussels Exhibition in 1910.

-I. PVXE. Hl'GHMAN & CO.. LTD. (HEAD OFFICE).

PYNE, HUGHMAN & CO., LTD.
2. Harri.vctox Ma.ssio.v.s. 3. TiiK Allahabad Bank, Ltd.

4. Okikxtai. Life Issirax'ce Biildixgs.

183

I. Graham ft Co.'a Officks.

PYNE, HUGHMAN & CO., LTD.
a. New Telecrai-m OI'Fick, Calcitia. 3. Xatioxai. Bank, Ltu., Calcutta.

4. Port Commissioners' Transit Shed.

184

SHAW, WALLACE & CO.
, Shaw, Wai.uck s Co.'s Okhck, ■( haxksiiai.l Stkkkt. 2. The Hooghly Flour Mii.i.. 3. Stkrii.izf.d Asimae. Mkai. Factory, Phapi'A.

4. I.AXmXO A SHIl'ME.NT OF XlTROLIN,

I'licii hcurne S/ Sht^ttnit

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

The business continued to grow to surli
an extent that early in the year 191 6 a
limited liability company was formed,
with the object of providing for a still
further expansion. Messrs. Gladstone,
Wyllie & Co.— one of the leading firms
in Calcutta— were appointed managing
agents, and the directors of the company
are the Hon. Sir F. H. Stewart, CLE.
(of Messrs. Gladstone, Wyllie & Co.),
chairman ; Messrs. Gerald Stapledon (of
Messrs. Morgan & Co.). C. A. B. Pyne,
and E. M. Hughman.

works. Special mention may be made
of marble columns and balustrade sup-
plied for the staircase in Galstaun's Park;
a marble balustrade and dado for stair-
case at the new Palace of the Nawab of
Murshidabad: marble balustrade for
verandas in the V'iziaram Palace of the
Maharaja of V'izianagram at Korukonda;
marble balustrade and handrail for stair-
case of the Maharaja of Panchkote's New
Palace at Kashipur, Manbhum : marble
for the new Council House Room at
Delhi; marble altars for St. James's, St.

L. E. SALSICCIONI.
A Corner ok tiik Marble Yarp. 2 Maibi.k Sta[i;ca k and Rams at Oalstaixs Park.

New workshops and godowns have
recently been erected at I British Indian
Street, under the name of " Porcupine
Buildings," and the present offices in
Grosvenor House are situated in a hand-
some new building in the centre of the
commercial life of Calcutta.

L. E. SALSICCIONI

It is claimed that the godowns and
warehouses at 205 Old China Bazar
Street, Calcutta, belonging to Mr. L. E.
Salsiccioni, contain the largest and most
varied stock of marble, ceramic, and floor-
ing and glazed wall-tiles in the Province
of Bengal.

'llie business was established in the
year 1902, and it has expanded with great
rapidity owing to the most satisfactory
manner in which the proprietor l)as
carried out a large number of important

Teresa's, and other churches in Calcutta ;
and three massive marble staircases at
I'Isplanadc Mansions, in Calcutta, etc.
The list of Mr. Salsiccioni's patrons is a
long one, and it includes practically all
the railway systems in India, ru'.ers of the
principal native .States, the leading con-
tractors' and merchants' firms, and a great
many notable people in the country.

Flooring and other tiles, as well as
marble, arc imported monthly from Italy,
while glazed wall-tiles are obtained from
English factories; and between 100,000
and 200,000 square feet of marble and
a large quantity of manufactured goods
are usually kept on the premises.

•*;:;

SAXBY & FARMER (INDIA), LTD.

This company (, incorporated in
England; have their registered ol^ces
at 53 Victoria Street, Westminster,
186

London, S.W., and they are well known
throughout the world as engineers in con-
nection with signalling upon railways. ■

Their works and offices in Calcutta are
situated at 17 Convent Road, Entally,
and their telegraphic address is " Inter-
lock," Calcutta.

•««

SHAW, WALLACE & CO.

There are several commercial houses in
Calruita whose history is a striking illus-
tration of success obtained by capable and
energetic men in a comparatively short
period of time, and among the most
prominent of these firms is Messrs. Shaw,
Wallace & Co., of Bankshall Street, Cal-
cutta, who occupy " Wallace House," one
of the finest blocks of office buildings
in the city.

Their business was established in an
unpretentious manner in 1886 when they
took over some of the interests of Messrs.
Shaw, Finlayson & Co., and it has now
become one of the largest of the great
firms of East India merchants and agents
established in Calcutta.

The founders were Mr. David Shaw and
Mr. C. W. Wallace, and at the outset they
were concerned chiefly in the management
of the large tea interests of Mr. R. Gordon
Shaw.

It was not long before a commencement
was made with the importation of Man-
chester piece goods, and the firm is to-
day one of the most prominent importers
of cotton textile goods in India. The
next substantial addition was the absorp-
tion of the firm of Messrs. Mitchell, Reid
& Co., and with it was obtained the
imjiortant agency of the Burma Oil Com-
pany. The firm have since that date boon
intimately concerned with the phenomen-
ally rapid growth of that great enterprise,
and they have, further, recently acquired
the agency of the .\nglo-Persian Oil Com-
pany. Considerable extension of the
firm's operations took place between the
years 1902 and 1908, when branch offices
were opened in Bombay, Madras, Karachi,
Corhi:i, Mormugao, Coconada, and Tuti-
<orin, and, a year or two later, in Colombo.
Side by side with this widening of its
scope, the business activities of the firm
increased with great rapidity, and each
succeeding year witnessed some fresh
and important development.

The gradual development of Indian
industries has presented great oppor-
tunities, which this entcrpribing business
house has liecn quirk to embrace, and in
addition to the large interests referred to

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

above, Messrs. Shaw, Wallace & Co. are
managing agents of a flourishing cotton
mill in the Central Provinces, of two large
and successful flour mills in Calcutta, of
numerous collieries in Bengal and the
Central Provinces, and a chemical factory
in Bombay wliich is the largest of its kind
in India.

The firm are large importers of piece
goods, sugar, salt, machinery, jjunips, rock
drills, chemical fertilizers, aerial ropeways,
wire ropes, timber and various metals;
whilst they arc exporters of gunnies, jute,
rice, wheat, and all other descriptions of
food grains, linseed, flour, hemp, hides,
coal, copra, and almost every variety of
the produce of India.

Among their other activities, they are
bunkering contractors on a large scale ;
they control a diamond-drilling syndicate
upon whom great demands have been
made for the e.xploration of metalliferous
lands; and they are the largest manu-
facturers and suppliers of cheinical fer-
tilizers in India.

Insurance business, too, is an important
branch which deserves mention. The firm
are agents for the Royal Insurance Com-
pany, the Liverpool, London, and Globe
Insurance Company, Ltd., the Sun Life
Insurance Company of Canada, the Union .
Marine Insurance Company, the British
Dominions Insurance Company, LT'nion
Fire Insurance Company, Ltd., Paris, the
General Accident Assurance Corporation,
the E.Kcess Insurance Company, Ltd., and,
in Madras, the Queensland Insurance
Company, all of which are first-class
companies of world-wide reputation. In-
surances are effected in connection with
fire, life, marine, accident, loss of profits,
motor-car, horse, jewellery, burglary,
fidelity, earthquake, and storm.

Messrs. Shaw, Wallace & Co. arc also
in a position to arrange insurances at
Lloyds Shipping Offices in London. Their
corresponding firm in London is Messrs.
R. (j. Shaw & Co., of Winchester House,
Did Broad Street, E.G.

F. A. SHEEHAN & CO.

Only twelve years Viave elapsed since
Mr. F. A. Sheehan, late engineer officer
of the Royal Indian Marine, commenced
business as a mechanical engineer and
contractor, by establishing the Albert Iron
Works at 25 South Road, Entally, a
most centrally situated suburb of Cal-
cutta, but that period has sufticcd to bring
his establishment into a prominent posi-
tion among the industrial enterprises of

Eastern Bengal. His sound practical ex-
perience soon caused him to be recog-
nized as a leading figure in commer-
cial circles, with the result that he is
to-day the sole proprietor of an exceed-
ingly flourishing concern. Trade is
carried on under the style of F. .'\.
Sheehan & Co., and tlie firm are now
manufacturers of light railway rolling
stock, iron and brass founders, tin and
copper smiths, and structural iron
workers, while a large stafi' of skilled
artisans, supervised by highly qualified
Europeans, are engaged in cfl^ecting
repairs to all kinds of machinery.

Mr. Sheehan is, however, in the proud
position of being the inventor and
patentee of metal water tanks, or pakhals,
which have been adopted for military
purposes on instructions from the .\rmy
Headquarters in India. :\ regular supply
of pure water to troops in ba;rracks, on
a line of march, or in actual warfare,
is one of the most difficult problems with
which commanding officers are con-
fronted, and the Sheehan pattern for
pack-mule carriage has been found to be
more suitable than any other kind
hitherto used. The chief features of these
tanks are their portability and lightness
in weight, while their specially devised
patent draw-out flush-cocks are exceed-
ingly simple in construction, and cannot
possil)ly get out of order. Another dis-
tinct advantage is that they are strapped
in such a position on the backs of trans-
port animals that the latter have absolute
freedom in action, and are thereby kept
in healthy condition.

The weight of a pair of empty tanks
is 26 lb., full ones turn the scale at
190 lb., and the capacity of the two is
16,' gallons.

Major-Gcncral Kitson, Quartermaster-
General in India, addressed a circular
letter from the Army Headquarters at
Simla, in October 1909, to the generals
commanding divisions at Peshawar, Rawal
Pindi, Lahore, Quetta, Mhow, Poona,
Meerut, Lucknow, Secunderabad, and
Burma, and the Derajat, Kohat, Bannu,
and Aden Brigades, in which he said :
" It has been decided to adopt a metal
water tank for pack-mule carriage, manu-
factured by Messrs. F. .\. Sheehan & Co.,
engineers, Calcutta, in place of the present
pattern. I am to request that, as the
stocks of the latter become unserviceable,
they may be replaced by the tanks of
the ■ Sheehan ' pattern."

Since the commencement of the Euro-
pean war Mr. Sheehan has been engaged
187

wholly in the manufacture of military

stor-'s and equipment, including water

tanks, which are being made at the rate

of at least seventy-five daily.

The workshops cover a very large area

of ground, and they are well equipped

with the latest type of machinery and

l)lant, which is driven by electric jiower.

*>?,
THE SOUTH BRITISH INSURANCE

COMPANY, LTD.

Notwithstanding the increasing compe-
tition among insurance offices throughout
the world, the South British Company has
continued to make steady progress in
India and the Far East since its establish-
ment in Calcutta in the year 1 88 5, and
it has justly earned a very high reputa-
tion for the prompt and liberal manner
in which claims are dealt with. Thirty
years ago one small room and a couple
of Europeans, assisted by a few Indian
clerks, sufficed for the conduct of the
business, whereas to-day the company has
its own palatial premises in the heart
of the commercial centre of Calcutta, and
within a stone's-throw of the principal
banks and mercantile houses. Branches
or agencies have been opened in nearly
all the principal towns in the Far East,
as well as in South Africa and
.\uslralasia.

Mr. Victor Murray, who is the manager
for the Far East, and controls all the
company's affairs from Calcutta as far as
Yokohama, has had a lifelong experi-
ence in insurance matters, and his enter-
prising spirit has contributed very largely
to the successful position the South
British Company now holds. Mr.
Murray has taken a leading part in the
affairs of the Calcutta Marine Insurance
.'\ssociatioii, and has been its chairman
for many years, and is one of the most
popular figures in business circles in Cal-
cutta. Mr. Murray has been very ably
supported by his assistant manager, Mr.
G. F. Ross, who has been associated with
the company for very many years, of
which over twenty-one have been spent
in tlie Eastern service of the company.
Mr. Ross also has been closely identified
with the Marine Insurance Association,
and was chairman in 191 5.

The capital of the company is
£2,000,000 (of which £1,000,000 is
subscribed), while the large amount of
reserve funds is a striking proof of its
stability as a business concern.

The home office of the company is at
Jerusalem Chambers, 2 Cowper's Court,
Cornhill, London, E.C.

I. General View ok Workshops.

F. A. SHEEHAN & CO.
2. A Corner of the Opex Yard. 3. Interior of Tix axu Coi'Pkrs.miths' Shop.

5, Blacksmiths' Shop and Foindky.

+ IXiEKIOR OK MACHIXE SHOP.

1^8

I. E.XTEKIOK.

SOUTH BRITISH INSURANCE COMPANY, LTD.

2. PARTOK MAXAOKRSOH-ICE. 3 EASiEHX Dlil'AliTMEXT.

4. Outer Office.

189

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

THE STANDARD LIFE ASSURANCE
COMPANY

It is not surprising that the country
to the north of the Tweed should be
regarded as the home of life assurance,
seeing that the fellow-countrymen of
Burns are proverbially thrifty, and have
always been conspicuous for the ability
which they have displayed in the manage-
ment of public as well as private financial
imdertakings. They were not slow in
realizing the necessity for making pro-
vision for themselves and their families,
and the possibilities of effecting this by
means of a policy of insurance appealed
to them with considerable force. The
" Standard " is one of many institu-
tions in Scotland which deal only in life
business in its various forms, and as it
does not accept marine, fire, or accident
risks, the large amount of its accumu-
lated funds is available for fulfilling con-
tracts in the only branch in which it is
interested.

The company was formed in Edinburgh
in the year 1825 under the name of the
Life Insurance Company of Scotland, but
this title was changed to the " Standard
in 1832. a special Act of Parliament being
passed in that year to confirm the rules
and regulations. The statute sets forth
that the objects of the company are " to
effect or make insurances on lives and
survivorships, to make or effect all such
other insurances connected with life, to
grant, purchase, and sell annuities for
lives or otherwise, to grant endowments
for children or other persons, and to pur-
chase and sell reversionary rights, and
to receive investments of money for
accumulation."

The " Standard " was not only estab-
lished and conducted on sound economic
principles, but its rates of premium were
so reasonable, and its manner of settling
claims was so prompt and generous, that
a very rapid growth of the business took
place. About twenty years after the in-
ception of the company the directors had
reasonable grounds for believing that
India and the Colonies might be per-
mitted to share in the benefits of life
assurance, provided that special rates
were charged in order to meet naturally
greater risks.

The Colonial Life Assurance Company
was therefore formed in 1846 for the
express purpose of undertaking foreign
and colonial business, and it made most
satisfactory progress for a period of nine-
teen years, the policy-holders sharing in
the very large profits which weic made.

Permission to travel or to reside abroad
was extended to insurers, and the amount
of annual premium was based upon
reliable statistics of mortality in India,
which had been carefully tabulated by
expert officials of the company. In the
year 1865, however, it was found that
the interests of the two companies were
practically identical, and that as the
managers of each comprised the same
individuals, it was considered that it
would be to the advantage of all con-
cerned if an amalgamation took place,
and this proposed union became an
accomplished fact on March 19, 1866, the
original name of the Standard Life
Assurance Company, Ltd., being retained.
A number of insurance offices have,
through various causes, been absorbed by
the Standard Company, and these include
the York and North of England (trans-
ferred in 1844), the Commercial (No. 1)
in 1846, the Commercial (No. 2) in the
same year, the Colonial and General in
1847, the Experience in 1850, the
Minerva in 1864, the Victoria in the
following year, and the Legal and Com-
mercial and the London and Provincial
in 1865. The following figures may be
given to illustrate the progress of the
company : Between the years 1850 and
1855 the number of new policies was
4,608, with £2,492,988 representing the
sums assured; from 1880 to 1885 tlie
respective totals were 11,925 and
£6,714,260; while the period from
1905 to 1910 showed 22,055 'T"!
£10,658,889.

The annual reports and statements of
accounts mark the steady growth and
the enormous wealth of the company, and
the subjoined extracts have been culled
from the latest returns : ."Xniount of
assurances proposed during the year 1914
3,630 proposals), £2.356,633; assur-
ances accepted, 3.095, policies for
£1.900.333; annual premium on new-
policies, £78,555 ; amount received in
purchase of annuities, £53,268 ; claims
by dealli during the year. £-46,964 ;
claims under endowment assurances
matured during the year, £249,213 ; and
subsisting assurances, £29.351,193. The
annual revenue was £1,591,071, and the
accumulated funds amounted at the end
of the year to £13,735,374.

It will be readily understood that the
investment of such huge sums of money
demands financial skill of no ordinary
character, and it redounds to the credit
of the directors, managers, and other
officials that the stability of the company
190

is vouched for by the leading actuaries
of the present day.

Branches and agencies have been
established throughout the United King-
dom and India, and in China, Ceylon,
Mauritius. the Straits Settlements,
Canada, South Africa, Egypt, West
Indies, Belgium, Hungary, .Spain, Den-
mark, Norway, Sweden, Argentina and
Uruguay, while the Calcutta office con-
trols the work in Bengal, Assam, Orissa,
the Punjab, Burma, the L'nited Provinces
of Agra, Oudh, the North-Western P'ron-
tier Provinces, the Central Provinces,
Central India, and Rajputana.

The Calcutta offices are situated in a
very handsome building at 32 Dalhousie
Square, which was erected in the year
1895, and Mr. W. E. Hill is the local
secretary.

STEUART & CO.

It is exceedingly improbable that there
is any commercial firm in India which
can boast of having been established for
140 years with the exception of that of
Messrs. Steuart & Co., of 3 Mangoe Lane,
Calcutta. Special interest is taken by
partners in business concerns to-day in
tracing the history of their firms from
the date of foutjdation, and in noticing
the remarkable changes which have taken
place, not merely in the manner of con-
ducting transactions, but in comparing the
style, design, and quality of manufactured
goods of earlier days with those which are
in vogue now. It is within the know-
ledge of the present partners of Messrs.
Steuart & Co. that correct records were
actually kept of pioneering experiences,
but they, in common with legions of
others, have to deplore the fact that
these interesting documents are not avail-
able for inspection now. In some
instances they have been ruthlessly
destroyed, but it is particularly annoy-
ing to the oldest firm in India that its
valuable literary heirlooms have suffered
destruction by white ants, those insidious
pests of the East. • There is evidence
that tabulated statements showing the
various changes in the personnel of the
firm were carefully prepared from the
very first, and although these were de-
posited in an iron safe, the key was,
unfortunately, subsequently lost. When
Mr. Walter Bushby, uncle of Mr. Frank
E. Bushby, the present senior partner,
joined the firm in the year 1885, the safe
was opened by force, and it was dis-
covered that the interior was coated with

THE STANDARD LIFE ASSURANCE COWPi>NY.

STANn.MJn I.IKE OlUCK BLII.DIXGS. CAI.Cl'lTA.

191

rU/'/\^/"""'

. ^ /-^^-^ ^■-; /^!v-4 '^X""-'

I. Varxishixi; Room. i. Repair Shop.

STEUAET & CO.

3. EXTEHIOK OK THE I'KKMISKS. 4 WAHRANT OK Al'l'llIXTMKXT TO H.M. THE KIXU-EMI'EKOK.

193

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

rust, and that white ants had destroyed
every vestige of the papers, only a heap
of dust remaining of those priceless
records. Notwithstanding this misfor-
tune, however, it is known that a coach-
builder's business was started by Mr. A.
Steuart in 1775 at 8 Old Court House
Corner, and that these premises were re-
tained until the year 1907, when a move
was made into Mangoe Lane.

Mr. Frank Bushby made strenuous
efforts to discover traces of any other
documents, but the earliest authentic ones
found by him commenced with the year
1824, when the partners were Messirs.
Robert, James, and John Hastie, who
landed in India in 1807, 181 1, and 18 18
respectively. Following the Plasties came
(among others) Mr. Burkinyoung in
1 84 1, who was master of the Trades
Association in Calcutta for two years, and
who appears to have been a partner until
i860 ; Mr. W. Roberts, who after some
years' service retired to Europe ; Mr.
T. C. Carter, who was made partner in
i860; Mr. R. Allardice, Junior, and Mr.
Kilgour from 1868 to 1879 > Messrs.
Kilgour and Hay from 1881 to 1885;
Mr. Walter Bushby and Mr. A. W.
Westrop from 1886 to 1893 ; Mr. W.
Bushby as sole partner from 1894 to-
1901 ; and Messrs. W. Bushby and R. E.
Josland in the following six years. Mr.
Walter Bushby retired to Europe in 1907,
leaving Mr. Josland, Mr. A. H. Martin,
and Mr. Frank Bushby as partners. In
191 1 Mr. Josland retired, when Mr.
Frank E. Bushby became senior partner,
his colleagues being Mr. G. Berridge-
Page, M.I.A.E., and Mr. W. Shenton.

Some old leases relating to the original
property of the firm aire still in existence,
and they contain the names of Captain
Robert Steuart and Lady Mary Steuart,
who in all probability were descendants
of the founder of the business.

Early methods of conveying individuals
and their chattels or merchandise take
us back to the days when roads were con-
spicuous by their absence, and when
pack-horses were more in evidence than
they are to-day ; then there was the
palanquin, a hideous monstrosity for civi-
lized countries ; the sedan-chair (dearly
loved by courtiers and their ladies) was
produced early in the seventeenth cen-
tury ; and a few years later a form of
carriage or hackney coach made its
appearance. But the lumbering spring-
less vehicles of those days soon underwent
improvement, and those ant-consumed
documents could throw no little light

upon this interesting question if they had
been forthcoming.

Wagons, roughly built and clumsy—
of which we can gain some idea from
the famous trek-wagons of South Africa
—but capable of holding all the belong-
ings of an entire household, were then
made, and the transition from them to the
luxuriant comfort of modern buggies or
Ralli carts, mail phaetons, broughams,
victorias, landaus, barouches, and State
coaches has been gradual but complete.

There has not been a single vehicle
on the roads within the last 150 years
which has not had its type in the work-
shops of Messrs. Steuart & Co., and they
have not only built carts and carriages
for every-day use, but they have been
entrusted with commissions for elegant
State coaches largely composed of gold,
silver, and precious stones, and fitted with
the most costly appointments. Among
these special mention should be made of
a State howdah for the use of the late
King Edward in 1876 ; about two years
later they constructed a carriage for the
Maharajah of Jind, which was enriched by
no less than 25,000 tolahs (tolah^j dwts.
12 grains troy) of silver; in 1882 and
subsequent years gorgeous vehicles were
supplied to the Nawab of Bhawalpore,
the Commander-in-Chief of Nepal, and
the Amir of Kabul ; a solid silver
elephant howdah was dispatched by the
firm to the Durbar held by Lord Curzon
in 1902 ; no fewer than twenty-two lan-
daus and eighteen victorias were supplied
for the V'iceroy's personal guests ; they
supplied a most ornate carriage far His
Majesty the King-Emperor when, as
Prince of Wales, he visited India in 1906 ;
and another of an exceedingly handsome
description in 1911, after his accession
to the throne. Many State and other
carriages were built by Messrs. Steuart
& Co. for ruling chiefs, princes, and other
notable persons for the imposing cere-
monies associated with the Royal visit,
and it should be added that they have
held special appointments to all the Vice-
roys of India up to the present time, and
have enjoyed the patronage of nearly
every ruling chief in the country.

The advent of the motor-car naturally
made considerable difference to all
builders of carriages, and the enterprising
spirit of the partners was manifested
when, realizing 'that a new page had been
opened in connection with vehicular
traffic, they quickly put themselves in
a position to meet the changed require-
ments of customers by obtaining agencies

193

from leading manufacturers in England
and by establishing a factory for building
their own cars. Chassis are imported
but the whole of the body work is built
in Calcutta with indigenous timber, which
naturally is more suited to the Indian
climate than European wood. Further
than this, Messrs. Steuart & Co. have
special knowledge of the requirements of
local patrons, and they are thus in a
position to guarantee their woirk to be
equal in quality to any which is done by
London tradesmen.

The firm are representatives in India
for the famous Napier, Austin, Renault,
Calcott, and Swift cars, and innumerable
letters have been received by Messrs.
Steuart & Co. testifying to the almost
unparalleled qualities of these vehicles.
Visitors to the firm's workshops may see
the bodies in the course of construction
from the bare skeleton to the finished
articles, and a very important provision is
made that bodies can be constructed and
fittings supplied in conformity with the
designs of prospective purchasers. The
workshops have been very considerably
enlarged owing to the rapid expansion of
business, and there is now ample accom-
modation for canrying out alterations or
repairs of all descriptions, for storing
motor accessories and spare parts, in-
cluding tyres and petrol, and for a large
garage. Fully competent workmen are
employed in each branch, but the sound,
practical experience of the partners en-
sures, not a perfunctory, but a thorough,
supervision of every detail of work.

STEWARTS AND LLOYDS, LTD.

There is probably no industry which
does not in some part of working or
development depend upon iron and steel
tubes, and the requirements in this line
are fully met by the enterprise of the firm
of Messrs. Stewarts and Lloyds, Ltd., who
have a world-wide reputation for the class
of goods they manufacture.

This firm was among the first British
manufacturers to recognize the potentiali-
ties of the Indian market and the necessity
for being directly represented in order
that engineers, contractors, and others
could have the benefit of expert advice,
and it is fully nine years since they
opened an office in Calcutta, from which
all information relative to the multi-
tudinous uses of iron and steel tubes could
be readily obtained.

This step was more than justified, as
the Indian business of the firm increased

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

with a rapidity beyond expectations.
They were fully satisfied, however, that
the limit had not been reached, and with
the view of overcoming delays in obtain-
ing supplies from Great Britain the firm
leased ground on the Howrah foreshore,
on which extensive warehouses connected
with road, rail, and river communications
have been built.

Railway companies, jute mills, col-
lieries, tea gardens, and other industries
can consequently have all their wants

Subsoil water is prolific in most parts,
and this is obtainable by sinking wells ;
but how few, if any, travellers in their
journeyings throughout the length and
breadth of the Indian Empire can have
failed to notice the number of wells of
costly and primitive designs, with their
original methods for raising water I

In recent years a great advance has
been made in sinking wells by means of
tubes, and this method is much less costly
than by digging and building up with

village supplies, the water coming from
such wells being potable and the nature
of the well preventing contamination from
the surface. Good water supplies for
domestic and sanitary purposes are
essential for the welfare and health
of all people — and particularly of the
inhabitants of India — and the wells
described above seem to be the solution
of a problem that has troubled the
authorities for a long time.

The manufacture of steel tubes for

I. Ti.'ijp: \V.*KEHOrSK,

STEWARTS AND LLOYDS, LTD.

2. Ofuce, showing Tl'BrLAR COXSTKrCTlOX.

immediately met, as large stocks of all
the necessary tubes and accessories for
various purposes are kept; and special
requirements can be fully attended to, as
a well-equipped machine-shop and smithy
is attached to the warehouse.

In India, as in nearly all other
countries, agriculture is the principal
industry, but in large tracts the failure
of the rains is often the cause of famine.
Irrigation has been resorted to as a means
of meeting this deficiency, and although
the Indian Government has spent large
sums in this direction, there are still great
expanses of agricultural ground awaitmg
development where water is obtainable.

brick or stone, as was formerly done.
After the well has been sunk and water
reached, the most up-to-date plan is to
.install Ashford's " Patent Well Screen "
(the licensed manufacturers being Messrs.
Stewarts and Lloyds, Ltd.), with a few
feet of suction pipe and a reliable pump,
as large tracts of rich soil have in this
manner been irrigated. The Government
having given their approval of this
method of obtaining water for irrigation,
it follows that the business of well-sinking
will probably before long reach immense
proportions. The procedure just de-
scribed has also been recognized as being
most suitable for obtaining water for
194

water distribution mains is a branch of
the industry to which Messrs. Stewarts
and Lloyds have paid particular atten-
tion. These are much lighter than the
heavy cast-iron pipes formerly used ; they
are made in long lengths up to 40 feet, in .
any diameter up to 6 feet ; they are
unbreakable, and they combine all the
essentials for India, being cheaper in first
cost, easier to handle, and having fewer
joints to be made than is the case with
cast-iron pipes. The numerous water-
supply schemes throughout India in which
they have been installed testify to their
efficiency. High-pressure mains for hydro-
electric power installations are also a

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

special feature of the firm's manufactures.
Tubes are more commonly identified with
water, gas, and steam installations, but
Messrs. Stewarts and Lloyds have shown
that they can be used for a great many
other purposes, and in architectural work
they are an improvement on the massive
brick pillars or unsightly steel sections
which are much too common in buildings.
In the " City of Palaces " there are build-
ings in which tubular steel columns have
been used, and as it is generally agreed

behind those of other countries
obtaining up-to-date fittings.

Steel plates for boilers, and for use in
the building of ships, bridges, tanks, and
wagons, as well as iron and steel castings,
are made by the firm; and although the
manufacture of iron and steel tubes, with
the allied trades to which reference has
been made, have not yet become local
industries, the enterprise of Messrs.
Stewarts and Lloyds, Ltd., may be looked
upon as an essential adjunct to the many

i'he founder died in 1854, and he was suc-
ceeded by Mr. Thomas Teil, who in i860
opened a branch establishment at Bally-
gunge under the name of Tomlin & Co.
Six years later Mr. Teil admitted into
partnership Messrs. R. S. Erskine and
T. C. Barlow ; in 1870 Mr. Teil died,
and Mr. Erskine retired from the firm,
leaving Mr. Barlow in sole possession
until the latter's death in 1894, when Mr.
R. \V. Barlow accepted full responsibility
for the whole concern.

♦

I. Interior.

JOHN TEIL & CO.

2 AND 3. Views of the Bin. dings.

that the appearance of the structures has
been improved by the innovation, it
follows that, in a city which prides itself
on the beauty of its edifices, the use of
similar columns will be greatly extended.
In districts far removed from modern
means of transit, and where skilled labour
is scarce, tubular steel trusses could be
used with advantage for roofs of sheds
and huts. Steel tubes are equally suit-
able for tramway, electric light, telephone,
and telegraph poles. Ships' davits,
derricks, and masts are also manufac-
tured by the firm, and when shipbuilding
becomes a fully established Indian
industry the enterprise will not be

industries of Bengal and Assam, or of any
other province in India.

The local offices of Messrs. Stewarts
and Lloyds, Ltd., are in Clive Buildings,
8 Clive Street, Calcutta, but they have
other offices and works in Bombay,
London, Birmingham, and Glasgow.

JOHN TEIL ft CO.

This firm of tanners, curriers, and
leather merchants was established in the
year 1795 by Mr. John Teil, and the
business is now carried on at 15 Wat-
gunge Street, Kidderpore, near Calcutta,
by the proprietor, Mr. R. W. Barlow.

The principal feature of the business
is the tanning of cow-hides in a
thoroughly effective manner, and the
process is so well carried out that the
firm meet with an exceedingly brisk
demand for their produce in the London
market. These leathers are used chiefly
in the manufacture of bags, uppers for
boots, football covers, and, when
enamelled, for the hoods of motor-cars
and carriages.

Messrs. Teil & Co. in earlier days held
important contracts with the Government
of India, among them being the making
of accoutrements for the troops during
the Burmese War ; but since the Govern-

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

ment tanneries were opened at Cawnpore,
orders for the Imperial military service
have been sent to that place.

The principal materials used in tanning
are the bark of the babool (acacia arabica)
tree and Mara bolams.

A bronze medal was awarded to the
firm for the excellence of their goods at
the Calcutta Exhibition held in 1882, and
a gold one was obtained at Gwalior in

«9«3-

The telegraphic address is " Jonteil,

Calcutta."

•*«
TURNBULLB (GLASGOW), LTD.

A most marked advance has been made
in India in industrial enterprises of various
kinds during the past fifty years, and this
improvement is particularly noticeable in
the coal, iron, and steel trades, as it is
upon the products of these concerns that
the majority of other branches of busi-
ness depend so largely for the means of
carrying on their mills and factories. The
extension of railways has caused great
demands for sleepers, bolts, nuts, spikes,
and other appliances; bridges have been
needed for the crossing of rivers and
nullahs; new machinery has been required
for mills; and steel beams and joists have
been ordered for structural work in all
parts of the country.

Foremost among Calcutta firms who
have contributed brains as well as good
workmanship to important undertakings of
this character is that of Messrs. Turn-
bulls (Glasgow), Ltd., which was incor-
porated on December 14, 191 I, and
carries on business as agents, merchants,
structural engineers, manufacturers of
bolts, nuts, rivets, and spikes, and as
mining engineers. In their capacity as
general merchants they hold large stocks
of iron and steel products, cement, paints,
asbestos goods, and general hardware.

The firm are managing agents of the
Kutra Iron Works at Kidderpore, near
Calcutta, where are manufactured suspen-
sion and other bridges and the component
parts of steel buildings of all kinds such
as railway stations, bungalows, tea and
other factories, sheds, stores, colliery pit-
head frames, coolie lines, coal wagons,
and a very large quantity of general
mechanical appliances. These works com-
prise an extensive foundry together with
forge, mechanical, fitting, tinsmiths',
blacksmiths', and other shops, and they
occupy an area of 90,000 square feet.
About five hundred men are employed
constantly.

The firm are, further, managing agents
of The North British Bolt and Rivet Com-
pany. . This is a branch of industry which
is comparatively new to India, and only
a few years ago engineers, contractors,
and others had to import all bolts, nuts,
rivets, and dog and chair spikes required
in the building or repairing of practically
every description of vessel, building,
machinery, bridge, or railway rolling
stock. The average monthly output of
this factory is approximately 150 tons.

The East India Ruby Mica Company,
Ltd., whose registered offices are at 10
Strand Road, Calcutta, opened mica
mines in the State of Dhenkanal in the
division of Orissa in the year 191 5, and
they placed the managing agency of them
in the hands of the firm now under notice.

The mining of this mineral has been
attended with much better results since
the comparatively recent introduction of
improved machinery and of methods of
working. The Ruby Company have
benefited by coming into line with up-
to-date practices, with the result that
steady development of their interests is
being maintained.

The firm are also managing agents for
the Raneedih Colliery Company, in the
famous Jherria coal-field, in the district
of Manbhum, in the Province of Behar
and Orissa, for the Damagurria Coal Com-
pany, Ltd., whose property is situated near
Sitarampur, in the district of Burdwan,
in the Bengal Presidency, and for the
Diamond Drill Association, who engage
in prospecting and boring work in alj parts
of India.

The local offices of Turnbulls (Glas-
gow), Ltd., are at 10 Strand Road, Cal-
cutta; their iron works, paint and oil
godowns and metal yards are at Kidder-
pore and Howrah respectively, and the
head .offices are at 163 Hope Street and
I 56 St. Vincent Street, Glasgow.

<«^

TURNER, MORRISON & CO., LTD.

When one reads the history of the
development of commercial enterprises in
India, but particularly in Calcutta, one is
struck by the fact that the founders of the
majority of the leading business houses
came originally from large trading centres
in the northern counties of England, or
from the country beyond the Tweed.
Those pioneers were declared to be hard-
headed, shrewd, and capable men of busi-
ness, and upon reflection it will be readily
conceded that it was only by making use

196

of their hardly earned practical experi-
ence, by manifesting a spirit of deter-
mination, and by working on a strictly
economical basis, that the well-known
concerns of to-day are such substantial
memorials of the insignificant beginnings
from which they sprung.

There are several companies and firms
in Calcutta at the present time whose
records tally with what has been said
above, and one need only refer to Messrs.
Turner, Morrison & Co., Ltd., in proof of
those assertions.

The business was established at i Lyons
Range, Calcutta, in the middle of the nine-
teenth century, by Mr. .Alfred Turner, of
Liverpool, whose son, Mr. .\. M. Turner,
is still head of the firm. The original
designation of the firm was Turner,
Cadogan & Co., but it was subsequently
changed to Turner, Morrison & Co.

Owing to the very rapid development
of the business, and the consequent
necessity for increased accommodation,
the firm in the year 1868 removed to
6 Lyons Range, but since that date they
have been compelled to secure additional
premises, viz. Nos. 5^ and 7 in the same
block.

The past two or three decades have
witnessed a remarkable advance in indus-
tries of a general character in almost
every part of India, and Messrs. Turner,
Morrison & Co., in 1887, realized that
the enlarged horizon of their commercial
activities would be safeguarded to a
greater extent by the opening of a branch
in Bombay, where they are now estab-
lished at 40 Church Gate Street.

While the Bombay house of the firm was
concerned largely in extensive shipping
transactions with Great Britain and other
western countries and in meeting the coal
requirements of customers in western
India, and while the headquarters at
Calcutta were engaged in the conduct of
the firm's interests in a general maiwer,
a new field of enterprise had sprung
up which called for the opening of another
branch which would be in closer connec-
tion with the north-eastern portion of
Bengal and the Province of Assam. In
order to supply this need the firm estab-
lished themselves at Chittagong in the
year 1904.

With such important centres as these
in India, and being in communication,
through their London and Liverpool
houses, with the principal trading marts
of the Western world, the firm's business
continued to expand with remarkable
rapidity, and reference may now be made

TURNBULLS (GLASGOW), LTD.
Calcltta Ofkice. 2. A Corker of the Ibox Kolxdry, Kutra Ironworks. 3. Part ok the Fittisg-shop, Kutra Ironworks.

4. KiJi-DAixA Bridge, Cahrox. 5. Jainti Bridge, Cooch Behar.

197

I. Thk Calcutta Offices.

TURNER, MORRISON & CO., LTD.

3. THE SHAUMAR WORKS, LTD. 3. THE SHALIMAR PAINT WORKS.

198

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

to some of the principal branches of busi-
ness in which they are engaged.

They have one of the largest shipping
connections in Calcutta, and a walk along
the banks of the Hooghly from the
Howrah bridge to the docks at Kidderpore
will reveal a large number of vessels,
under their control, during the periods of
loading or discharging cargo. A very
large amount of chartering business is
done in Calcutta, and a glance at the
principal morning newspapers of the city
reveals a long list of names of arriving
or departing ships, while in another
column, parallel with such names, are the
letters " T., M. & Co.," signifying that
Messrs. Turner, Morrison & Co. are con-
cerned in the control of their voyages.
They also berth steamers from Bombay
destined for the United Kingdom and
Continental ports.

The firm are the managing agents of
the Asiatic Steam Navigation Company,
Ltd., which trades round the coast of
India, to Burma and Java; also for the
Bombay and Persia Steam Navigation
Company, and the Arab Steamers, Ltd.,
whose headquarters are in Bombay, and
whose trade is principally from Bombay
and Calcutta to the Red Sea and the
Persian Gulf.

They are sole agents for Messrs.
Andrew Weir & Co.'s steamers to the
River Plate and the West Coast of South
America, the V^enice Line running between
Calcutta, Trieste, and Venice, and the
Northern Steamship Company, Ltd., which
is a Russian line trading between Cal-
cutta and Vladivostock.

A joint agency is also held for the
.\nchor-Brocklebank Line, which runs
from Calcutta to London, Dundee, and
Liverpool, and also for Messrs. Andrew
Weir & Co.'s service of steamers to the
United States of America.

Salt. — The firm are the largest im-
porters of salt in Calcutta, and they are
the sole agents for the Salt Union of
Liverpool, and the Italian Salt Company,
at Massowah, while they have ninety-three
up-country depots and out-agencies for
the sale of that commodity.

Shalimar Works. — These engineering
works were commenced in the year 1895
by Messrs. Turner, Morrison & Co. at
Shalimar Point on the River Hooghly, op-
posite the docks at Kidderpore. The in-
dustry was an extremely insignificant con-
cern at the time of its inception, and it
is a fine illustration of rapid development
of engineering works in Calcutta. A com-
paratively few hands were amply sufficient

in number to cope with the business of
twenty years ago, but to-day may be seen
one of the busiest shipbuilding yards and
engineering works on the Hooghly. All
kinds of launches, barges, flats, and other
boats are built by skilled mechanics under
European supervision, and there are ex-
tensive shops and yards, immediately at
the entrance to the docks, in which iron-
work and repairs of all kinds are promptly
carried out by a large staff of qualified
workmen. A special feature is made of
marine engineering work, and of repairs
to machinery and plant in ships, and in
jute, flour, and other mills. Included in
the works are the foundry, which is able
to turn out iron castings up to ten tons in
weight ; the machine-shop, well equipped
with modern machinery and tools; the
smithy, which is continuously employed in
forgings of all kinds and sizes ; the saw-
mills, in which logs are cut into various
sizes; and the angle-smith's shop, which
is engaged in the construction of ribs for
river-going craft.

The Shalimar Works have also an
electric-welding plant which has been
installed upon a barge that can be moored
alongside ships for purposes of repairs
to boilers or other steel parts, or it can
be floated near to mills in which break-
downs of plant have occurred.

The Shalimar Paint, Colour, and
Varnish Company. — This company was
founded by Messrs. Turner, Morrison &
Co. in the year 1902, and they manu-
facture every description of paints, var-
nishes, and other similar products, which
are sold in considerable quantities to
private mercantile firms,, and also under
contracts with Governments in India and
with several 'of the leading railway com-
panies. The works are situated on the
bank of the Hooghly at Goabaria, a few
miles distant from Calcutta.

Shellac. — The firm are managing agents
for Messrs. Angelo Brothers, who are,
without exception, the largest manufac-
turers of shellac in India. The factory is
situated at Cossipore, about three miles
distant from Calcutta, and a very con-
siderable quantity of orange and garnet
lac is produced.

The Cossipore Sugar Works— (or which
the firm are managing agents — are built
upon a bank -of the River Hooghly at
Cossipore, and every kind of sugar,
ranging from the finest white crystals to
" yellows " and " greys," is manufac-
tured there, this being one of the largest
sugar refineries in the country.

The Retriever Flotilla Company own a
199

fleet of barges, together with a number
of launches on the Hooghly, and they are
engaged in the transport of bunker coal,
jute, and other produce. They also are
owners of several sea-going launches
which run from Chittagong to Cox's
Bazaar and the Naaf River, carrying cargo,
passengers, and mails. Messrs. Turner,
Morrison & Co., Ltd., are managing
agents.

A very busy department of the firm is
that in which insurances are effected in
life, fire, and marine business, and
agencies are held for the Scottish Union
and National Insurance Company, the
Union Insurance Society of Canton, Ltd.,
the Thames and Mersey Marine Insur-
ance Company, Ltd., the Sea Insurance
Company, Ltd., and the Queensland In-
surance Company, Ltd.

The firm have for a considerable time
represented the Vacuum Oil Company,
and in addition to all the above important
branches of enterprise they carry on an
extensive export business of a general
character, the principal commodities dealt
with being gunnies, saltpetre, and country
produce of various kinds.

Coal. — In 1896 the firm inaugurated the
Lodna Colliery Company, Ltd., for the
purchase and development of coal lands,
but particular reference to the colliery is
made elsewhere. The firm do a large
bunkering business in Calcutta. They
have a depot on the river bank opposite
Prinsep's Ghat, in Strand Road, and they
place the bunker coal alongside steamers
in specially built iron barges.

The following is an interesting illus-
tration of the comprehensive scale of
Messrs. Turner, Morrison & Co.'s
business. Let it be imagined that a
steamer, having met with an accident,
arrives in a damaged state in Calcutta;
the owners avail themselves of the ser-
vices of Messrs. Turner, Morrison & Co.
as agents; the latter can discharge the
ship, repair her, paint her inside and out,
engage the requisite cargo for her return
voyage, load her, insure her hull and cargo
if necessary, supply her with bunker coal
and stores, and dispatch her, without
having to go outside of the concerns which
they control, and it may be added that
they are the only firm in Calcutta who
can do this.

The partnership of Messrs. Turner,
Morrison & Co. was turned into a private
limited liability company in the year 191 3,
the first directors being Messrs. Cuthbert
Radcliffe and F. W. Carter, the local
directors consisting of Mr. R. M, W,

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Smyth and Mr. W. S. J. Willson, Cal-
cutta and Chittagong, and Mr. J. S. W.
Milne at Bombay.

The correspondents of the company in
England are Messrs. Turner & Co., of
6 Dale Street, Liverpool, and Messrs.
Turner & Co., of 46 St. Mary Axe,
London, E.C.

D. WALDIE & CO.

The late Dr. David Waldie, L.R.C.S.,
of Edinburgh, Scotland, surgeon and
chemist, had not only the honour
accredited to him of being a benefactor
to suffering humanity by bringing chloro-
form to the notice of Sir J. Simpson and
suggesting its use for the production of
anaesthesia in surgical operations, but also
of possessing the acumen to foresee the
value of an indigenous production of
chemical substances in the growing in-
dustrial activity of India. Being essen-
tially a practical man, he founded in 1852
the well-known firm of Messrs. D. Waldie
& Co., who were the pioneers of chemical
industry in India, and undoubtedly the
largest chemical manufacturers in the
country.

The business was originally started at
Dukinsore, and its rapid growth soon ren-
dered it advisable to remove to Cossi-
pore, but the further expansion of
activities necessitated the choice of a
yet larger and mare favourable site,
whence the rapid transit of the firm's
products by rail, road, or river could
be effected. A site fulfilling the needed
requirements was secured at Konnagar,
about nine miles north of Howrah Bridge,
Calcutta, on the western bank of the
Hooghly, where extensive plant was
erected for the manufacture, on a far
larger scale than had hitherto been
attempted, of all the principal acids used
in commerce as well as of heavy and fine
chemicals.

The firm removed to the new premises
in 1890, but as further accommodation
became indispensable, five years later a
branch factory was erected at Nawab-
gimge, Cawnpore, designed to cope with
the volume of business with which the
firm had to deal from Central India, but
this did not mean the end of the capa-
bility of the firm for extension, as a third
factory has recently been opened at
Giridih.

Some idea of the large amount of
chemicals manufactured may be inferred
from the fact that of one line alone, sul-
phuric acid, about 3,500 tons are made

per annum, while some 6,000 odd tons
of raw materials, finished chemicals, and
fertilizers are handled and transported,
mainly by river and rail, in the course
of a year at the Konnagar works alone.

One large department deals with the
preparation of fertilizers, essential to the
planter and agriculturist, by blending
them on scientific principles, based on
the deficiencies of soils and the needs of
particular crops such as tea, rubber,
coffee, tobacco, and various other kinds,
.'Vnother department supplies the demands
for disinfectants which modern science
has shown to be necessary for the main-
tenance of hygienic conditions, while a
third makes and issues that indispensable
adjunct of surgery, ether ; but the list
could, without difficulty, be prolonged to
an almost indefinite length.

The close association of a distillery in
connection with the chemical works at
Konnagar greatly facilitates the manu-
facture of all those products which require
the use of alcohol, which is kept, duty
free, under bond, and thus provides a
ready means for the output of various
galenical preparations as well as for the
extraction of vegetable alkaloids.

It is not erroneous to assume that the
firm are unique in their position as manu-
facturers in not combining any retail
business with wholesale, by applying
themselves entirely to the exploitation of
manufactured chemical products on a
scale suited to the demand of other in-
dustries dependent on such products for
their upkeep.

The Calcutta offices of Messrs. Waldie
& Co. are situated at i Royal Exchange
Place, and their telegraphic address is
" Waldie," Konnagar.

THE WATERLOO MOTOR WORKS

The advent of the motor-car was not
accompanied by any outburst of enthu-
siasm on the part of the travelling public,
and especially of those resident in the
East, but since cars, cycles, boats, and
other means of conveyance (driven by this
force) are now a permanent institution,
motor agencies or building and repairing
works, are met with in nearly every street
in every town in the world, and one might
say that there is scarcely a village of any
importance which does not boast of a
resident who can at least supply petrol,
tyres, or other accessories.

The Waterloo Motor Works at 8 Water-
loo Street, Calcutta, are the property of
Mr. M. Bouffe, who is known to motorists
200

in the city as an expert mechanician, and
whose experience has enabled him to
secure the patronage of a large number
of the leading inhabitants.

Mr. Bouffe arrived in India in the year
1905; for three years he was associated
with the French Motor Car Company, and
subsequently he was assistant manager and
engineer for another firm, from whom
he eventually — in 191 4 — purchased their
business.

The owner has a staff of thoroughly
competent workmen, but his own practical
experience is the guiding power in his
stores and shops, in which he keeps for
sale a stock of new and second-hand cars,
cycles, and accessories, and where he has,
further, spare parts and requisites for
repairs to all kinds of motor vehicles,
motor boats, and boat motors.

Mr. Bouffe's telegraphic address is

" Watlomo."

*^
A. H. WHEELER & CO.

Communications from any part of the
world addressed " Bookstall, India,"
would under normal conditions assuredly
be correctly delivered to Messrs. A. H.
Wheeler & Co., Calcutta, Allahabad, or
Bombay, whose fame as bookstall pro-
prietors and railway advertisement con-
tractors in India has extended throughout
the limits of the British Empire. The
name of the firm is a household word in
India, just as that of Messrs. W. H. Smith
& Sons is in England.

Their stalls at all the principal railway
termini, and at an increasingly large num-
ber of wayside stations, are filled with
English and local newspapers, novels,
periodicals, and journals, and travellers
over the thousands of miles of Indian rail-
ways are able : to obtain literature to
relieve the monotony which is invariably
associated with long journeys.

A great want has been met by the estab-
lishment of these stalls, and if no other
reason than this, the firm of Messrs. A. H.
Wheeler & Co. would deserve recognition,
but in 19 14 they directed their attention
to the motor trade, which has brought
them into still greater prominence.

The Indian interests of the Metal-
lurgique, Calthorpe, and Briscoe cars,
Calthorpe Jap motor cycles, and the
Bengal agency of Hallford lorries were
placed under their care when the outbreak
of war, and the consequent cessation of
export of English and Belgian cars,
diverted their attention solely to the
American market.

In the Briscoe car Messrs. A. H.

I. General View.

D. WALDIE & CO.
2. Works kro.m River, showing Jetty. 3- Acid Retorts.

4. XiTRic-AciD Shed.

301

A. H. WHEELER & CO.
I. General View op Showrooms akd Garage at 117-19 Park Street, Calcutta. 2. Interior ok Garage.

3. Interior of Showroom.

202

THE CITY OF CALCUTTA

Wheeler & Co. placed their faith nearly
three years ago, and it has more than
justified their early favourable impres-
sions, which are now fully shared by the
many Briscoe owners in India. The
demand for motor cycles ne.xt attracted
the attention of this firm, and as an out-
come, one of the most famous of the motor
cycle productions in .A.merica was secured
in the Harley-Da\idson "Silent Grey"
machine.

The garage is certainly one of the
largest in Calcutta, perhaps in the whole

The firm's hc.id office is in Allahabad,
and their motor department is controlled
by their Calcutta office in Chartered Bank
Buildings, Clive Street, while they also
have offices in London and Bombay.

WILKINSON & CO.

The firm of Messrs. Wilkinson Si Co.,
of 12 Dalhousie Square, Calcutta, have
for a number of years been in the fore-
front, not only as dealers in all kinds of
indigenous timber, but also as practic-

Moulmein-Eng, and Jarool in all standard
sizes, but any timber can be machine-
sawn according to the requirements of
purchasers.

Messrs. Wilkinson & Co. are represen-
tatives in India, Burma, and Ceylon of
the Japan and Eastern Trading Company,
Ltd., which is a purely British company,
with registered offices at Hamilton House,
155 Bishopsgate, London, E.C., and with
blanch establishments at Nagasaki and
Otaru in Japan. Several important forest
concessions and saw-mills in Northern

WILKINSON & CO.

I. Stacki.ng Sleepers at Dkpot.

2. PORTIO.V OF TiMBKR-YARD.

of India, and it is well equipped with
plant and tools. In this direction Messrs.
Wheeler & Co. have quite recently laid
down additional machinery with a view
to extending their repair department on
a large scale.

The business connection of the firm
through the medium of their advertising
agency has brought them into close rela-
tionship with various aspects of the com-
mercial world, and with new opportunities
for development recently made possible,
they have extended the field of their
activities, and in addition to the agencies
already referred to, they have now become
general merchants and exporters of a
variety of commodities.

ally the only importers of North Japan
and Manchurian oak and ash, which is
supplied in the form of sleepers to the
principal railways in India, and for the
construction of carriages and wagons on
the various systems.

Another special feature in the business
of this enterprising firm is the very ex-
tensive connection which tliey have built
up in supplying fancy woods, such as
Honduras and Indian mahogany, rose-
wood or blackwood, satin-wood, and
padouk, together with oak and ash planks,
the last two being kiln-dried, for the
manufacture of household furniture.

The firm keep in stock considerable
quantities of Burma and Travancore teak,
203

Japan and Manchuria are held by the
company, whose directors in London are
Colonel G. T. B. Cobbett and Mr. Owen
Percy.

The firm are, further, agents for
Messrs. Holme, Ringer & Co., of
Nagasaki and Shimonoseki, in Japan, for
the sale of their well-known " Bridge "
cement, creosote oil, and similar other
goods, and also for the Beldam Tyre
Company, Ltd., of London, who are
manufacturers of high-grade motor tyres
and all classes of rubber goods.

The managing partner in India is Mr.
H. R. Wilkinson, and the telegraphic
address of the firm is " Tiraberwilk,"
Calcutta.

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

GILLANDERS, ARBUTHNOT A CO.

Among the old-established firms of
merchants in Calcutta is that of Messrs.
Gillanders, Arbuthnot & Co., merchants,
bankers, and commission agents, of 8
Clive Street.

In addition to the ordinary banking
business of the firm, Messrs. Gillanders,
Arbuthnot & Co., are managing agents
of the Hooghly Mills Company, Ltd., one
of the largest jute factories in Bengal,
the Betjam Tea Company, Ltd., the Jutli-
baree Tea Company, Ltd., and the Mani-
pur Tea Estate, and agents for the Millars
Timber and Trading Company, Ltd., the
Nobel's (.Glasgow) Explosives Company,
Ltd., whose products have been used in
the construction of all the principal rail-
ways, roads, and dock works in India,
Burma, and Ceylon, Messrs. H. Dear &
Co., Ltd., timber merchants and pro-
prietors of saw-mills in the division of
Patna in the Province of Behar and
Orissa, the Asiatic Petroleum Co. (India"),
Ltd., La Society G^n^rale Industrielle de
Chandernagore, Sir W. G. Armstrong,

VVhitworth & Co., Ltd., Messrs. Vickers,
Ltd., Messrs. Pinchin, Johnson & Co.,
Ltd., Messrs. Brown, Lenox & Co., Ltd.,
and the East Ferry Road Engineering
Works, the Singlo Tea Company, Ltd.,
and the Empire of India and Ceylon Tea
Company, Ltd. They are also managing
agents for the Hardwar-Dehra Branch
Railway Company, Ltd., the Darjeeling-
Himalayan Railway Extensions Company,
Ltd., the Hoshiarpur-Doab Branch Rail-
way, Co., Ltd., and the Mymensingh-
Bhairab Bazar Railway Company, Ltd.,
and agents for His Majesty's Ceylon
Government, the British North Borneo
Government, and the Darjeeling-Hima-
layan Railway Company, Ltd.

In connection with life assurance the
firm issue policies on accepted proposals
through the London Assurance Corpora-
tion, Ltd., which has been established for
more than a hundred and ninety years, and
also on behalf of the Scottish Provident
Institution and the Royal Insurance Com-
pany, Ltd. They represent leading
British fire insurance companies, who not

only give security against damage to
buildings but also to cover losses of
profits, standing charges, and increased
cost of working owing to the same cause.
Risks against personal accidents arc
undertaken, and the firm issue the only
policy in India which covers every form
of sickness, protection against loss of
jewellery, plate, and other valuables as
a result of burglary, housebreaking, or
theft by servants, is granted at low rates
of premium; fidelity bonds, as substitutes
for cash securities, are issued to guard
merchants and others against loss through
the dishonesty of their employees, and
marine policies are issued on remarkably
favourable terms. As sole agents for the
South British Insurance Company, Ltd.,
the firm issue policies covering every
conceivable contingency, and they ^rc
officially authorized to issue the special
policy for members of the Automobile
Association of Bengal. In short, all
classes of insurances are effected at the
lowest possible rates and without vexatious
conditions or restrictions.

SUNSET ON THE HOOGHLY, CALCUTTA.

PhotQ by T, P. iWi.

204

PANORAMA OF DACCA, SHOWING THE RUINS OF THE FORT AND PALACE OF THE NAWABS OF DACCA

CALLED LALL BAG.
Illustration from "Oriental Scenery," by Thomas Daniell (1795).

COMMERCE AND INDUSTRIES

By J. A. SANDBROOK, Editor of the " Englishman "

LTHOUGH for ad-
ministrative pur-
poses the area-
covered by Bengal,
Behar and Orissa,
and Assam is divided
into three Provinces,
it is economically a
single unit, whose commercial and indus-
trial life may be said to centre in- the
great port of Calcutta. Nature has richly
endowed these Provinces of North-
Eastern India, which together cover
257,392 square miles and sustain in com-
fort a population of 92,000,000 souls.
Generously watered by great rivers, which
provide also a cheap and convenient
means of transport, the soil is rich in
crops of many varieties. Within the
boundaries flourish the prosperous mono-
poly of jute and the successful manufac-
ture of richly flavoured teas. Bengal is
the principal producer of rice, the staple
food crop of India. Its moist climate
and assured rainfall produce at least two
crops of rice yearly, and in some favoured
places as many as five." Bengal provides

* An important feature of the Bengal rice crop is
the fact that a large portion of the area bears two
or more crops a year, a circumstance that has led to
the expression of a " vertical " as compared with a
" horizontal " area. In fact, it has been pointed out
that a proprietor of an estate with a fairly mixed
Soil might have three, four, or even five harvests of

the largest crop of oil-seeds in India, and
contributes in abundance many other agri-
cultural products of prime importance.
Between them, Bengal and Behar account
for 95 per cent, of the coal output of
Intiia. They are the only Provinces of
India in which iron ore is mined for smelt-
ing by European methods, providing 95' 6
per cent, of the total quantity raised in
the peninsula. The ground is rich in
other minerals waiting to be won, but
already the mineral output of the Pro-
vinces, the variety of manufactures, and
the richness of the agricultural products
make of Bengal, Behar and Orissa, and
Assam the most important area, indus-
trially, in the whole of India.

The rise of commerce in Bengal is one
of the great romances of the British
Empire. A province so richly endowed
by Nature has always attracted the trader,
and from the earliest times North-Eastern
India has been noted for its productive-
ness and its skill in handicraft. Time
was when Bengal was the common store-
house of cotton and silk, " not of
Hindostan or the Empire of the Great
Mogul only, but of all the neighbouring

rice every twelve months : ( i ) .1 'is, from July to
August ; (2) chotan amaii, from October to Novem-
ber ; (3) boroii aman, from December to January ;
(4) btto, from April to May ; and (5) mida, from
September to October. — " The Commercial Products
of India," Sir George Watt.

205

kingdoms and even of Europe." 2 The
delicate beauty of Dacca muslins and
embroidered fabrics had achieved a
world-wide fame. They penetrated the
mysterious recesses of Mecca; they were
found from China in the East to Syria
and Arabia, Ethiopia and Persia, and to
the markets of Provence, Italy, and Spain.
They held every market in Europe until
the beginning of the nineteenth century,
when the cheaper piece goods of Man-
chester brought about their downfall. It
was not only in these stuffs, " extremely
fine and delicate, coloured for their own
use, and white for trade to all parts," that
the merchants of mediaeval Bengal traded.
Eighteenth-century travellers have left us
records of the commercial genius of the
traders who congregated in Bengal on
account of the country being " very fertile
and of a temperate character." In the
main, the produce they dealt with in
mediaeval times was the same as that dealt
with by the traders of to-day, save for the
introduction of jute and tea, and the pass-
ing of the wondrous beauty of those Dacca
silks and muslins. And the means of
transport that filled the early travellers
with a joyous delight — though they were
much nearer to the primitive scheme of
things — can still be seen in the water-
ways of Bengal : the lazy country-boat.

^ " Berniers' Travels."

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

tied up in a narrow creek, waiting hours
and hours for the tide ; the budgerows
slowly toiling against the stream, driven
by the patient, rhythmical oarsmen who
crowd the deck.

But these signs of ancient commerce
exist side by side with the bustle of the
age of steel, and it is with the latter age
that this article is more concerned. The
English brought the age of steel and iron
to Bengal. The transition period has seen
the decay of the ancient arts of white silk
manufacture and liand-loom weaving, but
it has seen also an industrial develop-
ment that contains infinite promise for the
future of India and Bengal. The pur-
pose of the present article is to give the
reader some idea of the industrial
progress and importance of Bengal and
the adjoining Provinces.

The maritime trade of Bengal is the
best indication of the increasing pros-
perity of the Province. This trade is
concentrated in Calcutta. Here are im-
ported and exported the produce not only
of the three Provinces with which this
article is directly concerned, but also of
other Provinces as well. The progress
of Calcutta is an index to the progress
of its hinterland, and few ports in the
world can show so great an improvement
in the volume and the value of the tonnage
handled. In 50 years the gross registered
tonnage of vessels entering the port rose
from 668,311 to 7,074,830 in 1912-13.
The ratio of increase was greatest in the
last decade of this period, when the value
of merchandise, exclusive of treasure and
minerals, imported into Calcutta by all
routes, increased from £66,720,920 to
£114,789,236, and the value of exports
rose from £67,876,668 to £121,298,581.
This means an annual average increase
of £11,276,692, or nearly a million
pounds sterling every single month. The
tonnage of merchandise, on the same
basis, increased during the same period
from 7,586,988 to 12,646,337 for imports,
and 5,503,987 to 8,801,935 for exports.

This rapid and phenomenal growth of
the trade of the principal port led to
congested conditions, which caused in-
convenience and anxiety both to the docks
and the railway companies serving the
port. The situation was taken boldly in
hand, and large new docks and extensive
railway sidings are now in course of con-
struction. The years of the Great War
which followed immediately the period of
phenomenal increase naturally checked
the rapidly rising trade, but it is prac-
tically certain that with the return of

normal conditions the trade of Calcutta
will again resume its upward march, pos-
sibly with even greater rapidity; and the
new docks and railways, although they are
not likely to be completed for some years
after the war is over, will enable the trade
to be handled more expeditiously and
cheaply.

The dislocation caused by the war, the
difficulties of obtaining tonnage, and the
large demand and exceptional prices for
war material have produced somewhat
abnormal conditions at the time this
article is being written. In order, there-
fore, to obtain a fair idea of the trade of
Bengal in normal times, it is necessary to
take pre-war figures, and the year
19 1 3- 14, which, ending in March, was un-
affected by the war, or the prospect of
war, provides the latest and the best
standard.

The sea-borne trade of the Province
of Bengal in 19 1 3- 14 is set out in the
following table : —

Foreign trade-
Imports
Exports

Rs.

81.81,82,128
I034I-99.849

Rs.

1.85,23,81,977

Coasting trade —

Imports ... 15,35,42,495
Exports ... 14,26,23,848

29,61,66,343

Grand total of trade 2,14,85,48,320

or _gi43,236,564 sterling.

The average yearly trade for the five
preceding years, 1907-8 to 191 i- 12, was
Rs. 1,61,12,17,491 (or £107,414,499), so
that the total for 1913-14 is an increase
over the average of Bengal's most pros-
perous period of Rs. 53,73,30,829, or
£35,822,051.

As 10 the distribution of this trade,
more than half the commerce of Calcutta
is done with the United Kingdom, which
does 44 per cent, of the total, and British
possessions, which, apart from the United
Kingdom, do io"49 per cent. .Australia
is the largest individual customer amongst
British possessions, taking 4*30 per cent,
of Calcutta's exports and sending 3' 06
of her imports. This is largely due to the
Australian demand for jute manufactures
in order to transport her crops, .'\mongst
European countries, Germany used to be
the largest customer, taking large quan-
tities of raw jute and hides and sending
in return railway material, cotton and
woollen goods, and machinery. Her per-
centage of the total trade in 1913-14 was
8" 64, the percentage of all European
foreign countries being 19-98. The United
206

States percentage of the total trade was
I 1-8 I, made up chiefly of raw jute and jute
manufactures. Of Asiatic countries, Java,
by reason of her large exports of sugar to
Calcutta, occupies a prominent place, with
a percentage of 4-19 of the total.

Tlie growth of Japanese competition in
the Indian markets has lately been
attracting .great attention, and although
the total trade between Calcutta and
Japan is small as yet (2'49 per cent, of
the total in 1913-14), the successful
manufacture by Japan of cotton hosiery,
matches, beer, and a variety of small
articles formerly supplied from Europe,
even motor tyres, gives a special interest
and importance to her future commercial
connection with India. Japan, more than
any country in the East or the West,
seized the opportunity of the war to push
her goods on the Indian market, but the
retention of the trade will depend on the
quality of the goods, which is not up to
the standard set by Japan's competitors.

The following table gives the distribu-
tion of Calcutta trade for 1913-14 : —

Imports.

Exports.

Total.

United Kingdom

68-45

25-50

44-00

Other British Posses-

sions

6-47

1353

10-49

Foreign countries —

Europe

10-51

27-14

19-98

Asia...

1 179

8-49

9-90

Africa

•22

I 00

■70

America

2-56

2400

1477

Oceania

■28

-16

So far as the imports are concerned,
42' 19 per cent, of the total trade consists
of cotton goods, and, incidentally, this
shows the enormous importance of Bengal
as a market for Lancashire goods, for
by far the greater portion of these
imports comes from England. Next to
cotton goods, metals and ores cover the
largest item of import, sugar coming
third, with railway plant and rolling-stock
and machinery and millwork next. All
these may be called articles of necessity.
Articles of food and clothing are the
essentials of industrial development.
Here and there in the list of imports are
to be found items that suggest the
increasing wealth of Bengal, as well as
the gradual change of Eastern opinion
towards Western methods of life. The
importation of motor-cars, for instance,
is growing enormously year by year.
Although the roads of Bengal leave much
to be desired, the country offers a re-
markable scope for the development of
the motor industry.

COMMERCE AND INDUSTRIES

The exports from Calcutta — and, of
course, Behar and Orissa are included in
the totals — are made up, so far as value
goes, to the extent of more than 50 per
cent, of raw jute and jute manufactures,
the percentage of each being 28" 7 2 and
28'90 respectively. Tea forms the next
great staple export, amounting to io"82
per cent, of the total; and hides and skins
form 8'86 per cent., grain, pulse, and
flour 7'03 per cent., seeds 3'67 per cent.,
and so on.

with musk and yak's tails. The total
imports from Tibet were Rs. 18,29,418,
and in return Bengal exported cotton
piece goods, woollen and silk manufac-
tures, earthenware, porcelain, etc., to the
value of Rs. 14,28,660. The trade with
Bhutan was very much less, amounting
in the aggregate to Rs. 5,03,974. Behar
and Orissa do a large trade with Nepal,
and Assam is dealing to an even larger
extent with Bhutan, and the several tribes,
notably the .■\bors and Mishmis, on her

The best has not been made of these
countless waterways, many of which have
fallen into decay and disuse by ofificial
neglect to counteract the changes of the
flood and keep the course of the river
steady and clear. To control accurately
these erratic, wandering waterways, how-
ever, would require large capital. It is
estimated that the river-bound commerce
between Bengal and Behar and Orissa,
Assam, and the United Provinces amounts
to Rs. 13,01,00,000 ('£8,673,000) in

2, 3. VIEWS IN THE KODARMA MICA DISTRICT.

Photas bj K. O. Po(t£ir.

The figures so far quoted do not, of
course, include the frontier trade of
Bengal, which is a much smalUr but none
the less a considerable total. From Sik-
kim Bengal draws living animals, grain
and pulse, metals of various kinds, ghee
and spices, of the aggregate value of
Rs. 30,89,466, exporting in return cotton
manufactures of Indian origin, provisions,
sugar, and tobacco, of the aggregate value
of Rs. 16,00,520. From Nepal were re-
ceived animals, fruits, vegetables, nuts,
and provisions valued at Rs. 29,58,925,
and goods of the value of Rs. 36,23,131
were exported. Raw wool constitutes the
main staple of import from Tibet, together

frontier, just emerging from the primitive
state.

The transport of trade in Bengal and
the adjoining Provinces is greatly facili-
tated by the spacious waterways with
which Nature has endowed the Gangetic
plains. Two great rivers, the Ganges and
Brahmaputra, fed by many tributaries,
drop slowly from the Himalayas to the
Bay of Bengal. In the flat plains their
streams have split into the countless
waterways of the Bengal Delta. They
flood and fertilize the plains in the rainy
season, and when the crops are garnered
they carry them to markets far removed
and widely scattered.
207

value, and that, of course, does not include
the trade within the Province of Bengal
itself. Besides giving to the Province the
inestimable advantage of wide waterways.
Nature has so constructed Bengal that,
in spite of the heavy expenditure involved
in bridges and repairing banks, railways
can be worked on the flat plains at a
very small cost, compared with the rail-
ways that have to reach the west coast
across the western ghats; and if it were
not for the Government of India support-
ing the western lines by the imposition of
minimum rates the traffic freights to
Calcutta could be reduced considerably,
attracting to the port the produce and

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

manufactures of the greater part of India.
This is a subject of controversy that is not
within the province of this article, but
it is worthy of mention here as showing
the extraordinary facilities for cheap rail-
way traffic which the Bengal delta enjoys
by reason of its flat and gradientless
railways, as well as by reason of its
unrivalled waterways.

It will be seen from the nature of the
exports that in Bengal, as in many other
Provinces of India, agriculture is the
staple industry. This must be so for
generations to come. The methods of
husbandry are in many — in fact, in most-
places of the most primitive kind, but
gradually improvements are being intro-
duced. Modern agricultural machinery,
such as steam ploughs, for instance, will
be long in making its impression felt on
the simple cultivator whose wants are
amply supplied by the primitive plough
and a pair of oxen; but the possibilities
of development are unlimited, and with
the progress of co-operation and the
gradual enlightenment of the cultivator
the yield per acre of the agricultural crops
of Bengal is bound to increase, bringing
wealth to every class of the community.
Rice is by far the principal crop of
Bengal, Behar and Orissa, and, indeed, of
all India. Of the 76,000,000 acres of
India under this crop, as many as
40,500,000 acres are to be found in these
Provinces, yielding from 13,000,000 to
15,000,000 tons annually, or in especially
favourable seasons as much as 21,000,000
tons. No less than 54 per cent, of the
net cropped area of the three Provinces
is under rice crops. This is not surprising
when it is remembered that rice is essen-
tially a crop of damp tropical or semi-
tropical climates. In Bengal it is a
domestic crop, in that it provides the
staple food of the people; but rice is put
to many uses besides. A kind of beer
(pachwai) is made from it. A dye is
manufactured from the husk, and the
straw may be used in papermaking;
whilst the coarse varieties of rice, espe-
cially those from Burma, are exported for
distillation and conversion into starch.
The exports of rice, husked and unhusked,
from Calcutta average something like
8,000,000 cwt. in a year, the greater part
of the crop being consumed locally.

Next to rice, the principal crop of
Bengal, Behar and Orissa, and Assam is
that of oil-seeds— namely, linseed, sesa-
mum, rape, and mustard; ground-nuts,
etc.; and the three Provinces together
account for, roughly, 21 per cent, of the

acreage under these crops in India. The
export of oil-seeds amounts to nearly
5,000,000 cwts. annually. The economic
value of this export has always been ques-
tioned, for it goes without saying that it
is economically and industrially unsoimd
for any country to export oil-seeds in large
quantities instead of manufacturing the oils
and oil-cake itself. If the manufacturing
industry were in India, not only would
the manufacturers' profits be retained in
the country, but, which is more important,
comparatively, the country would not be
deprived of so important a cattle food
and manure. Before the European War
the oil-seed output of India was exported
largely to European countries, and it may
be hoped that with the restoration of
normal times tlie manufacture of the oil
may be undertaken in India itself.

The products that have given to Bengal
its prominent position in the foreign trade
of the world are, however, jute, tea, hides,
and skins. It is not necessary to deal in
detail here with the first two of these
industries, since they are treated in other
pages of this book, but a survey of the
trade of Bengal would be incomplete
without pointing out their preponderance
in the value of exports and their impor-
tance in the industrial development of
Bengal. The capital invested in the
Bengal jute-mill companies is upwards of
Rs. 7,50,00,000 at par value, and war-time
prosperity must have inflated the value
by anything from 300 to 500 per cent.
Between them, jute, tea, hides, and skins,
including jute manufactures, represent in
normal times something like 77 per cent,
of the value of the export trade. In war-
time they assumed, jute especially, an
added importance, and in 191 5- 16 the
proportion to the total export trade of
Bengal rose to 84 per cent. During the
years of the war the demand for jute
bags for the trenches and for the carriage
of grain brought to the jute mills on the
banks of the Hooghly an unprecedented
prosperity. The efi^ects of the war on
the trade, as set out in the report of the
Collector of Customs for Calcutta for
191 5-16, are worth placing on record
here : —

" Throughout the year the export of
jute and jute manufactures has been under
restriction to one country or another, and
the control of Government on these com-
modities becomes stricter and stricter.
But, nevertheless, the year has been one
of abundant prosperity to the industry.
Blessed with cheap raw material, an in-
satiable demand from nearly all countries
208

not at war with us, and a Government
demand which has appropriated a con-
siderable percentage of the looms, the
local mills have made profits undreamt
of in the years of peaceful progress. The
increase was 26 per cent., with a record
output; and although the total value was
less than in 1913-14 (when the raw
material controlled a very high range of
prices), it was greater than in any other
year, and exceeded the previous year by
40 per cent. With the stoppage of the
mid-European demand, raw jute has gone
away in smaller quantities than in pre-
vious years, but compared with 1914-15
the tonnage was larger by 23 per cent,
and the value by 26 per cent. But when
the shipments of bags and cloth are
scrutinized, both have reached a summit
never before approached : the former, in
number, are better than in the previous
year by too per cent., and the latter, in
yardage, by 13 per cent. ; values are
higher by 60 and 35 per cent, respec-
tively ; combined, the increased value
represents 47 per cent. Even ' other '
manufactures (twist, yarn, and twine) are
larger by 30 per cent. In 1914-15 the
jute trade represented 53 per cent, of
Calcutta's exports; in the past year it
has risen to 60 per cent. . . .

" Last year it was remarked that neither
the local mills nor the jute trade had been
so prosperous in 1914-15 as in the pre-
vious year. The year under report has
been a remarkable illustration of un-
exampled prosperity. Jute manufactures
have risen in value from Rs. 25.77 to
Rs. 37.90 crores, or by 47 per cent.,
attaining an altitude never before re-
corded. Both gunny bags and gunny
cloth have been phenomenal in their
expansion, the former increasing in
volume by 100 per cent, and in value
by 60 per cent. Cloth has advanced
by 13 and 35 per cent, respectively.
Throughout the year the mills worked full
time and overtime for the purposes of
military requirements. Restrictive ordi-
nances controlled the export throughout
the year. There was a constant and ever-
increasing demand. ...

" The local mills, in their great pros-
perity, have surpassed the records of any
previous year, and have earned in net
profits in 191 5 the stupendous sum of
Rs. 4.43 crores, of which Rs. 2.93 crores
appertained to the second half of the year.
In the two previous years the net profits
were Rs. 2.45 crores and Rs. 96.18 lakhs
respectively. Debit balances have been
liquidated, large sums placed to reserve,

COMMERCE AND INDUSTRIES

and equally large sums distributed
amongst shareholders. One mill declared
iio per cent, dividend, one 70, one 60,
twelve between 30 and 55, and seventeen
between 10 and 26 per cent."

Tea also prospered by the large
demand during the war period. For
many years past the Indian tea trade has
been steadily expanding, and the e.Kports
from Calcutta by sea and land in 1913-14
were 217,987,401 lb. In 1915-16 the
quantity had increased to 265,350,000 lb.
The capital invested in tea companies
in Assam and Bengal is upwards of
Rs. 4,00,00,000 at par value, but as many
of the companies pay handsome dividends
there has been a considerable apprecia-
tion in the value of these securities, the
best of which it is practically impossible
to obtain in the open market, so highly
are they prized as an investment.

For hides and skins the best customers
of Bengal in normal times were Germany,
.■\ustria-Hungary, and the United States;
and the closing of the Teutonic markets
brought about a temporary crisis, the
more serious because the trade in
Calcutta had practically fallen into the
hands of German and Austrian firms. The
needs of the war, however, led to its re-
organization under British control, and
although the pre-war level had not been
reached in 1915-16, the trade, neverthe-
less, was expanding and prosperous.

Indigo is dealt with elsewhere in this
volume, and it need be referred to only
briefly here. A quarter of a century ago
indigo was one of the most prosperous
industries in India. The planters of
Behar were a large and wealthy com-
munity. Then came the German chemist
and his synthetic dye, and the acreage in
India under indigo, which was as much
as 1,688,000 acres in 1894-5, dwindled
to 169,221 in 1913-14. In this decline
Behar was the greatest sufferer. But the
war and the consequent shutting out of
the German chemical dyes has brought
a new spell of prosperity — albeit it may
be a short one — to the industry.

The acreage under indigo increased in
1915-16 to 314,300 acres. Unfortunately,
adverse climatic conditions reduced the
yield per acre, but exports from Calcutta
rose from 8,752 cwts. in 1913-14 to
13,147 cwts. in 1915-16. The average
value of the maund, which was Rs. 149
before the war, touched Rs. 516 in 19 14-
15, was Rs.419 in 1915-16, and good
Behar indigo has risen at times to as
much as Rs. 750 per factory maund.
Advantage has been taken of the present

prosperous conditions to make further
efforts to place the industry on a sound
commercial basis, and, by scientific re-
search, to produce natural indigo in such
a form that after the war it will be able
to compete on a footing of ecjuality with
synthetic products.

Next to the United Provinces, Bengal,
with Behar and Orissa and Assam, con-
stitutes the largest sugar-producing area
in British India; but considering the fact
that India was probably the original home
of the sugar-cane, the industry does not
at present occupy the position which the
demands of the country and the facilities
for the growth of the sugar-cane alike
demand that it ought to occupy. Of the
total area of 2,708,000 acres under sugar-
cane in British India more than half is
in the United Provinces, 19 per cent, in
Bengal, Behar and Orissa, and 16 per
cent, in the Punjab. The other sugar-
yielding plants — namely, the date-palm
and the Palmyra palm — occupy a total
area of 166,000 acres, of which 47 per
cent, is in Madras and 36 per cent, in
Bengal. Cultivation of sugar in India
during the last thirty years has shown a
declining tendency, and the explanation
is to be found partly in the absence of
scientific and up-to-date methods of cul-
tivation and manufacture, and partly in
the large importation of beet-sugar from
Germany and Austria, and foreign cane-
sugar from Java and Mauritius. The
decline in local cultivation has been most
marked in Behar and Bengal. The know-
ledge of the possibilities of India as a
sugar-growing country,, however, has
recently led the Government of India to
devote special attention to the industry.
Experimental farms and factories have
been established. Many reports have
been issued, and these all go to prove
that sugar-cane can be produced more
economically in India than in any other
country in the world. Few industries
have been subjected so much to fiscal
influences, such as cartels, bounties, and
countervailing duties, and first beet-sugar
and then the cane products of Java and
Mauritius seriously competed with home-
grown sugar in India. Hence it comes
about that India, which once exported
sugar to Europe, has become herself a
field for European commercial enterprise
in the possession of cheap refined sugar.
Calcutta imports annually sugar to the
value of between 6 and 7 lakhs. In the
near future, however, it is quite pos-
sible that attempts will be made to
completely revive the indigenous industry,

209

and these attempts may not be limited
to the encouragement of improved and
scientific methods of cultivation and refin-
ing. In the Budget for 191 6- 1 7 the
Finance Member of the Viceroy's Council
announced a significant departure from
the fiscal policy of India. There were
a number of increases in the rate of duty,
raising the general import tariff from
5 per cent, to 7^ per cent. In the case of
sugar, however, it was raised to 10 per
rent., avowedly for the purpose of
encouraging the Indian industry. Whether
this measure of protection, added to the
efforts of Government to improve culti-
vation, will restore the sugar trade of
India to such a position that it will be
able to provide the needs of the country
and export the surplus remains to be seen,
but the departure is a very significant
one.

In the industrial development of India,
which has already begun, and which must
make much greater progress in the near
future, Bengal, Behar and Orissa, and
Assam are destined to play a predominant
part. We have already seen that, in the
matter of jute especially, the agricultural
products of these Provinces are of great
value to manufacturing industries. But
it is to the vast mineral wealth that we
must look for industrial development on
a large and profitable scale. The Pro-
vinces are favoured in an exceptional
degree with mineral deposits of the most
important kind. Of the total output of
minerals in India, valued in 19 13 at I2j
per cent., the greater part is derived from
Bengal, and' Behar and Orissa, whose coal
output, valued at something like 5 crores,
is 95 per cent, of the Indian production.
This great store of coal gives Bengal and
Behar exceptional industrial advantages,
and the presence of other allied minerals
in large quantities is leading to the estab-
lishment, slowly as yet, of important
industries.

Next to the United Kingdom, India
occupies the first place in the British
Empire as a coal-producer. The total
output in 1913 was 16,208,000 tons, of
which Bengal produced 4,649,985 tons,
Behar and Orissa 10,227,557 tons, and
Assam 270,000 tons. The mines employ
daily some 150,000 persons, and the
capital of companies working coal in
Bengal and Behar is Rs. 5,69,40,000.
India herself consumes the greater part
of the coal produced — as much as 94 per
cent. — and the market for home consump-
tion is steadily growing, leaving little for
export. Indian coal exported amounted

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

to 759.' 55 tons '" 191 2, the principal
customers being Ceylon, the Straits Settle-
ments, and Sumatra.

Coal is quite a modern industry in
India. Although the occurrence of the
mineral must have been known from time
immemorial, it is only in recent times that
European enterprise has developed the in-
dustry. Even now coal is very little used
by the natives of India in indigenous
industries, whilst for domestic purposes
it is scarcely used at all. The increasing
demand in India for indigenous coal
comes, therefore, from the railways and
from the numerous industries of large
importance that are springing up— the
jute and cotton mills, the iron and steel
works, foundries, and other concerns.
The first analytical reports of Indian coal
were so unfavourable that attempts made
to develop the industry in the early part
of the nineteenth century met with failure.
The prejudice that so long insisted on
importing English coal because the local
mineral was deemed inferior — on analyses
taken of the deposits near the surface —
was gradually broken down, but it was
not until the rise of the jute-nianufactur-
ing industry that real vitality was given
to coal-mining. Fifty years ago the
annual output of coal was imder half a
million tons. To-day it is over 16,000,000
tons.

Bengal coal has the advantage of being
by far the cheapest coal in the world,
and the average value has not fluctuated
very much in recent years. In 1909 the
average value per ton at the pit-mouth
was 4s. 8d. It fell to 3s. nd. in 1911
— a year of depression in coal — but in
1913 it was again 4s. 8d., and that figure
will probably represent the normal
average price of coal at the pit's mouth
in India. A comparison with the pit-
mouth value of other countries for the
five years 1 908-12 shows how great is
the advantage that India enjoys in cheap
fuel :—

Per Ton.

s. d.

India ...

... 4 8

United States...

... 5 lOj

Australia

... 7 6

Japan

... 7 H

United Kingdom

... 8 5J

Germany

... 10 4.1

France

... 12 7

The cheapness of Bengal coal is not due
to any marked inferiority of the mineral
as compared with the fuels of other
countries. On the contrary, laboratory
analysis and practical experiments have

shown that the finest Indian coals are
little inferior to the best English and
Welsh. Whilst labour for working the
mines is fairly plentiful and cheap in
India, it is also very inefticient relatively
to the mine labour of other countries.
Thus the coal raised per person employed
in the rest of the British Empire is 266' 2
tons, whilst in India it is only io9'4.
In the mines outside India, however,
machinery is used on a much larger scale
than has hitherto been necessary for the
shallow mining operations of India.
Latterly the use of electricity in the
Bengal coal mines has become an im-
portant factor in the efficiency of the
mines, but expensive labour-saving de-
vices, such as coal-cutting machinery,
have not been extensively adopted because
of the cheapness of labour. During the
boom period, when the prices were high
and the labour supply insufficient to give
the output needed, some colliery pro-
prietors put down coal-cutting machinery
at high cost, but as the price of coal fell
and labour conditions became easier,
these machines passed gradually out of
use. The time for them will come again,
no doubt, when the demand for coal
exceeds the capacity of the present labour
force.

With coal, of course, goes iron ore, and
it is in the iron and steel trades that many
hope to see in time some remarkable
developments in Bengal and Behar. As
has been said already, these are the only
Provinces in India in which iron ore is
mined for smelting by European methods.
From the very dawn of history iron-
smelting must have been practised by the
people of Bengal. Weapons used in
ancient warfare show that a certain stan-
dard of manufacture, doubtless excellent
in its day, had been achieved; but with
the introduction of superior articles of
Western make the indigenous industry
declined, and although it is continued to
this day, it is wasteful in its methods, and
its achievements are only a poor imitation
of goods of Eui;opean manufacture.
Bengal is more concerned, therefore, with
the modern developments of the industry,
and the enterprise of the Bengal Iron and
Steel Company (of which Messrs. Martin
& Co. are the managing agents) and of
the Tata Iron and Steel Company, who
have built great works at Barakar and
Sakchi respectively, are fraught with
immense possibilities. The Barakar
works in 1913 used upwards of 96,000
tons of iron ore, chiefly derived from
Manharpur, and they have produced iron
210

of a quality which is said to be superior
to any imported from Europe. The com-
pany employs upwards of 5,000 persons
daily. The Tata enterprise is of a later
date, and, partly under the direction of
American experts, the works have been
erected on modern lines. Although con-
siderable difficulties were at first experi-
enced in the manufacture of steel, the Tata
Company, which employs a daily average
of nearly 9,000 persons, is now producing
a large quantity, and the Government of
India, who maintain a testing laboratory
at Sakchi, have placed a large standing
order. It is needless to say that the war
proved of great benefit to the iron and
steel works in Bengal. The shutting
down of enemy competition and the extra-
ordinary rise in freights had a protective
efi^ect on the local industry, and much of
the excellent iron and steel used for the
manufacture of munitions in India was
locally produced. Naturally, the opera-
tions of these two companies have made
an enormous difference in the mining of
iron ore in recent years. In 1909 Bengal
and Behar and Orissa raised together only
72,000 tons, of the total value of £13,000.
In 1 91 3 the raisings had increased to
353,813 tons, valued at £35,000. This
represented by far the greater part of
the total output for India, which amounted
to only 370,845 tons. How far this in-
dustry will develop in the future is purely
a matter for speculation, but when it is
borne in mind that India imports annually
iron and steel materials of the value of
between nineteen and twenty millions
sterling on an average, it will be realized
that there is a great scope for Indian
manufactures of cutlery and hardware,
railway plant, iron and steel beams,
sheets, bars, and so on. There is also
the prospect of an export trade in iron
and steel. Japan is already taking large
quantities of the Tata steel for ship-
building purposes.

In the production of manganese ore,
India competes with Russia for the first
place in the world, but of India's total
output of 800,000 statute tons Behar con-
tributes a comparatively small portion.

Of the Indian production of mica, which
amounted to 45,422 cwts. in 1913, or,
roughly, 70 per cent, of the world's total,
Behar and Orissa produce over 7 1 per
cent. As this important industry is dealt
with separately, however, it need only be
mentioned here.

These are the principal minerals at
present mined in these provinces. .Assam
has some encouraging oil-springs. Ideal

COMMERCE AND INDUSTRIES

climatic and other conditions make Behar
easily the largest producer of saltpetre
in India. Behar gives a modest yield
of copper ore — modest, but still by far
the largest in India. Prospecting is still
going on and new deposits are being dis-
covered. Of these it is impossible yet
to speak with certainty, and their develop-
ment may be a matter of years. A recent
.^.dministration Report of the Province,
which refers to the encouraging results
of prospecting for pitch-blende in the
Gaya district, claims that the pitch-blende
found is one of the richest in radium
content in the world.

We have dealt so far, mainly, with the
major industries of the Provinces which
have been established by European enter-
prise, largely financed with European
capital, and conducted by European
managers. In these industries purely
Indian enterprise and Indian capital have
so far played an unimportant part, and
the management is centred in the great
firms of European managing agents which
have been established in Calcutta for
generations past. Indigenous enterprise,
however, is making itself felt. Indians
are opening up tea gardens and coal
mines and cotton mills; but, so far as
indigenous industries of the old-fashioned
type are concerned, they have nowhere
recovered the position that India once
held as a manufacturing nation and lost
because her craftsmen, working by hand,
without capital, or organization, or enter-
prise, were unable to withstand the com-
petition of the highly organized industries
and superior manufactures of the West.
.Attempts have recently been made to
revive these indigenous industries, and the
growth of co-operation has given a new
hope to the Indian craftsman, the hand-
loom weaver, the metalworker, and the
potter. Some of the work that these
craftsmen produce is of a high standard
of artistic beauty and quality, but, gene-

rally speaking, the arts and crafts of
Bengal have not yet acquired a position of
sufficient importance to justify treatment
at any great length. The crafts are
numerous, but in proportion the popula-
tion engaged in them is negligible. The
great majority of the people (35^^ mil-
lions, or 78 per cent, in Bengal ; 30
millions, or 81 per cent., in Behar and
Orissa, according to the last census, which
was taken before the new division of the
province) are dependent on agriculture
and cognate pursuits. Industry claimed
at the last census but 3I million people
in Bengal and 3 millions in Behar and
Orissa. The big jute mills take a large
number of these workers, and when the

AN OLD MINE.

I'holo hy A'. O. J'oifger.

balance is distributed amongst the silk-
weavers, the tanners, carpenters, metal-
workers, and potters, it will easily be
understood that these occupations claim
but a small percentage of the population
of these Provinces. A new desire for a
revival of the indigenous industries has

_i>.-
z'

..^

sprung up during the war, and it was
hoped to take advantage of the elimina-
tion of German and Austrian competition
— once very serious in the bazaars— to
establish Indian manufacturing industries
on a firm financial basis. It must be many
years, however, before any revival of the
cottage industries and the indigenous
crafts of Bengal can materially affect the
industrial outlook of the Province. Future
progress is mapped out on well-defined
lines where success has already been won.
lo the jute industry there is no limit of
expansion. It was once thought foolish
to build mills on the Hooghly, but in a
quarter of a century they have grown in
number from a dozen to fifty or more,
and the profits of late have been fabulous.
The output of Bengal and Behar and
Orissa coal was under 2,000,000 tons in
the 'eighties. It was over i 5,000,000 tons
in 1913. There is practically no limit
to the expansion of these major industries,
and the mineral wealth of the Gangetic
Provinces has scarcely yet been touched.
The rate of development must depend
upon the availability of capital and the
making of railway communications. Indian
■ capital is shy. In spite of the large
speculative dealings on the stock and
share markets of Calcutta and Bombay,
a comparatively small proportion of
Indian capital is invested direct in indus-
trial undertakings. But the well-
established industries, like jute, cotton,
coal, and tea, are impressing the Indian
investor more and more, and in recent
years the success of light railways under
good management, with a guaranteed
dividend, has succeeded in attracting
capital in a larger degree. The outlook
is improving year by year, and when the
accumulating wealth of India is devoted
to her industrial development, the Pro-
vinces of Bengal, Behar and Orissa, and
Assam offer a field for enterprise second
to none in the world.

-•^

THE MICA INDUSTRY

^^ THEN the word " mica " is used
outside the company of those con-
nected with the industry, one is imme-
diately asked : " What is mica? " and,
"Is mica the same as talc?" It would
seem advisable, therefore, to give an
answer to these questions at the beginning
of this article.

By J. F. PODGER, Assoc.Inst.M.M.

Firstly, then, mica is composed mainly
of silica, alumina, and potash. There are
many varieties, and all contain other con-
stituents in greater or less percentages,
but the composition is mainly silica and
alumina; while talc, also of many kinds,
is composed mainly of silica and mag-
nesL-i. There is this difference between

the two substances, that whereas mica is
flexible and elastic, talc is sometimes
flexible but never elastic.

It is doubtful when mica was first dis-
covered, but it has been used in India
for decorative and medicinal purposes
from time immemorial. The medicine, a
sort of patent cure-all, is made by

211

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

reducing mica to a powder (biotite mica
is usually employed), which is mbced with
cow's urine and baked, this damping and
baking process being repeated several
times. The resulting medicine, rather like
fine brickdust, is expensive, and is pos-
sibly as efficacious as some other patent
powders. Mica has been found in the
wrappings of ancient Egyptian mummies,
and Thales, the Greek, knew of it some
time before 550 B.C. It is related, too,
that Columbus had his ships' lanterns
fitted with it when setting out on his
search for America.

The "Memoirs of the Geological Survey
of India," vol. xxxiv, part 2, contain the
following legend : " In ancient times, or
Sat Yoga, it is supposed that in order to
kill the enemy of the gods, Baratur
(V'itra), Indra lifted his thunderbolt
vajra, and a flash of lightning spread
throughout the length and breadth of the
sky, while the sparks which fell on the
mountains were preserved in the form
of mica."

Locally, many of the coolies believe
that it grows, this idea being probably
due to the fact that nearly all new out-
crops are discovered during the first days
of the rains, which wash away fallen leaves
and dead grass, and so expose the surface
of the ground more clearly than at other
times of the year.

Mica is a constituent of all granites,
although it only reaches commercial size
in the giant granites, commonly referred
to as granite pegmatite or simply peg-
matite. Any consideration of the origin
of mica resolves itself into a question of
the origin of granite pegmatite, than
which there have been few subjects more
discussed or more controversial. The
generally accepted theory is that these
rocks originated by the crystallization of
fluid magnas which have been forced from
greater depth to fill the faults and fissures
of the country rock into which they were
thus forcibly intruded. It is not proposed
to attempt to argue the question here, but
it is relevant to remark that this theory
appears to be well borne out as more
knowledge of the physical conditions of
the pegmatites and country becomes
available. This doctrine is not entirely
incompatible with that of precipitation
from solution, as Nature, like the Mother
of Parliaments, can arrive at a workable
compromise.

It would be correct to say that mica
IS found in almost every known country
of the world, but, from a commercial point
of view, the following are the countries

in which it is found : India, Canada, the
United States, East Africa, South Africa,
Ceylon, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Guate-
mala, Labrador, Norway, Iceland, Russia,
Japan, and .Australia. Of these countries
the greatest producers are India, Canada,
and the United States, although there are
possibilities that East Africa also may
become one of the important producing
centres. The earliest workings were in
India, the Hindus raising mica for orna-
mental purposes in the neighbourhood of
Delhi very many centuries ago.

The first shipments of Bengal mica are
recorded as being made in 1863, but it
was not until its unrivalled properties as
an electrical insulator became known that
the industry began to expand and assume
some considerable importance in the
mining and industrial world.

The whole of the Bengal mica area,
extending through the districts of Haza-
ribagh, Gya, and Monghyr, comprises,
roughly, 750 square miles, and was almost
entirely the property of nat' ■ ;• Rajas and
Zemindars. The chief outsi ie area was
the Kodarma Forest, a tract of about 50
square miles lying on the north of the
Hazaribagh district, on the borders of
Gya.

In or about the year 1872 the Govern-
ment leased the mica-mining rights
throughout the whole of this forest to a
gentleman who had already acquired
similar privileges over most of the
Zemindari property. The rent accepted
for the forest was about Rs. 270 annually.
As practically the whole of the mica-
producing area was then in the hands of
one owner, there were no difficulties
regarding mining or fears of theft. All
visible mica belonged to the same pro-
prietor, and the method of working was
to send coolies into the jungles to dig
and roughly trim it, and subsequently
carry it to central godowns, the coolies
being paid pro rata, according to size
and weight.

It was not until about 1896 that
Government asked for an enhanced rent,
and, failipg to get it, demarcated the
several workings and put them up for
sale by auction, the term of possession
being for one year only. This system of
annual auctions lasted until about 1902,
and as much as Rs. 10,000 were obtained
for the rent of one deposit in some years.

There need be no hesitation in saying
that this system of annual auctions was
the direct cause of the spoliation of the
deposits and the consequent lack of
mining methods, and it ought to have been

212

obvious to any one that the result of such
a policy would be the ruin of the work-
ings. The lessees, having twelve months
in which to recover their money, took out
every ounce of mica they could get; they
cut out all pillars, made no attempt to
support any of their excavations, and
formulated no plan of development or of
permanent working for their mines. The
better the prospects of the deposit the
more it cost the lessee, and the less likely
he would be able to retain it at the
expiration of his lease.

Owing to the intervention of Mr. (now
Sir) Thomas Holland and the interest of
the then Viceroy (Lord Curzon of
Kedleston) in industrial work, a new
form of lease was drawn up about the
year 1902, which gave mining rights for
a term of thirty years over minimum areas
of 40 acres.

Would that we had Sir Thomas back
again I Government has reverted to its
Gilbert and Sullivan methods, and,
although it retains the thirty years' term,
it adds such rules and conditions to the
lease as make it impossible to work profit-
ably. Apparently Government is obsessed
with the idea that mica and coal are
synonymous terms for the same mineral.
Unhappy managers of mica mines have to
put up with visits, suggestions, and orders
of inspectors who have never in their lives
worked, even if they have ever seen in situ,
any other mineral than coal.

The distribution of the mica through
the pegmatite is generally admitted to
be entirely irregular or " pockety," and
following no imaginable rule of occur-
rence, but it is possible that it does con-
form to certain rules which have not yet
been recognized. Be that as it may, it is
a fact that most of the workings, until
recent years, were carried out by the
simple process of following the strings
of mica crystals through the pegmatite
in irregular workings, and necessitated the
employment of large numbers of women
to keep the mines clear of water and
debris. The usual procedure was to have
two rows of women from the working face
to the surface of the ground ; one row
passed down empty baskets and water-
jars, which were filled at the bottom and
then sent along to the other women to be
thrown out at the surface. This system
is still carried on to a large extent, but
more mining-like methods are now coming
into general practice.

In a paper on " The Mining, Prepara-
tion, and Uses of Mica," read in London
in February 19 13, it is stated that explo-

COMMERCE AND INDUSTRIES

1^:

sives are seldom used, and that the tools
employed in the mines are of a primitive
nature and are usually made locally. If
the author of that paper had ever experi-
enced a visit from the Inspector of
Explosive Magazines he would have
written differently, as Nobels' dynamite
is used throughout the mica-field, and
the consumption of it runs into many
hundreds of cases annually. It is neither
necessary nor desirable that the mining
methods now employed by the most
important companies in this Province
should be expounded, as they are dealt
with elsewhere in the descriptions of the
mines.

One of the greatest difficulties the
management of mica concerns has to con-
tend with is the question of theft. It is
doubtful if any mining company secures
the whole of its output, and the higher
police officials, in conversation, have given
it as their opinion that a quantity equiva-
lent to a lakh of rupees in value, up to
half the output of the mines, is stolen
annually.

The Kodarnia Mica Mining Association
took up the matter strongly, and the
Lieutenant-Governor of the Province was
good enough to visit Kodarma and discuss
the matter with the Association. A draft
Bill for the " prevention of mica theft "
was submitted to the local Government,
but the latter decided that the matter had
better be postponed for a time, and the
Association has accepted this decision as
a temporary one only.

One might give numberless instances
showing the absolute impunity with which
thefts of mica are carried out, but mention
of two cases will suffice for the purpose
of demonstrating the insufficiency of the
protection afforded by the local police
authorities.

A bullock-cart was discovered at half-
past ten at night outside a godown at
Debour, lo miles from Kodarma, and
coolies were seen to bring sacks of mica
and to place them in the cart. The driver
and his cart were apprehended and taken
to the police-station, where the man's
defence was that he went to sleep, and
that while he slept some evilly-disposed
persons must have loaded his cart. He
was a Kodarma cartman, but he did not
know why he had gone to Debour, and
he plaintively added that he was a poor
man ! The police kept the mica, and there
was an end of that case.

On the night of February 28, 191 5,

Tt of a large crystal of mica was cut
out of a pillar in a level driven from a

shaft at a depth of 60 feet from the sur-
face, and on the following morning the
manager of the mine concerned discovered
the theft. He had a shrewd notion as to
the culprit, and went straight to the go-
down of the person suspected and there
found a part of a large crystal of mica.
He waited at the mine until the suspected
man arrived, and then returned with him
to Kodarma, where he handed him over
to the police, giving full details of the
case and a request that the Sub-Inspector
would visit the mine, fit the portion of
crystal from the godown into the mica
left in the pillar, and thus procure irre-
futable evidence as to the identity of the

forward by an insignificant body of
miners of that substance.

During the year 19 13 the shipments
from Calcutta amounted to 49,949 cwts.,
although the total output from the mines
of the whole Province, according to the
official Report of the Inspector of Mines,
amounted to only 31,239 cwts.

It is extremely rarely that a perfect
mica crystal, unbroken and undistorted,
is found, and the writer of these notes has
not yet seen one during seventeen years'
experience. The crystals are all broken
and distorted in situ, are striated, bent,
and frequently cut up into strips,
triangles, and quadrilaterals by minor

MICA SORTERS AT WORK.

stolen piece. The police undertook to
do this without any delay. They, how-
ever, took no steps at all for more than
twenty-four hours; then they visited the
mine, but did not then or at any subse-
quent time enter it, contenting themselves
by sending coolies down to remove from
the pillar that part of the crystal which
remained. Therefore they not only
deliberately refrained from obtaining
evidence themselves, but they took it out
of the power of any other person to do so
subsequently. The case was lost for lack
of evidence, and the police kept the
mica I

The opponents of the Bill put forward
by the Association stated that it would ruin
their businesses; and possibly it would,
for, as one of them rather quaintly com-
plained in a letter to a Calcutta news-
paper, there are thousands of mica
traders, while the Bill was brought

213

cleavage planes, and it is these triangles
and quadrilaterals which are frequently
mistaken for the perfect crystal.

At the end of the day's work the rough
mica from the mines is brought to the
surface and split into sheets about one-
eighth of an inch in thickness, the latter
being subsequently tied in bundles of
about 40 lb. each and carried into the
company's godowns.

The course of preparation of this rough
mica consists in trimming, sorting, grad-
ing, and splitting. It is split by Ithe
cutters into convenient thicknesses for
trimming with a sickle (this means a
thickness of about a thirty-second part
of an inch), and all rough and cracked
edges are cut off with as little waste as
possible. This method of trimming leaves
a sound plate of curvilinear configura-
tion, containing the greatest possible area
of sound mica that could be secured from

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

the rough piece. This is certainly a less
wasteful plan than that employed in
Madras, Argentina, and Brazil, where the
rough mica is cut into approximate
rectangles by guillotine shears. These
trimmed curvilinear plates are known as
slab mica, and are sorted into sizes,
" Special " and " No. i " to " No. 6,"
these sizes being based on the area of
the largest rectangle of sound mica that
could be cut from each slab.

The areas of the standard sizes are as
follows : No. 6, not less than l square
inch; No. 5, under 6 square inches and
not less than 3 square inches ; No. 4,
under lo square inches and not less than
6 square inches; No. 3, under 15 square
inches and not less than 10 square inches ;
No. 2, under 24 square inches and not
less than 15 square inches; and No. i,
under 36 square inches and not less
than 24 square inches ; while for the
" Special " size, all areas not less than
36 square inches are included.

In addition to these recognized sizes,
some firms produce a small No. 5, con-
sisting of slabs of 2\ square inches only ;
A I size, intermediate between No. i and
Special ; and an Extra Special size, con-
taining slabs of not less than 48 square
inches.

The No. 6 size is graded into two quali-
ties— clear and stained ; black-spotted
No. 6 is not usually brought from the
mines, the value being nominal ; all other
sizes are graded into the qualities — clear,
slightly stained, stained, densely stained,
spotted, and densely spotted.

The No. 5 and No. 6 stained qualities
are converted into splittings. The other
grades are packed in cases containing
about 56 lb. net, and it is most desirable
that two sizes or qualities should never
be packed in the same case, as buyers
of one kind may have no use for the
other.

The splitting of the No. 5 and No. 6
slabs into films suitable for the manu-

facture of micanite is done by women
and children. Special knives are used
for the purpose, and a skilled labourer
is able to split to a given thinness — say,
one twelve-hundredth part of an inch —
with an extraordinary degree of
uniformity.

As the value of the films depends on
their being uniformly thin and free from
torn or cracked pieces, it is evident that
close supervision is required at all split-
ting factories, as there may be upwards
of 5,000 films in a pound, and even a
comparatively few thick films in a case
will seriously affect the value. The work
of splitting is carried on by contract, the

OLD METHOD OF RAISING WATER
AND DEBRIS.

PHafo by A'. O. Pods:tr.

operatives receiving a fixed rate per seer,
according to the quality manufactured.

The first exports of Bengal mica, in
1863, amounted to about 67 cwts.; the
average yearly export for the period

1904-8 was 23,624 cwts.; and although
the increase was maintained until 1912,
when 51,646 cwts. were exported, there
has been a falling otf since then, the
figures being 49,949 cwts. for 1913 and
29,124 cwts. for 1914.

The Annual Report of the Chief
Inspector of Mines gives a total of 12,314
persons employed daily in the Bengal
(now Behar and Orissa) mica mines, but
this figure does not include those em-
ployed in godowns and factories. The
factory labour, it should be observed, is
considerably in excess of that employed
actually on the mines.

The principal use of mica is in the
manufacture of electrical machinery. The
invention of micanite, a sort of cardboard
made of splittings, built up with a shellac
cement, and consolidated under pressure,
put a value on all the smaller sizes of
mica, which had hitherto been discarded
as valueless. Micanite can be moulded
into any desired form, and is therefore
capable of being used in a greater variety
of forms than the slabs in their natural
state.

A very considerable quantity of clear
slab mica is used in the condensers of
wireless telegraphy installations, for stove
windows, incandescent gas chimneys,
gramophone diaphragms, compass cards,
and other purposes.

A small quantity of waste mica is
pulverized, and the resulting powder is
used as a lubricant; other portions are
converted into efificient boiler-packing,
and lagging for steam-pipes, but the
supply very greatly exceeds the demand.
The Canadian Phlogopite mica is superior
to the Bengal product for the manufacture
of powder, and that country having the
advantage of cheaper freight to the Euro-
pean market, and possessing practically
unlimited supplies of waste mica, it is
unlikely that this Province will be able
to enter into serious competition with the
Dominion.

ADDITIONAL NOTES ON MICA

Scientifically, mica comprises a

*^ group of rock-forming minerals,
found in most parts of the world. The
principal members of the family are
Muscovite, Biotite, Phlogopite, and Lepi-
dolite, all of them showing, in varying
degrees, a marked tendency to cleave in

By F. F. CHRESTIEN

a single direction. Confining our remarks
to Behar, the two varieties of this mono-
clinic crystal which are found are Musco-
vite and Biotite. Only the former has
any commercial value, and occurs in
crystals of many colours — ruby, green,
yellow, and white — frequently with black

214

spots and splashes, due to the presence
of iron and other foreign matter. Com-
mercially, it may be said the ruby colour
is preferred, especially when free from
stains and spots.

Not much is known about mica, as,
geologically, it has not been closely

p. F. CHBBSTIEN & CO., LTD.
, Manaoing Directors Bi N(iALow AT DoMCHAKcH. i. Offices and Factoky, Domchanch. 3. Lokai Offices and Factory. 4. TisKi Offices and Factory.

5. Bungalow at Tisri.

21 =

I. SiCKLE-URESSING MiCt.

F. F. CHEESTIEN & CO., LTD.
2. Sorting and Grading Mica. 3. SrLiriixu Mica ai Lokai Factory.

216

4. Knu-e-cltting and Examining Mica.

F. F. CHBESTIEN & CO., LTD.
I. Dispatching a Coxsiunment. 2. Main Incli.ve and Hallage Gear, Jh.agriah Mine.

3. Mais Incli.ne and New Vertical SHAtT (u.\der coxstrucito.n), Buriah Mixk.

217

4. Part ok the Mica Dlmi's at Tisri.

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

studied; nor is it a mineral tliat obeys
any very specific rules of occurrence. In
Behar it is most commonly found, per-
haps, in coarse pegmatite veins having
a barren quartz core, and with foot and
hanging walls of mica schist, the mica
itself occurring at the contacts of the
pegmatite with either the schist or
quartz.

Such a vein may vary in thickness from
a few inches to 50 feet and more, measur-
ing from foot to hanging wall ; may have
a " strike " of a few feet to a mile, and
on the dip may go down to a depth
unknown, though several deposits appear
to be very superficial.

The richness of any vein varies largely
in different places, both along the strike
and the dip. This, added to the general
uncertainty of occurrence and the enor-
mous wastage, makes mica-mining a very
hazardous and speculative industry.

While in America mines have been
taken to nearly 1,000 feet of depth, owing
to primitive methods heretofore employed
in Behar a mine has to be exceptionally
rich to exceed 150 feet on the vertical,
while the very deepest can scarcely
exceed 300 feet, which is the depth to
which the Bunderchua mine of Messrs.
Chrestien & Co. was taken before work
was stopped.

Once the vein has got below the level
of surface influence, and where it can be
affected by the infiltration of water and
mud, depth in itself does not appear to
have any influence on the quality of the
mica. Mica is a most wasteful mineral
to mine, scarcely 5 per cent, of the actual
mica contents of any vein being of value.
The mineral occurs in crystals known
commonly as " books," from their inclina-
tion to split into sheets like the pages
of a book .

These books vary much in size and in
weight, from the fraction of an ounce to
as much as half a ton, while crystals
weighing from too lb. to 200 lb. are of
daily occurrence. The value of mica.

however, does not depend on the original
size of the book, but on how that book
has made up, i.e. on its freedom from
cross grain or twining and from cracks.
The books when found are dislodged by
boring and blasting, and are then brought
to the surface and split up into large and
thick pieces. Such pieces as are obviously
useless are thrown away on the mine,
while the rest is sent to be dressed. After
this the mica goes to the central factory
of the mine-owner to be prepared for
market.

The mica field of Behar and Orissa is
the chief mica field in India, and covers
a belt of some 600 square miles, where
the districts of Hazaribagh, Gya, and
Monghyr meet, though the lion's share
of the mines lies in the first-named
district.

The mica belt consists of a tangle of
low hills, dying away into a flat tableland
some 1,000 feet above the sea, and
covered with a jungle of sal trees. In
this jungle are to be found a few tigers,
sometimes of marked man-eating pro-
pensities, leopards, the sloth bear, and
the big woodland deer the sambhur.

Splittings are exported to the manufac-
turers of " micanite." Though micanite
has now become almost a dictionary word,
like " tabloid," it is really the trade-mark
name of an American firm who were the
first to manufacture micanite at Shenec-
tady, U.S.A.

Artificial plates made from splittings
and shellac are then subjected to great
beat and pressure to remove the surplus
shellac and the resultant micanite, which
gives out a metallic ring when struck, can
be cut into convenient sizes and used for
electrical insulation. Year by year the
consumption of mica by the three great
buyers has increased. These three buyers
were London, Hamburg, and New York.
The Great War, by removing the custom
of Germany, has naturally had a depress-
ing effect on the industry, which, it is
to be hoped, will only be temporary.

The principal mica concern in Behar
— and, in fact, in the world— is Messrs.
F. F. Christien & Co., Ltd. This com-
pany was formed in 191 i to take over the
long-established business privately owned
by Mr. F. F. Chrestien, who pioneered
the industry as long ago as 1 871, prac-
tically every mine in the mica belt of
Behar having been worked by him at some
time or another.

At present the company, besides con-
trolling large areas .and many mines in
Behar, works mines in the Madras mica
field of Nellore. The company, which has
its registered offices at Domchanch, via
Kodarma, East Indian Railway, has its
most important mines in the Government
forest of Kodarma and in several private
estates, of which the principal is Gawan.
an estate in itself as large as the whole
Kodarma Forest. The company maintains
some 16 factories to deal with the mica
it produces or buys, the chief of which
are at Domchanch, Lokai, and Tisri.

In normal times some four or five Euro-
peans are engaged and a staff of over 100
babus to control the 8,000 coolies em-
ployed in the mines and factories. As
the mines and factories of the company
are dotted over some 600 square miles
where railway facilities are very small,
the company has to maintain motor-cars
and several horses as means of loco-
motion.

The annual expenditure of the company
in Behar only amounts to about 8 lakhs
of rupees.

Owing to the heavy rains that take
place between June and September, the
company, like others, has found difficulty
in keeping the mines sufficiently dry to
work by the primitive method of hand-
baling formerly in vogue. The company
has now begun to tackle this particular
difficulty by the use of steam-pumping
and hoisting, and hopes within a year or
two to have some 30 mines, each equipped
with the necessary installation of boilers,
pumps, and hoists.

SHELLAC

■ ' I " } I E lac industry is one of the most
■^ ancient of the minor industries of
India. Lac is a resinous incrustation pro-
duced . by insects known as Tachardia
Lacctt, which swarm over the twigs of cer-
tain trees, suck up the sap, and give out an
excretion which solidifies on contact with

the air, and a scale is gradually formed
round their bodies. This process con-
tinues until the twigs are encased by the
incrustation. In this form it is collected
by the villagers and sold in the local
country markets as " sticklac," from
which the product known as " shellac " is
2l8

manufactured. Another substance known
as " lacdye " is also obtained from stick-
lac, and formerly there was a large
demand for it, but since the introduction
of synthetic dyes the demand has dis-
appeared. The chief districts in which
sticklac is found are Behar and Orissa,

1. CRUSHING Stick-Lac.

SHELLAC.
1. Assorting Shellac,

3, Washing Crushed Lac,

319

J^ ^* ^^J^^^- 'ti-4i3j iSv=-

I. Manl'facti-rino Shcllac from Seed Lac.

SHELLAC.

2. Washing Crushed Stick-lac,

3. Drvino Crushed Lac

330

COMMERCE AND INDUSTRIES

the Central Provinces, the United Pro-
vinces, the Punjab, Assam, and Burma.
There are many qualities of sticklac which
vary according to the district and the
kinds of trees on which it is grown.

The manufacture of shellac is largely
in the hands of the natives of India, and
their methods are primitive and practically
the same now as they were hundreds of
years ago. Several factories worked by
machinery have been started, but with few
exceptions none of them have so far been
a success.

The process of the manufacture of
shellac by the country hand-made method
is as follows : The sticklac is broken up
and granulated and the dye is then washed
out. This is done by soaking the grain
in water and rubbing it with the hands and
feet, in stone vessels, and rinsing with
water until free of dye. The washed grain
is then known as " seedlac " and is ready
to be made into "shellac." This operation
requires considerable skill. The grain
after being mi.xed with a small quantity of
arsenic, so as to give the shellac a lighter
and better appearance, is put into long
sausage-shaped bags, one end of which is
held by a man in front of a charcoal fire,
and the other end being slowly twisted by
an assistant. The pressure produced by
twisting and the heat of the fire causes the
lac to melt out through the cloth. The
melted lac is then scraped off the bag by
the man holding the end nearest the fire,
and after sufficient is collected he places
it, while hot, on to a cylindrical glazed
earthenware vessel, over which it is spread
into a thin sheet by another assistant, who
quickly picks up the sheet, warms it at
the fire, and by holding the bottom corners
with his toes, the top corners with his
hands, and the centre with his teeth,
gradually e.xtends himself until the sheet
is sufficiently stretched and the right thick-
ness obtained. The sheet, when cold, is
broken up into flakes.

There are many qualities of shellac,
but the standard article of commerce is
known as " T N," the quality depending
on the kind of sticklac from which it is
made. The principal manufactures in
which shellac is used are varnishes, hats,
electrical appliances, and gramophone
records as well as other goods in a less
degree.

Previous to 1907 the average yearly
production in India of shellac amounted
to 145,000 chests, or 213,616 cwt., but
during the past ten years it has risen to
250,000 chests or 386,335 cwt. The
market has always been a very speculative

one, and subject to violent fluctuations,
the average yearly price having varied
from 60 shillings to 2 i 5 shillings per cwt.

AGABEG BROTHERS

The Chief Inspector of Mines in India
stated in a recent Report that the coal
industry appeared to be in a remarkably
healthy condition, and he certainly had
good grounds for this assertion, seeing
that the output has been increasing
gradually for several years, although
there was a slight set-back in 1909 owing
to the inundation of several mines. The
railway companies are by far the largest
purchasers of coal, although there is a
growing demand for steamships, jute, and
cotton mills, iron and brass foundries,
and other commercial concerns.

The Provinces of Bengal and Behar and
Orissa yield approximately 90 per cent.
of the total quantity raised in the course
of a year, and the Jherria fields, in which
the coal estate of Jogta, near Sijua, be-
longing to Messrs. Agabeg Brothers, is
situated, are the richest in India. Mining
operations commenced in Jherria in 1893,
and it was in the same year that Messrs.
E. C. and A. A. Agabeg began to de-
velop their property, which covers an area
of about 190 acres. There are five seams
of solid coal, measuring fully 100 ft. in
thickness, and it is estimated that fully
25,000,000 tons will eventually be ob-
tained. Six inclines (the longest of which
is 1,700 ft.) and one shaft of a depth of
300 ft. are being worked, and an average
monthly yield of 24,000 tons can be
secured. The beds consist of hard coal of
first-class quality, containing from 10 to
1 2 per cent, of ash, and the product is
brought to the surface by a number of
steam engines, which are capable of
raising a load of about 5 tons in weight.

The firm have a loading-up wharf of
considerable length (which, by the way,
can be used throughout the night, as it
is illuminated by electricity), and as many
as ninety wagons can be accommodated
on the sidings and filled in the course
of a day. A very large amount of
the coal is exported to various places
throughout the world, and, while the rail-
ways in India take an appreciable quan-
tity, it is satisfactory to observe that the
demand for industrial and domestic
purposes is growing steadily. Messrs.
Agabeg Brothers are fortunate in possess-
ing a colliery which is so singularly free
from the dire effects of too much water
221

that the amount registered during wet
seasons does not e.xceed 10,000 gallons
an hour, while in dry weather there is
scarcely any necessity whatever for pump-
ing operations being carried on.

The manufacture of coke is part of the
pioneer work undertaken by the firm, and
up-to-date ovens have been erected, which
are now turning out a considerable quan-
tity, equal in quality to the imported fuel.

The arrangements for the supply of
water for general use arc most complete
in every respect, as a sufficient amount for
all purposes is forced by a pump through
pipes, which are laid from a tank (holding
2,000,000 gallons) to all portions of the
property.

The Province of Behar is decidedly in
the van with regard to the possession of
beautiful residences surrounded by well-
kept grounds, and the estate now under
notice is a notable illustration of this fact.
The bungalows are substantially yet artis-
tically built ; they are fitted with modern
improvements, including electric light ;
and they are charmingly situated among
a wealth of flowering trees, shrubs, and
plants. The East Indian Railway system
has a station on the property, and a
double-line private siding is attached to
the colliery. Among the principal build-
ings are a Government Lecture Hall, post
and telegraph offices, garage, manager's
quarters, and coolie lines, constructed of
brick, and the majority of these are con-
nected by telephone and have electric
lighting installations. Two European
assistants are employed under the
general manager, Mr. W. R. Lascelles,
in the supervision of about 1,400 Indians,
many of the latter being engaged in the
workshops, in which all kinds of repairs
for the mining machinery are undertaken.

The partners are Messrs. E. C. and
A. a; Agabeg (the latter being the
managing director), and they have in-
vested in their mining concern no less
a sum than nine lakhs of rupees. These
gentlemen liave had nearly forty years'
experience in mining matters in India, and
they have rendered most valuable assist-
ance, both by precept and practice, in
placing the coal industry on a sound com-
mercial basis.

MESSRS. ANGELO BROS., LTD.

The manufacture of shellac in India
can be traced back for several genera-
tions, but the methods of preparation
were, until about sixty years ago, of a
very primitive character. Notes upon this

I. Dki'ot with Wagons.

AQABBO BROTHERS.
J, A General Yikw. 3. Xo. 3 Incline,

4. Office .and Power-holse,

^33

Manauer's Bunualow.

AOABEG BROTHERS.

i JOUTA HOfiE— I'KOI'KIKIORS KBSIUENCL:.

223

ANGELO BROS.
I. Maix Gatk axu Office. z. Ukvixo axu Wokkin ; Yaui>.

^-4

JOYRAMPOBE COLLIERY (M. V. APCAB & CO.).
Ma.vaoek's Bungalow. 2. Gkxehal View of Loading Whakk. 3, No. 7 Inxlined Shaft.

4. Colliery Office.

22:

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

industry will be found on another page of
this volume.

Early in the fifties of last century Mr.
M. K. .Angelo, of Calcutta, became greatly
interested in the production of shellac.
He was particularly struck by the fact that
no attempt had been made to prepare it
in any other manner than by, the old
native hand method. He gave serious
attention to the question, and after a num-
ber of experiments had been conducted,
he established a factory at Cossipore, near
Calcutta, in the year 1855.

The earliest output of machine-made
shellac from the factory consisted of

the now widely known Garnet Lac o\c

and for a considerable number of years
that was the only machine-made lac. Mr.
Angelo continued his investigations, how-
ever, and he eventually discovered a pro-
cess by which he was able, to make
orange lac. and the now well-known mark

A B

/t\\ was put on the market.

The output of the factory increased
steadily year by year, and in 1907 the
concern was reconstructed, and a limited
liability company, known as Angelo
Brothers, Ltd., was formed.

That event led to further experiments
being made, and in 191 5 an improved
method of making various kinds of
orange shellac was adopted, and " Angelos
T.N." is now becoming familiar through-
out the shellac world.

A well-equipped laboratory has recently
been added to the factory, and scientific
research has enabled the company to im-
prove their methods continually. They
now manufacture many grades of orange,
garnet, and button shellac, and make a
special study of the kind suitable for the
various trades receiving it, and are always
glad to give advice to buyers.

The registered oflices of the company
are situated at 6 Lyons Range, Calcutta,
and the managing agents are Messrs.
Turner, Morrison & Co., Ltd.

M. Y. AFCAR & CO.

The commercial world in Calcutta lost
an honoured business colleague, and the
Armenian community a cherished adherent
of strong personality and genial nature,
on the death, in the year 1914, of Mr.
Minas Vertannes Apcar, the founder of
the firm of Messrs. M. V. Apcar & Co.,
of 6 Fancy Lane. That gentleman was
born at Julfa, Ispahan, in Persia, in

November 1862, and such were the mis-
fortunes under which he laboured — and
through no fault of his parents or him-
self— that when he arrived in India at the
age of fourteen years, his belongings
consisted only of a small quantity of
personal clothing. Truly this was an un-
enviable predicament for a boy, but Mr.
Aleck Apcar sent him to St. Xavier's and
the Armenian Colleges for only one and a
half years (one year of which was spent at
the latter and six months at the former),
where he soon proved the metal of which
he was formed. When the time arrived
for the youth to make a start in business
life he entered the important firm of
Messrs. Burn & Co., but he shortly after-
wards found employment with Messrs.
Apcar and Demetrius, where he worked
for a short period. Fired with a laudable
ambition, young Apcar took a bold for-
ward movement, and with " Excelsior "
as his motto he commenced business on
his own accoimt, holding jute agencies,
then becoming successively a Zemindar
and a colliery owner.

Mr. Apcar's energy and strict integrity
were strong features in his everyday
transactions, and these characteristic
traits had undoubtedly much to do with
the magnitude and importance which the
business had assumed at the time of his
death. His son, Mr. John Minas Apcar,
was associated in the management of the
concern, and he and his brother, Mr.
Thomas Minas Apcar, are now sole
partners; and they are, further, the
owners of several valuable properties in
Calcutta, which they inherited from their
late father.

They are proprietors of jute presses
at Chaora Hat, Dewan Hat, Baneswar,
Balarampur, Kakina, Haitbanda, Baura,
Gauripur, and Dhubri. They purchase
the raw material in up-country districts,
and after it has been pressed and baled
it is consigned to mills in Calcutta, where
the private mark or brand of the firm is
accepted as a guarantee of quality.

Messrs. M. V. Apcar & Co. are, further,
proprietors of the M. V. A. coal concern
at Joyrampore, in the famous Jherriah
field ; and they are also agents for the
Seang line of steamers, plying between
Chinese and Indian ports.

The telegraphic address of the company
is " Minascar."

BANERJEE & CO.

The sole proprietor of this well-known
firm is Mr. VV. C. Banerjee, who has
226

worked his way, by dint of sheer energy
and honesty of purpose, to the position
of one of the leading commercial men in
Calcutta. He belongs to an honoured
middle-class family, and he has carved
his own way without having had at the
outset any of the special advantages
which have been enjoyed by so many
others at the commencement of their
careers. Mr. Banerjee passed an ex-
amination for a Government clerkship, in
addition to another in accountancy, and
his first step in public life was taken in
the Political Department of the Govern-
ment of Bengal; but, finding promotion
too slow, he entered the service of the
East Indian Railway Company, where he
was employed in a branch of the agent's
office dealing with the transport of coal,
and he was thus brought into close
relationship with colliery owners and
dealers in that commodity. He engaged
in coal brokerage for a time, and after
three years' engagement with Messrs.
Grindlay & Co., bankers, Mr. Banerjee
commenced business on his own account
as a coal broker and merchant, taking
up selling agencies for collieries on
a commission basis. He subsequently
financed a number of concerns, charging
interest on advances, plus a fixed com-
mission on the annual output of each
mine ; but when a boom in coal occurred
in India, in the year 1907, he promoted
a few limited companies, under the
management of European firms, and by
these means obtained capital to enable
him to purchase collieries on his own
account.

The following particulars relate to half
a dozen collieries owned by Messrs.
Banerjee & Co.

The Poniati Coal Concern and the
Poniati Coal Company comprise 250
bighas of land in the important Ranee-
gunge field, in the district of Burdwan.
Poniati coal, mined in the villages of
Furridpur and Domohani, is hard, lumpy,
and smokeless, and burns steadily, leaving
very little ash and absolutely no clinkers.
It is an excellent coal for locomotives,
and is used largely on several railways,
and in jute mills. Government factories,
and in a number of steamships. The
average annual output from the two mines
is 48,000 tons.

The area of the Joogidih Coal Concern
is about 330 bighas, and seams Nos. 10,
II, and 12 of Jherria good second-class
coal are worked. The normal yield is
some 48,000 tons yearly, but owing to
a temporarily unsatisfactory market the

B BANEBJEE & CO.

'^ I. PoxiATi Coal Co\'cerx : So. A Pit. 2. N'o. i I'lr, Engixe-house, Boilers, axd Headgear, South Baraboxi Colliery.

3. N'o, 2 Pit, Exgi.xe-house axd Headcear, New B.araboxi Colliery. 4. Jambad Coal Coxcern, No. 2 Pit. 5. No. 4 Incline. New Kusuxda Colliery.

6. Peei'Rataxd Coal Coxcerx's Ixclixes. " 7. Mk. W. C. Baxekjee.

227

BANEBJEE <M CO.

I. R. B. Sircar & Sons' Kihkexd Colliery. 2. R- B. Sircar & Sons' Kirkend Colliery-2 Pits.

3. R B. Sircar & Sons' Kirkknd Colliery— Loading and Unloading Arrangements.

228

COMMERCE AND INDUSTRIES

output has been restricted recently to
I 2,000 tons.

The Sinidih Colliery is about three
miles distant from Katrasgarh Station, on
the East Indian Railway system, and
comprises 150 bighas of land. The
annual raisings are about 24,000 tons.

The Jambad Colliery has an area of
about 900 bighas in the Raneegunge dis-
trict, and the product is particularly,
suitable for locomotives and steamers,
although it is credited with yielding the
best soft coke in Western Bengal. About
18,000 tons of coal have hitherto been
brought to the surface annually, but when
six prospective pits have been developed
it is expected that this quantity will be
increased to 100,000 tons.

Not more than a mile distant from
Mohuda Station, on the Bengal-Nagpur
Railway, is the Peepratand colliery,
which possesses excellent seams of gas
coal of high illuminating power. It
strongly resembles English coal, and is
a favourite in gasworks, factories, and
mills which require gas-producing fuel.
The present return of 18,000 tons will,
it is confidently expected, be increased
to nearly 50,000 tons in course of time.

These properties are now styled the
South Baraboni Coal Concern and the
New Baraboni Coal Concern. Messrs.
Banerjee & Co. have recently purchased
from the South Baraboni Coal Company
and the New Baraboni Coal Company two
collieries near the Baraboni Station, on
the East Indian Railway. The product of
these mines is unexcelled in quality
(being obtained from the bottom or
Dishergarh seam), and the demand for
railways, mills, and steamships has
become so great that orders cannot at
all times be executed. Rather more than
40,000 tons are brought to the surface
annually.

A sub-lease has, further, been obtained
of Messrs. E. Meyer & Co.'s Neemcha,
colliery, 1,100 bighas in extent, with three
pits of first-class Raneegunge coal, which
is particularly suitable for use in mills
and industrial factories generally. The
annual output is about 48,000 tons.

The following collieries are controlled
by Messrs. Banerjee & Co. as managing
Agents : —

The New Kusunda Coal Company,
Ltd., formed, in October 1908, with an
authorized capital of Rs. 104,000, is the
owner of 150 bighas of coal-bearing land
in Mouzah Kusunda, in the district of
Manbhum, in the Jherria field. An
average annual quantity of 48,000 tons

of coal was obtained up to the year 19 14,
when this mine — in common with others
in the same neighbourhood — suffered con-
siderable damage owing to floods; but
at the time of preparing these notes
it was hoped that the mischief done
would be quickly repaired, and that
the directors would be able to declare
the customary dividend of 10 per cent.
per annum. Local railway authorities
speak highly of this coal, as it burns
brightly without being rapidly consumed,
and many years ago Mr. F. R. Hughes,
F.R.G.S., published a fine testimony in
its favour in the Memoirs of the
Geological Survey of India.

Messrs. R. B. Sircar and Sons' Kirk-
end collieries are situated near Parbad
and Kusunda, on the Bengal-Nagpur and
East Indian Railways respectively, and
they consist of about 200 bighas of
land, from which the very best coal for
locomotive purposes is obtained. Nearly
all the railway systems in India receive
supplies from these mimes, while country
mills, especially in the Presidency of
Bombay and in the Punjab, are very
large purchasers. About 100,000 tons
of coal are produced annually.

The Tentulia colliery, owned by the
Central Tentulia Coal Company, and
situated about three miles from Katras-
garh, on the East Indian Railway, and
the Angrapathra colliery, not more than
a mile from the same station, comprise
scams Nos. 11, 12, 13, and 15 of Jherria
coal, and the major portion of the output
is taken for railway and milling purposes.
Hard coke, prepared out of machine-
screened dust, finds a ready sale among
foundry owners.

First-class anthracite coal, of the well-
known Salanpur seam, is obtained from
the Siriskanali colliery, about a mile dis-
tant from Salanpur Station, on the East
Indian Railway; while the Ramnagar
seam, in the same colliery, produces
shining bituminous coal, which is used
largely for the making of hard coke.
These two workings belong to the
Salanpur Coal Concern.

The Central Kendah Coal Company
has a colliery near Toposi Station, on
the East Indian Railway, and it yields
about 18,000 tons of second-class Ranee-
gunge coal, suitable for household
purposes.

Selling agencies are held by the firm
for the following colliery companies :
Laik's Neamutpur and Hathnol col-
lieries, in which the famous Dishergarh
and Sanctoria seams are worked; the
239

Jeenagarah colliery, comprising Nos. 1 1
and 12 Jherria seams, and producing coal
adapted for railways, cotton mills, and
ginning factories; Khora Ramjis Khas
Jherria collieries, situated at the Jherria
Station of the East Indian Railway; the
Gareria collieries, at Bansjora Station, on
the same railway system, working No. 10
Jherria seam; and the Kujama colliery,
near Jherria Station, whose products are
purchased chiefly by mill and factory
owners.

Messrs. Banerjee & Co. have coal
depots at Shalimar and Howrah, on the
Hooghly River, where they keep a large
stock of coal for bunkering purposes;
they have another at Ultadanga, whence
coal is supplied to oil and flour mills in
Calcutta; and another at Bhadreshwar
Ghat, for the delivery of coal to jute mills
and brick manufacturers.

The firm are, further, largely interested
in iron, hardware, and metal of all kinds,
supplying considerable quantities to
municipalities, railways, the Royal Indian
Marine, ordnance factories, arsenals, tea
gardens, collieries, and jute mills; they
are agents for piece goods for Mr. .Arthur
Davy, of Bradford, and are sub-agents
for the Burma Oil Company, Ltd.

Mr. W. C. Banerjee is a director of
several coal companies in Calcutta. He
founded the Indian Mining Federation,
under the Bengal National Chamber of
Commerce; and in earlier days he led
the way in agitating for the right of
Indians to be given contracts for the
supply of coal to State and company
owned railways in India.

The offices of the firm are at 7 Swallow
Lane, Calcutta, and their telegraphic
address is " Joogidih."

THE BENGAL COAL COMPANY, LTD.

Coal was discovered in Bengal in or
about the year 1 770, but very little mining
was carried on until the East Indian Rail-
way Company extended its system in
1854 to Raneegunge, in the very heart of
the most important coal-producing centres
in India. Prior to the opening of the line
coal had to be conveyed to boats on the
Damuda River, but as this stream was not
navigable for more than four months in
the year it will be understood that there
was little inducement to capitalists to in-
vest money in commercial enterprises
which would be so seriously handicapped
in the disposal of their products.

The Bengal Coal Company, usually re-
ferred to as " the premier coal company

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

of India," was formed in 1843, the present
registered offices being at 8 Ciive Row,
Calcutta.

Rights were obtained by the company
over about 80,000 acres of land, but the
area in which coal deposits arc situated
covers about 50,000 acres in the Ranee-
gunge, Giridih, Jherria, and Palamow
fields. The collieries now being worked
are known as Seetalpore, Sanctoria, Sode-
pore, Banksimulia, Damudarpore, Koilhi,
Bhatdee, Murulidih, Chanch, Dumar-
kunda, Dhobidih, and Ranecgunge.

The coal is unrivalled in India for rail-
way, navigation, factory, mill, household,
and other purposes, but a word or two
should be added about the nature of some
of the seams in pits.

Excellent coal of a gaseous nature is
raised chiefly at Bhatdee, and large quan-
tities have been supplied to the gas
companies of Calcutta, Bombay, and
Colombo, while the Committee of the
Allahabad Exhibition reported that " this
was found to be a coal very suitable for
gas-making in producers as it does not
clinker, and this is a most important
point. It burns with a remarkable free-
dom from smoke, a feature which may be
greatly in its favour."

Another large consumer wrote: " I have
subjected the coal sample to a very drastic
test with regard to its non-caking char-
acter, and have no hesitation in stating
that it is a most suitable fuel for suction
gas plants constructed on the semi-bitu-
minous principle. Another great feature
in its favour is that it showed no disposi-
tion to clinker, and its utility for the
above-named purposes should find it a
ready market." Hard, clean-burning, and
non-clinkering locomotive coal is obtained
from the famous Kurhurbari, .Seebi)orc,
and Chanch scams of the Barrakcr series,
and it is held in high esteem by owners
of factories and steamers having plenty
of draught. The Mohoda coal has a
bright and shiny appearance, and breaks
with a sharp cleavage, while it is regarded
by consumers as one of the best products
of the Jherria field. The company have
received numerous letters from chief
officers of steamers and others who have
had practical experience of the value of
the Deshergur coal for raising and main-
taining a sufficient pressure of steam
during a series of voyages, and there
is in these testimonials a general consensus
of opinion that this is one of the best on
the Calcutta market.

It is only to be expected that, as more
than seventy years have elapsed since the

formation of the company, very great im-
provements should have been effected
upon the whole estate, but the most im-
portant developments have been in con-
nection with the raising and transport of
coal, in providing modern machinery and
plant, together with electric power for
lighting, pumping, and other purposes,
and also in the establishment of an over-
seas trade with Ceylon, Burma, the Straits
Settlements, and other places.

The total output of the mines for the
year 1905 was 596,966 tons, while at the
end of 191 5 the quantity had risen to
more than a million tons per annum, and
employment was being found for about
6,000 persons.

A glance at a recent balance sheet and
statement of accounts shows that the
capital of the company is Rs. 30,00,000; a
sum of more than Rs. 80,000 is received
annually from properties leased to other
companies or individuals and from royal-
tics; large sums are set aside annually for
depreciation; and dividends during the
past decade have ranged from 16 to as
much as 70 per cent, per annum, while the
average for that period has been rather
more than 35 per cent.

The managing agents of the company
are Mcssr.s. Andrew Yule & Co., of 8 Clive
Row, Calcutta.

MESSRS. BIRD & CO.'S COAL DEPART-
MENT.

From the various collieries controlled
by Messrs. Bird & Co. is derived an
annual output of 1,500,000 tons, and em-
ployment is given to about 12,000 hands.
These collieries are electrically equipped
and installed with modern machinery for
the preparation and screening of coal, and
are situated as follows : Loyabad, Mudi-
dih, Teetunmuri, Budroochuck, Katras,
Choytoodih, and Jumoni, in the Jerriah
field; and Saltore, Lutchipore, Hatgoori,
Bhaskajuri, Charanpur, Burelia, Bankola,
Kantapahari, Jamgram, and Joba, in the
Ranecgunge field.

F. W. HEILGERS & CO. (COAL
DEPARTMENT).

The development of industrial concerns
throughout India was exceedingly slow
until about three or four decades ago,
when the extension of railways made it
possible for raw material produced in fer-
tile districts in Provinces and States to
be transferred quickly from inland regions
to manufacturing centres, and the facili-
230

ties thus granted have been the means
of linking together the agriculturists of
the villages on the one hand and of
capitalists in cities on the other.

Coal was known to exist in untold
quantity, but mining was not undertaken
seriously, as the necessity for the use of
this mineral as fuel had never been
realized. The railways of the country
burned timber, which was readily pro-
cured, for the firing of their engines, and
there were scarcely any industries which
required other than manual power. But
an enormous change has taken place
since the importation of Welsh coal for
the bunkering of steamers, as the eyes
of financiers and merchants were at once
turned to the vast wealth of the coal-
fields of India, but more particularly of
the Bengal Presidency and the Province
of Behar and Orissa, which now yield
about 95 per cent, of the total qiuntity
raised to the surface in the whole of the
country.

The railways alone consume fully one-
third of the coal production of India, but
large consigimients are secured for cotton
and jute mills, brick and tile works, iron
and brass foundries, ocean and river
steamers, and for industrial and domestic
requirements.

Messrs. F. W. Heilgers & Co., of the
Chartered Bank Buildings, Calcutta, were
among the first merchants to seize the
opportunities presented by the new state
of affairs, and their enterprising spirit has
placed them in nearly the leading position
in India of those who handle large
quantities of coal. They are managing
agents for the following colliery and
coal companies, namely : the Borrea
Coal Company, Ltd., the Bhulanbararee
Coal Company, Ltd., the Govindpur Coal
Company, Ltd., the Khas Jherriah Col-
liery Company, Ltd., the .Sendra Coal
Company, Ltd., and the Standard Coal
Company, Ltd., with mines of first-class
coal in the famous Jherriah fields in the
district of Manbhum, in the Province of
Behar and Orissa, together with the Ondal
Coal Company, Ltd., whose works are in
the Ranecgunge coal area, in the district
of Burdwan, in the Bengal Presidency.

These companies have a total author-
ized capital of Rs. 40,25,000, and the
majority of them have, during the past
two or three years, been paying very
satisfactory dividends, the Khas Jherriah
Company alone having declared 170,200,
and 180 per cent, per annum for 19 13,
1914, and 191 5.

Nearly 1,000,000 tons of coal are now

I. No. } Pit, Saltokk.

BIRD St OO.'S COAL AOBNCIBS.
2. No. 1 Pit. Saltoks, .i I'owkk-iioiisk iniikk Consthvction.

4. AKKIAI. KOI'KWAV.

331

STANDARD AND BHULANBARABEE COLLIERIES.
I. Generati.vu SiAiiosi Standard Colliery. 2. No. 10 Prr Hkadgear, Standard Colliery, 3. No. 7 Incline at Bhl'lanbararee.

4 Central Pit, Bkulanbararee.

232

COMMERCE AND INDUSTRIES

raised annually from the various mines,
and in normal times a considerable por-
tion of this quantity (which is about one-
fifteenth of the total quantity produced
in India) is exported to the Straits
Settlements, Ceylon, and ports in India.

The machinery at each colliery is quite
up-to-date in every respect, and it is
driven by steam excepting at the Stan-
dard and Bhulanbararee mines, where
largely electric power is used.

From 10,000 to 12,000 hands are
employed on the properties.

KILBURN & CO.

The most valuable deposits of coal in
India are found in the Provinces of
Bengal, and Behar and Orissa, chiefly
in the districts of Chota-Nagpur and
Burdwan, the seams running along the
valleys formed by the Barrakur and
Daniudar rivers. The climate of India,
and in earlier days the quantity of forest
timber available for fuel, are responsible
for the fact that the necessity for develop-
ing a mining industry was not apparent,
but a glance at Government statistics of
exports shows that, as wood became more
and more, scarce, there was a correspond-
ing increase in the output of the older
mines and -a disposition on the part of
investors to open up other coal-bearing
areas. One might illustrate this by giving
the quantity of coal produced in Bengal
at the close of the three decades between
the years 1879 and 1914. In the fonner
year the amount was 891,047 tons ; ten
years later 1,541,356 tons were raised;
in 1899 the production reached 4,035,265
tons ; and in 1914 no fewer than
15,727,631 tons were brought to the
surface.

Tliv Raneegunge Coal Association,
Ltd., for whom Messrs. Kilburn & Co.,
of Fairlie Place, Calcutta, are Managing
Agents, was formed in 1873 by taking
over from Messrs. E. D. Kilburn and
others the lands known as Lot Jamgram
and Bansra, in the district of Burdwan ;
but other properties have been acquired
from time to time with the result that
the Association is now (19 16) in posses-
sion of thirty-four separate villages,
having a total measurement of 39,586
l)ighas. Nearly 37,000 bighas have been
leased for periods ranging from 99 to
999 years, at an annual rent of about
Rs. 44.368.

The principal colliery, Kustore, is
situated in the Jherria field, and covers
area of 2,428 bighas. It is divided

into three parts, known as Kustore North,
Kustore South, and Alkusa District (in-
cluding Gundudihand part of Keska),and
each of these is managed by a European
holding a first-class certificate of com-
petency, while the colliery as a whole is
supervised by a General Manager.

According to the geological survey,
there are fifteen separate seams, at various
depths, in Kustore Mouzah, and four-
teen separate seams in Alkusa Mouzah.
Numbers 10, 11, i2, 13, 14, and 15 seams
have been opened out. The method of
working in the early stages of develop-
ment was by means of inclines along the
outcrops, but eventually the sinking of
shafts was adopted. There are now seven
shafts fully equipped and raising coal,
the deepest shaft being 550 ft. Each
shaft is fitted with steel pit-head frames
connected with coupled and direct-
winding engines, steam being supplied
from Lancashire and Babcock and Wilcox
boilers.

The pumping plant installed at the
colliery is of the three-throw motor type
and turbo sets, the capacity varying from
6,000 to 45,000 gallons per hour for each
pump. The electrical power plant con-
sists of one turbo k.w. set of 750 h.p.
by the British Thomson-Houston Com-
pany, Ltd., and 200 and 400 k.w. sets of
the Bellis and Morcom high-speed com-
pound engines. The switchboard and
motors at the colliery are of the British
Thomson-Houston make.

The colliery is fully equipped with
loading sidings and depots connected
with the East Indian and Bengal-Nagpur
Railway systems. Each siding is fitted
up with mechanical screening and loading
plant, which classifies the coal in four
different sizes — namely, steam, rubble,
smithy, and dust.

The accommodation for the labour con-
sists of masonry dowrahs with jack-
arched roofs, each room being 10 ft. by
10 ft. The workmen have a good supply
of filtered water, supplied through pres-
sure filters by the Jewell Filter Company,
the colliery being served throughout by a
complete system of pipes and water-taps.

The European bungalows are fitted
throughout with electric lights and fans.

The quantity of coal dispatched since
the opening out of the colliery is
3,774,190 tons, to the end of March 19 16,
and it is estimated that approximately
74,494,828 tons are still to be mined.

The ordinary capital consists of
Rs. 9,00,000, in 90,000 shares of Rs. 10
each. Accounts are made up half-yearly.

for periods ending March and September,
and dividends are declared at meetings
of shareholders in June and December.

-ss-

THE INDIAN COLLIERIES SYNDICATE,
LTD.

The Indian Collieries Syndicate, Ltd.,
was registered in London in the year
1902, with an authorized capital of
£100,000, of which £90,000 has been
issued — namely, £15,000 of 7 per cent.
preference and £75,000 of ordinary
shares, together with a debenture issue
amounting to £64,110. Messrs. Kilburn
& Co., of 4 Fairlie Place, Calcutta, are
Managing Agents.

The properties of the company con-
sist of five mouzahs, in the district of
Manbhum and villages, having a total
area of 10,551 bigl^as, or 3,0 14I acres,
equivalent to an area of rather more than
4 J square miles ; and they comprise (i)
Mouzah Jamadoba, consisting of 1,162
bighas, leased from the Raneegunge Coal
Association, Ltd.; (2) Mouzah Jorapuk-
hur, 4,750 bighas, leased from the
Central Jherria Coal Company, Ltd.;
(3) and (4) Mouzahs Doongri and Puttya,
4,536 bighas, leased from the Rajah of
Jherria; (5) Mouzah Kapurgoria, 103
bighas, leased from the Raneegunge Coal
Association, Ltd. The whole estate is
commonly known by the single name of
the Jamadoba Colliery.

The seams now being worked by the
company are in the Jherria coal district —
namely, Nos. 17 and 18, and the esti-
mated contents of these respectively are
5,000,000 and 6,000,000 tons.

From a geological point of view, there
is nothing of a remarkable nature, but
it is noticed that " the greater portion of
the property lies in a basin, the proved
lines of outcrops of seams 17 and 18
forming a semi-circle, dipping to a point
within the property itself, the dip being
approximately I in 10 from the north-
east, increasing to l in 2i in the
opposite directions following the out-
crop." An analysis of a sample of coal
extracted from seam 17 gave the follow-
ing results : Fixed carbon, 64*22 per
cent. ; volatile carbonaceous matter, 26
per cent. ; ash, 8'20 per cent. ; mois-
ture, r58 per cent. ; specific gravity,
•'3 '3° P"r cent. The Jamadoba and a
portion of the Jorapukhur workings were
opened prior to the year 1908, and they
comprise a number of inclines in Nos. 17
and 18 seams, which are mechanically

I. SHAhTS NOS. 6 AND J, ALKL'SA.

KILBURN & CO.S COAL AGENCIES.

2. Shafts Nos. lo and ii, Kustore. 3 Shafts Nos. 4 axu 5 Klstore Soith.

4. Generating Station, Kustore South.

234

KILBURN & CO.'S COAL AGENCIES.
I. Workshops, Poweh Station, and Filter Hoisks, Jamadoba Coi.uekv. 2. No. i Ixcli.ne Baxk, Jamadoba Coi.lieicy.

4. Pits Xos. 2 axd 3, Divisio.x No 2, Jamauoba Colliekv.

3. Electrica Coal-sortixu and Screexixg Plant.

235

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

equipped with endless-rope haulage or
with the usual main haulage system.

According to the geological survey,
there are seventeen separate seams, at
various depths, in Jamadoba, Doongri,
Puttya, and Kapurgoria, and eighteen
separate seams in Jorapukhur mouzah.
Developments have only been made in
Nos. 17 and 18 seams.

In the early stages of development of
the Company's property the seams of coal
were opened out by means of inclines
along the outcrop, but eventually it was
found necessary to sink shafts to improve
the raisings and workings. There are
three shafts fully equipped and fitted with
steel pit-head frames direct-winding
engines, Lancashire boilers, and Weirs
feed-pumps.

The water underground is conveyed to
the surface by means of 3-throw and
turbo pumps, all of which are electric-
ally driven. Steam pumps arc also
utilized at certain centres.

The colliery is provided with sidings
and connected with the Bengal-Nagpur
Railway system, each siding being
equipped with a mechanical screening
and loading plant which classifies the
coal in four different sizes, viz. steam coal,
rubble, smithy, and dust.

The electrical installation consists of
150 and 250 k.w. sets of the Bellis and
Morcom high-speed compound engines,
connected with Babcock and Wilcox
boilers.

The labour is housed in comfortable
dowrahs with arched roofs and verandas.
Each block is made up of twenty rooms,
each room being about 10 ft. square.

An excellent supply of water from the
Damuda River is maintained, and filtered
through two lo-ft. Jewell gravity filters,
and from an elevated reservoir situated
at a high part of the colliery the water
is distributed throughout the colliery
villages.

A certain number of the European bun-
galows are fitted with electric lights and
fans.

The total quantity of coal dispatched
since the opening out of the colliery is
2,75,959 tons, but as the Company is yet
in its infancy, as far as development is
concerned, a greatly increased output
is anticipated. The colliery is at present
equipped with plant capable of raising
35,000 tons monthly.

-ss-

THE BANSRA COAL COHPAHY, LTD.

This concern was registered in 1908,
with Messrs. Kilburn & Co., of 4 Fairlie

Place, Calcutta, as Managing -Xgents.
The Company's properties are situated
in the Raneegunge coal-field, and are con-
nected with the East Indian Railway
system. They consist of 2,834 bighas,
in Mouzahs Bansra, Toposi, Dhusal, and
Bajapti.

The only property at present worked
is Toposi. This concern has been proved
by bore-holes in the centre of the colliery,
four seams of coal being proved, viz.
Toposi, Chowkadanga, Dhusal, and
Nandi.

The upper, or Toposi, seam is being
worked by means of inclines and shafts,
but recently the Chowkadanga seam has
been opened out, at a depth of 290 ft.
There are two shafts for working the
Toposi seam, and two shafts for the
working of the Chowkadanga seam, but
the opening out of the latter is a new
undertaking, and only one shaft has cut
through the scam of coal.

The capital is Rs. 3,00,000, in shares
of Rs. 10 each, of which Rs. 2,69,730 has
been paid up. The accounts of the
Company are made up annually, for the
period ending March 31st, and meetings
of shareholders are held in May or June.

THE LODNA COLLIERY COMPANY, LTD.
(TURNER, MORRISON & CO., LTD.)

Reference is made elsewhere in this
volume to the rise and subsequent develop-
ment of the coal industry in the Bengal
Presidency and in the Province of Behar
and Orissa. It has been shown that in
the year 1880 the total quantity of -coal
produced in the whole of India was less
than a million tons, and although it was
evident that the extent of workable coal-
fields was almost unlimited, practically
little or no real mining work had been
undertaken. That indifference arose prin-
cipally from the fact that there was no
appreciable demand for this mineral, see-
ing that wood was being used as fuel for
household purposes and for railway and
other engines, and further, that industrial
enterprises, in which steam' was required,
were still in their infancy. In addition
to these reasons there was another im-
portant one, namely, that ocean-going
steamers arriving at Bombay or Calcutta
did not require coal as they had invariably
filled their bunkers with the product of
the Welsh mines before leaving England.

A few far-seeing capitalists, however,

realized the immense possibilities of

mining in India, colliery after colliery

being opened, and as analysis proved

236

that the product was, generally, of
first-class quality, the industry grew so
quickly that thirty years later the
quantity raised to the surface in
twelve months was about twelve million
tons. Such was the commencement of an
industry which has affected every branch
of commercial and social life, and the in-
fluence which it has had upon the financial
progress of the country is incalculable.

The Lodna Colliery Company, Ltd.,
formed in 1896, are owners of mines in
Mouza Lodna, Puttiadih,Mankanali Chuck,
and Madhuba, all of which are situated
in the famous Jherria coal-fields in the
district of Manbhum, in the Province of
Behar and Orissa, and they subsequently
acquired the Chasnalla property, about
five miles distant from Lodna.

In 19 I 3 an extensive coal-bearing tract
of land was purchased at Sripur in the
well-known Raneegunge area, pits being
sunk to a depth of 1,000 feet, and about a
year later they obtained from the Jherria
Coal Company the property known as
Bhaga, which adjoins the Lodna colliery.

During the year 1916 the company
completed the erection of a by-product
recovery plant of the the latest approved
type, and in addition to the manufacture
of about 3,000 tons of coke monthly, cor-
responding quantities of coal tar and
sulphate of ammonia are produced.

Messrs. Turner, Morrison & Co., Ltd.,
of 6 Lyons Range, Calcutta, are manag-
ing agents of the company.

MCLEOD & CO. (COLLIERIES)

The first coal property taken over by
Messrs. McLeod & Co., of 3 1 Dalhousi«
Square, Calcutta, was the Singaran River
colliery, in 1895, which is situated in the
Raneegunge district, the first coal-bca-ing
area in Bengal to be exploited. The
acquisition of this colliery was followed
in 1 90 1 by the purchase of the Gopali-
chuck and Marine collieries, in the
Jherriah district, and in 1907 the Bans-
jora colliery was taken over. The Sodech
colliery was also acquired and floated as
a joint-stock company in 1907, and tliis
property includes the Sudi scam, better
known as " Desherghur," one of the finest
quality seams of coal in India. All these
collieries are the property of joint-stork
companies, having a total capital of
Rs. 29,00,000, including debentures, and
their total output of coal is about
3,00,000 tons annually.

The Jherriah collieries work first-class
quality coal, viz. seams numbered 13, 14,

TURNER, MORRISON & CO, LTD.

I ANT) 2. BY-PRODtCT RECOVERY Pl.AXT, LODSA COLLIERY COMPANY, LTD., JHARIA. 3. PiT-HEADS, SRIPORE COLHERY, ASSOXSOL.

237

MCLEOD & CO.'S COLLIERY AGENCIES.
I AND 2. Views ok the Goi'alichuck Coal Co-mpaxvs Collieries.

238

MCLEOD & CO.'S COLLIEEY AGENCIES.

I. SUPERINTEXDE.MS BUXUALOW, PANSJOKA. 2. THE HtAD COLLIEKY (GOPALICHUCK COAL COMPANY).

239

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

and 1 5, which vary in thickness from 1 2 to
20 feet. Where the seams outcrop on
a property, the coal was won by means
of inclines, but as the workings gradually
extended pits had to be sunk, and some
of the shafts vary from 250 to 400 feet
in depth.

The collieries have a ready demand for
their coal, particularly Gopalichuck and
Marine, which for years past have sup-
plied large quantities to the various
Indian railways, and to jute, cotton, and
other mills. The export of Bengal coal
from Calcutta averages about 3,000,000
tons annually, and during recent years
Messrs. McLeod & Co. have sent regular
supplies of this mineral to Rangoon,
Colombo, Bombay, Singapore, and
Karachi.

The employees at the various collieries
comprise 13 Europeans and about 2,000
Indians.

-^
HACNEILL & CO.'S COLLIERY AGENCIES

The coal deposits in India are of such
vast proportions, and labour is so cheap
compared with other countries, that the
question has frequently arisen as to
the causes which have operated against
the development of the mining industry,
which would eventually bring almost
untold wealth to the promoters, and
would give employment to hundreds of
thousands of hands at remunerative
wages.

Wood is generally used for fuel for
domestic purposes in this part of the
world, but as the supply of timber is
becoming exceedingly scarce, its price has
risen to a very considerable extant during
the past few years, and it is evident that
coal mining must, even if that were the
only reason, be taken up much more
seriously in the future.

Owing to the high price and scarcity
of wood in many districts, coal in the
form of " soft coke " is finding favour
with the Indians for domestic use. This
soft coke is made from inferior grades
of Bengal coal, usually obtained from
quarries or shallow mines. It is manu-
factured by piling coal in fairly large
heaps, containing about twenty tons, and
setting fire to it. When nearly all the
free volatile matter is driven off the heap
is quenched, leaving what is termed soft
coke.

The railway companies are by far the
largest purchasers of Indian coal at the
present time, the annual consumption
being about 4,000,000 tons out of a total
production of 12,000,000 tons. Ocean

steamers are next on the list ; cotton
mills are but a few points lower; then
jute mills, iron and brass foundries,
inland steamers, and various agricultural
and industrial concerns follow in the
order named.

The total exports of coal from this
country in 1900 was 490,000 tons, and
after alternating increases and decreases
for the next ten years, the quantity
shipped from these shores was about
988,000 tons in 19 10, the principal
destinations being Ceylon, the Straits
Settlements, and Sumatra.

Several reasons might be given for the
comparatively slow progress which has
been made, but it is probable that the
chief cause was the general depression
in trade and agriculture throughout the
world, which resulted in impoverished
railway and shipping returns, adverse in-
fluences which tended to limit the open-
ing-up of new lines and to bring about the
crippling of certain industries.

Notwithstanding the difficulties of the
past, however, investors will not fail to
notice that the output was doubled during
the decade from 1900 to 19 10, and that
since that date there has been further
steady progress.

Messrs. Macneill & Co., of 2 Clive
Ghat Street, Calcutta, are interested in
a variety of industries, and one of the
most important of these is the managing
agency which they hold for five collieries
in the Raneegunge and Jherria fields—
namely, the Equitable Coal Cornpany,
Ltd.; the Aldih Coal Company, Ltd.;
the Hurriladih Coal Company, Ltd. ; the
Nodiha Coal Company, Ltd.; and the
Mundulpoor Coal Company, Ltd.

The equitable Company was registered
in the year 1863, and there are five col-
lieries in full working order, particulars
of which are as follows : In the Ranee-
gunge field there is the Dishergarh Col-
liery, 2,000 biggahs ' in extent; Jamuria,
with an area of 5,588 biggahs; Bejdih,
1,983 biggahs; Chowrassie, 3,533 big-
gahs; and Hurriladih, in the Jherria
field, consisting of 950 biggahs. ,

Taking these collieries in the order
named, it may be observed that mining
is carried on at Dishergarh from four
pits and one incline, and the seams of
coal of first-class quality — 14 to 20 feet
in thickness, at an angle of 10 degrees —
are yielding about 225,000 tons annually,
although the raising of steam and stock
coal during twelve months from July

' A biggah is equivalent to 1,600 square yards,
i.e. 34'„ biggahs to an acre.

240

1914 was 240,200 tons. The pits vary
in depth from 202 feet to 487 feet, but
two others are now being sunk which will
descend to about 1,100 feet. No royalty
is levied upon this property, but the
company pays an annual rent of
Rs. 11,472; and there are 2,375 male
and female adults in daily employment
above and below ground, together with
30 children under 1 2 years of age who
are on the surface.

The Jamuria colliery is represented by
eight pits (from four of which coal is
raised), varying in depth from 157 feet
to 463 feet; they have a 14-feet bed
lying at a grade of 3 degrees; the yearly
output is 145,000 tons; and the rental
is fixed at Rs. 860, without royalty. The
adult employees are 774 in number.

The 14-feet seam of best Dishergarh
seam coal at Bejdih runs through two
pits, which range in depth from 873 feet
to 1,097 feet. The workings are yet in
the development stage, but when com-
pleted they are estimated to produce
140,000 tons per annum and find employ-
ment for 1,000 head of labour.

There are six inclines at Chowrassie,
containing 9-feet seams of good second-
class coal, lying at an angle of 16 degrees,
upon which there is a rental of Rs. 1,948,
together with a royalty of 4 annas per ton
on steam coal, rubble, and coke, and
I anna 6 pies per ton on dust. This
mine has been closed since October 1913,
when a fire occurred; but about half of
the mine has since been recovered, and
will be capable of producing i 50,000 tons
per annum. The Hurriladih mine has two
pits and three inclines, with two scams
of coal at an inclination of 6 degrees.
One of these, No. 16, contains 8 feet of
second-class coal, but it has not been
worked to its fullest extent in consequence
of arrangements now in progress for
sinking the pits to No. 14 seam, 26 feet
in thickness, which consists of a first-class
bed at a depth of 475 feet. A royalty
is payable here of 5 annas per ton on
steam coal and rubble and 10 annas on
coke, together with 3 annas on dust.

It is estimated that there are yet some
hundreds of millions of tons of first-
quality coal which can be raised from
these five collieries, and with even a
greater output than exists at present, the
life of these pits must inevitably be a
long one.

The capital of the company consists of
Rs. 400,000, in 6 per cent, cumulative
preference shares divided into 4,000
shares at Rs. 100. together with

COMMERCE AND INDUSTRIES

Rs. 20,00,000 in ordinary shares, divided
into 200,000 shares each of Rs. 10. The
dividends paid on ordinary capital during
the past ten years give an average annual
amount of 24 per cent.

Another of the managing agencies held
by Messrs. Macneill & Co. is that of the
Nodiha Coal Company, which was regis-
tered in 1907, with an ordinary capital
of Rs. 400,000, divided into 40,000
shares of Rs. 10. It is estimated that
the beds of coal will eventually yield
some 6,000,000 tons, although the present
yearly output is only some 50,000 tons.
The property, which is called Nodiha, is
situated in the Raneegunge field, and
comprises 1,427 biggahs.

.\ 7-foot seam of second-class Disher-
garh coal, lying at an angle of 22 degrees,
is worked from three inclines by 43 i men
and women, but no children are employed
upon any part of the works. The royalties
are 7 annas on steam and rubble coal,
4 annas on duSt, and 10 annas on coke.
Several causes have militated against a
really satisfactory development of the
mine up to the present time, and divi-
dends paid average only ik per cent, per
annum since the company's inception.

The Aldih Coal Company, registered
in 1901, with an ordinary capital of.
Rs. 800,000, divided into 8,000 shares of
Rs. 100, and debentures amounting to
Rs. 3,27,000, are owners of the Aldih and
Bhutguria collieries, consisting of 1,530
and 1,000 biggahs respectively, which
are situated in the Raneegunge and
Jherria fields. The coal at Aldih is of
first-class quality, known as " Disher-
garh," and it is worked from two pits
— 570 feet in depth — from a seam which
is 14 feet in thickness. A royalty of
7 annas a ton is paid on all steam coal,
coke, and rubble, and the total annual
gross yield of 100,000 tons is obtained
by 710 hands. There are no fewer than
790 male and female workpeople em-
ployed in the Bhutguria colliery, which
produces about 100,000 tons of best coal
yearly. No. 17 seam, measuring 7 feet
6 inches, is found in two pits, which are
226 feet in depth, and the annual rent is
Rs. 7,702. An amount equivalent to an
average of l i per cent, per annum on
ordinary capital has been paid in
dividends since the year 1904.

The Hurriladih Coal Company was
formed in 1901 with the object of
acquiring coal-bearing properties in the
Raneegunge and Jherria fields, and even-
tually they obtained the Ackalpore and
Kenwadi collieries, comprising 2,430 and

1,322 biggahs respectively. The seams
in the two mines vary in thickness from
4 feet 8 inches to 14 feet, and best first-
class coal is obtained from six pits, which
run from 209 feet to 240 feet in depth.
These pits have an annual output of about
190,000 tons, and some 1,053 male and
female hands are required constantly.

The ordinary capital of the company
is Rs. 800,000, divided into 8,000 shares
of Rs. 100, while the debentures amount
to Rs. 375,000. Interest on ordinary
capital has averaged 3! per cent, per
annum during the past ten years.

There is no debit for royalty at Ackal-
pore, but the yearly rent is Rs. 18,750;
while at Kenwadih the rent is Rs. 2,615,
in respect of a plot of 300 bigahs, plus
a royalty of 4 annas a ton on all steam
coal, coke, and rubble in respect of
raisings from the 1,022 biggahs plot.

The authorized capital in the Mundul-
poor Company is Rs. 850,000, represent-
ing 3,700 fully paid shares of Rs. 100,
together with 8,000 shares of Rs. 100,
of which Rs. 60 have been called up.
There are four pits on this property,
which are from 113 feet to 240 feet in
depth, and a 6-foot bed of coal of first-
class quality is already returning some
50,000 tons a year, although the mine has
only been partially developed. The
property comprises 2,430 biggahs, and
some difficulty has been experienced
owing to an unusually large quantity of
water having been met with in the work-
ings. About 320 hands are employed
at present, but this number is being
increased in proportion to the progress
made in the further opening of the mine.
Royalties are levied as follows : 6 annas
on steam coal, 8 annas on coke, 3 annas
on rubble, and i| anna on dust.

TATA, SONS & CO. (MICA MINES)

There is abun^lant evidence that the
mica-mining industry in India is now
being conducted under more scientific
conditions than has ever been the case
in the past. This is especially notice-
able with regard to the use of both hand
and power machinery and the systematic
work of development being carried on
by Messrs. Tata, Sons & Co.

This firm are owners of an estate of
2,500 acres at Kodarma, in the Province
of Beliar and Orissa, which province pro-
duces about 70 per cent, of the whole
of the mica output from India.

The property comprises some twenty
mines of importance as well as innumer-
able prospect workings. A description
241

of one of the mines will suffice for these
notes, as all now working are being de-
veloped on similar lines, subject, of
course, to such modifications as the par-
ticular conditions of each may require.

The Thorna Mine is included in an
area of about 160 acres, and comprises
one main outcrop, having a strike of some
2,500 ft. by varying thicknesses up to
50 ft. There is also a second and parallel
strike, rather less well defined. The main
strike is being worked by a system of
shafts, cross-cuts, and levels, blocking out
large stoppages for future work. There
are four shafts, the deepest being about
200 ft., and one main itKline of 250 ft.
The total amount of underground sinking
and driving already aggregates 1,000 ft.,
and it is anticipated that this number
will be very greatly increased in the near
future.

As the steam power on this mine is
28 h.p., the principal prime movers being
a large hauling engine, two small winches,
and three pumping sets, there is, of
course, no longer any question of per-
mitting the productive mines to be flooded
during the rainy season. Dynamite is
used exclusively for blasting in the mine.

The rough mica crystals won are
brought to the surface every morning and
evening, and there split into sheets of
about one-eighth of an inch in thickness
and made up into bundles of 30 to 40 lb.
in weight. These bundles are carried,
under the charge of an armed guait>d,
into the central godown at Kodarma,
where the rough mica is further split into
a convenient thinness for trimming, and
this process is carried out by mica-
cutters using sickles. The slab mica thus
prepared is sorted and graded according
to the standard sizes and qualities recog-
nized by the industry, the smaller grades
being sent on to the splitting factories.

The splitting of the small sizes into
untorn films of uniform and excessive
thinness is a process which demands the
closest and most careful supervision, and
Messrs. Tata, Sons & Co.'s " Pan " films
are, perhaps, the finest of all manufac-
tured ones.

Some 1,200 hands, engaged on piece-
work and daily pay, are employed con-
stantly on the mines, godowns, and
splitting factories.

The staff consists of six Babus, five
mistris and classis, and several Nepalese
guards, while the general manager is Mr.
J. F. Podger, Assoc.Inst.M.M., who is
ably assisted by his brother, Mr. R. O.
Podger.

I. ROCGH Mica frou Thorna Uixe.

TATA, SONS & CO.
2. CuTTixG Rough Mica 3. Makixg Pax Si'Lhtixgs.

4. LoAuiXG Carts i-or Shipment.

242

TATA, SONS & CO.
i. headm-arters, buxgalow, and godow.vs. 2. no. i shaft, thorna .mlxe.

4. Hauling-gear, Main Ixci.ine, Thorxa Mixh,

3. \'o. 2 Shaft, T.io:!n'a Mink.

243

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

THE TATA IRON AND STEEL COMPANY,
LTD.

Startling proposals have always been
received with great reticence — such is the
natural conservatism of the human race -
and there has been no revolution in
modern days in India which has had a
greater eflfect upon the commercial world
than that which has taken place since iron
and steel became such important factors
in the civilization of every-day life. The
number of industries in this country in
which these two substances are required
in some shape or form is increasing at a
very rapid rate, and one has only to notice
the huge foundries, working at full speed,
to understand that capitalists are taking
their full share in the activities which are
everywhere apparent.

An industry destined to become world-
wide in importance is that recently started
by the Tata Iron and Steel Company,
Ltd., at Sakchi, near Kalimati station,
on the Bengal-Nagpur railway system,
about a hundred and fifty miles distant
from Calcutta. The land selected for

the site of the works is about twenty-
three and a half square miles in extent, and
in addition to the enormous shops and
sheds which have been erected, the com-
pany have provided bungalows for
officials, cottages for workmen, coolie
lines, business offices, club and reading-
rooms, schools, and a hospital with wards
and dispensary.

There were five determining factors
which the originators of the company set
themselves to solve, namely: ( i) supply of
ore; (2) supply of coal; (3) supply of
labour; (4) markets; and (5) means of
transportation.

A number of very valuable and large
deposits of iron ore have been found in
the Mourbhanj State of Orissa, and as it
was highly desirable that the company
should not be dependent upon a fluctuat-
ing market for its fuel, about 4,600 acres
of coal-producing land were obtained in
the heart of the famous Jherria field. A
further area of about 800 acres in the
Raneegunge field has been acquired more
recently. Limestone and dolomite quar-

ries, and manganese mines have also been
secured, and it is not too much to say that
nearly all necessary raw materials are
now derived from the properties of the
company.

The immense buildings include foun-
dries; machine and other shops; all of
which are equipped with an enormous
plant comprising {inter alia) coke ovens;
blast furnaces; steel plant; heating pits;
rail, blooming, and bar mills; electrical
machinery; hydraulic, condensing, and
filtering services; power house; the
mechanical department, and many others.

The capital of the company is
Rs. 2,3 1, ~5, 000, and the directors are
the following well-known public men:
Sir D. J. Tata, Kt., special director; Sir
Sassoon David, Bart., chairman; .Sir
Cowasjce Jehangir, Bart., Sir Vithaldas
Damodar Thackersey, Kt., Mr. Gor-
handas Khattau, the Hon. Sir Fazulbhoy
Currimbhoy, Kt., Mr. Narotium Morajee
Goculdas, Mr. M. A. Tata, Mr. C. V.
Mehta. Sir Shapurji B, Broacha, Kt., Mr.
Ratan Tata, and Mr. .\. J. Bilimoria.

•?fv^^^^'"^

i i ■ ^ .

j }

1 *

V^^J JJL^^^flH^flKjy

r 7i^^^

-^■jI^^J:' .':.

r.^.^ \s„ ,s ■'^:^"-;

':i\^'\.. ■

VIEW TAKEN ON THE ESPLANADE, CALCUTTA.

Illustration from " Oriental Scenery," by Thomas Daniell (1793).

244

KINCHENJUNGA RANGE.

riwto by M. Sain. Ilarjff/ifl^.

HEN that portion of
the Province of Ben-
gal now known as
the district of Dar-
jeeling was addeJ,in
the early years of the
nineteenth century,
to the area then
under British supremacy, an epoch was
reached which virtually completed the
history of the establishment of the British
Empire in India, which may be said to
have commenced with the defeat by
Clive of Suraj-ud-Dowlah, the Navvab of
Bengal, at the battle of Plassey in the
year 1757. Darjeeling, as it then was,
had the native State of Sikkim on its
northern boundary, and the warlike
Gurkhas had filched from the Raja of that
State the Morang tarai, or level land of
the district of Darjeeling as it is now
constituted. A number of wars followed
in 1814-16, and on the conclusion of hos-
tilities a treaty was signed in which there
was a clause to the effect that the strip
of territory so appropriated should be
given up to the British, who forthwith
returned it to its former owner. In 1835,
during the Governor-Generalship of Lord

DARJEELING

William Bentinck, the altitude and the
bracing air of Darjeeling was recognized,
and it is recorded that in the same year
" the sanatorium of Darjeeling, with some
of the surrounding hills — a territory com-
prising about 140 square miles — was pur-
chased from the Raja of British Sikkim
in consideration of an allowance of
Rs. 3,000, which was afterwards increased
to Rs. 12,000 per annum."

Possessing a remarkably pure atmo-
sphere, and a climate calculated by its
normally cool temperature to. put new
vigour into persons of indifferent health,
it is not surprising that Darjeeling be-
came a recuperating station for European
troops, and, shortly afterwards, a summer
residence of the Government of Bengal
and its principal officials.

In 1849 Sir Joseph Hooker and Dr.
Campbell (Superintendent of the Dar-
jeeling district), with the approval of the
British Government and the permission
of the Raja, paid a visit to the State of
Sikkim on a purely private and peaceful
mission, but they were treacherously
seized and imprisoned with the full know-
ledge, if not actually at the instigation of,
the Raja himself.

243

As such an insult could not be allowed
to be overlooked, a military expedition
was sent to rescue the prisoners and to
teach the Raja a much-needed lesson, and
the result was that the chief's yearly
allowance was discontinued, that the
Sikkim tarai at the foot of the hills was
annexed, and that British territory was
also extended to mountainous regions in
other directions. This newly acquired
land comprised about 640 square miles,
and in 1866 about 480 square miles of
hilly country, which had been obtained
from Bhutan in the previous year, were
also added ; and thus the district of Dar-
jeeling, as it is known to-day, was finally
constituted.

It forms the northern portion of the
division of Rajshahi in Bengal; it is
bounded on the east by Bhutan, the inde-
pendent Hindu State of Nepal lies on the
western side, and the State of Sikkim is
on the north.

The district, which has an area of about
1,230 square miles, has two distinct
natural divisions — namely, the deep
valleys and ridges of the Lower Hima-
layas and the level country at their base.
The ridges rise abruptly from the plains

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

to heights varying from 6,000 feet to
10,000 feet above sea-level, and the
majority of them are clothed \yith dense
forests even to their summits.

The scenery in this neighbourhood is so
magnificent that it must be seen to be
appreciated, as a mere description must
fail to give an adequate idea of its extreme
beauty. A writer in the " Encyclopaedia
of India" (igo8) says: "A spectator
in Darjeeling town stands on the stage
of a vast amphitheatre of mountains, which
in the springtime form a continuous snowy
barrier e.\tending over 150 degrees of the
horizon, from Gipmochi on his right hand
to Sandakhphu on the left. The sides
of the amphitheatre are formed by the
Singalila chain, 20 miles to the west, and
by the loftier Chola range, 40 miles to
the east. In front of him, at a distance
of 45 miles, the great twin peaks of
Kinchin] unga, in the Himalaya range
(28,146 feet), tower above the titanic
group of snow-clad mountains which fill
the northern horizon. The rising sun
sheds a golden radiance on the eastern
slopes, which turn to dazzling whiteness
as the day wears on. At evening the
western flanks catch all the rosy glow of
sunset, and as the sun sinks behind the
hills the crimson hue fades away, only
to reappear in a delicate afterglow. At
last even this disappears, but if the moon
be near the full its light streams down
tipon the snows, outlining their contours
with an awesome purity."

In the far distance one sees the back-
bone of the lofty Himalayas, while the
Singalila range marks the boundary-line
between the States of Nepal and Sikkini,
and also between the district of Dar-
jeeling and Nepal. The highest peaks
of the Singalila range are : Senchal,
8,163 feet; langlu, 10,074 feet; Phalut,
11,811 feet; Sabargam, 11,636 feet; and
Sandakphu, 11,930 feet.

The Himalayan range, however, may be
said to comprise three distinct portions —
namely, the vast range of snow-clad
peaks the principal of which are Kinchin-
junga and Mount Everest- (28,994 feet);
secondly, the lower Himalayas ; and
thirdly, the sub-Himalayan zone, which
consists of ridges separated from the last-
named region by fertile valleys.

The Darjeeling district belongs to the
area of the lower Himalayas, and it is
rendered conspicuous by the number of
ranges which extend from north to south,
the town of Darjeeling itself being
situated at an altitude of 7,346 feet above
the level of the sea.
246

Reserved forests include those portions
of the mountains which are more than
0,000 feet in height, and of valleys below
3,000 feet ; while the intervening area
lying to the east of the Tcesta River is
set apart chiefly for cultivation by natives,
and the greater portion on the western
side of the river is devoted to the produc-
tion of tea.

Mountain slopes, wliich are yet untilled,
arc covered with tropical forest treeS;

DARJEELING

3,000 feet and 11,000 feet; leopards are
still fairly common at all altitudes; and
goats and antelopes, although somewhat
rare, are seen in rocky fastnesses above
10,000 feet.

Government authorities divide the dis-
trict of Darjeeling, for agricultural
purposes, into three separate units —
namely, (i) the mountains to the west
of the Teesta River, (2) the Kalimpong
area, and (3) the tarai. The staple in-

owing to its particularly fine flavour. The
yield in this mountainous country may
not be as great as in the plains, but the
superior quality and better values more
than counterbalance any deficiency in
quantity. It may be mentioned that the
majority of the gardens in this district
are financed by British capital and are
owned or managed by Englishmen.

Planters have recognized the necessity
for the use of prime selected seed, and

1. MOUNT EVEREST i (29,000 FT.) FROM SANDAKPHOO.

I'hcio hy Uimalitymt Art Slmlio.

2. VIEW FROM TIGER HILL, DARJEELING.

Photo bv M. S.M/1.

3. A VIEW FROM SANDAKPHOO.

I'ltolJ by //iHi.i/.mni Art Stiuiio.

while the undergrowth on the ridges, up
to an elevation of some 2,000 feet, is
very dense and luxuriant with choice
ferns, the most delicately formed orchids,
and mosses of every variety.

The lover of nature in its multitudinous
aspects, however, will take pleasure in
observing many types of beasts and birds,
whose peaceful abode — until ruthlessly
disturbed by wood-cutter or hunter — is in
the jungly lairs or thickly leafed branches
of this primeval forest. Elephants, tigers,
wild hog, and several species of deer may
be found on comparatively low land;
bears are met with anywhere between

dustry is the growing and manufacture of
tea, in which the proprietors of about 80
estates or gardens are concerned. The
introduction of this plant into Darjeeling
was due to the Government of Bengal,
who were induced to obtain samples of
seed from China for distribution among
suitable persons in the district who were
willing to experiment with them. The
results of these trials were highly satis-
factory, and in the year 1856 the first
tea gardens were established at Alubari,
Pandam, and Steinthal. The industry has
progressed at a very rapid rate, and Dar-
jeeling tea now commands high prices

347

their eff'orts to obtain that standard have
been warmly supported by the Govern-
ment of Bengal, who have on various
occasions imported fresh supplies for
distribution.

Rice, maize (chiefly of American kinds),
wheat, and other cereals are grown on
suitable land, and fruits of choice varieties
are to be seen in a large number of well-
managed orchards.

Reserved forests, to the extent of about
400 square miles, are controlled by the
Forest Department of the Government,
and are under the supervision of a Deputy
Commissioner. This district is noted for

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

the great variety of its trees, but the prin-
cipal kinds are chestnut, silver fir, maple,
magnolia, oak, birch, alder, and laurel.

General commercial trading is carried
on to a large extent with many places,
but the major portion of the transactions
are with Calcutta merchants, the principal
exports comprising tea, jute, and gunny-
bags, while imports include Manchester
piece goods, kerosene oil, and salt.

There is a plentiful supply of good

Station, Calcutta, to Siliguri, its northern
terminus. On arrival of the train at the
latter station all comfort is at an end, as
the northern passengers then travel by
the 2-ft. gauge line of the Darjeeling-
Himalayan Railway Company. The
ruling gradient of the greater part of this
line is about l in 25, from Sukhna to-
Ghum (the highest point on this section),
and thence to Darjeeling there is a length
of about three-quarters of a mile on

the journey, but in places where the ascent
is at the sharpest gradient, engineering
difficulties have been overcome by causing
the permanent way to curve round
mountain-sides in a most curious fashion.
The keenest enjoyment is experienced
as the higher regions are approached,
and the stifling atmosphere of the plains,
where the thermometer shows a tempera-
ture ranging from 85° to 95° Fahr., is
succeeded by an exhilarating air which

1. VICTORIA PALL AND BRIDGE. 2. SUNDAY MARKET, DARJEELING.

Plwla hy M. Sitill. Pholo In- Vnuilcrta-.cni.

3. THE RAILWAY STATION, DARJEELING.

PJu\'^ by .U.

labourers, and it is satisfactory to learn
that these men are apt pupils in becoming
acquainted with the intricate parts of the
modern machinery and plant in tea and
other factories.

Particular reference must now be made,
however, to the town and neighbourhood
of Darjeeling, as it is from that vantage-
ground that one can behold the glories
of the Himalayas, the richly clad slopes
of the lower ranges, and the fertility of
the cultivated land below.

On another page of this volume a
description is given of the luxurious mail
train which is run daily by the Eastern
Bengal Railway Company from Sealdah

grades of i in 22j to i in 23. Construc-
tion was commenced by Mr. Franklin
Prestage in the year 1880, and the whole
work to Darjeeling bazar was completed
five years later.

Prior to the opening of this line, Dar-
jeeling was practically inaccessible to
tourists from Calcutta unless they had
time and money to spare for a tedious
journey, first by rail on the East Indian
section to Sahebgunge, and thence by
steam ferry and bullock cart, and the trip,
which then occupied five or six days, can
now be made in about twenty hours.

After the first half-dozen miles there
is a steep gradient for the remainder of
248

is at least 20° or 30° lower. It may be
observed here that the mean temperature
in Darjeeling during the cold and warm
nvonths is 41° and 60° respectively.

Views of striking beauty are continually
being presented as the ascent is made, the
huge mountain peaks in the distance
vividly contrasting with the plains down
below, which stretch away to the far-off
horizon.

The name Darjeeling signifies " the
place of the dorje," or the mystic
thunderbolt of the Lamaist religion. The
town, with the cantonments of Darjeeling
and Leebong (which was constituted a
municipality in the year 1850), had

a population of nearly i 7,000 inhabitants
at the census of 191 1. It is situated upon
a long ridge, upon which the major por-

' DARJEELING

abouts of intervening space are apparently
reduced to a minimum owing to the
remarkal)ly clear atmosphere.

SUNRISE, DARJEELING, FROM TIGER HILL.

I'hchi ^v .1/. .Srtd,.

tion of the residences of Europeans arc
constructed on terraces one above another,
and the highest and lowest points within
the municipal area are respectively 6,000
to 7,800 feet above sea-level.

Darjecling is not a trading centre in
the ordinary sense of the term, as its com-
mercial activities are practically restricted
to supplying the requirements of the tea-
planters, and of the crowds of European
inhabitants and visitors of the summer
season.

The month of .^pril in each year is
marked by the exodus of H.E. the
Governor of Bengal, of Government
ofHcials, and lof a great many of Calcutta's
influential citizens who are in the fortu-
nate position of being able to turn their
backs upon the torrid heat of streets in
that busy port, and literally to revel in the
enjoyment of a deliciously cool atmo-
sphere and of some of the sublimest pano-
ramic views in the world. It is not, of
course, possible at all times of the year for
the snowy summits of the giant Himalayas
to be seen, as they are frequently entirely
or partly obscured by mists ; but the
months in which visitors are most likely
to have their desires gratified are Novem-
ber, December, and January. It is then
that the mountains stand out clearly on
the skyline, and the fifty miles or therc-

'Numerous writers have made attempts
to give descriptions of the glorious beauty

The Himalayas present a variety of
scenery according to the locality from
which it is viewed. One may take an
easy walk to Observatory Hill, from
which a remarkably fine picture of the
everlasting snows is obtained on a favour-
able day; but the scene presented to
the sightseer on this hill by the rays of
the rising or setting sun touching the
glistening peaks with colourings both deli-
cate and rare is so gorgeous that the most
artistic efTects of the painter's brush
would sink into insignificance in com-
parison with the original.

Senchal, seven miles in a south-easterly
direction from Darjeeling, is another
favourite resort for tourists ; but Tiger
Hill (about 8,500 feet in height), if visited
just before daybreak on a clear morning,
probably affords the finest picture in a
kaleidoscope of ever-changing beauties.

A word or two may be added here
about Observatory Hill, which has been
a sacred place for ages because of the
presence of Mahapal Baba, who is wor-
shipped by Buddhists and Hindus as a
divine manifestation, and because its sum-
mit was once the site of one of their
monasteries, which was destroyed by
Gurkhas many centuries ago.

Visitors to this spot can scarcely be
expected to obtain full enjoyment of the

VIEW FROM BIRCH

I'hoi'i by

of this enchanting scene, but all have
failed to give an adequate representation
of it.

249

HILL, DARJEELING.

M. Stini.

glorious surrounding scenery, as pious
pilgrims engage in chanting, the ringing
of bells, and in worshipping at a shrine

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

enclosed by vertical poles, to which are
attached flags that are believed to waft
away to the gods the many prayers of the
devout.

Several hundred feet below the summit
of this hill is a monastery which contains
a large number of idols, a library of
sacred books, and mural paintings which
certainly do not represent subjects
calculated to uplift the thoughts of
worshippers.

These places of interest arc given
merely as samples of the many show-
places in the neighbourhood of Dar-
jeeling, to which one may drive or walk
in the certainty that entirely new effects
may be witnessed daily owing to the
varying conditions of sun and atmo-
sphere.

The town not only contains the summer
residence of H.E. the Governor of Bengal
and the official quarters of heads of
Departments, but it can boast of a number
of excellent hotels, boarding-houses,
private houses, a club, and several fine
churches and schools, together with
barracks at Kalapahar, Jalpahai, and
Lebong.

St. Paul's School — founded in Calcutta
in 1864 and shortly afterwards removed
to Darjceling — is built on an eminence

COOLIES, DARJEELING.

I'lio'o hy Hi.n.iJ.mi.l Arl UlinliJ,

whence enchanting views are obtained,
and Sir Joseph Hooker, referring to the
site, said : " It is one quite unparalleled

for the scenery it embraces, commanding
tlic confessedly grandest known landscape
of snowy mountains in the Himalayas, and
hence in the world."

The club stands in an advantageous
position in the town, and contains a large
number of apartments for members,
including reading, writing, smoking, and
billiard-rooms, together with o.\tcnsi\e
stabling and motor garage. The Dar-
jceling Club, Ltd., was formed in igo8,
but it was originally known as the
Planters' Club.

The Secretariat is a fine three-storied
building constructed of gneiss, locally
obtained, and it contains the offices of
the Chief Secretary to the Government,
the Under-Secretary for the Political and
Appointment Departments, and the Secre-
taries for Revenue; while other structures
comprise the Imperial General Hospital,
the Municipal offices, St. Andrew's
Church, St. Paul's and other schools.

The only other places of any im-
portance in the district are Kurseong,
Kalimpong, and Tindharia.

Kurseong has in recent years come into
some prominence as a growing hill

1. "MORNING LIGHT" FROM GOVERNMENT HOUSE, DARJEELING. 2. A BHUTIA BEGGAR, DARJEELING.

l>!wlo f'V Hinmhiyiin Art Slii ho. rhotc by M. Sain

3. SHRINE OP MAHAKAL, OBSERVATORY HILL, DARJEELING.

rhotc I'v M Sain.

station and sanitorium, and it is preferred
by many visitors to whom a comparatively
mild climate, consequent upon an altitude
ol only 4,860 feet above sea-level, is
more beneficial than the higher elevation
and keener atmosphere of Darjeeling.
The town is the headquarters of a sub-
division in the terai, and was constituted
a municipality in the year 1879.

It possesses a club, the usual public
offices, a Jesuits' Training College, and

DARJEELING

workshops of the Darjceling-Himalayan
Railway Company are situated at Tin-
dharia. Shareholders in this company are
receiving very satisfactory dividends upon
their capital, but this is not surprising
when the excessive passenger fares and
freights are taken into consideration.

The line is undoubtedly all that it
should be from an investor's point of view,
but it is very far from being a real
benefactor to the tea and other industries.

century ago. The present proprietor
devotes very great personal attention to
the management of the estate ; up-to-
date methods of cultivation are practised ;
all vacancies are filled by vigorous and
healthy young plants ; and thus it hap-
pens that the yield of tea on this estate
is noted particularly for its delicacy of
flavour.

Quality and not quantity is the point
kept in view by the owner, but the returns

A VIE'W FROM MACKENZIE EOAD.

photo by Hhn.ilityitn Art Studio.

good schools for both boys and girls.
Kurscong has a station on the Darjeeling-
Himalayan Railway, from which large
quantities of tea are forwarded annually,
and it is about twenty miles distant in a
southerly direction from Darjeeling.

Kalimpong is a thriving village situated
in a very healthy portion of the district,
and is noted chiefly on account of a large
annual fair at which consignments of agri-
cultural produce and live stock are ex-
changed for English poultry and selected
seeds of cereals. It is, further, the
recognized market for the sale of Tibetan
wool, and its agricultural show is second
to none in importance in Bengal. The

RUN6NEET ESTATE

This estate of 400 acres, situated at
an altitude of between 5,000 and 6,000 ft.,
and about one mile distant from Darjeel-
ing, is one of the most attractive proper-
ties even in that wonderfully beautiful
district, where the everlasting snows
glistening in the sunlight on the summit
of the mountains form such a magnificent
contrast to the sombre yet variegated
shades of the well-wooded slopes of the
surrounding hills. Rungneet was ac-
quired by the owner. Captain J. Oswald
Little, in the year 1910, but the 190 acres
of tea were then in full bearing, the first
tea having been planted nearly half a

2^1

during an average season are about
3] maunds to the acre. The factory con-
tains the usual plant required in connec-
tion with the manufacture of tea, such
as the machinery for rolling, sifting, and
packing, together with a down-draught
sirocco drier.

.\ water-power turbine is used for
motive purposes, but as additional power
is required during the season of heaviest
work a steam engine has been fixed to
meet such a contingency.

The " made " tea is packed in chests
of various sizes on the premises, and the
latter are consigned, principally in re-
sponse to private orders, to many hotels.

I, lifXf.AlOW,

EUNGNBET ESTATE.
2 VIEW ov Tea Garden 3. coolies Pi.ichixo Tea.

4. KACKiRV.

I. TUE BUXCALOW.

THE VICTORIAN BREWERY.
2, M.\I.T-H01SK. 3. BOTTUXO PUNT.

4. Genekai. View ok liKKUERY.

253

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

clubs, and regimental messes in India,
as well as to customers in England and
other parts of the world.

Captain Little occupies a charming
bungalow, surrounded by terraced
gardens containing the choicest English
flowers and vegetables, and his residence
is fitted with electric light and has tele-
phonic communication with the town of
Darjeeling. He takes a very keen in-
terest in local affairs, and at the time of
writing he has just been called upon, in
view of his previous experience as a
cavalry officer, to assume the Adjutancy
of the North Bengal Mounted Rifles.

About two hundred coolies are gener-
ally employed on the garden, although
in busy times this number may be
exceeded.

The Calcutta agents of the estate are
Messrs. Gillanders, Arbuthnot & Co., of
Clive Street.

THE VICTORIA BREWERY

This brewery was erected in the year
1885 by the well-known firm of Messrs.
Meakin & Co., but it was acquired in
1914 by Mr. H. J. Craddock, who pur-
chased it as a going concern. It is
situated at Sonada, near Darjeeling, and
consists chiefly of a three-storied build-
ing of a pretentious character, together
with brew-house, malting stores, bottling
shed, warehouses, and offices standing
upon two acres of freehold land, although

the total extent of the land is rather more
than I" acres.

The first essential for the making of
good beer is an abundance of pure water,
and in this respect Mr. Craddock is
fortunate in having an excellent supply
from the hills in the neighbourhood of
the brewery. The second point of im-
portance is the absolute necessity for both
barley and hops to be of undoubted
quality, and here again the " Victoria "
is in an advantageous position, as it
obtains its grain from the district of
Rewari, near Delhi (a corn centre un-
surpassed in India), while the hops are
from the best English and Pacific
gardens.

Mr. Craddock had practical experience
in five English breweries before he arrived
in India in 1893, and he is now carrying
on his Sonada business according to
methods prevailing in the Old Country.
The brewery premises contain a modern
Pasteurizing plant, which enables the pro-
prietor to ensure absolute purity, and
analyses made from time to time by the
Excise authorites show that both beer and
stout are entirely free from arsenic or
other deleterious ingredient. The prin-
cipal brewings comprise pale ale, XX ale,
XXX ale, and XXX stout ; and the
owner's godowns at Sonada are able to
accommodate five hundred hogsheads.

The machinery is driven by an 8-h.p.
steam engine, and about thirty-two hands
are constantly employed in the brewery,
cooperage, bottling, and other sheds.

Mr. Craddock has a large sale for beer
and stout in local regimental and other
messes, and consignments are also sent
to all parts of Bengal and Assam, and
even to certain places in Southern India.

M. SAIN

Several photographs bearing upon the
literary matter in this volume have been
obtained from the studio of Mr. M. Sain,
of 22 Mackenzie Street, Darjeeling, and
he has kindly allowed them to be repro-
duced here.

Mr. Sain was formerly connected in
business with Mr. Thomas Paar, a well-
known photographic artist at Darjeeling,
but for the past two years he has been
employed on his own account entirely.
That he has been very successful in his
studies of Nature and art is evidenced
by the high-class character of the brush
and camera productions which have had
their birth in his studio, and he has reason
to be proud of the fact that he has been
awarded medals and certificates at various
Arts Exhibitions in India on account of
their excellence.

Mr. Sain's studio at the present time
contains paintings and photographs of
the exquisitely beautiful scenery of the
district and town of Darjeeling, and of
the grand Himalaya Mountains, with the
vegetation of their lower slopes, and it
is certain that a visit to it will mean
a morning well spent.

GENERAL VIEW Of; DARJEELING.

Pliifto by Hhiialayan Art SttitH^.

254

PANORAMIC VIEW OF DACCA, SHOWING SOME RESIDENCES OF PROMINENT EUROPEANS, WITH ST. THOMAS'S

CHURCH IN THE DISTANCE
From Panorama of Old City of Dacca, published about 1847.

INDIGO IN BEHAR

HE chief indigo dis-
tricts in Behar lie to
the north of the Gan-
ges River, and com-
prise Muzaffarpur,
Durbhanga, Cham-;
parun, and Chupra.
Indigo is also culti-
vated in tlie districts, on the south of
the river, Purneah, Monghyr, and Bhagal-
pur, but only to a very small extent as
compared with the northern area. The
first record of indigo being grown by
Europeans in Behar is dated about 1778.
The chief pioneer of the industry appears
to have been a Mr. Alexander Noel
(afterwards Noel & Co.); and it is also
on record that Mr. Grand, a servant of
the East India Company, whose widow
subsequently married Talleyrand, was
interested in indigo in Behar. The first
European factories to be built were chiefly
in the district now called Muzaffarpur,
and among the oldest ones were Contai,
dating back to 1778, Dooria 1780, and
Singhia 1791. The last-named was per-
haps the first concern in the Province to
be owned by a European, as it appears to
have originated as a saltpetre factory of
the Dutch East India Company. It seems
to be clear that there were about 12
European indigo concerns in existence in
the Muzaffarpur district towards the end
of the eighteenth century, while in Dur-
bhanga, Champarun, and Chupra the first
factories were not erected before the
beginning of the nineteenth century. A

By D. J. KEID.

very good criterion of the age of an indigo
factory is in the size of the manager's
bungalow, all the older factories having
huge residences generally built on the
most elementary arcliitectural lines, giving
the maximum of space with the minimum
of accommodation or comfort. It is very
evident that when these bungalows were
built bricks and mortar were cheap.
Throughout the nineteenth century the
concerns in Behar steadily increased, and
in 1896, the year preceding the advent
of synthetic indigo, there were about 112
working, with a total output of about
80,000 maunds in a good season. In
1845, however, several large indigo con-
cerns appear to have abandoned this plant
in favour of sugar-cane, but the experi-
ment did not last long, as in 1850 these
concerns again reverted to indigo.

During the first part of the nineteenth
century indigo was a most popular crop
with the cultivator, and one of the greatest
punishments possible was for an indigo
factory to refuse to allow a cultivator to
grow indigo for the factory. The reason
for this may probably be found in the
fact that in those early days money was
scarce, and indigo was one of the few
crops which could be turned into ready
cash.

That the industry has been a real boon,
especially to the landlord, in Behar is
undeniable, as it brought a large flow of
outside capital into the Province, and
many a landowner has been saved from
beggary, due to the ruinous practices of

the mahajans, by the timely advances of
large sums of money at reasonable interest
from a neighbouring indigo concern.

.An indigo concern consists of a number
of factories grouped under the supervision
of one manager, with usually a European
assistant at each factory, or outwork, as
it is termed. Some concerns consist of
as many as seven or eight outworks, but
the average is about three or four.

This system of grouping a number of
factories under one manager is economical
in working, but it has its limitations, and
it is doubtful whether a single manager
can efficiently supervise more than three
or four. The concerns in Behar are
privately owned, and the shares in these
companies are calculated on the anna
system, which means that a concern con-
sists of sixteen " One Anna Shares,"
which are sometimes subdivided into
" Pie Shares."

Indigo is cultivated under, two systems,
one of which is by direct cultivation of
land held by the factory and known by
the vernacular name of Zcrat, while the
other is called Assamiwar, and under it
the tenants contract to sow a certain area
of their holdings in indigo, and the
factory contracts to pay a fixed price per
acre irrespective of the condition of the
crop. A modification of the Assamiwar
system is known as khuski, whereby the
cultivator contracts to sow a certain area
with indigo, and to sell the green plants
from this area at a fixed price per maund
to the factory. Theoretically this system

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

is the best, but in practice it is found
that, owing to the very large number of
small plots dealt with, it is impossible
to gi%'e proper supervision and to check
the weights of green plant.

Only a small proportion of the lands
cultivated are directly owned by indigo
factories in Bchar. One of the reasons for
this may perhaps be traced to the fact
that in the old days, under the East India
Company, it was not lawful for a Euro-
pean to be the direct owner of land in that
Province. The remainder of the lands
are held under several forms of tenure,
the most common being an ordinary lease
granted by local Indian landlords for a
stated number of years.

Indigo factories can, however, under the
Bengal Tenancy Act, acquire occupany
rights over certain lands, and a consider-
able area is held under this form of
tenure. There is also a form of lease
known in the vernacular as makurry,
which is a lease in perpetuity and cannot
under any circumstances be broken,
although the holder can be sold up for
default of rent. This document is very
common in Behar, especially in the Cham-
parun district, where many concerns hold
large areas from the Bettiah Raj under
this tenure. It is also a common practice
for factories to acquire possession of lands
by advancing moneys on mortgage.

Up to the end of the nineteenth century
the only variety of indigo cultivated in
Behar was Iniigofera sumatrana. which
was introduced into the Province some
150 years ago.

The cultivation and preparation of the
lands for sowing are conducted from
October to the end of February, the lands
being hoed and cross-ploughed many
times, all clods being thoroughly pul-
verized. In March the indigo is sown,
and it is ready for manufacture by the end
of June or the beginning of July. Two
cuttings are generally obtained from the
plant, and these are taken from July to
the end of September, the yield of finished
indigo being greatly affected by the
character of the monsoon, a heavy mon-
soon being unfavourable to the production
of indigotin, and also to the growth of
the second cuttings. The heaviest yield
is obtained from the first cuttings, and
in good years, when the monsoon is light,
50 per cent, of the amount obtained from
the first yield may be expected from the
second cuttings, but in unfavourable years
of heavy rainfall the latter are often a
complete failure. The seed of Indigofera
sumatrana used in Behar has always been

obtained from the United Provinces, the
best kind coming from the districts in the
neighbourhood of Cawnpore, the reason
for this being that although the indigo
plant can be grown to produce seed in
Behar, yet the germination of such seed
is always defective owing to a hard outer
coating, and it was found that seed grown
on the irrigated lands of the United
Provinces is free from this objection.

In 1904 a new variety of indigo was
introduced from Java, known as Indigo-
fera arrecta. This type came originally
from Natal, and is really an improved
variety of the wild indigo of that country;
but owing. to the difficulty in obtaining
seed its cultivation was extended rather
slowly, and it was not until 1906 or 1907
that it was grown to any extent in Behar.
The superiority of the Natal over the
Sumatrana type was very marked when
first introduced, and in many instances
yields of 100 per cent, greater than those
of the older variety were obtained; but
it was unfortunate that, in common with
many newly imported varieties, the plant
was attacked by disease. The most disas-
trous effect of this is the restriction of
seed production, and although the plant
was at first found to seed freely in Behar,
the supply subsequently decreased so
enormously that in latter years it became
unobtainable in any quantity, and many
concerns had to revert to the old
Sumatrana variety. This problem, how-
ever, is now being investigated by Mr.
Howard, the Imperial Economist Botanist
at Pusa, and there are hopes that a way
has been discovered of growing Indigofera
arrecta for seed in Behar.

Notwithstanding the disease and short-
age of seed supply, average yields of more
than 20 seers of finished indigo to the
acre have in many instances been
obtained, and in selected fields returns of
fully I maund have been known. When
it is considered that the old Sumatrana
variety only yields an average of about
8 seers per acre, the advantages of the
Arrecta variety are obvious ; and it is
quite possible that when a better know-
ledge of the plant is acquired it may prove
a profitable crop, despite the competition
of the synthetic article.

The methods employed for extracting
the finished indigo from the green plant
are very simple and also very ancient. In
the old days the manufacture was per-
formed by hand labour alone, but in more
modern times machinery has been intro-
duced, although the actual process
remains the same. The machinery em-
256

ployed in the factory is simple, and con-
sists of two or three pumps and an engine
for working the paddle-wheel in the
oxidizing vats. The green plant, when
brought from the fields, is placed in the
steeping vats, and the latter are then filled
with water, the dimensions of the vats
varying somewhat, but the usual size being
about 1,500 cubic feet. Between I 20 and
I 50 maunds of green plant are " loaded
into 1,000 cubic feet of vat room, but this
amount varies according to the state of the
plant and to the ideas of different planters
with regard to heavy or light loading.
The correct steeping of the plant is one
of the most important operations in the
manufacture of indigo, and the time
usually allowed is about 12 hours; the
actual period, however, is regulated by
the temperature of the vat. Extensive
experiments were carried out in this line
by Mr. Rawson, F.l.C, from 1898 to
1903 ; and while his inquiries failed to
show any important results, he considered
that under optimum conditions there was
very little room for improvement on the
present methods of steeping. In order
to carry out this process efficiently, it is
necessary for all indigo factories to have
a good supply of pure water, as its purity
has a great effect on the quality of the
indigo produced. In this respect Mr.
Rawson reported that the mineral matter
present in water was of very little conse-
quence as a determining factor, but that
much depends on the presence or absence
of organic matter, especially of minute
living forms.

After the steeping operation is com-
pleted the liquid is run off into another
vat, known as the " beating vat," and
there it is oxidized by the simple process
of agitating the liquid so as to mix it
with air. This agitation was in former
days performed by hand-beating with
wooden paddles, but in modern days a
paddle-wheel is revolved in the vat by
machinery. Oxidization generally occu-
pies about I J hours, after which time the
liquid turns from a bright green to a dark
blue colour with a purple or reddish tinge.
It is then allowed to settle, and the indigo
fcBculcB precipitate to the bottom of the
vat; the top water is then drawn off, and
the indigo is collected and pumped into
large boilers.

The boiled indigo is then run on to a
straining table, and when nearly all of the
water has been strained off the residue
is collected and put into presses and the
remaining fluid pressed out. The hard
slab of indigo is then removed from the

INDIGO IN BEHAR

press and cut into cubes of 3 inches
square, which are placed on racks to dry,
the final drying operation occupying
about three months. The Indigofera
arrecta variety is treated more or less in
the same manner, with the exception that
it has been found to be better to steep
it in warm water, which is heated by steam
as it runs into the steeping vat.

After the cakes arc dry they are packed
in large wooden chests, each containing
about 3j maunds of indigo. The weight
of this product, however, varies greatly,
as superfine indigo will not scale more
than 2j maunds to the chest, while very
poor samples will weigh as much as
5 maunds for a chest of the same size, this
difference being due to the large amount
of impurities contained in the inferior
kind. The largest market in the world
for indigo has always been Calcutta,
where a very large proportion of the
produce of Behar factories is sold,
although a few planters vary this j)ro-
cedure by sometimes shipping direct to
London. Prior to the coming of synthetic
indigo, the Calcutta sales were roughly
distributed as follows : Great Britain, 30
percent.; Europe, 50 per cent.; America,
16 per cent.; Suez, 4 per cent. In latter
years, however, since synthetic was avail-,
able, the Arabs have become the best
customers, and now take about 35 per
cent, of the crop. In former days indigo
was sold according to its appearance, and
fancy prices were often paid for favourite
marks; but in the present day all con-
signments are analysed, and subsequently
disposed of on the basis of such tests of
the indigotin contained in them.

The amount of finished indigo recovered
from a given quantity of green plant
varies to an extraordinary extent, from
300 to 400 per cent, being a common
occurrence. Cold and rainy weather is
detrimental to good produce, but often,
from no apparent reason, produce will be
low in quantity. It is obvious, therefore,
that the efficiency of extraction is depen-
dent on a multiplication of causes, such
as the water supply used for steeping*,
the temi)erature of the air, and the con-
dition r)f tlie plant itself. From Indigo-
fera sumatrana 12 to 14 seers of finished
indigo per 100 maunds of green plant is
considered a good return at most fac-
tories, while the Arrecta kind often yields
as much as 18 to 20 seers per 100 mounds
of plant. The average yield per acre from
these two types is respectively about
8 seers, and 12 to 14 seers finished
indigo.

In 1877 the Behar Planters' Associa-
tion was formed, and in 1878 Mr. W. B.
Hudson (afterwards Sir William Hudson)
became secretary. The duties of the
Association were to control the relations
between the planter and the cultivator,
and the past history of Behar speaks well
for the manner in which the Association
has performed its obligations. In 1897
came the great crisis in the indigo in-
dustry, as in that year the synthetic pro-
duct was first put on the market; and the
efi'ect on the natural produce was instan-
taneous, seeing that prices for the latter,
during the three succeeding years 1897
to 1899, dropped to Rs. 152/- per maund,
as compared with an average price of
Rs. 234/- per maund obtained in the three
preceding years 1894-6, while in 1904
ordinary consuming indigo was selling as
low as Rs. 100/- per maund. This enor-
mous fall in values had the inevitable
effect of reducing the cultivation of indigo,
and in 1914, when the Great European
War began, there were only 59 concerns
still growing indigo, with very reduced
cultivations, and producing about 7,000
maunds, as against about 112 concerns,
with an average production of more than
65,000 maunds, that were working before
the synthetic indigo was invented. The
effect of the war, however, with its conse-
quent shutting off of all supplies of dye
from Germany, was extraordinary. Prices
for ordinary indigo in Calcutta leapt from
Rs. 155/- to Rs. 675/- per maund, and
those concerns which had still remained
true to the old dye reaped a good harvest.
These very high figures had the natural
effect of stimulating cultivation, and in
191 5 a considerably larger area was
sown; but, unfortunately, the previous
depression of the industry had greatly
curtailed the supply of seed. Indigo is
not a crop in which the finished product
can be also utilized as seed, as the plant
has either to be kept for seed or turned
into dye — " You cannot eat your cake and
have it." The boom in 19 14 came too
late to save any extra plant for seed, with
the result that the latter, for any great
increase of cultivation, was unobtainable
for 191 5. It followed that a good deal
of very inferior seed was sown, and this,
coupled with an unfavourable monsoon,
restricted the produce, with the result that
the total output for Behar in 191 5 was
not very much larger than for the pre-
vious year. Referring to the competition
of the synthetic indigo, it is very often
stated by chemists and other scientists
(whose knowledge of the practical side

257

of any question is generally limited) that
the success of the synthetic product over
natural indigo is greatly due to the lassi-
tude and indifference of the planter, who,
when he was in possession of a monopoly,
neglected to fortify himself against any
possible competition by research into
methods of improving his existing pro-
cesses. That no such attemjjt was ever
made is true, but whether the whole onus
of this neglect can be laid at the door
of the planter is another matter. If the
position of the indigo industry of British
India be considered, it will be seen that
it would have been unreasonable to expect
any private individuals, either singly or
in groups, to have borne the cost of
research in methods of manufacture.
Indigo was produced in practically every
Province throughout the length and
breadth of India by all sorts and condi-
tions of people, and the "result of any
research in the improvement of manufac-
ture would have become public property.
The position of the indigo industry in
India, spread as it was over such a wide
area, therefore absolutely excluded any
hope of organized research being under-
taken, unless initiated by some central
authority, with power to distribute the
cost of such proceedings on all producers.
Such a central authority was obviously the
Government of India, and the entire blame
for the lack of foresight in instituting in-
quiries (as regards manufacture, at least)
is due to that authority. There is one
impeachment, however, whi-h can justly
be laid at the door of the Behar indigo-
planter, and that is his neglect to make
any efforts to improve or guarantee the
purity of his seed supply. As might have
been anticipated, this neglect resulted in
a marked deterioration of the Indigofera
sumatrana plant. The Behar planter
bought his seed from the United Pro-
vinces, his object being to grow a plant
full of leaf, as that is the only portion of
the plant from which indigo is extracted ;
while the seed-grower's object, on the
other hand, was to grow a plant that
yielded plenty of seed, and he was in-
different about leaf.

As there was no supervision exercised
to see that the seed supplied was obtained
from suitable plants, the indigo in later
years in Behar showed a marked tendency
to early flowering and seeding, which was
very prejudicial to the yield of indigotin,
as the percentage of the latter in the leaf
during those periods is greatly reduced.
Quite recently efforts have been made to
secure a pure supply of seed of the

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Indigofera sumatrana, but they were too
late to be of any material assistance to
the industry. It is possible, however, that
had proper attention been paid to im-
provement of the plant the position of
the industry to-day in Behar might have
been very different, as it is an undeniable
fact that crops are greatly improved by
a scientific selection of seed, but no such
attempt at improvement was ever made
until recent years.

After the appearance of synthetic
indigo in 1897, the Indian Government
awoke to its responsibility on the subject,
and an annual grant in aid of research
was sanctioned, such amount being further
supplemented from the Behar Planters'
Association's funds. In 1898 Mr. C.
Rawson, one of the most prominent
chemists connected with the dyeing in-
dustry in England, was engaged to con-
duct researches into the manufacture of
indigo. Mr. Rawson worked on this
matter up to 1903, when he was succeeded
by Mr. Bergtheil; and, after exhaustive
experiments, both these gentlemen
reported finally that, as a commercial
process, the old method of manufacture
could not be improved upon. Their
results showed that under normal con-
ditions 85 per cent, of the indigotin in the
plant was extracted, and that the cost of
recovering the remaining 15 per cent.
would be prohibitive. These conclusions
have, however, been challenged by Mr.
Bloxham, another chemist, who is of the
opinion that only 60 per cent, of the dye
is recovered under existing methods of
manufacture. However this may be, it
was decided in 1909 to abandon any
further experiments in manufacture, and
to devote all attention to the botanical
side of the question with the view of pro-
ducing a plant with an increased indigotin
content. Mr. Parnell, a botanist, was
then engaged, and he, in conjunction with
Mr. Bergtheil, carried on scientific work
in this direction. It was subsequently
found, however, that the Research Station
at Sirsia, in the Muzaffarpur district, was
not suitable for a botanical station, as,
owing to its liability to periodical flood-
ing, a great deal of the work was lost,
and in 19 13 it was decided to abandon the
experiment at that place. Research work
has, however, been taken over by the
Imperial Government and placed under
the direction of Mr. Howard, the Imperial
Economic Botanist at Pusa. About
8 lakhs of rupees were spent on research
work by the Behar Planters' Association,
aided by the Government.

Although Messrs. Rawson and Berg-
theil did not succeed in obtaining any
important results, yet their labours have
in some way guided the industry in its
efforts to reduce the cost of production.
It was Mr. Rawson who first pointed out
that the indigo refuse (or seeth, as it is
known as) could be much more profitably
employed in manuring other crops than
indigo, and it is by utilizing this seeth as
a valuable by-product that it has been
made possible to continue the cultivation
of indigo to the limited extent that now
exists. It has been shown that very heavy
returns can be obtained from such crops
as tobacco and wheat if manured with
indigo refuse, and the result is that most
concerns have adopted a system of rota-
tion, and by judiciously combining the
crops a fair profit can be secured. The
combination of indigo with other crops
has also, from a financial aspect, improved
the methods of working the indigo in-
dustry. In former days, when indigo
alone was grown, a very large working
capital was necessary, and the fact that
this large outlay was almost entirely at
the mercy of the vagaries of the monsoon
made the industry very speculative. The
average outlay per acre in Behar was
usually about Rs. 30/-, and as the average
return of finished indigo per acre was
only about 8 seers, it follows that the
manufacture of I maund cost about
Rs. 150/-. The greater part of this out-
lay of Rs. 30/- per acre was expended
before the monsoon set in and before the
crop was ready to cut, the heaviest
expenses being in the rents of the lands,
cultivation, and seed. If there was an
early and abnormally heavy monsoon, fol-
lowed by the usual flood, it often
happened that a large portion of the crop
was absolutely destroyed, while the yield
from the remainder would be very dis-
appointing. In years, therefore, of this
description it might happen that the cost
per maund of made indigo was very nearly
Rs. 350/-. Now, as the average price of
Behar indigo in the Calcutta market for
the ten years 1888 to iSg/'was Rs. 230/,
it can be realized that in some seasons
very heavy losses had to be faced inde-
pendently of interest on the outlay. The
indigo financial year usually commenced
in October, but as the proceeds were not
realized until January or February of the
following year, the money spent in
October had to carry interest for 1 5 to
16 months before it was repaid. It is
these difficulties which probably account
for the fact that when the crisis with the

258

synthetic product came so many of the
Behar concerns were found to be heavily
mortgaged. Unless a planter had the
necessary capital at his back to tide
over the bad years, it was practically
impossible for him to steer clear of
debt.

It remains to be seen what the future
has in store for the indigo industry of
Behar, as it is possible that for many
years to come the Germans will not be
in a position to produce synthetic indigo
at the very low rate which obtained before
the war. For the ten years preceding
hostilities ordinary Behar indigo sold at
an average price of about Rs. 140/- per
maund, and, unit for unit, this was some
35 per cent, higher than the rates
obtained for synthetic dye. If on the
conclusion of the war Rs. 175/- per maund
could be obtained for any length of time,
it is possible that the cultivation will be
considerably increased ; and if Mr.
Howard, at Pusa, can master the diffi-
culties of the cultivation of Indigofera
arrecta, such a price, combined with the
increased yield of the latter variety,
should show a very fair profit. It is,
however, an undoubted fact that for
indigo to recapture its lost position in
the dyeing world it must, irrespective of
price, be offered to the dyers in a
more standardized form than at present.
What the dyeing trade requires is a
paste or powder which could be guar-
anteed to contain a, stated amount of
indigotin. This question was discussed
at an indigo conference called by the
Imperial Government of India, at Delhi,
in February 191 5, when the Behar
Planters' Association, through their repre-
sentatives, asked for the addition of a
chemist to the Pusa establishment to
investigate the possibility of turning
indigo into a standard paste or powder,
but up to date, however, the matter is
still under discussion.

If a cheap and practicable way of turn-
ing out natural indigo in a standardized
paste can be arrived at, there is no doubt
that dyers would give preference to such
a preparation over synthetic, provided
that prices were more or less equal. It
remains, however, to be seen what the
Germans can 'do after the war, and if their
cost of production is appreciably in-
creased it is possible that the natural
indigo will yet regain some of its lost
markets.

Most of the principal indigo estates will
be found fully described and illustrated
in another section of this volume.

SONEPORE MALA FESTIVAL,

BEHAR AND ORISSA EARLY HISTORY

By ARNOLD WRIGHT

lEHAR AND ORISSA,
which have been con-
stituted into a single
administrative unit
under the recent
scheme of territorial
reorganization in

Eastern India, are
regions which in the past have played a
great part in Indian life. As, however,
their history is closely interwoven with
that of Bengal proper, which has been
dealt with in the general historical survey
at the commencement of the volume, it
is unnecessary to do more here than brielly
touch upon somq of the distinctive
features of their record. Dealing first
with Behar, it is to be noted that this
famous subdivision of the old Bengal
Presidency has figured very extensively in
Indian history. The principal town,
named after the old subdivision, is sup-
posed to have been the capital of the
ancient kingdom of Majadha. Extensive
Buddhist remains at various places, and
notably at Nalanda, a famous seat of
learning in the days of the Pal kings,

attest the great antiquity and historical
importance of the locality.

In regard to Orissa, as Sir W. W.
Hunter observes in his well-known work,
no part of India has attracted less notice
from the historians than this Province.
" The tempests of conquest and the tidal
waves of nations that have swept across the
rest of India, rarely overtopped the ridges
which wall out these shores. Sanskrit
literature, in its prehistoric panorama of
the upper valleys of the Ganges, reaches
the last of the slow-moving scenes far to
the north of Orissa. . . . The great epic
itself, with its bright nucleus in Hindustan,
and its broad, comet-like tail curving
downwards in streams of light to the
farthest point of the peninsula, shed not
a momentary flicker over Orissa."

The early Buddhist remains to be found
in Orissa are of an extremely interesting
character, and attest the great antiquity of
the Province. They date, it has been
surmised, as far back as the third century
before the Christian era, and give evidence
of the presence of extensive Buddhist
colonies in that remote period. Orissa

■259

Buddhism is of interest from the fact that
it is believed to have been from these
colonies that Java was colonized in or
about the first century after Christ.

The history of Orissa subsequent to this
period differs very little from that of a
very large part of the territory now under
British rule in Eastern and Southern
India. The Province was originally a
part of the Kalinga kingdom, and shared
in the vicissitudes of the powerful dynasty
that reigned over that great country which
stretched from the Ganges to the Goda-
very. On the decline of the Kalinga
power in the first centuries of the Christian
era, Orissa appears to have become inde-
pendent. In the seventh century records
show it to have been separately under the
authority of Sasanka, King of Majadha,
and Harshavardhana of Kananj. Con-
siderably later, in the tenth and eleventh
centuries, the Kesari kings held sway, and
to them is attributed the building of the
Saiva temples at Bhubaneswar and most
of the ruins in the Alti hills. After the
Kesari kings came the dynasty founded
by Chora Ganga of Kalinganajar, who

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

built the famous temple of Jaganath at
Puri and the black pagoda of Konarak.
Mahommedan influence commenced seri-
ously to assert itself in the fourteenth cen-
tury, when Firoz Shah conducted in person
an expedition into Orissa. With varying
fortunes lines of Hindoo kings, however,
continued to reign until i 568, when
Mukund Deo, the last of the race, was
overthrown by Kala Pahar, the general of
Sulaiman Kararani, the Afghan chief. The
^old of the conquerors on the Province was
not a substantial one, and in 1 592 the
territory was annexed to the Mogul empire
by Akbar.

Orissa remained under the Moguls until
1751, when Ali V'ardi Khan ceded the
Province to the Mahrattas — the Bhonslas
of Nagpur. The new owners, after the
manner of their people, treated their pos-

session with great harshness, harrying and
oppressing the people and wasting their
lands. In the circumstances it must have
been with a sense of relief that the unfor-
tunate inhabitants were transferred to
British power as a result of the successful
campaigns against the .Mahrattas in 1803.
.^t the outset the Britisli administration
in the Province was vested in a board of
two Commissioners, but this arrangement
quickly gave place to a more settled
scheme, by whicli the territory, under the
designation of the District of Cuttack, was
placed in charge of a Collector, Judge,
and Magistrate. In 1828 there was a
further change, the Province being split
up into three regulation districts of Cut-
tack, Balasore, and Puri, and the non-
regulation tributary States. These ar-
rangements continued until the recent

changes gave the division a more dignified
status in the Indian administration.

A word in conclusion as to the deriva-
tion of tlie name of the Province.
Orissa is so called from Odra or Ntkala,
the name given to the northern Kalinga
kingdom. Why this nomenclature was
used has long been a matter of con-
troversy. Hindus have suggested that the
word is associated with unda ("dirt"',
and that Orissa was the filthy land in
aboriginal times. " The orthodox," says
Hunter, " insist that it means the ' glorious
country '; lexicographers suggest that it
may only be the land of the bird killers;
and an admirable student of the modern
Aryan tongues interprets it as the ' out-
lying strip.' " There is, therefore, as
Hunter well says, a large choice for the
reader to make his selection from.

THE PROVINCE OF BEHAR AND ORISSA

' I 'HE Province had no independent In that year it was considered that the

-*■ history as far as civil administration control of the Province of Assam jjresscd

was concerned until the year 1912, as it unduly upon the administration of Bengal,

A TEMPLE AT GAYA.

had up to that time been included in the
Province of Bengal. The district of
Assam was also included in the same
administration. The Governor-General of
India, by Act of Parliament in 1834, be-
came also Governor, without Council, of
Bengal, and this arrangement as to terri-
torial jurisdiction was, with a few slight
changes, continued until 1874.

and therefore Assam, together with the
districts of Sylhet, Cachar, and Garo
Hills, was detached from Bengal and be-
came a separate administration under a
Chief Commissioner.

In 1903, when the area of Bengal com-
prised about 196,408 square miles, with
a population of some 78,493,300 persons,
a movement began for a drastic re-
j6o

arrangement of territorial areas in that
part of India. Several minor alterations
took place, but it was ultimately decided
to divide Bengal, and attach the eastern
portion of it, including the Dacca, Chitta-
gong, Rajshahi, and other commissioner-
ships of Assam, and thuj form a new
Province to l)e known as " Eastern
Bengal and Assam." This proposal was
carried into effect under the Governorshit)
of Lord Curzon on October l6, 1905.

Under the new arrangement Bengal was
left with an area of 148,592 square miles,
and about 54,662,529 inhabitants. Grave
discontent arose in consequence of the
partition, which was felt by many Ben-
galis to be a blow to their racial interests
and unity. Their grievances were taken
up in England by leading men in political
life, and a powerful movement, ultimately
successful, was launched to secure a recon-
sideration of the arrangements for the
revision of the administration of the
Province.

At the Coronation Durbar of IIi>
Majesty the King-Emperor George V at
Delhi in 191 i, the Royal assent was given
to a new scheme providing for the re-
union of Bengal, on lines which were
generally acceptable to Indians. The
proposals took formal shape in a pro-
clamation issued on March 22, 1912.
This rescript reconstituted the Province
of Bengal, elevating it to the status of a
Presidency Government, and provided for
the union of the divisions of Behar and
Orissa, and their constitution into a

BEHAR AND ORISSA

separate province under a Lieutenant-
Governor, while Assam took its place in
the new system as a Province under a
Chief Commissioner.

The Province of Behar and Orissa now
comprises five divisions (under Commis-
sioners), in which there are 21 districts,
together with the Feudatory States of
Orissa.

The Patna division contains the districts
of Patna, Gaya, and Shaliabad.

The Tirhut division consists of the dis-
tricts of Saran, Champarun, Muzaffarpur,
and Darbhanga.

The Bhagalpur division embraces the
districts of Monghyr, Bhagalpur, Purnea,
and Sonthal-Perganas.

The Orissa division includes the dis-
tricts of Cuttack, Balasore, Angul, Puri,
and Sambalpur.

The Chola-Nagpur division comprises
the districts of Hazaribagh, Ranchi, Pala-
mau, Manbhum, and Singhbhum.

The Province is bounded on the north
by the independent State of Nepal, and
the district of Darjeeling in Bengal; on
the east by the Presidency of Bengal;
on the south by the Bay of Bengal and the
Presidency of Madras; and on the west by
the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh,
and the Central Provinces.

It comprises about I i 1,829 square
miles of land (including the Feudatory
States) and is in reality divided into two
parts by the River Ganges, which traverses
it from west to east.

The northern portion, called Behar,
consists very largely of an extensive fertile
plain which slopes down gradually from
the foot of the Himalaya range of moun-
tains towards the River Ganges, where the
elevation is somewhat higher. The greater
portion of the soil is of a yellowish play
colour, but in some parts the land has
been defaced by the numerous rivers and
streams which rush down from the Hima-
layas and have carried with them a con-
siderable quantity of silt and sand.

On the southern side of the Ganges the
effects of the Himalayan effluents are not
so apparent as in the northern portion,
especially towards the eastern boundary,
where the undulating and sometimes hilly
section of the Chota-Nagpur division
defeats the action of the fluvial torrents.

The Orissa portion of the Province —
stretching from the south of Behar to the
west, is, generally speaking, a vast alluvial
plain, of which the southern and central
parts comprise the delta of the great
Mahanadi River, while the northern area
has been largely formed by deposits

washed down from the Chota-Nagpur
plateau. Farther to the south of this plain
are the rocky ranges of the Feudatory
States.

'Ihc principal rivers are the Ganges,
which flows into the Province from the
United Provinces, and which during its
course in an easterly direction to Bengal
receives the Gogra, the Sone, and the
Gandak, all of these being important
waterways ; the Mahanadi, a magnificent
river of great breadth and depth which
is navigable for large flat-bottomed boats
through the Feudatory States and as far
north as Sambalpur; and the Baitarani,
navigable only for small boats.

The forests of Behar and Orissa under
Government control are about 3,700
square miles in extent (exclusive of vast
areas in the Feudatory States), and these
are supervised by a conservator and four
Imperial and eight Provincial officers
whose appointments were sanctioned by
the Government of India.

Agricultural pursuits occupy a most
prominent position among the industries
of the whole Province, and the principal
crops are rice, jute, cotton, indigo, wheat,
barley, maize, oil-seeds, sugar-cane, to-
bacco, and a number of indigenous food-
stuff's. The total area under various kinds
of bhadoi non-food crops, such as jute,
indigo, early cotton, and others, is about
793,600 acres in extent, while that under
cultivation for rabi crops comprises about
9,344,000 acres.

Rice has from time immemorial been
the staple food-crop of the native in-
habitants of India; in fact, the grain is
generally known by the name of dhan or
dhanya, the latter word in Sanskrit signi-
fying " the supporter or nourisher of
mankind."

Government statistics for the year 191 i
showed that the Province contained ap-
proximately about 53,200,006 acres;
further, that the total cultivated area com-
prised some 27,400,000 acres; and that
the ricefields were about 17,200,000 acres
in extent. From these figures it will be
seen that rice covered 32 per cent, of the
gross area, and about 63 per cent, of the
actual cropped area.

The most important district for the
growing of jute is Purnea, which yields
fully 85 per cent, of the total crop of that
plant in the Province, but the fibre is not
so good in quality as that which is ex-
ported from Bengal.

The district of Ranchi is famous for its
splendid crops of cotton — especially the
early species — and the annual yield of
261

early and late kinds grown in the Province
is about 20,000 bales, and one half of
this quantity is obtained from this district.
Although wheat and barley are essential
for food purposes, it is found that the
annual returns vary to a very considerable
degree, but these differences in yield are
due less to the nature of the soil than to
the manner of its cultivation. Such

CARVINGS ON THE GATEWAY OF A
TEMPLE IN ORISSA

primary conditions as the cleaning of the
land, deep ploughing, irrigation (where
necessary), and the application of manures
are either ignored or are not understood,
and therefore it is not surprising that the
average yields do not exceed five and a
half maunds per acre for wheat and about
ten maunds for barley. These two pro-
ducts are cultivated to the extent of
1,200,000 acres and 1,428,200 acres
respectively.

Maize is growing in importance, and its
area of cultivation is being extended very
considerably.

Indigo concerns are found chiefly in
Northern Behar, in the Champaran,
Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Saran, Purnea,
Monghyr, Bhagalpur, and Shahabad dis-
tricts.

Methods of agriculture in all parts of
the Province are, as a rule, practised in
an exceedingly primitive manner, the great
majority of the smallholders not caring to
deviate from the hoary customs which have
been handed down from generation to
generation. Sons cultivate as their fathers
and grandfathers did ; why should they
adopt new-fangled operations ? Why
should they pay attention to reports of
heavier crops gained by improved tillage,

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

of increased value of yields, or of a
greater return for capital expended ?
This, in a word, describes the state of
affairs which the Agricultural Department
of the Province is seeking to remedy by
practical demonstrations on experimental
farms and by theoretical teaching in col-
leges, and even in village schools.

Agricultural stations have been estab-
lished at Cuttack, Bankipore, Sabour, and
Dumraon, at which work of an experi-
mental character is carried on, while there
are also two small demonstration farms at
Angul and Sambalpur. Interesting and in-
structive experiments are being conducted
by Government experts at Sabur, in the dis-
trict of Bagalpur, with regard to different
varieties of sugar-cane, on the character
and quality of their fibres, and the effect
of certain manures upon the time of ripen-
ing of the cane. Investigations are also
being made at some or all of the stations
into matters relating to the types of
wheat, barley, rice, and other cereals which
should be selected for various districts.
The colleges furnish instruction in prac-
tical agriculture, chemistry, botany, my-
cology, entomology, bacteriology, and
other similar subjects.

Divisional agricultural associations ren-
der efficient help to the Government of the
Province by reporting upon the particular
types of seeds and manures which are
most suitable for their areas, and, further,
upon such questions as rainfall, irrigation,
yields and prices of crops, and by giving
information as to the labour market in
each district.

The most important mineral industry in
■the Province is the mining of coal, which
is assuming immense proportions in the
Jherria, Giridih, Hazaribagh, Palamau,
and other colliery areas. These fields
were practically undeveloped until railway
companies extended their systems into
those areas, when a remarkable demand
sprang up for locally produced coal for
fuel for locomotives, factories, mills,
steamers, and household purposes. Minor
industries in the five divisions may be
referred to briefly as follows: Patna
division — there are comparatively few
evidences of any important advance having
been made in recent years, although occu-
pation is found for a large number of
inhabitants in the manufacture of salt-
petre, carpets, dhurries, copper and brass
utensils, woollen blankets, palanquins,
ekkas, boots, glass, wooden furniture, and
gold and silver embroidery and cloth.

Sugar-refining is carried on at Sasaram
and Buxar in the district of -Shahabad, and

in the first-mentioned place there is con-
siderable activity in the quarrying of
limestone and the burning of lime. The
latest statistics show that 44,138 tons of
limestone, 2,050 tons of ballast, and
1,649 tons of lime were exported in one
year. There are also large flour and oil-
pressing mills at Dinapore.

The division of Tirhut is noted chiefly
for a very large increase in the area
devoted to the cultivation of sugar-cane
and in the number of refineries, and it
is evident that the manufacture of sugar
is taking the place of indigo concerns
in many of the districts. Railway
sleepers are made in the districts of Cham-
paran and Darbhanga. In the division
of Bhagalpur the industries include the
manufacture of country cigarettes (known
as hiris), indican, silk and cotton cloths,
bricks, steel trunks, guns, and sugar, while
the smelting of iron is carried on by the
Kols at Deogharh and Godda, the metal
being used in the manufacture of spades,
padlocks, ploughshares, and domestic
articles. Filigree silver work manufac-
tured in the division of Orissa is recog-
nized throughout India for its artistic
beauty, while the making of tassar and
cotton cloths, fine muslins, and brass and
bellmetal utensils and ornaments gives
employment to a very large number of
people.

Coal mining is the most important in-
dustry in the division of Chota-Nagpur,
and the annual output from the district
of Manbhum alone exceeds the quantity
produced in the whole of the remaining
portion of British India. Tea is pro-
duced in the district of Hazaribagh;
tassar cloths in Manbhum; shellac, coarse
cotton cloths, and brass articles in all
districts; and granite and limestone
quarries are worked in several commer-
cial centres. Industrial concerns of com-
paratively recent establishment, but em-
ploying large numbers of hands, include
the extensive works of the Tata Iron and
Steel Company, Ltd., at Sakchi, the
mining operations of the Cape Copper
Company, Ltd., at Matigara, and the Ben-
gal Iron and Steel Company, Ltd., at Dina
and Turramdih.

The frontier trade of the Province is
carried on exclusively with Nepal, the
principal imports being rice and other
food grains, livestock, hides, skins, jute,
and oil-seeds, while the exports include
cotton yarn, piece goods of foreign manu-
facture, and metals of all kinds.

In connection with educational matters
it must not be forgotten that in very early

262

days there were throughout the whole of
India numerous seats of learning, and
many Hindu pundits and Mahommedan
maulvis, but the instruction then given was
connected almost entirely with religious
training, and was thereby cramped and
narrowed into restricted channels by caste
and social prejudices. It is generally
admitted that the first attempt to give
instruction in schools which were uncon-
nected with racial or traditional barriers
took place about a hundred years ago,
when European missionaries began to
teach in the vernacular, and, further, made
a beginning with studies in the English
language.

-Some results of those first steps in edu-
cation are to be seen to-day in several
towns in Behar and Orissa, but, taking the
Province as a whole, this most important
question has only come to the front in
comparatively recent years.

The efforts of the Government to foster
education have met with a gratifying
recognition by a very large proportion of
the inhabitants of the various districts, and
in proof of this one need only refer to
figures published in the Administration
Report of the Province in 1 914. That
report shows that, at the date of issue,
there were 30,219 educational institutions
with 847,244 pupils, this being an increase
over the numbers for the previous years
of 756 schools, and 42,586 scholars, but
it is still a matter of controversy and
opinion whether this class of education is
of -real advantage to the development of
the country.

There are not many good roads in the
Province, owing partly to the difficulty of
construction upon alluvial soil and partly
because a sufficient supply of suitable
metal is rarely available in places where it
is required, but competent engineers such
as Mr. L. R. Broome, of Muzaff^arpur and
Mr. G. A. Ostler, of Motihari, are gradu-
ally improving the highways.

Excellent means of communication are,
however, provided by rivers and canals,
and by railways which are under the direct
control and administration of the Railway
Board of the Government of India.

The open mileage of railways in the
Province was recently shown to be
approximately: standard gauge, i,7 5°
miles; metre gauge, 1,150 miles; and
2 feet 6 inches in width, 250 miles.

The following towns are in the division
of Patna: —

Arrah.—The terrible days of the mutiny
of 1857 will long live historically in the

BEHAR AND ORISSA

annals of tlie town of Arrah, as one of the
most stirring episodes in the rebellion
occurred there. On July 27th in that year
when news reached Arrah that about two
thousand Sepoys and between seven and
eight thousand armed villagers were
marching upon the town, steps were at
once taken to secure the safety of the
women and children by removing them to
another place. Some fifteen or si.xteen
Englishmen, however, were determined to
defend themselves to the utmost of their
ability, and they accordingly placed them-
selves under the leadership of a Mr.
Vicars Boyle, an engineer employed in the
construction of a section of the East
Indian Railway. This gentleman barri-
caded the windows of the smaller of two
houses which he then occupied, and,
further, laid in a stock of provisions, doing
his utmost to prevent his miniature
fortress from being compelled to sur-
render. .\fter the mutineers had released
the prisoners from the jail and had plun-
dered the Treasury, they turned their
attention to Boyle and his companions,
who were then supported by some fifty
Sikhs supplied by the Commissioner of
Patna, and commanded by the magistrate
of the district. The invaders took pos-
session of the large house belonging to
Boyle, and from windows they continued
to fire upon the besieged party until
August 2nd, when the gallant garrison was
relieved by the opportune appearance of
Major Vincent Eyre and a hundred and
fifty men of the 5th Regiment of Fusiliers
and about thirty artillerymen. Eyre dis-
persed the rebels so efficiently that they
never recovered from the blow.

Arrah is an important station on the
East Indian Railway, and is 368 miles dis-
tant from Calcutta.

Bankipore, an important commercial
town delightfully situated on the southern
bank of the Ganges, is a junction station
on the East Indian Railway system, and
338 miles distant from Calcutta.

The Province of Behar and Orissa is
frequently referred to as the " Garden of
India," and one can well imagine that such
a flattering description might have been
given after the author of it had made an
inspection of the extremely fine Euro-
pean residences standing in trim gardens
and grounds which slope to the very brink
of the river at Bankipore.

The majority of the public edifices are
of modern construction, and they include
Government offices, court houses, and post
and telegraph and other buildings.

Behar, known in history as being the

capital in the ninth century of the Pala
kings, is situated on the Panchana River,
and it now resembles a long, narrow street
with a number of lanes branching there-
from. The town possesses some of the
most interesting structural remains in the
who'.e of the Province.

foremost among these is a sandstone
pillar, 14 feet in height, upon which are
two inscriptions of the period of the
Gupta dynasty, bearing date between the
years 413 and 480. The fort, of which
ruins are still visible, was 2,800 feet in
length from north to south, and 2,100 feet
from east to west in width, and was sur-
rounded by a wall about 20 feet in height.

Although Gaya, the chief town of the
district of the same name, has a popula-
tion of about 50,000 inhabitants, it has
few industries of any importance, but as
the centre of a thriving agricultural area
its commercial activities are worthy of
mention.

Gaya is the headquarters of ancient
Buddhism, and Buddha himself is believed
to have lived in the jungle near to the town
during the time that he was preparing for
his future work as a teacher of the law.

Mokameh is a busy town with nearly
14,000 inhabitants in the district of
Patna, with a station on the East Indian
Railway system, some 283 miles distant
from Calcutta. It is connected by a
branch line with Mokameh Ghat, and
thence with the Bengal and North Western
Railway, and therefore the passenger
traffic through the town is occasionally
very large. It derives much of its im-
portance from its being a receiving and
forwarding depot for agricultural produce
and general merchandise from Patna and
other districts.

It is more than probable that Patna is
built upon the site of Pataliputra, which
was founded in the fifth century B.C., and
became the metropolis of India between
the years 321-297 B.C.

Modern Patna, the largest city in the
Province, extends for a distance of nearly
nine miles along a bank of the Ganges
River, and it is mainly a long, straggling
place of little architectural beauty,
although some of the buildings which have
been erected in recent years have preten-
sions to distinction. Among the latter is
the Patna College, founded in 1862,
occupying a reconstructed building which
was formerly the private residence of a
wealthy Indian gentleman. The Patna
Oriental Library, too, is a fine structure
containing a number of beautiful Arabic
and Persian manuscripts, some very rare
263

specimens of Oriental calligraphy, and
about four thousand volumes of Arabic
and Persian books, and some three
thousand European works. The" city has
a population of about 135,000 souls.

Sasaram. — The name of this town signi-
fies " one thousand toys," and its deriva-
tion is locally ascribed to the fact that a
certain Asura, or demon, who is said to
have lived here, had a thousand arms, in
each of which he held a separate play-
thing. Many visitors are attracted for the
purpose of seeing the tomb of the Afghan
Sher Shah, who defeated Humayun and
subsequently became Emperor of Delhi.
The tomb is in the form of an octagonal
hall, which is surrounded by an arcade
or gallery, while the roof is supported by
four Gothic arches.

The town has a very large municipal
market from which a considerable revenue
is derived, and its population comprises
about 23,000 persons.

The following places are in the division
of Tirhut : —

Bettiah is by far the most important
centre of trade in the district of Cham-
paran, which produces very large crops of
rice, a considerable quantity of indigo, and
a fair annual yield of barley, oats, wheat,
maize, gram, oil-seeds of various kinds,
tobacco, and sugar-cane. There arc few
prettier towns in Northern Behar than
Bettiah. Its streets are clean and well
kept, and there is an atmosphere of pros-
perity which has been greatly developed,
not by its inhabitants alone, but by the
munificence of the Bettiah Raj which is
situated within its borders. The beau-
tiful snow-capped hills of Nepal make an
exceedingly pretty background, and in the
hottest weather one can enjoy the invigor-
ating cool breezes which seem to be
wafted from them across the intervening
space. All colours of the rainbow are
represented in the beautiful flowers and
verdant foliage which are seen on every
hand, and the efforts of a very active
municipal council to secure conformity and
artistic style in the construction of public
buildings, as well as private residences,
have been conspicuously successful. The
palace of the Rajas of Bettiah is the chief
attraction for visitors, but it is by no
means disgraced by being in the company
of the handsomely designed and well-
equipped King Edward Memorial Hos-
pital, facing the maidan, which is one of
the most up-to-date institutions of its kind
in the Province. This home of healing has
been built, fitted throughout with the latest

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

scientific appliances and apparatus, and
endowed by the Bettiah Raj. The new
town hall, high school, and other build-
ings are' also worthy of inspection.

It may be added that the hospital was
opened by Sir Charles Stcuart-Baylcy,
Lieutenant-Governor of the Province, on
March i6, 1915.

Chopra, the headquarters of thi- district
of Saran, is situated on the left bank of
the River Gogra.

Early in the eigliteentli century the
English, French, Portuguese, and Dutch
had factories there, but the commercial
activities of the town were seriously
affected by the deflection first of the
Ganges, and subsequently of the Gogra,
rivers. An outbreak of plague occurred
in the year 1900, and again in 1902 and
1903, and many panic-stricken people left
the town and district. Confidence has
been restored to some extent, however, and
at the present time a considerable trade
is carried on in the export of linseed, raw
sugar, shellac, saltpetre, and opium.

The district of Darbhanga has a large
export trade in rice, indigo, wheat, grain,
pulses, fruit, vegetables, and oil-seeds, and
its chief town, bearing the same name, has
excellent means of communication witli
Calcutta and other places, not only by
means of railways, but also by boats which
ply upon the Baghinati River.

Darbhanga tlie town -extends for a
distance of nearly six miles along the east
bank of the above-named river, which is
spanned by two iron bridges constructed
by a rich banker of the town and by one
of the Maharajas of Darbhanga. Some
very fine tanks are distinctive features of
the place, three of these — constructed in a
line— having a total length of 6,000 feet,
while others range from 1,600 feet to
2,400 feet, with a breadth of 1,000 ft.

The Maharajas of Darljhanga liave
had their residence here since the year
1762.

Hajipur. in the district of Muzaffarpur,
is interested largely in trading in the rich
agricultural products produced in sur-
rounding villages, consisting of indigo,
co'.ton, pulses, rice, grain, copper and
brass vessels, linseed, tobacco, saltpetre,
fruit, and vegetables. Several temples
and mosques are to be seen, not only in
the town but also in neighbouring villages.

Motihari. — This town occupies an at-
tractive position on the eastern side of a
pretty lake, and has a population of about
14,000 inhabitants.

As the chief town of the district of
Champaran, which consists of an area of

highly cultivated and productive land, it
is naturally a busy centre for the disposal
of agricultural produce, but many of its
inhabitants are also engaged in oil-press-
ing, the weaving of dhurries, and the
making of strong money bags and mats.
Muzaffarpur, situated on the Chota
Gandak River, and about ^^J miles
distant from Calcutta, was founded by
Muzafifar Khan, and is the headquarters
of the district of the same name. It
enjoys a very considerable trade in ex-
porting agricultural produce, including
cereals, indigo, hides, linseed, cotton, and
saltpetre, and in importing different kinds
of mercharidise, and the greater portion
of this traffic is carried on by means of
boats upon the River Gandak, which is
navigable for many miles during the
rainy season. Daily markets are held in
the bazars. The streets of the town are
broad and well-kept, while many of its
buildings are of a superior character, such
as the coUectorate, court houses, a dis-
pensary, and several schools, some of
which are supported by the Behar Scien-
tific Society.

Samastipur is a very large trading
centre in the district of Darbhanga, and
the town on the south bank of the Burhi
Gandak River is an important junction on
the Bengal and North-Western Railway
systems, in whose workshops more than a
thousand hands are employed.

Municipal government was granted to
it in the year 1897, and its inhabitants at
a recent census were nearly 10,000 in
number.

Sitamarhi. — .\ curious old legend is in
existence to the effect that the lovely
Janaki, or Sita, whose life is described
in the " Ramayana," sprang to life at
Sitamarhi out of an earthen vessel into
which Raja Janak had driven his plough-
share. Apart from this story, however,
the town is worthy of notice as one of
the leading commercial centres of the
district of Muzaffarpur, the chief produce
in trading being rice, oil-seeds, hides,
saltpetre, sacred threads, and pottery. It
has a large bazar in which markets are
held daily.

Sonepore. — It is tolerably certain that
there is not a single sportsman connected
with the turf in India who has not heard
of the delightful racing fixtures and the
festivities which were formerly held
annually at Sonepore in the district of
Saran.

The village is situated at the junction
of the Ganges and Gandak Rivers, and its
charming surroundings present a most

264

pleasing contrast to the " canvas town "
which came into existence when visitors
from all parts of the Provinces of Bengal
and Behar and Orissa — and even from far
distant places — formerly pitched their
tents for these delightful gatherings. The
native fair is still one of the largest and
most interesting in India.

The following towns are in the division
of Bhagalpur : —

The " largest locomotive workshops in
India " are those belonging to the East
Indian Railway Company at Jamalpur, a
municipal town in the district of Monghyr,
and 297 miles distant from Calcutta.
.Nearly ten thousand hands are employed
in the shops, which contain the most ap-
proved types of machinery for the con-
struction of locomotives, and the manu-
facture of appliances requisite for the
maintenance of the permanent way of the
company's system.

The Kurruckpore range of hills, wliich
have an average altitude of about 200 feet,
form a pretty background to the well-
kept roads and neat bungalows of the
town, which, at the census of 1911, had
a population of about 20,000 persons.

Six miles distant from Jamalpur, and
connected therewith by a branch line
of the East Indian Railway Company, is
Aloitjrhyr, a municipal town with an area
of three square miles and situated iibout
208 miles distant from Calcutta. The
chief attraction of the place is a fort with
walls 4,000 feet in length and 3,000 feet
in width, which surround a high mound,
the site of a citadel in earlier days.

A really go-ahead town in this neigh-
bourhood is Bhagalpur, which has pro-
gressed at a remarkaljly rapid rate during
the past few years owing to the greatly
increasing export trade in agricultural
produce and to the establishment of a
number of local industries such as the
manufacture of ropes, carpets, blankets,
the grinding of grain, and the making of
household furniture. In order to meet this
commercial expansion, the East Indian
Railway Company have erected a second
goods station with the view of coping with
the enormous traffic.

Sultangungc, in the district of Bhagal-
pur, and 280 miles distant from Calcutta,
is a flourishing mart whence produce from
the surrounding productive neighbourhood
is carried by boats on the River Ganges
to Calcutta and other important trade
centres. There are a number of Buddhist
monasteries near to the railway station,
together with a famous Sivaite temple

1, 3. 80NEP0RE MALA FESTIVAL. 2. ELEPHANTS AT THE SONEPOKE MALA FESTIVAL.

4. STOCK AT THE SONEPORE MALA FESTIVAL. 5. BRIDGE AT SONEPORE.

Photo by L. A'. Broome.

265

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

standing on a rock in the middle of the
Ganges.

The following are in the district of
Orissa : —

About ten miles distant in a south-
westerly direction is Balasore, on the right
bank of the Burrabulang River and about
six miles distant from the sea-coast. This
is a busy commercial town, but it is
coming more and more into prominence
owing to an influx of visitors during the
summer months, who take up their resi-
dence there with the view of enjoying a
holiday within easy reach of the shores
of the Bay of Bengal.

The chief attraction in Balasore is, how-
ever, the temple of Mahadev, which, ac-
cording to local tradition, sprang directly
from the ground, or, like the immortal
Topsy, has " growed."

The headquarters for administrative
purposes of the division of Orissa are at
Cuttack, a pleasantly situated town on the
Mahanadi River, in the district of Cuttack,
and 253 miles distant from Calcutta on
the Bengal-Nagpur Railway system. The
town has an area of about four square
miles, and extends from the Mahanadi on
the north to the Katjuri River on the
south. A writer, speaking of the pictur-
esque appearance of Cuttack, says: " the
horizon is bounded by a forest of beau-
tiful trees, which extend as far as the eye
can reach, and line the bottom and sides
of a chain of high mountains that seem to
reach to the very sky ; and this charming
prospect with its triple circle of beauties
is enjoyed by the inhabitants all the year
round."

The majority of the public buildings
are of an imposing character and include
the offices of the Bengal-Nagpur Railway
Company, the general hospital, the court
offices, and a number of educational estab-
lishments.

Cuttack is excellently served by railway,
road, and river communications with
places in the district, and with many of
the principal commercial centres in the
Province.

A legend, inscribed on palm-leaf
records in the Jagannath temple says that
the town was founded by Nrupakesari
between the years 953 and 961, and that,
as the site chosen was at a point where the
Mahanadi is divided into several small
streams, massive stone embankments were
constructed to prevent damage accruing
to the buildings by periodical overflows
of water.

It is tolerably clear that Cuttack was

strongly fortified in early days ; its name
even is believed to be connected with the
word " kataka," signifying a fort, and at
the present time visitors may see the
remains of a very old citadel.

In the same district of Cuttack is
Jajptir, historically a very interesting town
built on the banks of the sacred River
Bhaitarani. Near to this river may be
seen temples dedicated to Jagannath and
Kali, but the latter has special attractions
for visitors, as a gallery on its eastern
side contains seven life-sized monolith
statues of the mothers in Hindu myth-
ology, namely, Indrani, Varahi, V'aish-
navi, Kumari, Yarna Matri, Kali, and
Rudrani, together with one of the incarna-
tion of Vishnu.

Pari. — It is barely twenty years since
the Bengal-Nagpur Railway Company, im-
pressed by the invigorating climate and
the health-giving breezes of the sea at
Puri, on the shores of the Bay of Bengal,
extended their system by a branch line,
27 miles in length, from Khurda Road.
The opening of the line resulted in such
a marked development of the town that it
is to-day visited by a large number of per-
sons from Bengal and other portions of
India. Hotels and boarding houses have
been opened, and the numerous handsome
villa-residences in the neighbourhood of
the beach are evidence of the growing
popularity of the place.

Puri is, however, famous primarily as
the place of the venerated shrine of Jagan-
nath, visited annually by some 300,000
pilgrims, and for the yearly car festival
of that deity, which is attended by no
fewer than 100,000 persons. A sacred
enclosure, about 652 feet in height, has
within it about a hundred temples, but
the one dedicated to Jagannath is by
far the most attractive one. The cere-
monies connected with the car festival are
described in a cyclopaedia of India ( 1905)
as follows: " A good broad road, about
a mile and a half in length, leads from the
temple of Jagannath to a place called
Inderdumna, where the deity is supposed
to spend eight days during the Rathjatra
festival. The Jagannath temple, called
' Sri Mundir,' is the largest, and the
entrance to it is called the ' lion gate,' two
stone lions keeping guard 'as it were on
either side. In the courtyard of the
temple pilgrims assemble at special times
during the day and night to get a view
of the images of Jagannath, and Bolaram
his brother, and Suljhadra his sister, which
stand on an altar called the ' Rutna Bedi,'
or jewel seat.

366

" The figures are decked witli fine
jewellery and gaudy dresses, and a large
diamond glitters on the forehead of
Jagannath. The dresses are changed
several times during the twenty-four
hours. ' Bhog,' or prosad, is offered to
the god several times during the day; it
is piled up before the deity; a large por-
tion is distributed to the pilgrims who pay
for it; and the rest is sent to Anandbazar,
a place within the compound of the temple,
for sale to the public. A fortnight before
the Rath Jatra festival, the Snan Jatra, or
bathing festival, takes place. Jagannath
is bathed, and then remains indisposed for
two weeks afterwards, during which time
the doors of the temple are kept closed,
although his car, with sixteen wheels, and
the smaller ones of his brother and sister,
are being made ready. On the auspicious
day the three sacred images are placed
on their respective cars amid great shout-
ings and rejoicings, accompanied by the
beating of drums and the clashing of cym-
bals. Thousands of pilgrims prostrate
themselves before the cars, and vast num-
bers catch hold of the towing ropes and
commence hauling them to Jagannath's
garden at Janakpur, a distance of nearly
a mile, where the god remains for ten
days."

About 133 miles distant from Calcutta
is Rupsa junction, on the Bengal-Nagpur
Railway system, which is connected with
Baripada, the headquarters of Mayurbhanj
(the largest and wealthiest of the Feuda-
tory States of Orissa) by a branch narrow
gauge line — 33 miles in length — con-
structed by the State. This means of
communication has resulted in a large
development of trade in the district in
paddy, firewood, and railway sleepers,
and the permanent settlement of a con-
siderable number of persons who are
engaged in the reclamation of jungle land
for agricultural purposes.

The town of Sambalpnr, created a
municipality in 1867, is the terminus of a
branch line starting from Jharsuguda
junction on the Bengal-Nagpur Railway
system. It is the principal town of the
district of the same natne, and is 350 miles
distant from Calcutta.

In the neighbourhood of many of the
vast waterways of India one may be con-
stantly charmed with the ever-varying
freshness of riparian vegetation, and the
picturesque surroundings of the countless
number of private bungalows which peep
out from the luxuriant foliage of tropical
trees, and a good illustration of this is
seen in the neighbourhood of the Mahanadi

BEHAR AND ORISSA

River, upon whose banks the town of
Sambalpur is built.

Sambalpur is a great centre of com-
merce, dealing largely with agricultural
produce drawn from its surrounding
villages and from the districts of Sone-
pur, Patna, and Kairakhol. Industries are
few in number, although the weaving of
tassar silk and cotton cloth is carried on
by a numl)er of the inhabitants.

The following towns are in the division
of Chota-N'agpur : —

Chaibassa, the municipal town in the
district of Singhbhum, is prettily situated
on the River Roro, and its name, whicli
means " a dwelling place of rest," is richly
deserved. Its principal street has the
appearance of a peaceful, old-world
English village thoroughfare, in which
dwelling houses and shops are irregularly
but charmingly built among a profusion of
grand old trees, but there seems to be
little in the way of industrial or commer-
cial enterprise excepting on Tuesday in
each week, when crowds of people from
the surrounding neighbourhood flock into
the town to dispose of their wares in the
busy bazar. The town is 184 miles distant
from Calcutta.

Chulia, about two miles distant in an
easterly direction from Ranchi, is a
delightfully interesting place for archae-
ologists as it contains fine ruins of a once
dome-shaped building. Another special
feature is the annual fair, at which an
e.\ceedingly large number of animals are
offered for sale, these comprising iilmost
every type of four-footed beast 'excepting
jerce naturee) from massive elephants to
the domestic goats.

Very little attention was paid to the
value of the mineral wealth of the Province
until about the middle of the nineteenth
century, but rapid strides have been taken
since that time in opening up coal and
other mines, with the result that a very
large industry, employing thousands of
workers, has now been firmly established.
Since the East Indian Railway Company
extended their system to the district of
Palamau, the coal fields in the neighbour-
hood of Daltonganj '422 miles distant
from Calcutta) which were known to con-
tain most valuable deposits, have been
opened up by a number of companies, and
the total annual output is increasing very
considerably. Lime, too, has been dis-
covered, and it is certain that the town,
which now contains a population of about
8,000 persons, will soon be an important

anufacturing centre.

The station at Giridih, on the East
Indian Railway Company's system, is the
terminal point of a branch line, 23 miles
in length, running from the junction at
Madhupur, and the town, which has a
population of about i 1,000 inhabitants, is
the headquarters of a subdivision of the
district of Hazaribagh. The Kurhurbarec
coalfields — from whose mines the East
Indian Railway Company draw the major
portion of their coal — are c[uite near to
Giridih, and it is these collieries which
account for nearly the whole of the very
heavy goods traffic on the railway.

— together with Hankipore- is the head-
quarters of the Government of Behar and
Orissa. There are a number of industries
in the town, such as the pressing of oil-
seeds, the pounding of aloes, weaving,
gardening, and the making of cane and
basket ware.

Purulia is the headquarters of the dis-
trict of Manbhum, and is about 200 miles
distant from Calcutta.

The town of Ranchi is most pictur-
esquely situated on a plateau, some 2,000
feet in height, and enjoying commanding
views of fertile plains, which are inter-

■J..,ijatMMI

^af:...

^* * T^Btff?* '

1— -»; — -•—•»--» pi ^ tri!!'!"*'"''' ■'■"'"■■■'''

Bf'V-i'i^55:r5iir'l*^>^J-^'^

1. A TEMPLE AT MUZAFFARPUR. 2. GOVERNMENT SCHOOL, MUZAFFARPDR.

Picturesquely situated among hills
covered with dense forests, is the town
of Hazaribagh, which is near to the station
of Hazaribagh Road on the East Indian
Railway system, and about 2 1 5 miles
distant from Calcutta.

The town, by reason of its bracing
climate at an altitude of 2,000 feet above
the level of the sea, is regarded as a most
desirable sanatorium by the inhabitants of
the Province of Behar and Orissa. The
name of Hazaribagh is said to be derived
from a grove of mango-trees, about a
thousand in number, and the village, as
it then was, eventually grew into a town-
ship which is locally referred to as " the
garden of a thousand trees." The district
furnishes many attractions for sportsmen
as it is well stocked with tigers.

A station of considerable importance on
the northern section of the Bengal-Nagpur
Railway is Purulia, the junction of a 2 feet
0 inch gauge branch line to Ranchi, which

267

spersed by rocky promontories, with the
long, low range of the Ramgarh Hills in
the distance. This elevation, coupled with
the fact that any excessive rains disappear
quickly down the sides of the plateau, give
the town a remarkably healthy and in-
vigorating climate, and a comparatively
low temperature enables the occupiers of
the many pretty private residences to cul-
tivate a wealth of beautiful flowers, which
give visitors the idea that they have been
suddenly transported to English gardens.
Bungalows inhabited by the Commissioner
of the district of Ranchi, and of other
prominent residents, are very charmingly
situated amid a profusion of foliage near
to the Ranchi Lake, which is a very fine
piece of water about 50 acres in extent.
The business portion of the town com-
prises native bazars, thronged by villagers
of the neighbourhood, who carry on a
brisk trade in agricultural and general
produce. The principal buildings are the

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Government offices and a strikingly hand-
some cathedral, surmounted by a grace-
ful spire which can be seen from a great
distance.

On the shores of the lake is a Hindu
temple dedicated to Siva, and about three
miles distant is the military cantonment of
Doranda.

The station of the Bengal-Nagpur Rail-
way Company at Ranchi is 273 miles dis-
tant from the terminus at Howrah. A
motor-car service has been established
from Hazaribagh Road station on the East
Indian Railway to Bagoda, the town of
Hazaribagh, and thence to Ranchi.

The Feudatory States of Orissa are
twenty-four in number, the names of which
are: Athgarh, Athmallia, Bamra, Baramba,
Baud, Bonai, Daspalla, Dhenkanal, Gang-
pur, Hindol, Kalahandi, Keonjhar, Khand-
para, Mayurbhanj, Narsinghpur, Nayagarh,
Nilgiri, Pal Lohara, Patna, Rairakhol,
Ranpur, Sonpur, Talchar, and Tigiria.

These States are attached to the division
of Orissa, and have an area of 28,125
square miles, and are inhabited by a popu-
lation of more than 3,000,000 persons.

Mr. L. E. B. Cobden-Ramsay, I.C.S.,
in the "Bengal Gazetteer" (19 10)
writes as follows: "The States have no
connected or authentic history. Compris-
ing, as they do, the western and hilly
portion of Orissa, they were never brought
under the Central Government, but from
the earliest times consisted of numerous
petty principalities, which were more or
less independent of one another.

" They were first inhabited by abori-
ginal races, chiefly Bhuiyas, Savars,
Gonds, and Khonds, who were divided into
innumerable communal or tribal groups,
each under its own chief or headman.

" They carried on incessant warfare
with their neighbours on the one hand and
the denizens of the forest on the other. In
course of time their hill retreats were
penetrated by Aryan adventurers, who, by
reason of their superior powers and in-
telligence, gradually overthrew the tribal
chiefs and established themselves in their
place.

" Tradition relates how these daring
interlopers, most of whom were Rajputs
from the north, came to Puri on pilgrim-
age and remained behind to found king-
doms and dynasties."

The States consist of a succession of
ranges of hills (from which noble peaks
ascend to heights varying from 2,000 feet
to nearly 5,000 feet), dense forests, and
well-watered valleys of highly cultivated
land, but the outstanding feature is the
remarkably pleasing effect produced by
the contrast between rugged grey rocks
and the brilliant green foliage of the
luxuriant vegetation.

It is the variety in the scenery which is
so charming, for the eye may rest upon
the freshness of growing crops of rice,
mustard, sesamum, wheat, barley, or
cotton, while the hills with their beautiful
verdure are not a whit less pleasing, and
a never-failing source of delight is fur-
nished by the crystal rivers which flow

along the plains, or rush from higher lands
through narrow gorges, plunging over
precipitous rocky mountains with a sheer
drop of more than 2,000 feet.

It will be readily understood that the
almost impenetrable jungle and the more
sparsely populated portions of the States
are well stocked with the large species of
wild game. Elephants are still numerous
in several of the States; bison are usually
found in the same districts ; and tiger.';
and panthers are met with everywhere;
while the smaller animals, which are plen-
tiful, comprise bears, various kinds of
deer, pigs, wild dogs, and jackals.

Fully two-thirds of the population
obtain a livelihood from agricultural pur-
suits, and the majority of them belong to
peaceable law-abiding tribes, among whom
are the Khonds, Hos, Bhuiyas, Bhumijes,
Oraons, Santals, Kharias, Savars, and
others.

Local industries are comparatively few
in number, and are not in any way remark-
able. They comprise the manufacture of
brass utensils, silver articles, tasser and
cotton cloth, and a variety of iron imple-
ments for agricultural and domestic
purposes.

Very little progress has been made with
regard to education, but primary and
secondary schools have been erected in
the majority of the States in recent years,
and already there are signs of a greater
interest being manifested in this most
important matter.

THE BEHAR PLANTERS' ASSOCIATION, LTD.

TNDIGO was a product of North Behar
■*■ long before the advent of the British,
but its cultivation by European methods
appears to have been started by Francois
Grand, the first Collector of Tirhut.
Writing in 1785, three years after his ap-
pointment as Collector, he claims to have
been the pioneer of the industry, and
says: —

" I introduced the manufacturing of
indigo after the European manner, en-
couraged the establishment of indigo
works and plantations, and erected three
at my own e.xpense." It is at least from
this time that the manufacture of indigo
began to develop into an industry and to
attract European enterprise. In 1788

By thk Hon-. T. R. FILGATE, CLE.

there were five Europeans in possession
of indigo works; in 1793 the number of
factories had increased to nine, situated
at Daudpur, Saraiya, Dhuli, Ottur (Athar),
Shahpur, Kanti, Motipur, Deoria, and
Banaria; and by the year 1803 altogether
twenty-five factories had been established
in Tirhut. During these early days the
industry was directly fostered by the East
India Company, and special permission
had to be obtained by Europeans wishing
to engage in it. In 1802, however, the
Board of Directors passed orders that no
further advances or pecuniary encourage-
ment should be given to planters, as the
large profits obtained from the sale of the
product made such aid unnecessary.

268

Indigo accordingly became an inde-
pendent and self-supporting industry, the
pioneer planting industry in Bengal.

Its progress in Tirhut during the ne.vt
few years was rapid, though there appear
to have been many failures, probably
owing to over-production. In a report
submitted in 1 8 1 o, the Collector stated
that, taking one year with another, the
district seldom sent less than 10,000
maunds of indigo to Calcutta for export
to Europe; that 30,000 to 50,000 souls
received their principal support from the
factories; and that on the average each
factory disbursed from Rs. 25,000 to
Rs. 30,000 per annum in hard cash to the
labourers and cultivators for some miles

BEHAR AND ORISSA

round the various concerns. He estimated
that in this way not less that six or seven
lakhs of rupees were circulated every year
by the planters in Tirhut, and urged that
the advantages of the industry to the
labouring classes were so great that
Government should encourage it in every
possible way. " Let the speculator win
or lose," he wrote, " acquire a princely
fortune or die a pauper, the district is
equally benefited by his industry, and liis
struggles for prosperity do rarely suc-
ceed. Some of the planters succeed,
but the majority of them fail." Diffi-
culties appear to have arisen later through
the competition of rival concerns, and
in 1828 the Collector represented that
indigo cultivation had extended so greatly
that some restriction upon it was desirable
for the benefit of the district. " From
the misunderstanding," he wrote, " which
has prevailed and still prevails among the
European planters, disputes with one
another are of very frequent occurrence:
disputes have, however, of late occurred
through descendants of Europeans em-
barking in indigo cultivation, worked
chiefly, if not entirely, by native agency.
For the peace of the district and welfare
of the established planters, it therefore
appears highly desirable that the Govern^
ment restrictions regarding the erection of
factories by Europeans should be extended
to the descendants of Europeans, and
power be vested in the magistrate to pre-
vent engagements for the cultivation of
indigo plant by other than the proprietor
or proprietors of one established factory."

In 1850 there were no less than 86
factories in Tirhut, several of vvhi,h were
used for the manufacture of sugar, but
about this time sugar was finally super-
seded by indigo as the European industry
of the district, and many refineries were
converted into indigo concerns. Difficul-
ties were at one time threatened by the
feeling of tension between the ryofs and
the factories, produced by certain abuses
whi'.h had crept into the system of culti-
vation; but the danger was averted by
the planters themselves, who, in 1877,
formed the Behar Planters' Association in
order to put matters on a satisfactory
footing.

The Behar Planters' Association, as far
as can be ascertained, is the senior asso-
ciation in the Province of Behar and
Orissa. .\s there evidently was an asso-
ciation of some sort in 1801, certain by-
laws were framed and agreed to on the
22nd of February in the same year, while
on the 4th of June, 1837, another code

was drawn up to be observed by planters.
The Indigo Commission in Lower Bengal
in the year i 860 were evidently of opinion
that indigo planting in Behar was carried
on satisfactorily, as paragraph 135 of that
report says: " We should recommend the
planters to consider seriously whether a
system on the basis of that existent in
Tirhut be not feasible, i.e. the crop should
be valued on the ground and paid for on
an estimate there and then made upon
classification of the crop." In the early
seventies constant complaints were lodged
in the Criminal and Civil Courts, and the
leading planters of that time were deter-
mined to do their best to remove the
abuses and blots on the system, and after
consultation with the Bengal Government,
the Behar Indigo Planters' Association

JHERRIAH CLUB.

was formed, the constitution being a paid
general secretary, an honorary general
committee, consisting of four members
each from the districts of Mozufferporc,
Chumparun, Durbhanga, and Sarun, a
district committee of nine members for
each of the four districts [one who acted
as hon. secretary), and the Calcutta
Committee.

The Government of Bengal in their
letter No. 3,987, dated August 29, 1877,
to the Government of India, in paragraph
12, state: " In reference to the final para-
grajjh of your letter 1 am to say that as
long as the .Association show their present
willingness to meet the Lieutenant-
Governor's views and get rid of tlie
obvious blots on the system, the
Lieutenant-Governor has no intention of
interfering in any way or of doing any-
thing which can hamper the planters in the
conduct of their business. All he desires
is that the law should be strictly obeyed,
and that indigo planting should be carried
on like other commercial enterprises with-
out such frequent complaints over the
necessity for executive interference which
have hitherto characterized it."

The Government of India, replying to

269

the Government of Bengal, in their
letter No. 321, dated December 17,
1877, said: " In reply 1 am to say that the
Lieutenant-Governor's action in reference
to this question appears to the Governor-
General-in-Council to have been very
judicious, and will, His Excellency-in-
Council hopes, prove successful in putting
a stop to, or at all events greatly diminish-
ing the abuses which have prevailed in
the system heretofore in force in Behar.
His Excellency-in-Council also cordially
aiknowledges the praiseworthy efforts
made by the leading planters in the
direction of reform, and concurs with the
expression of the Lieutenant-Governor's
satisfaction herewith quoted in paragraph
I 2 of youi letter."

The Association has loyally adhered to
its bond made with Government, and
whenever complaints were brought to its
notice with reference to any member's
dealings with his mallicks, ryots, or
brother planters, which were not in ac-
cord:uice with the Association rules and
by-laws, matters were immediately put
right, and it has been recorded over and
over again in Government Reports that
the Beliar Planters' Association has been
of considerable help in the administration
of North Behar. In the general survey
and settlement Report of the Mozufferpore
district, paragraph 907, page 354, the
following words appear: "The agricul-
tural classes, however, have the more
tangible advantage of knowing the
ordinary indigo planter to be a good, con-
siderate landlord, and it is an axiom of
the Association that the successful culti-
vator is one on good terms with his
tenants. The general tone in this respect
is thoroughly sound and good, and the
Government, the indigo community itself,
and the cultivators, are largely indebted
to the Indigo Planters' Association for its
introduction, as well as for the cordial
relations that exist between indigo
managers and the lo;al administration.
Ihe peace and contentment now existing
is in strong contrast with the relations
which prevailed before the .'\ssociation
was founded." In the Bengal Annual
Report of 1871-2 we read: "During the
Lieutenant-Governor's visit to North
Behar he was in some places met by
crowds making complaints regarding
indigo cultivation in a way that had not
occurred to him in other districts, but
almost all these complaints had reference
to one somewhat overgrown factory. The
whole subject is one which requires care-
ful management, as very little action, or

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

even a few words, might cause great com-
plication on one side or other. On the
one hand the Lieutenant-Governor would
be very unwilling to injure one of the most
prosperous and profitable industries in the
country, and on the other hand he is
inclined to think indigo has already occu-
pied as large a proportion of certain
descriptions of soil in the densely popu-
lated district of North Behar as is desir-
able."

This extract and similar ones which
might be produced from the reports of
the following years indicate a degree of
tension between the factories and their

the Behar Indigo Planters' Association,
deserves our special acknowledgments for
advice and co-operation." The final
Report of the survey and settlement opera-
tions in the district of Monghyr-North
(1906), para. 341, has the following: "It
was not to the planters' interest to enliancc
rents or harass the tenants in any other
way, and hence here as everywhere in
Beh.ir the indigo planter as tllikada has
been, as a general rule, a most considerate
landlord."

On April l, 1905, the Viceroy, Lord
Curzon, in reply to an address of welcome
at Pusa from the Behar Planters' Associa-

JHERRIAH TOWNSHIP.

ryots, yet the area under indigo has very
largely increased since Sir George Camp-
bell published the remarks above quoted.
Indigo planters of younger generations
would do well to remember that it was
their Association, which accomplished these
results.

" Paragraph 908. — My general conclu-
sions then are that the indigo industry
confers a very natural benefit pn the
district, it has saved many a proprietor
from inevitable ruin; it has brought im-
mense profits to the poorest and most
depressed portion of the population, and
the political and administrative advantages
that occurred to the Government cannot
admit of question." In the final report
of the survey and settlement of the Chum-
paran District 1893 to 1899, para. 624,
it is recorded that, " outside the depart-
ment, Mr. Macnaghten, the secretary of

tion said: " One needs but small acquaint-
ance with Indian history to know that the
indigo planter here represents the pldest
British industry in rural Bengal, that the
enterprise has given employment to hun-
dreds of thousands of inhabitants of the'
country, and that their famous and tra-
ditional loyalty has for nearly half a cen-
tury presented to the Government one of
the finest volunteer regiments in India, by
some of whose members I had the honour
of being escorted to-day, and who carried
the name of Behar and of its Light Horse
to glory on the battlefields of the
Empire."

The Viceroy, Lord Minto, in reply to
an address of welcome from the Behar
Planters' Association at Bankipore on
February 7, 1906, said: " Perhaps you
will allow me to say I have heard of the
planters before this; I have heard of
270

them as country gentlemen of the right
sort, and good men of business, and I
think they will not object to my saying as
hard riders and good sportsmen also."

" Vou may well be proud of the con-
tingent you sent to South .Africa which did
so well there, and material such as that
of which you are composed, drawn from
men accustomed to the evcry-day experi-
ence of an outdoor life, will in my opinion
always be invaluable to the leader of
mounted troops." In reply to an address
of welcome from the Behar Planters'
Association to His Excellency the Viceroy,
at Bankipore, on December i, 19 13, Lord
Hardinge said: " You have played an
important part in making Behar, and
specially Tirhut, the prosperous country
it is "; and again: " By working as mem-
bers of local and district boards and
giving your time to the ' Punchayats ' in
the chowkidari union you are contributing
to the progress and well-being of the
people among whom you live, and are
identifying yourself with their interests,
while those among you who are helping on
the furtherance of the system of co-opera-
tive credit are rendering great services ic
the agricultural classes by showing them
the way to shake themselves free from
debt and lift the condition of their life to
a higher plane."

In closing a conference held at Dar-
jeeling on May 9th and i ith, 1910, His
Honour the Lieutenant-Governor, the late
Sir Edward Baker said: "The present
conference had again brought out the
value of the Behar Indigo Planters' Asso-
ciation to the industry in Behar, without
whose assistance it would have been diffi-
cult, if not impossible, for Government to
have arrived at an arrangement in a satis-
factory manner to all parties. Confidence
had been reposed in the planters who in
the recent disturbances had behaved ex-
ceedingly well in spite of the danger in
which they were placed, and His Honour
desired to express again his hearty appre-
ciation of the forbearance, self-restraint,
and good temper which they had exhibited
in circumstances of difficulty and even
danger."

In 1897 the placing of synthetic indigo
on the markets of the world was a veritable
bolt from the blue on the indigo planter
of Behar. The Association at once took
up the question of research, andJ nothing
has been left undone in their endeavours
to save the industry. The financial por-
tion of the work has been heavy, as from
June 1898 to November 191 5 a sum of
Rs. 8,04,119 has been spent, including a

BEHAR AND ORISSA

• Government grant of Rs. 4,72,661. The
highest award possible was granted for
this display of indigo at the British-
Japanese Exhibition at Shepherd's Bush
in 19 10, while a similar honour was
received at tlic Coronation Exhibition in
London in 191 i. The Behar planter, witli
true British grit and determination, though
doing all in his power and straining every
nerve for the preservation of the indigo
industry, has turned his attention to sugar,
tobacco, flax, and other crops, and the
planter of to-day is more of a general
farmer than a specialist in indigo only.
The Association, keeping its primary and
main object in view, has however, changed
its constitution in order to meet new con-
ditions and so as to bring into membership
not only indigo planters but those who
produce sugar or other crops. In February
1905 the Behar Indigo Planters' Asso-
ciation became the Behar Planters' Asso-
ciation and a limited liability company was
formed ; directors appointed in propor-
tion to the total votes of each district (but
not to exceed sixteen in number), taking
the place of a general committee, and dis-
trict directors superseding district com-
mittees. The annual general meeting
elects the general secretary, who is paid
an annual salary, while the directors elecX
their chairman and vice-chairman every
year. There are standing committees for
" legal subjects," " indigo," " sugar," and
" other crops," and each of these deals
with its own particular subject, and also
elects its chairman and secretary. Under
Lord Moj-ley's scheme of enlarged legis-
lative councils the Secretary of State
allotted one seat to representatives of
indigo or tea, and at the first Bengal
Council the seat was taken by a tea-
planter. The Behar planters, however,
had one of their number on the Council,
who was unanimously elected by the
District Boards of the Tirhut Division to
represent them, and as the majority of the
members of district boards are Indians,
it is a proof of the confidence of the
mallicks and ryots of North Behar in
the Association that they returned their
general secretary. When the new Pro-
vince of Behar and Orissa was created, a
seat was allotted to the Behar planters,
and their present general secretary repre-
sents them on the Council. In considera-
tion of the stake they hold in the country
of their adoption, the Behar planters
asked for a seat on the Imperial Legis-
lative Council, but this request has not yet
been granted. Several of the estates are
now managed by the third and fourth

generation of descendants of pioneers, and
tenants fly to the factory manager with all
their troubles in times of stress, or for
medicine for themselves, their families, or
their cattle. The planter settles innumer-
able differences between them; he is in
thorough touch and sympathy with the
people among whom he spends his life,
and in times of natural calamities such
as famine, floods, or out-breaks of cholera
and other fell diseases, his help is most
valuable, not only to the people them-
selves, but to the Government, in seeing
that there is no waste of public money and
that funds are properly distributed. He
has, previously to the establishment of the

PILLAR OF ASOKA, CHAMPAKAN

large councils, studiously held himself
aloof from politics, and now only takes
part in them that his voice may be heard
in connection with any measures calculated
to raise the status of the people, or to
advance the interests of the Province,
and to support with all his power the
supremacy of the British Raj and loyalty
to the King-Emperor. In no part of India
are there more cordial relations existing
between Europeans and their Indian
neighbours of all classes, and the agitator
has signally failed to stir up racial ill-feel-
ing between them. The best British tra-
ditions are still existent in North Behar,
and in proof of this it may be observed
that when the election of the District
Board representative took ])lace for the
Behar and Orissa Council in 19 12 the
planters of Behar did not put forward a
candidate but gave their full support to
an Indian who had been a member of the
Bengal Council and who was eventually
returned unopposed. Individual planters
can and have done much, but had it not

271

been for the existence of the Behar
Planters' Association and the members
thereof working in a body as fair-dealing
English gentlemen, the planting com-
munity of Behar would not hold such an
exalted position as it does in the esteem
of the people and the Government of the
country.

In the year 1877 no fewer than sixty-
eight concerns were represented in the list
of members, and in 1914, despite the hard
times the industry had to face, the number
was sixty-six.

The late (afterwards Sir) William Hud-
son, K.C.I.E., was general secretary from
May 15, 1878, to February 3, 1890, when
he resigned, and the late Mr. E. R. Mac-
naghlen held office from the last-men-
tioned date to January 28, 1905, when
he died.

Mr. T. R. Filgale, C.I.E., was ap-
pointed to the vacant position on April
27, 1905, and he still holds the reins of
office. The late Messrs. W. A. Cox and
C. R. Macdonald occupied the chair of the
Association from 1905 to 1914, and the
present holder of the office is Mr. D. J.
Reid.

BARRAH ESTATES, LTD., AND
CHAMPARAN SUGAR COMPANY, LTD.

Many of the indigo and other planters
in Behar hold a similar position to that
formerly occupied by owners of cotton
concerns in the Southern States of
America, as they have plenary powers
of jurisdiction in disputes between
Indians, but in many instances these
honorary magistrates, as they may be
termed, act in a friendly manner as arbi-
trators rather than as strict adherents
to the letter and not the spirit of common-
law procedure. Mr. G. R. Macdonald,
the manager of the Barrah Estates, Ltd.,
and of the Champaran Sugar Company,
Ltd., has, through his long experience of
Indians and their ways, gained the con-,
fidence of the inhabitants of a very wide
area, and his assistance in the settlement
of matters is accepted with the greatest
respect.

The area of the Barrah Estates — that is,
the total sphere of the manager's control
— is about 60,000 acres, but the part cul-
tivated by the company directly consists
of 3,000 acres of indigo, 2,000 acres of
sugar, and about 1,000 acres of wheat,
oats, barley, and tobacco. The balance
of the land is let out to ryots,. The
property is only a quarter of a mile dis-
tant from the post and telegraph offices

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

at Bara-Chakia, and a quarter of a mile
from the railway station at Chakia.

In regard to the early history of the
estate, according to local tradition a fac-
tory was built by a Mr. Stewart about
the year 1820, and estate documents are
still existent which show that indigo was
in cultivation in the year 1828. The
managers in the earliest days of the con-
cern included Messrs. Stewart, Moran
Henry Hill, Captain Hickey, Henry and
Joseph Hill and H. L. Hollway. Mr.
A. S. Urquhart was in power in 1857-8,
and he was followed by Messrs. W.
Gibbon, J. N. Macqueen, James Begg;
F. J. Nicolay, E. A. Hickey, A. D.
Bolton, John C. Gale from 1880 to 1892,
D. R. Crawford from 1895 to 1903. and
in November of that year Mr. Macdonald
took up the reins of office.

The outworks are Jagoulia, Mohojvah,
Russclpore, and Gowandrah, and the
average annual yield of indigo is about
6J seers of the Sumatrana type and 10
seers for that emanating from Java.
There are very large pressing and drying
houses on the concern, and the total vat
capacity is about 70,000 cub. ft.
Samples of the manufactured product
are sent to London and Calcutta, and the
bulk is sold in whichever place the best
market prices can be obtained.

The crushing of sugar was commenced
in the year igo6, although it is known
that a factory was erected between the
years 1840 and 1850. The machinery in
the mill at the present time is up to date
in every respect, and it includes a crush-
ing plant by Harvey & Co., of Glasgow.
Manufacture is done by what is called
the carbonation process. Limestone is
placed in a kiln with coke, in the pro-
portion of ten to one, and then burned,
the carbonic gas being forced direct from
the ki^ln through the tanks, this being
the late.st method of manufacture.

The mill is able to deal daily for 100
■days in the year with 300 tons of cane,
which gives an average return of 8 per
cent, of sugar to cane. There is a great
demand for the sugar made, as caste
prejudices are scrupulously observed in
the processes of manufacture. Nearly
the whole of the output is disposed of
locally and to the Native States in the
Punjab.

Cereals are grown on well-manured
land, and the yields of the various crops
are : wheat 18 to 20 maunds to the acre,
and oats 15 maunds. Tobacco is only
grown upon lands which are sub-let to
tenants.

The bungalow is a substantially built,
handsome, and commodious structure,
containing forty-four rooms, and it is
surrounded by a large number of very fine
old trees and neatly kept grounds.

There arc three European assistants
employed in connection with indigo, and
about 200 native hands are required con-
stantly, although the number engaged on
piece-work or daily pay brings the total
to about 1,500, while at the sugar factory
there are two European assistants and
350 coolies during the crushing season.

(^
BEHAR MOTOR WORKS

India h.is not been so much of a sealed
book to Europeans who arrive at Bombay
or Calcutta on a pleasure trip as it was
three, or even two, decades ago, as places
of interest can now be reached comfort-
ably and with little loss of time owing to
the greatly increased means of inter-com-
munication. Railways have been opened
in every possible direction. They wind
along in serpentine fashion scaling moim-
tains of intense beauty, and they span
rivers which in earlier days were prac-
tically insuperable barriers ; but it is to
motor-cars and cycles that the tourist of
to-day owes so much. The gharries and
1>ullcck -carts of township and \illage were
absolutely useless for sight-seeing in
many districts, as distances were too
great or the country was too broken, but
now, thanks to modern progress, the
traveller in his speedy and comfortable
motor-car thinks nothing of a spin of 150
or 200 miles, or of hills which it would
be too much to expect any horse to climb.

This latest method of getting about
is now rendered more practicable from
the fact that in every town of any size
— and, indeed, in many villages — there are
motor agencies in which repairs to cars
can be quickly executed, and in which
accessories and spare parts of all kinds
may be procured. One of these in-
valuable establishments is situated at
Muzaflfurpur, in the district of Tirhut,
and is known as the Behar Motor Works.

It was established by the proprietor,
Mr. H. W. Crane, in tlie year 1908,
and the business has extended so rapidly
since that date that considerable enlarge-
ment of the premises has recently been
necessary. Agencies are held for many
of the leading cars now on the market,
and the London representatives of Mr.
Crane are ever on the alert to recommend
and supply any improved car or fittings.
Repairs are undertaken, under the super-
272

vision of the proprietor, by skilled work-
men, but constant employment is also
found for about twenty Indian labourers.

BELSUND CONCERN

Indigo is one of the most valuable
products of some of the districts in the
Provinc.:: of Behar, but authentic records
as to the earliest date when it was culti-
vated by Europeans are not available.
There is no doubt that it is the product
of an indigenous Indian plant {/ndigofera
tinctoria), and a reference to it as " In-
dicum " by Pliny, who lived more than
eighteen hundred years ago, proves that
it was not unknown to early Roman
writers. It is stated definitely in Indian
history that when the Government of
the year 1788 compiled a list of Euro-
peans who were not occupying official
positions in the district of Tirhut, in
Behar, it was found that of twelve persons
thus scheduled no fewer than ten were
engaged in the planting of indigo.

Mr. Minden Wilson in his most inter-
esting handbook on the " History of
Behar Indigo Factories" (1908) says;
" In Germany in the seventeenth century
indigo was denominated ' the devil's dyi .
and by an Imperial edict its use was pro-
hibited in A.D. 1654, as it appears to have
caused a considerable decrease in the sale
of wood, and Mr. Bancroft tells us that
the Nurembergers exacted every year a
solemn oath from the dyers to the effect
that they would never have recourse to
indigo as a dye. So little was the nature
of indigo known at the time in Europe
that the Elector of Saxony denounced it
as a corrosive substance not fit for man
or devil."

The Belsund Indigo Concern, situated
about thirty miles distant from Muzaffur-
pur, in the district of Muzaffurpur, Tirhut,
is interesting froin the fact that the
Makurry lease of its factory is dated
1794, and was given by Rajah Mustafifa
Khan. Outworks were built at Bagwan-
pore, Sukereah, and Boijnathpore in the
year 1846, and at Belai in 1861, but the
second and third named have since been
abandoned.

The estate at ])resent comprises 4,500
acres of cultivated land, consisting at the
present time of 3,000 acres of indigo,
1,000 acres of wheat, oats, and barley,
and 500 acres of rice, although agricul-
tural operations were commenced in 1794
with indigo and sugar-cane alone.

Mr. D. J. Reid became manager of
the estate in the year 1903, but he sub-

BAREAH ESTATES, LTD^ AND CHAMPAHAN SUGAR COMPANY, LTD.

I. UUNOALOW. 2. IXDIUO FACTORY. 3- SUGAR FACTORY. 4. EVAPORATING I'LAXT.

211

BELSUND CONCERN.
I AND 2. Wheat Ckop at Belsuxo. 3. Manager's Bungalow.

274

4. Factory Bltluings.

BEHAR AND ORISSA

sequently purcliased a share in the con-
cern, and since that time has been
managing proprietor. Proof of the
thoroughly systematic and careful manner
in which the property has been managed
is shown in the complete records disclosed
by cash, ledger, and other books, from
which some interesting particulars have
been obtained.

Owing to the competition of the
synthetic product many indigo concerns
in Tirhut have had to abandon the cul-
tivation of indigo, but by the combination
of indigo with the cultivation of cereals
Belsund Concern has managed to weather
the storm, and even in the worst of years
has always managed to show a fair profit.
In former days the estate had about
6,000 acres under indigo, and although
the area now has been reduced by half,
the actual production of dye has not been
proportionately affected, owing to the fact
that in 1905 a new variety of indigo was
introduced from Java. This variety of
indigo was found to be particularly well
suited to the kind of soil found in the
Belsund estate, with the result that the
return of dye per acre was increased by
fully 50 per cent. During recent years
also the quality of the indigo manufac-
tured on the estate has been enormously
improved, and from being one of the
worst marks in the province it now ranks
among the best.

As is universally the case in Behar,
the soil on the Belsund estate varies
greatly. The best lands, of course, are
always selected for wheat, and an average
yield of about 16 maunc^s (1,280 lb.) is
obtained. Oats, which are generally sown
on the poorer soils, average about 12
maunds to the acre, and rice, which is
all hand-planted, yields from 16 to 25
maunds per acre.

The bungalow at Belsund is an excep-
tionally fine building, being built in the
usual palatial style of most of the old
factories in Behar. The nearest railway
station is at Sitamarhi, thirteen miles dis-
tant, and there is a post and telegraph
office at Belsund itself. One of the
features of the estate is an ample supply
of water, which is a great blessing in
years of drought, as it enables irrigation
to be conducted over a large proportion
of the cultivation.

Two European assistants and some
three hundred Indians are regularly em-
ployed on the estate, although the latter
are greatly increased when necessary.

BELWA CONCERN

There is no more fertile soil in Behar
and Orissa than that in the district of
Champarun, but during recent years agri-
culturists and villagers alike have suffered
enormous damage owing to terrible river
floods, and the Belwa estate, in that
district, affords a striking instance of the
overwhelming force of disadvantageous
conditions over which the owners have
no control.

Mr. A. C. Amman, the managing pro-
prietor of Belwa, has a sad tale to tell
of the exceedingly severe losses which
fell upon him and upon the inhabitants
of many of the eighty villages under his
control which are comprised within the
area of the above estate. He points out
that a considerable portion of the land
between the Dwarda and Pandayi Rivers
has always been subject to floods from the
overflowing of these streams, but the
waters have subsided in due course, and
very little damage has been done. In
October 19 15, however, a most disastrous
flood occurred, which swept away villages
and live-stock, destroyed harvested crops,
rotted growing ones, and completely
buried in sand some 75 or 100 acres of
rich agricultural land, and Mr. Amman
maintains that " this was caused by the
action of the Trebeni Canal and the
Bengal and North-Western Railway em-
bankments upon the volume of water
discharged into the Belwa dehat (or
neighbourhood) by an abnormal rain-
fall." This canal, says Mr. Amman,
" appears to be designed against all pre-
conceived ideas. A canal is usually
aligned to flow along the natural line of
drainage of the country which it is re-
quired to drain or irrigate, and there-
fore it ordinarily runs parallel to the
course of adjacent main rivers, with which
it interferes as little as possible ; but the
Trebeni one cuts across the watershed of
the Nepal tarai, intersecting, almost in-
variably at right angles, the innumerable
hill streams and rivers which at intervals
of distances of three miles form a network
on the Champarun frontier, and constitute
the natural drainage of the country. The
recent frequency of floods in North Cfam-
parun is due to the canal embankment
(10 ft. in height), which dams up every
petty rainfall until it accumulates,
breaches the embankment, and, escaping
as a flood, forms a huge lake, extending
up the slope of the country for a third
of a mile, submerging and rotting the
crops and destroying homesteads. The
railway embankment, too, crosses the

275

natural course of the water-flow, divert-
ing it and causing the ruin of villages
and lands on the western side of the
line." Mr. Amman estimated the damage
done to eight or ten of his villages at
Rs. 6i,ooo, and the loss at his own
bungal; w, buildings, and bazaar at
Rs. I 5,000.

The boundaries of the estate, including
the villages, are the River Uriya, some
twelve miles distant from the bungalow
on the east, and the Masan stream, twelve
miles to the west, while the north and
south limits are respectively nine and four
miles distant.

.■\bout three hundred acres are culti-
vated on behalf of the proprietors, and
the principal crops are rice, Indian corn,
yellow mustard, wheat, barley, and gram,
while a quantity of indigo is grown for
the purpose of obtaining good seed, which
at the present time is in very great
request throughout the Province of Behar
and Orissa.

Rice, which is the chief product, fre-
quently gives a return of 35 maunds to
the acre, but a fair average yield for the
whole crop is 17 maunds. .A mill has
been erected at Bhiroganj, adjoining the
railway station, and its eight hulling
iTiachines, driven by two steam engines
(by Marshall, Sons & Co.), are able to
deal each day with 800 maunds of rice.
This factory is known as the B.B.A. Rice
Mills, and is owTied by Messrs. Bion,
Broncke, and Amman, while Mr. R. S.
Bion is managing proprietor.

.\1I cereals give fair average returns,
especially oats, which yield 1 7 maunds
to the acre, and the bulk of these crops
are grown chiefly for home consumption.

Dealing in hides has in recent years
been established as a branch business, but
transactions are limited to local pur-
chases and sales.

Two bungalows, substantially con-
structed of brick in the years 1901 and
igio respectively, are most conveniently
situated almost in the centre of the estate,
and not more than a quarter of a mile dis-
tant from the post and telegraph offices
and railway station at .Amolwa, while the
outbuildings, consisting of stables, ware-
houses, and sheds for the housing of
implements and the storage of general
produce, are of a very superior character.

Lessees on this estate pay annual rents
at the rate of four rupees to the bigha,
and their expenses of cultivation amount
to Rs. 25, but the preparation of new or
previously uncropped lands would cost
fully Rs. 40 for the same area. The

BELWA CONCERN.
I, The Snows above thk Ramnagar Hiuu. a. Bklwa Hotsi;.

3. View from Top of Bvxgalow.

276

] M

BBLWA CONOBEN,
I. Rice Miu. at Bhairooang. 3. IxttRioR ok Rice Mat.

277

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

bigha is not a fixed standard of measure-
ment in the district of Champarun, as
it varies very considerably in size, ranging
from o"5i of an acre in the south, and
increasing gradually in a northerly direc-
tion, until at Belvva it represents about
2i English acres.

About thirty pairs of bullocks and five
elephants are required for general work
in the fields.

Mr. Amman retains the management
of the entire estate in his own hands,
and he usually employs about fifty Indian
labourers.

BENIPORE

The lease of this concern, dated 1834,
was given to a Mr. Henderson, then
manager of the Hatte-Oustee factory,
whose right to build was challenged by
Mr. John Gale, of Pundoul, as the latter
gentleman claimed that Benipore was
within the borders of his dehat. The dis-
pute was settled by the two places being
worked together until the year 1890,
when Mr. G. N. Wyatt, who had become
the owner of the whole concern, disposed
of the Benipore portion to Mr. Percy
Jones and others. At the present time
(1916) the owners of Benipore are Mr.
W. K. Dunsford (temporary managing
proprietor), Mr. Percy Jones, and certain
members of the latter's family, who cul-
tivate about 2,000 bighas for their own
use, while the area of the estate over
which they have control measures six
miles in length by about four miles in
width. The productive portion ronsists
of 100 bighas of sugar, 1,000 bighas of
indigo, 150 bighas of wheat, 150 bighas
of oats, and about 600 bighas of paddy.

Indigo of the Java and Sumatrana
types gives an average yield of about
eight seers to the bigha, and the harvested
crop is sent to the factory, which has a
vat capacity of about 24,000 cubic feet.
About 200 maunds of indigo are manufac-
tured yearly, and the whole of this quan-
tity is either shipped direct to London
or sold in Calcutta.

There is a small sugar-mil! at Benipore,
which is capable of crushing 400 maunds
of cane daily. The boiling process is
carried out in open pans by means of
six boilers, and after the product has been
allowed 'to settle in tanks for a couple
of weeks it is passed on to two centri-
fugal manufacturing machines. Non-
granulated brown sugar is also made, and
a very satisfactory price is obtained for
jt in local markets. The milling

machinery includes a very fine boiler
— using crushed cane as fuel — and it has
a well-built chimney which is particularly
noticeable.

A steam threshing machine is used for
wheat, oats, and paddy, and an abundant
supply of water for all purposes is ilerived
from an adjacent river, upon which the
owners possess riparian rights.

The proprietors have about twenty-
eight pairs of bullocks on the concern,
but the ploughing and other agricultural
work on the estate requires the use of a
far larger number of oxen, and the latter
are hired from the tenants. A good bull
is kept by. the owners for stud purposes.

of ordinary consumers of freshly-plucked
fruit, but it is a somewhat serious matter
for industrial concerns like the Bengal
Preserving Company, who are unable at
present to obtain a sufficient supply for
manufacturing purposes.

The business of this company was
established by the proprietor, Mr. B. C.
Sinha, of Muzaffurpur, in the year 191 o
for preserving fruit, the principal kinds
being mango, lichi, pineapple, and pear.
The factory premises, covering about an
acre of land, adjoin the owner's private
residence at the above-named town, where
he practises as a pleader, and they
are equipped with modern machinery.

THE BENGAL PRESERVING COMPANY.

DiSI'LAV OF PKESKRVES.

A small market is held every Tuesday
upon the property, which is twelve miles
distant from the post office and railway
station at Sakri.

Practically all manufacturing is done
at the outwork of Hursingpore, which is
some four miles distant from the principal
bungalow.

Mr. Dunsford, who has one European
assistant, usually employs about a
hundred hands.

THE BENGAL PRESERVING COMPANY

The varieties of fruits grown in the
district of Muzaff'urpur are not so
numerous as in some other divisions of
Behar, and market reports show clearly
that the quantity produced annually is
considerably below the actual demand.
This shortage is not only the experience
278

obtained from New York, all of which,
including the sterilization plant, is driven
by steam. The annual output is about
one hundred thousand bottles and tins,
and large stocks of all kinds of preserves
are kept in a very fine storeroom. An
overhead tank holds a sufficient quantity
of water for use throughout the factory,
and the utmost cleanliness is observable
in every branch of work. Tins to con-
tain jam are made on the premises, and
are packed for dispatch in boxes, each
containing two dozen.

Calcutta is the principal market for
these goods, although a considerable
quantity has been exported to London
and the Continent of Europe, while still
more recently consignments have been
sent to the United States of America.

The preserving season continues during
the months of May, June, July, and

I. liEXII'OKE IJUXGAI.OW.

BENIPORE CONCERN.
2. Genekal View of Faciohv. 3. Cattle.

4. Cane-crlshixg Mux.

279

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

August, and about seventy hands are
required during this portion of the year.
A branch has been opened in Calcutta
for the sale of jams, jellies, chutneys, and
condinients of all kinds.

"^
BTREAH CONCERN

The total area of land comprised in
the Byreah Concern in the district of
Chumparun is about 22,000 acres, and

The original bungalow was built about
the year 1885, but it was destroyed by
fire, and another was erected in 1887.
Adjoining it are an exceedingly pretty
garden and ornamental grounds, in addi-
tion to a large area planted with vege-
tables, and the fine outbuildings include
nice offices, a cake-house capable of hold-
ing 1,000 maunds of indigo, and stables,
built on arches, for fourteen horses.

The whole of the land on the concern,.

which are sent to Calcutta, are sold
locally.

Byreah is situated in that portion of
the district of Champarun known as the
" old river country," which, prior to the
construction of embankments, was fre-
quently flooded, and low-caste Indians of
the fisherman class, attracted thither for
the purpose of earning livelihoods, are
now employed as coolies by planters.
.Mr. Hudson finds constant work for about

I. BLXGA1.0W.

BYREAH CONCERN.

2. Bamhuo AVEN'L'K.

3. Factory.

the portion cultivated direct from the
factory consists of 1,200 acres of indigo,
600 acres of oats, 200 acres of barley,
sugar-cane, and native produce, together
with 70 acres of tobacco grown upon land
which is leased to native tenants.

It is ascertained from early historical
records that the factory was erected in
1884 by Mr. C. F. Carlton, who was
manager from that year until 1890, and
again from 1891 to 1894, when it was
sold to Mr. H. Hudson, who placed Mr.
W. A. Cox in charge. Mr. H. E.
Hudson, the present proprietor and son
of Mr. H. Hudson, managed the concern
in 1905, and Mr. H. C. M. Gale has had
control of the concern since 1 9 1 1 .

including the outwork at Nowton, four
miles distant, consists of first-class soil,
upon which irrigation is unnecessary, and
the average yields of all crops are most
satisfactory.

Java indigo is grown at Byreah, as
it has been found to be more suitable
than the Sumatrana variety, and a return
of about 14 seers to the acre may usually
be relied upon. An ample supply of
water is pumped from a lake to the fac-
tory, in which steam power is used, and
the manufactured produce is either
shipped direct to England or is disposed
of in Calcutta. The total capacity of the
vats at the two places is 36,000 cub. ft.
Other crops, with the exception of oats,

280

250 of these under the supervision of
Mr. Gale and one European assistant.

Some sixty-five pairs of bullocks are
kept for cultivation of the land, and the
modern farming machinery and imple-
ments, including a steam threshing
machine, are kept in good working order .
by labourers attached to the carpentering
and repairing shops on the concern.

Byreah is six miles distant from the
railway station and post and telegraph
offices at Bettiah.

"^
BHICANPORE AND JAPAHA CONCERNS

Permission was given by the East
India Company for the erection of an

Bhicanpore Blxgalow.

BHICANPORE AND JAPAHA CONCERN.
2. SfGAR Factory. 3. Vats at thk Japaha Indigo Factory.

4. Manager's Busgalow, Japaha.

281

I. Stkam Plough Exgixf,

BHIOANPORB AND JAPAHA CONCERN.
2. Cane CKOr. j. Evaporatixg Pans.

4. Skollkk C.wk Ckishixg Mul.

282

BEHAR AND ORISSA

indigo factory at Bhicanpore, in the dis-
trict of Tirhut, in the year 1819, and the
letter addressed by the Commissioners
of the Company to a Mr. Cahill author-
ized him " to hold 50 bighas of land "
required by him for that purpose. The
property now comprises 5,000 acres, the
productive portion consisting of 2,000
acres of sugar-cane, 1,500 acres of indigo,
and 1,500 acres of wheat, barley, oats,
mustard, and other crops.

The land has been thoroughly well
ploughed with steam tackle, and enriched
by being manured with a crop of green
flax turned in, with the result that the
concern verifies the truth of the adage
that there is nothing in the world more
grateful for good treatment than the
soil.

Dealing first of all with sugar, which
occupies the largest area of the concern,
it is observed that the cane is sent in
carts to the cane carrier and conveyed to
the splitting, crushing, and roller-mills,
the refuse being elevated to boilers and
subsequently used as fuel for raising
steam.

The juice is pumped tlirough bo.xes of
sulphur fumes prior to being heated, and
it is subsequently passed on to the defica-
tion plant, from which the clarified juice
is transferred to eliminators for the re-
moval of more impurities, the latter under
pressure being passed through press
filters. Following upon these measures
the product is pumped into settling tanks,
from which the juice is filtered through
Taylor's filters and then through Har-
vey's " Triple " evaporator, leaving those
as a clarified syrup, which is boiled in the
vacuum pans and converted into sugar.
The syrup leaves the pans as a mixture
of sugar and molasses, going into a
receiver with agitators which keep it in
motion, and from there it is charged
into the centrifugal machines, when the
molasses is separated from the sugar.
The latter is then conveyed by the use
of elevators to the sugar floor, and after
passing through a drier it is either
crushed or kept as grained sugar, accord-
ing to the demand, and is then packed
in double gunny bags containing 200 lb.

A considerable quantity of the output is
sold locally, but the greater portion is
consigned to the Punjab and the North-
western Districts.

The season for crushing cane extends
from December to April, and the average
yield of sugar is i ton to 14 or 15 tons
of cane.

The sugar factory and an excellent

sugar store (which cover eight acres of
land, and are erected on the banks of a
beautiful lake, from which a good supply
of water for all purposes can be obtained)
are commodious buildings, constructed
of brick, and equipped with excellent
machinery, which is able to crush about
three hundred tons of cane in a day of
twenty-four hours.

The head indigo factory is at Bhican-
pore, where there is a very fine bungalow,
charmingly situated in a nice garden, and
occupied by Mr. G. L. Richardson, the
managing proprietor. There are also
four out-factories (indigo), managed by
European assistants, and sugar-cane and
indigo grown at these places and at the
head factory are sent by cart to the sugar
factorv.

CHITWARRAH CONCERN

The Chitwarrah concern is a portion
of an estate in the district of Muzaffarpur,
belonging to an old indigo company
whose headquarters were at Shahpore
Mircha the mokararie pottah being dated
in the year 1799, but it became a separate
property about forty-five years ago,
having been purchased by the present
manager's father and other partners. The
property now belongs to the estate of
G. D. Blake, deceased, and is under the
control of Mr. G. C. Blake, and is,
roughly, about nine miles by four miles
in extent, the greater portion of the land,
being now a Zemindary, the ryots of the
forty or more villages being tenants of
the proprietor.

The cultivation of indigo has always
been the staple industry of the concern,
but the factory was closed in 19 12 owing
to unsatisfactory prices prevailing for the
manufactured product. During the season
of 19 1 5, however, a small quantity of
indigo was again sown, and in the present
year (19 16) about 850 bighas have been
planted, the whole of the remainder of
the estate being cropped by inatives with
country produce.

There are three old graves in the
garden near the principal bungalow, one
of them undated, but the other two bear-
ing inscriptions showing the burials to
have taken place in the years 1812 and
1838.

Chitwarrah is about two miles distant
from the post office at Mahuwa, nine miles
from the telegraph ofiice and railway
station at Bhagwanpore, and twenty-six
miles from Muzaffarpur.

The management of the whole estate is

283

under the personal supervision of Mr.
Blake.

CHOWTURWA CONCERN

One has to look back to the early
seventies of last century to obtain par-
ticulars of the property which was the
first portion to be purchased of the very
extensive estate of Chowturwa, in the
district of Champaran, now in the
hands of Messrs. Broucke Brothers, as
thikkadars in the Bettiah Raj. The late
Mr. W. J. Broucke secured a considerable
quantity of land at Bhurpurwa, in the
district of Gorakpur, and other tracts
have been obtained from time to time,
until now, in 19 16, the area comprises
a large stretch of country on the northern
bank of the Naranie River, together with
an area seven square miles in extent —
known as Mudhbunny — situated on the
western side of the Naranie River and
running in a westerly direction to the
Gorakpur border.

The principal crops grown at Chow-
turwa for a considerable number of years
were sugar-cane, and various kinds of
country produce, chiefly rice, oats, wheat,
barley, maize, and huldi, were in evidence
at Mudhbunny ; but the cultivation of
cane has been discontinued in favour of
indigo. Sugar was manufactured under
what is known as the " country " system
until 191 5, but the factory at Chowturwa
has now been altered and equipped with
machinery and plant to meet the new
order of things.

About 1,000 acres of the estate were
planted with indigo during the season
19 1 5- 1 6, and, if the present favourable
prices for the product are maintained, the
area under this crop will be very con-
siderably extended. A new factory,
designed on modern principles and
equipped with up-to-date machinery, is
now being erected at Mudhbunny.

The question of the steps to be taken
for the improvement of the various breeds
of cattle in Bengal has been under the
consideration of the Government of tfve
province for the past twenty years, and
although valuable suggestions on the sub-
ject have been made in a Report by the
Director of Agriculture of Bengal in
191 5, the matter is one which must be
eventually solved by individual breeders
possessed of sound, practical common
sense, who are prepared to spend both
time and money in attaining the object
in view.

Messrs. Broucke take a deep interest

I. CHOWTt'RW* Bl'NOALOW.

OHOWTURWA CONCERNS.
3. Elephants, 3, Mi'ohbunny Bvkoalow.

4, Elephants.

384

I. SU(MK-MAKI\'».

OHOWTURWA CONCBEN,

J. MAKK "BUCHIK." 3. BfUI..

4 AN'ii J, Farm Bulls.

2S3

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

in this subject, and they now possess a
herd of nearly 2,000 head of fine breeding
cattle, descended from selected bulls
which are allowed to run with the cows.
' Heifer calves are reared for the main-
tenance of the herd, but there is always
an excellent demand for surplus male
stock.

A flock of about 500 country-bred
sheep is kept at Chowturwa, and, with
a laudable desire to produce large-bodied
animals able to give a fair weight of good
mutton, the partners, about five years ago,
imported from England a Hampshire
Down ram, but, unfortunately, this sire
succumbed to the intense heat of the dis-
trict. Since that time other rams with
large frames have been obtained from the
Government Experimental Farm at Pusa.
and from the Gorakpur and up-country
districts, and it is hoped that better
success may attend this venture.

Rents are paid to the Zemindary by
all the tenants of 40 to 50 villages on
the northern bank of the River Naraniie,
and about 25 or 30 larger ones on the
southern side, and the crops grown by
the ryots on these lands are disposed of
in local bazaars.

Messrs. Broucke take more than an
ordinary interest in the welfare of the
people residing on their estate, and
among the numerous forms in which
assistance is rendered to them, the first
place must be given to a banking business
which has been established solely for their
benefit, whereby they are enabled to
obtain temporary financial aid at a much
cheaper rate than that which is demanded
by the average Indian moneylender.

Attractive bungalows have been erected
at Chowturwa and Mudhbunny, and other
buildings, including stables, stores, and
sheds, are well constructed and possess
all modern conveniences.

The headquarters at each place are
conveniently near to a railway station,
and there are postal facilities at the fac-
tory, and telegraphic offices at Bagaha
and Lowria, ten and twelve miles respec-
tively distant from Chowturwa.

The estate is controlled by three
brothers — namely, Messrs. P. Broucke,
who resides at Mudhbunny; L. Broucke,
at Bhurpurwa; and W. W. Broucke, who
lives at Chowturwa and is manager of
the whole property.

C. R. CLAYTON-DAUBENY

Indigo was somewhat extensively grown
in former years at Ryam, in the district of

Darblianga. which is within the dehat of
180 square miles under the control of
Mr. C. R. Clayton-Daubeny, but since
the cultivation of that plant was discon-
tinued the whole of the estate has been
dealt with on the Zemindary system, a
portion of the land being devoted to the
production of sugar-cane, rice, wheat,
barley, linseed, and other crops. The
registered office of the company is at
1 23/1 Halsey Road, Cawnpore, the
capital and debentures are Rs. 4,00,000
and Rs. 3,00,000 respectively, and the
managing agents in India are Messrs.
Begg, Sutherland & Co., of Cawnpore.

The total area under sugar-cane of the
Bhuri variety is about 5,000 acres (in-
cluding 400 acres belonging to Mr.
Clayton-Daubeny personally), and a fair
average yield is about 10 tons to the
acre.

The company have erected a very sub-
stantial 400-ton mill, and it is fitted
with a most up-to-date plant (by Messrs.
Mirrilees, Watson & Co., of Glasgow),
which is capable of turning out 25 tons
of sugar daily during the season, from
the 1st of December to the 3 ist of March,

Limestone, required for the carbonating
process of manufacture, is obtained from
Chunar, and is burned in the company's
own kiln of modern construction, which
is fitted with patent lifts not only for
feeding the kiln with stone but also trans-
ferring the crushed produce into the
liming tanks. A special feature of the
mill is that it is so designed that an
individual may take up a certain position
from which he can see the whole process
of manufacture — that is, from the delivery
of the cane and limestone into separate
parts of the machinery until the moment
when, all the various processes having
been passed through, the sugar is cast
out into the prescribed receptacles. The
produce is thereafter put into a grinding
machine, which reduces it to a pure white
powder as fine as salt, and it is subse-
quently used in the making of sweetmeats
in the Native States and the Punjab. The
whole of the manufacturing is done on
the Swadeshi system,, under which a
guarantee is given by the Government
that no bones or other substances
antagonistic to caste principles are used.

An excellent supply of clear water is
obtained from a lake, and all wastage
is avoided, as, after it has passed through
the factory it is allowed to flow in an
open channel for a distance of 400 yards
until it is cooled, when it is filtered and
again employed in the vats.

286

Mr. Somers Taylor, B.A., agricultural
chemist to the Government of Behar and
Orissa, recently conducted a series of
investigations into the character and
quantity of fibre, or refuse matter in
cane, in several varieties of sugar-cane
grown at Sabour, and one of those types,
known as Java No. 33, has increased in
popularity among planters by reason of
its apparent suitability to the climatic
conditions of Behar. Mr. Taylor found
that the average quantity of fibre on this
species was I 5' 5 7, and that the average
fibre on megass was 488.

A tabular report on the subject, in-
cluding remarks' on the effect of different
manurial treatments on the time of ripen-
ing of cane, led Mr. Clayton-Daubeny to
commence experiments at Ryam on a
somewhat similar plan to that adopted
by Mr. Taylor, .\bout three hundred
Indian labourers are employed in the mill
during the crushing season.

There are stores which hold a very
large quantity of sugar, and the molasses
tanks (which were formerly used as
indigo vats) have a capacity of 16,000 ft.
Payment for cane is made to ryots
according to the price of rab or gur,
but as the sum averages about four annas
to the maund the natives have no cause
for complaint.

Sugar is by far the most important
crop at Ryam, although satisfactory
yields of wheat and other cereals are
usually obtained, while it is proposed to
increase the area under paddy. A rice-
hulling machine will in all probability
be erected at an early date.

All buildings at Ryam have been
solidly constructed, and one cannot help
noticing the efficient state of repair in
which they are maintained. First of all
there is the principal bungalow with its
attractive lawns and gardens, and then
there are nice residences for the managers
of the sugar-mill and for other employees.

The range of outbuildings covers an
area of about 1 5 acres, and it includes
engineering and general workshops— in
which the machinery (including a fine
lathe for drilling purposes) is driven by
an oil engine — a locomotive engine-house,
and a large number of stores and sheds
for agricultural implements and general
produce. Electricity is used for lighting
purposes throughout the whole com-
pound. The estate possesses its own
traction engine, which was used for haul-
ing the machinery from the railway
station at Sakri, nine miles distant, and
it is now employed in various ways on

1. RVAM BUXUAUOW.

C. E. CLAYTON-DAUBENY.
2. Polo Pony Group. 3. Fiksi-class Polo Poxv "CoyuErTE. '

4. RYAM UARUE.V.

287

I
I

I. MANACEK'8 BL'NUALOW.

C. K. CLAYTON-DAUBENY.
2. View mosi ihe Lake. 3. Gexekal View of Mill and Binc.alow.

4. The Mill from the South.

288

I, Lime Kiln and Lifts.

C. E. CLAYTON-DAUBENY.
2. Mill and Light Railways. 3. Sugar Factory.

4. View of Mill Yard.

289

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

the estate. The question of transport
is naturally a serious one at Ryam, and
especially so as the public roads in the
distict of Darbhanga are in a more dis-
graceful state than in any other part of
Behar, but Mr. Clayton-Daubeny hopes
to overcome this difficulty very soon by
the construction of a light railway (to
be connected with a siding on the Bengal
and North-Western system) of 2 ft.
gauge, upon which will be run a small
engine and trucks suitable for the con-
veyance of cane and manufactured pro-
duce. Soil and climate are alike suitable
for the cultivation of all kinds of English
vegetables and flowers, and although
visitors from the Old Country to Behar
may have pleasant recollections of the
gardens at home, they will, in fairness,
be compelled to admit that India can give
the most pleasing results in the science
of horticulture.

The River Kamla, with its source in
the independent kingdom of Nepal, flows
through the Ryam estate, and it affords
considerable sport in the shooting of
crocodiles, many of which are of a very
dangerous type.

Leopards, though somewhat rare owing
to the increasing area under cultivation,
may be met with occasionally, and excel-
lent fishing can be had in both river and
tank.

Mr. Clayton-Daubeny is assisted by
Mr. E. M. Nichol, who exercises a
general supervision ; by Mr. Fenton
Miller, who is manager of the sugar-mill ;
and by seven European overseers.

The post and telegraphic offices at
Panda'il are only five miles distant, while
the town of Darbhanga is about thirteen
miles away.

DALSING SERAI CONCERN

One of the oldest indigo concerns in
the district of Darbhanga is Dalsing
Serai, where a factory is said to have been
built in 1794 by a Mr. Teare, or Phaire,
who was manager at the time, and to
whom a lease was given by Dhanessur
Chowdry, Mahunt Alak Ram, Ajab Sing
Chowdry, Khoosi Chowdry, and others.
The managers from the year 1800 in-
cluded Messrs. Johnson, Morgan, William
Sherman, Thomas Martin, W. M. Stewart,
C. Paterson, K. Maclver, H. Spencer, E.
Dalgleish, R. Bloomfield, B. Coventry,
and others, while the managing pro-
prietor at the present time is Mr. F. M.
Coventry. The proprietors of the con-
cern are Messrs. Coventry, Dalgleish,

Harington, Hollway, Spencer, and
Strachan's estate.

The whole of the estate comprises an
area 14 miles by ii miles in extent, but
the portion cultivated on behalf of the
owners consists of 3,000 acres of indigo,
1,000 acres of tobacco, and about 2,000
acres of native crops.

The factory at Dalsing Serai has a vat
capacity of 22,000 cub. ft., while each
building of a similar character at the five
outworks has a measurement of 10,000
cub. ft. A considerable amount of ex-
perimental work, chiefly with regard to
the production of first-class indigo seed
of the Java species, was formerly done
at Dalsing Serai (this concern having in-
troduced this type into India), but the
investigations have, since March 19 13,
been carried on by Government officials in
the botanical section of the Agricultural
Research Institute at Pusa. Intensive
agriculture is practised here, and the
healthy appearance of the crops Js a tes-
timony to the thorough manner in which
that work is performed. Excellent
machinery, driven by steam, has been
erected, and the manufactured produce,
which shows an average return of nine
seers to the acre, is disposed of through
Messrs. Begg, Dunlop & Co., of Calcutta.

There is no other indigo concern in
the whole Province of Behar which has
such a high reputation for the high-class
quality of its indigo. The method of
manufacture, known as the " Coventry "
process, gives to the product the exact
proportion of red in the colouring, and
such excellence has been attained in this
direction that Dalsing Serai is known
throughout the indigo world as the
"colour factory." A silver medal was
awarded at the Paris Exhibition in 1900
to an exhibit sent from this concern, and
a certificate of merit for the best indigo
was obtained at the Behar Industrial
Exhibition, 1907.

The tobacco crop is valued as it stands
in the fields, and is purchased by local
dealers, although the samples of fine
leaves are eventually taken by the Indian
Leaf or the British-American Tobacco
Companies. The yield depends very
largely upon the quantity of manure
worked into the land, but a fair average
return is about 20 maunds to the acre.
Rhea was grown and manufactured in
former years, the product being known
as rami, and although the crop failed in
1907, there is reason to believe that, by
a different form of cultivation, it may
yet become a profitable industry.

290

There is a nice bungalow at each of
the outworks, and the principal residence
at Dalsing Serai is a very attractive
building, surrounded by well-kept
gardens and grounds. It has post,
telegraph, and railway facilities within
half a mile.

The rate of pay for labourers is some-
what excessive in this district, but the
extra cost is counterbalanced to some ex-
tent by the fact that the coolies are more
enlightened and are of better physique
than the average Indian worker. About
six hundred daily hands are employed,
exclusive of a considerable number who
are hired when required.

Mr. Coventry has four European
assistants, and the arable work on the
home farm cultivation is performed by
the aid of 120 pairs of oxen, the
remainder of the cultivation being done
by hired labour.

THE DARBHANGA SUGAR COMPANY, LTD.

The mills of this company are situated
at Lohat, and are connected with Pan-
daul, a station on the Sakri-Jainagar
branch of the Bengal and North-Western
Railway, by a siding four miles in length.

The cane-crushing plant, which is by
Messrs. Mirrilees, Watson & Co., of Glas-
gow, is capable of crushing from about
450 to 500 tons of cane per day.

The sugar manufactured by the com-
pany is from cane purchased in the
district of Darbhanga, and from giir, or
raw sugar, prepared by cultivators. The
whole of the sugar-making is carried on
by a perfectly pure process, and no
obnoxious articles or preparations, such
as bone char, are used in refining.

The managing agents of the company
are Messrs. Octavius Steel & Co., Cal-
cutta.

DHOLI CONCERN

The name of Studd was one to conjure
with in cricket circles in England towards
the close of the nineteenth century, and
it is interesting to note tliat those knights
of both bat and ball were descendants of
one Edward Studd, who was not only a
most successful indigo planter at Dholi,
near Muzaffurpur, in the district of
Tirhut, but was, in addition, one of the
keenest sportsmen in the Province of
Behar. Referring to Mr. Minden
Wilson's book, it is found that there
are records to show that this concern was

DALSING SEBAI.

I. BUXGALOW. 2. INDICO MaXLFACTI RING VATS, SIIOUING Sl'ECIAL IMPROVED COVEXTRV PROCESS. 3. GeXERAL VIEW OF FACTORY. jIT:'

4. Cekiiucate to F. m. Coventry for Best Rhea and Indigo, and Certificate and Silver Medal to B. Coventry for Indigo : Paris Exhibitios, 1900.

2QI

1. LoHAT Sugar Kactokv.

LOHAT SUGAR WORKS.
2, Cane-crushixg Mills. 3. I.vterior of Factory.

4. Caxe-vards, Wagons, and Caxe t-AKKiHis.

292

I. Vats.

DHOLI CONCKEN.
2. Yards and Ofuce. 3- Bixgalow.

293

4. General View of Factory.

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

being managed in the year 1786 by a
Mr. W. Orby Hunter, but that a factory
existed there about that time is only a
tradition among local native inhabitants.
It is believed, however, that it was con-
structed by Captain Sloane, who was
manager from 1823 to 1833, and was
succeeded by Dr. Charles Mackinnon,
brother-in-law of Edward Studd, who
followed in 1848. Six years later Mr.
Studd purchased a share in the Dholi
concern, with its outworks at Birowlie and
Sukri, and the property is now (1916)
owned by Mrs. Studd, Messrs. E. B. T.
Studd and S. F. R. Studd, Mrs. Suther-
land Orr, and Mr. H. C. Hume-Spry.
Dr. Mackinnon was a great speculator,
and held shares in many indigo concerns,
and the brand " C.M.C.K.," which is still
placed upon packages at Dholi, shows the
interest which he had in that estate.
Edward Studd went to the district of
Tirhut at the instigation of Dr. Charles
Mackinnon, his brother-in-law, and when
the latter became financially involved in
considerable losses owing to his dabbling
in sugar, his estates were placed in the
hands of Mr. Studd, who was so successful
that the concerns were not only freed
from debt but were placed in a really
prosperous condition. Mr. Studd was a
remarkably good judge of a horse, and
he was one of the few men in the district
who ever rode a wolf down single-handed.
He succeeded in doing this by posting
fresh horses at intervals along the accus-
tomed route of one of these animals, and
he was thus able to maintain a hot pace
while he was gradually tiring out his
game. When he first retired to England
he leased Halerton Hall, and subse-
quently Tedworth, which belonged to the
Assheton-Smith family. Mr. Studd suc-
ceeded in every venture to which he put
his hand, whether in India or England,
and he died in the year 1876 at the early
age of fifty-seven.

The total area is about 2,500 acres of
cultivated land, including 1,000 acres of
indigo, 350 acres of wheat, 10 acres
of barley, 225 acres of oats, 25 acres of
tobacco, 20 acres of sugar, and 50 acres
of chillies.

Dholi affords a fine illustration of the
generous nature of good land where the
practice of scientific agriculture is
thoroughly carried out. The successful
agriculturist of the present day realizes
that, by proper rotation in cultivation,
he is able to return to the land those
necessary constituents Avhich a succession
of exhaustive crops infallibly removes. A

considerable portion of the land on the
Dholi concern is naturally of a productive
order, and a slight slope in one direction
assists very materially in draining away
superfluous water from a large area, but
such a variety of plants is only grown
with profit by adopting certain systems of
rotation.

Cereals are sown in such parts of the
concern as are not subject to floods, and
two crops are obtained annually during'
seasons with normal rainfall. After the
land has been well worked seed is put
in during the months of October and
November, and the harvest is reaped in
March and April of the following year.
The hot weather which then commences
affords an opportunity for the killing of
weeds and the preparation of the soil
for the next seed-time in July, and the
exceptional results obtained are a con-
vincing proof of the value of this method
of farming.

A certain quantity of manure is applied
yearly, and the effect is seen in the very
satisfactory yields of both wheat and oats,
the former returning 1 2 maunds (and
occasionally 18 maunds) and the latter
18 maunds to the acre. A small quantity
of Indian corn, rice, and tobacco (which
is sold locally) is also produced annually.

Indigo, the principal crop on the con-
cern, in the manufactured state gives
about 16 seers to the acre, although
20 seers have occasionally been secured,
and it is sold in the open market in
Calcutta.

A large amount of money has been
expended on very substantial buildings,
among which may be mentioned three
factories and particularly fine stalls for
nearly forty pairs of bullocks. It has
always been a special feature of the
management at Dholi to have everything
of the best, and this applies with force
to the agricultural implements and
machinery and plant in the factories,
which include cultivators, two threshing
and other machines, and a steam engine
of 25 h.p. An excellent supply of water
is obtained from a river, whence it is
forced by a centrifugal pump to the fac-
tories, which are not more than a mile
and a half distant, and also to some por-
tions of the lands on the concern which
require irrigation.

The bungalow at Dholi is a very
attractive structure, surrounded by beau-
tiful grounds, and it is most conveniently
situated near to a main road, three miles
distant from the railway station, post, and
telegraph offices at Dholi, and about

294

seventeen mile* from the market town of
Muzaffurpur.

Game, with the exception of black
partridge and duck, is not plentiful,
although considerable damage is done to
the crops by nilghai on the Sukri out-
work.

The permanent staff of labourers con-
sists of about six hundred coolies. The
general management of the concern is in
the hands of Mr. W. B. Finch, during
the absence on military duties of Mr.
E. C. Danby, while the assistant at
Birowlie is Mr. B. M. Allan.

DOORIAH CONCERN

Old records from which Mr. Minden
Wilson made extracts when compiling his
history of Behar and Orissa prove that
indigo was being cultivated at Dooriah,
in the district of Tirhut, in the year 1780,
and that John Finch was mentioned as
having a factory there in 1793, he having
arrived in India in 1778. This building
appears to have been constructed by the
Dutch, but the date of its erection is
doubtful, although it is generally ad-
mitted to be one of the oldest in Tirhut.

One of the earliest managing pro-
prietors was Arthur Jones (whose brand

on consignments, — — '-, is in use to-day),

and he was followed by John Finch and
William Howell, until in the year 1845
the factory passed into the hands of the
Tirhut Indigo Association, of London, and
was used in connection with the manufac-
ture of sugar. About twenty years later
the Association sold the concern (which
was again growing indigo) to Messrs. E.
Studd and Lachlan Macdonald, subse-
quent managers including such well-
known planters as Charles Gale, F.
Collingridge, and J. C. Muir, while the
present proprietors (1916), who are in
England, are the representatives of the
late Mr. L. M. Macdonald, for whom
Mr. F. J. S. Mackenzie is manager.

The whole of the estate (of which the
Dooriah concern is a part) covers an area
of 208 square miles (133,120 acres), of
which about 3,490 acres are retained and
cultivated on behalf of the owners as
follows ; Indigo 2,700 acres, oats 270
acres, flax 1 6 acres, and a considerable
quantity of tobacco and other crops.

It is generally understood that Dooriah
indigo has from very early days been
noted for its beautiful colour, and this
fact is duly appreciated in London, where
consignments shipped direct from this

I. Gardkn.

DOORIAH CONCERN.
2. Gexeral View of Factory. 3. Table House.

4. Old Graves in the Garden.

295

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

concern invariably realize the highest
price on the market. This excellent
quality has been obtained chiefly by
thorough cultivation and manuring of the
soil, and by the use of well-matured sound
seed which has been grown upon clean
land. The principal factory, at Dooriah,
is fitted with first-class machinery, and
the steeping vats have a capacity of
37,000 cub. ft., 26,000 ft. of which are
in use at the present time. Practically
every indigo planter in Behar is faced
by the fact that the yield of indican varies
very considerably from various causes,
but the experiments which are being con-
ducted by the Government of India at the
Research Institute at Pusa have been of
considerable benefit in directing attention
to methods of cultivation calculated to
secure a more regular crop. Dooriah
plants give an average annual return as
follows : the Sumatrana type from 4 to
9 seers to the acre, and Java ranging
from 7 to 15 seers. Flax, grown from
seed imported from Russia and Belgium,
covers about 16 acres of land, and the
produce, weighing about 2i maunds to
the acre, is valued at £50 a ton. There
are thirty-six machines, worked by a
portable engine, for scutching the flax,
and the output of the factory has hitherto
been shipped direct to Belgium.

Tobacco is grown by leaseholders on
the estate, and as it thrives remarkably
well, and gives a return of Rs. 1 16 to the
acre, the area under cultivation, which is
now 44 acres, will be shortly increased
very considerably. Several crops are
raised chiefly for home consumption, such
as oats, which yield 16 maunds to the
acre in a good season, jute, sweet
potatoes, carrots, sugar-cane, and salt-
petre.

About seventy-five pairs of bullocks are
required for agricultural work on the con-
cern, which includes three outworks with
bungalows and factories, the latter being
Kurramwarri, with a vat capacity of
20,800 cub. ft. ; Majhowlia, 7,500 cub.
ft. ; and Sharpur, 16,900 cub. ft.

The outbuildings, comprising stores
and sheds, are large and substantial
structures, and the machinery and
implements, all from well-known makers,
include straw-baling presses and thresh-
ing and other machines by.Marshall, Sons
& Co., of Gainsborough, England.

The bungalow is a very fine old build-
ing with a wide veranda in front, and
spacious rooms designed to secure every
possible comfort, and it is one of those
places, frequently seen in Behar and

Orissa, whose homeliness is accentuated
by beautiful gardens and by the luxuriant
verdure of a large number of magnificent
old trees.

Mr. Mackenzie is alone responsible for
the management of the whole estate, and
he employs upon the concern about 150
permanent Indian hands. There are post
and telegraph offices at Deoria, near to
the principal residence, which is I2|
miles distant from the railway station
at Motipur, and about 26 miles from
Muzaflfurpur.

It rriay be added that in the kitchen
garden there are graves of pioneer
planters, men whose names are honoured
among present-day cultivators of indigo.
One of the most prominent of the
tombs is the last resting-place of Mr.
George Christy, who died on August 18,
1812.

DOUDPORE CONCERN

This concern consists of 2,500 acres
of cultivated land, the crops being 1,200
acres of indigo, 450 acres of cane, and
the remaining 850 acres of cereals and
other products grown for home consump-
tion. This property has been in the
possession of the Collingridge family for
more than fifty years, and it is now owned
by Messrs. F., H., and G. T. Colling-
ridge, the last-named managing on behalf
of his co-proprietors and himself. A
lease of Doudpore was given to a Mr.
Powell on May i, 1798, but it is believed
that the factory was built before that
date. There are three outworks, namely,
Mosheri, built in 1822, Arrajpore in 1829,
and Chajun, erected in 1864 by Mr. F.
Collingridge. The history of the concern
prior to the sixties of last century is,
according to Mr. Minden Wilson, very
uncertain, but it appears that in 186 1
Mr. F. Collingridge, Dr. C. Macnamara,
and Mr. J. S. Begg became owners, the
first-named being manager (with a brief
visit to England in 1867) until the year
1876, when he was succeeded by his son
Herbert. Mr. H. Collingridge pur-
chased a share in 1882, and was manager
until 1893, when Mr. G. T. Collingridge,
the present incumbent, took over the
duties.

Both Sumatrana and Java types of
indigo are cultivated at Doudpore, and
the produce is shipped direct to London
unless prices in Calcutta render local
sales advisable. The principal factory is
fitted with excellent machinery driven by
steam power, although a Persian wheel

296

(one of the few remaining in Behar) is
used at one of the outworks for raising
and pumping water. Sugar-cane is sent
to Barrah to be crushed, and the product
is disposed of at the factory at that place.

A considerable amount of money has
been expended in the erection of substan-
tial outbuildings, and one of the most
noticeable of all is the excellent indigo
cake-house.

The approach to the main residence is
through a very pretty and well-wooded
drive, while the bungalow, commanding
extensive views of the surrounding
country, is situated in a picturesque
position on the border of a lake, which
is about two miles in length. Close at
hand are unusually productive kitchen
gardens, wherein the vegetables and fruit
are, like other products of the concern,
of the choicest descriptions, while the
fernery and beds of flowering plants add
greatly to the charm of a naturally
beautiful home.

Seventy pairs of oxen are kept for
ploughing and other arable work, and
many native hands are employed con-
stantly by Mr. Collingridge, who is
assisted in the management by one
European.

The railway station is two miles dis-
tant, at Muzaffurpur, and post and tele-
graph offices are most conveniently placed
at the very gates of the concern.

'©^

DOWLUTPORE CONCERN

One of the most important features of
the Dowlutpore estate, in the district of
Darbhanga, has been the establishment
and successful working of co-operative
societies in connection with the agricul-
tural and financial resources of the
inhabitants of that portion of the
Province of Behar.

It is strange, yet true, that the ad-
vantages of co-operation were recognized
by, and were applied to, various manufac-
turing and industrial concerns and labour
organizations long before they were
deemed to be suitable for agriculture,
and yet it is now almost universally ad-
mitted that there is no object for wliich
they are more peculiarly adapted than
the land and its produce.

India, with her millions of ryots
possessing little or no capital, and who
are handicapped in other ways by being
frequently unable to sell their produce
to advantage, forms an admirable field
for the development of schemes for col-

I. Bungalow.

DOUDPOEE CONCERN.

2. Garuek. 3- Factory.

4. Cake House.

297

J. UOWLUTPORE BlXGALOW.

DOWLUTPORE CONCERN.
J. General View of Factory Bni.Dixus 3. Tobacco Racks.

4. Portion of ioo-Acre Plot of Tobacco.

298

BEHAR AND ORISSA

lective action calculated to benefit com-
munities rather than individuals.

Co-operative societies were first
founded in the area by the late
managing-proprietor, Mr. C. R. Mac-
donald, who was one of the pioneers in
co-operative work in Behar, and the
present success of the movement is very
largely due to his energies and altruistic
inclinations.

The Dowlutpore Central Co-operative
Bank is one of the largest of its kind in
the whole Province, and the fifty affiliated
rural societies, which caused its formation,
will soon be joined by some thirty other
kindred associations, when the present
capital of Rs. 1,75,000 will be increased
to Rs. 3 lakhs. The success of the move-
ment is obvious from the fact that annual
dividends of I2j per cent, have been paid
on preference shares. The Central Bank
has just issued its yearly report for 1915,
which is published in an attractive
pamphlet form, and any one desirous
of learning more about this creditable
enterprise should apply to the chairman
for a copy of this most interesting
report.

The quantity of land in actual posses-
sion of the factory is 2,000 acres, and
this area is let to natives on the
Zemindary system, perpetual leases
having been granted in a few in-
stances. About forty pairs of bullocks
are constantly employed, and Indian
labourers (including weeders) are some
one hundred in number.

The whole estate of Dowlutpore is
eleven miles by three miles in extent,
and Mr. C. G. Atkins is managing .pro-
prietor, while the other partners are Miss
E. MacDonald, Mrs. T. A. Robertson,
Mrs. E. N. Swire, and Miss D. Mac-
Donald, for whom Mr. Atkins is trustee.

It is believed that a sugar factory was
erected here not later than the year 1800,
but the oldest direct evidence concerning
the property is a receipt for rent, dated
1804, given to one John Brown, manager,
by Babu Dhuleep Sing. Indigo appears
to have been cultivated some forty or
fifty years later, and it is observed from
documents that W. C. Baddeley was
manager in 1856, and that he was
followed by F. H. Hollway, H. Spencer,
C. MacDonald, James Crowdy, K. Mac-
Iver, C. Robertson, T. Robertson, and
C. MacDonald, jun.

Indigo was given up in 1914, and the
land reserved by the owners, known as
the " Home Farm," is subjected to inten-
sive cultivation, including manuring with

green hemp, tobacco stalks, cow-dung and
oil-cakes, and this is followed by the
growing of very considerable quantities
of tobacco and chillies. The leaves of
tobacco produced at Dowlutpore, in addi-
tion to some 2,000 maunds purchased
locally, are " rack " cured annually in
an old cake-house on the estate, and the
price obtained is about Rs. 15 per maund.
Chillies, too, are grown extensively, and
the produce gives a return of about Rs. 65
to the acre.

A very good supply of water for irriga-
tion and general purposes is pumped by
steam power from the River Gandak to a
large reservoir, whence it is distributed
throughout the estate.

Quite near to the river is a most attrac-
tive bungalow, but the eye is perhaps
more quickly directed to the fine English-
looking park-like grounds by which it is
surrounded.

The outworks are Ramnuggar and
Meghoul, five and four and a half miles
distant respectively from Dowlutpore,
which has a post office on the property
and is about a couple of miles from the
railway station at Rusera Ghat.

Mr. Atkins is chairman of the Dowlut-
pore Central Bank as well as of the
Roserah Municipality.

The opportunities for pig-sticking are
fairly numerous, and some good shooting
of all kinds of birds and even of crocodile
can be enjoyed.

"THE FARM"

The East has always liad a special
charm for archaeologists, psychologists,
and others who love to delve into
problems connected with the history of
bygone days, " when the world was
young," and many are the valuable
literary works bearing upon these
interesting subjects.

Treatises describing unearthed ruins of
cities and temples of immense size and
great antiquity have been written, the
mythologies of Mussulman and Hindu
have greatly fascinated Western minds,
and the subtle influences of occult
sciences, which appear to be the essence
of life to Indian, Chinese, and other
Eastern races, have had a marked effect
upon the literature of European countries.

One may attend any of the crowded
fairs or religious festivals held periodic-
ally in Bengal and other provinces and
witness strange sights and listen to still
stranger teachings, and curiosity will
instinctively be aroused as to the origin
29;

of such gatherings. Shrines devoted to
the memory of deities are visited by
hundreds of thousands of pilgrims, and
the observance of certain rituals, some-
times weird and uncanny, must of neces-
sity be a source of deep interest to all
intelligent visitors.

These links with the past are dotted
about throughout India, but reference
may be made here to the zemindary
known as " The Farm," situated near to
the town of Lauriya, in the district of
Champaran, upon which there is a very
celebrated stone column (known as Bhim
Sinh's lathi, or club), erected in the third
century B.C. by Asoka, one of Buddha's
disciples. The stone is carved with
names, many of them being English, and
it is believed that underneath the column
some of the ashes of Buddha are buried.
On the summit is a lion carved out of
solid stone, and the natives of the dis-
trict consider this column to be so
impregnable that not even an assault with
heavy guns would demolish it.

Hunter, in his statistical account of
Bengal, writing about this column, says :
" It consists of a single block of polished
sandstone, 32 feet 9] inches in height,
with top diameter of 26 inches and a
base diameter of 35 inches. The capital
is bell-shaped, with a circular abacus
supporting a statue of a lion facing the
north. The abacus is ornamented by a
representation of a row of Brahmani geese
pecking at their food. The lion is injured
in the mouth, and the column bears the
mark of a cannon-ball."

Near to the Zemindary is Tirhut, and
opposite this place, on the borders of
Nepal, is a mountain called Madar Pahar,
on the summit of which is the image of
a god to which chickens are sacrificed
by childless women in the belief that the
rite will eventually cause them to become
mothers.

" The Farm " was started about a
quarter of a century ago by Mr. Norman
Cockell for the Eastern Mortgage Agency
Company, by whom it was carried on until
1900, when it was taken over by Mr.
G. D. Moore, who holds it under lease
from the Bettiah Raj. The property,
about ten square miles in extent, includes
several villages, the majority of whose
inhabitants are ryots holding land under
lease from the proprietor. About 350
bighas have been cultivated — chiefly for
rice — by Mr. Moore, but there is still a
large area which will in due course be
ploughed and sown for crops of country
produce.

I. "Thk Karu" Blxgalow.

"THE FAHM.'
2. Lawn and Garukx.

3. Office 4. Yard axu Stables.

300

BEHAR AND ORISSA

Damming rivers and streams was re-
sorted to for irrigation purposes until the
Tirbeni Canal was opened, and although
the works on this cutting are not yet
actually completed, the water in it is now
used upon the estate. The name of this
canal is derived from three rivers which
join together soon after leaving the hills,
and, according to Hindu traditions, the
site is therefore holy, and has been
marked as such by the erection of a
shrine.

Mr. Moore has recently taken up the
breeding of poultry, and his pens con-
tain a fine selection of white Orpingtons
imported from some of the leading
fanciers in England. These are kept as
a pure strain, and experiments are also
being made by crossing them with white
Wyandottes.

" The Farm " is situated about fourteen
miles distant from Bettiah, and as it is
almost encircled by the railway, there are
three stations — namely, Chainpatia, Sathi,
and Markatia Ganj — within a very short
distance.

.\n interesting relic in the shape of a
coat of steel mail, reputed to be fully
500 years of age, was recently turned
up by a native when ploughing on the
estate, and this article has been presented •
by Mr. Moore to the museum in Calcutta.

"^
HURDIA

This estate, four square miles in extent,
in the district of Champaran, and com-
prising about twenty-two villages, is held
under lease from the Bettiah Raj by Mr.
Roland Hudson, for whom Mr. J. P.
Edwards is manager. About 350 acres
arc cultivated for the proprietor with two
varieties of rice, one being harvested in
September and the other three months
later, and each crop gives an average
return of some 25 maunds to the acre.
The paddy-land is irrigated from a hill
stream, which provides an ample supply
of water.

Wheat, barley, peas, and mustard are
sown on a small scale, and all produce —
beyond that required for house consump-
tion-is disposed of to natives on the spot.
••Xbout twenty-two pairs of bullocks are
kept for ploughing the land, and some
one hundred permanent labourers are
required.

There is a large bazaar on the property
which serves as a trading depot with the
State of Nepal, and the buildings include
the resident's bungalow, together with
stores and sheds which were built in the

year 1869, when Hurdia was an outwork
of the Moorla indigo concern.

The headquarters are about two miles
distant from the railway station and post
and telegraph offices at Raxaul, on the
Nepal border.

HUTTOWRIE

This indigo concern in the district of
Darblianga is a very old one, as it appears
that a factory was erected here by one
John Anderson about the year 1825.
Native tradition says that Anderson was
journeying from Kumtoul with indigo
chests with the view of sending them to
Calcutta by boat, and as he passed the
site where Huttowrie now stands he
inquired if his peon knew the name of
the person to whom the land belonged.
It happened that this servant — Sunfoul
Ray — lived in the vicinity, and it was
through his agency that Anderson
acquired the property.

The managing partner in the concern
at the present time is Mr. Stewart A.
Miller, who purcliased his share in the
year 1901, while the other proprietors are
Mr. Edward Dalgleish (who is the oldest
indigo planter in Behar) and Captain
Spencer.

The area of the whole estate extends
for a distance of fourteen miles on the
west side, two miles on the north, two
miles on the east, and four miles on the
south, and it adjoins Bunhar (formerly
an outwork), in which Mr. Miller has an
interest.

About 1,700 acres liave been cultivated
as follows : indigo, 500 acres ; wheat,
150 acres ; and oats, 200 acres ; while
the other crops are turmeric, tobacco, and
chillies. The Java type of indigo is
grown, as it appears to be very suitable
to this district, and an average return of
about 10 seers to the acre may generally
be depended upon, although 18 seers have
been obtained in good seasons. The
machinery in the factory is driven by
steam-power, and the capacity of the vats
at Huttowrie and at the outwork of
Russelpore (which is nine miles distant
from headquarters) is about 23,600
cubic feet. The cultivation of indigo has
never been discontinued since the con-
cern was started, and the brand of
" P. & O.H. " on the packages of manu-
factured produce is a well-known one in
the London and Calcutta markets.

Wheat of the Pusa varieties Nos. 4 and
12 and oats give a yield of about 16
maunds to the acre, the grain being sold

301

locally, and about 18 maunds are obtained
from peas, while Indian corn grown upon
good land has produced no less than 30
maunds, although a fair average is about
half that quantity. These crops are
raised upon land which has been well
manured with indigo refuse and sheep and
cow-dung. Pastoral farming is limited
to the breeding of a few cattle, a bull
being kept for stud purposes ; and some
of the oxen recfuired for ploughing, which
at the present time are forty-five pairs
in number, are reared upon the estate.

Two rivers traverse the property, and
a sufficient supply of water is run into
a lake, from which it is then conveyed to
all parts of the concern. Huttowrie pos-
sesses a very nice bungalow, commodious
granaries, large compound, stabling, and
sheds ; and it has a useful lot of
machinery, such as threshing and other
machines, and an oil engine, together with
the plant usually found in an indigo
factory.

Rather more than two hundred hands
are employed permanently on the concern,
which is ten miles distant from the post
and telegraphic offices and railway station
at Haiyaghat.

HURSINGPORE CONCERN

The indigo concern of Hursingpore was
opened in the early fifties of last century,
when Mr. C. Strachan purchased the
estate, and records and cash-books dating
from the year 1855 are still in existence,
from which it is observed that the list
of managers includes the names of C.
Straclian, C. V. ."Xrgles, James Bluett,
A. Inglis, Maxwell, J. S. Smith, E. Dal-
gleish, George Bloomfield, C. H. Edgell,
C. Mackay, and others.

The portion cultivated on behalf of
the proprietors comprises 1,200 acres of
indigo and about 300 acres of oats and
other crops, together with about 1.500
acres occupied by ryots, the rotation
being arranged, as far as possible, so
as to avoid having indigo on the same
land in two successive years. A prefer-
ence for the Java type of indigo is shown
on this concern, and, notwithstanding
hindrances to the successful growth of
this plant (an insufficiency of good seed
being the principal one), the average
yield for several years has been about
8 seers to the acre. The capacity of
the steeping vats at Hursingpore and the
out-station of Rahimabad is 25,000 and
10,000 cub. ft. respectively, and the
manufactured produce, which is good in

:. HiTTowRiE Bungalow.

HUTTO'WRIB CONCERN.
2. View ok Lake. 3. Faciorv from the Lake.

4. Wheat Field.

302

I. The Bungalow.

HORSINGPORE CONCERN.

2. HlRSINGPORE FACTORY. 3- JAVA INDIGO SEED PLANT.

303

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

colour, is consigned either to London or
Calcutta.

Turmeric grown on the estate is used
by Indians in the manufacture of dye
and occasionally for flavouring purposes ;
while bamboos, oats, and other crops
appear to thrive well.

."VU the above are planted and sown
on perfectly flat land lying around the
factory and near to a river, from which
a sufficient supply of water could be
pumped by steam to some parts of the
concern, although irrigation of the soil
is not very often necessary. The
majority of the planters' bungalows in
Behar have certainly been built for
comfort, but special care has been taken
to surround them with well-laid-out
gardens and lawns, and the one on this
estate is no exception to the rule. The
outbuildings, too. are commodious and
substantial, and they include the factory
already referred to, stables for ten horses
and twenty-five pairs of oxen, and work-
shops in which chests are made for the
transport of indigo, and where repairs
of all kinds are carried out by competent
workmen.

The Hursingpore estate covers an area
twelve miles by eight miles in extent, and
the residence of the manager, Mr. F. H.
Rawlins, is about seven miles distant from
the railway station and telegraph office
at Samastipur, while there is a post-office
box within the four walls of the factory.

The owners are Mr. C. H. Edgell, the
representatives of the estate of the late
Mr. W. S. Crowdy, and Messrs. Begg,
Dunlop & Co., of 12 Mission Row, Cal-
cutta, who are also agents for the concern.

JALLAHA

Fully i,ooo acres of the Jallaha estate,
near Turcoulia, in the district of Cham-
paran, were cultivated as an indigo con-
cern until the year 191 2, but that industry
was then entirely discarded and native
produce only is now grown, the principal
crop being rice. The area of the whole
property under the control of the
partners, Messrs. J. V. Jameson, F. H.
Manisty, and J. B. S. Hill, is about ten
miles by three and a half miles in extent,
but only a very small proportion is
retained for the personal use of the pro •
prietors, who came into possession in the
year 191 o.

The rice-fields are irrigated with water
from two canals and from the River
Gandak, which forms one of the boun-
daries, and it may be added that the River

Gobindganj-Salempur, which traverses
the property, is one of the few rivers in
India with crossings which are available
at any time of the year. There are three
main roads on one side of this river and
two on the other bank, thus affording
excellent connections between the estate
and neighbouring towns, including Tur-
coulia (thirteen miles) and Motihari
(twenty-one miles).

Jallaha was formerly an outwork of
Turcoulia, the old indigo factory stand-
ing to-day with closed doors and idle
machinery, and some years ago there was
also a large bazaar on the property, but
this was washed away during one of the
many heavy floods which have been
experienced in that part of the province.

The buildings comprise a very fine
bungalow, erected about the year 1900,
a hospital, dispensary, and a number of
warehouses and stores, while the residence
of an Inspector of the Public Works
Department is within a short distance
from headquarters.

.'\bout fifty regular hands are employed,
under the supervision of Mr. Jameson.

JEETWARPORE CONCERN

A lease of the Jeetwarpore Concern was
granted on December 5, 1795, by Babu
Gujraj Sing and Gonesh Dutt Sing in
favour of a Mr. Johnson, who was
manager when the factory was built in
the following year for Messrs. Noel & Co.
The names of owners and managers
throughout the history of Jeetwarpore in-
clude those of men who took a leading
part in planting circles both in the way
of business and in sport. Among them
may be mentioned Mr. W. Sherman, who
was managing proprietor for about forty
years, and the brand " H. & S." (Hogg
and Sherman), still in use, points to the
fact that Sir James Weir Hogg, of the
East India Company, was part-owner
during that period, which expired in
1848. Messrs. John Mackenzie and John
Beckwith followed, and they were suc-
ceeded by Mr. M. J. Wilson, Mr.- J. F.
Mackenzie, Mr. W. M. Stewart, and
others. About the year 1884 the concern
was purchased by Sir W. B. Hudson and
Mr. T. Lamb and others, Mr. A. Mclver
holding a managing share, but the present
proprietors are Mr. R. Hudson and the
representatives of the late Sir William
Hudson.

Included in Jeetwarpore were two out-
works named Doodpore and Husowli, but
these have been partitioned and are now

304

separate concerns, the former belonging
to Mr. R. Hudson and the latter to
Messrs. J. R. Brown and A. Mclver, but
Mr. G. H. Dalrymple-Hay is manager
of each concern, the agents in Calcutta
for Jeetwarpore being Messrs. James
Finlay & Co.

The properties occupy an area of about
fifty-four square miles in the district of
Darbhanga, and 5,000 acres are under
factory cultivation as follows : 2,800
acres of indigo, 80 acres of tobacco, 60
acres of chillies, and the remainder con-
sists of crops of rice and other native
produce for ryofs, and a small quantity
of maize, wheat, and barley.

The indigo crop, sown on rice lands,
suffers from floods during wet seasons,
and this fact accounts for the somewhat
precarious yields, but an average annual
amount for the past few years is about
5 seers to the acre.

There is a factory at Jeetwarpore and
at each of the outworks, and the vats
now in use liave a capacity of 12,000
cub. ft. at the main building and at Dood-
pore and 9,000 cub. ft. at Husowli, but
this accommodation can be increased
threefold at each place in the event of
circumstances rendering this extension
necessary. Steam power is generated for
the machinery throughout the concern,
and the manufactured product is disposed
of in Calcutta.

The whole of the tobacco yield, which
is sold on the spot, gives a return of
Rs. 60 to the acre, but plants of superior
quality show an amount of Rs. 400 for
two crops, while Indian corn, sown in
rotation with the former, realizes about
Rs. 25 to the acre. Sweet pota/toes thrive
exceedingly well, and are much sought
after by the natives, but the cultivation
of wheat and barley is practically re-
stricted to the amount required for home
consumption.

Other buildings than the factories in-
clude a bvmgaJow at each place, but the
doublt-storied one at Jeetwarpore has
particularly attractive surroundings,
standing in its own grounds of about
40 acres, and timbered with many old
and beautiful trees. Chests in which
indigo is packed for delivery are made
on the premises.

About 150 coolies are engaged at a
daily rate of pay, but a considerable
amount of " hired " labour is required
during certain seasons of the year.

The nearest railway station to Jeetwar-
pore is at Samastipur, two miles distant,
where there are also postal and tele-

-«^*-

I. JEETWAKPORE BUNGALOW.

JEETWABPORE CONCERN.

BEATIXU-VATS and some ok the FaCTCKV BLILDrNGS. 3. DOODPORE UUXGALOVV.

4 HcsoWH Factory.

305

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

graphic offices. Doodporc is three miles
from the same station, and Husowli about
three miles from Ujiarpur.

JOGAPORE

The area of control of the proprietors
of the estate, in the district of Saran,
of which the Jogapore indigo concern is
a part, extends for a distance of twelve
miles from north to south and sixteen
miles from the Gandak River on the east
to the Daha River on the west. It
appears that indigo was cultivated on this
spot as far back as the year 1863, when
a Mr. James entered into possession and
erected a factory there and opened two
outworks. In 1866 the owner got into
financial difficulties, and the property
passed into the hands of Mr. K. Macleod,
some of whose descendants are to-day co-
proprietors with Mr. M. Hutchins, the
present managing director in India, who
has held this important position since the
year 1888. The number of outworks was
increased to four, but when the very
severe depression in the indigo market
occurred some years ago three of these
were closed. The factories at the remain-
ing outpost and at headquarters have,
however, been kept at work, notwith-
standing the adverse conditions which
have prevailed.

As an illustration of the effects pro-
duced by the lengthy period of stagnation
• — if not worse — of indigo cultivation, it
may be observed that in former days
Jogapore was in the centre of this in-
dustry in the district of Saran, and that
within a radius of a dozen miles there
were eighteen Europeans engaged therein,
at Burhogah, Suddowah, Gopalpore, and
Bala. These planters — in fact, one might
say the whole of the European community
— ^accompanied by the ladies of their
households, met weekly for polo, but it
is sad to relate that at the present time
( 1916) nearly all of the factories have
been compelled to close their doors, and
only three Europeans concerned in
indigo remain within the area above
mentioned.

A very considerable portion of the
estate is let to ryots, and some 4,000
bighas are cultivated by the owners for
indigo, sugar-cane, and country crops.

Cane was first grown about the year
1901, and the product was supplied to a
sugar factory owned by the India
Development Company, and situated
about three miles distant ; but on the
closing of this company the proprietors

of Jogapore erected a mill upon their
own land, which is capable of dealing
daily with the produce of one acre of
cane.

English-made ploughs are used in cul-
tivation work, and the average number
of natives employed on the concern is
about three hundred.

The estate is well equipped with sub-
stantial buildings, including manager's
bungalow, stables, sheds, and warehouses,
which are about two miles distant from
the JamOi-Bazaar post office and five miles
from the telegraph office of Baburria,
while the railway station of Savan is
reached by a journey of some fifteen miles
along a well-constructed road.

The manager of the whole estate is
Mr. M. Hutchins.

"^
KOORIA CONCERN

It is an unfortunate circumstance that
the quality of the water on this concern is
so indifferent that it prejudicially affects
the colour of the manufactured indican.
Nevertheless cultivation has never been
discontinued at Kooria since planting was
commenced about the year 1885, as the
seeth has been proved to be so valuable
for manurial purposes that the prolific
yields of first-class produce from other
crops cause indigo to be, after all, a pay-
able commercial enterprise. Although
both Java and Sumatrana species are
planted, the latter cannot be compared
either in quality or quantity with the
former, but, taking the concern in its
entirety, a fair average return is about
I 5 seers to the acre. The steeping-vats
at Kooria and at the out-station of
Lalgurh, three miles distant from head-
quarters, have a measurement of 22,000
cub. ft., and during the year 191 5 some
250 maunds were passed through the
steam-driven machinery of the factories
and subsequently disposed of at Calcutta.

Oats may generally be expected to
yield about 25 maunds to the acre,
although unfavourable seasons have
occasionally reduced this quantity to
8 maunds, and consigmnents of the pro-
duce arc sold in the market in Calcutta
and also in the Bettiah Raj.

Sugar-cane is grown somewhat exten-
sively after a most thorough cultivation
of the land and pulverization of the soil,
but crushing is carried out in the factory
at Seeraha, while the ryots on the estate
still employ primitive methods of manu-
facture which have been in vogue for a
very long period.

306

A common rotation of crops is prac-
tised here, Indian corn being sown during
the rains after oats have been harvested,
and when the latter have been reaped the
land is again prepared for indigo or other
produce during the following year.
Tobacco was grown formerly, but it
never proved a success, as the constituents
of the soil contained too much saltpetre.

The buildings include a pretty bunga-
low, with nice grounds, consisting of fine
tennis and other lawns, a cake-house
holding 500 maunds of indigo, stabling
for twelve horses, and sheds for
machinery and implements, which in-
clude a steam threshing-machine and
reapers.

About two hundred native labourers are
required, and the tillage of the concern
is carried out with seventy-five pairs of
oxen.

The total area of the estate is about
30 square miles, and the portion culti-
vated on behalf of the owner, Mrs. N. L.
Elliot, comprises 750 acres of indigo,
a similar quantity of oats, and a number
of fields of sugar-cane, rice, and native
crops.

The manager, Mr. A. C. Elliot, is well
known in the district as an experienced
planter, and, indeed, as a good all-round
sportsman, one of his hobbies being the
mastership of a pack of bobbery hounds.

Kooria is about three miles distant
from the post and telegraph offices and
railway station at Bettiah.

THE KUCHWAR LIME AND STONE
COMPANY, LTD.

This lime is manufactured at the com-
pany's works at Banjari and Murli and
is well known to eminent engineers for its
superior quality. The works are situated
on the Dehri-Rohtas Light Railway, 2 1
miles distant from Dehri-on-Sone Station,
on the East Indian Railway system, and
the deposits of limestone found there have
been proved by analysis to be of excellent
quality for fluxing iron ore, for the manu-
facture of paper, of lime for building pur-
poses, and also as a fertilizer.

The colour of the lime, when slaked by
the application of water, is absolutely
white, and this feature is one of its
strongest recommendations for any de-
scription of masonry, roofing, or plaster
work, although another advantage is that
as only a small quantity of lime is required
in proportion to a much larger amount
of soorkie, the actual cost has been found
to be exceedingly moderate.

I, Mamagkr's Blxcalow.

JOGAPOBE CONCERN.
s. IXDIGO Factory. 3- Threshing Oats.

4. GExf.HAi. View.

307

J. KOOKIA BlAT.ALOW. 2. THE EOBBHRY PACK.

KOOEIA CONCBBN.

3. Factory axu Vats. 4. Genrhai Vikw of the Factory from Toolaghat Roau.

308

KUCHWAR LIME AND STONE COMPANY, LTD. (OCTAVIUS STEEL & CO.).

I, Battkry Krr.NS, Banjahi,

2. Kilns ax Hanjari,

3. \o. I TiAnr.R^' Kii.N, Mtrli.

309

u«

KUCHWAR LIME AND STONE COMPANY, LTD. (OCTAVIUS STEEL & CO.).
I. Gexkral View of Ocarries Baxmri, j. Xo. 2 BArnuY Kiln, Miri.i. 3- General Vikw of Qiarries.

310

BEHAR AND ORISSA

The kilns arc constructed according to
the latest scientific designs, and the burn-
ing of the stone is carried out under the
strict supervision of European experts.

The Public Works Department in
Bengal and in Bihar and Orissa have made
thorough tests of the lime and have- proved
it to be eminently satisfactory, while it
has obtained great favour with the officials
of the East Indian and Eastern Bengal
Railways, and from leading firms in con-
structional work.

The demand for the Kuchwar lime has
grown rapidly during recent years, and
for the convenience of the increasing num-
ber of patrons, Messrs. Octavius Steel &
Co., of Old Court House Street, Calcutta,
the managing agents of the company, have
opened depots in various parts of the city
of Calcutta and in the mofussil districts
of Bengal and Bihar and Orissa. About
a thousand labourers are constantly
required at the works, from which the
average monthly output of lime is not less
than 4,000 tons.

KURNOWL

Minden Wilson, in his " History of
Behar," says that Kurnowl was in remote

days also known by the natives as Saheb-
gunge and Purbulputti, and that it was
evidently a large mart for saltpetre and
grain, these commodities being easily
shipped to Calcutta along the Great
Gandak River, which forms one boundary
of the estate. Kurnowl factory was built
in 1803 by Mr. John Finch, who arrived
in India in 1 778.

The present proprietors, Messrs. W. H.
Meyrick (manager), R. Meyrick, R. E.
Hickey, and the representatives of the
late Mr. G. Robertson, have control over
an area of about 300 acres of the land on
their own account, with oats and other
crops entirely for home consumption.

Indigo was planted when the estate was
opened up, and the Kurnowl factory had
the reputation of turning out indigotin
of a finer colour than other similar con-
cerns in Behar. This industry was dis-
continued in 1912, and the land let on
lease is now producing about 60,000
maunds of jute annually, exclusive of
a considerable quantity of indigenous
crops. A jute factory will, it is expected,
be built on the property at an early date.
There is no necessity for a scheme of
irrigation, but an ample supply of good

water for all other purposes is obtained
from the Gandak River.

Mr. Meyrick, who resides in a very
pretty bungalow, has opened an Agricul-
tural Bank on the property, and tenants
and ryots are able to obtain financial
assistance on remarkably easy terms.

Heavy floods have in times past been
the cause of doing much damage by
washing away huts, cattle, and growing
crops, but a large sluice for draining away
superfluous water is now being con-
structed by the Government.

Outworks, having bungalows and other
buildings, have been constructed at
Monine and Tajpore, and one of the
famous monoliths — known as Asoka
pillars — stands on the property.

About three hundred permanent hands
are employed on the estate, which has
its own post office and is five miles dis-
tant from the telegraph office at Kesariya
and sixteen miles from the Mehsi railway
station.

-^
LALSERIAH CONCERN

An indigo concern was started in or

about the year 1823 upon this estate.

situated near Segowlie, in the district of

LALSERIAH CONCERN.
I. BixG.iLow. 2. Factoky:,and Vats,

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Chaniparan. when a Mr. James Hills built
a factory there as an outwork of Tur-
cowlia. About 3,000 acres were then
devoted to this plant; but disaster fol-
lowed upon disaster, and the property
was sold to a Mr. George Falkncr, who
commenced dealing in hides and skins.
The cultivation of indigo was resumed
in the year 1840 by Mr. Oman, and about
fifteen years later the concern passed into
the hands of Messrs. Kenneth MacLeod

freijuont reference to Mr. MacLeod as one
of the most gallant and successful of the
legion of good sportsmen who held their
annual festive gatherings at the time of
the great fair in that village. At one
time he owned about sixty horses, and,
after training them on his own track, he
frequently rode them himself.

riie estate now comprises 29,000 acres,
which, with the exception of 600 acres
retained bv the owners, are leased to

Situated among a wealth of fine old
trees is the attractive bungalow, and in
front of it are well-kept lawns, which
slope gently down to a pretty lake upon
whose waters the inmates of the residence
are able to obtain enjoyment in sailing
their boats.

Mr. C. G. Lees is general manager
over the whole estate, including the out-
work at Madhupur. and he usually
employs about 100 Indian hands, and

LOHERIAH CONCERN.

I. L()IIKI<I.\)[ liUSGAl.OW.

2. Kick Mii.i..

and James Cox, for whom Lewis Cosserat
was manager. This gentleman was in
charge at the time of the Mutiny in 1857,
when the 12th Irregular Cavalry killed
their commanding ofificer, Colonel
Holmes, and his wife and other Euro-
peans (including the regimental medical
officer), and he saw the murderers pass
Lalseriah shortly after the black deed
had been committed, although he knew
nothing of the occurrence at that time.
The present proprietors (who have retired
from active control) are Messrs. Donald
Reid and James J. MacLeod, the latter
being widely known as the " King of
Champaran." Mr. Harry Abbott, in his
" Reminiscences of Sonepore," makes

native tenants. Home cultivation consists
chiefly of oats and Indian corn, in about
equal proportions, indigo having been
given up entirely two years ago. This
land is worked well but not irrigated, as
there is a regular and suHicient supply
of water, and the average annual yield of
these crops is eminently satisfactory. The
greater portion of the oats is sold to the
military authorities in the neighbourhood,
wliile the Indian corn is disposed of
locally.

The oull)uildings are particularly sub-
stantial and commodious, and the large
steeping vats silently testify to the busy
seasons when the manufacture of indigo
was a prime factor in the concern.

312

finds constant work upon the projjcrty
for 72 pairs of oxen.

Lalseriah is six miles distant from post
and telegraph offices at Segowli, ten and
a half miles from Bettiah, and twenty
miles from Motihari.

LOHERIAH AND DHOKRAHA CONCERNS

I'he Lohcriah and Dhokraha properties
(which in the following notes are re-
garded as one estate) comprise 12,000
and 15,000 acres of land respectively,
and the owners of the first-named art-
Major J. Barclay and Mrs. W. H. Fraser,
while the latter belongs to Major Barclay.

BEHAR AND ORISSA

Practically the whole of the area is let
on the Zemindary system— in other words,
it is occupied by tenants who pay rent
in money or produce to the proprietors.

Two factories were built in connection
with the cultivation of indigo in or about
the year 1859, but this industry was dis-
carded a few years ago in favour of rice,
sugar, and other crops.

The rice-mill is a fine brick and cor-
rugated-iron building with circular roof,
and is situated near to the railway station
at Chandpatia. The machinery, driven
by an engine of 56 h.p., comprises three
hullcrs, one sheller, elevators, and fans,
and the factory has a capacity for turning
out 300 maunds of rice in a day of ten
hours, tlie manufactured product repre-
senting 66 per cent, of the original
quantity of paddy. The processes
through which the paddy is passed are
as follows : It is at first soaked in water
for thirty-si.x hours. It is then placed
in steamers for about twenty minutes.
Drying on an open floor follows. It is
subsequently cleaned, shelled, and win-
nowed for the separation of the husks
from the grain, and the latter is at once
])ass-3d into the huller, which casts forth
the finished rice, which is disposed of
principally in markets in the north-
western districts of India. Sugar-cane
is not grown so extensively as rice, and
it is sent to a crushing factory at Burrah.

.A nice bungalow was erected at
Loheriah some si.\ty years ago, but
the present one was constructed about
the year 1895, while there is another
residence at the out-station of Lugnaha,
which is about f.ve miles distant, together
with a fully-equipped factory and resi-
dence at Dhokraha, some two and a half
miles from Majhowlia.

There is a good supply of excellent
water throughout the estate, and some
really good duck and snipe shooting can
be had. The owners have very good
stabling and shed accommodation for
fourteen horses and a few pairs of
bullocks, the latter being used for the
cultivation of a small quantity of land
upon which fodder and other crops are
grown for home consumption.

Loheriah is si,x miles distant from
Champatia, where there is a large bazaar,
seven and a half miles from the post
office at Majhowlia, and nine miles from
the telegraph office at Bettiah.

The general management is in the
hando of Mr. A. K. Holttum, who is part
owner of the rice factory, and he has
one European assistant.

MANGALGARH CONCERN

It is unfortunate that little, if any-
thing, of an authentic character has been
discovered, either historically or archaL'O-
logically, of a very ancient fort situated
on the Mangalgarh indigo concern in the
district of Darbhanga. The area within
the walls is fully 100 acres in extent,
and it contains two mounds of earth,
which are doubtless silent memorials of
important events. A number of old coins
ha\e, however, been found, but even the
authorities of the British Museum in
London are unable to express any opinion
as to their origin. They are described as
being about half an inch in diameter and
about the thickness of a dumpy copper
pice, and as having on one side a five-
point star, while on the reverse side is
either a camel or an elephant.

The surrounding earthen walls are
50 ft. in height in certain places, and
the ditch is about 150 ft. in width. All
bricks that are found have the marks of
the potters' fingers, which were evidently
drawn across them before they were dry.
.\X. least this seems to be the only expla-
nation of the marks.

The factory at Mangalgarh was built
by Mr. W. C. Baddeley about the year
1856, when it was an outwork of Doulut-
pore, from which concern it was separated
in 1880. Mr. E. M. Murray, who
managed for a number of years, is buried
at Mangalgarh.

Mangalgarh is now (1916) the pro-
perty of Mr. Justin Finch (managing
proprietor), Mrs. A. J. K. Murray, Mr.
F. Murray, and the representatives of the
late Mr. L. Macdonald. The mark or
brand of the estate is " L.McD. & Co."

The dehat, or sphere of influence, of
the estate is about twelve miles in length
by eight in breadth, while there are 1,700
acres of cultivated land, comprising 1,000
acres of indigo and some 700 acres of
chillies, tobacco, and other crops.

The major portion of the indigo grown
is of the Java type. The out-turn,
averaging a yield of from 8 to 10 seers
to the acre, is either sent direct to London
or is sold in Calcutta. Steam power is
used in the indigo factory, which has a
capacity of 15,000 cub. ft. The first rice-
mill to be erected in the district of Dar-
bhanga is on the Mangalgarh estate, and
is situated about eight miles distant from
headquarters. A commencement is about
to be made with plant consisting of three
hulling machines, to be driven by steam,
which it is hoped will be able to deal with
some 300 niaunds of paddy daily.

Chillies and tobacco, the latter cured
on the concern, thrive well and give satis-
factory rL'sults. The produce of the whole
concern, with the exception of indigo, is
disposed of in local markets.

There is a good supply of water from
lakes and an adjoining river, and the con-
figuration of the land is such that natural
drainage of superfluous water allows the
soil to dry fairly quirkly after floods.

The only outwork is at Malipur, where
there is a very nice bimgalow, which is
connected with Mangalgarh by telephone.

Mangalgarh post office is on the con-
cern property, and Rusera, six miles away,
is the nearest telegraph station, while it
is not more than three mi'.es to the railway
at Nayanagar.

Mr. Finch has had the entire manage-
ment of the concern in his own hands
during his twelve years' residence at
Mangalgarh, and he finds daily employ-
ment for about two hundred hands.

"^
MARHOURAH CONCERN

The Marhourah Factory forms part of
the Cawnpore Sugar Works, Ltd., a joint
stock enterprise which was launched in
1894 by the firm of Messrs. Begg, Suther-
land & Co., of Cawnpore, who were the
pioneers in Upper India of the manu-
facture by modern methods of pure-pro-
cess sugar for Hindu consumption. The
factory, which is situated in the district
of Saran, about sixteen miles from
Chupra, the headquarters of that area,
was established in 1904; the distillery,
which is attached to it, having been added
in 1909.

The plant, which has a capacity for
300 tons of cane and 30 tons of raw sugar
per day, is of the Harvey Engineering
Company's make, the well-known Glasgow
firm of sugar machinery manufacturers,
and was erected by Mr. G. W. Millar,
who is now the company's superintendent
of factories. The double carbonation
process of clarification is employed, and
high-grade white crystals are made with-
out the use of animal charcoal.

Associated with the factory are exten-
sive properties owned by the company,
the greater portion of which are at
present under lease. A certain quantity
of cane is supplied to the company by
the present lessee, but dependence is
placed principally upon cane raised by
native cultivators on their own lands in
the neighbourhood of the factory, or upon
that which is imported by railway from
more distant tracts. The factory is con-

313

I. Hangausarh Uuxgalow.

MANGALGARH CONCERN.

2. Old I'OKT AT MAXGALGARH. 3. RICL-MILL, liARIGHAT.

Interior ok Rice-jiili.

314

I. IXTKKIOR, Tiiii'i F. Room.

MARHOURAH CONCERN.

2. MACHIXE-HOOM. 3. MAIIIA liATTKRV DISTILLERY.

4. Distillery and Factory.

315

MABHOURAH CONCERN.
1. MAX.UiKKs Brxr.AIOW. a. Sii;ak Loaiuxg 5. TiiK Staif ai MarhciI kail

316

I. The Factory, from the West.

MARHOUBAH CONCERN.
2. I.OADixG Case. .i. Caxe Weioiibridge.

4, The Factory, from the Main Uate.

317

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

veniently situated on the banks of a small
river, which supplies the water required
for manufacturing purposes, and it is con-
nected with the Bengal and North-
Western Railway by a siding, thus
facilitating the handling of goods.

The distillery, which has a capacity of
40,000 gallons of spirit per month, is
designed for the manufacture of country
spirit, a species of unmatured white rum,
for which the company holds large con-
tracts from the Government of Behar and
Orissa. The factory's entire production
of molasses is utilized for the manufac-
ture of spirit, and the distillery also treats
a large quantity of mahua flowers, a
raisin-like forest product found in
abundant quantities in that part of the
country, which yields a peculiarly
flavoured spirit which is a very popular
beverage among the poorer classes. The
distillery has a thoroughly up-to-date
equipment, and what is known as the
" pure-culture " system of fermentation
is employed, while the waste products
from the building are led on to the lands
in the neighbourhood of the factory, and
have proved to possess most valuable
fertilizing properties.

In the year 1909 the sugar-making
.plant was extended so as to enable native-
made raw sugars to be treated, and by
this means the manufacturing season can
be extended to nine, or even ten, months
in the year with very profitable results.

One cannot help being impressed by
the substantial character of the buildings
comprising the factory and distillery
premises, and the excellent facUities for
handling goods provided by the extensive
system of sidings which serves the various
warehouses within the factory precincts.

The management of the concern is in
the hands of Mr. C. F. Armstrong, with
Mr. J. Carmichael as chief engineer.
The bungalow occupied by the manager
is one of those very attractive residences
which one sees in travelling through
Behar. It has modern appointments, is
surrounded by well-laid-out grounds, and
is fitted with electric lights and fans, as
are also the factory premises and the
quarters for the European stafT.

The factory is the headquarters of a
section of the Behar Light Horse, of
which the members of the staff are enthu-
siastic members.

MUNJHOUL

One has to give but a cursory glance at
the 4,500 acres of land on the .Munjhoul

estate, in the district of Monghyr, cul-
tivated on behalf of the proprietor, to
see that farming operations Ijave been
conducted on thoroughly up-to-date prin-
ciples, chief among which are a systematic
course of manuring and the draining of
superfluous water from the soil.

The whole estate comprises an area of
about fifteen square miles in extent, and
the control of this huge property is vested
in Mr. F. H. Holloway, for whom Mr.
E. J. Finch is manager. About 4,500
acres are kept in hand, and Java indigo
(700 acres), wheat, chillies, tobacco,
and other, native crops are grown
successfully.

An indigo factory was built at Mun-
jhoul, on a bank of the little Gandak
River, in or about the year 1836, and the
produce, manufactured under the old
system of beating by the hand, may be
put down at an average of 9 seers to
the acre. The only steam power used
on the premises is in connection with the
processes of boiling and the pumping of
water for the vats. Tobacco, cured on
racks, yields 8 maunds to the acre, and
all crops are sold where grown, with
the exception of indigo, which is sent for
disposal to Messrs. Begg, Dunlop & Co.,
the agents in Calcutta.

The four out-stations are : Sisanni,
seven miles distant in an eastwardly
direction from headquarters ; Bundwar,
four miles to the south ; Gurkpura, nine
miles to the north ; and Bissenpore, four
miles to the west.

The buildings are substantially con-
structed, and include five very nice
bungalows, factory, carpentering and
other shops, sheds, and stores. Constant
work upon the land is found for sixty-five
pairs of oxen, and about three hundred
permanent labourers are required for
other duties.

Mr. Finch is assisted in the manage-
ment by Messrs. P. F. Baddeley-
Holloway and H. N. Philiffe.

MONIARA

This indigo concern, situated in the dis-
trict of Saran, is' owned exclusively by
Mr. R. H. Cassell. The factory was
established in 1824, and its sphere of
operations has been gradually extended
until an area of 210 square miles, forming
a compact stretch of country about fifteen
miles in length and fourteen miles in
width, is now under the control of the
proprietor. The land is the hereditary,
318

property of the Maharajah of Huthwa,
from whom it is held on lease.

Throughout the ninety-two years of its
history the manufacture of indigo has
been the chief objective at Moniara, and
the concern has always maintained its
position as one of the leading factories
in Saran, notwithstanding the severe
struggle of the past two decades, during
which period competition with synthetic
dye was so keen that many concerns were
forced to succumb.

The " Moniara " mark on packages is
known in all countries as a guarantee of
good produce, and the sale of indigo for
the year 1914-15 at Rs. 700 per maund
created a record for Behar up to that
time. Indigo sales are effected by
auctions held in Calcutta and London at
the close of each year and the early part
of the year following.

During the period of depression in the
industry above mentioned the area under
cultivation for indigo was necessarily
reduced, and a temporary substitution for
the main crop was brought about by in-
creasing the area sown in country crops,
such as oats, barley, wheat, grain,
mustard, maize, and paddy.

The industry has somewhat revived
owing to the sudden and increased
demand for the natural dye, as German
competition with the synthetic product
has been closed by the outbreak of
the European War, and factories, like
Moniara, which had managed to weather
the storm, were able to recoup themselves
for some of the losses incurred during the
depression. The future is problematical
and impossible to forecast, as the present
inflated prices may fall after the war as
rapidly as they rose ; but as before, so in
the future, the Moniara concern is deter-
mined to keep one of India's oldest
industries afloat.

The actual area now under indigo culti-
vation is 1,700 bighas, and that sown with
cereals about 1,300 bighas, while the
remainder of the land is tilled by the
tenants themselves, who are farmers
occupying holdings of various acreages
for which rent fixed by Government is
paid to the factory.

The concern has up -to-date machinery
and agricultural implements of every
description, and the factory is capable of
handling almost any quantity of indigo
and harvested crops.

A large amount of capital has been
utilized in building up this concern, and
it may be mentioned that some twenty-five
years ago the proprietors spent more than

HONIARA INDIGO CONCERN.
I. Manager's Uinualow. 2. Garden and Bl'ngalow.

3. Threshing Oais

319

MONIARA INDIGO CONCERN.
I, Factory prom thb West, showing Cake-hoi'se. 2. North View of Factory, siiouino I^oiler-hoise.

3. View 01 Granaries.

320

BEHAR AND ORISSA

a lakh of rupees on a single project,
namely, the cutting of distributive
channels in connection with the Govern-
ment Saran Canal for the purpose of
bringing the whole area under irrigation.
This costly and elaborate system benefited
the factory and tenants alike until the
canal head-cut became silted up, and it
is to be regretted that the Government
have not yet seen their way to have it
dredged !

The cultivation and manufacture of
indigo entail mucli hard work and expert
supervision, and the factory gives employ-
ment to a number of overseers and from
five to six hundred labourers, who are
drawn from among the permanently
settled tenants of the estate.

The regularity of this employment is
no mean factor in the prosperity of the
fifty villages, which are populated by
some eight thousand inliabitants.

The Bengal and North-Western Rail-
way system passes through the centre of
the property, and the station and tele-
graph office at Sasa Musa are barely two
miles distant from headquarters, while the
Government post office is situated in the
factory itself.

The whole of the concern is managed
by Mr. G. D. Moore.

'©.

MOORLA CONCERN

.'Xn indigo concern was established at
Moorla, in the district of Champaran, in
or al)out the year 1862, when a factory
was built by T. M. Gibbon, H. L. Holl-
way, and W. F. Gibbon, and the area of
land under the control of the proprietors
was the same then as at the present time,
namely, twenty miles by ten miles in ex-
tent. The cultivation of indigo was, how-
ever, discontinued in 1900, and the vast
area is now sown with rice, wheat,
barley, linseed, gram, and other native
crops.

.•\s recently as five years ago there was
not a single rice-mill in the Province of
Behar, and the paddy grown upon the
Moorla and other estates was sent to the
Western Provinces and the Punjab to be
manufactured. The month of February
1913 was a red-letter day for the pro-
vince, as its pioneer rice-mill, the Moorla
Rice-mill, was formally opened amid a
flourish of trumpets by Mr. Rainy, I.C.S.,
Collector of the district of Champaran.
A very large gathering of people
assembled to show their appreciation of
an event which was destined to have such

a wide-spreading effect upon industrial
enterprise in that portion of India. Mir.
C. H. Gordon, manager and part-owncir
of the estate, welcomed the assembly in
a telling speech, in which he said that
the mill, equipped with modern machinery
made by the Engleberg HuUer Company,
and supplied by Messrs. Marshall, Sons
& Co., of Calcutta, was capable of turn-
ing out daily about 600 maunds of rice.
Mr. Rainy, in a few well-chosen words,
emphasized the fact that the Government
of Bengal were deeply interested in the
establishment of commercial enterprises,
and he personally warmly congratulated
the promoters on the consummation of
their cherished aspirations.

The soil in the district of Champaran,
and especially in the northern portion
in which Moorla is situated, is of a rich
character, and a good supply of water,
so indispensable to the growth of paddy,
is obtained by irrigation from bunds and
six rivers, thus obviating the necessity
for canals.

The progressive character of the
management at Moorla, and the thorough
manner in which the land is cultivated,
are apparent as soon as one sees the mag-
nificent standing crops, and little or no
surprise is experienced on being infoirmed
that an average yield of rice reaches the
wonderfully large figure of 25 maunds to
the acre. The produce is generally dis-
posed of in the United Provinces. Lin-
seed is extensively grown in Champaran,
and the cultivation of this plant is of
paramount importance in building up one
of the most valuable industrial agencies
in the country. The crop thrives well
on this estate, climate and soil evidently
being suitable. Wheat, barley, and gram
are also grown during the winter months.
Very pretty gardens adjoin the principal
bungalow, from which splendid views of
the eternal snows on the northern hills
are obtained, and there is also a charming
residence at the out-station of Luchmi-
pore, five miles distant from Moorla.

The north-western portion of the pro-
perty is situated on the border of the
independent State of Nepal, the property
being at an equal distance from the im-
portant towns of Bettiah and Motihari,
while the manager's house is only half
a mile distant from the post and telegraph
offices and railway station at Ramgarwha.

Mr. Gordon is assisted by three Euro-
peans, and he employs about two hundred
Indian labourers daily.

The indigo concern at Hurdea was an
outwork of Moorla until the year 1865.

32 r

MOXIPUR CONCERN

It appears that this concern was
originally opened by the Dutch in 1789
with a factory for the manufacture of
sugar, but records show that in 18 16 it
became one of a group, of which Contat
was the centre, for the cultivation of
indigo, and that it was owned by Messrs.
Noel & Co. There arc still in existence
several extremely old leases and other
documents, and in these it is noticed that
the names of many of the earlier managers
are well known by repute to the Behar
planters of to-day (1916). For instance,
James Cosseratt served from 1839 to
1844, R. Cahill from 1846 to 1852, David
Brown 1853 to 1855, when Mr. C. Oman
purchased the place and was his own
manager for a few years, until about ten
years later it became the property of Mr.
Thomas Fraser, whose representatives are
now sole proprietors.

The Motipur estate consists of about
50,000 acres of freehold and leasehold
land, and it comprises several villages,
whose inhabitants are tenants of the
owners, together with the following cul-
tivated areas : 2,500 acres of indigo, 500
acres of sugar-cane, and 1,000 acres of
barley, wheat, oats, rice, and other crops.

The concern is about a mile distant
from the railway station and post and
telegraph offices at Motipur, and some
nineteen miles from the town of Muzaffar-
pur in the district of Tirhut.

It is now one hundred years since
indigo was first planted, and, notwith-
standing the remarkably severe losses
caused by the introduction of synthetic
dye, the cultivation of the plant upon
this property has never been discon-
tinued, although some years ago no fewer
than 5,000 acres were devoted to the crop
and some 1,000 maunds of indigo were
made yearly. The yield at the present
time is about 10 seers to the acre, and
it is noteworthy that the product from
the outwork at Morapur has always had
a reputation for quality, typical samples
having been accepted for exhibition at
the Imperial Institute in London. There
are five outworks altogether, two of them
with working factories, but the principal
manufacturing takes place at Motipur,
near to the bungalow, in a building which
has a vat capacity of 32,000 cub. ft. The
made indigo is sold in Calcutta.

Among other crops may be mentioned
oats, which yield about 12 maunds to
the acre ; barley giving very satisfac-
tory returns ; wheat with scarcely so
good a record ; and rice, of which a

MOOHLA CONCERN.
I. Old Bungalow, Moorla. 2. Manager's Bungalow, Mookla. 3. Sub-manager's Bungalow, Luchmipore.

322

I. The Mill.

MOORLA CONCERN.
2. Interior of Mill.

3. General View.

323

I. Bungalow.

MOTIPUR CONCERN.
2. View from the Bungalow. 3. F.ictoky.

4. I.xTERioR, Table and Boiling-hocse.

324

BEHAR AND ORISSA

large quantity is grown. All the pro-
duce from these is sold locally, with the
exception of a few oats, which are sent
to Calcutta. Sugar-cane is sent to Barah
to be crushed, and it is disposed of there
in the raw state.

The land upon which white crops are
gro«Ti in rotation is manured with indigo
seeth or ordinary farmyard dung, and
the ploughing, harrowing, and other pro-
cesses of cultivation are performed with
the aid of 130 pairs of working bullocks.
Motipur is well equipped with up-to-date
machinery and implements, including two
threshing machines, three steam engines,
ploughs, harrows, and drills, while there
are excellent workshops in which repairs
of all kinds are carried out, and where
chests in which indigo is packed are
made.

.■\ny one travelling through Behar can-
not fail to observe that the bungalows
on indigo concerns and other estates are
of a superior character, and that lawns,
carriage drives, and gardens are remark-
ably well kept.

The Motipur concern is an illustration
of this. Its bungalow is very large, sub-
stantially built, and elegantly fitted up ;
and its pretty grounds and flourishing
flower and fruit gardens are rendered
the more attractive by the immediate
proximity of a fine lake, in the form of
a horseshoe, which is six miles in length.

Mr. J. B. Fraser is manager for the
other members of the family, and he is
assisted by Messrs. M. O'Brien and P. G.
Munns.

About two hundred hands are per-
manently employed.

'©.

L MOTIHARI, LTD.

~ This is a private proprietary concern,
of which the shareholders, who are in
England, were formerly part owners of
the very large estates belonging to the
company. The property extends to about
118,911 acres of cultivated land and a
considerable extent which is still untilled
in the district of Champaran, and this
area includes 105 villages, the majority
of which are held under perpetual leases.
The major portion in the area of the
town of Motihari belongs to the company,
and within its borders are a residential
and a gymkhana club, a very fine hospital,
erected by subscription in 1905, the
manager's bungalow, two bungalows for
assistants, and nine for other Europeans
(the latter occupied chiefly by Govern-
ment officials), a nine-hole golf course,

tennis courts, and a Sports Club for
Indian inhabitants, which, with the land
upon which it is built, was given con-
ditionally by the shareholders of
Motihari, Ltd., through Mr. W. S.
Irwin, the general manager of the
estates, in the year 1912.

It is believed that the head factory was
built at Motihari in 1817 by Mr. C.
Moran, and that subsequently diff'erent
managers constructed the various out-
works at other times. The managers of
the concern, which in early days had
seven factories (inclusive of the head
factory) and 18,000 acres of land under
indigo cultivation, were (so says Mr.
Minden Wilson) Charles Moran in 181 7,
W. Moran and others up to 1858, from
which date Mr. Baldwin held office until
1870. A Mr. Edwards was installed from
1872 to 1891, Mr. E. Thorpe 1892-4,
and Mr. Miller followed for about a year
until 1896, when Mr. Irwin, the present
manager, entered upon his duties.

The cultivation of indigo was given up
entirely in the year 19 12, and only
approximately 500 acres under crops are
now kept in hand directly by the com-
pany, but this area can at any time be
largely increased if necessary. The crops
at the present time include wheat, which
yields about 1 2 maunds, or two quarters,
to the acre ; barley, with a similar
return ; oats, 20 maunds ; and a small
quantity of tobacco, peas, rice of dif-
ferent kinds, maize, and other produce.
Paddy is cultivated most extensively in
the Poornahea outwork, and the latest and
the most approved type of steam-driven
hulling machinery has been erected in that
factory, where, if worked to its full
capacity, 100,000 maunds of rough rice
could be dealt with annually, giving
60,000 maunds of clean corn. The
greater portion of this could be dis-
posed of locally. Even the refuse is
turned to good account, as it is an excel-
lent fuel substitute for wood and coal.
The other now existing outworks are at
Meerpore, Soogong, and Chylaha. The
supply of water for the head factory, in-
cluding the town of Motihari and the sur-
rounding villages, is at present obtained
from two lakes and a considerable number
of wells, but a somewhat ambitious scheme
for providing a sufficient quantity by up-
to-date methods is now being carried out
by the Municipality and District Boards.

The head bungalow is typical of those
large, substantially built, and well-
appointed residences which are fre-
quently met with in Behar and Orissa,

325

and was constructed about the year 1903,
closely in accordance with the plans of
the old dwelling-house of the early por-
tion of the eighteenth century built by
Mr. C. Moran. It stands in a garden
and compound some 50 acres in extent,
and it is about two miles distant from
the railway station and post office at
Motihari.

Quite near to the factory is the last
resting-place of the said Charles Moran,
who died in 1831.

In consequence of the abandonment of
indigo the European establishment has
been much reduced, but still about 450
Indians are employed permanently
under the supervision of Mr. Irwin and
his two European assistants.

A very large quantity of sisal {Agave
rigida, var. Sisalana) has been planted by
the present manager with a view to the
decortication of sisal hemp, if in the
future this industry should give promise
of being worked profitably.

Motihari is the " saddar station," or
chief town, of the Champaran district,
and it contains the Civil and Criminal
Courts, Police Lines, District Board, and
other offices.

MULLYAH CONCERN

The Mullyah Concern, situated about
eleven miles distant from the railway
station and post and. telegraph offices at
Bettiah, in the district of Champaran, is
the property of Mr. E. W. Dixon, Mrs.
Shaw and Sons, Mrs. Sproule, and Cap-
tain Harence. The proprietors have con-
trol over about 16,000 acres, and, with
the exception of t,20o acres planted with
indigo, 400 acres of oats, and a consider-
able quantity of rice and other native
crops, the whole of this area is let on
lease.

Records show that the principal fac-
tory was built in 1883 by Mr. E. W.
Dixon, who commenced manufacturing
indigo in 1884, and who two years later
erected an outwork at Sirsiah, which is
five miles distant from Mullyah. The
managers of the concern have been as
follows : Mr. Dixon, who held office until
1886 ; Mr. C. Hill, from 1889 to 1890 ;
Mr. Dixon again during 1891-2 ; and
Mr. H. E. Cox followed for a brief
period ; while the next ten years' work
was in the hands of Messrs. Dixon, Cox,
and C. J. Mackay, the present manager
being Mr. W. J. Ross.

The major portion of the indigo plants
are of the Java variety, and by thorough

I. General Manager's Bungalow, Motihaki.

MOTIHARI, LTD.
2. Suii-5Iana(;er's Blxgalow, Soogoxg.
4. Pari of Main Street, Motihaki Town.

3. Motihaki Town from the Lake.

326

. SUB-UANAGER'S BUNGALOW, MEERPORE.

MOTIHABI, LTD.
2. Sub-manager's Blxgalow, Poorvahka.

4, Interior of Mach[xe-roo5i, Poornahea.

3, Exterior of Rice-hulling Mill, Poornahea.

327

I. MOllyah Bungalow.

MULLYAH CONCERN.
2. MuLLYAH Factory.

3. SiRSEAH Bungalow.

328

BEHAR AND ORISSA

cultivation the annual crops give an
average yield of 12 seers to the acre.
Steam power is used in each of the two
factories for the manufacture of indican,
and with a total vat capacity of 23,000
cub. ft. some 400 maunds of indigo are
dealt with in each season, the product
being shipped direct to London. All
other crops show satisfactory returns ;
oats, for instance, grown for the Calcutta
market, producing 1 7 maunds (or four

in this neighbourhood is known by the
name of Naraina.

Constant employment is found for
about one thousand Indian labourers.

"^
NARAIPUR ZEMINDARY

Naraipur is a very extensive zemindary
estate in the district of Champaran, com-
prising properties leased about the year
1900 from the Rajas of Bettiah and

granting of loans of money and in pro-
viding moderate quantities of grain.

The Murray family cultivate on their
own account about 1,300 acres of land
annually, the crops consisting of paddy,
oil-seeds of different varieties (chiefly
mustard), and oats, together with a small
quantity of wheat and barley for home
consumption.

Irrigation of the land is effected by
drawing water from the Gandak Irrigation

I. Some of the Live Stock.

quarters) to the acre, while potatoes are
more than usually prolific.

\ small but pretty bungalow, standing
in a very nice compound, has been erected
at .Mullyah, and the other buildings in-
clude the factories already referred to
and a large cake-house, together with
stables for eight horses, which have been
constructed upon arches above the ground
with the view of minimizing as far as
possible outbreaks of a disease locally
known as kurnri, a type of paralysis which
is somewhat common among horses in this
district. Irrigation of land is not re-
quired on this concern, as a sufficiency
of water for all purposes is obtained
direct from the Big Gundak River, which

NARAIPUR ZEMINDARY.

2. Gkakaries.

Ramnagar by the proprietors, Mr. H.
Murray and the Misses E. R. and E. E.
Murray. The lands are somewhat
scattered — although there are a few blocks
containing 1,000 acres of land — and the
villages are situated on both sides of the
Gandak River, and extend from Ramnagar
Dun to the borders of the district of
Gorakpur.

The ryots have an absolutely free hand
as to the cultivation of their land and the
disposal of their crops, and they have
every inducement to be peaceable and
prosperous tenants, seeing that the pro-
prietors of the zemindary render them
assistance of a practical character when-
ever needed, chiefly, however, in the

3. O.VE OF THE BlNGAI.OWS.

Canal and from smaller cuttings which
have been constructed by the zemindary.
English-made ploughs are used on the
zemindary lands (excepting for the
" puddling " of paddy-fields), and as this
crop requires so much water during the
above period, it has been found that
ordinary native implements are more suit-
able. Reaping and threshing are carried
out by hand-work at present, but it is
intended at an early date to introduce
machinery for these and other farming
operations.

A herd of about 800 head of breeding
stock is kept, and these, with the excep-
tion of 200 at Naraipur, are allowed to
run loose in the forests. Selected bulls

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

are obtained from several up-country dis-
tricts and from the Government Experi-
mental Farm at Pusa, and experiments in
breeding are being made with the view
of producing a really vigorous animal
suitable for heavy draught work.

Mr. Murray has full control over the
whole of the zemindary, and his residence
at Naraipur is not more than two miles
distant from the railway station and post
office at Bagaha.

OTTUR

The Ottur concern is situated about
eleven miles from Muzaffarpur, the fac-
tory being on the high-road between tliat
town aJid Darbhanga, and about fifty
miles from the boundary of the Indepen-
dent State of Nepal. It seems clear that
the original factory was built on the banks
of the River Gunduk, but as it was being
gradually washed away the proprietors of
that day erected the present one in the
year 1800. A Mr. James Gentil was one
of the earliest managers at Ottur, and he
was followed by Messrs. Sterndale, Hol-
loway, Ferrier, James, Ogilvie, W. Gar-
stin, Young, J. MacRae, George Swaine,
R. F. Lethbridge, A. Maclver, and R.
Hudson. The concern is now the
property of the Behar Sugar Company,
for whom Lieut. -Colonel V. Hickley,
C.I.E., V.D., A.D.C., officer command-
ing the Behar Light Horse, is manager.

The total area of the estate is about
4,000 acres, and the cultivation com-
prises 1,600 acres of indigo and a large
quantity of oats and other country crops.
Sugar-cane was grown in former years
to a considerable extent, but this practice
is now being discontinued.

Indigo of the Java and Sumatranai
types is grown, in' a course of rotation
with other crops after the land has been
well prepared, and manured chiefly with
stalks of the plant, but occasionally with
a small quantity of chemicals, and a fair
average yield is about eight seers to
the acre. The factories at headquarters
and at the outwork of Mahometpore are
equipped with all necessary machinery of
modern make, and the produce is disposed
of through the managing agents, Messrs.
Octavius Steel & Co., of 14 Old Court
House Street, Calcutta. Other crops give
satisfactory returns— oats, for instance,
showing a harvest of some ten maunds
to the acre.

The bungalow at Ottur is a very fine
double - storied building, standing in
lovely grounds abutting upon a lake and

surrounded by a large number of grand
old trees, among which may be mentioned
a banyan which rivals one of a similar
kind in the Botanical Gardens in Calcutta,
commonly regarded as the largest tree in
the world. Exceedingly fine views of
snow-capped ranges some 250 miles away
can be seen from the dwelling-house on
clear days.

The Province of Behar contains a large
number of estates upon which excellent
sport of various kinds can be enjoyed,
and at Ottur one can have very fair shoot-
ing of quail, snipe, duck, and partridge,
together with any amount of pig-sticking.
Nilghai have increased so rapidly during
the past few years that they have now
become a pest.

There is a post office at Ottur and
railway and telegraph facilities at Silout,
a distance of only six miles.

Mr. R. Macgregor is assistant at the
outwork (where there is a nice bungalow),
and about one thousand coolies are
usually employed on the whole concern.

PEEPRAH CONCERN

It is not too much to say that any one
who has once visited the indigo concern
and general agricultural estate at Peep-
rah, near Motihari, in the district of
Champaran, would never grudge time,
trouble, or expense in making another
journey to so delightful a place.

One frequently reads of gorgeous man-
sions and of rural scenes of surpassing
beauty, but even among the numerous
" Gardens of Eden " met with in various
parts of India it would be difficult to
find a more charming combination of
woodland and lake than is seen in the
beautiful property at Peeprah, owned by
Mr. A. W. N. Wyatt.

The estate is some ten miles square in
extent, and every acre of it appears to
possess some feature which rivets the
attention and produces a sense of keen
enjoyment. The principal bungalow, an
imposing two-storied building, supported
by Corinthian pillars, and containing
eleven large rooms, many of which have
floors of marble, is prettily situated on
the edge of a fine circular lake, and its
surroundings remind one of those ances-
tral parks in England in which noble
trees, gnarled with age, stand as sentries
for the protection of some historic resi-
dence.

It is stated by Mr. Minden Wilson
that Peeprah was built by the Dutch, and
that it was formerly one of a group of

330

concerns belonging to Messrs. Noel &
Co., and tliat the factory appears to have
been erectedin the year 1807 by a certain
Dr. Gibb, who subsequently sold it to
Messrs. John and Edward Brown. Mr.
George Neville Wyatt became the owner
in 1854, and it is recorded that a con-
siderable number of successful indigo
planters of Bengal received their early
training on the estate.

About 2,000 acres, which have been
well manured, are cropped with Suma-
trana indigo, and the average annual yield
is about 9 seers to the acre. There are
fine outworks connected with Peeprah, the
principal ones being Dinamath, Jagirha,
and Deccaha, and the factory at each
place is under the superintendence of a
European assistant. These buildings
have a floor area of about 83,000 cub. ft.,
and about one-half of this space is in
constant use in connection with the pre-
paration of the dye.

The Peeprah estate can be fitly de-
scribed as being a " self-contained " one.
Indigo is the principal product, it is true,
but about 3,000 acres of oats are grown
annually, 700 acres of which are on land
connected with the factory ; it has car-
pentering and engineering shops for con-
struction and repairing works ; and it
has within its own borders practically
every requisite for man or beast.

Steam threshing-machines are used
after the harvest of oats, and the
large granaries are frequently taxed to
their utmost capacity in the storage of
some 30,000 maunds in a single season.
This produce is usually sold in the open
market in Calcutta, although contracts are
frequently entered into with the Imperial
Army authorities.

An excellent supply of water is obtained
for all purposes from the lake and from
an adjoining nullah.

Agriculture is seen at its best at
Peeprah. Cultivation is done thoroughly,
the land is clean, the soil, enriched by
manuring with indigo refuse, gives most
profitable returns, and the fruit, vege-
table, and flower gardens bear abundant
testimony to the care bestowed upon
them.

A considerable portion of the estate
affords very fine sport, as, although pig-
sticking is not indulged in to the same
extent as in the thirties of last century
by Mr. Wyatt's ancestors, there is excel-
lent shooting of duck, snipe, partridge,
and other game.

Peeprah is managed by Mr. J. B.
Norman, with Messrs. R. M. Warren and

"i. OrruR Bungalow.

OTTUR CONCERN.
2. The Indigo Factory.

3. The Lake.

331

I. Kroxt View of the Bungalow.

PEEPRAH CONCERN.
2. The Buxgalow fro.m the Lake. 3. Disamutt Bungalow.

4. Deccaha Blngalow.

332

I Vats at Peepbah.

PEEPRAH CONCERN.
2. The Factory, Peepkah. 3. Granaries.

4. General View ok Di,vA.Mun' Factory.

333

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

W. N. R. Kemp as assistants, and some
seven hundred coolies are employed per-
manently. The post and telegraph offices
are on the estate, while a ride of about
forty-four miles takes one to the
important town of Muzaflfarpur.

PIRUCKPUR CONCERN

This concern was opened in the year
1864, the factory being erected in Rowna
village, but as this place was found to
be liable to floods, the building was re-
moved to Piruckpur about a year later.
The property belonged to a firm of
bankers named Chowdry, and at their
insolvency in 1890 it was purchased by
Mr. H. W. Hudson, but it became the
property in 1912 of Mr. W. A. Vincent,
who is now managing proprietor.

It comprises 2,000 bighas of freehold
land, together with a further 2,000 held
under leases, of which about 1,200 bighas
are in direct cultivation.

Sugar, wheat, and oats were grown
originally, but nearly the whole of the
area is now devoted to the cultivation in
equal proportions of Java and Sumatrana
indigo. A Government Report, published
in 1915, states that Java indigo, a plant
found in a wild state in Natal, was intro-
duced into Behar in 1898 by Mr. H. A.
Bailey, who found, on visiting Java, that
the Dutch planters had discarded their
original indigo {Indigo oligosperma),
commonly known as Guatemala indigo,
in favour of the one from Natal. The
new type thrived remarkably well in its
new surroundings, giving two or three
cuts of leaf together with a good seed
crop, but its excellence proved, somewhat
paradoxically, to be its own damnation,
as cultivators ruined succeeding growths
by the use of inferior seed.

Planters, however, soon began to recog-
nize the error of their ways, and, acting
upon the old adage, " Experientia sapien-
tiam docet," they were careful to select
seed of first-class quality, with the result
that far more satisfactory yields have
been obtained recently.

The factory (capable of turning out
200 maunds of indigo in a fair season)
is equipped with up-to-date plant, driven
by steam, and manufacturing takes place
during the months of July, August, and
September. An average return is from
5 to 10 seers to the bigha, and the pro-
duct, packed in chests made of wood from
the mango-tree, is disposed of through
agents in Calcutta.

There is an excellent supply of water

for the factory and other buildings, in-
cluding the bungalow, which is about
eleven miles distant from Muzaffarpur,
and only two miles from the post office
at Ottur.

A small quantity of cereals is grown
annually for cattle food. There are about
one hundred Indian hands constantly at
work on the concern, but other coolies,
sometimes numbering five hundred, are
employed on daily service when required.

PURSA, LTD.

There are many very beautiful planters'
bungalows in Behar, but one which has no
compeer is ' the residence of Mr. F. W.
Gordon-Canning, the managing director,
since 1888, of the private company known
as Pursa, Ltd. It is a handsome and
commodious structure, modern in design,
and situated among magnificent surround-
ings, but it is impossible in cold and
formal printer's type to convey any
adequate description of the gardens,
grass terraces, extensive lawns, long
avenues of trees, and the kaleidoscopic
views of grand scenery.

The whole of the estate is twenty miles
in length and ten miles in breadth, but
the proprietors have only reserved and
cultivated on their own account some 500
acres, which are producing indigo, sugar,
and a number of native crops.

An indigo factory was built during the
sixties of last century, and there is little
of an authentic nature in the early history
of the concern until 1872, when Sir W. B.
Hudson and Mr. Rowland Hudson became
the owners. The latter gentleman, by
the way, was manager for a number of
years, and a finer all-round sportsmlan
never attended the famous Sonepore
Meetings. In the course of a few years
he trained and won races with such well-
remembered animals as Black Eagle, Kil-
more, Miss Bertram, Talisman, Piccadilly,
Amethyst, and others, and Mr. Harry
Abbott, in his reminiscences, says, " Next
to Colonel Elliott (Mr. Locke), Rowland
is the best gentleman-rider we have seen
in India." It is further related of him
that " he stuck some thirty-three boars
at Pursa single-handed, as he had no near
neighbours who cared for the sport," and
that large bags of black partridge and
quail fell to his gun.

Fifteen hundred acres of land are now
planted with Sumatrana indigo, from
which the average annual yield is about
300 maunds of indican, manufactured for
and sent direct to the London market.

334

The Java type of this plant is usually-
preferred, but the possibilities of obtain-
ing good seed in the province are, for
the present, extremely limited, owing to-
the fact that planters have been attempt-
ing to grow a leaf full of indigo together
with sound seed in the same crop, a
practice which has been shown by
Government experiments at Pusa to be
prejudicial to both products.

Many varieties of sugar-cane have been
tried at Pursa, but that known as the
native type is the only one that has been
really satisfactory in its results. The
mill, built in the year 1907, and situated
about four miles distant from the prin-
cipal bungalow, has a capacity for dealing
with 250 tons of cane daily, it being
fitted with eight rollers, an elevator, and
crusher, together with three pans in which
20 tons of sugar can be made at one
time ; but present crushings of cane are
at the rate of 24,000 tons annually, giving
an average yearly return of 1,600 tons
of sugar. The manufactured product, in-
tended for up-country native markets, is
finally sent to a flour-mill, where it is
ground almost to a powder, while the
juice is passed through filtering machines
having a pressure of 80 lb.

Bamboos are grown extensively on this
estate, as they thrive remarkably well,
and as many as twenty-four thousand
have been sold at very lucrative prices
in the course of a single year.

Wliat is known as the native system
of cultivation has been found to be par-
ticularly suitable at Pursa, and the fertile
nature of the soil is very largely the
result of e.xcellent manuring, which is
applied in the shape of hemp ploughed in
during July, or is given in a dressing of
seeth or indigo refuse.

The outworks at Hurpur and Sirguiah,
distant respectively four and six miles
from the manager's residence, have ex-
ceedingly nice bungalows, gardens, and
good outbuildings, and each is in charge
of a European overseer.

Labour disputes and strikes are un-
known at Pursa. The wages sheets
contain the names of two European pan-
boilers, two attendants at the cane-weigh-
ing machine, an engineer, and about 265
permanent Indian hands.

Suitable buildings, including excellent
stables and stalls for horses and about
one hundred pairs of oxen, kept for agri-
cultural work, and housing-sheds for quail
and teal, have been provided. There is
one lake on the estate, and as irrigation
of the land is unnecessary the supply of

I. Plolghixg.

PIEUCKPUR CONCERN.
2. Bungalow. 3. Factory.

335

4. Vats.

PUHSA, LTD.
1, 2. The Bungalow.

3. AVE.\'LE.

336

I. Evaporating Plast.

2. 8-ROLLER Mill.

PURSA, LTD.
3. Manager's Bungalow at the Sugar Factory.

4. The sugar Factory.

337

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

water obtained from it and from nullahs
is amply sufficient for all purposes. All
previous owners and managers of the
Pursa estate have been ardent supporters
of the best forms of sport, including
racing, hunting, polo, gymkhanas, and
other games of a less vigorous character,
and Mr. Gordon-Canning is not a whit
behind his predecessors in this respect.
It is not long since he successfully hunted
a pack of hounds in the district, and, until
sugar-cane monopolized so large an area

obtained at Lauriya, and there are rail-
way stations at Bettiah and Chanputtia,
which are respectively ten and eight miles
distant from the principal bungalow.

PURTABPORE CONCERN

The Purtabpore Indigo Concern was
opened in the early fifties of the nine-
teenth century, and, in conjunction with
the Chuckia Concern, was flourishing until
about twenty years ago, when it suffered

other usual plant, and the sugar turned
out is either in the form of crystals or
a crushed product as required for dif-
ferent markets. Nothing in the nature
of bone charcoal is used in the process
of manufacture, therefore the sugar is
acceptable to the orthodox Hindu. The
machinery was supplied by the Harvey
Engineering Company, and at that time
it was thoroughly up to date. The yearly
output is about 1,500 tons.

Indigo and rotation crops are culti-

RAJGHAT CONCERN.
I. Rajohat Bungalow.

2. Factcry.

on the estate, pig-sticking afforded an
unlimited amount of enjoyment.

The Pursa Company was turned into
a limited liability concern in the year
1907, and it was one of the first of its
kind in Behar to have its offices registered
in India.

Archseologists will take an interest in
the " Asoka Pillar," situated near to the
Pursa sugar factory, which is surmounted
by the facsimile of a lion, and is said
to be one of the finest specimens in India.
Several mounds have been excavated in
the vicinity, but up to the present the
discoveries have not included anything of
a remarkable character.

Postal and telegraphic facilities are

from the decline of the indigo industry.
The two concerns were formed into the
Purtabpore Company, Ltd., in 1904, and
at the same time a sugar-mill was erected
at one of the outworks.

Sugar-cane is cultivated to the extent
of about 2,000 acres, in addition to
which a certain amount of cane is pur-
chased from local cultivators, and is
crushed in a mill which has a daily
capacity of about 200 tons. This plant
consists of a " Krajewski " crusher with
two three-roller mills, and the megass is
utilized for the production of steam. The
subsequent process is the ordinary one,
which involves the use of a triple effect,
two vacuum pans, centrifugals, and the

338

vated to a considerable extent, and, owing
to the recent rise in the value of indigo,
the area devoted to the growth of this
plant has been considerably increased.
Mr. J. A. J. Macpherson is managier
. at the head office, and the company em-
ploys a staff of six Europeans, while the
Indian labour employed varies from two
thousand hands and upwards during the
season.

RAJGHAT CONCERN

Rajghat was originally an outwork of
the Lalseriah Concern, and the factory
was erected by James MacLeod, referred
to elsewhere as the " Jimmy " of Mr.

I. Manager's Bungalow.

PUBTABPOBE CONCERN.
2 General View. 3. Slgar Factory.

4. Interior of Factory.

339

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Henry Abbott's graphic account of pro-
minent sportsmen who in the sixties and
seventies of last century caused the annual
race meeting during the week of the fair
at Sonepore to be centres of the most
lavish hospitality, but it is now the prin-
cipal place in the concern belonging to
the Rajghat and Furrawah Estates, Ltd.

The company have control over an area
fifty square miles in extent, but the crops
cultivated on their own account comprise
1,200 acres of indigo and about 600 acres
of oats, barley, paddy, and a small
quantity of wheat.

Floods, which are frequently so dis-
astrous in the district of Champaran, are
not feared at Rajghat or at the outwork
at Furrawah, as the land is situated on
a fairly high level, and the broad acres
can therefore receive a continuous work-
ing, for which purpose one hundred pairs
of bullocks are kept.

Indigo thrives well here, and about
18 seers to the acre are generally
obtained. The output of the factory, in
which the steeping-vat has a capacity of
30,000 cub. ft., is consigned direct to
London for sale. Sugar-cane, too, is
grown upon a very extensive scale, and
the erection of a factory for crushing
the plant is now contemplated.

The bungalow, built in the year 187 1,
is situated about six miles distant from
the post office and railway station at
Bettiah, and its neat lawns slope down
to a large lake, which is not the least
attractive feature of a pretty residence.

Mr. H. W. Apperley, who was on the
Lalseriah Concern for a period of about
thirty years, is the manager of the con-
cern, and he has about 250 permanent
hands under his personal management,
notwithstandng the fact that a large por-
tion of the work is done on the " piece "
system.

RAJPORE CONCERN

Some difference of opinion exists as to
which is the oldest indigo concern in the
district of Champaran, and it would seem
that Rajpore (known throughout the
world by its brand or trade-mark of
" Rangepore ") might with some degree
of reason be entitled to the distinction,
seeing that a lease, granted to Jeffry
Finch in 1806, clearly states that the
principal factory was being worked some
five or six years previously to that date.
Similar buildings at the outworks of
Hoosainee and Puckree were respectively
erected by James Slade in 1856 and

George Richardson in 1887. Finch sold
the concern to James and Joseph Hill,
and it subsequently passed to Mr. Ball,
the uncle and predecessor of James and
Tom Slade, H. W. Hudson in 1857, E.
Hudson in 1862, H. MacDonald, and
E. D. Urquhart, while it is now (191 6)
in tlie hands of Mr. E. Hamilton Hudson,
as manager and part proprietor. Pre-
vious managers were James Slade, for
some years prior to 1857, then came his
brother Tom (i860), H. W. Hudson, E.
Hudson, F. A. Shaw, E. D. Urquhart,
L. Wilson, George Richardson, M. N.
MacLeod, and others.

The total area of the estate controlled
by Mr. Hudson is some 75,000 acres,
of which more than 50,000 acres are
cultivated annually, but a considerable
quantity of the land is let to ryots, who
are in possession under various systems
of tenure.

Indigo was formerly grown rather ex-
tensively, and even as late as 1900 no
fewer than 5,000 acres were under this
crop, but its production was, owing to
various untoward circumstances, discon-
tinued for a time, although at the close of
the year 191 5 about 1,200 acres had been
re-sown with seed of the Java and Suma-
trana types. The yield of indigo averages
10 seers to the acre, and the plant is
dealt with at one of the three factories,
which have a total vat capacity of 64,000
cub. ft. Other crops, sown in a regular
course of rotation, include sugar-cane
200 acres, wheat, oats, and tobacco, each
100 acres, and about 500 acres of native
produce. There are also some 500 acres
of jute of first-class quality, and a few
promising Para rubber-trees.

The harvest of wheat is not consistently
good. Oats are much more satisfactory,
as they return 20 maunds, and even up
to 30 maunds, to the acre upon good
land, while an all-round average of 1 5
maunds may be expected ; and barley,
with an average of i 5 maunds, has occa-
sionally reached 25 maunds. Tobacco
gives most encouraging results, and espe-
cially so in soils which have been well
manured with seeth, or indigo refuse.

Indigo is disposed of in London or
Calcutta, according to current market
rates ; oats are consigned to northern
districts of India, and all other crops are
sold locally. Sugar-cane is sent to the
Barra mills to be manufactured.

Steam power is used in the factories
and for irrigation and drainage purposes,
while an oil engine is employed for
driving the machinery in a flour-mill and

340

the plant for cutting fodder, hulling rice,
and crushing indigo seed.

An agricultural estate such as Rajpore
would be most incomplete without black-
smiths' and general repairing shops, but
these necessary adjuncts are strongly in
evidence, and are the means of enabling
the owners to save not only expenses, but
also valuable time, where accidents to
machinery and implements must be con-
tinually occurring. The outbuildings also
include stabling for fifteen horses, garage,
large godovvn, and a number of stores and
sheds.

Some 350 labourers are, as a rule,
employed daily throughout the year,
although during certain months the
number of coolies frequently reaches a
total of one thousand hands. Fifty pairs
of bullocks for the ploughs are always
kept on the concern, but a considerable
amount of cultivation is done by piece-
work.

There are four bungalows on the pro-
perty, but the principal one, at Rajpore,
is a most commodious building, sur-
rounded by lovely grounds, extensive
lawns, and very prolific flower and
vegetable gardens.

Mr. Hudson was an honorary magis-
trate for about three years, but as he
found the duties to be arduous he now,
in common with many other planters, acts
on special occasions as arbitrator in petty
quarrels and disputes among the seventy-
six thousand persons who form the popu-
lation under his jurisdiction. He is,
further, interested in the Bhicanpore
estates, in the district of Muzaffarpur.

There are post and telegraph offices
on the concern. The nearest railway
station is at Chakia, at a distance of ten
miles, while Motihari, the central place
of the district of Champaran, is twenty-
three miles from the main factory, which,
by the way, is situated on the bank of
the Samouthi River.

There are two graves on the concern,
and the inscription cut upon the slate
slab of one of these is as legible to-day
as it was when it was completed in the
year 18 10. There is a very fine polo
ground at Rajpore, which, owing to the
generous sporting instincts of Mr. Hud-
son, is a recognized meeting-place for
neighbouring planters.

"^
RUNI SYEDPORE

This estate has been in the hands of the
Mahtha family for many generations, but
it was not opened up until the year 1862,

I Manager's Bungalow, Rajpore.

RAJPORE CONCERN.
2. The Garden. 3. The Head Factory.

4. Old Grave, dated 1810, at Rajpore.

341

RUNI-SYEDPORE CONCEEN.
I. The Faciorv 2. Avexue.

342

.yi__^v-

BUNI-SYEDPORE CONCERN.
I. Bungalow. i- The Garden.

343

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

when Mr. R. P. Irvine began to sow
indigo seed and to build a factory, which
remains to this day. The dehat is about
seven square miles in extent, and it is
situated about twenty-two miles to the
north of Muzaffarpur, being bounded on
the south by the Bogmati River, by the
Rajkund factory dehat on the east, and
on the northern and western sides by the
Belsund factory dehat.

It is well equipped with necessary
buildings of a very substantial character,
which include a fine bungalow, offices,
stables, factory, granaries, and sheds,
while the machinery is of the most
approved type. Cultivation runs to about
I, GOO acres, Java and Sumatrana indigo
taking chief place, but paddy and country
crops are grown for home consumption.

About 3,000 acres of land are under
estate ryots, who grow such crops as they
please.

The natives employed in the factory
are obtained from villages on the estate,
and are about 250 in number, but in the
height of the season fully 400 hands are
required.

There is a post office at the factory^
and a telegraph office at Belsund, which
is only nine miles distant from head-
quarters, while the nearest railway station
is at Sitamarhi.

The proprietors of the estate are Baboo
Krishnadeo Narain Mahtha and Baboo
Siri Narain Mahtha, and the manage-
ment is in the hands of Mr. A. F.
McKenna.

'§/
SEERAHA

The total area of the estate of which
the Seeraha concern is a part consists
of some 21,000 acres, and comprises
about forty villages, which, with the ex-
ception of one concern, Milkiot, are held
on lease from Rajahs and Zemindars of
the district.

The present proprietors are the Behar
Sugar Company, for whom Messrs.
Octavius Steel & Co. are managing agents
and Mr. F. A. Hudson general manager,
but early history shows that " the first
lease of the concern was given in 1807
to a Mr. John Taylor for the purpose
of building an indigo factory." Seeraha
concern consisted of eight factories, with
an indigo cultivation of some 9,000 acres,
but after Sir William Hudson took over
the property in 1889 a number of the
outworks were sold to various planters.

Managers whose names are still remem-
bered in Behar include Joseph Hill, about

the year 1848 ; H. L. Holloway, in
1857; T. M. Gibbon, Charles Dyer,
and many others.

The cultivated land consists of 2,000
acres of indigo, a similar area planted
with cane, 200 acres of oats, and a small
area of tobacco and native crops. The
yield of indigo is frequently as much as
20 seers to the acre, although an average
return is about 12 seers.

The factory at the outwork of Parewah
is equipped with similar machinery to that
in use at Seeraha ; the two places have
a vat capacity of 42,000 cubic feet, and
the output is disposed of in Calcutta.

The cultivation of tobacco has been
fairly successful, and it is now proposed
to place a much larger area of land under
this crop. Oats, too, thrive well, giving
about 1 5 maunds to the acre, and that
portion of the yield which is not required
for home consumption is usually disposed
of locally.

There is a very large and attra,(;tive
bungalow, with lawns stretching down to
a lake some three miles in length. The
immediate surroundings of the residence
are made beautiful by a number of fine
old trees, while a golf-course encircles
the pleasure-grounds. A plentiful supply
of water is pumped from the lake.

A sugar factory was built on this
property in 1901, with a capacity for
dealing with 200 tons of cane daily.

There are post and telegraph offices
at Seeraha, but the nearest railway station
of Chakia is about eight miles distant
from, the factory, and with the view of
facilitating transport a light trolley line
will be constructed in the near future.

About 300 hands are employed for the
mill alone.

For the cultivation of cane and indigo
at Seeraha and Parewah, from 500 to 600
coolies are employed daily.

TATAREAH CONCERN

This concern of 2,500 acres is about
thirty-two miles distant from Muzaffur-
pur, in the district of Tirhut, and is the
property of Mr. H. W. Crane and Mr.
B. S. Hickey.

Early records show that it became a
separate concern about the year 1853,
when it was purchased by Messrs. D. R.
and A. Crawford, and although the fac-
tory was erected many years before that
time, there is no direct evidence of the
exact date. There is an outwork, named
Bala, situated near the Bur Gunduk River,

3^4

which is navigable during the rainy
season for boats capable of carrying
at least 1,000 maunds of produce to
Calcutta. Mr. Andrew Crawford was
manager until his death in 1857, when
he was followed by his brother David,
who subsequently sold the place to a Mr.
James Smith.

Other owners followed, including Mrs.
Power, Messrs. Macqueen, Sir A. Leth-
bridge, Norman, and A. N. Wyatt, and
at the present time (February 19 16) Mr.
Crane and Mr. B. S. Hickey are joint
proprietors, with Mr. D. Smith as
manager.

The principal product is indigo, but a
considerable portion of the land is de-
voted to sugar-cane, while a smaller space
is sown with wheat, oats, barley, and other
crops. The average annual yields of
these are as follows : cereals 12 maunds,
and indigo I2 seers per acre respectively.

There are two indigo factories, both
of which are equipped with modern
machinery and plant, and the output
is usually shipped direct to London,
although consignments are occasionally
sold in Calcutta.

Two remarkably pretty bungalows have
been constructed on the shores of a lake,
which takes the form of a horseshoe, and
other buildings comprise stores and sheds
usually found upon an indigo concern.

Sugar-cane is sent to mills of the
Champaran Sugar Company and the
Behar Sugar Company to be crushed.

Mr. Crane belongs to a family which
for many generations has been connected
with the cultivation of indigo, and the
extensive experience which he has had is
a guarantee of good management.

There are about eight hundred coolies
constantly at work on the concern, but
as occasion arises about two thousand
other labourers are employed at a daily
rate of pay.

TURCOULEAH

The sphere of influence of the pro-
prietors of the Turcouleah concern is,
roughly, about the size of the county of
Middlesex, in England, or 238 square
miles, and several members of the Hill
family — the oldest in the district of Cham-
paran— have been connected with the
estate since the year 181 5.

History says that a Mr. Henry Hill
arrived in India early in the year iSoo,
and there are evidences that about fifteen
years later he was at Turcouleah, where
a factory had then recently been erected.

I. Manager's Buxgalow, Seeraha.

SEEBAHA CONCERN.
2. Seeraha Indigo Factory. 3, Germination ok Young Cane

4. Seeraha Sugar Mux.

345

■^km:

?^-i.i-^:*ai^^yjJi;,;^

I. BUNGALOW.

TATAREAH CONCERN.
2. Cake House. 3. Press House.

4. General View of Vats.

346

I. EUXGAI.O.V AT TLRCOULEAH.

TURCOULBAH CONCERN.
2. Another View of Turcouleah Bungalow. 3. The Compound from the Bungalow.

4. Turcouleah Factory.

347

I. BuRHURWAH Bungalow.

TURCOULEAH CONCERN.
2. Bungalow, mlckwah. 3. Muckwah Factory.

4. Ghyree Bungalow.

348

BEHAR AND ORISSA

The next manager was J. M. Hill, who
was succeeded by H. L. HoUoway, T. M.
Gibbon, W. F. Gibbon (commonly known
as " Barrah Willie "), James S. Begg,
Dr. J. H. G. Hill, J. Lewes, H. W. J.
Hill, J. H. Dixon, G. D. Campbell, F. M.
Coventry, and others. At the present
time Mr. J. L. Hill is managing partner
of the whole estate, which is owned by
a private limited company registered in
England.

'I'here are seven outworks connected
with Turcouleah, and their names and the
respective distances from the main factory
are : Chilleram, three miles ; Burhurwah,
seven miles ; Ollaha and Muckwah, each
nine miles ; Doodhai and Khairwah, each
fifteen miles ; and Ghyree, about twenty
miles.

All cultivation is carried on under what
is known as the ryottee system, which,
so far as the district of Champaran is con-
cerned, is a particularly favourable one
for the tenants. In this district the ryots
are, and have been from time immemorial,
under an obligation to provide one-
seventh of the land occupied by them for
the planter to sow under indigo, and pay-
ment for the produce is given at rates
varying from Rs. 6 to Rs. 20 per acre.
It should be added tliat while the prices .
of grain have in recent years increased
100 per cent, planters in this district have
never increased the rents of the ryots.

For half a century or more there has
always been a certain amount of friction
between the two contracting parties, dis-
putes having arisen on such questions as
oppression by factory servants ; the
system of remuneration — that is, as to
paying for the labour of the ryot instead
of remunerating the latter for the produce
of the field ; the system of account, giving
credit for the price of the crop in the
ryot's rent account in place of paying
in cash ; and lastly, as to the rate to be
paid for the labour of the ryot as com-
puted according to the length of luggy.
These points have received most sympa-
thetic consideratic>n by the planters in
connection with representations made
from time to time by the Governments
of India and of Behar and Orissa, and
there is no doubt that at the present
time a far better feeling exists between
planters and ryots in the district of
Champaran than in any other indigo
area.

A few years ago the amount of land
cultivated by the Hills on their estate
in indigo alone was about 18,000 acres,
to say nothing of other crops. Since the

price of indigo decreased in pre-war days
and the labour question became more
difficult, the Hills, in consideration of
themselves and of their ryots, consented
to the proposal of the latter that they
should pay enhanced rents in lieu of their
obligation to cultivate indigo, and rents
were accordingly slightly increased.

The whole concern is, therefore, now
run purely as a zemindary one, though
the cultivation of zeerats is maintained,
and a large quantity of oats, wheat,
country crops, and some indigo is grown
in these fields.

The capacity of the steeping vats at
Turcouleah and at the outworks respec-
tively is 50,000 and 80,000 cubic feet.
The output of indigo is sold through
Calcutta agents.

Experiments, involving the expenditure
of a considerable amount of money, were
formerly conducted at Turcouleah, with
the view of testing various types of indigo
plants and as to the germinating qualities
of certain seeds, but this highly important
work has latterly been taken up in earnest
by the Government of Behar and Orissa
at their Research Institute at Pusa.

There is an exceedingly good demand
for oats grown here, and the produce is
disposed of under Government contracts
and to private customers in various parts
of India. Rhea was formerly cultivated,
but the results did not warrant its con-
tinuance, while about a hundred years ago
Turcouleah possessed a sugar factory
which was owned by the Dutch. It will
be readily assumed that a concern of this
character, which for upwards of a century
has been under the management of such
skilled agriculturists as those mentioned
in the earlier portion of these notes, is
quite a pattern estate. Its cultivation is
of the intensive character ; it is equipped
with the best type of machinery and plant
(including three sets of steam ploughs,
three threshing machines by Marshall,
Sons & Co., Ltd., and several reapers) ;
while its buildings are soundly con-
structed and commodious, and in every
way suitable for one of the leading con-
cerns in the province. The last mentioned
include extensive stabling, garages, and
bungalows at Turcouleah and at each of
the outworks, excepting Chilleram, ware-
houses and sheds for oil, grain, and other
produce, and workshops in which ordinary
carpentering is done and general repairs
are carried out.

The original bungalow at Turcouleah
is now used as an office, but the one
occupied by Mr. Hill is a very beautiful

349

place surrounded by lovely gardens,
tennis lawns, and avenues of fine old
trees, the grounds covering an area of
about sixty acres in extent.

An excellent supply of water is lifted
from a lake for manufacturing purposes,
but irrigation is not necessary for any
portion of the agricultural land.

Books and accounts, kept in English,
give records of the concern from the year
1848, and as Turcouleah is now doing all
its own printing and engraving it must be
regarded as being thoroughly up to date.
All timber is owned on what is known
as the " half -rights " principle, and
this arrangement prevents the estate from
being deforested by the tenants without
the permission of the owners.

Much of the arable work of the concern
is performed by means of bullocks, 80
being kept at Turcouleah and about 140
at the outworks.

There is a plentiful supply of game,
among which may be mentioned nilghai,
pig, snipe, partridge, quail, hare, and a
great variety of duck.

Mr. Hill and his cousin, Mr. J. B. S.
Hill, have supreme control, and they
employ two or three" European assistants
and about eight hundred permanent
Indian labourers.

It is only natural that in districts where
large numbers of ryots and employees
have to be dealt with there should be
continual disputes arising out of the
nature of tenancy or the payment of
wages, but a wise Government has in-
vested planters with a certain amount of
jurisdiction in these cases, and thus it
liappens that a kutcherry is held on the
estate almost daily, when a good deal
of magisterial work is performed by the
planter.

There are post and telegraph offices on
the concern, and the towns of Motihari
and Muzaffarpur are respectively about
seven miles and fifty miles distant.

THE INDIAH LEAF TOBACCO DEVELOP-
MENT COMPANY, LTD.

This company, with its head office in
Clive Street, Calcutta, is only of com-
paratively recent formation, but it has for
its object the dealing with native crops
of tobacco, and especially their improve-
ment both in cultivation and curing by
the ryot. The efforts made in this direc-
tion have already been rewarded by
considerable success, as there is a marked
advance in the appearance and smoking
qualities of the tobacco grown in fields

I. Re DRTIMG Machine.

INDIAN LEAF TOBACCO DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, LTD.
2. Butting. 3. Ulying and Weighing. 4. Tobacco Factory. 5 Tobacco Factory axd Carts at Dalsixg-Serai.

350

BEHAR AND ORISSA

where the company has been interesting
itself.

The latest type of American machinery
has been imported to deal with crops,
and no effort has been spared in trying to
induce the ryot, who has been obtaining
better prices for his produce, to improve
his methods of cultivation and curing. At
the same time efforts to produce types
of tobacco foreign to the country have
been made, but these have not reached
a satisfactory termination, as, although'
American and other seeds have been
experimented with, the type evolved in
India has been, in nearly every instance,
very dissimilar to the original. In this
direction valuable work has also been
done by the Government experimental
farms, notably at Pusa, and while experi-
ments still continue to be made (and it is
hoped that in some localities, at least,
more pleasing results may be obtained)
the probability of being able to produce
a bright tobacco, of similar texture and
smoking qualities to, say, that grown in
Virginia, does not appear likely to be
realized.

This is not a matter of vital importance
to the mass of native Indian smokers,
who have become thoroughly accustomed
to the use of indigenous tobacco, and,
indeed, prefer it to any other. Hitherto
the bulk of native-grown tobacco has been

consumed in the hookah, and while the
consumption in this form is still
enormous, there is a steadily growing
demand for cigarettes made of native leaf.
It is to the production and curing of
tobacco of this latter type that the efforts
of the Indian Leaf Tobacco Development
Company, Ltd., have been mainly
directed, with the result that to-day
it is possible to obtain sound tobaccos
which meet every requirement of the
Indian cigarette smoker. Only a few
years back a large proportion of the
tobaccos available for cigarette manufac-
ture became damaged owing to the
ignorance and unskilful handling on the
part of the ryot, but, thanks to the efforts
of the company, these defects have been
largely overcome, and to-day all the
tobacco which passes through the hands
of the company is sound and in every way
fit for human consumption.

This is no small result to have achieved
in a comparatively short period of time,
and it is certain to react in increased
popularity for the cigarette, the use of
which appears to be on the increase in
India. Up to the present time the largest
sales made by the Indian Leaf Tobacco
Development Company have been to the
Peninsular Tobacco Company, Ltd.,
whose factory at Monghyr, on the East
Indian Railway, is one of the largest and

most up-to-date in the country. The most
modern machinery obtainable from
England or the United States is em-
ployed for dealing with tobacco and the
manufacture of cigarettes, and the touch-
ing of the leaf by human hands, from the
time it enters the factory to the time it is
dispatched in the form of cigarettes, is
entirely eliminated.

There is an air of scrupulous cleanli-
ness in connection with the production
of these cigarettes which could not be
surpassed in any factory in the world.

The Indian Leaf Tobacco Development
Company has already consigned consider-
able quantities of leaf tobacco to places
abroad, and in course of time, when a
larger amount of a suitable character
becomes available, it is confidently antici-
pated that these exports will steadily
increase. For the present, however, there
exists a local market for practically all
the tobacco which is produced.

Another firm in Calcutta interested in
the tobacco business is the Imperial
Tobacco Company of India, Ltd., and this
firm is the sole selling agent in India and
Burma for the various brands of cigarettes
and tobacco manufactured by the Penin-
sular Tobacco Company, Ltd., who
purchase the bulk of their leaf from
the Indian Leaf Tobacco Development
Company, Ltd.

351

HOWRAH STATION, CALCUTTA

RAILWAYS

THE BENGAL-NAGPUR RAILWAY COMPANY, LTD.

STORY has gone the
rounds of railway en-
gineering journals to
the effect that an
American who had
travelled in nearly
every part of India
remarked that rail-
ways had done more for that country than
for any other place in the world. Some
persons might regard such a statement
as an exaggeration of a common Trans-
atlantic type. But as opposed to the views
of these sceptics may be set the opinion of
experienced tourists who have frequently
declared that there was more solid truth
in the observation than appeared on the
surface.

No one can see India properly with-
out travelling upon its railways, and it
redounds to the credit of capitalists who
found the money, to engineers who con-
structed the permanent way, to architects,
builders, draughtsmen, and others, not to
speak of directors, general managers, and
the hosts of subordinate officials who have

been, and still are, responsible for the
general working of the various systems —
that so much comfort can be obtained
during the long journeys of a thousand
miles and more, even when the scorching
rays of an Indian sun seem to threaten to
destroy the common desire to exist.

Let the reader think for a moment what
railways have done for the world ; they
have penetrated into fertile regions whose
agricultural and mineral wealth had never
been fathomed; they have linked conti-
nents together, thus bringing about an
interchange of products; and they have
made it possible for individuals of various
nationalities to enter into trade relation-
ships which under other conditions would
have been an utter impossibility. It is
more than a probability that in the near
future one will be able to enter a railway
booking-office and ask for a ticket from
Calais to Calcutta, or from the Cape to
Cairo, with as much nonchalance as a
request for one for a simple journey such
as London to Brighton, or Calcutta to
Barrackpore.

352

There does not seem to be any sphere in
the commercial, social, or industrial world,
in which such marvellous progress has
been made during the past thirty years as
has been witnessed in the great railway
systems of East and West. It appears to
be literally true that there seems to be no
finality in the discovery of some new
design of railway sleeper, or other appli-
ances in the luxuriant furnishing of car-
riages on all the leading lines, or in the
provision of electric fittings, baths, sleep-
ing and dining compartments, and ar-
rangements of a general character.

Many experts in railway engineering
matters and tourists from all parts of the
world have written much about the ex-
tremely comfortable manner in which
journeys in India can now be made, and
there is a general consensus of opinion
that the provision made by the Bengal-
Nagpur Railway Company, Ltd., is not
excelled by the arrangements of any
other competitor.

When the company was formed in the
year 1887 it took over the Nagpur-Chhat-

RAILWAYS

tisgarh State Railway and constructed
other lines, embracing in all a system of
railways known as the Bengal-Nagpur
Railway.

It is necessary just for a moment to
revert to the problems which had to be
considered by the company at the outset.
The vast territory which the promoters of
the new venture had in their consideration
comprised those portions of India now-
known as the Central Provinces and the

capital, and the almost interminable period
of surveys, followed by the necessary in-
vestigations and inquiries of the Secretary
of State, sanction was not given by the
head of the India Office in London until
May 1878 for "a metre gauge line from
Nagpur to the border of the Chhattisgarh
country, the line being regarded as a
purely provincial one and intended to form
the basis of a provincial system of light
railways."

prompted another as to whether the exist-
ing line could be extended to the borders
of the Central Provinces, thence into the
Province of Bengal, and finally to connect
with the East Indian Railway at Sitaram-
pur, 137 miles distant from Calcutta,
which had at that time become one of the
leading commercial ports of the world.
The Government gave directions in the
year 1881 for the survey of two distinct
routes, and three years later sanction was

1. TRANSHIPMENT OF COAL FROM RAILWAY TRUCKS INTO MAIN LINE WAGONS, BENGAL-NAGPUR RAILWAY.
2. WAGON FERRY, BENGAL-NAQPUR RAILWAY, ALONGSIDE PONTOON, RIVER HOOGHLY, CALCUTTA.

Chota-Nagpur and Orissa Divisions. The
country had been shown to possess an
almost limitless wealth in agricultural and
mineral products, but with the exception of
the short State railway already referred
to, there were no facilities for transport
and consequently no inducement for
capitalists or owners to undertake the
onerous work of development.

It was in the year 1863 that proposals
were made for a light railway to be
constructed between Nagpur and the ex-
tensive corn-growing fields of the division
of Chhattisgarh in the Central Provinces,
but what with delays on the part of the
Government of the day, the difficulties ex-
perienced with regard to the raising of

Work on the projected line of about
146 miles in length was forthwith com-
menced, and although the engineers in
charge had a tough task before them as
the route lay through dense jungle lands,
and mountainous country necessitating
boring for tunnels and the cutting through
rocks, the line was eventually opened for
traffic.

During the period of its construction
the attention of the Government of India
was directed towards the further develop-
ment of the land in the Central Provinces,
and of the greatly enhanced value of mer-
chandise if the latter could be delivered
quickly at the port of Calcutta. Con-
sideration of this question naturally

353

obtained for construction. The work was
commenced at Sitaranipur, but in 1885
operations were stopped owing to the many
calls upon the Government Treasury in
connection with troubles with tribes on the
north-eastern frontier.

It was only after the most careful con-
sideration had been given to this abandon-
ment of construction by the Government
that the Bengal-Nagpur Company was
formed. Contracts were then entered into
with the Secretary of State with regard to
the raising of capital and other matters,
which included an undertaking on behalf
of the company " to take over the
Nagpur-Chhattisgarh State Railway and
convert the line into a broad gauge one,

Bengal and assaM, behar and orissa

to construct a new broad gauge line from
Rajnandgaon to Asansol, and to construct
a new line — about i6o miles in length-
from Bilaspur to Umaria, and to take over
and work the Katni-Umaria State line."
This was to be the basis of the new com-
pany, the total length of the system then
being about 830 miles.

It would be out of place to give in
these notes detailed particulars of the
work of construction of the various
sections of main line and branches which
have been completed since 1887, but it
may be observed that it comprises a
length of about 3,000 miles.

The directors of the company — which
is registered in England — are Mr. R.
Miller, chairman; Sir Henry P. Burt,
K.C.I.E., Government director; Messrs.
G. A. .'Vnderson, A. H. Campbell, A. T.
Goodfellow, and Sir Trevredyn R.
Wynne, K.C.S.I., K.C.I.E., managing
director.

The headquarters of the company were
at Nagpur until the year 1899, when
premises were secured at Garden Reach,
a suburb of Calcutta, and were utilized
as offices. But immense progress had
been made during the twelve years' life
of the company, and in 1907-8 the palatial
building for the general offices of the
railway in Garden Reach Road, Kidder-
pore, Calcutta, was built from designs by
Mr. V. J. Esch. The locomotive, car-
riage, and wagon workshops, too, were
originally at Nagpur, but the growth of
the system made it imperative that a more
central position should be obtained. ■ .A
suitable site was found at Khargpur, about
70 miles from Calcutta, and extensive
buildings were constructed between 1902
and 1904. The workshops cover an
area of about 200 acres, and upwards of
seven thousand hands are constantly em-
ployed in the construction and repair of
engines, wagons, carriages, and various
other kinds of rolling stock. These build-
ings include woodworking shop (264 feet
by 150 feet), carpenters' shop (176 feet
by 125 feet), wagon and machine shop
(132 feet by 125 feet), wheel shop
(300 feet by 146 feet), erecting shop
(810 feet by 60 feet), fitting shop (30 feet
by 300 feet), electric power house
( 100 feet by 100 feet), pattern shop, brass
foundry, tinsmiths' shop, coppersmiths'
shop, smithy (105 feet by 360 feet),
tool shop and machine shop, with three
bays respectively of 30 feet by 450 feet,
30 feet by 300 feet, and 30 feet by
I 50 feet.

The principal terminus of the passenger

traffic section is Howrah Station, which is
occupied Jointly with the East India Rail-
way Company.

A pleasure trip may now, in imagina-
tion, be taken from Howrah along the
whole of the system, and some particulars
will be given of the principal places en
route, as well as of interesting holiday
resorts, palaces, temples, or any his-
torically important archa^ological ruins in
the vicinity of the line.

Starting from Howrah in a first class
carriage, fitted and furnished in the well-
known luxurious style for which this com-
pany has become famous, the first place
to be noticed is Khargpur, 72 miles from
Calcutta, where the railway locomotive
workshops are situated, and where there
is a large settlement with a population of
20,000 inhabitants.

Local Government is administered by
a Station Committee, which is under the
direct supervision of the head officials of
the Company. The Station Committee
deals with matters relating to the food
supply, market, licences, registrations,
sanitary and dairy management and in-
spection, the supervision of schools the
collection of rents of land belonging to the
company, and, in short, a general control
over all questions of a similar character
which tend to the welfare of the whole
community.

The importance of Khargpur as a rail-
way junction will be understood from the
fact that the whole of the company's
traffic from its western sections (includ-
ing branches), extending through Bengal
and the Central Provinces as far as Katni
(644 miles) in the north-west, and Nagpur
(703 miles) and Chhindwara (782 miles)
on the west, in addition to that which
comes from south-eastern Bengal and a
portion of the Madras Presidency on the
south '550 miles), must pass through that
junction on its way to Calcutta, the chief
city, the best market, and the busiest port
in India.

For the purposes of this trip the route
upon the main line to Nagpur may be
taken first.

Kolaghat is 34 miles distant from Cal-
cutta, and tourists will do well to alight
there and travel by the Calcutta Steam
Navigation Company's ferry for about ten
miles to Tamluk, situated on the Rupnaran
River in the district of Midnapur, in Ben-
gal. This is an exceedingly ancient town,
but Hindu sacred writings speak of it as
" a famous city and a kingdom of great
antiquity." The chief object of interest
is a temple sacred to the goddess Kali,

354

in the construction of which the most mar-
vellous skill and ingenuity have been
manifested. The goddess is held in the
greatest veneration, and it is alleged that
while the waters of the river are turbulent
above and below the site of the temple,
they are perfectly placid as they flow past
the sacred shrine.

Tradition says that the name of Tamluk
was given because Vishnu, in the form of
Kali, having become very hot in destroy-
ing the demons, dropped perspiration
there, and thus gave sanctity to the site.

7 he municipal town of Sambalpur is
very prettily situated on the River
Mahanadi, whose course, with well-
wooded hills in the background, can be
traced for several miles from the bun-
galows which have been erected on its
banks. During the rainy season the river
is more than a mile in breadth, and a
ferry service for passengers is provided
by the Bengal-Nagpur Company, but for a
considerable portion of the year there is
only a stream of forty or fifty yards in
width, which is crossed by a pontoon
bridge.

The name of the town is believed to
have been derived from the Somlai Devi,
its tutelary deity, and at the present time
its chief attraction is the temple of Jagan-
nath, which has a great reputation for
sanctity. Scores of litigants refuse to air
their grievances in appointed courts of
law, preferring to abide by decisions made
after testimony has been given upon oath
before this shrine. Sambalpur is the ad-
ministrative centre of the district of the
same name in the Orissa division, and it is,
further, the principal commercial town for
the disposal of agricultural and other
produce from the surrounding neighbour-
hood, including the districts of Sonpur,
Patna, and Rairakhol. Its industries,
which are few in number, include the
weaving of tusser silk and cotton cloth
by hand. It has a high scliool, with
boarding house, a girls' school, Oriya and
Hindu branch schools, and a hospital and
dispensary.

The station is 30 miles from Jharsuguda
junction, and 350 miles distant from
Calcutta.

Bilaspur, the chief town of the district
of Bilaspur in the Chhattisgarh division
in the Central Provinces, is a junction
station 447 miles distant from Calcutta.
About I 2 miles to the north is Rattanpur,
which is regarded as one of the most
sacred places in the neighbourhood.
There are many temples of great antiquity,
and Hindus in particular have a most pro-

355

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

fouiul reverence for a small lake in which
they bathe at the period of full moon. A
considerable portion of the town is now
in ruins, and among a number of blocks
of solid masonry is a pillar erected near
the fort in memory of the twenty Ranis of
Raja Lukchm'an Sahi, who became sati on
the funeral pyre of their husband.

The Chhattisgarh division is one of the
principal agricultural areas in the Central
Provinces, and has for its hcadctuartcrs
the town of Raipur.

It is believed locally that there was a
township there in the ninth century, but
as far as it is possible to ascertain, the
most ancient building now in existence is
the Fort, which report says was con-
structed in the year 1400. There is a
large tank on either side of this old
structure, and within its walls are numer-
ous temples.

Its industrial resources comprise lac-
quering on wood, the weaving of cloth,
working in brass, and the manufacture of
gold and silver ornaments. There are
printing presses with types for English,
Hindi, Urdu, and Oriya languages, and
factories for the extraction of oil from
seeds and the ginning of cotton. The
public buildings include a museum
(erected in 1875), a leper asylum, a high
school, four dispensaries, and a Rajkumar
College for sons of feudatory chiefs.

Nagpur, the seat of the Chief Commis-
sioner of the Central Provinces, is the
terminus of the standard-gauge line of the
Bengal-Nagpur Railway Company in the
direction of Bombay. It is a stirring com-
mercial and industrial centre, in which
there are spinning and weaving mills,
cotton presses, and ginning factories.
Tourists will find much to interest them
in the hill fort of Seetabuldee, overlooking
the city, which was built in the year 18 18,
and in the museum, library, colleges,
schools, public gardens, and other places.
A very large quantity of merchandise is
exported from Nagpur, but prominence is
claimed for grain, seed, teakwood, and
jungle produce grown in the neighbouring
districts of Chhattisgarh, Rajpore, and
Sambalpur. The town is 703 miles dis-
tant from Calcutta.

Jubbulpore is a very important junction
station for the Bengal-Nagpur, Great
Indian Peninsular, and East Indian Rail-
way systems. The town comprises the civil
station and the cantonment, and the total
number of inhabitants is about 100,000.
There are ofHcial residences for a Com-
missioner, Deputy and .Assistant Commis-
sioners and others, together with several

colleges, a school of industry and jail, in
whicn excellent tents, carpets, and coarse
cloth are made by prisoners.

The Marble Rocks, about i o miles dis-
tant from Jubbulpore, and other places
of great interest in the same neighbour-
hood may be seen in the course of a day's
drive.

Ranchi, a town in the district of the
same name, in the Chota-Nagpur division,
is the headquarters of the Government of
the Province of Behar and Orissa, and
it is situated about 240 miles from Cal-
cutta, on an extensive plateau 2,000 feet
in height.

A day spent at Chulia, about two miles
to the east of Ranchi, will provide a most
enjoyable excursion, as there are many
sacred shrines to be seen, and for archa:-
ologists there are fine ruins of a once
famous dome-shaped building. A large
fair is held here annually, and European
visitors are certain to be struck with
amazement at the variety of goods offered
for sale, but they would scarcely be pre-
pared for the sight of huge droves of
animals ranging from the lordly elephant
to the useful goat.

About 200 miles from Calcutta is Puru-
lia, a small but interesting township, pos-
sessing a number of local industries, such
as the pressing of oil-seeds, the pounding
of aloes, weaving, gardening, and the
making of cane and basket ware. Purulia
is a station of some importance on the
northern section of this railway system, as
it is the junction of a 2 feet 6 inches gauge
line to Ranchi, the headquarters of the
Government of Behar and Orissa. It was
constituted a municipality in 1876, and is
the headquarters of the district of Man-
bhum. There is a well-furnished dak
bungalow, with servants constantly in
attendance, not more than 200 yards
distant from station.

The town of Midnapur was in the year
I 783 made the headquarters of the district
of the same name in the division of Burd-
wan in Bengal, but even before that date
it was, by virtue of its official standing and
its being the centre of a fertile tract of
country, a fairly busy and prosperous
place. A fort and factory, among other
buildings, had also been erected prior to
the above-mentioned date, and although
it has never had any important industries,
many of its inhabitants were then, and still
are, employed in the export of rice and
timber, and in the making of brass-ware,
in cane and basket work, the weaving of
cloth, carpentry, mat-making, and the
manufacture of mustard oil.

35(3

I'he town is situated on the left bank
of the River Cossye, and is situated about
So miles distant from Calcutta. It was
constituted a municipality in 1865, and it
has the usual council offices, a church, a
jail, an arts college, and a small technical
school.

The southern section, which runs
parallel with, and in some places not far
from the Bay of Bengal, passes through
a prosperous-looking but unattractive
country for about 20 miles after leaving
Khargpur until Contai Road is reached.
From this point the traveller's interest
becomes aroused; on the right hand, or
western side of the line, the train touches
several of the Feudatory States of Orissa ;
on his left is the ocean, and many of the
stopping places are connected with im-
portant events in the history of this part
of India.

Contai Road, about 94 miles distant
from Calcutta, is the nearest railway
station to the town of Kassiarec, wlicre
there are many very interesting archaj-
ological remains. .An old fort, or monas-
tery, still has walls some ten feet in height,
and a row of cloisters about eight feet
in width. A temple, dedicated to Siva,
is almost a heap of ruins, but a very large
number of worshippers assemble there
periodically. Visitors should make a
point of seeing the Kearchand pillars of
stone, about a thousand in number, which
are dotted about over a large plain, and
it is reported locally that these were
placed there by a Hindu king who hoped
that his enemies might imagine they were
living men placed there as watchers
through the day and night.

Rupsa Junction (133 miles from Cal-
cutta) is connected by a light railway with
Baripada, the headquarters of Mayur-
bhanj, one of the largest and wealthiest
of the Feudatory States of Orissa. Bari-
pada contains the fine residence of the
Maharajah, the chief of the State, but it
has recently come into greater prominence
on account of some very fine ruins of an .
old temple having been unearthed in the
immediate vicinity.

About ten miles from Rupsa is Balasore,
which is pleasantly situated on the right
bank of the river Burrabalang, and as the
town is not more than six miles distant
from the sea coast it is frequently visited
by large numbers of people in search of
quiet rest and invigorating breezes. It
is, further, the headquarters of the Ci\ il
District, and is a busy commercial centre.
Its chief attraction for tourists, however,
will be the temple of Mahadeb " Jorhc-

RAILWAYS

swar," which, according to tradition, has
risen from the ground. This shrine is
near to the railway station, and about six
miles to the westward is another one of
great fame known as Gopinath. The town
has several fine buildings, chief among
which is a handsome Roman Catholic
cathedral, also some old Dutch tombs,
relics of a Dutch factory settlement.

During the Kesari dynasty Jajpur was
the chief town of the Province of Orissa,
but it is now celebrated for its settlement
of Brahman Sivaite priests, and for its
numerous remarkably finely sculptured
statues and the ruins of several Sivaite
temples. The town is built upon the
right bank of the Baitarani River, and
it obtains a very large proportion of
its revenue from its annual fair held in
honour of Baruni, " Queen of the Waters."
It is at Jajpur that there are eight life-
sized statues of seven mothers in Hindu
mythology.

The principal town and headquarters
for administrative purposes of the division
of Orissa in the Province of Behar and
Orissa is Cuttark, which is splendidly
served by railway, road, and water com-
munication with the majority of the im-
portant commercial centres in India.

The town covers an area of about four
square miles, extending from the Maha-
nadi River on the north to the Katjuri on
the south. It has a large number of well-
liuilt residences on each side of a fine
road running parallel with the Mahanadi,
and from this point a most magnificent
view is obtained of really charming sur-
roundings.

The public buildings include the
general hospital, the offices and quarters
of officials of the Bengal-Nagpur Railway
Company, court offices, and general edu-
cational establishments. The town is
25;? miles distant from Calcutta.

Puri, a fashionable and exceedingly
healthy seaside resort on the Bay of
Bengal, is the terminus of a branch line
commencing at Khurda Road. It is famous
from the fact that worshippers to the num-
ber of a hundred thousand annually are
attracted from all parts of India to worship
at one or other of the hundred temples
within a sacred enclosure, which measures
652 feet in length and 630 feet in breadth,
witli a surrounding stone wall 20 feet in
height. The principal temple is that of
" Jagannath," which is decorated with
carved figures representing well-known
deities. There are a number of handsome
\illas near the beach which are occupied
by Europeans, and there are hotels and

other places where tourists can find good
accommodation. The climate of Puri is
a very healthy one, especially for persons
sufl^ering from gout and similar troubles,
and as it is only 3 i i miles distant from
Calcutta, residents of the chief city on the
Hooghly are not slow to avail themselves
of the priceless boon of fresh breezes and
sea-bathing and a temporary respite from
the excessive humidity of which they are
daily victims. Puri is the i)rincipal town
of the district of the same name in the
Prox'ince of Orissa.

is varied, and in some parts may be termed
picturesque, especially where wooded hills
form the western and southern boundaries.
Capital sport can be had in boating
and fishing, while waterfowl of all kinds
give opportunity for good shooting.

Leaving the Chilka Lake behind, the
traveller will notice that the train is never
far from the shores of the Bay of Bengal,
and on some parts of the journey to the
borders of the Madras Presidency it is
within about half a dozen miles. Pass-
ing through the town of Palasa and

INTERIOR OF A BBNQAL-NAGPUR RAILWAY REFRESHMENT CAR.

/■/j^/,} by ^^tt^lm & floffmamt.

In the south-eastern portion of the
district of Puri is the Chilka Lake, a
shallow inland gulf which is separated
from the Bay of Bengal by a long sandy
ridge which in places is not more than
200 yards in width. On its western and
southern sides it is walled in by lofty hills,
while towards the north there are numbers
of shallows, banks of sedges, and islands
formed by silt washed down to the coast
by inland rivers. The lake is about
44 miles in length, and its northern half is
some 20 miles in breadth, but the southern
portion tapers down to a width of only
four or five miles. During the monsoons
when the Bhargavi and Daya rivers pour
their waters towards the Bay, the salt
water is driven out by the force of the
torrents, and the lake, then filled with
fresh water, has an area of about 450
square miles, compared with a normal
extent of 344 square miles, TJie scenery

357

Naupada, a stop is made at Vizi-
anagram, and then at Waltair— 547 miles
from Calcutta— the headquarters of the
district of Vizagapatam. and the junction
station with the Madras and Southern
Mahratta Railway system. There is a
village quite near to the station, but the
attractions of the European quarter
situated on the top of hills overlooking
the sea, and about two miles distant, are
being rapidly recognized. Waltair has a
most equable climate and some charming
scenery.

Two miles distant from it is the old sea-
port of Vizagapatam, shortly to become a
safe harbour under the auspices of the
Bengal-Nagpur Railway. As it will be
the only harbour between Calcutta and
Madras it should rapidly develop in im-
portance, and afford a badly wanted outlet
for the produce of the vast territories lying
inland from this section of the railway.

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

THE EAST INDIAN RAILWAY

IN travelling upon one of the luxurious
mail steamers plying between Kng-
land and the ever-calling East, passengers
are in the habit of sharing confidences
with one another: and although all sorts
and conditions of people may be on board,
it is astonishing how soon " a life on the
ocean wave "—even though a short one -
tends to brush away much of that reserve
which is so characteristic of the average
Westerner. Plans for the future are freely
discussed, and experienced voyagers de-
light to become perfect encyclopaedias of
information about the country to which
the vessel is forging her way. They are
probably returning from a visit to the
old scenes at Home, but they have not
forgotten the beauties of mountains,
jungle, rivers, open plains, or waterfalls
which they hope soon to see again, and a
pictflresque description of these forms an
attractive topic with those who have never
before been beyond the sober-looking out-
lines of the coasts of the British Isles.
Intending visitors therefore begin to
picture for themselves a rough outline of
the places so portrayed, and it would form
a most interesting study if one could
depict on a screen the divergent precon-
ceived ideas of a dozen or more of the
passengers. The latter naturally give
sunshine a very high position in the list
of attractions to be enjoyed, but they are
perhaps scarcely prepared for the remark-
ably sudden and great contrast between
the countenances, dress, and customs of
phlegmatic Englishmen and the half-
naked, copper-brown, sari-c\ad figures
who swarm .in towns and villages in India.
In order to see some of the most his-
torically interesting cities and towns, a
large number of magnificent palaces and
temples, a most charming variety of wildly
beautiful scenery, and thousands of acres
of productive land, one should travel upon
the East Indian Railway system, upon
which a very large proportion of the com-
merce of the Provinces of Bengal and
Behar and Orissa is carried, but which
also serves extensive areas in the United
Provinces of India, the Punjab, and
Centr.il India. An article published
recently in the Railway Magazine refers
to this railway as follows : " The line
passes through the richest and most popu-
lous districts of British India, following
more or less closely the great trade route
between the metropolis of Calcutta and
the Province of the Punjab, which has
existed for centuries — from the time, in

fact, of .•\lexander the Great, if not before.
The greater portion of the line traverses
the valleys of the Ganges and Jumna
Rivers, but the work of construction did
not present many serious engineering
problems excepting on the Grand Chord
section which crosses the Vindya range
of hills, and in those districts where
wide rivers had to be bridged. ."Xmong
the latter are the Jubilee Bridge across
the River Hooghly, between Bandel Junc-
tion (25 miles distant from Howrah ) and
Naihati Station on the Eastern Bengal
Railway ; the Sone Bridge (360 miles
from headquarters), with 28 spans, each
of 150 feet; the Allahabad Bridge, having
14 spans of 200 feet; and the bridge
across the Sone at Dehri, on the Grand
Chord section, which has 93 spans, each
of 100 feet in length. The last-named
structure is believed to be the second
longest bridge in the world, being very
little shorter than the famous Tay Bridge
in Scotland, the respective figures being :
Tay, 10,527 feet in length, and the Sone,
10,052 feet. The 'hill' section offered
a number of difficulties owing to the hard
rocks through which tunnels and cuttings
had to be made, one of the latter being
no less than 3,000 feet in length, with a
maximum depth of 65 feet."

The original East Indian Railway Com-
pany was formed in or about the year
1845, and surveys were at once made for
the construction of the line to Delhi and
other important centres. It is worthy of
note that one of the earliest portions to
be constructed was a section from Howruli
to the coal-bearing district which is now
so widely known as the famous Ranee- •
gunge fields. It was in the year 1854
that the first steps were taken with the
proposed line to Delhi, which it was in-
tended should pass through Patna,
Benares, Mirzapur, Allahabad, and Agra,
in order that the trade carried on by boats
on the River Ganges between these and
other places might be captured by the
new company.

Notwithstanding difficulties and delays
caused by the Indium Mutiny in 1857,
a through train service between Howrah
(Calcutta) and Delhi was established in
the year 1867, and direct communication
with the city of Bombay was thus secured.

The East Indian Railway system is
made up of (a) the East Indian Railway
(with numerous branches), which has
2,424 miles of open lines and about 44
miles under construction ; (b) the Delhi-

Unil)alla-Kalka Railway ; (c) The South
Behar Railway ; (rf) the Tarkessur Rail-
way; and (e) the Jind-Palipat Railway,
making a gross total of 2,805 niiles of
actually or partly completed lines. Run-
ning powers are enjoyed for a distance
of about 46 miles over sections of the
Eastern Bengal, the Great Indian Penin-
sular, and other railways.

In a report published recently by the
Railway Board of the Government of
India, it is stated that the lines owned
by the late East Indian Guaranteed Rail-
way Company were purchased by the
State in 1879. The purchase price was
£32,750.000. and payment was provided
for by a terminable annuity of the amount
of £1,473,750 from January i, i88o, to
February 14, 1953. One-fifth of the
annuity was deferred, and holders of this
portion (representing a capital sum of
£6,550,000) constitute the present East
Indian Railway Company. It appears
that the main line from Howrah to Delhi,
including the Grand Chord section and
a number of important branches and loop
lines, is laid throughout with steel rails.
.\ few short branches are still using iron
rails, but these are being replaced by
second-hand steel rails removed from the
main lino during re-laying operations.
The head offices of the East Indian
Railway Company are situated in an ex-
ceedingly fine building in Calcutta, which
extends from Clive Street on the east to
Strand Road on the west ; and it has,
further, a very extensive frontage to the
north on Fairlie Place. It is within a
stone's-throw from the General Post
Office, the principal banks, the Royal
Exchange, and offices of the leading
merchants and brokers.

The headquarters offices and workshops
of the carriage and wagon department
of the railway are at Lillooah, about 3
miles distant from Howrah ; while the
locomotive workshops are at Jamalpur,
in the district of Monghyr. in the
Province of Behar and Orissa.

Tlie Lillooah shops find employment for
upwards of 5,000 men in the construction,
maintenance, and repair of every class of
rolling-stock. They cover an area of
about 90 acres, and one can easily draw
a mental picture of those busy workpeople
who, under European supervision, are able
in normal times to complete daily
throughout tlie year one carriage and no
fewer than five wagons. Lillooah is only
a railway settlement, but the comfortable

RAILWAYS

quarters erected for the principal members
of the staff, the supply of electric lights
and fans, and the provision of a fine
recreation ground prove conclusively that
the physical and social welfare of their
employees is a matter of supreme concern
to the company. The Calcutta terminus
of th? passenger service is, curiously
enough, at Howrah, in the municipality
of Howrah, on the opposite side of the
River Hooghly to Calcutta, and is
approached from the last-named city by
a pontoon bridge, which is one of the chief
eyesores of the capital of Bengal. The
station, however — when one reaches it
after a most tedious and temper-provoking
drive among the crowds of bullock carts
and pedestrians on that dirty bridge —
is. or should be, attractive, but its situa-
tion in a sort of "no-man's-land" de-
tracts from its well-arranged interior.
Ample space has been provided in the
very large building for no fewer than ten
platforms and two cab-roads, along which
vehicles of all descriptions can pass to
the carriage doors of incoming or depart-
ing trains. There are roomy and lofty
offices for the station and platform super-
intendents, large booking-halls, refresh-
ment and waiting-rooms, together with
accommodation for luggage, lost property,
zenana women, ticket-collectors, and
others. It is stated that no fewer than
32,000 passengers arrive at or depart
from Howrah Station daily, and that not
more than 200 of these travellers are
Europeans.

Technical details as to the methods of
signalling and interlocking of the line
adopted on the East Indian Railway are
unnecessary here, but it is generally
admitted among the leading railway men
of the world that the system is of a
businesslike and up-to-date character. In
fact, it may be said that this work,
together with the construction of the
permanent way, and the arrangements and
devices provided with the view of securing
the greatest possible comfort for travellers
— compatible with safety - has been
carried out in a remarkably satisfactory
manner. The company owns the Kurhur-
baree coal fields near (jiridih, the
terminus of a branch from the main line
at Madhupur, in Hehar and Orissa, and
the average annual output of the mines
now amounts to considerably more than
half a million tons. A special feature
of these collieries is that they are worked
upon thoroughly modern principles, and
that certain valuable commodities are
'''•ing manufactured, thus adding greatly

to the value of the property. For
instance, there has for many years been
an unsatisfied demand for coke in all parts
of India, but the East Indian Railway
Company have not only introduced a
modern oven plant for the burning of it,
but they have, further, utilized the gas
produced for driving engines and for
providing electricity for pumping and
lighting purposes in the mines.

The electrical department for the whole
system has grown rapidly since its forma-
tion some fifteen or sixteen years ago, and
it is little short of marvellous when one
notes the almost numberless uses for
which this power is now required. The
principal installations are at Lillooah,
whence the current is supplied to the
extensive carriage and wagon shops and
to the passenger station at Howrah, and
at Jamalpur, where the company have
their locomotive works; but many other
centres are now using the power for
fans, punkhas, and general lighting pur-
poses.

But there is a train standing at one of
the platforms, and it will be advisable
to join it in order that acquaintance may
be made with the wondrously changing
panorama of plains, mountains, rivers,
cultivated land, jungle, market towns, and
native villages which is presented to the
traveller in the well-appointed coaxrhes of
the company. After leaving the station
occasional glimpses may be had of the
dirty waters of the Hooghly, upon which
paddle-steamers, petrol-boats, jute -junks,
and every species of sailing craft drift
down with the strong tide or battle their
way in an opposite direction, while the
busy foundries and mills tell of great
commercial activity.

Lillooah — already referred to — is next
seen, and then a dozen miles from
Howrah is Serampore, formerly a Danish
Settlement, but now noted particularly for
the very fine college and church buildings
of the Baptist Mission, which were erected
to the memory of Carey, Marshman, and
Ward, the pioneers of missionary enter-
prise in India.

Twenty-one miles from Calcutta is
Chandernagore, a really delightful river-
side resort for picnics or week-end visits.
It became a French Settlement in 1673,
and although it subsequently reverted to
the British Empire, it was finally ceded
to the French in 1 8 i 5 .

Chinsurah was a Dutch Settlement
until the year 1825, when it was granted
to the English in exchange for Sumatra.
Some interesting escutcheons, dating from

359

1685 to t770, are to be seen in an old
Dutch church built in the year 1678.

About a mile farther on is Hooghly,
founded by the Portuguese more than 400
years ago, but which became an English
Settlement in 1642, when the East India
Company started important commercial
undertakings. These four places, prettily
situated on the bank of the Hooghly, are
of a particularly interesting character, not
only on account of their old historical
associations, but also by reason of the
quaint architecture of many of the build-
ings. The surrounding neighbourhood,
too, contains many places of interest, chief
among which is Bansheria, 3 miles dis-
tant from Hooghly, where a famous
temple. 13 pinnacles, and a similar num-
ber of images of Shiva was built by the
wife of a rich zemindar and was dedicated
to the goddess Hanseswari. The first
junction of any importance after leaving
Howrah is at Khana (75 miles), and from
this point the line proceeds in two direc-
tions : one (a) the main line running in
a westerly direction to Delhi, which
touches at such important centres as
Asansol, Dhanbad, Gya, Moghul Sarai
(for Benares), Allahabad, Cawnpore, and
Agra: while the other section (b) pro-
ceeds from Bandel in a northerly direction
for about 200 miles, when it turns sharply
to the west, with a gradually increasing
tendency to the south, until it joins
section (a) at Moghul Sarai, which is 419
miles distant from Calcutta.

Several branch lines connect these two
main arteries between Khana and Moghul
Sarai, so that a very large area of the
richest agricultural portions of the Pro-
vinces of Bengal and Behar and Orissa is
supplied with an admirable transport
service for their valuable crops. The
remainder of the system, as has already
been shown, serves the principal cities and
industrial towns in the I'nitcd Provinces
of ."^gra and Oudh, and has its terminus at
Kalka, which is 1,065 niiles distant from
Howrah.

Bandel is not much more than a large
village on the River Hooghly, but it is
an interesting place from the fact that it
has an old Portuguese monastery and
church, erected towards the close of the
sixteenth century. It is, further, a junc-
tion from which a line runs to Naihali,
on the Eastern Bengal Railway. This
journey involves the crossing of the
Hooghly River by a bridge 1,200 feet in
length — a central double cantilever of 360
feet, and two main side spans each of
420 feet. This bridge — it is called the

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORlSSA

Jubilee Bridge — was opened by Lord
Dufferin, the X'iceroy, in the year 1887.

Proceeding from Bandel in a westerly
direction — on the road to Delhi — the train
arrives at Burdwan (67 miles from
Howrah ), which is the principal town of
the district and division of Burdwan, in
Bengal. It is a town with about 35,000
inhabitants, and is situated at an eleva-
tion above sea-level of more than 100 feet.
Agricultural and other industries (includ-
ing the weaving of saris and dhotis) are
strongly in evidence in the surrounding
neighbourhood, and the produce, varying
in kind, is dispatched either by rail from
Burdwan or from Kala, an exceedingly
busy port on the Bhagirathi River.
Visitors to Burdwan will be well advised
to see the magnificent palace and fine
gardens of the Maharajadhiraj, together
with a group of 108 ancient temples, one
of which is said to contain one of the
oldest lingams of Siva in India.

At the 1 2 1st mile-post a halt is made at
Raneegunge, situated on the north bank
of the Damudar River. It was in the
neighbourhood of this place that prac-
tically the first discovery of coal in India
was made, and the three fields of impor-
tance were named Raneegunge, Jherriah,
and Kurhurbaree, or Giridih. The mines
at the first-mentioned place yielded more
than half the total quantity raised to the
surface in India up to about ten years
ago, when the collieries in the Jherriah
area very largely increased that output.
The Giridih coal area has already been
referred to as the property of the East
Indian Railway Company.

Shortly after leaving- Raneegunge the
boundary line of Bengal is reached and
the Province of Behar and Orissa is
entered, the first town of some importance
to be noticed being Dhanbad, which is
the centre of the Jherriah coal field, now
the most important in India, which was
opened in the year 1893. The town is
situated in the district of Manbhum and
division of Chota Nagpur, and is about
760 feet above sea-level. Some 20 or 25
miles from Dhanbad the traveller will be
on the look-out for Parasnath, which is
the name given to a mountainous series
of peaks, some of which are nearly 5,000
feet in height. One of these peaks, sacred
to the Jains, is known to them as Asniid
Sikhar, or " the peak of bliss " ; but it is
in reality a tableland, upon which there
are no fewer than 20 small Jain temples,
one of them being a very beautiful shrine
of white marble, which cost Rs. 1,20,000.

Parasnath is visited by a large number

of tourists, who usually alight from the
train at Isri Station (198 miles from Cal-
cutta), which is not more than 12 miles
from the foot of the mountain at
Madhuban.

The Grand Chord section of the railway
intersects a deeply interesting and pic-
turesque portion of the Province after
leaving Isri, and at the 215th mile many
persons will be rewarded by leaving the
train at Hazaribagh Road for the purpose
of visiting the town of Hazaribagh, in the
division of Chota Nagpur, wiih a popula-
tion of about 17,000 inliabitants. It
is picturesquely situated among hills
covered with dense forests, but it is known
chiefly as the favoured sanatorium in the
northern portion of the Province of Behar
and Orissa. Hazaribagh is about 2,000
feet above the level of the sea.

Qya, the chief town of the district of
the same name, is 292 miles distant from
Calcutta, and is on the direct main railway
route between that city and Bombay.
.Although Gya has a population of about
50,000 inhabitants, it has practically no
industries or manufactures; yet it is a
place of considerable interest, as it is
the headquarters of ancient Buddhism,
which is represented by a large temple
at Budh-Gya, about 7 miles distant from
the railway-station. Buddha is said to
have lived as a homeless beggar for si.\
years in the jungle near Gya in order to
mature his creed, and that when about
thirty-six years of age he " found
enlightenment " at the place now known
as Budh-Gya, and at once commenced his
forty-four years of preaching of " the
most excellent law."

In travelling from Gya to Moghul Sarai
the train crosses the River Sone at Sone
East Bank Station (342 miles from Cal-
cutta), whicli at this point is about 2.J-
miles in width. The fine bridge, more
than 10,000 feet in length, has already
been referred to.

A branch line, running in a southwardly
direction, and 80 miles in length, was in
the year 1902 constructed from the junc-
tion at Sone East Bank to Daltonganj,
where valuable deposits of iron ore and
lime had been discovered ; and since that
date mining operations on a large scale
have proceeded briskly, with the result
that there is now a large population em-
ployed in furthering the development of
an industry which is one of the main assets
of the whole of India. Daltonganj is now
the chief town in the distri:t of Patamau.
in the division of Chota Nagpur.

Sasaram (356 miles from Calcutta), a
360

town in the district of Shahabad, in the
division of Patna, is frequented by
travellers for the purpose of seeing the
tomb of Sher Shah, the Afghan who, in the
sixteenth century, became Emperor of
Delhi. The inhabitants of the town were
conspicuous for their loyalty during the
Mutiny of 1857, and for their services in
quelling disturbances the title of " Nasirul
Hukkam " was conferred upon the place.
The population in 191 i comprised about
23,000 persons.

About 3.0 miles farther westward from
Sasaram is Moghul Sarai (in the United
Provinces), the junction with the Gudh
and Rohilkand Railway, and which is,
further, the point at which the northern
portion of the East Indian Railway —
— referred to as section [b) — after leaving
Bandel Junction, proceeds in northerly
and then westerly directions, and ulti-
mately joins the main Chord line. It may
be added here that Benares (on the Oudh
Railway), the most sacred city of the
Hindus, is only about 10 miles distant
from Moghul Sarai.

There are a number of important towns
on the northern and western sections of
the East Indian Railway, between Bandel
Junction and Moghul Sarai, and it will
be well to make the return journey to
Bandel by those routes.

Leaving Moghul Sarai, the first place to
be noticed is Dumraon (401 miles from
Calcutta), in the district of Shahabad;
and although it has no manufacturing or
industrial concerns to boast about, it
attracts a large number of sightseers
desirous of viewing the fine residence of
H.H. the Maharaja of Dumraon, who
earned the gratitude of the Imperial
Government for the very active support
rendered by him to British troops during
the Mutiny.

Arrah will be remembered for centuries
to come as another of those places where
conspicuous gallantry was manifested by
loyalists during the terrible days of the
Mutiny. The town is in the district of
Shahabad, in the division of Patna, and is
the junction for the light railway con-
structed in a southerly direction to
Sasaram. Arrah is about 200 feet
above sea-level, and 368 miles distant
from Calcutta. " Arrah House," the
great attraction for visitors, was besieged
by rebels under Koer Singh, but a mere
handful of residents, under the leader-
ship of Vicars Boyle, a railway engineer,
who had fortified and provisioned the
house, held the mutineers at bay until
relief was sent from Dinapore.

RAILWAYS

Dinapore (344 miles from Calcutta), in
the district of Patna, has a number of
thriving industries, and the town has a
widespread reputation for its excellent
cabinetware, furniture, oil and printing
presses, foundries, and other establish-
ments. The name of this place is derived
from the word dana, signifying " city of
grain," and this term was undoubtedly
bestowed on account of Dinapore being
a most important market for dealing in
all kinds of cereals. The population of
the town, including the residence m the
cantonments situated about 3; miles from
the town on the bank of a tributary of
the Ganges, was rather more than 40,000
persons at the census of 191 i.

Bankipore, an important junction 338
miles from Calcutta, is in reality the
western suburb and a part of the munici-
pality of the city of Patna, and is the Civil
station in which Government officials and
others have their business and private
houses. It is pleasantly situated on the
southern bank of the Ganges, but its chief
attraction is the niaidan, around which are
a large number of very fine European
residences, standing in well-laid-out
gardens and grounds sloping to the brink
of the river. About sixteen years after
the terrible famine in this neighbourhood
in 1770. it was determined by the Govern-
ment of the day that a storehouse should
be built in which grain could be kept for
relief purposes in the future, but the out-
come of that really praiseworthy project
was the construction of a building which,
on completion, was found to be absolutely
useless. This brick structure, known as
" The Gola," was 96 feet in height, with
walls 12 feet in thickness at the base. It
was built in the shape of an ordinary
straw beehive, and it was intended that
grain should be poured through an aper-
ture at the top, and that when it was
required it should be drawn from doors
in the wall on the level of the ground
Moor ; but, to the discomfiture of the
(iovcrnnient officials, the contractor, and
all who had any part or lot in the scheme,
it was discovered that the doors had
been made to open inwards instead of
outwards !

Patna, the largest city in Behar, stands
on the bank of the Ganges at an elevation
of 185 feet, and has a population of about
136,000 souls. It is generally believed
that it is built upon the site of Pataliputra
.derived from patali, the " trumpet-
llower "), which was founded in the fifth
century B.C., and became the metropolis
of India in the time of Chandra Gupta,

between the years 321-297 B.C. Megas-
thenes, the Greek historian, says that the
buildings of the original city were then
built of wood, but that before the close of
the third century B.C. Asoka replaced
wooden structures by masonry work, and
that he also erected palaces, monasteries,
and monuments, which have not yet been
fully excavated and identified. Guru
Govind Singh, the founder of the Sikh,
religion, was born at Patuliputra in 1660,
and the temple erected there contains the
cradle and shoes of the Guru, together
with the holy book of the Sikhs, which
was presented to the edifice by the Guru
himself, who wrote his name therein with
an arrow.

Modern Patna extends for a distance of
nearly 9 miles along the Ganges, and it
may fairly be described as a long,
straggling city of business places and
residences constructed of bricks, and of
mud and tile-roofed huts in the bazar, and
other native quarters. Although first
impressions are not particularly favour-
able, it must be said that there are now
(19 1 6) some very fine newly constructed
buildings which are worthy of notice.
The Patna College, for instance, on the
western side of the city, was built by a
wealthy Indian as a private residence for
himself; it was subsequently purchased
by the Government and converted into
Law Courts, but when the judicial branch
was removed to Bankipore in 1857, nego-
tiations were entered into and arrange-
ments were made which resulted in the
College being established there in 1862.
Near to the College are the Temple
Medical School and the Patna Hospital,
erected in 1903 at a cost of i lakh of
rupees. The Patna Oriental Library,
founded by Maulvi Khuda Baksh Khan
Bahadur, " contains a number of beautiful
Arabic and Persian manuscripts, and some
rare specimens of Oriental caligraphy.
No fewer than 300 contain the autographs
or imprimaturs of Indian emperors, and
the signatures and seals of the greatest
Ulamas of the Moslem world. In addition
to Oriental manuscripts collected in India,
Egypt, and Europe, it pwjssesses 4,000
volumes of Arabic and Persian books and
some 3,000 European works, chiefly for
reference purposes."

A brief reference has already been
made to Jamalpur, the headquarters of
the locomotive department of the East
Indian Railway. Workshops were erected
in the year 1862, but they have been
enlarged from time to time, until to-day
they cover an area of 99 acres (21 acres of

whii h are roofed over), and give con-
stant employment to nearly 10,000 hands.
The most complete equipment of modern
machinery and plant has been installed
for the building of locomotives, and for
the manufacture of iron sleepers and other
permanent-way fittings, points, crossings,
and signalling and interlocking and other
appliances.

The monthly output of castings from
the iron foundry is more than 2,000 tons;
the steel foundry disposes of 300 tons
of material, and the rolling-mills account
for fully 400 tons of iron and steel bars.
The town of Jamalpur apart from its
railway interests — is deserving of a visit,
as it is rather prettily situated at the foot
of the Kurruckpore Hills, at an altitude
of nearly 200 feet. There were about
20,000 inhabitants at the census of 191 I,
and a very large number of these were
Europeans connected with the railway
works.

A branch line, 6 miles in length, con-
nects Jamalpur with Monghyr, on the
banks of the Ganges, " from which the
East Indian Railway Company work a
steam-ferry service to the opposite bank
of the river, and to the mart of Khagaria,
on the River Kandak."

Monghyr, in the division of Bhagalpur,
is visited chiefly on account of the fort,
which occupies a commanding position on
the extremity of a rock overlooking the
River Ganges. The walls, 4,000 feet in
length, and 3.500 feet in width, enclose
a lofty mound upon which a citadel stood
in earlier days. The surrounding neigh-
bourhood has several attractive places for
tourists, and among them may be men-
tioned the Seetakoond hot springs, a
favourite resort of Hindus, and the village
of Oerien, in which there is a granite hill
said to have been the hermitage of
Buddha. The municipal area is about
3 square miles in extent, and the town is
208 miles distant by rail from Calcutta.
Bhagalpur, the headquarters of the dis-
trict and division of the same name, is
situated on the right bank of the River
Ganges, and is 265 miles distant by rail
from Calcutta. Its growth as a commer-
cial centre is due primarily to the
development of an export trade in agri-
cultural produce and to the establishment
of industries, including the manufacture
of blankets and carpets, canework, the
making of furniture, carving, oil pressing,
the grinding of grain, and the manufacture
of ropes. Bhagalpur was constituted a
municipality in 1864, the Board consisting
of 22 Commissioners, 14 of whom are

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

elected representatives. Owing to the
great expansion of trade, the East Indian
Railway Company have erected a second
station, thus affording much greater
accommodation for the handling of agri-
cultural and other produce. The town
contains a number of imposing buildings,
including civil and criminal courts, an Art
College, the Lady Dufferin Hospital, and
the new V'ictoria Memorial Hospital, while
there are several interesting shrines in the
neighbourhood. The census of 191 i
showed that there were 74,349 in-
habitants. About 30 miles distant from
Bhagalpur is Mandar Giri Hill, a huge
mass of granite, overgrown near the
summit with low jungle, and regarded in
Hindu mythology as being very sacred.
Ruins of two temples may be seen near
the summit, and inscriptions and carvings
are still visible. Several artificial tanks,
too, have been cut out of the side of the
hill, and one of these, situated near to the
oldest temple, is about 500 feet higher
than the surrounding plain.

Sultangunge, 280 miles from Calcutta
on this railway, is a very flourishing mart
in the district of Bhagalpur, and a con-
siderable portion of its commercial and
agricultural products is carried in boats
on the River Ganges, which is not far dis-
tant. Tourists invariably pay a visit to
this place in order to inspect, in the
neighbourhood of the railway-station, ex-
tensive remains of Buddhist monasteries ;
but additional attraction is presented by
a huge granite rock, standing in the
middle of the River Ganges, upon which
is a famous temple called Gaibnath Siva.
This building is regarded as being so
secred that few Hindus pass anywhere
near the spot without ofl'ering gifts to the
idol.

Upon reaching Barharwa (185 miles
from Calcutta) the line branches in two
directions, one portion diverging slightly
to the east along the Barharwa-.'\zimganj
Railway to Bandel, while the other, run-
ning due south, passes through Nalhati,
Sainthia, and other towns, eventually join-
ing the (Jrand Chord line at Khana. A
brief description has now been given of
towns and places of interest in the Pro-
vinces of Bengal and Behar and Orissa,
but the East Indian Railway stretches
westwardly from Moghul Sarai far into
the territory of the United Provinces and
adjoining portions of India, districts
which are outside the scope of the present
volume. Some of the most important
cities in India served by this company
are situated within that area, among them

being Allahabad, Cawnpore, Etawah,
Agra, .Aligarh, Delhi, Umballa, and
Kalka.

Although these notes refer almost
entirely to towns served by the East
Indian Railway, there are a number of
other places of interest in Northern Behar
which figure in the time-tables of the
Bengal and North-Western Railway ;
, yet. as these systems are connected with
junctions on the northern section of the
East Indian Railway, they also must be
noticed here.

Muzaffarpur, the administrative head-
quarters of the district of the same name,
is situated on the Chota Gandak River,
and although the town is not a large one,
its streets are for the most part broad and
well laid out, and run from east to west ;
it has a large bazar in which markets
are held daily, and a brisk trade is done
in all kinds of agricultural and other
produce. The river just mentioned is
navigable for comparatively large boats
le.xcepting in the dry season), and water-
borne tratfic has increased greatly in
recent years, both in exporting and im-
porting goods and the fruits of the earth.
.■Vmong the chief exports are cereals, lin-
seed, saltpetre, hides, and cotton; while
included in the imports are pulses and
grain, rice, salt, and cotton manufactures.
The principal buildings include court-
houses, several good schools, many fine
private residences, and a dispensary,
established in 1838, which is generally
regarded as being one of the best in India.
There are, further, two large temples in
the centre of the bazar, one of which is
dedicated to Rama and Sita. and the other
to Si\a.

Darbhanga, the largest and most popu-
lous town in the district of the same name,
is situated on the east bank of the Little
Baghmati River, along which it runs for
about 6 miles from north to south. The
chief interest attaching to this town is
that it has been the residence of the
Maharajas of Darbhanga since the year
1762, while another feature to be noticed
is the fact that there is an unusually large
number of tanks within its borders.
Three of these — constructed in a line —
have a total length of 6,000 feet, and give
an average breadth of about 1,100 feet.
The district of which Darbhanga is the
centre has a large export and import trade
in fruits and vegetables, pulses, grain,
wheat, rice, other cereals, oil-seeds of
various kinds, salt, saltpetre, sugar, and
tobacco; and there are excellent means
of communication between Darbhanga and
362

Calcutta, as well as inland villages, by
railways, good cart-roads, and by boats
(carrying 2,000 maunds), which ply upon
the Little Bhagmati during the rainy
season. Hajipur is an ancient town in the
district of Muzaffarpur, and authentic his-
torical records show that in the year i"52
it was the scene of conflicts between
Afghan rebels, who had seized it, and
Muzaffar Khan, one of .Akbar's generals,
who eventually subdued the marauders
and took possession of the town. It was
very many years, however, before lasting
peace was obtained, and evidences of the
severity of the struggles which took place
in those early days are seen in the ruins
of the old fort and other buildings.

Hajipur is a place of some commercial
importance, and it has good railway facili-
ties, in addition to regular river services
in three directions during eight or nine
months of the year. The agricultural
produce and goods which are dealt in by
the inhabitants of the town and neigh-
bourhood are cotton, indigo, indigo-seed,
pulses and grain, rice, fresh fruits and
vegetables, coffee and brass articles, lin-
seed, saltpetre, and tobacco. Several
temples and mosques are to be found in
the fort and market-place, in addition to
others which are also worthy of notice in
adjacent villages. One of these temples
— a Buddhist one — is a double-storied
building about 30 yards square in extent,
and its masonry work ought to be seen by
every tourist, as it is much superior to
that which is executed in the present day.

Sitamarhi, situated on the west bank
of the River Lakhandai, in the district of
Muzaffarpur, is a municipal town in which
there is a large bazar where markets are
held daily, the principal articles of trade
being oil-seeds, rice, hides, saltpetre,
sacred threads, and pottery. There is
a local tradition to the effect that the
lovely Janaki, or .Sita, whose life is
described in the Ramayana. here sprang
to life out of an earthen vessel into which
Raja Janak had driven his ploughshare.
There are nine temples dedicated to Sita,
.Siva, Hanuman. and Dahi.

.A very large fair in honour of Rama is
held annually at Bettiah, the chief seat
of commerce and the most populous town
in the district of Champaran, in the
division of Tirhut; but it is famed prin-
cipally for the very fine palace and estate
of the Bettiah Raj, both of which are
referred to at length on another i)age \i
this volume.

Sonepur is only a village in the dis-
trict of Saran and division of Tirhut, but

RAILWAYS

its name is a household word throughout
the I'rov inces of Behar and Orissa, Bengal
and Assam. It has no manufactures, no
industries, and no archaeological ruins;
but it has a huge annual fair and a race-
meeting, held at the same time, which
attract thousands of visitors from all parts
of India. There is. however, no authentic
evidence as to the origin of the fair or
the date of its establishment. Sonepur
is situated at the confluence of the Ganges
and Gandak Rivers, and is therefore
regarded as a sacred spot.
f The late Mr. H. E. Abbott, formerly
editor of the Indian Planters' Gazette,
who for more than thirty years was " the
man " at the helm." as honorary secre-
tary, of the .Sonepur race-meetings, says
in that incomparalile handbook of his,
" Reminiscences of Sonepore " : " The
raison d'etre of the yearly European
gathering at Sonepore is, of course, the
fair, which the local officials have to
attend to keep order and see to the
sanitiiry arrangements. In the olden days
planters visited it to try horses, and
gradually it became one of the most
popular gatherings in the country. Its
racing has had its ups and downs, but
there is no other meeting throughout
tlie length and breadth of the larul
where visitors can enjoy themselves so
thoroughly. There is not an idle moment
from beginning to end; every camp is
free of the others; strangers find such a
warm welcome that they feel at home from

the very first; and several days' racing,
with balls, cricket, tennis, polo, gym-
khanas, and other fun thrown in, satisfy
even the most e.\igeant epicurean."

Pusa, in the district of Darbhanga, and
6 miles distant from the railway-station
at Waini. is the headquarters of the
Imperial .Agricultural Research Institute
and College of the Government of India.

Pusa should certainly be visited by all
who are interested in the general develop-
ment of India, a country pregnant with
possibilities in the agricultural world, and
permission to inspect the Institute can
usually be obtained froin the director.

Behar was, in the ninth century, the
capital of the Pala kings, but it is now
only a small town in the district and
division of Patna, consisting of one long,
narrow street intersected by numerous
lanes and passages. Its claim to recogni-
tion to-day lies in the fact that it contains
a number of archaeological remains which
are of more than passing interest. One of
these objects is a sandstone pillar, upon
which are two inscriptions relating to the
Gupta dynasty, covering the period
between A.D. 413 and 480. There is.
further, a raised plateau, about 3 1 o acres
in extent, upon which are the ruins of an
old fort of vast dimensions, there being
evidences that it measured no less than
2,800 feet from north to south and 2,100
feet from east to west, while it was sur-
rounded by a wall about 18 feet in
thickness. Within this was a smaller

Mahonnnedan fort, and also several
Iliiulu temples and the great vihara, or
Buddhist monastery. Near the gate of
the large fort are a number of tombstones,
and two of these have clearly decipher-
able inscriptions of the years 1646 and
1 693 .

Rajgir, lying about 13 miles in a south-
westerly direction from Behar, is a most
interesting place, as it was here that
Buddha commenced his studies under
Brahman tutors; and it was here that,
after his attainment of " Buddhahood,"
or " Supreme enlightenment," he was in
the habit of teaching and preaching.

Rajgir was a city of some importance
about 500 years before the Christian era,
and even to-day the ruins of the outer
walls show clearly that they must have
been most solidly constructed and massive
in proportions. They were built of huge
stones laid without mortar along the outer
edge of the summit of the Rajgir hills,
and the inner ramparts of the city had
a circuit of about 5 miles. There are a
number of interesting caves cut out of
solid rocky hills, and the enormous
amount of chiselling which has been
done has polished the interiors to such
an extent that they closely resemble
polished steel. One of these is called
Sonbhaiidar. or " treasury of gold " ;
another, named Pipal, is said to have been
used by Buddha as a dwelling-place; and
a third, styled Sattapanni, is the place in
which the first Buddhist Council was held.

THE EASTERN BENGAL RAILWAY

'^r'HE physical features of India have
presented a remarkable variety of
engineering problems in the construction
of railways, but ditlficulties have not been
insuperable bars to constructors ; they
have rather been an incentive to a fuller
ilevelopment of energy, with the result
that different systems in that vast country
have provided facilities for the transport
of its immense wealth of agricultural and
mineral products, and for the comfortable
conveyance of tourists, who come from all
parts of the world to take their full enjoy-
ment of historically interesting places, and
of the indescribable beauties of forests,
mountains, fertile valleys, magnificent
palaces, and sacred temples.

The Eastern Bengal Railway traverses
the rich plains of Bengal, and connect?
that province with .Assam on the east and
with the Central and United Provinces

and Bombay on the west ; but the autliori-
ties have exceptional difficulties to face,
as transhipment to steamers or flats is
necessary in places where the Brahma-
putra or Ganges Rivers have prevented
the continuance of the line.

The network of main and branch lines
and ferry services, as shown on a map,
presents a confusion almost as intricate as
that which is manifested in a spider's web ;
and in attempting a description of the
principal stations or places of interest in
their vicinity, it will be advisable to follow
the plan adopted by the railway officials
themselves and divide the whole system
into the three following sections, namely :
(i) the standard gauge section ; (2) the
northern section, metre gauge; and (3)
the Dacca section, also metre gauge.

It should be mentioned here that the
standard-gauge line crosses the River

(janges by means of the Hardinge Bridge
at Sara, and that it extends as far as San-
lahar ; a metre-gauge line (for goods traffic
only) has also been constructed from the
northern bank of the above-mentioned
river to Santahar, and thence in a
northerly direction as far as Siliguri.
Transhipment from one gauge to the other
takes place at Santahar and Sara.

The Eastern Bengal Railway system
originated with the lines owned by the
late Eastern Bengal Guaranteed Railway
Company, being acquired by the State
on July I, 1884, with which the Northern
Bengal State and the Calcutta and South-
Eastcrn Railways were amalgamated for
working by the State as one undertaking,
under the name of the Eastern Bengal
State Railway.

The name " Eastern Bengal State Rail-
way " has recently been changed to " The

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Eastern Bengal Railway," but tlic under-
taking remains a State concern.

The open lines are 1.770 miles in
length, while construction is now proceed-
ing upon, or sanction has been given for
the work over, a further distance of 113
miles.

The surface of the country through
which this railway passes is practically
flat, but a tremendous amount of lalxiur
has been involved in the bridging of
rivers, many of which presented additional
difticulties owing to the constant shifting
of their courses.

The most important work in this con-
nection has been the construction of the

l)urpose been constructed at the bridge
site to prevent further lateral movement
of the river, and a revetment of the stream
lias been built at Sara Ghat Station and
another at Raita Ghat Station. When it
is und(!rstood that the annual rise of tiie
river in flood-time is 3 1 feet, it will l>e
seen that the training works have to l)e
of great strength." There are 15 main
spans of 345 feet and 3 land spans of
75 feet, the total length of the bridge
being alxjut 5,900 feet (or i mile 220
yards) from one abutment to the other.
There is a clear headway above highest
water-level of 40 feet, and of ~ i feet above
lowest level. The 16 main piers have

DABJEBLING STATION.

/'//.).',. *) Dr. S. C. Haiifjii.

Ilardingc Bridge over tlie Lower Ganges
River at Sara, near I'abna, in the division
of Rajshahi, in Bengal, and about 140
miles distant from Calcutta.

Many years were occupied in the
preparation and consideration of designs
for the proposed bridge, but in the
year 19 10 quarries were opened, and
preliminary work of a general descrip-
tion was commenced. The engineering
problems involved in this huge under-
taking were probably as intricate as those
of any other similar project that the world
has ever presented, and therefore a short
description of the structure may be given
here.

The initial difficulty in training and
keeping the river in its course was the
greatest of all with which the engineers
had to contend. The engineers' report
says ; " Two guide banks have for this

absorbed nearly 48,000 tons of masonry
and 3,150 tons of steel. The actual cost
of the work was less than the estimate, but
even then the bill amounted to about 400
lakhs of rupees.

There are ferry services for passengers
between Lalgola Ghat and Godagari Ghat,
between Amingaon and Pandu, and from
Teestamukh to Hahadurabad. A standard-
gauge wagon ferry has been established
between Lalgola Ghat and Godagari Ghat,
the transhipment of merchandise to or
from trucks on the two gauges taking
place at Godagari; while between Amin-
gaon and Pandu, and between Teestamukh
and Bahadurabad, there are metre-gauge
ferries and wagons, thus obviating any
necessity for transhipment.

The official headquarters of the railway
are situated in a very fine building in
Bankshall Street, in Calcutta; and the

3^4

main terminus in that city for passenger
traffic is at Sealdah, which is about i mile
in an easterly direction from the General
Post Office in Calcutta.

The standard permanent-way for th
broad gauge is 90-lb. flat-footed rails,
fixed by screw spikes to wooden sleepers;
and for metre gauge the standard now
adopted is the 6o-lb. flat-footed rails, also
on wooden sleepers.

The locomotive workshojjs are situated
at Kanchrapara, about 28 miles from Cal-
cutta, and they comprise smiths' shops,
machine sliops, boiler shops, wheel shops,
brass and iron foundries, pattern shojis,
and fitting and erecting shops, together
with a large number of stores and sheds
of various kinds.

From particulars supplied by the rail-
way authorities to the Railway Gazette,
it appears that carriage and wagon
frames, wlieels, and axles are purchased
in England, and the carriage bodies are
erected on the frames in the shops at
Kanchrapara. -Stores of European manu-
facture are bought in England through
the medium of the India Office.

The following authoritative information
respecting some of the principal engineer-
ing works recently completed for the rail-
way include the remodelling of the station
yards at Sealdah and Bcliaghata and a
bridge over the Circular Canal, Cah utta :
new yards at Naihati for marshalling
Eastern Bengal and East India Railway
goods trains; an engine shed at Naihati:
new carriage and wagon shops and
remodelling of locomotive shops at
Kanchrai)ara : i|uadrupling the line from
Naihati Junction to Dum-Dur Junction
I 19 miles); remodelling the yard at Chit-
pore; new store yard at Kanchrapara;
doubling several lines; and the extension
of broad-gauge lines north of the River
Ganges, owing to the needs of traffic since
the opening of the Hardinge Bridge.

Reference has been made in other por-
tions of this volume to the excellent
carriages and the very comfortable
arrangements which have been provided
for travellers upon many of the railway
systems of India, and although there are
a few flagrant examples of jolting perma-
nent ways, badly equipped conveyances,
a disregard of authorized time-tables, and
a lamentable lack of cleanliness and
efficiency in refreshment rooms and cai-s,
no one can say that the Eastern Bengal
Railway comes within the category of
defaulters.

In referring to a few interesting places
situated upon or near to the Eastern

RAILWAYS

Bengal Railway system, the following,
which are served by the standard-gauge
section, are worthy of mention.

Goalundo, 150 miles distant from Cal-
cutta, in the division of Dacca, is near the
junction of the Padma (as the Ganges is
called in that vicinity) and the Brahma-
putra Rivers, and daily services of
steamers connect the town with the rail-
way at Narayanganj and Chandpur, and
with other boats bound for Madaripur,
Harisal, Sylhet, and Cachar. Goalundo

he adds that the history of Goalundo and
its inhabitants affords a capital argument
against the platitudinous thesis that " a
rolling stone gathers no moss."

Jessore, 74 miles from Calcutta, is an
important junction station on the Calcutta-
Bongong-Khoolna section, and it received
its present name and its commercial
position when it — as a village of Kasba —
became the chief town of the district of
Jessore. It was constituted a municipality
in the year 1864, and within the local

for the manufacture of coloured clay
figures.

Only 93 miles by rail from Calcutta,
on the Ranaghat-Lalgola-Ghat section, in
the district of Murshidabad, is Plaasy,
historically interesting as the place of
defeat of Suraj-ud-daula, Nawab of
Bengal, by Colonel Robert Clive (after-
wards Lord Clive), and it was this victory
which virtually gave Great Britain her
Empire in the East. Calcutta had been
taken by the Nawab in June 1756, and

1. DARJEELING MAIL TRAIN, EASTERN BENGAL RAILWAY.
|2. KANCHRAPARA STATION, EASTERN BENGAL RAILWAY. 3. SAIDPUR STATION, EASTERN BENGAL RAILWAY.

is an exceedingly busy commercial centre,
as enormous quantities of grain, jute, oil-
seeds, fish, and other produce pass
through this port of call for Calcutta and
other markets. Goalundo, however, is a
somewhat unfortunate town, as the
erratic rivers have caused it to be literally
removed from its original position to a
site about 7 miles farther to the south.
Mercantile and residential houses are
tlierefore built less solidly than they
otherwise would be ; but there is an
advantage in this, as a writer has said
that " they can be moved, snail-like, after
the peripatetic terminus to whose vagaries
they must now be accustomed." In fact.

governmental area arc five villages, and
in one of these — Chanchra — there is the
residence of the Rajas of Chanchra, or
Jessore, around which are the ruins of a
rampart and fosse which are worthy of
notice by tourists.

Krishnagar, in the district of Nadia,
with a population of nearly 25,000 in-
habitants, contains the family mansion of
the Rajas of Nadia, in addition to a
Government College (affiliated to the
University of Calcutta), a good collegiate
school, and other imposing public build-
ings. It has a few industries of the kind
usually found in 1>usy agricultural centres,
but it has for many years been famous

365

that disaster, it will l)c remembered, was
followed by the horrible tragedy of the
imprisonment of prominent citizens in
what is known as the " Black Hole " of
Calcutta. The city was again reoccupied
l)y the British in January 1757. In June
of the same year Clive left for Plassey,
where his force of 900 Europeans, 2,000
Sepoys, 1 00 half-castes, and artillery
consisting of 8 six-pounders and 2
howitzers was opposed by the Nawab with
50,000 foot-soldiers, 18,000 horse, and
50 pieces of cannon. Vivid descriptions
have been written of Clive's encampment
overnight in a mango grove, of a spirited
attack by the Nawab, the early death of

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

his commandcr-in-rhicf. of tlic aihanco of
the Hritish troops, and of the utter rout
of the enemy. Clive reported that all
his troops had fought with the utmost
bravery, but he singled out for praise the
39th British Regiment (now the 1st Bat-
talion Dorsetshire Regiment), and their
colours still bear the motto won at Plassey
— nan)ely, " Primus in Indis." It is said
that Suraj-ud-daula fled on a camel to
Murshidabad.

The chief town <if the ilistrict of
Murshidabad is Berhampore, which is
situated on the left hank of the Bhagirathi
River, 5 miles distant from Murshidabad
and 118 miles from Calcutta. This town
has practically come into existence since
the erection of cantonments shortly after
the battle of Plassey in 1757. The
general aspect of the town is pleasing*,
and especL;vlly is this the case when it is
viewed from the river, as colleges,
administrative offices, court-houses, and
other buildings are seen to advantage.

Berhampore, however, never had a
reputation for being a really healthy
town, as the level of the river during the
rainy season is higher than the ground
upon which the houses are built ; but, at
the same time, credit is due to the
municipal authorities for the vigorous
steps taken by them to improve the con-
ditions under which the inhabitants live.
One very important undertaking was the
carrying out of a scheme for supplying
pure drinking water for the town. When
the idea was mooted, the Maharani
Surnamoyi of Kasimbazar, with great
generosity, offered to bear the whole cost
of the works. The sum of Rs. 162,000
was paid by this lady before her death
in .August 1897, and her nephew and
successor then expressed a desire to bear
the balance of the expense in order to
give effect to the desire of his deceased
relative. The works were completed in
1899 at a cost of about Rs. 270,000.

Kasimbazar is the northernmost por-
tion of Berliampur, and it was exceedingly
prosperous long before Berliampur was
known at all; but decline and decay set
in, owing principally to the fact that the
Bhagirathi River altered its course and
thus deprived the town of its facilities
for water traffic. It is now possessed of
a few industries only, but it is worthy
of a vLsit on account of its many fine
buildings which are still in existence. The
beautiful mansion and fine grounds of the
Maharaja of Kasimbazar should, at all
costs, be seen by tourists.

RangamatI, 6 miles from Berliampur,

is, it is Ijelieved, the present name for
Kama Suvarna, which was the chief town
of a kingdom, composed mainly of
Buddhists, which had a circumference of
about 100 miles. It follows, therefore,
that a number of monasteries were built,
and an hour or more spent in viewing the
structural remains will not be grudged.

Jangipur, the chief town of the sub-
division of the same name, in the district
of Murshidabad, is believed to have been
founded by the Emperor Jehangir.
It formerly stood on the left bank
of the Bhagirathi River, but when erosion
caused a portion of the town to fall into
the stream, several official buildings were
removed to the opposite bank. A large
trade was, in bygone days, carried on by
the East India Company, silk being one
of the chief commodities.

Murshidabad, on the left bank of the
Bhagirathi River, and 123 miles distant
from Calcutta, became the seat of govern-
ment of the Nawab Murshid Kuli Khan
(who gave it his name) in 1704, when he
gave the preference to it over Dacca,
which had previously been the capital of
Bengal. It might have been called a
" city of palaces," as it was the custom
of each succeeding ruler to liuild a royal
residence for himself; but when Bengal
had been conquered by the British and
Calcutta became the chief city, Murshi-
dabad's greatness commenced to wane,
and 'the majority of the palaces and public
buildings which did not soon crumble into
ruins were destroyed by the great earth-
quake of 1897. "Sic transit gloria
mundi " would be a fitting memorial to
display over the departed glories of a
once famous city.

Prior to its decay, however, the city
was noted for many industries, and per-
haps one of the most important ones, and
certainly one of the oldest, was the manu-
facture of silk, which was prosecuted with
much vigour owing to strong competition
by the Dutch, French, and Armenians.
Excellent work was also done in the
carving of ivory, the crushing of sugar,
and in the cultivation of rice, pulses, jute,
tobacco, turmeric, oil-seeds, and vege-
tables of various kinds.

Many of these industries are fostered
to-day, especially silk, but the business
done in them is comparatively very small.
Travellers may still, however, find much
to interest them by an inspection of many
ancient temples, tombs, and ruins. Among
tliese may be mentioned the remains of
palaces, an old gun brought from Dacca ;
Bhabani Than, a very old and sacred
366

Hindu temple; and the Iniambara ihou^r
of prayer), a fine structure built in the
year 1847.

The first Imambara was constructed by
the Nawab Suraj-u.l-daula, Mahommcdans
only being employed. It was a magnifi-
cent structure, containing representations
of tombs of the Inians, made of gold,
silver, glass, and wood ; and when the
building was lighted at night during the
Mohurrum festival it made a brilliant dis-
play, as hundreds of men were engagul
for the management of the lights of
cut-glass cliandeliers, wall lamps, and
candles. This edifice was destroyed by
fire, and the present Imambara is as
nearly as possible a replica of the old
one.

Not much more than a mile from
Murshidabad is the Topkhanu, formerly
the eastern entrance to the city, where
may be seen an old gun 17^ feet in
length, now embedded in a peepul-tree
which has raised it several feet above the
ground.

Near to the palace is Motjihil (pearl
lake), where Lord Clive lived in 1765,
and which was the residence of Warren
Hastings when he was Political Resident
at Murshidabad.

Another place, also within a couple of
miles from Murshidabad, is Mahimapur,
where conferences were held, three days
after the battle of Plassey, relating to
the payment of certain moneys which had
been promised in the event of the success
of a conspiracy for the deposition of
Suraj-ud-daula Ijefore the fight had taken
place .

A comparatively small town at the
present day, but still one of considerable
importance in the export of rice, jute, silk,
and sugar, is Jiaganj, which is about
5 miles to the north of Murshidabad. The
town contains a number of fine buildings,
but there are also ])laces of considerable
interest in the immediate locality.

The first town in the northern section
to be noticed is Maldah, on the Calcutta-
Katihar section, whicli in the eighteenth
century was a thriving centre for thj
manufacture of cotton and silk. Tlie
Dutch and French had factories there at
that time, and one of these is still to be
seen. The station at this town is the
alighting-place for travellers intending to
pay a visit to Gaur, which is the site of
some of the most remarkably interesting
ruins in the Province of Bengal.

Gaur was for a long period prior to
the year i 564 the capital of the indepen-
dent Kings and Viceroys of Bengal, but

kAlLWAYS

in that year this proud distinction was con-
ferred upon Tanda, a few miles to the
south-west. It is now a ruined city, and
although its earliest history is enveloped
in obscurity, it is certain that it was cap-
lured in I 198 by the Mahommcdans, who,
for more than 300 years, made it their seat
of government in Bengal.

.\s far as can be ascertained from
existing remains, it is extremely probable
that the city, with its suburbs, covered
an area of from 25 to 30 square miles.
Many mosques were built by the Mahom-
mcdans, and some of them are still in a
fair state of preservation. In the neigh-
bourhood may be seen the Sadullahpur
(ihat and the Duarbasini shrine, both of
which are regularly visited by large
numbers of Hindu pilgrims; and also the
Kadam Rasul mosque — erected in 1530 -
under which it is said that there is a stone
bearing the impression of Mahommed's
foot.

About 20 miles distant from Gaur are
the remains of Pandua, and although it
is now practically a deserted town, there
are still to be seen some very fine
examples of early Mahommedan architec-
ture. The most attractive sights for
tourists, however, will probably be the
following : The Adina Majid, supposed
to have been built by Sikandcr Shah be-
tween the years 1369 and 1374, and
believed to have been erected from the
designs of the Jama Majid at Damascus.
The passing of years has done its destruc-
tive work, and to-day one gazes upon a
heap of ruins, the only portion stilt pos-
sessing any semblance of a building being
the Badshah Ka Takhi, or the Zenana
quarters. About a mile in an eastwardly
direction are the remains of the palace
of Pandra, called the Sataisgarh; and the
Kklakhi monument, or mausoleum, mark-
ing the tombs of Jall-ud-din Mahommed
Shah, the .Son of Raja Kans (who died
about the year 1430) and of his wife and
son. Within a short distance still farther
to the east is the Golden Mosque, which
was built between the years 1583 anil
1585. It is understood that these three
relics are now being cared for by the
Government.

Kishanganj, in the district of Purnea,
and about 320 miles distant from Cal-
cutta, is the scene of a very large annual
fair, attended by atxjut 100,000 persons,
at which numbers of elepliants, camels,
horses, cattle, and sheep are offered for
sale, in addition to a considerable c|uan-
tity of general merchandise, the produce
of the surrounding fertile country.

Large areas of land in the neighbour-
hood are cultivated for rice and jute, and
the principal goods trathc forwarded from
this station comprises consignments of
these commodities. It shoidd be men-
tioned that many camels are purchased
by Mahommedans at the fair for sacri-
ficial purposes at the Bak-Id festival.

Dinajpore, on the east bank of the
Purnabhaba River, in the district of the
same name, is the centre of one of
the principal rich districts in Bengal, and
is therefore not only a busy headquarters
town, but is also an important place for
the forwarding of country produce to
Calcutta and other markets. In addition
to its agricultural interests, it is somewhat
extensively concerned in the making of
carpets, twine, cane and bamboo chairs,
and bricks, and in oil-pressing and the
grinding of flour.

The district of Rangpur — or Rangpore,
as it is sometimes written — consists
largely of an extensive alluvial plain in
the Rajshahi division of Bengal, upon
which large areas of land are cultivated
for rice, wheat, pulse, and other crops.
Its industries include the making of rope,
twine, bamboo and cane furniture, the
grinding of wheat and other cereals,
carpentering, the weaving of cloth, and
the pressing of oil. Its antiquity may
be inferred from the fact that the town
was captured by the Afghan King ."^la-
ud-din Hussain, who held sway at Gaur
from 1493 to I 5 19. The name of Rang-
pur means " abode of bliss," and tradi-
tion has it that a famous Raja of early
days built himself a country residence
there. Within a few miles' distance from
Rangpur are the ruins of an old fort
enclosed by an earthen rampart and moat,
together with a Mahommedan shrine dedi-
cated to Mahommed Saint Ismail Ghazi,
who, it is alleged, succeeded in forcibly
converting neighbouring Zemindars to
Islamism.

Cooch Behar is a native State in
political relationship with the Government
of Bengal, and it has an area of about
1.300 square miles, and a population of
nearly boo, 000 inhabitants.

The chief town, bearing the same name,
is situated on the Torsha River, and is
about 2}, square miles in extent.

The State was formerly a portion of
the ancient Kamarupa kingdom, but to-
wards the close of the eighteenth century,
when the question of succession was in
dispute, the Raja of the day concluded
a treaty with the East India Company,
and agreed to pay one-half of his revenue,

367

but the annual amount was eventually
fixed at Rs. 67,700.

The greater portion of the territory
consists of an almost flat plain, which is
intersected by a number of rivers. What
will be of more interest to tourists is the
magnificent palace of the Maharaja, which
stands in fine park-like grounds and is
approached by a long carriage-drive, at
the entrance to which is an imposing gate-
way, the two pillars being respectively
surmounted by carved stone figures of an
elephant and a lion. The Council House
and Government Offices are handsome
structures grouped in front of a large
artificial lake of water.

The present Maharaja was born in the
year 1882, and his education was com-
menced in India but was continued at
Kton and Oxford University in England.
This Chief is a keen sportsman himself,
but he takes unbounded pleasure in
extending his hospitality to numerous
English as well as Indian friends, many
of whom indulge in excellent shooting of
leopards, bears, deer, hog, and various
kinds of birds.

Tourists in India may see very much to
interest them by means of railways alone,
but one-half of their enjoyments will be
missed unless they make use of the great
system of waterways, along which not the
least reward will be a veritable kaleido-
scope of great beauty, comprising forest-
clad uplands, mountain cliffs and gorges,
and rushing waterfalls, together with
the rich fertile fields of rice and jute,
which are cultivated to the brink nf the
river.

Let it not be supposed that these trips
are dreary days of monotony, as they are
nothing of the kind, seeing that the per-
spective is nearly always pleasing, and
the steamers are far more comfortable
than strangers might expect.

Take one of these steamers, then, at
Goalundo (already referred to) — and, by
the way, passengers must be prepared at
the point of embarkation for a somewhat
hazardous walk across a couple of planks
connecting the ship with the shore owing
to continual erosions — and cross over to
Narayanganj (on the Dacca section of the
Eastern Bengal Railway), which is one
of the busiest river ports in Bengal. It
draws exports from the districts of Dacca,
Tippera, and Mymensingh in Bengal,
and from the Khasia and Jaintia and Garo
Hills in Assam; and the very great de-
velopment in the tea and jute industries
has greatly increased the tnrough-going
traffic. The steamers, whicn are well-

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

fitted, have excellent catering arrange-
ments furnished by the India General
Navigation and Railway Company and the
Rivers Steam Navigation Company.

It might be added that one of the latest
additions to the fleet, the Kharoti, has
accommodation for 12 saloon and 1,500
deck passengers, and a cargo capacity of
18,500 maunds, or about 660 tons.

Dacca, the chief town in the division
of the same name, was the capital of
Eastern Bengal in the seventeenth cen-
tury, and at that time it was a great
trading centre with the English, Dutch,
French, and Portuguese nations, the chief
commodity being muslins, which were then
famous throughout the civilized world.
The popularity of these goods began
to diminish, however, when English
machinery caused a revolution in the
manufacturing world.

Dr. Taylor, in his history of Dacca
muslins, speaking of the fineness of the
thread, remarks that " a skein which a
native weaver measured in my presence
in 1846, and which was afterwards care-
fully weighed, proved to be in the
proportion of 250 miles to the pound
weight of cotton." During the time of
Dacca's glory, when it became the seat
of government of the Lieutenant-Governor
of Eastern Bengal and Assam, its appear-
ance was entirely changed by the erection
of Government House, a Secretariat and
other official buildings, the Curzon Hall,
a college, and other fine structures; but
the readjustment scheme made known to
the world at the Delhi Durbar in 191 i
deprived it of its proud position, and it
has since then resumed its normal place
as an ordinary commercial centre.

By taking the route via Goalundo and
Narayanganj to Dacca, the distance from
Calcutta is 265 miles.

Mymensingfh, on the western bank of
the Brahmaputra River, in the Dacca
division of Bengal, and formerly known
as Nasirabad, is a thriving town in the
centre of a highly cultivated and well-
watered plain which produces very large
quantities of rice and other cereals. Its
chief industries are carpet and cloth
weaving, the making of mats, cane
chairs, bricks, and the pressing of oil.
Ihe station is on the Dacca section of
this railway, and the annual tonnage
of its goods traffic, consisting of the
produce of an extensive and fertile agri-
cultural district, is increasing very
considerably.

Travellers to the hill stations at Dar-
jeeling, Kurseong, and other neighbouring

places, journey by the Eastern Bengal
Railway system on their main line to
Siliguri, which is their northern terminus,
316 miles distant from Calcutta. From
that station the train proceeds along the
Darjeeling-Hinialayan Railway, and as
it winds its way up steep gradients and
serpentine curves it passes through some
of the most lovely scenery in the world.
A description of this portion of the
journey and of Darjeeling will be found
elsewhere in this volume.

Magnificent accommodation is provided
by the Eastern Bengal Railway for
through passengers from Calcutta to
Darjeeling in the new Darjeeling and
."Xssam mail corridor composition train,
and notes for the following particulars
of ^his luxurious passenger service have
been supplied direct by the authorities
concerned.

The train, which runs daily between
Sealdah Station (Calcutta) and Dar-
jeeling, consists of 9 bogie vehicles, each
one being 68 feet in length over the body ;
its total length is 650 feet, and the
weight is 361 tons. The cost of the train
was about Rs. 2,45,000. Accommodation
is found for 59 first-class, 63 second-class,
104 intermediate, and 158 third-class pas-
sengers, or a total of 384. The train is
electrically lighted throughout, and the
guards' compartments, luggage-van, and
restaurant-car are fitted with " Minimax "
fire extinguishers, while an alarm com-
munication has been provided in every
compartment behind the engine and
tender.

The first vehicle is for the guard,
luggage, and postal service, the luggage-
van being for those packages which are
booked through and not required by pas-
sengers on the journey. The postal com-
partment has been built to the latest
requirements of the Government, and fans
have been fitted over the seats of the
sorters.

The next vehicle is ior luggage and
lavatory purposes, the former compart-
ment being for the per.sonal luggage of
passengers whicli they desire to take witli
them, and which they may require in the
sleeping compartments on the metre-
gauge lines. There are two lavatories in
this carriage for gentlemen, together with
a bathroom which is fitted with a needle-
bath.

The third vehicle, with tiled sides, is
a first-class carriage, which has a number
of lavatories for first-class passengers; all
the fittings in these are electroplated, and
a novelty has been introduced by supply-
368

ing liquid soap and paper towels, which
save passengers a very considerable
amount of trouble. There are six coupe
compartments in this carriage. The seats
are upholstered in green leather, and
special spriVigs have been used to ensure
the greatest comfort to passengers. In
the centre of the carriage is a lounge, or
Pullman compartment, fitted with comfort-
able arm-chairs ; and the fittings arc
finished in oxidized silver, the roof
decoration being a special pattern of
Alhambrine.

The fourth vehicle is a first and second-
class carriage with coupe throughout. The
two centre compartments can be used for
invalids — one for the first-class and oiit
for second-class; and double doors arc
fitted in the centre of the carriage and
also at the entrance into the compart-
ments, which have special seats for
invalids. This arrangement allows ,1
passenger to be carried in on a stretcher
without any difficulty.

The fifth carriage is second-class, with
coupes and lavatories, and the fittings are
made of polished brass.

The sixth carriage comprises the
dining-car and pantry, the former accom-
modating 42 passengers. The seats ;ii(
of the theatre " tip-up " type, and ar.
finished in green leather. By using thc>'
seats placed back to back, the maximum
of passengers can be seated with the
greatest comfort ; and as this plan prac-
tically divides the carriage into small
compartments, a certain amount of privacy
is secured. It will be noticed that the
fans are over the backs of the seats and
not over the tops of tables, thus enabling
passengers to get the full benefit of tlie
breeze. The pantry is fitted with a
marble-top counter, which is used for
service. The next compartment in this
carriage is for washing-up purposes, and
it is fitted with a geyser supplying hot
water, necessary sinks, ice-boxes, and
other appliances. The main water-tank
has been fixed underneath the carriage so
as to ensure good running, and a good
flow is pumped up to a small auxiliary
tank above by an electric pump under-
neath the carriage.

The seventh carriage on the train is
the kitchen and third-class compartment.
The stove in the kitchen, heated by gas,
is of the very latest pattern, and has open
rings for saucepans, oven, frying-grid, hoi-
watcr tank, and hot-case compartments.
This kitchen is also fitted with necessary
sinks and carving tables. The remainder
of this carriage is for passengers' servants

RAILWAYS

and third-class passengers, and has
necessary latrines.

The eighth carriage is for third and
intermediate passengers, the two centre
compartments being reserved for Euro-
pean passengers, in accordance with an
accepted practice on the Indian railways.

The ninth carriage is for intermediate
passengers and guard.

The first and second-class carriages
and restaurant-car are of the corridor
pattern and are connected by vestibules,
thus enabling passengers to get refresh-
ments while the train is running.

This composition train runs at the
speed of fifty miles an hour for the whole
journey of 5 i miles, and this is the fastest
record in India — this, too, in face of the
fact that the total weight is possibly
greater than that of any other train in the
country.

THE ASSAM-BENGAL RAILWAY COMPANY, LTD.

' I 'HE Assam-Bengal Railway was con-
-*- structed with the view of developing
the Province of Assam, many portions of
which are exceedingly rich in tea, coal,
jute, grain, salt, kerosene oil, and other
products, and it was further designed to
connect its towns and villages with the
rising port of Chittagong. Construction
was commenced as a State line in i8gi,
and the Assam-Bengal Railway Company
was formed in London in 1892, when the
works which had already been started
were taken over by the new company. The
capital of the company was £1,500,000,
upon which interest at 3 per cent, per
annum was guaranteed by the Govern-
ment. F'urther funds have been provided
by the Secretary of State for India out
of sums allotted for railway construction,
and the total outlay, including suspense,
on lines opened and upon others partly
or wholly under construction, amounted
to Rs. 15,70,22,687 at the end of the year
1914.

The late Noakhali (Bengal) Railway,
which was worked by the Assam-Bengal
Railway Company to the end of 1905, was
purchased by the Government and
amalgamated with the said company as
from January i, 1906.

The permanent-way of the Assam-
Bengal Railway is laid with 50-lb. flat-
footed steel rails, resting partly upon sal
and pynkade and partly on nageshur,
jarrah-wood, and iron-bark sleepers, and
the ballast consists of broken brick, stone,
and laterite.

Several contracts have been entered
into between the Secretary of State and
the company. The principal clauses relate
to free grants of land by the Government
to the company, the guarantee of interest
upon capital, the granting of special
concessions to Government and other
officials, and the power of the Government
to determine contracts.

The line traverses an area of land which
produces large quantities of grain and
jute, the latter commodity being conveyed
from various stations on the system to

Calcutta for consumption by the mills on
the Hooghly, while the quantity intended
for export is sent to Chittagong, where
it is shipped for Europe, America, and
other countries.

The service extends from the port of
Chittagong, through the districts of
Tippera, Sylhet, and Cachar, then across
the North Cachar Hills to Lumding, and
thence to its northern terminus at Tin-
sukia Junction, where it is connected with
the Assam Trading Company's line. The
total length of the Assam-Bengal Railway
(including branch lines) is 866 miles, and
for the purposes of construction the work
was divided into three sections — the first
lying to the south of the North Cachar
Hills; the second, the hill section, run-
ning for more than 100 miles through
the North Cachar Flills, an outlying foot-
range of the Himalayas; and the third
section is in the Assam Valley district.
The greater portion of the line passes over
a tolerably level plain, but the hill sec-
tion had to be made through dense forests,
devoid of population, and extremely un-
healthy and almost inaccessible districts.
The superintending engineer on the works
wrote : " The line went through an
unhealthy, inhospitable country, which
afforded neither labour nor supplies.
. . . We have been connected with a
hundred miles of railway which presented
more difficulties of construction than any
similar length in India, and possibly in
the world." Approaching this section, the
train ascends from an altitude of 1 1 7 feet
until it passes over two saddles at an
elevation of about 1,860 feet, and it then
descends into the plains of Upper Assam.
There are about 32 tunnels and a large
number of heavy viaducts in this portion
of the line, and the girders on the prin-
cipal bridges have spans ranging from
60 feet to 250 feet in length.

The company have about no loco-
motive engines in their railway, and no
fewer than 48 of these have been designed
in conformity with the type approved by
the Standardization Committee. Covered

369

goods wagons (18 feet in length) to the
number of over 3,000 are in constant use
in the transit of merchandise and general
produce; and, in addition, there are 100
covered bogie goods wagons (17'; tons
carrying power), and a large number of
coal trucks holding from 10 to 20 tons.

The passenger service has received
great attention from the directors, and
the bogie coaches, with a body length of
nearly 43 feet, are furnished and fitted
in an up-to-date style and are lighted
with Pintsch's patent gas apparatus.

Girders, rails, rolling stock, and other
heavy materials are purchased by indent
on leading manufacturers in England, and
are inspected before shipment by the
company's consulting engineers, Messrs.
Rendel Palmer and Tritton.

The line is controlled by a board of
directors in England, whose chief offices
are at Bishopsgate House, 80 Bishopsgate,
London, E.C., and whose chairman is Sir
Frederick R. Upcott, K.C.V.O,, C.S.I.

A brief description may now be given
of the principal towns and other places
of interest served by the Assam-Bengal
Railway system, and one cannot do
better than make an imaginary trip,
taking Chittagong as the starting-point.
Chittagong, in the Province of Bengal,
is situated on the Karnaphuli River, which
traverses a considerable portion of the
Province of Assam, and eventually dis-
charges itself into the Bay of Bengal,
about loj miles below the town of Chitta-
gong. There is historical evidence that
in the twelfth century a considerable trade
was being carried on between places
on the south-eastern shores of Eastern
Bengal and the Arab ports of Bagdad and
Basorah. The geographical position of
Chittagong on the disputed frontier be-
tween the Hinduism of Bengal and the
Buddhism of Burma produced a state of
continual unrest, as the place belonged
first to one conqueror and then to another
until the year 1760, when it was ceded to
the East India Company. According to
a Burmese tradition, the town derives its

2 A

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

name from a remark made by a Buddhist
King of Arakan, to the effect that tsit-
ta-gung, i.e. "to make war is improper."

Chittagong is one of the most charming
places in the plains of India, as it has
such a beauty and variety of scenery. Sir
Joseph Hooker, in his well-known Hima-
layan journals, has said : " The town is
large and beautifully situated, inter-
spersed with trees and tanks; the hills
resemble those of Sylhet, and are covered
with a similar vegetation, and it is on
the latter tliat the houses of European
inhabitants have been built. Very fine
views of the blue mountains, 40 miles
to 50 miles distant, are obtained; and
one notices, too, the many-armed river,
winding among groves of cocoanuts,
areca-palm, and yellow rice fields. Good
European houses surmount all the
eminences, and are surrounded by trees
of acacia and casalpinia, while in the
hollows are huts amidst a wealth of
vegetation of every hue."

The Chittagong of 25 or 30 years ago
was a very different place from the busy
seaport and railway centre of to-day, and
it must be borne in mind that its develop-
ment practically commenced with the
opening of the Assam-Bengal Railway.

Formerly it was a sleepy, quiet, old-
world town with a few scattered places of
business, whose owners eked out a bare
existence in their ill-looking shanties;
while to-day it has four jetties, dry docks,
and 21 hydraulic cranes, 17 of which are
capable of lifting 35 cwt., and 4 others
able to raise 5 tons each at full rake
and 10 tons at half-rake. There are also
sheds in which about 30,000 tons of cargo
can be stored, while Messrs. Turner,
Morrison & Co., Ltd., have a pontoon for
landing and shipping goods from and into
vessels belonging to the Asiatic Steam
Navigation Company.

The exports of tea and jute through
Chittagong have increased rapidly and
regularly during the past few years, while
the imports, chiefly of salt and oil for
distribution throughout the Province, and
of tea machinery, corrugated iron, and
miscellaneous goods have shown a remark-
ably steady growth. Further particulars
on this subject will be found in this
volume in a separate article on ports and
harbours.

Before settling down in one of the com-
fortable first-class compartments at the
railway-station at Chittagong, one is
attracted by the exceedingly fine building
in which the train stands awaiting signals
for departure. It is a handsome structure

of red bricks, with large archway entrance
and white domed minarets at each end,
and it has a number of spacious and airy
waiting-rooms, halls, and offices.

On the banks of the river, and in close
proximity to the town, are stores and
godowns belonging to merchants whose
enterprise in the commercial world is
making itself felt far beyond the confines
of Assam.

There is an almost unlimited supply
of fish of many choice varieties in the sea,
as well as in rivers, tanks, and estuaries,
and quite a flourishing industry in drying
and curing. has been established.

Chittagong is the seat of the Commis-
sioner of the district of the same name,
and of a district Magistrate and Sessions
Judge, and it possesses fine Government
Offices and Courts of Law. Each year
witnesses the opening-up of some new
industrial concern, and as two or three
of the principal shipping lines have made
the port a regular place of call, it is prac-
tically certain that the volume of trade
passing through its gates will be very
considerably enlarged in the near future.

Chittagong is 341 miles distant from
Calcutta. Twenty-three miles farther, in
a northerly direction, is Sitakund village,
in the district of Chittagong, which is
the headquarters of a police district ex-
tending over nearly 200 square miles.
The name Sitakund is derived from an
adjoining range of hills whose highest
peak is Chandranath, about 1,155 feet
above the level of the sea. Hindus regard
the village as the holiest place in the
district of Chittagong, for tradition has
it that " Rama and Sita, while in exile,
roamed about the hills in the vicinity, and
that Sita bathed in the hot spring (kiind)
which is associated with her name." The
peak of Chandranath is held in great
veneration, and its shrine on the summit
contains a lingam or symbolical repre-
sentation of Siva ; while other sacred
temples in the neighbourhood, which
travellers should certainly make a point
of seeing, are Loabanakhya, 3 miles to
the north, and Barabakund, a similar dis-
tance to the south, both of which are pic-
turesquely situated in glens of romantic
beauty. Some 20,000 pilgrims assemble
here annually at the Siva Chaturdasi
festival, when the ceremonies are con-
ducted by Brahmans, who characteristic-
ally appropriate for their own benefit the
offerings of the pilgrims, which include
money, clothing, brass and silver vessels,
and other articles of pecuniary value.

Buddhists, too, look upon the Chandra-

370

nath peak as a very sacred spot, owing
to their belief that a footprint of Buddha
is to be seen on a stone near the temple;
and it is said that, on the last day of the
Bengali year, they take there the bones of
dead relatives and deposit them in a pit
dedicated to the great reformer.

There are no places of importance
during the next 50 miles of the journey,
but 80 miles from Chittagong is Laksam,
a junction of two branch lines leading
respectively to Noakhali and Chandpur.
The former of these two places is 30
miles to the south-west of Laksam, and
is also known as Sudharam, this being
the name of an early settler who con-
structed a very fine tank, which is still in
use. The only places to be noticed on the
Chandpur section are Hajiganj, which is
an important centre of river traffic, and
the terminus at Chandpur, 1 1 2 miles from
Chittagong, which is a thriving town
connected with the jutc-pressing industry.
These two towns are in the Tippera Hills
district in Bengal.

Returning to Laksam, the route once
more is due north, and one arrives at the
town of Comilla, which is situated on the
Gunti River, on the main road from Dacca
to Chittagong. This is tlie principal town
in the district of Tippera, and excellent
educational advantages are offered by an
Arts College, two private seminaries, and
an artisans' school which is affiliated to
the Sibpur Engineering College.

Shortly after leaving Comilla the rail-
way line skirts the Raghunandan Hills,
and attention is directed to the station of
Shaistaganj, where passengers alight in
order to visit the town of Ilabiganj, which
is on the confluence of the Barak and
Khowai Rivers. A noted Ijazaar stands
on the left bank of the Barak, and a very
large quantity of country produce is dis-
posed of there, the major prortion being
conveyed to its destination by country
boats. The principal imports are grain
and pulse, cotton piece goods, kerosene,
other oils, and salt ; while the exports
include unhusked rice, jute, mustard,
linseed, and hides.

When the junction at Akhaura (125
miles distant from Cliittagong) is
reached, the train crosses the ranges of
Satgaon and Balisira, and then the track
veers in an easterly direction, when at the
179th milestone is Srimangal, the station
for Moulvie Bazaar, the headquarters of
the South Sylhet sub-division. There is
a small bazaar on the left bank of the
Manu River, and the principal buildings
have been erected at the northern slopes

1. A CDrTINO ON THE HILL SECrlON, ASSAM-BENGAL RAILWAY. 2. TUNNBL ON ASSAM-BENGAL RAILWAY.

I'holo hy D C. Choihal.

3. A CURVED BRIDGE ON THE ASSAM-BENGAL RAILWAY. 4. THE SCARP, ASSAM-BENGAL RAILWAY,

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

of the Balisira Hills, which are several
hundred feet in height.

The district of Sylhet is practically,
level valley, but it is bounded by hills
which rise to a considerable height. It
has a large population, and the various
industries in which the people are engaged
include the burning of lime obtained from
the quarries in the Khasi Hills, the manu-
facture of pottery and images, the making
of brass and bell-metal utensils, weaving,
wood-sawing, carving and fishing.

Sylhet, the chief town of the division
of the same name, is situated on the north
bank of the River Surma, and although
it was, when under Mahommedan rule, an
extensive trading centre, it has, owing to
various causes, been declining in impor-
tance and in population for many years
past. This may be due to the develop-
ment of other parts of the division, and to
the expansion of the tea-growing industry
in Cachar and subsequently in Southern
Sylhet. The principal buildings include
Law Courts, offices of the Session Judge
of the Surma Valley, a Government High
School, eight other schools, a church, a
Town Hall, and a Public Library.

The first view of the town obtained from
the river is not a pleasing one ; it presents
a desolate kind of appearance, and there
is an atmosphere of indifference to things
mundane on the part of the inhabitants,
although a certain amount of business is
carried on in the Bunder and Kazi
bazaars, where piece goods, clothes,
general haberdashery, grain, foodstuffs,
and other produce can be procured.

Convicts in the jail (which, by the way,
is the largest in the Provinces, and has
accommodation for 658 inmates) are em-
ployed in oil-pressing, sur k/ii-pounding,
weaving, carpentry, and bamboo and cane
work.

European residences are almost entirely
hidden by the dense bamboo groves in
which they have been built, and on every
side one may behold small mosques and
tombs of dead saints, in whose honour
lamps are kindled at night by faithful
followers. The average annual rainfall is
rather high — 157 inches— but the climate
is generally a healthy one.

The railway line from Kulaura Junction
runs practically side by 'side with the main
road between Karimganj and Habiganj,
and some interest will be centred upon
Latu (228 miles from Chittagong), which
was the scene of one of the conflicts with
the rebels during the famous Mutiny of
1857.

It appears that some Chittagong

marauders made their appearance in the
southern portion of the district of Sylhet,
and a troop of the Sylhet Light Infantry,
under the Hon. Major Byng, after
attempting to intercept them on their way
through the Surma Valley, eventually
came up with the enemy near Latu. A
sharp action took place, with the result
that 26 of the resisters of law and order
were killed, while the Government troops
had the misfortune to lose their command-
ing officer and 5 men.

After journeying for another 10 miles
one sees the town of Karimganj, situated
on the left bank of the Kusiyara Rivei^
which is used for the transfer — by boat —
of various kinds of produce sold in the
bazaar standing on the edge of the water.
Karimganj, being the headquarters of the
sub-division of that name, has public
offices and the residence of the Sub-
Divisional Officer, and these, as well as
many of the principal private bungalows,
command a fine view of the blue ranges
of North Cachar.

Travelling in an easterly direction,
the train stops at Badarpur, which is
noted for the excellent manner in which
bell-metal utensils and brass vessels are
made by the inhabitants. This, too, is
the junction station for the branch line,
18 miles in length, whose terminus is at
Silchar, the headquarters of the district
of Cachar. The latter consists of two
portions — the hills which are a section of
the Assam range, and the plains which
form the eastern boundary of the Surma
Valley. There are several hills of some
importance, such as the Bhutan range,
which rises in places to the height of more
than 8,000 feet above sea-level. The
Rengti Hills are separated from the
Bhutans by the valley between the Rukni
and Sonai Rivers, and several peaks, vary-
ing from 2,000 to 3,000 feet in altitude,
are observable.

The principal rivers are the Barak
(with a course of about 560 miles), the
Jatinga, the Sonai, the Dhaleswari, the
Doiang, and the Mahur.

The town of Silchar is prettily situated
on tlie left bank of the River Barak, which
is lined with groves of palms, and upon
whose waters may be seen large numbers
of native craft engaged in a prosperous
trade in the transport of indigenous
produce.

Although the town has a rather pleasing
appearance, there are very few buildings
which are worthy of more than passing
attention, these including the church,
court-house, and a few of the superior

372

private residences. The principal im-
ports are rice, flour, betel-nuts, salt,
sugar, piece goods, kerosene oil, coal,
iron, and steel ; and the shopkeepers deal
in grain, pulse, sugar, oil, salt, tobacco,
and niunerous goods of everyday needs ;
while villagers throng the bazaars on
market-days to dispose of their paddy,
rice, poultry, fruit, and vegetables.

The heavy annual rainfall of about 124
inches and the accompanying high tem-
perature render the climate moist and
frequently most oppressive.

Returning by the branch railway from
Silchar to Badarpur, it will be seen that,
after leaving the junction, the main line
crosses the Barak River " by a magnifi-
cent bridge which is 454 yards in length,
and which had the foundations of its piers
carried to a depth of 80 feet below the
bed of the river."

What is known as the " hill " section
of the Assam-Bengal Railway commences
at Bihara (262 miles from Chittagong)
and extends for about iio miles to
Lumding Junction, which is situated in
the heart of the Nambor forest. The con-
struction of this portion of the permanent-
way involved such exceptionally difficult
engineering problems that space must be
afforded for detailed particulars which
have been furnished by the Railway
Company's authorities. They say that
" the line, after leaving Bihara, runs up
the Jatinga Valley, and near Haflong
passes over two ridges forming the water-
shed between Cachar and Assam at a
height of some 1,800 feet, traversing
jungle of the densest character growing
upon extremely rough and hilly ground
intersected in all directions by ravines and
torrents. The steepest grade is i in 37-40
for 9 miles, and the general ruling grade
of the section is I in 60. The rainfall is
very heavy, being in some parts in excess
of 200 inches in the year, and it follows
that the hills along the track have been
constantly slipping, and great expense has
been incurred in protection and drainage
works. It is said by travellers who have
seen the mountain sections of other rail-
ways in India, and in other parts of
the world, that the engineering difficulties
met with in the North Cachar Hills are
equal to any of them and that the scenery
is unsurpassed. The line went through
an unhealthy country which afforded
neither labour nor supplies. It was
necessary to import nearly every man, but
before doing so the question of rations
and transport had to be considered. From
the north the hills opened out into a

RAILWAYS

wilderness of grass, and all supplies and
transport had to be obtained through
Gauhati, more than 150 miles distant, by
boat or pack-animals. The engineers had
at one time to feed at least 25,000 people,
brought from every province of India, and
from outside the country too, and at the
same time they had to bear in mind that
the road might at any time be blocked
by landslips for a month or even longer.
For the driving of tunnels, of which there
are 32, the longest one being 1,922 feet
in length, it was necessary to import
Cornish miners; and the construction of
bridges, especially trestle-bridges erected
on sharp curves or spanning deep gorges,
were very formidable undertakings."

Places of interest on the hill section
just referred to include Haflong, situated
on the spur of the Barial range at an
elevation of about 2,400 feet. It was the
constructional headquarters of the hill
section of the railway, and it has thus
become a place of considerable impor-
tance, although some impetus was given
in the year 1896, when the Sub-Divisional
Magistrates' Court was transferred to the
town. There is some very fine scenery in
this neighbourhood, and from Missionary
Hill, Lover's Leap, and other places one
can obtain exceptionally beautiful evet-
changing views of the valleys of the Rubi
and Dyang Rivers, with the dark back-
ground of the Barial, whose peaks rise
to a height of fully 6,000 feet. Pro-
vision has been made for sport-loving
visitors, and, apart from a well-equipped
club, golf and tennis can be indulged in
under most favourable conditions.

Maibang, 326 miles distant from
Chittagong, was closely associated with
the conflicts which took place about the
year 1706 between the Ahoms and the
Kacharis of Cachar, or Dimasa, who are
traditionally believed to be a section of
the Bodo race, which was supposed to
have had its origin between the waters of
the Yang-tsi-kiang and the Hoangho.
Before the close of the year just men-
tioned, a powerful prince of the Ahoms
attacked the Kacharis with a force of
about 37,000 men, and Maibang was
brought to ruins. Groves of bamboos and
the remains of extensive irrigation works
and of the palace of the Raja tend to show
that the town was formerly densely
populated and was a thriving centre of
trade.

Lumding Junction, which is 367 miles
distant from Chittagong, lies in the vast
Nambor forest, and is the centre of the
Assam Valley Railway system. Travellers

will, on either side along the line, see
nothing but dense forest, with scarcely
a single dwelling-house or hut; but the
station is a busy one, as it is the receiving
and forwarding depot for all kinds of
produce between Chittagong and other
places on the south side and Gauhati and
Tinsukia on the west and east sides
respectively.

A halt is called at Chaparmukh, the
seat of a Magistracy, prettily situated
near the bank of a river, upon which may
be seen some exceedingly fine timber
trees, but it is not regarded as a really
healthy place.

The district of Nowgong, into which
the train has just entered, is almost a
level plain, although the country is inter-
sected by the North and East Mikir Hills,
and the Brahmaputra, Diphlu, Gatonga,
Kalang, and Kapili Rivers. The staple
crop of the district is rice, which is grown
upon nearly 60 per cent, of the cultivated
area, although mustard, food grains,
wheat, barley, and various kinds of
pulse are also produced.

The district of Nowgong consists, to
a very large extent, of a wide plain
practically divided into two halves by the
River Brahmaputra, which flows from east
to west. On the southern side of this
river, however, there is a good deal of
mountainous country, including several
peaks, 3,000 feet in height, which belong
to a section of the Assam range. Many
of the hills are sacred to Hindu deities,
such as Buragohain, connected with Siva;
Gobardhan, dedicated to Vishnu; Dhor-
nara, to Durga; and Nilachal, supposed
by the inhabitants to contain a portion
of the body of Sati when she was hacked
to pieces by Vishnu. The chief rivers
are the Brahmaputra, Kulsi, Digru, Jul-
jullia, Manas, and the Barnardi. Indus-
tries have not been greatly developed by
the Assamese, but many of the people
engage in weaving cotton clothes, the
production of silk, the making of pottery,
bell-metal and brass utensils, bamboo
mats, and nets.

Qauhati, the terminus of the branch
line from Lumding Junction, is pic-
turesquely situated on both banks of the
Brahmaputra River, but the principal
portion of the town is on the left or
southern side. It is 479 miles distant
from Chittagong, and although its
material progress has increased at a
slow rate during recent years, the exist-
ence of large tanks, earthworks, and
remains of pretentious buildings is
evidence that the place must at one time

373

have been a very important and pros-
perous city. Gauhati was constituted a
municipality in the year 1878, and since
this date more efficient local administra-
tion has brought about great improve-
ments in drainage and the supply of water,
with the result that the mortality, which
was formerly very high, has now been very
considerably reduced.

The principal exports from the town
are cotton, silk, mustard-seeds, and forest
produce ; while imports include cotton
piece goods, thread, salt, grain, pulse, and
various kinds of oils. Steam mills have
been erected for grinding flour, the gin-
ning of cotton, and the manufacture of
mustard-oil ; and among minor industries
are the building of canoes and the making
of earthenware pottery and gold and
silver ornaments. A ferry service con-
nects the two portions of the town, which
is a place of call for river' steamers; and
a good metalled road has been constructed
from South Gauhati to Shillong, the
headquarters of the Province.

Shillong, the seat of the Chief Com-
missioner of the Province of Assam, and
the headquarters of the Khasi and Jaintia
Hills district, is connected with the
railway-station at Gauhati by a metalled
road, more than 60 miles in length, upon
which there is a regular daily motor-car
service. The town was constituted a
station in the year 1878, and in 19 10 it
was converted into a municipality, whose
affairs are in the hands of a committee
of 1 5 members presided over by the
Deputy Commissioner. The total area of
the town— including the cantonment — is
about 8 square miles in extent, and its
inhabitants have been steadily increasing
in numbers for several years past. In
order to illustrate the growth of the town,
it may be mentioned that the total income
of the municipality from all sources for
the year i goo- 10 was Rs. 41,727, and
in igio-ii the amount had risen to
Rs. 79,521.

Here is a progressive town noted for
its salubrity of climate, for its unique
position between the valleys of the
Brahmaputra and Surma Rivers, for the
great tact and judgment which have been
exhibited in its construction on a site
which varies from 1,000 feet to 2,000 feet
below the crest of the Shillong range,
and is at the same time between 4,000
feet and 5,000 feet above the level of
the sea. As the temperature rarely
exceeds 80° Fahr. in the hottest months
of the year, it is not surprising that
the well-to-do classes of Calcutta have

2 A'''

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

learned to appreciate the immense advan-
tages of a hill station such as Shillong.
But Shillong goes farther than this, as
visitors have full opportunities for ridjng,
driving, and motoring along the
pleasantest roads, and for the enjoy-
ment of healthy exercise combined with
sport in polo, cricket, tennis, and other
games. A terrible earthquake occurred
in this part of India in 1897, and
Shillong, in common with other towns,
suffered severely. Its houses were at that
time constructed of brick and stone, and
in the course of a few seconds they were
completely destroyed ; but, in the rebuild-
ing, care has been taken to secure earth-
quake-proof structures.

Returning to Lumding Junction, the
traveller can resume his journey on
the main line, and after travelling 43
miles he will arrive at Manipur Road,
the alighting station for Dimapur, in the
district of Sibsagar.

A word or two about ihis district, how-
ever. It covers an area of nearly 5,000
square miles, in which are extensive
plains and swamps, dense forests, and the
Mikir and other ranges of hills.

Rice, the staple food crop, is grown
upon about 65 per cent, of the cultivated
land, and tea comes next with 1 5 per
cent., while mustard, wheat, barley, and
other food grains are produced on a
smaller scale. The industries of the
people are not of much importance, but
the principal ones are the manufacture of
earthenware and bell-metal vessels and
jewellery, the rearing of silkworms,
and %veaving, mat-making, and fishing.
Dimapur is not a trade centre, but it is
a place of intense interest to travellers
generally on account of its archa;ological
ruins. An early capital of the Kachari
Rajas was, it appears, situated here, but
it was sacked by the Ahoms in 1536, and
its ruins and tanks are still to be found
among the dense jungle of the Nambor
forest, a pathless wilderness of trees
which stretches for many miles in every
direction. Prior to the construction of
the Assam-Bengal Railway it was ex-
tremely inaccessible, and the existence of
the remains of what must evidently have
been a considerable city in the middle of
this jungle affords a striking instance of
the rapidity with which nature in the East
can obliterate the handiwork of man.

The enclosure wall of the capital is
entered by a brick gateway which belongs
to the Bengali style of Mahommcdan
architecture, and within are several rows
of curious pillars, some shaped like

gigantic pawns and others in the form
of the letter V. The largest single pawn
yet discovered is i6| feet in height and
23J feet in circumference. Local tradition
has it that these pillars were erected at
the place where animals were sacrificed
by the Raja, and the customs of the Nagas
at the present day confirm the story. That
Dimapur was once the centre of a crowded
population is shown by the presence of
a number of tanks in the immediate
vicinity. It is said that there are 52 of
these, but nearly all of them are buried in
the densest jungle, and it is not easy to
ascertain their actual number.

Titabar, a junction with the Jorhat
line, is reached at the 470th mile-post from
Chittagong, and it is noted for its brass
and metal industry, although a very large
bazaar trade is done in grain, piece
goods, tobacco, salt, oil, and ready-made
clothing. Mariani (478 miles from
Chittagong) is the station into which
trains run from the Jorhat State Railway,
whose headquarters is at Jorhat, the
headquarters of the sub-division of that
name, which is situated on the left bank
of the Bhogdai River. It is the principal
centre of commerce in the district of Sib-
sagar, and the majority of the public
buildings have been erected within the
earthen ramparts of an old Assamese
fort.

About 30 miles farther on is Nazira,
the headquarters of the Assam Tea
Company. It was the capital of the
Ahom Rajas between the sixteenth and
eighteenth centuries, and history relates
that " the town had a magnificent palace,
the building of which gave employment
to about 12,000 workmen for a whole
year, while the ornaments and curiosities
with which the woodwork was filled defied
all description."

The district of Lakhimpur is entered
at the 569th mile from Chittagong, and
it consists of a vast plain lying on both
sides of the Brahmaputra River and
bounded on three sides by hills. These
hills vary very considerably in elevation,
some of the highest peaks reaching an
altitude of fully 10,000 feet.

The whole of the Assamese valley — of
which this district is a part — is influenced
by the mighty Brahmaputra River and
its numerous tributaries, many of which
are navigable for steamers of 1,000 tons
burthen. The climate of Lakhimpur is
second to none in the Province, and the
temperature does not exceed 83° or 84°
when Calcutta and other places are being
baked by a sun which sends the ther-

374

mometer up to i2o°F"ahr. Wild animals
are numerous, and elephant, bison,
rhinoceros, buffalo, tiger, leopard, wild
pig, sambhur, and other kinds of deer
can nearly always be met with. The
science of agriculture is not yet de-
veloped, but the principal crops are rice,
which covers nearly 60 per cent, of the
cultivated area ; tea, 27 per cent. ;
orchard produce, wheat, barley, and the
customary food grains of Upper India.

The mining of coal is now being carried
on with most promising prospects, and
other industries include the working of
oil-springs, found chiefly at Makum and
Bapu Pung, in the neighbourhood of the
Nanirup River, the quarrying of limestone,
kaolin and salt, weaving, and the manu-
facture of brass and bell-metal utensils.

The .\ssam-Bengal Railway line enters
this district at the 556th mile from
Chittagong, and it joins the Dibru-Sadiya
Railway at Tinsukia.

Tinsukia, 574 miles from Chittagong,
is the northern terminus of the Assam-
Bengal system, and, in addition to several
industries of a minor character, the town
is admirably situated at the junction of
two railways and commands the principal
avenues of trade on the frontier of the
Province.

Dibrugarh is the most flourishing town,
although it is not the largest in the way
of population. The majority of the small
private residences have been erected on
the bank of the River Dibru, but the com-
mercial section has busy bazaars where
all kinds of goods can be obtained. The
town became a municipality in the year
1878, and public works, such as schemes
for improved sanitation, drainage, and the
supply of pure water have been vigorously
taken in hand by the local administration.
Sadiya, too, is important as a frontier
centre for the disposal of all kinds of
agricultural and other produce, including
pulse, molasses, ivory, rubber, and wax.

THE ASSAM RAILWAYS AND TRADING
COMPANY, LTD. (DIBRU-SADIYA RAIL-
WAY)

This company was formed about the
year 1879, with the object of developing
the mineral and other resources of the
north-eastern portion of Assam, and its
registered oflices in London are at
85 London Wall, E.G. The board of
directors comprise the Right Honourable
Lord Ribblesdale, P.C., chairman; Sir
Walter R. Lawrence, Bart., G.C.I.E.; Mr.

THE ASSAM RAILWAYS AND TRADING COMPANY, LTD.
1. Sti;a,mer Ghat, Uibrlcarh. 2. Glxkual View of Tikak Colliery.

375

THE ASSAM RAILWAYS AND TRADING COMPANY, LTD.
I. General View of Workshops (Locomotive and Carriage), Dibrluarh. 2. Ixterior of Workshoi-s.

376

!imm ^^'^'^ i^^^^^-^m^^--^^^^^^^ -i-

THE ASSAM RAILWAYS AND TRADING COMPANY, LTD.

I. TALAI- STATION'. 2- STANDARD PASSENGER TKAIN, DlBRL-SADIVA RAILWAY.

377

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

George Turner, M.E.; Mr. Evan Jack;
and Mr. Walter Butler, M.I.C.E. The
secretary of the company is Mr. S.
MacLean Jack, and the agent and
general manager in India is Mr. E. L.
Greenhough.

Trade returns for Assam show that
during the past thirty years there has
been a very pronounced increase in
imports and exports ; new industries,
giving employment to many thousands of
labourers, have been started or enlarged
in their scojie; and the lion's share of
the credit for tliis commercial improve-
ment is due to the Assam Railways and
Trading Company.

First and foremost must be mentioned
the construction of the Dibru-Sadiya
railway system. One hundred and ten
miles of permanent way have been opened
between Dibrugarh and Makum junction
(connecting with the Assam-Bengal rail-
way at Tinsukua junction), with branches
to Saikhoa Ghat and to Ledu collieries
and Margherita. Flatfooted steel rails
(weighing 60 lb. to the yard) are laid
upon uriam sleepers, and the line is
ballasted with broken stone. All bridges
crossing rivers and gorges are constructed
of iron, and the one spanning the Dihing
River, just before entering the station at
Margherita, is a particularly fine struc-
ture.

The rolling stock is both plentiful and
modern in character, and includes 35
locomotives, a large number of the latest
type of goods wagons, and up-to-date
bogie passenger carriages, fitted with
electric light and fans.

In giving some account of the large
increase in trade in this part of Assam
which has been effected by the opening
of these lines, it will be well to notice
the stations in geographical order, and
at the same time to refer to any particular
industries which have been developed or
have come into being.

Beginning with Dibrugarh, the western
terminus, it may be said that it is a town
about two square miles in extent, and
that it is situated on the south bank of the
Dibru River, near to the point where that
stream flows into the mighty Brahma-
putra.

There is a bazaar held daily on the
shores of the Dibru, and agricultural
produce and articles of merchandise, in-
cluding fish, poultry, grain, vegetables,
clothing, stationery, salt, oil, tobacco',
piece goods, and furniture can be
obtained.

Dibrugarh was constituted a munici-

pality in the year 1878, and the
authorities have bestowed great care in
laying out the streets and in securing a
satisfactory system of sanitation. The
town is favourably situated, being in con-
nection with a number of important
centres ; for instance, one can travel by
rail to Gauhati, to the seaport of Chitta-
gong, and other places ; the trunk road
from Gauhati to Sadiya passes through
the town; and it is the terminus of the
steamer service on the Brahmaputra.
Commodious locomotive and carriage
workshops have recently been erected on
a new site, in order to cope satisfactorily
with the increased work. These shops
are fitted with up-to-date machinery
and cranes, together with the usual
engineering plant, nearly all of which is
driven by electricity. There is ample
accommodation for dealing with all the
present rolling stock, and provision has
been made for extensions which may be
rendered necessary in the future.

Articles of pottery, comprising cooking
pots, cups, water jars, lamps, pipes,
drums, and bricks, are made at Dibru-
garh and Chabua, which is a few miles
farther to the east, both of which places
are largely interested in the tea-growing
industry. Tinsukia, a village in the
Dibrugarh subdivision of the district of
Lakhimpur, and the terminus of the
Assam-Bengal Railway, in addition to
being the junction station with the Dibru-
Sadiya system, is becoming an important
centre, owing chiefly to the opening-up
of a large number of tea gardens.

Less than half a dozen miles farther
to the east is Makum junction, 35 miles
distant from Dibrugarh. There the rail-
way divides into two branches; one,
leading to the north, passes Barhapjan,
Hansara, Dumduma, and Talap, to the
terminus at Saikoa; while the other line,
bearing to the south, touches the stations
at Tingrai, Digboi, and Powai to Mar-
gherita, about 60 miles from Dibrugarh.

The majority of the tea gardens are
situated to the east of Dibrugarh, and
may be seen on each side of the railway
as far as Talap.

Digboi, on the Makum-Margherita sec-
tion, is well known for its valuable fields
of petroleum oil wells, which are referred
to hereafter.

Coal was known about 100 years ago
to exist in Upper Assam, but it is only
within the past 25 or 30 years that the
mining of it has become a commercial
proposition. Margherita — the south-
eastern terminus of the Dibru-Sadiya

378

Railway — has been entirely developed by
the Assam Railways and Trading Com-
pany. At the base of the hills near this
station there was a belt of country, some
20 miles in width, which was covered with
impenetrable jungle, and although much
of this forest still remains, a tremendous
clearing has been effected.

The company are owners of extensive
collieries about four miles distant in a
southerly direction from this place, and
the principal mines are Namdang, Tikak,
Ledo, and Tirap, the output of these being
about 300,000 tons annually. The coal is
equal in quality to the best Welsh steam
coal, and is found in seams which are
in some instances 100 feet in thickness.
There is a good demand for the output
of these mines, and large quantities of
Assam coal are used by several railway
and river-steamer companies, and by the
majority of the tea gardens in the
province. The coal is obtained through
entrances made to the seams on the side
of the hills, and thus the erection of shaft-
ing or the sinking of pits is avoided.
Its dispatch is rendered an easy matter
as each mine adjoins the railway line,
and the wagons are filled direct from the
colliery tubs.

There is practically no local labour
available for mining work, and coolies are
brought from various parts of India, the
employees being comfortably housed in
lines situated in close proximity to their
work. About 7,000 names are now on
the books, and these work under the
supervision of 26 Europeans, trained in
some of the best collieries in England.

The general cultivation and manufac-
ture of tea are dealt with elrewhere in this
volimie, but it might be mentioned here
that the company have been instrumental
in opening up tea gardens near Mar-
gherita to the extent of several thousands
of acres.

Petroleum is another product of
North-eastern Assam which has for some
time past been an important factor in
the assets of the country, and it is well
known that the Assam Railways and
Trading Company were pioneers in this
profitable industry. This oil was dis-
covered as long ago as 1828, but scarcely
any boring was done until this company
entered the field and established refineries
at Digboi and Margherita early in the
nineties of last century. Many of the
wells continued to yield most favourable
results, ard in the year igoo the company
sold their interests therein, with all their
plant, to the Assam Oil Company, Ltd.,

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THE ASSAM RAILWAYS AND TEADING COMPANY, LTD.
I, Generai. View of Margherita. 2. Diking View of Margherita,

380

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381

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

who have since that time been quite
successful in their drilling operations.

Dense jungle has been cleared, and
where an impenetrable forest formerly
stood there is now a thriving settlement,
with newly constructed refineries fitted
with up-to-date machinery and plant.

The Assam Railways and Trading
Company have endeavoured to make all
their undertakings as self-supporting as
possible, and with forests to give them
timber, sawmills for cutting the trees,
and brick and tile works for their build-
ings, they have shown a desire to supply
all their requirements in every branch
of the huge commercial concern which
" they have succeeded in establishing.

Their saw-mills at Margherita are well
equipped with modern steam-driven
machinery, including overhead cranes,
and they are able to execute orders for
timber for outside firms in addition to
meeting the great demand which their
own business has created. About fifteen
elephants are kept for hauling logs from
the forests to the railway, which is in
close proximity to the mills.

The company are now manufacturing
all kinds of bricks and tiles at their works
at Ledo, and, after their own wants have
been met, they dispose of large quantities
to subsidiary companies and contractors.

THE DARJEELING-HIMALAYAN RAIL-
WAY COMPANY, LTD., AND DAR-
JEELING-HIMALAYAN RAILWAY
EXTENSIONS COMPANY, LTD.

Messrs. Gillanders, Arbuthnot & Co.,
merchants, bankers, and agents, of 8
Clive Street, Calcutta, inaugurated and
are managing agents for the Darjeeling-
Himalayan Railway Extensions Company,
whose lines were constructed by the Dar-
jeeling-Himalayan Railway Company,
according to the authority of the Railway
Board on February 6, 19 13. The per-
manent way of 2 feet gauge consists of
40-lb. British standard section steel rails
laid on sal sleepers, and the line is bal-
lasted with sand.

The sections approved comprised: The
Kissengunge Extension from Panchanai, in
the district of Darjeeling, to Kissengunge
in the district of Purnea in Behar and
Orissa, 66-35 miles in length, and the
Teesta Valley extension from Siliguri to
Kalimpong Road in the district of Dar-
jeeling, 29-09 miles, making a total of
95-44 miles.

The firm are also managing agents for
the Sara-Serajgunj Railway Company,

Ltd., who obtained sanction on October
10, 1913, for the construction of a line
from Ishurdi to Serajgunj in the district of
Pabna, a distance of 49^20 miles.

In addition, managing agencies are held
for the Hardwar-Dehra Branch Railway
Company, Ltd., the Hoshiarpur-Doab
Branch Railway Company, Ltd., and the
Mymensingh-Bhairab Railways Company,
Ltd., and they are agents for the Dar-
jeeling-Himalayan Railway Company,
Ltd., and the Southern Punjab Railway
Company, Ltd.

K. T. HING & BROTHERS

Two enterprising young Chinese gentle-
men, Messrs. C. C. Kown and C. C.
Ahgue, arrived in Calcutta in or about
the year 1891, and obtained employment
in one of the leading furnishing estab-
lishments in the city. But they did not
travel from the Far East to the shores of
the Bay of Bengal merely to act as sales-
men on behalf of strangers; they had
visions of an important commercial
undertaking with which their own names
should be associated and in which their
energies might find full scope for develop-
ment.

They continued to work steadily, men-
tally noting the method of manufacture
and the style of goods which seemed to be
most in favour with the inhabitants of
India, and thus they paved the way for
the opening of a similar business on their
own account in conjunction with their two
brothers, C. C. Ahchee and C. A. Cheong,
who had just then reached Calcutta.

The firm, known as Messrs. K. T. Hing
& Brothers, was established in the year
1898, and for a period of nine years they
confined their activities exclusively to the
manufacture of household furniture of
various descriptions. The control of the
affairs then ( 1907) passed into the hands
of the youngest brother, Mr. C. A.
Cheong, who had for some time previously
been keenly anxious for a greater develop-
ment of the business, which had already
grown to very considerable dimensions.
This gentleman's progressive spirit was
shortly afterwards rewarded by his being
able to enter into several large contracts
for the building of railway carriages and
wagons, and of bodies for cars of various
kinds.

It was very soon apparent that the new
venture was a commercial success, and the
output from the firm's works was so great
that they found it necessary to purchase
the Chinese Labour Corporation, situated
382

at Martpukur, Entally, an eastern suburb
of Calcutta, which was even then equipped
with suitable machinery and plant of a
most modern description.

This factory, together with other neces-
sary buildings, is situated upon about 30
bighas of land, and is capable of turning
out twenty-five railway bogie carriages and
tramway cars every month.

Parenthetically it may be observed here
that Mr. Cheong was the first to introduce
machinery into manufacturing concerns
carried on by Chinese in Calcutta, and it
is worthy of note that all firms of his
fellow-countrymen in that city have now
followed his example.

In order to illustrate the remarkable
growth of the business of the construction
of carriages during the two years which
had elapsed since the acquisition of the
factory, it may be said that in the year
1909 the firm supplied all labour,
materials, and fittings for 291 tramway
cars and wagons, and 250 railway bogie
carriages and vans with bodies 50 feet
in length of various gauges, the railway
carriages being built for local engineering
firms and for the Eastern Bengal Rail-
way Company.

A record of satisfactorily completed
work of this magnitude soon caused it to
be generally known that Messrs. Hing &
Brothers were competent to undertake
practically any kind of contract in which
the manufacture of timber goods was con-
cerned, and it was doubtless owing to the
reputation thus earned by the firm that
they were entrusted with the furnishing of
the camps of the Governments of India
and Bengal at the Coronation Durbar
held at Delhi in November 1911.

In recognition of the efficient services
rendered by the firm during that cere-
mony, they were honoured with warrants
of appointment from His Excellency Lord
Hardinge, then Viceroy and Governor-
General of India, and from His Excellency
the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal.

Messrs. Hing & Brothers, with that
pertinacity so characteristic of their race,
and by using first-class materials and em-
ploying really competent workmen, have
gained a most prominent place among the
most respected firms in Calcutta.

Their head ofiice is situated at 45 Dhur-
rumtoUah Street in Calcutta, and they give
employment to more than a thousand
hands.

Their telegraphic address is " Kwong-
hing," Calcutta.

DARJEELING-HIMa.LAYAN RAILWAY EXTENSIONS COMPANY, LTD.— GILLANDERS, ARBUTHNOT & CO.

I. A Loop on thk Dakjeeli.vg-Himalayas Railway. 2. Gknesal View ox the Darjeeuixg-Hlmahyax Railway, showing a "Reve-jse.'

3. A View ox the Teesta Valley Secitox, Dakjeelixg-Himalayax Railway. 4. Axothes View ox the Teesta Valley Secitox.

3«3

K. T. HING & BROTHERS.
BuoiE Carriage, 55-KT. Body. 2. Erecting Shoj-.

3. CO.NSTKLCTION SHOF.

384

McLEOD & CO. (BANKURA-DAMOODAB RIVEB RAILWAY COMPANY, LTD.).
I. Gaxueswari Bhidue. Seven SI'A.ns ok ix> ft, (imiiEii at Mm-E2-;o. 2. FoiK SI'a.ns of 12 ft. Arch at Mile 17.

385

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

MoLEOD & CO. (LIGHT RAILWAYS)

For many years the economic develop-
ment of India has been retarded by the
lack of ample transport facilities, par-
ticularly in the direction of feeder rail-
ways for trunk lines. Latterly, however,
the Government of India has been
extending assistance of a practical nature
to meet this deficiency, and Messrs.
McLeod & Co., in 19 14, started the
Burdwan-Katwa, Ahmadpur-Kalwa, and
the Bankura-Damoodar Railways, which
will feed the East Indian and Bengal-
Nagpur Railways. In 19 15 the Kalighat-
Falta Railway Company was successfully
floated, and this line will run through a
populous and thriving district southwards
of Calcutta.

The Assam Government also embarked

upon a policy of better means of com-
munication in the tea-producing areas,
and in the early part of 19 16 Messrs.
McLeod & Co. secured the concession for
the building of a short line of 24
miles from Katakhal to Lala Bazar. This
line will be constructed by the Assam-
Bengal Railway, and should prove of
great assistance to the numerous tea
gardens in its immediate vicinity. It
carries the guarantee of the Government
of India to the extent of 3I- per cent.,
plus a further i per cent, by the Assam
Government, for a period of ten years.

Messrs. McLeod & Co. are virtually the
pioneers of light railways in Assam for
purely tea-garden traffic, and one of the
most successful lines in their agency is
the Tezpore-Balipara Tramway, which.

although only 22 miles in length, has
paid a steady 6 per cent, dividend to
its preference shareholders since the
inception of the company.

The ordinary capital is held by the
owners of the various tea gardens which
provide the traffic, and latterly the
ordinary shareholders have been receiving
4 per cent, per annum. All the railways
(except the Tezpore-Balipara and Jes-
sore-Jhenidah lines) in Messrs. McLeod
& Co.'s agency have been floated in India,
with capital amounting to Rs. 94,25,000,
on which a dividend of 3I per cent, is
guaranteed by the Government of India,
and when the lines are working at their
full capacity it is expected that the
profits will show an average return of
from 5 to 6 per cent.

A TUNNEL ON THE GRANP CHORD, EAST INDIAN EAILWAY.

386

THE TEA INDUSTRY OF BENGAL AND ASSAM

By G. D. hope, B.Sc, Ph.D., F.C.S., Scientific Officer, Indian Tea Association

LTHOUGH the Pro-
vinces of Assam and
Bengal can lay no
claim to being the
countries in which
tea-drinking was first
established, or in
which tea was first
cultivated as an agricultural crop, Assam
shares with China the honour of being'
the home of the tea plant; and Assam
and Bengal have for many years held an
important place among the tea-producing
countries of the world, on account of the
large percentage they produce of the
world's total tea crop and of the up-to-
date nature of the methods of cultivation
and manufacture which are employed.

According to the returns of the
Registrar of Indian Joint Stock Com-
panies, and the accounts of the companies
registered in the United Kingdom, as
reported by the Indian Tea .'\ssociation,
the capital of joint stock companies
engaged in the production of tea during
1914 amounted to about Rs. 300,000,000,
or more than £20,000,000, viz.: —

Companies registered in
India ...

Companies registered in
the United Kingdom
(£17,284,348)

Total

4,30,56,603

... 25,92,65,220

... 30,23,21,823

The number of persons engaged in
work on tea estates in North-East India
in 1914 was 429,317 in Assam and
100,598 in Bengal permanently employed,
and 40,108 in Assam and 29,840 in
Bengal temporarily employed. The area

of tea at present under cultivation in these
Provinces is as follows : Assam V^alley,
231,900 acres ; Surma Valley, 144,148
acres; Dooars, 101,284 acres; and Terai
and Darjeeling, 53,178 acres, making in
all, 530,510 acres. Tea-planting has thus
assumed a very important position in the
agriculture of these Provinces, a position
which rice and jute alone among other
crops share with it. It easily holds the
premier place among 'the capitalized agri-
cultural industries of these Provinces, in
virtue of the fact that no other single
agricultural industry has so large a sum
of European capital involved. The
majority of estates are now owned by
limited companies, of which Calcutta firms
are managing or forwarding agents. The
;nanaging agents are in direct control of
the managers and superintendents of
estates, and since these agency firms are
in most cases branches of, or are affiliated
with, London firms, one or more of the
partners in which are usually directors
of the tea companies, close touch is kept
between the directors and those more
closely connected with the management of
estates. In the case of tea companies
which have appointed forwarding agents
merely, and not managing agents, in Cal-
cutta, the policy which is adopted in
controlling the business of the estate is
either dictated chiefly from home or is left
in the hands of the managers.

Representatives of these firms corre-
spond directly with managers and super-
intendents, and pay occasional visits to
their estates. The system is an excellent
one if due consideration is given, at each
stage of control, to the judgment of
persons who are directly responsible and

3«7

have the best opportunity of making
themselves acquainted with conditions.

The greater part of the tea crop of
these Provinces is shipped from Calcutta
to London and sold there. A large quan-
tity, however, is sold in Calcutta, whence
it is exported chiefly to London, Russiail
ports, and China. The quantity of tea
thus sold in the Calcutta market in the
season 19 1 5- 1 6 was 105,000,000 lb. A
considerable quantity of tea is exported
from Chittagong, and there are possi-
bilities of this port developing consider-
ably, though it is doing so only slowly
at present.

Endeavours are now being made to
encourage the consumption of tea in
India. The interests of the North-East
Indian tea industry are watched by
the Indian Tea Association, an Associa-
tion of producers, the members being the
different companies and estates. Sub-
scriptions to the funds of the Association
are based on the acreage under tea.
There is a similar Association in London,
with which the Calcutta Association is in
constant communication ; and in the
planting districts there are other Asso-
ciations which are in some cases branches
of or affiliated to the Calcutta Association.
They are : the Assam Valley Branch,
Indian Tea Association ; the Surma
V^alley Branch, Indian Tea Association;
the Darjeeling Planters' Association, the
Dooars Planters' Association, and the
Terai Planters' Association.

These district Associations approach
the Governments of their respective
Provinces, when necessary, regarding
matters afTecting their interests, while
large questions affecting the industry as

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

a whole are dealt with by the Indian
Tea Association either in London or in
Calcutta.

Attached to the Indian Tea Association
is a Scientific Department, conducted at
present by five European officers and a
staff of trained Indian assistants. This
department was founded in 1900, and has
an office and laboratory in Calcutta and
an experimental station near Jorhat, in
Assam, at which manurial and cultural
experiments are carried out and the pests
and blights of the tea plant are studied.
The work of this department is largely
advisory, and the officers spend a part
of each year in touring.

In order to extend the sale of Indian
tea in the tea-consuming countries of the
world, and to open up new markets for
tea elsewhere, by arrangement with the
tea industries of other parts of India,
and with the sanction of Government
and by the help of its machinery, a
cess of J pie (jV'h of a penny) per lb. on
all tea exported by sea from India is
levied. The funds so collected, which in
1915 amounted to over £29,000, are used
for propaganda work in America, the
United Kingdom, in India, and (before
the war) on the Continent.
^The labour employed on tea estates in
^North-East India was originally recruited
locally from villages near estates, but with
the expansion of the latter, an increase
in the area under tea, with the adoption
of more intensive treatment, and with its
correspondingly greater demand for
labour, the local supplies of workers
became insufficient in number to cope with
the requirements, therefore the exploita-
tion and conduct of tea estates, in the
Brahmaputra and the Surma Valleys par-
ticularly, have only been possible with the
help of labour imported from more con-
gested districts. Labour is obtained by
sending Sirdars from estates to recruit
in the neighbourhood of their own homes.
The labour on tea estates consists chiefly
of coolies recruited from Bengal, Orissa,
Chota-Nagpur, the Central Provinces, the
Madras Presidency, Nepal, and the United
Provinces. The Government of India
places careful restrictions on the recruit-
ment of labour for tea gardens, and
certain tracts in India have never been
opened for this purpose, although a few
areas in South India have recently been
drawn upon for the first time. A Labour
Board was not long ago established under
the control of an officer appointed by the
Government of India to advise Govern-
ment and those concerned in the tea

industry on important points connected
with tea gardens labour legislation, and
to control and supervise the recruitment
of coolies for the tea districts.

Only one means of transit exists for the
carriage of tea away from the great
majority of the estates, and that is by
water. The River Brahmaputra, which is
navigable at all times of the year, is a
valuable means of communication, tapping
a great part of Assam; and while many
of the estates in that Province, which are
situated far away from this river, can use
the Assam-Bengal Railway and two light
railways (the Jorhat Provincial Railway
and the Tezpur-Balipara Railway), others
are fortunate in having river and railway
facilities as alternatives. In the Surma
Valley the River Barak and its tributaries,
and the Assam-Bengal and Fenchuganj
Railways, serve the same purpose, while
in both valleys several light railways, by
which communications will be improved,
are under construction. In Bengal, which
has a more complete scheme of railways,
the Eastern Bengal, the Bengal-Dooars,
and the Darjeeling-Himalayan systems
provide efficient means of communication
and transport. Both Assam and Bengal
suffer seriously from lack of good roads,
and this is largely due to the expense
necessary to make and maintain roads,
owing to the peculiar climate of these
Provinces and to the fact that stones are
obtainable only in comparatively few
localities.

In spite of certain difficulties there
exists in the growth and manufacture of
tea in these Provinces a flourishing in-
dustry, with healthy conditions and with
everything pointing to a still more
successful future. It may be of interest
to review briefly the history which has
led up to this remarkable achievement
before proceeding to describe in detail
the processes of cultivation and manufac-
ture of tea as carried out in Bengal and
Assam to-day.

Tea was first introduced into Europe
by Dutch traders, though it has, of course,
been known from the very earliest time
in China. Marco Polo, curiously enough,
makes no mention of it in his writings,
yet in Asia tea was probably as well
known in his time as it is to-day. In
1660 tea was no stranger in England,
and in 1664 the East India Company
made a present of some to King
Charles II. By the year 1667 this Com-
pany had taken steps to secure a regular
supply. A hundred years later difficulties
which arose with China drew the attention
388

of the British Government to the danger
of having no other source of the where-
withal to make a beverage of such increas-
ing popularity, and in 1788 Sir Joseph
Banks recommended Warren Hastings to
attempt its cultivation in Behar.

The history of the industry, which arose
in this way in Assam and Bengal, can
best be described by quoting verbatim
from an article on tea by Sir George
Watt : — >

" It [tea ] appears to have been dis-
covered in Assam, perhaps originally by
Major Bruce, subsequently in Manipur by
Scott, somewhere between 182 1 and 1826,
but little attention was paid to that cir-
cumstance until some years later. Lord
William Bentinck, Governor-General of
India, in a Resolution dated January 24,
1834, warmly took up the matter of
India tea cultivation. A committee was
appointed by him, with Dr. N. Wallich as
secretary, to report on the most hopeful
situations for an experimental cultivation.
Mr. G. J. Gordon, of the firm of
Makintosh & Co., was dispatched to
China to procure seed, to collect informa-
tion, and to bring to India Chinese culti-
vators. He was, however, shortly after
recalled because wild tea had been
rediscovered by Jenkins and Charlton in
Assam. But had Bruce and Scott's dis-
coveries received the attention they
deserved, Gordon, very possibly, would
never have been sent to China. As it was,
Wallich refused to believe that even
Jenkins's plant was the true tea plant
until he had a sample of tea made from
it and sent to him. In due time a Com-
mission was appointed to visit Assam in
order to report on the discovery of Indian
indigenous tea. It consisted of Drs.
Wallich, Griffith, and McClelland. They
could not agree as to that plant, but, for
the purpose of Government experiments,
recommended that the Himalaya should
be first tried, then Assam, and lastly the
mountains of South India. They then
added that ' the China plant, and not the
degraded Assam plant,' should be experi-
mented with. The controversy about
black and green, and of the separate
plants from which these were supposed
to be made, was doubtless the will-o'-the-
wisp that largely influenced Wallich to
lay down the dictum that the Indian plant
was a Camellia and not a Thea, a distinc-
tion, as has been shown, without a
difference, and one which greatly retarded
the Indian tea industry. Unfortunately-
for Wallich, his so-called Camellia has

' Watt, " The Commercial Products of India."

THE TEA INDUSTRY OF BENGAL AND ASSAM

since proved very much more valuable
than the Thea, the merits of which he
extolled, and which alone, in his opinion,
should have been cultivated. It may be
here added that it is remarkable, when so
much difference of opinion prevailed and
the existence of wild tea in Assam had
even been challenged, that no one thought
of drawing attention to the specimen of
the tea plant from Malabar preserved in
the Sloane Herbarium. Had this been
done, we should in all probability have
been told the history of that sample more
definitely than we are ever likely now to
learn, and at the same time a fuller con-
ception of the Chinese tea plant would
have been obtained than was possessed
by Wallich and others, who denied that
the Assam stock was the true tea-yielding
species.

" Wallich, Royle, and Falconer {Journ.
Ass. Soc. Bengal, 1834, iii. 178-88)
upheld the Himalaya as the preferable
locality, while Griffith and McClelland
urged the claims of Assam, which they
regarded as the indigenous habitat of the
plant. In guarded yet unmistakable lan-
guage, Griffith gave his opinions, even
though these were inimical to the views of
his superior and colleague, Dr. Wallich.
Gordon was, in consequence, re-deputed
to China, and on his return to India with
a supply of plants, seeds, etc., he resigned
his connection with the Commission with-
out having written an account of his
journeys in China. A third mission to
China (the expenses of which were partly
borne by the Royal Horticultural Society
of England) was organized and success-
fully conducted by Mr. R. Fortune, who
wrote, in consequence, ' Three Years'
Wanderings in China' {1847), 'Tea
Districts of China' (1852), and 'A
Residence among the Chinese' (1857).
These works contain full particulars of
his studies of the Chinese industry, as
also details regarding the plants, seeds,
etc., conveyed by him to India.

" Numerous reports were issued by the
Government of India, from the date of
the appointment of Mr. C. A. Bruce, in
1836, as Superintendent of their Assam
plantations, to the time when they ceased,
in 1885, to have any direct interest in tea.
These made public the discoveries accom-
plished and the experience gained. It
has been freely announced that when the
industry no longer required the foster-
ing care of Government, it would be
handed over to private enterprise. The
progress in Assam was such that long
before the Government could resign their

Himalayan plantations they had retired
from Assam. It may be here mentioned
that the first sample of Assam-made tea
was sent to England in 1838. From that
date the progress was rapid. The other
day, while examining the numerous papers
on tea preserved in the India Office, I
came across what purports to have been
the first flyleaf of a commercial sale of
tea made by Government. It is signed
by Mr. Thos. Watkins, Superintendent of
the Government Plantations, and endorsed
by N. Wallich, M.D., Superintendent
H.C. Botanic Gardens. It is dated
'Jaipur, Upper Assam, March 5, 1841,'
and headed, ' A Novel and Interesting
Sale of Assam Teas — the First Importa-
tion into the Calcutta Market.' That
circular (reproduced, Journ. Roy. Hart.
Soc, 1907, xxxii. 69) announces, in fact,
two parcels of tea offered for sale—
namely, thirty chests manufactured by the
Singhfo chief, Ningroolla, and ninety-five
the produce of the Government tea planta-
tions. It may thus be noted that the
Singhfos were actually manufacturing tea
in Assam at the very time apparently that
Wallich challenged the production of tea
as the evidence to convince him that the
Assam indigenous plant was the true tea-
yielding species.

" The Sibsagar (Jaipur) plantations of
the Government were sold in 1840 to the
Assam Company, the first tea concern, and
to this day much the largest company in
India. It was anything but prosperous
during the first fifteen years of its exist-
ence, and its shares fell so low that they
could hardly be sold. But about 1852
it began to improve, and' with that success
the tea industry appeared so promising
and attractive that speculators eagerly
rushed into it. The discovery of the
indigenous tea in Sylhet and Cachar gave
the impetus for an expansion of the
industry into the Surma Valley, and in
a few years thereafter the whole of the
upper portions of the Province of Assam
(both the Brahmaputra and Surma
Valleys) might be described as converted
into a huge tea plantation. About this
time (1853-5) tea-planting was organized
in Darjeeling, and shortly after followed
Chittagong, Chota Nagpur, and the
Dooars. Ultimately tea cultivation spread
over every district of India where there
was the least hope of success, but with a
rapidity that was certain to culminate, as
it did, in the great disaster of 1865-7.
It is needless to dwell on the causes of
that disaster, but the reader is referred
to Mr. (afterwards Sir) John W^are-

389

Edgar's full report. It was, briefly, a
natural consequence of reckless im-
petuosity, ignorant supervision, and posi-
tive dishonesty. Fortunes were made by
the few who realized that the tide would
turn. The better situated gardens were
purchased for fewer rupees than they had
cost pounds sterling to construct. New
companies were formed to work these, and
with the avowed purpose of growing tea
fur its own merit as a commercial article,
and not for the purpose of selling gardens
at a profit. Out of these trying times
the industry rose on a firmer foundation,
and the subsequent prosperity is one of
the marvels of modern commerce.

" It is not known how much money the
Government of India actually spent, from
first to last, in their efforts to engraft the
tea industry on India, but it would appear
that Gordon's missions to China and the
expenditure of the Indiaa Tea Commis-
sion came to close on £18,000. If we
assume that sum to have represented but
one-quarter of the total expenditure actu-
ally incurred, the result might still, in
perfect fairness, be characterized as one
of the most profitable undertakings of the
administration, of the Empire of India."

The tea plant, as has already been
stated, has at least two varieties, or
two different species, whichever division
is chosen. It belongs to the family
Ternstroemiacea?.

Sir George Watt, in a paper read
before the Royal Horticultural Society,
has discussed the classification of the
different types of the tea plant. Link
was the botanist who placed them all in
the genus Camellia. There seems to be
no reason for classifying the different
types as constituting specific differences
only. The following is a provisional
classification by Sir George Watt: —

Var. ViRlDiS. — Under this are the fol-
lowing races and cultivated types:

I. Assam Indigenous. — This has the
mature leaf ranging from 6 to y\ inches
in length, and from 2^ to 2-^ inches in
breadtli. It contains about 16 veins on
each side of the midrib. In passing, it
may be here observed that the value of
the number and condition of the veins in
the classification of the cultivated races
of tea was first pointed out in the " Pests
and Blights of the Tea Plant" (ed.
1898, 15, 46-9). But there are numerous
sub-races of the stock, such as the Single,
Bazelona, etc. Collectively they are the
most highly prized and most widely cul-
tivated of all the Indian forms of the tea
plant. It is, however, somewhat curious

2 B*

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

to read in " Ovington's Voyage of
Suratt " (1689, 308) that "three kinds
of tea were in his time conveyed from
China to India— namely, 'Bing,' ' Single,"
and ■ Bohe." " This is apparently the first
mention by a European writer of Single,
and the surmise naturally arises, how
came that name to be given to one of the
best of the Assam indigenous plants?

2. Lushai. — Sometimes called "Cachar
indigenous " or " light-leaved Manipur."
Under favourable conditions this forms
the largest leaf of all the Indian tea
plants. It has been measured from 12 to
14 by 7 1 inches, and recorded as possess-
ing from 20 to 24 veins. It is not found
wild outside the Lushai Hills and South
Cachar. It is a rather delicate plant, and
will not safely bear the hard pruning
which may be given with impunity to
other teas.

3. Naga Tea. — This has a long, narrow
leaf, generally from 6 to 9 by 2 to 3^
inches, with, as a rule, from 16 to 18
veins. It is very little cultivated except
in one or two gardens on the borders of
the Naga Hills, such as .-^mguri, but is
reported to be often used as a crossing-
stock.

4. Manipur. — This is the wild tea of
the Native State of that name. It exists
there purely and simply as a forest plant,
the seed of which, but not the leaf, is
valued. It is now grown fairly exten-
sively in Cachar and some parts of Assam.
It is a larger, coarser, and broader-
leaved plant than the Assam indigenous.
The average mature leaf is from 6 to
8 inches in length and 2 J to 3 J inches in
breadth, and usually contains 22 veins.

5. Burma and Shan. — Too little is
known of these teas to allow of their
critical separation from the Manipur
plant. The leaves are smaller, thicker,
more acutely serrated, and distinctly more
elliptic in shape than in the other teas.
The plant in question has possibly been
grown for centuries, more as a vegetable
than as a source of the beverage. The
circumstance may be found to have pro-
diKed properties with which we are at
present not familiar.

6. Yunnan and China. — Fortune speaks
of the country south of the Yang-tse-
Kiang as the region of Chinese T . viridis,
the tea being shipped from Shanghai and
Ningpo. Crawford speaks of the plant
seen by him having leaves " twice or three
times the size of that of Bohea tea."

Var. Bohea.— Tlie Bohea tea of For-
tune and others; the hybrid tea of Indian
tea-planters. Bohea found this as the

chief plant in the great black-tea country
of Fuh-kien, the tea which is shipped from
Canton and Hongkong. It is a small-
leaved plant, with not more than 1 2 to
14 veins on either side of the midrib. It
is freely admitted by planters to be a
cross between Viridis and Striata.

Var. Stricta. — This small bush may
be seen in Indian seed-gardens, flower-
ing and fruiting freely ; and, though never
pruned, it preserves all its characteristics
and rarely shows any departure towards
var. Viridis. The leaves are thick and
leathery, from i^\ to 2i inches long, and
vary from jV to J inch in breadth. It
has rarely more than 8 definite nerves,
while Viridis has 16 and Bohea usually
12 to 14. It is essentially a bush, and,
even if given the chance, it rarely if ever
takes the poplar-tree form of the other
races. No one has recorded the existence
of this plant in a truly wild condition,
and, what is much more curious, it is more
abundantly represented in herbaria as
coming from India than from China.

Var. Lasiocalyx. — This interesting
form appears to have been met with
alone in Malacca and Penang, and is, per-
haps, the most tropical of all the forms
of Camellia actually cultivated as tea. It
seems probable that it may have origi-
nated by hybridization with var. Viridis
and some of the better-known forms of
tea, such as var. Stricta. In this
light, the suggestion above made, that
it may be the plant Roxburgh desig-
nated as C. axillaris, becomes of more
than botanical interest. At all events,
both the locality and description given
by Roxburgh suit var. Lasiocaly.x to a
remarkable degree. This is the plant
seen by Grifiith at Pringett, near Malacca.

In order to obtain the true value of
the characters above indicated that are
dependent on the veins of the leaves, it
is necessary to examine the shoots which
spring directly from old wood — that is to
say, shoots low down on the stem. Of
the Manipuri and Assam plants — those in
most favour in India at present — it may
be said that the former is much more
hardy than the latter, and should accord-
ingly be used wherever liability to
drought exists. The Assam gives, how-
ever, a thinner and more delicate leaf with
more flavour, and the value of the tea
made from it is decidedly greater.

The indigenous varieties have an up-
right habit and grow to a considerable
size, but the China types are more
bushy and smaller. The Assam variety
reaches to a height of from 20 to 30 feet,

having parallel upright stems. The tea
plant in the wild state is usually found
on hills with other jungle, and it is un-
doubtedly a plant which likes a certain
amount of shade. The fact that tea is
found growing wild on hills, and is often
cultivated in hilly parts of China, invari-
ably led the earliest pioneers to choose
hilly ground in their endeavours to estab-
lish tea cultivation in Assam. To find
the very earliest examples of tea planta-
tions in Assam, it is necessary to search
different hilly parts of the valley. In
the old days but few places on the edges
of the hills on the north and south banks
of the Brahmaputra were reachable, owing
to the unopened character of the country,
heavy jungle, and the presence of warlike
hill tribes ; but a few spots, such as those
where now are situated the Singlo Com-
pany's Assam gardens and the Assam
Company's estate, Gubro Purbat, were
among the earliest localities chosen. For
other more easily reached hills on which
the earliest tea-planters made their first
efforts, the traveller in Assam has only
to keep his eyes open going up the
Brahmaputra by steamer. Near Gauhati
are still to be seen small tea gardens
planted many decades ago, and an
example of early endeavour can be
observed from the Brahmaputra on the
hill at Negheriting.

The first problems before the earliest
tea-planters in Assam and Bengal were
to discover, in all parts of these Provinces,
the climate most favourable for tea, and
to determine the suitability of the soils
in various districts.

Tea, in the ordinary form in which it
is drunk, be it green or black, is, as is
well known, manufactured from the tender
new shoots of the tea plant, the topmost
bud and the first two or three leaves of
each shoot only being used for this pur-
pose. The pioneers of the industry had
then to devise methods of treatment of the
tea plant which would convert it from a
tree with comparatively few branches, the
great part of which are out of reach, and
which yearly produce a succession of
flowers and seeds (which, from the point
of view of the tea-planter, are to all
intents and purposes useless), into a plant
which could easily be subjected to the
ordinary processes of agriculture, and to
the cropping of as large a weight as
possible of suitable leaf-bearing shoots
throughout the growing season. In the
earliest days of tea-planting in .-Xssam,
it was naturally thought that from China
could be derived not onlv all that could

THE TEA INDUSTRY OF BENGAL AND ASSAM

be learnt about the methods of converting
a tea plant from its tea shape into a bush
of a more convenient form for all the
treatment it had to undergo, but also all
that was to be known about the manner
in which the bushes, once made, should
be cultivated, pruned,- and plucked, and
about the manufacture of leaf they pro-
duced. Chinese labourers were therefore
imported into Assam with the view of
giving instruction in the whole art of tea-
planting. It was not recognized until
many years later, however, that the
Chinese and Assamese varieties of plant
required different treatment in many
respects, but as China, or what is known
as poor jat, hybrid plants were grown
on the first estates which were opened out,
the conservative attitude of the earlier
planters did not result in such failare as
when the same attitude was maintained
after the indigenous plant had been intro-
duced on estates. A younger generation
has suffered for, and has had to endeavour
to remedy, the mistake made in the past
in the treatment of the indigenous Assam
type of plant, and of the hybrid types
which closely resemble it.

We may now turn to a description of
tea-planting as it is carried out to-day.

Within the geographical limits of
Assam and Bengal the climate differs
considerably from place to place.
Features common to every district, how-
ever, are a cool and dry winter, and a
heavy rainfall, and high minimum tem-
peratures throughout the summer months.
These Provinces are affected by the south-
west monsoon in great or less degree,
the Brahmaputra Valley being, perhaps,
less affected than the other districts.

The following table gives the average
rainfall for different tea districts in these
Provinces : —

Assam —

Inches.

Dibrugarh

II2'ri

Sibsagar

94'35

Nazira

... , 89-06

Tezpur

73-08

Nowgong

77-10

Gauhati

67-19

Surma Valley —

Silchar

... 121-43

Sylhet

... 156-64

Chittagong

... 105-09

Dooars —

Jalpaiguri

... 125-72

Buxar

... 2o8-6i

Darjeeling—

Kurseong

160-65

Darjeeling ...

i2r8o

Frost very rarely occurs except at high
elevations in the Darjeeling district,
though in tlie spring months hail-storms
frequently do terrible damage to tea-
bushes, the hailstones scoring the bark
and defoliating the branches. This
phenomenon is less considerable in the
Assam Valley than it is in Cachar, Sylhet.
the Dooars, and Darjeeling. The summer
months are noteworthy on account of the
high humidity of the atmosphere and the
high minimum temperatures. The maxi-
mum temperatures are not so high as in
many places on the same line of latitude
in drier parts of India, temperatures over
95° Fahr. being uncommon. The climate
during these months is not well suited to
Europeans, and in the early days of tea-
planting many tea districts established
bad reputations, and for European settlers
it was a case of survival of the fittest.
That was, however, before the days when
health was considered worth studying and
maintaining at all cost ; and now that
jungle has been cleared, the land drained,
and healthy bungalows built, European
and Indian men and women of average
physique can live healthily and happily
in the tea districts. .\ feature of the
climate of North-East India which i^ note-
worthy, is the occurrence of a definite
winter period of several months' rest for
plants, during which tea-bushes do not
flush — that is, do not produce the rapidly
grown succulent shoots which are required
for tea manufacture. In Java and Ceylon
no similar lengthy period of rest occurs,
and manufacture goes on more or less
throughout the year. This difference is
of importance, for it has accounted largely
for the great differences in methods of
tea-garden work which exist in Java,
Ceylon, and South India on the one hand
and in North-East India on the other.

Reference has already been made to the
tendency in earlier days to plant tea on
hilly ground. With time has come
experience, however, and it has now been
known for a number of years that, pro-
vided drainage is adequate and the soil
of suitable and inechanical and chemical
composition, tea will grow as well on level
land as on hillsides. It is fortunate that
this is so, because by far the greatest
part of the area of Bengal and Assam,
which has a climate suitable for tea, has
comparatively level land, though it is cut
up by nullahs, or depressions, a few feet
below the surrounding level. These carry
off surface water, and are filled with
marshy jungle or are otherwise cultivated
for rice.

In practically the whole of the Assam
Valley the land is level. In Cachar,
Sylhet, the Dooars, and the Terai, level
plateaux, or even tracts of level land
sloping at a slight gradient away from
the hills, are the prevailing features of
the landscape, though they are broken
here and there, particularly in Cachar and
Sylhet, by low hills, known locally as tilas,
or by ravines and banks. The hilly dis-
trict in the two Provinces which has
proved to have a climate suitable for tea
is that of Darjeeling, and the natural con-
ditions and the climate of this tract differ
so much from those of the plains that the
treatment of tea is very different.

The tea soils of Assam and Bengal have
been studied for some years by the
Scientific Department of the Indian Tea
Association, and their general charac-
teristics can be fairly closely described.
They differ very considerably both among
themselves and also from tea soils in other
parts of the world. The soils of the Dar-
jeeling district are formed of the
weathered products of underlying rock,
and as these consist of many different
kinds, chiefly granites and gneiss, the soils
naturally differ considerably. In this
district stiff reddish clays are usually
found at the higher elevations, but in
other places, owing to the presence of
rock of a more acid character, coarse,
sandy soils occur; while at the bottom
of valleys, and at other places where soil
which has been washed down from higher
levels is brought to a standatill, patches
of deep, very fertile sandy soil occur. In
the other districts the soils are, almost
without exception, alluvial in character.
The Assam Valley is entirely an alluvial
tract which has been formed by the
River Brahmaputra. The general charac-
teristics of this alluvial soil are its great
depth and its freedom from stones.

In certain places in the Assam Valley
and the Dooars, an alluvium known as
" red bank " soil is prominent. This soil
is redder and more clayey than the more
recent alluvial soil of the Assam Valley.

Similar soils occur in North Cachar on
a plateau at the foot of the North Cachar
Hills. In the Dooars there are a large
variety of other soils, many of them being
of comparatively recent formation and
usually sandy. A general feature of these
more recent soils is high percentage of
magnesia relatively to their lime content.

A feature of the Cachar and Sylhet
tea districts are the bheels, the origin of
which has been similar to that of peat
swamps. Bheels are usually situated

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

between low hills or run up between lilas.
After drainage these are capable of grow-
ing tea, and for a number of years are
incomparably fertile, but they eventually
assume a condition which causes the rapid
deterioration of the tea growing on them.
This condition, and its cause, is not fully
understood, and has no apparent connec-
tion with the amount of available plant-
food-building substances present, which is
invariably high in these soils.

In Sylhet low tilas with stretches of
flat land between them arc typical. In
the Terai the soils are usually light in
texture and eminently suitable for the tea
plant. This, though one of the older,
should be one of the foremost tea dis-
tricts. In Darjeeling many different types
of soil occur, depending chiefly on the
nature of the underlying rock. A charac-
teristic red clay is generally found at the
higher elevations. Sandy soils are also
found in this district.

An interesting fact with regard to the
alluvial tracts of the plains of Bengal and
Assam is that since this alluvium has been
built up of fragments derived from rocks,
as the result of chemical weathering and
mechanical disintegration, and trans-
ported by and deposited from flowing
water, chemical substances which are most
readily dissolved have been largely
removed, and after the remaining particles
have been deposited in the form of soil,
the process of leaching has been carried
on by the rain. As stated above, the rain-
fall during half of the year is heavy;
and as at this period the precipitation is
far greater than the evaporation, the
movement of water has been downwards
through the soil, and large quantities of
the more soluble and more useful con-
stituents of the minerals of the soil have
been carried away and irretrievably
lost.

Consequently these soils are often poor,
from the chemical standpoint. This
feature is common to the alluvial tea
tracts of North-East India, but is per-
haps most noticeable in the Assam Valley.
The substances which have been lost are
chiefly lime, potash, soda, magnesia, and
sulphates — all substances which are valu-
able to plants. Another feature common
to the soils of this tract is that, under
the semi-tropical conditions which here
obtain, organic matter has little chance of
collecting in quantity when jungle has
been cleared and the ground is under
cultivation, because under those conditions
it is oxidized so quickly. Consequently
the soils have not a very high capability

for absorbing soluble substances of value
in feeding plants.

Tea plants are invariably grown from
seed, which is usually germinated in a
germinating-bed and then planted in
a nursery at a distance of a few inches
apart. Seedlings of six or twelve months'
growth are subsequently planted on the
land, which has been previously cleaned
of jungle, forest, or grass, as the case
may be, and then levelled to some extent
and drained. Occasionally seed is planted
directly in the ground in which the plants
are to live. This is known as planting'
" seed at stake " ; this method is not
usually adopted, as it is considered less
satisfactory than planting from nurseries.
There are special devices for taking up
the young nursery plants, together with
the earth which surrounds them, and in
removing them to the site in the clearance
which they are eventually to occupy. It
is recognized that the degree of care taken
in planting out tea for the first time is
reflected in its subsequent history, and
many a permanently unsatisfactory bed
of tea owes its condition to indifference
or neglect. The nature of the soil, too,
is an important factor, and in some cases
of light, rich soils the care taken need
not be so great. In a few instances
success has followed " carrot " planting —
that is, planting seedlings which have
been pulled up by the roots, the ends of
the tap roots and the laterals being cut
off before replanting them. Clearances
must be carefully drained and cultivated
so as to keep the young plants free from
the jungle or weed which spring so readily
on virgin ground and check growth of
the young plants. Beyond this nothing
is done for the first year after planting.

The treatment in the second and subse-
quent years depends on the development
which the young plants have made, and
upon the methods which experience has
shown to be best suited to each particular
district. The first pruning which plants
receive is nowadays made quite low down
on the stem of the plant, and it is not
usually made until the stem is about an
inch in diameter. In earlier days the
bushes were cut at a greater height, so
that they yielded leaf earlier and gave
heavier crops as young bushes; but it has
been found that the subsequent growth of
bushes treated in this way tends to
produce frames which present difficulties
when the wood becomes old. Bushes
which have been cut in that manner when
they are young develop later into what
are called " single-stemmers," and the

only thing that can be done to them
eventually is to " collar-prune " them —
that is, to cut them off just above the
ground. Unless they are very carefully
treated, bushes often die off after this
operation, and in any case the treatment
results in loss of crop for several years.
After the first low cut, pruning is done
during each cold season in such a way
as to build up a low shrubby bush with
a broad framework of branches and a
level surface. The subsequent pruning
of bushes will be dealt with later.

The bushes at the beginning of each
season must not be plucked until they
have developed good strong shoots. In
order to ensure this, no shoot is plucked
until it has grown to a certain height,
which, in the case of light pruning, is
measured usually from the place of
pruning in the centre of the bush; and
nothing is plucked below this level, while
above it the shoot is plucked when two
full leaves and an open bud have formed.
The pluckers, then, in the early part of
the season deal with these shoots as they
grow above the adopted standard height.
This is sometimes known as " tipping."
Occasionally the standard chosen is the
number of leaves from the pruning, but
the principle is exactly the same. As
the season goes on the surface of the bush
becomes filled with shoots which have
grown to this standard height, and from
then onward other standards are chosen
which vary in different districts.

The plants in a tea garden are
arranged, at distances apart, in parallel
lines, varying usually from 3 feet to 5 feet,
and forming the sides of a square or an
equilateral triangle, according as the
planting is " square " or " triangular."
When land is steeply sloping, planting
is often in contour lines. The alignment
in past days used to be very irregular,
but it is now strictly correct. This facili-
tates all garden operations. If the land
is level the main drains are made so as
to give the best run-off for water, and
to permit of subsidiary drains being cut
at intervals between the lines of tea so
as to flow into them. If the land is
undulating or on a slope, the best system
of drainage is one of contour drains pro-
tected on their upper sides by bunds.
They then serve the double purpose of
promoting good drainage and protecting
the land from wash.

Cultivation consists chiefly in hoeing,
though trenching has become a recognized
and valuable occasional alternative to the
deep hoe usually given during the winter

THE TEA INDUSTRY OF BENGAL AND ASSAM

months, and forking is an indispensable
adjunct. The hoeing during the rains to
keep down jungle affords an interesting
comparison with the clean weeding which
is customary in Ceylon, and it cannot be
denied that, on theoretical grounds, the
former practice is preferable to the latter.
The advantage of level ground does not,
liowever, occur in Ceylon, and the cer-
tainty of serious loss of soil by wash has
prevented the employment of the hoe in
that tea district.

It is probable that deep hoeing of tea
estates in the cold weather has become a
custom largely on the analogy of winter
ploughing in temperate countries, and
until recently there was no difficulty dur-
ing that season in obtaining the necessary
labour. Recently, however, the immense
importance, for the general health of the
bushes, of pruning, draining, bunding,
trenching, and other operations has been
realized, and often labour for this work
is scarce, much of the deep hoeing having
to be postponed until the spring. In such
cases it is most desirable that the jungle
sliould be hoed in at the end of the rains
with a light hoe to prevent undue drying
of the soil.

The scientific use of imported and
locally obtainable manures has only
recently become general, and has, indeed,
developed hand in hand with the tendency
to make the cultivation of tea more inten-
sive. An important advance in the
general understanding on the part of
planters of the relationship between
manures and soil was marked b^ the
publication of Dr. Mann's " Tea Soils of
North-East India," which contained a
])reliniinary survey of the soils of the tea
districts, based chiefly on chemical
analysis of the main types of soil and
upon observations derived from acquaint-
ance with those soils in situ. In the
earlier days cattle manure and refuse of
all kinds from coolie lines alone was used,
but at a later period locally available
manures, such as oil-cakes and bones, were
added to the list, and were applied
vicariously and without any preliminary
chemical or other scientific study of the
specific needs of soil or bushes. From
that point steady progress has been made,
with the result that manures of all kinds
arc now used with discrimination, while
the total quantity applied to tea estates
is increasing rapidly. The mistake, how-
ever, has been avoided of manuring expen-
sively to the exclusion of other useful
operations ; nor has soil been lost by
wash, as in Ceylon, to si«;h a degree tliat

heavy manuring alone will keep estates
going. There is, on the contrary, every
sign that a sane and moderate system
of manuring will play an important part
in tea-garden work. To meet a growing
demand, several firms in Calcutta have
established manure departments and are
building up good connections with estates,
but prices, however, have not yet settled
down to figures which can be considered
satisfactory from the point of view of the
tea industry.

The manuring of tea estates is being
carefully studied, and investigations are
being made regarding the use and value
of various kinds of fertilizers for the
different soils which are found. The tnost
usual deficiencies in these soils arc organic
matter, nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and
lime, but the greater portion of the
ground responds to measures taken to
enrich it in respect of these substances.
Organic matter and nitrogen can be made
good by frequent green-cropping with
leguminous plants.

The plants which have been found most
suitable for this purpose are low-growing
leguminous ones, such as Vigna catiang
(cow-peas) and a similar plant, Phaseolus
sp. (known by its vernacular name, Mati
kalai), Sesbanea aciileata (known as
Dhaincha), and Crotalaria juncea (Sunn
hemp); while in the hilly districts Glycine
soya (soya beans) are also used. These
crops are grown for about six weeks, and
then hoed into the ground between the
rows of tea. Other plants, such as
Tephrosia Candida {Boga medeloa) and
Cajanus indiciis {Arhar dal), are grown
among the tea for the double benefit of
the light shade they give and of the
organic matter yielded by them in the
shape of leaves, which they drop. Trees
are grown for shade purposes, and these
are usually leguminous species, the
commonest being Albizzia stipulata.
Nitrogen is supplied to the soil partly
by these means, but also by applications
of locally obtainable and imported
manures, which include cattle-dung, oil-
cakes, sulphate of ammonia, and various
fish and meat preparations. More
recently the great value of phosphatic
manures for tea has been recognized and
their action understood, and it is fortunate
that in bones, which are obtainable in
India in plenty, a large supply of this
chemical constituent is at hand. Basic
slag and superphosphate are also obtain-
able, and though the relative efficiency
of the various forms of phosphatic
manures has not yet been completely

393

worked out, most forms have proved
valuable. The effect of this manurial
ingredient in promoting quick and heavy
growth of green crops has been fully
demonstrated quite recently.

In common with other operations on
tea estates, pruning has undergone great
modifications, and it is hardly likely that,
any one system will come to stay per-
manently. This in itself speaks for the
endeavour which is being made to secure
progress in all branches of work.

It would be impossible in an article
such as this to trace the changes which
have been made in this operation during
the history of the tea industry in North-
East India, and it must suffice to give a
short description of pruning as it is
carried out nowadays on estates where the
best work is done. It must be borne in
mind that the object of pruning is to
remove the twigs which are the invariable
result of continual plucking throughout
a season, in order that growth can begin
again from a much smaller number
of strong, vvell-spaced-out shoots. In
modern pruning the treatment given to
bushes is severe. All dead and moribund
wood is removed as far as possible, and
the pruned bush has an open, rather bare
framework, the shoots which are left for
producing flushes being separated well so
as not to interfere with each other. Given
a good well-drained soil, liberal manur-
ing and cultivation, this method has been
found to yield the best crops and to keep
the bush comparatively free from pests
and blights.

Pruning is carried out in the cold
weather when the bushes have ceased
flushing, and is classified as " light prun-
ing " or as " cutting back," according as
the bushes are cut. This process either
leaves on or removes from the top so^me
of the one-year-old wood produced as the
result of the previous pruning. At the
time of light pruning a certain amount
of thinning out is done to effect removal
of thin useless twigs and pieces of dead
wood in the upper part of the bushes.
New wood varying in length from i inch
to 2 inches is usually left. Cutting back
is more or less severe according to the
position of the cuts relative to the ground.
" Collar " pruning is resorted to only
when the framework of the bushes has
become so moribund that no other treat-
ment is possible. If the bushes can be
cut at a higher point some branches are
saved, and the re-formation of the bushes
takes place so much sooner. The general
tendency of modern pruning is towards

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

the careful treatment of each branch of
each bush, according to its individual
requirements.

Plucking has already been described
shortly in an earlier paragraph, and it
merely remains to note that methods of
plucking vary considerably in different
districts and are made to conform to the
method of pruning adopted. When
bushes have been light pruned— that is,
when the shoots grown in the previous
year on the top of the bush are cut back
to just above their point of origin — the
usual method is to leave several inches of
growth before plucking when the next
season begins. The shoots which develop
earliest and highest in the bust are chosen
for this measurement, and the rest of the
bush is allowed to level up before the
whole surface is plucked. The length of
shoot left before proper plucking begins,
and the shape of the surface of the bush
considered most suitable for plucking, are
questions which are not uniform in all
districts. The whole question of pluck-
ing is a complicated one and cannot be
entered into fully here.

Before leaving the subject of garden
operations and passing on to those con-
ducted in the factory and elsewhere, men-
tion must be made of some of the innumer-
able pests and blights which damage
estates. The most virulent pest is
an insect, Helopeltis theivora, known
properly as the tea mosquito, though it
is not in any way connected with the
ordinary mosquito family. The adults of
the species can fly, though immature ones
cannot. These insects attack the part of
the bush used for the manufacture of tea^
namely, the buds and succulent young
leaves, and in certain districts, particu-
larly in the Dooars and Cachar, they do
an immense amount of harm.

Termites, found all over the tea dis-
tricts, do much damage, particularly to
old and weak bushes, the frames of which
they destroy. There are many other
insect pests of lesser importance, such as
thrips, green-fly, scale insects, borers,
leaf-eating caterpillars, beetles, mining-
fly, and crickets ; and considerable
damage is also done to tea by various
species of mites, which attack the older
leaves of bushes.

Fungi are responsible for serious leaf,
stem, and root diseases of tea. One,
Exobasidium vexans, causes a leaf disease
known as blister blight, which is found
particularly in Upper Assam and in the
Darjeeling district. White blisters are
first noticed on the lower sides of leaves

and on the young green shoots ; they
subsequently spread, and eventually tht;
leaves and shoots turn black and fall.
Next in severity, perhaps, come the
various diseases caused by fungi vvhich
attack the roots of bushes and account
for innumerable losses. Red rust, caused
by Cephaleuros virescens, thread blight
(the mycelia of an unnamed fungus),
canker {Nectria cancri), and die back
iColletotrichiim camellia and other
species) are also serious. The pests and
blights of less importance cannot be dis-
cussed here. Suffice it to say that the
whole-time services of an entomologist
and mycologist are required to study them
and devise means for their control and
eradication.

North-East India is the tea-growing
district in which by far the greatest
developments have taken place in tea
machinery, and consequently in the manu-
facture of tea. In fact, it may be said
that the change from hand to machine
preparation of tea has been the great con-
tribution of Assam to the tea industry of
the world. No remarks on this subject
would be complete without reference to
the names of Kinmond, Davidson, and,
above all, Jackson, who invented and
patented the majority of the existing tea
machinery, including rolling, sorting, and
drying machines. The processes through
which tea passes in manufacture are essen-
tially the same now as they were in the
earliest days of manufacture in Assam and
now in China, and the changes which have
taken place since about the year i860,
before which time tea was prepared in
Assam entirely by hand, are merely due
to the introduction of machinery which
makes it possible to deal with the large
crops obtained in these days.

Though the development has been very
great, there is still room for the intro-
duction of many mechanical contrivances
for the carrying-out of work which has
now to be done by hand.

The method of manufacture employed
now may be described as follows: — •

The processes which leaf, after being
plucked, has to undergo during manu-
facture are: (i) withering, (2) rolling,
(3) fermentation, and (4) firing, and then
the rough tea has finally to be sorted
and packed.

Withering consists in exposing the leaf
for a number of hours to air with suffi-
cient drying power to effect the removal
of some of the water in the leaf, so that it
becomes sufficiently flaccid to be rolled
without breaking it up too much.

394

Chemical changes take place in the leaf
during withering to which Mann attaches
much importance, but this question
requires much more investigation. The
practical difficulties of withering are due
to the changes in the humidity of the air
at different seasons of the year and from
day to day, and for this reason the con-
ditions under which withering takes pla( >■
not being under much control are far from
ideal. Methods of withering, however,
arc adopted to some extent to suit the
climate. In Assam it is found that atmo-
spheric conditions generally produce fair
withering, and so open cliiings, or plat-
forms of bamboo one above the other, are
used. In South Sylhet similar conditions
prevail, but the chungs are usually pro-
tected from storms by walls of bamboos.
In the Dooars, Cachar, and Darjeeling
districts, however, lofts above the factory
buildings are fitted with faits to control
the supply of air, and artificial heat can
be provided if necessary by making use
of the hot air from the firing machine
below. Since this air is heavily charged
with moisture from the tea-leaf which it
has dried, this arrangement is not a per-
fect one. At a temperature of 80° Fahr.
twenty hours is said to be the correct
length of time for withering. Attempts
have recently been made to wither leaf by
machinery in a shorter time, and at a
higher temperature than that taken in
ordinary withering. These methods, how-
ever, have not been received favourably
in North-East India, and are at present
nowhere in use.

The next operation of rolling, which
used to be done by hand, is now carried
out by rolling machines, in which the leaf
is put between two surfaces to which a
relative rotary motion is given. Pressure
is applied to the leaf by its own weight
or by some other contrivance. In roll-
ing, the length of time taken, the tem-
perature developed, and the pressure
given have an important bearing on the
quality of the manufactured tea. Hard
pressure reduces the amount of " tip "
in the tea, but it generally increased the
strength of the liquor.

A machine, in use in some factories,
which serves tha double purpose of
removing moisture from tlie leaf (thus
assisting withering) and of increasing the
" hardness " of tlie roll (that is, exerting
a pressure which adds to the breaking-up
of the cell walls in rolling) is Perman's
" Expressor." The leaf can be put into
this machine immediately after rolling or
afler fermentation. Sap is squeezed out

THE TEA INDUSTRY OF BENGAL AND ASSAM

and thus the leaf is drier, requires less
firing, and, owing to the breaking of the
cells, the tea produced is often marked
by its pungency.

Fermentation begins when the cells are
first broken — that is, as soon as rolling
begins. Fermentation is an oxidation
process, but the modus operandi has not
yet been satisfactorily explained, although
several theories have been put forward.
It has been considered a direct chemical
o.xidation, a bacteriological decomposi-
tion, the result of enzyme action, and the
result of the action of yeast-like
organisms. What happens is certainly (a)
the production of a series of oxidation
products of the tannin in the leaf (some
of which give to fermented tea its brown
colour, which becomes black after firing),
and [b) the development of certain vola-
tile substances which give to tea its
characteristic flavour and smell. Fer-
mentation is carried out in most factories
in rooms especially arranged apart from
the other factory buildings so as to be
as cool as possible. The tea is laid out
on glass, tiles, or cement, and the room
is kept thoroughly clean. Fermentation
lasts from two to six hours. In the coldest
districts fermentation is often carried out
on trays in the factory itself, because the
outside temperature is so low that the
warmth of the factory is necessary to
promote it.

The firing process used to be carried
out over a chula, or charcoal stove, and
in a few factories this method is still in
use for subsidiary purposes. It has, "how-
ever, been almost entirely superseded by
power machinery, in which moving trays,
on to which a blast of hot air plays,
carry the leaf. The general principles
on which these machines work are fairly
similar in all modern types. The stove
is a separate structure, heating a number
of pipes through which the air is forced
or sucked by a fan. The air so heated
then passes over the moving trays which
carry the leaf. Coal, wood, and, more
recently, oil fuel are used for the stoves
of firing machines, and a recent introduc-
tion is a mechanical device for feeding-in
and spreading the leaf on the trays.
There is considerable room for improve-
ment in this machinery, both as regards
detail of construction, so as to get the
greatest efficiency ratio between the
amount of fuel consumed and the weight
of leaf dried, and also as regards the most
desirable method of drying the leaf, from
the point of view of quality of the product.
There is need for much scientific inquiry

at this point, but at present the chief
defects of firing machines appear to be,
firstly, their unsuitable shape, which
checks the draught and does not effect
even drying of the leaf; and secondly,
the fact that they are constructed so that
the hot air passes through the driest leaf
first and the dampest air strikes the leaf
as it enters the machine. Consequently
it is not until the leaf reaches the lower
trays that it really comes in contact with
air dry enough to dry it, and therefore
" stewing " of the leaf takes place longer
than is necessary or desirable. Some
arrangement by which stewing is avoided
is required.

Modern tea factories are well-con-
structed airy buildings, with good floors
and efficient lighting both by day and
by night.

After tea has been manufactured it is
sorted into grades, largely by automatic
arrangements of rotary sieves, and is then
hand-sorted to remove excess of stalk and
foreign substances which may be present
by accident, and it is then packed in
chests, usually after it has been again
dried at a low temperature. This last
operation is known as " garping."

Tea-chests are of two main classes:
(a) those made from locally obtainable
timbers, and [b) those which are im-
ported. The latter can be further
classified according as they consist of
" shooks " (pieces of planking of the
required dimensions for a chest) of
imported wood merely, or can be classed
as patent chests. The timbers used most
frequently for locally made shooks are
Bombax malabaricum, Tetramales nudi-
flora, Duabanga sonneratoides, Endosper-
mum chine nse, and species of Albizzia.
Some of these are of greater value than
others, the chief drawback with all locally
made chests being the difficulty of getting
an even tare ; but beyond this, some
woods, though light and strong enough,
are liable to attack by beetles, or develop
a cheesy flavour as the result of bacterial
decomposition (Bombax malabaricum is
an example of such a timber), while
others have the disadvantage of being too
heavy.

Of imported shooks, those which come
from Japan are the best known and gene-
rally most suitable. Patent chests are
of several kinds, the material of which
some are made being several plies of wood
cemented together, while others are made
of metal.

395

BROOKE BOND & CO. (INDIA), LTD.

This business was established in India
in 1902 as a branch of the famous London
house of the company, but since the year
19 1 2 it has been designated by the title
at the head of these notes ; and it has
stretched the tentacles of its trade into
every corner of India, its wares being
a household word in the Straits Settle-
ments, British East Africa, Mauritius, and
Europe, America, Canada, and other
countries. The company are described as
wholesale tea and coffee merchants and
Army and Navy contractors, but they are
specially known as expert blenders.

The bulk of the company's supply of
tea is purchased at the auction sales in
Calcutta, although some lots are obtained
direct from gardens, and the whole quan-
tity is delivered to their very extensive
godowns in Metcalfe Street. Other por-
tions of the premises include very large
tea-tasting and sale-rooms, blending
store, and packing, weighing, and delivery
sheds.

Four standard blends of leaf teas are
packed in tins bearing the company's
well-known "autograph" labels, the
colour of which indicates the quality,
red being the best and green the cheapest.
The tins are subsequently packed in sub-
stantial cases, each containing 60 lb. of
tea. Brooke Bond's " Kora " dust tea
is a household word throughout India,
and this is turned out by automatic
weighers, electrically driven, in exception-
ally neat packets ranging in weight from
I oz. to I lb. The words " dust tea "
may be misleading, but it is .'•eally a
" grainy fannings," obtained from the
best gardens of Northern India, the liquor
obtained therefrom being rich and full
of flavour. Dust tea is, without doubt,
more economical in use and is made
into liijuor much more quickly than leaf
tea.

In addition to the company's domestic
or local trade, they do an extensive ship-
ping business to all parts of the world,
so that the name " Brooke Bond " is a
fully representative one wherever tea is
consumed.

The buying department is in expert
hands, and every attention is paid to
execution of orders, both small and large.
The establishment is thoroughly up to
date, and at busy times gives employment
to about 200 hands.

Branches have been established at
Bombay, Colombo, Manchester, Leeds,
Winnipeg, and Chicago, and, in fact, in
all the principal coimtries of the world.

I, Sale-room,

BROOKE BOND & CO. (INDIA), LTD.

2. Packixc Depaktmkxt. 3. Office and Warkhocse.

396

THE DARJEELING TEA AND CINCHONA ASSOCIATION, LTD. (KILBURN & CO.).

I. BlNOAlOlV, I'ASMOK. 2. PasHOK FAtTORY. 3. M.AXUiKRS BUNGALOW, DaKJEKLIXG TEA AMI ClXCHOXA .ASSOCIATION.

4. Dakjeelixo Tea axu Cixlhoxa Associatiox s Factory. 5. Pahargoo.miah Bixgalow. 6. Pahargocmiah Factory.

397

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

THE PAHARGOOHIAH TEA ASSOCIATION,
LTD.

This company was formed in 1891, with
a capital of Rs. 200,000, to take over the
Pahargoomiah tea estate from a private
syndicate. In 191 1 the adjacent Dum
Duma tea estate was purchased, and the
capital of the company was increased to
Rs. 2,60,000, the balance of the purchase
price being paid for out of Reserve Fund.

The total area now under tea is 740
acres. The last season (191 5) has been
an exceptionally successful one, and
besides paying dividends amounting to
32 per cent., a considerable amount has
been transferred from the profits to
Reserve and Improvement Funds.

The machinery is in good order and is
ample for present requirements, and the
buildings also are in excellent condition.

The managing agents are Messrs.
Kilburn & Co., of 4 Fairlie Place,
Calcutta.

THE DARJEELING TEA AND CINCHONA
ASSOCIATION, LTD.

This company was formed in 1879, ^vith
a capital of Rs. 2,00,000, to take over
the Poomong estate, with the object of
cultivating cinchona and tea. This
proved a very profitable undertaking, but
the price of cinchona bark falling more
than 50 per cent., the cinchona was
gradually stripped of bark and exter-
minated, and tea has taken its place.

In 1890 the neighbouring property of
Jinglam was purchased and paid for by
means of a debenture issue. The deben-
ture loan was paid off in 1895, the capital
remaining at Rs. 2,00,000. The non-
liquid portion of the Reserve Funds was
capitalized in 191 5, the capital being
raised to Rs. 3,00,000 by the issue of one
bonus share for every two ordinary shares
in the company, the block being at the
same time written up to Rs. 3,00,000.

The company has been a very success-
ful one, and the area under tea is
approximately 1,000 acres.

For the year 1915 dividends amount-
ing to 32j per cent, were distributed,
whilst Rs. 14,000 were added to Improve-
ment and Reserve Funds. The company
now has a working capital Reserve Fund
of Rs. 50,000, and a Dividend Equaliza-
tion Fund of a similar amount.

During the past few years much atten-
tion has been given to the general
renovation of terraces, the clearing out
of bushes, and other work of a similar
nature, and the gardens generally are in
very good heart.

The garden buildings are excellent,
being built of stone, and the factory is
well equipped with machinery. A water
turbine supplies the motive power, but
there is also an oil engine for use in case
of the pipe line supplying water to the
turbine being dislocated by the effect of
heavy rain or a landslip.

Messrs. Kilburn & Co., of Calcutta, are
managing agents.

THE PASHOK TEA COMPANY, LTD.

This company was formed in 1882 (the
managing agents being Messrs. Kilburn
& Co., of .Calcutta), to take over the
Pashok estate from a private syndicate,
with an authorized capital of Rs. 2,50,000,
of which Rs. 2,20,000 were paid up in
full. At that time the area under tea was
about 355 acres, and there were also
about 15 acres of cinchona. Additions
were made to the area under the latter,
but o\ying to collapse jn prices the planta-
tion was uprooted in 1896 and the bark
was sold. The area under tea was gradu-
ally increased, until in 1903 it was 764
acres, and now the cultivated area
consists of 791 acres.

The motive power is a water turbine,
the wheel at present in use being installed
in 1886. A steam engine has, however^,
to be used for a short time at the begin-
ning of the season, when water is in 'short
supply.

The buildings are constructed of stone,
with iron roofs, and are well adapted to
the requirements of the garden, while
the factory is adequately equipped with
machinery.

The company is in a most satisfactory
condition, the dividends for the year 1915
totalling 35 per cent., while there is a
Reserve Fund of Rs. 37,500.

^*
HcLEOD & CO. (TEA GARDENS)

The firm of Messrs. McLeod & Co., of
3 1 Dalhousie Square, Calcutta, have been
largely interested in the Indian tea
industry for more than 30 years, and they
now act as managing agents for 30
estates, comprising a total of over 25,000
acres under tea. These gardens employ
not less than 60 Europeans and about
35,000 Indians, and the total output of
manufactured tea in 1915 was over
14,000,000 lb. Of this latter quantity
nearly 10,000,000 lb. were shipped to
the London market for sale, while the
balance of 4,000,000 lb. were disposed of
at public auction in Calcutta, which has
now developed into an important dis-

398

tributing centre for all the tea-consuming
markets of the world.

A certain number of the gardens
managed by Messrs. McLeod & Co. are
the property of companies registered in
Calcutta, and the capital invested in these
concerns totals Rs. 10,35,000, on which
a steady return to the shareholders is
made annually. Most of the gardens in
Messrs. McLeod & Co.'s agency, however,
are the property of companies registered
in London, the total capital invested,
including debentures, amounting to
£961,565.

The largest concern is the Imperial
Tea Company, Ltd., with a capital of
£589,460, and owning 14 gardens. This
company has preference stock to the
extent of £120,000, on which 5 per cent,
has been paid regularly, while on the
ordinary share capital of £367,960 the
dividend for the last ten years has
averaged about 7j per cent.

There are six tea-producing districts
in Northern India, viz. Assam, Cachar,
Sylhet, Dooars, Darjeeling, and the Terai.
Messrs. McLeod & Co. are well repre-
sented in each of these areas, having
8,587 acres in Cachar, 1,273 acres in
Darjeeling, and 653 acres in the Terai.
All the factories are equipped with
modern tea - manufacturing machinery,
which is driven by either steam power
or oil engines, and water power where
available.

MESSRS. MACNEILL & CO.'S TEA
ESTATE AGENCIES

Figures, when correctly given, repre-
sent hard facts, but the average business
man has been exceedingly slow in recog-
nizing this. The investor now studies
market reports, making careful notes of
the supply and demand — the world's
unalterable law — of commodities ; he jots
down particulars relating to fluctuation
in prices ; and he thus prepares himself
for placing his money in those companies
or trading concerns which show profitable
returns. The tea-growing industry, with
which we are immediately concerned in
these notes, is a case in point, and it is
beyond question that the publication of
reliable statistics has played an important
part in placing this particular branch of
commerce on a sound financial basis. It
is observed that there has been a gradual
increase — not spasmodic bursts — in the
acreage of land in India under cultiva-
tion for tea, and this has tended in a great
measure to prevent serious declines in
prices owing to over-production.

McLEOD & CO. (TEA AGENCIES).
I. Ring Tosg Tka Estate, showing Factory and Bungalow. 2. King Tong, looking towards the Cart-koao.

" 3. Wire Ropeway, showing Station at Ring Tong. . 4. Tea at Ring Tong,

399

McLEOD & CO. (TEA AGENCIES).
COOLIES PLicKixG Tea at Bhatkawa Tka Estate. 2. Factory and Oltholsks, Bhatkawa.

3. ExGixE-Rooji, Bhatkawa

400

THE TEA INDUSTRY OF BENGAL AND ASSAM

Until the third decade in the nine-
teenth century, China was practically the
only country in the world which was pro-
ducing tea in any quantity, and even as
late as the year 1880 not more than about
34,000,000 lb. of Indian tea were
consumed in England, as against
130,000,000 lb. produced in China. In-
digenous tea-plants were discovered in
Upper Assam and in the districts of
Cachar and Sylhet in Bengal in or about
the year 1850; and a considerable
amount of " crossing " was effected
between these and the young bushes,
which had been imported from the
Far East, by a committee appointed
during the Governor-Generalship of Lord
William Bentinck, with the result that
there are at the present time three prin-
cipal varieties grown in Bengal and
Assam — namely, the China plant, the
indigenous Assam, and a hybrid obtained
from the two kinds just mentioned.

Messrs. Macneill & Co., of 2 Clive
Ghat, Calcutta, are agents for upwards
of 40 tea gardens, established on nearly
100,000 acres of land taken up from
Government in Upper Assam, Cachar,
Sylhet, and the Dooars, the majority
being the property of limited liability
companies registered in England. Some
25,000 acres of the area mentioned is
now planted with tea, a further large
acreage being under rice cultivation for
the support of the labour force, number-
ing 40,000 working coolies, exclusive of
dependants.

The Upper Assam gardens in the
agency lie on the southern side of
the Brahmaputra River, e.\tending from
Dibrugarh eastwards, and they comprise
some 27,000 acres, of which 8,000 are
under tea, and nearly 7,000,000 lb. of tea
are produced and shipped annually.

In Cachar the majority of the estates
under the management of the firm are
located eastwards of Cachar along the
Barak River, forming an almost con-
tinuous group for 20 miles, with 1 1,000
acres of tea-bushes. A few estates are
also situated in the northern and western
parts of the district, and in Sylhet Messrs.
Macneill & Co.'s total area under tea in
the Surma Valley being more than 15,000
acres, yielding 8,500,000 lb. of tea
annually.

There are two estates in the Dooars, the
property of the Northern Dooars Tea
Company, the grants held amounting to
10,000 acres, of which over 2,000 have
been planted, 1,500,000 lb. of tea being
now produced each year.

All the gardens are well equipped with
up-to-date factories and ample machinery
to deal with the varying quantities of leaf
brought in between April and the end
of November.

The tea when manufactured is trans-
ported by tramlines, feeder vessels, and
country boats or carts to the shipping
stations of the inland steamer companies,
by whom it is carried to Calcutta for
shipment to the London market.

LIPTON, LTD.

This world-famous firm have branches
and agents in every large city of the
world, and their Calcutta depot blends
and packs their tea for India, Burma,
and British East Africa, besides carrying
a large stock of every kind of stores.
A visit to this branch, impressive though
it is, gives but a faint idea of the vast
organization which justly proclaims itself
as " the business on which the sun never
sets."

In India most people have some idea
of a tea-garden and the process of manu-
facture, from the plucking of the green
leaf to the prepared black leaf, but few
people are conversant with its future pro-
gress from the time it leaves the gardens
until it reaches the consumer, and it may
be of interest to give here a brief account
of a visit to Lipton's Calcutta depot. By
far the largest proportion of the tea drunk
in India is blended and packed by
Lipton's — and, in fact, Lipton's have the
largest tea trade in the world.

On going into Lipton's warehouse we
are at once struck by the refreshing
fragrance emanating from the thousands
of chests of tea stored there. This tea
has been carefully selected from the very
finest gardens throughout India, each tea
for its own good qualities— from Dar-
jeeling, from Assam, from the Dooars ;
the pick of all the gardens comes by boat
and by train to the warehouse in Weston
Street. There, in the tasting department,
e.\perts are constantly engaged, selecting,
grading, and testing the tea for their
blends to ensure tlxat every tin of tea
bearing the name of Lipton is of the best
value that can be obtained.

We have referred to the different quali-
ties of teas. Each separate garden
produces tea of different characteristics.
No two gardens produce tea exactly
similar in flavour, strength, and keeping
qualities. The produce from each indi-
vidual garden also varies from week to
week. One object of blending is to
401

neutralize these variations, and by its
skilful use to produce " blends " of tea
which do not differ to any appreciable
extent from one week to another — or even
in the course of years. The other object
is so to combine the various teas as to
produce the best possible result. A large
number of teas are selected — some for
one flavour, some for another, some for
" point," some for " thickness "^and the
whole are so combined as to produce the
best possible total " in the cup."

The value of this art has been demon-
strated by its success. Lipton's first
introduced it on a large scale some thirty
years ago, and now the blending firms
dominate the trade.

In the tasting-room we can see this
process first being accomplished in theory
and then by experiments. Small amounts
are mixed to correspond proportionately
with the bulk, and it is only when these
trial blends give absolute satisfaction that
the bulk is blended.

Once the composition of a blend is
decided upon things move rapidly, and
we see some of the finest and most
ingenious modern machinery brought into
play. By this means operative costs are
reduced to a minimum and perfect cleanli-
ness ensured. From the time it is plucked
until it reaches the consumer Lipton's tea
is untouched by hand, and every pre-
caution is taken to ensure its perfect
purity.

From the tasting-room we go to the
blending-floor. Here the chests of tea
are opened, weighed into the proportions
decided upon, and the leaf is cut to make
it of an even size. From the machine
which does this it falls into a huge drum,
called a " mixer." This drum is fitted
inside with flanges and caused to revolve
until the various teas are thoroughly
mixed. This is the finished blend, a
sample of which is then again tested by
the experts to ensure it being thoroughly
satisfactory in every way.

From this mixer the tea is conveyed
through chutes to the floor beneath, where
it is weighed by electrical machines and
falls into tins, which are brought under
the weighing machines from the tin-shop
by a mechanical conveyor.

This tin-shop is itself most interesting.
There large sheets of tin are rapidly slit
into the correct size by one machine and
formed into " bodies " by another, while
others fix on the bottoms and tops. This
is all done by mechanical pressure and
no solder is used. The completed tins
fall on to a travelling band, by which

2 C

I. A COSKEK OF THE TEA-ROOM.

LIPTON, LTD.
2. The Calcutta Staff, 1915.

3. Labelling.

4. Weighing Machines.

402

Factoky.

THE NEW TERAI TEA ASSOCIATION, LTD.
2 SKCTiON OF Tea Garden. 3. Hosi-itai.. 4. A Vikw towards the Hat.

403

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

means they are carried to the weighing
machines. The plain tin having been
filled with tea, it goes to the labelling
machine. This machine takes the familiar
Lipton label, gums it, and, with finger-
like pincers, affixes it to the tin. The
label is then pressed on and smoothed by
the same machine, and the labelled tin is
carried to the wrapping machine, where
the outer wrapper is put on. The com-
plete packet is then put into the chests
for dispatch to the distributing agents.

as?

THE NEW TERM ASSOCIATION, LTD.

It was in the third quarter of the nine-
teenth century that Indian tea first came
into real competition with the Chinese
product in the English market, but there
are several gardens in Bengal which were

planted long before that date, as, for
instance, that on the Panighatta Estate,
of about 4,000 acres, belonging to the
New Terai Association, Ltd.

There are records showing that
thorough cultivation of the land was
commenced prior to the year i860, and
it has been carried on gradually since
that date until there are now (191 6) some
808 acres of tea in bearing. The scarcity
of competent labourers is one of the most
serious difficulties with which agricul-
turists in many parts of India have to
contend, and shortage of labour is retard-
ing further cultivation of tea.

The factory has been in existence for
more than 30 years, but it is equipped
with necessary machinery and plant for
the manufacture of the crop under up-to-
date methods. The building contains five

rollers, automatic and other dryers, and
the withering lofts hold 80 maunds of
leaf, while an aerial wire shoot, half a mile
in length, conveys the leaf from the
Potong division to the factory.

The average annual yield of tea is
about six maunds to the acre; the
produce is packed in chests bearing the
well-known brand " N.T.A.," and is
shipped for sale on the London market.

The company have their own bazar and
hospital and dispensary, under the charge
of a medical officer, while water for
domestic purposes is distributed through
pipes to all parts of the estate.

The annual rainfall is about 130 inches.

The main railway station is Siliguri, on
the Eastern Bengal system, about 19
miles from headquarters, and there are
post and telegraph offices at Panighatta.

404

A CUBVB ON THE GAUHATI-SHILLONG ROAD.

Photo by Ghoshal Bros., Shil'ong.

THE PROVINCE OF ASSAM

T is a curious fact that
in India, a country
so rich in events
connected with the
establishment and
dissolution of dynas-
ties, and of legends
or traditions relating'
to habits and customs of people, there
should not be any really reliable records
or historical accounts of the Province of
Assam prior to its invasion by the Ahoms
in the early days of the thirteenth
century.

In theHistorical Introduction the various
mutations of the .Assamese people have
been traced, and it is not necessary further
to deal with the subject here. Suffice it
to say that as a result of the British
occupation which followed upon the
disastrous wars in the Province there was
a complete rearrangement of the territory.
Certain districts were restored to native
rulers, and the area of the Brahmaputra
Valley was temporarily administered as
a British Province. For many years, how-
ever, constant changes were being made
with regard to the placing of certain dis-
tricts under ruling Chiefs ; but without
entering into any detailed particulars

respecting these, or of the causes which
led to the absorption of other areas by
the British, it may be said that the
Province of Assam is now governed by
a Chief Commissioner, and is divided into
two divisions under Commissioners. The
divisions are (i) Surma Valley and Hill
districts, subdivided into the five districts
of Cachar, Sylhet, Khasi and Jaintia
Hills, Naga Hills, and Lushai Hills; and
(2) Assam Valley districts, subdivided
into the following eight districts — namely,
Goalpara, Kamrup, Darrang, Nowgong,
Sibsagar, Lakhimpur, Garo Hills, and
North-East Frontier.

The first district to be noticed is
Cachar, which is bounded on the north by
the districts of the Jaintia Hills, Now-
gong, and Naga Hills; on the east by
Naga Hills and the State of Manipur;
on the south by the Lushai Hills district;
and on the west by the districts of Sylhet
and the Jaintia Hills. Cachar may be
said to be divided into two portions —
namely, (i) the hills in the subdivision of
Northern Cachar, which are a portion of
the Assam Range, and (2) the plains of
the subdivisions of Silchar and Haila-
kandi. The latter, however, do not con-
sist entirely of comparatively level land,

as they are crossed by a hilly chain, some
six miles in length, with peaks running
up to nearly 4,000 feet in height.

The climate is a tolerably healthy one,
considering that the rainfall is extremely
heavy in some parts of the district, as,
for instance, at Silchar, where it is 121
inches annually, and at places near the
foot of the Assam Range, where the
quantity is nearly 170 inches.

The inhabitants were few in number at
the commencement of the nineteenth cen-
tury, and even those were scattered in all
directions, with poor prospects of material
improvement until vigorous steps had
been taken to render assistance to them.

The first recorded census was taken in
the year 1872, when there were 205,027
persons in the plains and about 30,000
in the hills. In 1911 the figures obtained
were respectively 470,167 and 27,296. It
should be borne in mind that the hills
are not capable of supporting a large
population, and that until the introduc-
tion of railways the remaining portion of
the district offered few inducements to
settlers to engage in either agricultural
or industrial pursuits.

The Assam-Bengal Railway not only
attracted a large number of labourers

2 C"

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

during its construction, but it has opened
up vast areas of fertile lands, and has
provided facilities for transport of
produce to the chief commercial markets
in Bengal and Assam. It enters the
Cachar district at a point about 250 miles
from Chittagong, and extends along the
Jatinga Valley and through the Northern
Cachar Hills through other districts to
the north, where it is connected with the
Dibru-Sadiya Railway.

On another page in this volume is a

chests, for which there is a very good
demand locally.

The principal crops grown are rice, tea,
oil-seeds, cotton, chillies, and maize, but
when the question of value is considered,
premier place must be given to the tea
gardens. Recent statistics show that
there are 159 of these estates in the dis-
trict, that the total area of the properties
is 276,276 acres, that 60,118 acres have
been planted, that the output of the fac-
tories is very nearly 32,000,000 lb. of

fact, there was not a single school in the
district, whereas only two or three years
ago there were eight secondary establish-
ments and 260 Upper and Lower Primary
Schools, together with 20 separate institu-
tions for the education of females.

The principal imports are rice, flour,
betel-nuts, salt, sugar, piece goods, and
kerosene oil, while exports include tea
and timber and other forest produce.

The district of the Naga Hills is merely
a narrow strip of hilly country, with a

1. A TEMPLE AT TEZPUE.

separate article on " The Assam-Bengal
Railway Company, Ltd.," in which a
description is given of certain districts
and towns in Assam which are in the
immediate neighbourhood of the line.
Further reference to such places is there-
fore omitted from the present notes.

There are practically no arts or indus-
tries of any importance in the whole of
Cachar, although some of the inhabitants
are engaged in weaving, the making of
pottery, bell-metal utensils, small agri-
cultural implements, and general iron-
work, together with the pressing and
selling of oil. There are, however, two
sawmills in the district, which are em-
ployed chiefly in the manufacture of tea-

2. NEGHBBITING TEMPLE.

Photos by n. C. Ohoshai, Jorhat, Assart

3. THE CHURCH, DIBRUGARH, ASSAM.

tea, and that about 60,000 coolies are
employed throughout the year.

The forests of Cachar contain a large
quantity of valuable timber trees, which
are used for house-posts, beams, house-
hold furniture, tea-boxes, railway sleepers,
boats, agricultural purposes, and firewood,
and a considerable revenue is derived by
the Department. The area of reserved
forests is about 950 square miles, and of
unclassed forests (which are only waste
lands at the disposal of the Government)
1,890 square miles; and the output of
timber from these respectively is 97,229
cubic feet and 708,714 cubic feet.

The question of education received very
scant consideration fifty years ago ; in

40^

total length of about 140 miles and a
breadth of less than 30 miles; and it is
inhabited by people who belong to
various tribes who were named Nagas by
the Assamese, the title probably being
derived from the word Nok, which
signifies "folk." Mr. B. C. .-Mien, in
his Gazetteer of the Naga Hills, says :
" Broadly speaking, the history of our re-
lations with the Nagas may be divided into
the following four periods — the period
of control from without by a system of
expeditions ; the period of control from
within ; the period of absolute non-
interference ; and the second period of
control from within, merging into gradual
absorption into British territory." The

THE PROVINCE OF ASSAM

first three methods of treating the country
proved to be failures, as the Nagas were
continually raiding neighbourijig districts,
or, on the other hand, were fighting
among themselves, insurrections and
rebellions being of common occurrence.
The Naga Hills territory is now bounded
by the district of Sibsagar on the north,
by Sibsagar and Nowgong and the North
Cachar Hdls on the west, on the south by
the Native State of Manipur, and by
mountain ranges on the east. Ranges of
mountains varying in height from 3,000
feet to more than 9,000 feet are to be seen
in nearly every portion of the district, and
although the majority of these are covered
with dense vegetation, tracts have been
cleared for the purposes of agriculture.
The population at the census of igii
comprised 149,623 persons, of whom
74,751 were males, and the various races
mcluded tribes or castes of Angamis, Aos,
Lhotas, Semas, and others. Fully 90 per
cent, of the people are engaged in agri-
cultural pursuits, and their customary
practice is to cut down the jungle, then
to dry and burn it, and finally to sow
seeds among the wood ashes, which are
raked to a level surface. The principal
crops are rice, millet, chillies, pumpkins,
cotton, maize, and a various assortment
of fruits and European vegetables. The
Naga methods of spinning and weaving
cloth are of an extremely simple character,
but many of their garments are made to
withstand the coldest weather, and are,
in addition, very attractive in appearance.
There are a few other industries, of a
primitive kind, such as the making of iron
spear-heads, implements, pottery, mats,
and baskets; but it may be taken as a
general rule that each family utilizes all
that it produces, with the exception of
those who rear cattle and dogs, which
are subsequently sold in markets for
consumption as food.

Kohima, the headquarters of the dis-
trict, can scarcely be called a town, as
the number of its inhabitants is only about
3,000, but it is pleasantly situated on
an eminence from which fine views are
obtained of the surrounding country. It
contains an old fort, a magazine, post
and telegraph offices, together with the
official quarters of the Deputy Commis-
sioner. The remaining villages are about
250 in number, and the majority of them
are built upon the summits of hills, and
are therefore freed to some extent from
the humid atmosphere which is prevalent
in other parts during several months of
the year.

The district of Kamrup, in the north-
western portion of the Province, has an
area of nearly 4,000 square miles, and is
bounded on the north by Bhutan, on the
east by the districts of Darrang and Now-
gong, on the west by Goalpara, and on
the south by the Khasi Hills. The general
impression gained at first sight is that
the district consists only of a wide plain
intersected by several roads and the
Brahmaputra and other rivers, but in the
south-eastern portion the surface is
broken by a number of hills (part of the
Assam Range) which rise abruptly from
the cultivated plains to a height of nearly
3,000 feet. In addition to these moun-

QUINTON MONUMENT, SHILLONG.

PhotJ by iihosliat Bros., Shilton^,

tains, however, there are a number of
isolated peaks or hills, which are regarded
as holy places by Hindus and occasionally
by Buddhists.

Rather more than 80 per cent, of the
inhabitants are engaged in agriculture,
and the majority of these are tenants of
the Government.

During the period of native rule prior
to British occupation, the only industries
were those which many of the villagers
were compelled by Rajas and nobles to
carry on for their special benefit. In
recent years, however, a revival of arts
and handicrafts has taken place, and steps
have been taken to manufacture within
the district the raw material which has
hitherto been sent to mills in Calcutta and
other places.

The chief industries at the present day
are the weaving of cotton cloths ; the
407

rearing of silkworms and the production
of silk ; the manufacture of pottery,
including water-jars and other vessels,
cooking-pots, earthenware pipes, and
sundry other articles; the making of bell-
metal cups, jars, boxes, and brass utensils
and ornaments of every description.

Many different varieties of rice are
grown, the majority of the plants being
raised from seed sown in nursery beds
and then transplanted. Nearly 80 per
cent, of the cultivated land is under this
crop, the remainder being devoted prin-
cipally to mustard, tea, pulses, jute,
sugar-cane, and garden produce.

Within the past five or six years enter-
prising merchants and others have taken
up land for increasing the quantity of
jute fibre, and for the cultivation on a
much larger scale of rubber, flax, and
other crops. The whole of the district
of Kamrup is provided -with excellent
means of communication with the outer
world, and since the opening of the
.Assam-Bengal Railway and the extension
of the Eastern Bengal Company's system
to Gauhati, the principal town, there has
been a very marked development of com-
mercial and industrial enterprises. The
Brahmaputra River is an important high-
way for the conveyance of passengers as
well as merchandise, and steamers are
constantly plying between places which
are served by one of the above-named
railway companies.

There are about fifty temples in the
district, several of which were founded
during the sixteenth century; one of the
wealthiest of these is at Kamakhya, which
has a grant of revenue-free land about
24,000 bighas in extent. Among other
important ones are shrines at Gauhati^
one on the island of Umananda, in the bed
of the Brahmaputra, and another near
Gauhati, " sacred to the Navagraha, or
nine planets."

The district of Darrang had a popula-
tion of 377,314 inhabitants at the census
of 191 1, and, with the exception of
people engaged on tea estates, the great
majority are peasant proprietors who cul-
tivate their own lands, employing little
or no labour beyond the inmates of their
own households. Government statistics
published at the latest census gave the
following particulars : workers, 242,883;
and dependents, 134,431. Landlords
numbered only 2 1 2, and there were not
more than 2,500 farm servants and field
labourers.

The district has an area of about 3,400
square miles, and is situated between the

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Himalaya Mountains and the Brahma-
putra River. It is a narrow strip of
almost level land, from 120 miles to 130
miles in length, with a breadth ranging
from about 1 2 miles to 40 miles ; but
on the northern and eastern boundaries
there are mountains or peaks, frequently
forest-clad, ranging in height from 3,000
feet to 12,000 feet above the level of
the sea .

The principal river, the Brahmaputra.

the service was so irregular and so
tedious that complaints were exceedingly
numerous. The district of Darrang was
one of those severely handicapped, but in
recent years, owing to the advent of rail-
ways, the formation of roads, and the
establishment of a quick and reliable
service of steamers, it has risen to an
important position as a producing area in
Assam.

Although rice is grown upon nearly 70

far more extensively now than it was ten
years ago, and even in 19 13- 14 the output
was not less than 100,000 maunds.

The Assamese are, speaking generally,
cultivators of the soil, although a few are
pastoralists ; and manufactures and indus-
tries are exceedingly few in number and
of very little importance.

Darrang is a typical district of Assam
in this respect, as it can point to a mere
handful of its population who are engaged

1. WARD'S LAKE, LOOKING TOWARDS GUARD HOUSE, SHILLONG.

3. ELEPHANT FALLS, SHILLONG.

Photos by Ghoshat Bros., ShUlfiis-

2. BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF SHILLONG.

forms the southern boundary of the dis-
trict, and immediately opposite Tezpur,
the chief town of the district, this mighty
stream is not less than four miles in width
during the rainy season. Other rivers are
the Bhareli, the Dubia or Kharo, the
Burai, the Bargang, and several smaller
ones, all of which carry drainage water
from the hills into the Brahmaputra.

In the early days of British control in
Assam, the greatest hindrance to the
commercial and industrial development of
the Province was the lack of sufficient
means of communication between the
villages of various districts and the
Brahmaputra, the great highway to Cal-
cutta. There were occasional vessels, but

per cent, of the cultivated land, tea is
the most valuable crop of all. The first
tea garden in Darrang was opened about
the year 1854. In 1882 the planted area
was stated to be 14,289 acres, with a yield
of 4,356,000 lb. A very marked develop-
ment has been manifested in this industry
during the past ten or twelve years, the
area under cultivation having increased
to 44,177 acres, and the output has risen
to about 27,000,000 lb. It is further
stated that at the present time (191 6)
there is a very keen demand for land
suitable for tea plantation, and very
extensive areas have already been cleared
in view of cultivation.

Jute is another crop which is grown
408

in weaving cloth, the manufacture of silk,
and the making of pottery, brass, and
other vessels.

The trade carried on by Darrang con-
sists to a very large extent of its dealings
with Calcutta merchants, and its chief
exports comprise tea, mustard and other
seeds, hides, cane, and rubber; while its
imports include rice, grain, machinery,
hardware, kerosene, and piece goods.

There are several ruins of old temples
which will appeal to archasologists, and
the most notable examples are found on
the Bamuni Hill, on the eastern side of
Tezpur; while one of the largest, sacred
to Basudeb, in the Kalahari mauza, was
founded in the year 1758.

THE PROVINCE OF ASSAM

The only place in the district which
can be called a town is Tezpur, situated
on the right bank of the Brahmaputra,
and having a population of 5,355 in-
habitants at the latest census. A munici-
pality was formed in 1893, and the
Committee consists of ten members, eight
of whom are nominated by the Chief
Commissioner. Tezpur is a place of call
for river steamers; the main north trunk
road passes through the town; and it

what higher, and one can see flourishing
crops of rice and other cereals, while in
the distance are hills which, owing to the
rainy and steamy climate of Assam, are
clad with forest and bamboo jungle. At
the extreme north of the district, but
within its borders, is a narrow strip of
country at the foot of the Bhutan Hills,
known as the Eastern Duars, which is
only sparsely populated and consists very
largely of dense forest land. This area

during the early days of the British
occupation of Assam, and traders in
Goalpara were practically without any
facilities for transport excepting by
boats, which occupied from thirty to
thirty-five days between that district and
Calcutta. Improvements in the service
were effected gradually, first by the run-
ning of Government steamers occasionally
from Calcutta along the course of the
Brahmaputra ; then other vessels for

1. MAWKHAR, FROM LA CHAUMlfeRE, SHILLONG. 2. ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSION CHURCH, SHILLONG.
3. UMKHRAH STREAM, NEAR MAWLAI, SHILLONG, 4. CRICKET FIELD, FROM ELDERS HILL, SHILLONG.

has also railway connection with the
northern portion of the Province. There
are about 1,300 villages in the district,
the principal one being Mangaldai, the
headquarters of a subdivision and the
residence of the Subdivisional Officer.

Goalpara is a district in the north-
western portion of the Province adjoining
Bengal, with an area of nearly 4,000
square miles, and having a population of
600,643 persons at the census of 191 i.

The Brahmaputra flows through the
district, or forms a boundary, for a dis-
tance of more than 80 miles, and a
considerable portion of the land in the
neighbourhood of the river is liable to be
flooded. Farther away from the river,
however, the surface of the land is some-

Photos by Ghoshal Bros., Shitlotti,'.

came under the sway of the hillmen of
Bhutan during troubles between the
Ahoms and Mahommedans, but the treat-
ment accorded to villagers became so
harsh that many of them fled into British
territory for protection. Representations
were made to the Bhutan Rajas that
reparation must be made by their
subordinates to the injured people, but
as protests were of no avail a punitive
expedition was dispatched in 1864, which
resulted in peace being signed in the
following year. " For the purposes of
Land Revenue Collection, the Duars are
under the direct management of the
Government."

Reference has already been made to the
absence of means of communication
409

carrying passengers and cargo were
introduced by the India General Steam
Navigation Company and the River Steam
Navigation Company, and not many years
ago branch lines were opened connecting
certain centres with the Eastern Bengal
and Assam-Bengal Railway Companies.

A large proportion of the trade of the
district is in the hands of wealthy Marwari
merchants, and the principal goods
exported by them and others include
timber, hides, unhusked rice, silk cloth,
fish, cotton, lac, betel-nuts, and jute.
Among imports are European piece goods,
salt, hardware, oil, tobacco, flour, sugar,
spices, and various kinds of pulse.

The agriculturists of Goalpara are
composed chiefly of Hindus and Mahom-

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

medans, who manifest a considerable for cattle and goats in the rainy and dry

amount of skill and science in their im- seasons of the year respectively, but it

proved methods of cultivation, such as cannot be said that, with the exception

draining, manuring, and irrigating. They of buffaloes, the cattle of Goalpara — or

raise good crops of rice, wheat, pulse, for the whole of Assam, for that matter —

KHASI MONOLITHS.

rhoio by /). C. (ihoihal, yorhat, Assam.

mustard, tobacco, tea, cotton, and jute. are anything but miserable-looking, weedy

The hilly and lowland portions of the creatures.

district afford suitable grazing grounds A very great increase in the number of

Nepalese cattle in the Eastern Duars has
recently been noticed, and it is also satis-
factory to observe that during the past
few years there has been a rise of fully
50 per cent, in value. There are about
1,460 villages in Goalpara, but only three
small towns of any importance — namely,
Dhubri, Goalpara, and Gauripur.

Dhubri — the headquarters of the dis-
trict— connected with Calcutta by rail, is
situated on the right bank of the Brahma-
putra, and is a place of call for river
steamers, while by crossing a ferry
connection is obtained with the south
trunk road. The town contains the public
offices, library. Town Hall, and a High
School, and a considerable export trade in
jute is carried on. A municipality was
formed in 1901 with eleven members, two
of whom are ex-officio representatives.

Goalpara is the largest town in the dis-
trict, and it contains a number of fine
buildings situated on a hill whose summit
is 400 feet above the level of the sea.
The town has ten Municipal Commis-
sioners, including an ex-officio member.

Gauripur is a busy little place on the
Gadadhar River, and a large number of
Marwari merchants who have settled here
carry on a very considerable export and
import trade. It is situated about five
miles to the north of Dhubri.

LITTLE that is trustworthy is known
of the ancient history of Assam.
There is evidence that it shared in the
tribal movements which moulded the
early destinies of India, and we are also
on safe ground in assuming that it was not
outside the sphere of Aryan influence in
the period when the Hindoo power and
faith were in the making. In regard to
the latter point, some authorities have
attempted to identify various places men-
tioned in the Hindoo sacred legends with
centres in Assam, but their views are not
generally accepted. The fact, however,
that ancient history is familiar with the
great Temple of Sakti, at Kamakhya, near
Gauhati, where the bloody and sensual
rites of worship inculcated in the
Tantras are performed, is a sufficient
indication of the association of classic
Hindooism with the province.

The first really reliable information
available in reference to Assam is to be

EARLY HISTORY

By ARNOLD WRIGHT

found in the writings of the Chinese
traveller Hiuen Tsiang, who visited India
in or about A.D. 640. At that time the
province was known as Kamarupa, and
it was stated to be inhabited by a race
with a dark yellow complexion, small in
stature and fierce in appearance, but up-
right and studious. Their ruler was a
king named Kumara Bhaskara Varman,
who followed the Brahminical religion.
At a subsequent period to that of the
Chinese writer's visit, the kingdom fell
into the hands of a line of aboriginal
chiefs who became converts to the Hindoo
faith. Considerable light on this and the
period immediately succeeding it is
thrown by some inscribed copperplates
which were brought to light some twenty
years ago as a result of the investigations
of well-known Anglo-Indian archaeolo-
gists. According to these relics the line
of aboriginal kings referred to was
followed by a dynasty founded by one

410

Pralambha, who killed or banished all the
members of the previous ruling family.
In turn this dynasty was followed, in the
eleventh century, by a new one, which
claimed descent from the same mythical
source as its predecessor. The third of
this line, by name Ratnapala, must have
been a remarkable monarch. He is de-
scribed as " the mighty crusher of his
enemies who studded the earth with
whitewashed temples and obscured the
skies with the smoke of his burnt offer-
ings." From his copper mines, situated,
it is supposed, in Bhutan, he obtained
much wealth, which he employed in build-
ing a new capital, a town which in time
became the resort of many wealthy
merchants, learned men, priests, and
poets.

Eventually .Assam came under the
authority of the Sen kings of Bengal and
their rivals the Pal dynasty. " The area
ruled by these different kings varied

THE PROVINCE OF ASSAM

greatly from time to time (says the writer
in the official Gazetteers from whose
clear narrative we abridge this account
of early Assam history). Sometimes it
stretched as far west as the Karatoya
River, and, if their panegyrists can be
believed, as far south as the sea-coast,

the Koch kingdom was founded by Biswa
Singh. This worthy's son, Nar Narayan,
extended his territory in all directions,
but he was ultimately defeated by the
Mahommedan chief Isa Khan and his
kingdom was dismembered.

In the thirteenth century the invasion

"LA CHAUMIEEE," SHILLONG.

Pftt'to by {iltcshat liros., Shilhn^.

including within its limits the Surma
Valley, Eastern Bengal, and, occasionally,
Bhutan; at other times it did not even
comprise the whole of what is now known
as the Brahmaputra Valley ; sometimes,
again — and perhaps this was th« more
usual condition — the country was split up
into a number of petty principalities, each
under its own chief. The Surma Valky,
at any rate, was usually independent of
the Kings of Kamarupa. The early his-
tory of this tract is even more obscure
than that of the Brahmaputra Valley. We
know, however, from copperplate inscrip-
tions, that in the first half of the
thirteenth century it was ruled by a king
named Govinda Deva, and subsequently
by his son, Isana Deva, but we possess
little information regarding them beyond
the fact that they were Hindus. Accord-
ing to tradition, however, Assam and the
adjacent part of Bengal subsequently
formed a kingdom called Kamata, and
its ruler at the beginning of the four-
teenth century was named Darlabh
Narayan. In the fifteenth century a line
of Ken kings rose to power in the same
tract of country. The third and last of
this line, Nilambar, was overthrown in
1498 by Husain Shah, the Mahommedan
King of Bengal. A little later than this

of Assam by the Ahoms, a Shan tribe from
the upper part of the Irrawaddy Valley,
exercised a profound influence on the
future course of the history of the
province. Having gained a footing in
the district, the Ahoms consolidated their
position, until about the beginning of the
sixteenth century they completely over-
threw the power of the native Chutiya
and Kachari dynasties, and, in the person
of a king known as the Dihingia Raja,
established a firm Ahom supremacy in the
Brahmaputra Valley. This sovereign had
a memorable reign, during which, besides
defeating the local powers, he gained
decisive advantages in two campaigns
initiated by the Mahommedans.

After the death of the Dihingia Raja
the power of the Ahoms continued to
grow. They again and again came into
collision with the Mogul power, mostly
with favourable results to themselves.
In 1637, however, the Governor of Dacca,
stung to vigorous action by repeated pin-
pricks, made a special effort to overcome
the troublesome tribesmen. Under his
direction the Ahom country was invaded
by a large, well-equipped force, and in
a short time the tribesmen were compelled
to sue for peace, and in the end had ito
accept a settlement which excluded them

411

from Kamrup and made the Barnadi the
boundary between Ahom and Mahom-
medan territory. The eclipse of Ahom
power lasted only a short time. During
the confusion which ensued on the death
of Shah Jehan in 1658 the Koch
kings, who ruled west of the Sankosh,
under the protection of the Moguls,
threw off their allegiance and made a
bold bid for an independent status in
the entire region. The Ahoms accepted
the challenge and attacked the Koch
chief, Fran Narayan, vigorously, with
the result that he was compelled to
retreat beyond the Sankosh, and the
whole of the Brahmaputra Valley fell into
the hands of the Ahoms. On the restora-
tion of peaceful conditions in Bengal, Mir
Jumia, the Mogul viceroy, organized a
great expedition for the suppression of
the Ahom power. Marching at the head
of an army estimated by some writers at
nearly fifty thousand men, he proceeded
steadily up the south bank of the river,
a powerful fleet providing him with
efficient support. He had no difficulty in
occupying Gargaon, the Ahom capital, but
the rainy season coming on and proving
exceptionally severe, he soon became

THE KHASI RAJA, SHILLONG.

photo by Cltosha! Bros., SJlii/otij,'.

involved in serious trouble in connection
with his supplies. The Ahoms were quick
to take advantage of the situation. They
initiated a guerilla war, for which their
traditions and training perfectly fitted
them; and soon Mir Jumla became in-
volved in a series of harassing operations
with his mobile and treacherous foe. To.

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

the constant assaults of the enemy were
added the more insidious attacks of
disease. Faced with the prospect of com-
plete disaster if he lingered in this pesti-
lential country, Mir Jumla patched up
a peace with his adversary, and returned
to Dacca to die of the combined effects of
disease and exposure.

After this the .thorns quickly re-estab-
lished their hold on the country, and
within two years were in undisputed
possession of the whole of Kamrup.
Internal troubles subsequently imperilled

As the eighteenth century wore on, the
disintegrating influences at work became
very manifest, and finally a state of
anarchy was produced, which led Krishna
Narayan, a descendant of the Koch kings,
to make a bold bid for 'the restoration of
the power of his race. In his extremity,
Ganrinath, the .\hom king, appealed to
the British for aid. Lord Cornwallis, who
was Governor-General at the time, re-
sponded to the request by dispatching
Captain Welsh, with a small force, to the
Ahom king's relief. Welsh conducted a

revived. In 1810 Chandra Kanta, the
Ahom Governor at Gauhati, fell into dis-
grace and fled to Calcutta, where he
sought to enlist the aid of the Govern-
ment. He was unsuccessful in this, but
coming into contact with the Burmese
Embassy that was then in the city on a
mission to the Indian Government, he
managed to interest the envoy in his
cause, with the result that in 18 16-17 a
Burmese expedition of eight thousand
men entered .^ssam and reinstated the
Ahom Governor. When they retired,

1. WARD'S LAKE, FROM ROOKWOOD, SHILLONG.

this ascendancy, but about the end of
the century the Ahom dynasty, with
Pindra Singh as its representative,
entered upon a more settled existence.
It was strong enough, indeed, to extend
the Ahom power in various directions,
notably in Nowgong and the North
Cachar Hills. It was during the lifetime
of this king that Hinduism completed
its triumph over the national religion of
the Ahoms. The change was not to the
advantage of the race. It tended to sap
their martial qualities and destroy that
sense of independence which had so long
sustained them in their conflict with
powerful rivals.

3. SHILLONG LAKE AND BRIDGE.

Photos by Choskixl Bros., Shillong.

brilliant little campaign, which resulted in
the defeat of Krishna Narayan's army and
the re-establishment of Ganrinath's power.
After spending the rainy season of 1793
at Gauhati, Welsh continued the opera-
tions in the direction of Kaliabar, finally
occupying Ranjpur after a decisive vic-
tory over the remaining opposing forces.
Unfortunately for British influence,
Welsh, who was an extremely capable
officer, one of the school of Anglo-Indian
officials who combined military ability
with diplomatic finesse, was recalled
shortly afterwards on Sir John Shore's
accession to the Governor-Generalship,
and the old anarchical conditions were

412

2. WARD'S LAKE, SHILLONG.

Chandra Kanta was again ousted from
power. Once more he sought Burmese
assistance, and history repeated itself in
that he was a second time restored to
power. But there was this important
difference : whereas on the previous occa-
sion the Burmese had retired once their
work was accomplished, in this instance
they clearly indicated that they meant to
stay. Chandra Kanta, after ineffectual
efforts to rid himself of his unwelcome
guests, fled to British territory, leaving
his country to the tender mercies of the
Burmese, who showed themselves a rapa-
cious and barbarous foe. Though the
British took no action at this juncture

THE PROVINCE OF ASSAM

to prevent the Burmese absorption of
Assam, the authorities at Calcutta, a few
years later — in 1824 — were impelled by
the threatening character of the situation
in Cachar to send a strong British force
into the district to oppose the Burmese
designs. After a somewhat inconclusive
series of operations, during which the ex-
pedition penetrated as far as Kaliabar,
the force returned to Gauhati. The
Burmese, taking advantage of the with-
drawal, reoccupied Nowgong, where they
carried out a merciless system of reprisals

arrangement made at this time, the petty
chiefs in some of the districts of the
province were left in possession of
authority. But the system was found to
work badly, and gradually the British-
administered territory was extended by
the cession— sometimes voluntarily made,
but mostly following upon punitive
measures— of States in which the native
authority had lingered. Cachar was par-
tially annexed in 1830 on the assassina-
tion of the Raja, and there was a further
absorption of the State five years later by

considerable powers. Certain areas,
however, were exempted from their
jurisdiction, and it is interesting to recall
that one of those British-administered
areas was the area which now comprises
Shillong, the capital of the province.

Amongst the most recent acquisitions
of territory may be indicated the Naga
Hills, where from time to time British
authority has been extended for the
better protection of Assam from the raids
of the tribesmen. The Lushai country
supplies another example of British cx-

1. POLICE BAZAAR, SHILLONG.

against the unfortunate inhabitants. At
the expiration of the rainy season, the
British troops advanced and expelled the
Burmese from the province. But the relief
which the inhabitants obtained was dearly
purchased, for the country was extensively
ravaged, and no fewer than thirty thou-
sand of its people were carried into
captivity by the retiring Burmese.

When peace was declared between the
British and Burmese in 1826, the latter
ceded Assam to the East India Company,
and immediately afterwards a local
administration was established, with Mr.
Scott, Commissioner of Ranjpur, in the
chief executive position. Under an

2. A KHASI VILLAGE.

Photos by Ghoshat Bros., ShitloHQ.

the cession of a considerable tract by the
ruling chief. It was, ho\yever, not until
1850 that the entire State came under
British control. Another large increase
in the British territory was caused by the
action in 1835 of the Raja of Jaintia, who
came into collision with the British over
the abduction of British subjects, and
paid the penalty in the expropriation of
his territory. In a third quarter, the
Khan Hills, the British advance was due
to a system of penetration which was
designed to be peaceful, but which, more
often than not, was marked by hostilities.
In this case, though the territory was
occupied, the local chiefs were left with

413

3. KHASI BAZAARS.

pansion in this area. Repeated punitive
expeditions proving unsatisfactory, in
view of the extremely restless and unruly
character of the tribesmen, the Govern-
ment, in 1890, decided to establish a
series of military outposts in the country.
This policy, however, only provoked
further displays of the peculiar qualities
of the tribesmen, and, following upon a
treacherous attack upon one of the
outposts, the Government annexed the
country.

The State of Manipur, outside India, is
perhaps the best known of the Assam
territories. It came into prominence in
1890, over one of those "regrettable

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

incidents " which have marked the course
of British Indian history. The facts may
be briefly related. As in other parts of
this wild borderland, disputes relative
to succession to the throne are a common

demanding the surrender of the senapati.
As no notice was taken of this, an attempt
was made to arrest the senapati, but, as
in many similar instances, the authorities
had reckoned too much on the prestige of

••*^j5fcS;iMS

GOVERNMENT HOUSE, SHILL.ONG.

rhoto by Clicjhal Hros., Shinoinr.

feature of the history of the State. It
was one such that precipitated the crisis
to which reference is made. In 1886 the
reigning raja, Chandra Kirtli Singh, died,
leaving his eldest son, Sur Chandra
Singh, to succeed him. In turn the new
monarch appointed his next brother, Kula
Chandra Dhuya Singh, the jubraj, or
heir-apparent. This arrangement gave
umbrage to another brother, Tikendrajat
Singh, who filled the office of senapati, or
commander-in-chief. Seizing a favour-
able opportunity which offered in 1890,
the senapati dethroned the raja and in-
stalled the jubraj as regent, he himself
being in a very particular sense the power
behind the throne. The Government of
India naturally took exception to this
coup d'etat, which changed the entire
position in the State to the disadvantage
of their interests, which lay in a peaceful
administration of the State. In 1891 Mr.
Quinton, the Chief Commissioner of
Assam, to set matters right, proceeded
to the Manipuri capital with a force of
four hundred Gurkhas. The object of
the mission was to recognize the regent
as ruler, but to remove the senapati, who
was a menace to the peace of the State.
On arrival at Manipur, following upon an
abortive attempt to effect an amicable
settlement, an ultimatum was sent in by
Mr. F. Grimwood, the political Resident,

the British name. The comparatively
small force of Gurkhas proved alto-
gether insufficient for the work allotted

degree. In a very short time the Resi-
dency was besieged by a formidable force
of Manipuris, many of whom were well
armed, and all of whom were elated by
the earlier triumph over the formidable
authority of the British raj. Deeming
that resistance was hopeless, Mr. Quinton
asked for a parley. This was granted,
with the result that the entire body of
British officials, including, besides Mr.
Quinton, Mr. Grimwood, Colonel Skene,.
Mr. Cossins, and Lieutenant Simpson,
went to the fort to negotiate. Only too
late they realized the error they had "made
in trusting themselves to the tender
mercies of a treacherous foe. To a man
they were murdered by the Manipuris.
As soon as the dread news of the
assassination reached the little force of
Gurkhas, who were awaiting the result
of the interview, they beat a hasty retreat,
acting as escort to Mrs. Grimwood, who
had by good fortune escaped the fate
of her husband. After a fatiguing and
dangerous march, they ultimately reached
a safe haven in British territory.

A great sensation was caused when the
news of the deplorable affair reached
England. The episode was the subject
of excited debate in Parliament, and
interest was heightened by a curious
speech made by Sir John Gorst, the

SIBSAGAR, UPPER ASSAM.

rliL'to tiy i'hoshal liros.. Sltilloitf^.

to them, and the effort to seize the
senapati failed conspicuously, with serious
loss to the British force. The success
achieved had the natural result of
inflaming the situation to a dangerous

Under Secretary for India, in which he
referred to the senapati in highly cynical
terms. Meanwhile, an expedition was
organized in India to reassert our power
and inflict punishment on the murderers.

THE PROVINCE OF ASSAM

Several strong columns, marching from
different points, ultimately occupied
Manipur, but by this time the senapati
had made good his escape. In fact, the
city was completely deserted, the in-
habitants fearing that summary vengeance
would be wreaked on them for the out-
rage committed in their midst. The long
arm of British power was eventually
adequate to the situation. After a short
interval, the regent, the senapati, and a
number of other leading actors in the
tragedy were captured and brought to
trial. In the sequel the senapati and one
of the principal generals were condemned
to death and expiated their crimes upon
the gallows, while the regent was trans-
ported to the Andamans to serve a life
sentence. The political settlement
arranged at the time placed upon the
throne a little boy, a member of the ruling
family, named Chura Chand. When he
attained the proper age, the little
princeling was sent to receive his educa-
tion at the Mayo College at Ajmeer, and
he became a most promising pupil of that
distinguished training centre — the Indian
Eton. When he became of age, in May
1907, the government of the State was
handed over to him, his authority being
e.^ercised in conjunction with a Council
of State composed of six Manipuris and a

Bengal until 1874, when it was formed
into a separate province.

THE ASSAM OIL COMPANY, LTD.

The earliest discovery " of petroleum in
the Province of Assam is believed to have
been made in the year 1828 by Mr. C. A.
Bruce, who had been deputed by the
Commissioner of the North-East Frontier
Districts to prospect for coal in that
neighbourhood. About nine years later
Major White noted the presence of
several springs near the Namrup River;
Captain Hannay found others near the
coal outcrops at Jaipur, about 1 2 miles
distant from Digboi, in the district of
Lakhimpur ; and Captain Jenkins, in
1838, reported the existence of oil-springs
on the Disang River. Captain Ilannay
made more thorough investigations, how-
ever, in the year 1845, and at Nabor
Pung, about 2 miles from Jaipur, be
obtained specimens of earthy and indu-
rated sandy asphalt, while near the
Namchik River he " found in one spot
an extensive basin or hollow, containing
muddy pools in a constant state of
activity, throwing out, with more or less
force, white mud mixed with petroleum,"
and he was informed by the inhabitants of
the district that " they had heard noises

iiia^Ai'iJONJEE, ASSAM.

Photo by Ohoshai Bros., ShWonn.

member of the Indian Civil Service as
Vice-President. Prior to this, in 1901,
Lord Curzon, when Viceroy, paid a
memorable visit to the State.

Assam was administered as a part of

as of distant thunder which were followed
by explosions of gas." Mr. H. B. Medli-

■ Much of this history of prospecting for oil is
compiled from notes kindly supplied by Mrs. A. B.
Hawkins.

cott, who was searching for coal in Assam
in 1865, wrote : " The oil-springs on the
Makum River are the most abundant, but
even here the discharge of petroleum is
inconsiderable, producing a thin film on
the surface of the stagnant pool of dirty

THE TEMPLE OF KAMAKHYA,
GAUHATI.

Photo by Gkoshal Bros,, Shitloiis.

white water, the whole ground over an
area of many square yards exhaling
defiant gases in numerous pools." Sug-
gestions were subsequently made by this
gentleman that experiments should be
carried out with the view of ascertaining
the value of these springs.

The first prospecting or mining licence
for petroleum! in Assam was granted in
the year 1854 to a Mr. Wagentricher,
and it covered the Makum and Bapuso
Poong oil-springs and some land adjoin-
ing them, the whole area being only about
200 acres in extent. It does not appear,
however, that any active measures were
taken to work these springs; but in 1865
Mr. F. Goodenough, of the firm of
Messrs. McKolIop, Stewart & Co., of Cal-
cutta, obtained a cession for the term of
20 years of the rights which had been
originally granted to Mr. Wagentricher,
but which had expired by effluxion of
time. The lease transferred the rights
" to all petroleimi, petroleum-springs,
wells, and fountains situated upon, within,
under, and throughout the lands upon
each side of the Buri Dihing River, ex-
tending in length from Jaipur to the
effluence of the Noa Dihing River, and to
a distance of 10 miles in width on both
banks from the Buri Dihing in the neigh-
bourhood of Jaipur and Makum, and par-

THE ASSAM OIL COMPANY, LTD.
J. Original No. i Well— 1890. 2. Original No, i Well— 1915.

' 416

X. Derrick of Prospecting Well.

THE ASSAM OIL COMPANY. LTD.
2. View of Prospecting Well, showing Nature of Jungle.

3. Another Prospecting Well.

417

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

ticularly the land near to and surrounding
the Cherraphong Hills as far as Jaipur;
to the Makum River; to Nanichik Poong ;
and to the Terap, Namchik, Jugloo, and
Terok Rivers." Full liberty was given
to sink wells, to erect buildings, to turn,
change, or alter the course of water-wells,
springs, fountains, and rivulets within the
limits aforesaid ; and, further, the right
was granted to use timber, brush, or
common wood, with free passage at all
times for servants and workmen witli
horses, elephants, or bullocks.

It is observed that in 1865 the Lieu-
tenant-Governor of Bengal stated that as
there was no demand for oil or petroleum
in India, the Assam oil-fields must be
put on a footing to enable them to com-
pete in Europe with the producing centres
in the United States of America.

Hand-boring of a well was commenced
in November 1866 at Nahor Poong, but
as no great depth could be reached by
this process the results were scarcely
satisfactory. A steam drilling-machine
(by Messrs. Mather and Piatt, Ltd.) was
put down in December of the same year,
but even with this advantage very little
progress was made with wells in the
neighbourhood of Jaipur. Eight holes
were sunk at Makum, and some reward
was obtained in March 1867, when one
of these yielded oil at a depth of i 18 feet.
In January of the following year from
1 00 to 125 gallons a day were obtained
from No. 4 hole, while from 550 to 650
gallons were raised from No. 5, the pres-
sure of gas in the latter instance being
30 lb. to the square inch.

Although these successes were suffi-
ciently gratifying to warrant further
drilling, Mr. Goodenough felt that the
difficulties in the way of the establish-
m-cnt of an oil-producing industry were
at that time practically insuperable. The
locality was virtually cut off from the
outer world, the only communication with
civilized life being by a river steamer
which made a journey about once only in
30 days, and it was not until 1883 that a
daily service was inaugurated.

Mr. Goodenough unfortunately died
shortly after this time, and mining opera-
tions were suspended for several years,
until certain rights were granted to
private Calcutta firms and to the Assam
Railways and Trading Company. The
last-named company (who have accom-
plished much in the development of the
mineral resources of Assam) commenced
drilling in the Makum area in the year
1889, and as the felling of heavy timber

and dense jungle progressed, the presence
of oil at Digboi was brought to the notice
of the engineers. This company had a
station at Bhor Bhil, and the various
streams running from this place were
examined most carefully, with the result
that surface indications of petroleum were
plainly visible in the range of hills which
form the principal feature of Digboi.
Boring was commenced at the last-named
place in 1893, and oil was soon found in
wells at depths ranging from 235 feet to
617 feet. Intensely dense jungle existed
between the wells and the main line of
railway, but as improved means of trans-
port were essential to the prosperous
working of the industry, steps were taken
to clear away this obstruction and to lay
down sidings in proximity to the wells.

The Assam Oil Company, Ltd., was in-
corporated in May 1899 to take over the
rights of the Assam Railways and Trading
Company and those of the Assam Oil
Syndicate ; and the general manager is
Mr. A. B. Hawkins, who is assisted by
Mr. J. Anton, and by Mr. H. B.
Buchanan as field engineer. The com-
pany's land at Digboi is eight square
miles in extent, and l>oring for oil is
carried on in various parts of the whole
estate. They also hold 4 square miles
at Margherita, and prospecting conces-
sions over an area of 8| square miles on
the eastern side of Digboi, and of 16
square miles in extent at Namchik.
Boring operations were commenced at
Digboi by the Canadian system, wh^ch
required tlie use of ash poles and light
tools owing to the incline of the strata,
which was never less than at an angle
of 45 degrees; but this method was sub-
sequently largely discarded in favour of a
percussion system, which is in reality an
adaptation of the Canadian and American
plans. As difficulties were experienced
even then by reason of the existence of
a spongy clay bed, 300 feet or 400 feet
in thickness, the rotary mud flush system
was introduced, by which a i o-inch pipe
could be sunk to a depth of from 1,400
feet to 1,600 feet, thus piercing a layer
of sand (100 feet in thickness), which is
the most profitable strata of all. In
actual practice it has been found that
whereas 5 feet per day was considered
good progress to make with the percus-
sion system through this clay, 75 and
even 100 feet can be made by the rotary.
In hard strata the advantage is, if any-
thing, with the percussion.

There are now 35 oil-producing bore-
holes on the company's estates, which are
418

(in April 19 1 6) yielding from 250 gallons
to 3,000 gallons a day, and these are
exclusive of some old wells which only
accumulate oil occasionally. The com-
pany, however, are so satisfied as to the
almost inexhaustible supply of oil upon
their estates that they are at the present
time largely extending boring operations
in easterly and westerly directions from
Digboi. The tubes of steel casing put
down the wells are about 14 inches in
diameter until a certain depth has been
reached, when they gradually diminish
until they are from 4! inches to 6 inches
only.

The more recently constructed wells
have, for a considerable time, a remark-
ably fine flow of oil, which rises to a
height of 150 feet or 200 feet, and gives
off an enormous quantity of natural gas,
but as the emission of oil subsequently
diminishes in power, deep well pumps
have been fixed. The natural gas just
referred to is used for generating steam
for pumping, and also for producing
electricity for lighting and other pur-
poses ; and aerial ropeways have been
erected for the delivery of coal, for fuel
for tliose boilers for which gas is not
available.

Oil is conveyed from the wells through
metal pipes to several large storage tanks,
whence it is pumped to the refinery at
Digboi, erected in 1902-3. Here it is
separated into grades, including crude oil,
benzine, kerosene, heavy oil, and petrol.
The process of distillation is carried out
in three boiler-shaped stills working on
the continuous system, with increasing
degrees of heat, these in their turn feeding
a bench of pot-stills which, having been
charged by gravitation from the third
boiler, are distilled to dryness, or, in other
words, " coked." The heat applied under
the first boiler is only sufficient to
vaporize the " spirits " commonly known
to the motorist as benzine or petrol. In
like manner the heat applied to Nos. 2
and 3 boilers still liberates burning oils
commonly known as kerosene, or. to the
British public, " paraffin." These are
graded (by gradation of heat) to suit the
markets' requirements.

The distillate resulting from the pot-
stills contains paraffin wax and what is
known as " heavy oils," which contain the
nucleus of various grades of lubricating
oil. As gradation of heat will not
separate out these two important com-
ponents of the crude petroleum, it has
to be put through a freezing process. The
wax, freezing more readily than the oil.

' THE ASSAM OIL COMPANY. LTD.

I. General View of Field. 2. Well Oil-blowing, 3. Modern Iron Derrick and Drillers' Quarters.

419

THE ASSAM OIL COMPANY, LTD.

I. iMTIHtOK OF Tl»-IIAK1K0 PLANT. 2. INTERIOR OF PoWER-HOUSK.

3. CandleIPlant.

420

THE ASSAM OIL COMPANY, LTD.
I. Part op Staff Quarters. a. Locomotive with Six Oil-tank Wagons.

421

2 D'

THE ASSAM OIL COMPANY, LTD.
1. Gehesal View of Refinery. 2. General View of Settlement.

422

THE ASSAM OIL COMPANY, LTD.

J. General MANACEk's BusOAtow,

2. Assisiani-Generai. Manager's Bungalow.

423

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

is separated therefrom by filtration
through a series of cloths arranged in
presses. For further purification of the
wax it goes through a " sweating " pro-
cess, which is carried out at Digboi in
both small individual houses and the large
trays known as Henderson's houses. Into
the former the wax is placed straight from
the freezing process, an<l in the latter the
melted wax is run on to gauze wire placed
over water. When consolidated (a matter
of as much as four or five days in hot
weather) the water is drained off and heat
gradually introduced. The heat, opening
the pores of the wax, allows remnants of
oil to drain out and drip through the wire
gauze. If best white wax be desired, it
is treated with benzine and hydraulically
pressed. This wax department is by far
the most interesting detail in the refinery.

Some years ago, in order to obtain
good quality wax, it was treated just after
distillation with sulphuric acid. This
treatment has now been done away with
entirely, thus saving the importation of
acid.

The buildings contain 20 machines for
making candles, in sizes i6's, 12's, lo's,
and 7's, at the rate of 20 tons a month,
while other manufacturing plant is
capable of turning out 500 candles at a
time, suitable for carriage and other pur-
poses. The company make their own
boxes and tins for holding candles,
parafiin, benzine, and petrol, and as many
as 4,000 tins of oil can be filled in a day
by a single machine. Petrol is put up in
drums containing 40 gallons, 10 gallons,
5 gallons, and 2 gallons. Thoroughly up-
to-date tin-making machinery lias been
installed, and all care is exercised in the
preparation of the drums, the soldering,
for instance, being performed by the aid
of petrol gas. It should be mentioned
here that the oil from these wells is very
rich in paraffin wax, and although the
latter is a valuable asset it causes the
oil to flow sluggishly front the bore-hole,
and thus the cost of production is
materially increased.

The exceedingly dense jungle and
timber on the estates indicate the
presence of deep alluvial soil, and thus
enormous difficulties are experienced by
the company's engineers in ascertaining
correct geological readings, although a
staff of experts is continually engaged in
prospecting work under the home direc-
tion of Sir Thomas Holland, K.C.I.E.,
F.R.S., late Director Geological Survey
of India.

All buildings are constructed of brick.

and they include nice bungalows for the
European staff, a refinery, library, club-
room, soda-water factory, bakery, exten-
sive workshops, stores, and offices, all of
which are lighted by electricity and are
connected with each other by telephone.

There is some very lovely scenery in
the neighbourhood of the company's
estates; high hills and undulating plains,
covered with the densest jungle, and fine
timber trees meet the eye in every direc-
tion, while the rivers, which are fairly
numerous, provide beautifully pure water
for houisehold and other purposes.

Fourteen European assistants are em-
ployed on the fields and in the refinery,
and the company have generously pro-
vided hard ground and grass tennis
courts, a book club, billiard-room, and a
miniature rifle range for their recreation.

Mr. Hawkins is now carrying out
experiments for the treatment of railway
sleepers with soft wax and creosote.

Very strenuous times were experienced
in pioneer days, when journeys connected
with exploitation and prospecting work
were rendered hazardous by perilous rides
on the backs of elephants, by shooting
rapids in cockleshell native boats, or by
risking encounters with fierce inhabitants
of jungle or river; but difficulties were
bravely met and overcome, and it is a
source of satisfaction to the directors of
the company that, by the exercise of wise
economy, continued prosperity is practi-
cally assured.

The sixteenth report of the directors of
the company, and the balance-sheet and
accounts, were presented at the Seven-
teenth Ordinary General Meeting of the
Shareholders on July 21, 1915, and the
following particulars are gleaned there-
from' : —

The nominal capital is £450,000, and
the amount issued comprises 310,000
shares of £1 each, fully paid, and 90,000
7 per cent, participating preference shares
of £1 each, making a total of £400,000.
The profit earned during the year 191 4
amounted to £40,981 6s., which sum,
added to the amount brought forward
from the previous year, made a total
available of £44,470 8s. 4d. The interim
and final dividends on the preference
shares, amounting to £6,300, were paid
on their due dates ; the directors had
transferred £12,000 to depreciation
account, and had written off the balance
of the preference capital issue expenses
of £5,857 los. 5d., and they then pro-
posed to pay a dividend of is. per
share on the ordinary shares, absorbing
424

£15,500, and to carryforward the balance
of £4,812 17s. I id.

Dividends have during recent years
been paid as follows : in 1903, at the rate
of 5 per cent.; 1904, 3^ per cent.; 1908,
a similar amount; 1910, 191 1, and in
191 2, 3| per cent.; and for the years
19 13 and 1914, 5 per cent, respectively.
The board of directors comprises the Lord
Ribblesdale (chairman), Sir Walter R.
Lawrence, Bart., G.C.I.E., and Messrs.
George Turner, Hubert S. Ashton, Evan
A. Jack, and Clive Bowring.

The registered offices of the company
are at Blomfield House, 85 London Wall,
London, E.G.; the secretary is Mr. S.
Maclean Jack; and the agents in Calcutta
are Messrs. Macneill & Co., of 2 Clive
Ghat Street.

THE CHOKIDINGHI TEA ESTATE, LTD.

The three tea gardens belonging to this
company, in the district of Dibrugarh, are
known as Chokidinghi, Baughpara, and
Mohonbari, and the first named is half a
niile distant from the post-office at Reha-
bari and only one mile from the railway-
station and River Ghat at the important
municipal town of Dibrugarh. Two of
the gardens adjoin, while the third is in
close proximity.

The estate is 1,966 acres in extent, of
which 750 acres are planted with tea, and
it was taken over by the present company
in the year 1901, when the whole area was
devoted to tea. The greater portion of
the trees were very old ones, as they were
among the first to be planted in the
district of Dibrugarh, the Baughpara
property, for instance, having been laid
down by the late Mr. H. Melany in the
year 1857.

All of the old trees consisted of China
and China hybrids, but since the company
became owners of the estate the majority
of these have been uprooted and the
ground replanted with high jat tea.

In 1 90 1 the annual yield was 4^
maunds to the acre, but the 19 15 season
returned 5,900 maunds from 700 acres;
and it should be added that one-seventh
of this area was planted with trees which
had not then come into bearing.

The company possesses some 10 acres
of garden groimd in which seed of in-
digenous Assam tea, of the finest possible
quality, is sown for the purpose of raising
seedlings to be subsequently transplanted
on the estate.

Manufactured tea is sent by river boats
to Calcutta, where it is shipped direct

tM.

I. The Factory.

THE CHOKIDINGHI TEA ESTATE. LTD.
2. Manager's Bungalow (Coolies plucking Leaf in Foreground).

3. Coolie Lines.

435

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

to London, the chests being branded with
the word " Chokidinghi."

The company are anxious to develop
the properties, but they are greatly
handicapped on account of the immense
difficulties experienced in obtaining an
adequate supply of labourers.

Considerable improvements in the
buildings have, however, been effected
by the company, they having constructed
new leaf-houses and coolie lines which
are of modern design and fitted with the
latest sanitary appointments ; and they
have, further, equipped the factory at
Chokidinghi with thoroughly up-to-date
machinery and plant.

The manager of the estate is Mr. C. E.
Hunt, who is assisted by two European
assistants.

THE CRUSHED LIMESTONE SYNDICATE

The most valuable fertilizer of land is
natural solid and liquid farmyard manure,
but it is not every agriculturist who can
obtain any at all. It then becomes a
question as to what can be used as a
substitute, or as an additional help, in
order that the inherent capabilities of the
soil may be improved and the quality and
quantity of crops be increased.

The use of lime was common with the
ancients, who realized that certain food
plants — principally leguminous ones —
cannot thrive in soils where lime is
deficient; but the two chief considera-
tions which cause it to be so largely used
by farmers to-day are that a judicious
dressing corrects acidity in the soil and,
further, materially assists in the decom-
position of the soil itself. The usual
manner of liming land is by applying it
in the form of " cob " lime (other names
being " quick," " burnt," " shell," or
" caustic " lime), which is placed in heaps
in the fields to be manured. Exposure to
moisture in the atmosphere, or added
water, causes the heaps to be reduced to
a fine substance, which is then distributed
upon the surface of the land. Lime
applied in this form acts as a temporary
stimulant, but it quickly reverts to the
state of " carbonate of lime " in which
it existed before being burned in the kiln,
and during this process of transformation
considerable exhaustion of the soil takes
place. Engineering minds naturally
wished to ascertain whether " limestone
rock " or " carbonate of lime " might not
be ground to a powder and give results
as satisfactory as those obtained from
" burnt " lime, and thus obviate the

trouble and expense of burning, and,
further, prevent the very serious ex-
haustion of soil which is a necessary
sequence.

This all-important question has appar-
ently been solved, as scientific experi-
ments made by responsible Government
agricultural officers in England and in
the United States of America show that
some of the advantages of using ground
limestone (which is a " natural " ferti-
lizer) are : (a) dt is easily handled and
does not deteriorate or lose its efficiency
through dampness or by keeping; (b) it
does not burn the soil or destroy the
humus; (c) it neutralizes any excess of
acidity in the soil, and thus sweetens it
and restores the lime which has been
carried off yearly by successive crops;
and (d) it combines with the nitrogen in
the air and enormously increases the
growth of nitrogenous plants and grasses.

Field trials of " cob lime," " ground
lime," and " ground limestone," applied
in equal quantities to measured portions
of meadow land at the farm of the County
Council for the County Palatine of Lan-
caster, in England, between the years
1906 and 1909, were compared with a plot
of the same dimensions which was not
limed, and the average yearly increases
per statute acre over the " no lime " plot
were simimarized in the official report as
follows : Cob lime, I cwt. i qr.; ground
lime, 3 cwt. 3 qrs.; and ground lime
stone, 5 cwt. i qr.; while the total profit
for the acre for these three plots was
respectively los. 4d.; £1 os. yd.; and
£2 5s. 8d.

A step of the highest importance to
Indian agriculturists generally was the
formation, in the year 19 14, of the
Ground Limestone Syndicate, whose
object is the production of ground lime-
stone for fertilizing purposes. The
quarries are situated at Theria, about
twenty-seven miles distant from Sylhet,
in the Khasi Hills, and as practically the
whole of the range consists of limestone
the supply is unlimited. A large factory
has been built on a bank of the River
Surma, at Sylhet, and it is equipped with
the most modern machinery for grinding
the stone, the motive power being derived
from a powerful engine by Marshall, Sons
& Co., Ltd., of Gainsborough.

It is claimed that the produce of these
quarries is unrivalled in India for its
purity and general excellence, and that
it has been preferred before all other
kinds for considerably more than a cen-
tury. In proof of its purity, it may be
426

said that analyses show that the stone
contains 96 per cent, of pure lime.

The stone is conveyed by flats, which
are towed direct to the mills at Sylhet.
The factory is capable of producing all
the present requirements of North-eastern
India, and is so laid out that the output can
be easily doubled as demand increases.
Agriculturists — particularly tea -planters —
have obtained excellent results from its
use, some sections of gardens in the
vicinity of Sylhet having been practically
rejuvenated.

The mills are connected by a siding
with the Sylhet branch of the Assam-
Bengal Railway, and they are thus in
direct rail and river communication with
all parts of India.

The manager of the works is Mr.
Charles Snowdon, who for many years
had extensive experience in the grinding
of limestone in England, where he owned
and installed the first gas-power plant
in connection with the business. His
testimony as to striking results which
have, to his personal knowledge, been
achieved in the Old Country by using this
fertilizer has produced something like a
sensation among planters who have
hitherto followed in the footsteps of their
ancestors in manuring with burnt lime,
but who have recognized the superiority
of, and are now using ground limestone
from Sylhet.

The Educational Committee of the
Lancashire County Council was the first
public body to report in favour of ground
limestone or against the burnt substance,
but a word or two may be added as to
the results of experiments made at the
Jorhat Agricultural Experimental Station
during the year ending on June 30, 19 14.
The Official Report, obtainable from the
Assam Secretariat Printing Office, Shil-
long, is a most valuable production, and
it states, inter alia, that a trial of ground
limestone was made upon two plots of
land for cropping cow-peas for green
manure in the rains and oats in the cold
weather, for comparison with an area of
similar size which had not received a
dressing. Plot No. i had i 5 maunds of
limestone to the acre, and the produce
was 369 lb. of grain and 796 lb. of straw.
Plot No. 2 was given no lime dressing.
Plot No. 3, with 30 maunds of limestone
to the acre, returned 537 lb. of grain and
1,422 lb. of straw. The cow-peas ger-
minated and grew well on all the plots,
but the growth was heavier on the limed
plots, the heaviest crop being on the one
which had been dressed with 30 maunds.

THE CRUSHED LIMESTONE SYNDICATE (KILBUBN & CO.).
I. Sylhei Lime Company's Lime Works. 2. Lime Slaking. 3. Manager's Bungalow and Kilns.

427

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

The oats germinated well on all plots,
but soon afterwards they died off on the
untreated land.

Figures and facts such as those con-
tained in these notes are abundant proof
of the value of ground limestone for
manurial purposes, and the managing
agents, Messrs. Kilburn & Co., of
4 Fairlie Place, Calcutta, are constantly
receiving commendations from agricul-
turists, but especially from planters whose
tea gardens have profited immensely by
the use of this product.

THE DOOM DOOHA TEA COMPANY, LTD.

This company is incorporated in Eng-
land, with registered offices at 17 St.
Helen's Place, Bishopsgate, London,
E.C.; and the Calcutta agents are the
Planters' Stores and Agency Company,
Ltd., of II Clive Street. The superin-
tendent, Mr. Charles Wood, has been con-
nected with the company upon their estate
for the past 22 years, and during that
period he has had vivid experiences of
fat and lean years in the production of
tea, as well as of the buoyancy and
depression which have been manifested in
the Mincing Lane Market. Doom Dooma
in reality consists of five properties, prac-
tically lying in a ring fence, and com-
prising about 10,000 acres; but the area
under cultivation does not at present
exceed 5,700 acres, although a further
300 acres can be planted when required.

The estate — this word being intended
to include the five gardens of Hansara,
Beesakopie, Samdang, Raidang, and Dai-
mukhia — is almost wholly under " fee
simple " grants — that is, without the pay-
ment of rents — and it consists of light
sandy soil which is very greatly improved
by liberal applications of good manure.

Tea was first planted in 1858 ; but
referring more particularly to recent
years, it may be said that an equable
climate, coupled with a generous rainfall
and capable management have brought
the average annual yield to about 900 lb.
to the acre.

There are five factories on the estate,
and it is noteworthy that these and other
structures, particularly the withering-
floors, are more than usually commodious.

Each factory, capable of turning out
150 maunds daily, is equipped with
modern manufacturing plant, which is
driven by steam, and it includes rollers,
sifters, and " Victoria " and other Sirocco
dryers.

The district of Lakhimpur. in which
Doom Dooma is situated, is noted for the
excellent quality of its tea, and prices
invariably rule higher in London for con-
signments from this neighbourhood than
for chests sent from gardens situated
lower down the Brahmaputra Valley.
The Dibru-Sadiya Railway, which is con-
nected with the Assam-Bengal and other
systems, passes through the estate, and
the company, having a light railway
extending for a distance of 6 miles,
together with their own siding and loco-
motive engine, are able to secure quick
transport of their produce.

There are living on the estate about
20,000 coolies, and about 11,000 of these
are in the employ of the company, while
the remainder have small settlements of
their own or are engaged in the cultivation
of rice.

Each division of Doom Dooma is over-
looked by a manager, and in normal times
there are also about 22 Europeans, who
occupy comfortable bungalows on the
estate; while the residence of the super-
intendent at headquarters, a most attrac-
tive building with fine veranda, from
which extensive views of the surrounding
country are obtained, is rendered still
more inviting by its pretty gardens.

The company have their own work-
shops, in which tea-chests are made and
repairs of all kinds are carried out by
skilled labourers; and they have also a
hospital under a fully qualified medical
officer on each of the five properties.

The physical conditions of the people
are therefore thoroughly well looked after,
while the social life of the Europeans is
made enjoyable by the provision of a
club-house and grounds for polo, golf,
and other pleasurable pastimes.

An old Burmese fort is situated near
the River Dibru, which flows through the
estate; and there are other evidences to
show that this portion of the district was
at one time very thickly populated.

Hansara railway-station is about a mile
distant, and the Doom Dooma township
and post and telegraph offices are only
half a mile farther away.

THE LUNGLA (SYLHET) TEA COMPANY,
LTD.

This limited liability company was
registered in London in the year 1895.
It was formed by the late Mr. Michael
Fox out of four separate companies, in
which he was chiefly interested. His son,
the Hon. Mr. H. B. Fox, is the present
428

senior manager, and represents the plant-
ing community on the Legislative Council
of the Chief Commission of the Province
of Assam. The company hold 1 5,000
acres of land, of which 6,213 acres are
actually under tea. There is a large area
also lea:sed to the resident coolies for the
cultivation of rice. The property is
divided up into four separate divisions,
on each of which there is a central fac-
tory equipped with up-to-date machinery.
These four areas comprise: (i) Lungla,
1,495 acres of matured trees, and Tera-
passa, with 196 acres, planted in 19 13
and 1914 ; (2) Shumsernuggar, having
1,562 acres of old plants and 78 acres of
younger ones; (3) Kannyhatti, 1,176
acres of trees in full profit ; and (4) Etah,
with 1,226 acres of matured trees and
95 acres planted in 1912-14, and Bur-
rumsal, purchased in February 191 5,
having 385 acres of plants in full bear^
ing. Another 1,000 acres can, it is antici-
pated, be opened up in the near future.
The machinery and the methods of manu-
facture are practically identical at all
the factories, and therefore a general
description of one of these— Kannyhatti — •
will be sufficient for these notes. The
withering plant, of a modern type, is fixed
in some half-dozen two-storied houses
(measuring about 150 ft. in length by
36 ft. in width), which have a capacity
for dealing with 800 maunds at one time,
and are fitted throughout with wire racks
about 7 in. apart. The factory has a
floor space of 220 ft. by 80 ft. ; it con-
tains seven Jackson's rolling tables, two
" Paragon " driers, one Venetian drier,
one Davidson endless-chain pressure
drier, two down-draught driers, two
Bailey and Thompson sifters, and a
Davidson packing machine. The whole
of this machinery is driven by two steam
engines, by Marshall Sons & Co., of 16
and 8 h.p. respectively, and coal, being
easily obtainable in the district of Sylhet,.
is used as fuel.

The cultivation of the land, which con-
sists principally of dark loam on an un-
dulating plateau, is carried out in a most
thorough manner ; intensive methods of
agriculture, including annual dressings of
various manures, are practised ; and the
yield of leaf is above the average of the
district, some of the fields having
recorded the very high figure of no less
than 1,080 lb. of tea to the acre in a
single season. No shade is required for
the plants, nor has disease made its
appearance in the gardens ; and the
whole of the crop, with the exception of

t. Superintendent's Bungalow.

DOOM DOGMA TEA COMPANY, LTD. (HANSABA DIVISION).

2. Hospital for Sick Coolies. 3. Replanted Tea — 5 Years Old, 4, Old Hybrid Tea — 40 Years_Old»

429

DOOM DOOMA TEA COMPANY, LTD. (HANSARA DIVISION).

I. FaCIOBV. 2. F.NCINEROOM. 3. ROLLING-ROOM. 4. FlRING ROOM.

430

I. Masacer's Bungalow, Kahhvuatii.

LUNGLA (SYLHET) TEA COMPANY, LTD.

2. Shamshernagar Factory. 3. Manager's Bungalow, Lunola.

4. LuNGLA Factory.

431

I. WiTHKRiNO House, Kanhyhatti.

LUNGLA (8YLHET) TEA COMPANY, LTD.
2. Intekior, Kanhyhatti Faciorv. 3. Bhagicherra, looking towards Shahsbernaoar.

5. Karimpur Garden.

4. Karimpur Factory.

432

THE PROVINCE OF ASSAM

" dusts," is shipped direct to London
from the port of Chittagong.

Some of the areas are being replanted
with a better type of j4t, the old China
variety being replaced by indigenous
Assam and Burma species.

An ample supply of drinking water is
obtained from a number of wells, and
there is a fairly regular and plentiful
rainfall, which averages about no inches
per annum.

Coolies on the estate — many of whom
have been there for a considerable number
of years— are provided with well-built
qiuirters, which are gradually replacing
the old-fashioned bamboo huts formerly
in evidence, and the inestimable advan-
tages of having at the gardens a resident
medical officer and a fully equipped
dispensary are duly appreciated.

The employees in the four divisions
vary somewhat in number from time to
time, but the following figures, culled
from a recent report by the directors of
the company, may be taken as an average :
Men, 3,773 ; women, 3,999 ; and chil-
dren, 2,148, making a total of 9,920 souls,
all of whom are under the supervision of
a stafif of Europeans. There are several
fish bazaars adjacent to the properties,
and each division has its own centraf
market for the sale of ordinary Indian
produce.

About twenty miles of trolly lines have
been laid for the transport of produce and
general goods to and from the adjacent
railway stations, but all the divisions lie
close to the Assam-Bengal Railway, Etah,
the farthest, being only four miles distant.
The supreme control is in the hands
of a board of directors in London, Messrs.
Octavius Steel & Co., of Old Court House
Street, Calcutta, being their agents in
India.

The following particulars relating to
the financial position of the company are
gleaned from a recent report and state-
ment of accounts. The capital is
£200,000, in 100,000 6 per cent, cumula-
tive preference shares of £1 and 100,000
ordinary shares of £1 each. The revenue
account showed a balance at credit of
£48,070 13s., to which was added a sum
of £(,917 3s. 9d. brought forward from
the previous year. After paying a prefer-
ence dividend of 6 per cent, and 25 per
cent, on the ordinary shares, the reserve
fund was raised to £12,500, and the
amount carried forward was increased to
£5,748 4s. I id.

THE PATRAKOLA TEA COMPANY, LTD.

This company was formed in the year
191 I by the acquisition of three privately
owned estates in the Doloi Valley, in the
district of Sylhet, consisting of Madab-
pore, comprising 2885-80 acres ; Patra-
kola, 4,392 acres ; and Kurmah, with
2,598 acres. The planting of another
division, named Champarai, was started
about the end of the year 1913, and there
is now a total of 11, 292^80 acres in the
ownership of the company. Nearly 3,000
acres are planted with tea (including
270 acres of quite young bushes on
Champarai), and the total yield from all
the bearing plantations during 191 5 is
estim.ated to produce, approximately.
2,000,000 lb.

Everything connected with the manage-
ment of these estates is thoroughly pro-
gressive in character. This applies just
as much to proper cultivation of the land
and treatment of plants as it does to
the equipment of factories with up-to-date
machinery and such modern innovations
as electric light ; and the company pos-
sesses a very valuable asset in a private
tram-line connected with the Assam-
Bengal Railway, which greatly facilitates
and cheapens the transfer of stores and
produce.

The capital of the company is
Rs. 1,800,000, divided into 12,000
preference shares of Rs. 100 each and
6,000 ordinary shares of Rs. 100 each,
and the annual balance sheets show that
the company has made steady yet decisive
progress since its inception, as the divi-
dends paid on ordinary shares have been
as follows, namely, 15 per cent, for the
years 191 i and 1912, 20 per cent, for
the following year, and 25 per cent, for
the year 19 1 4.

The four above-mentioned properties
are situated near each other, and form
a group which is self-contained. It is
practically a model settlement, having
within its own borders every conceivable
requirement for the well-being of its resi-
dents. The eleven planters provide their
own amusements, having a common polo
ground, golf course, and tennis courts,
and all the Europeans on the properties
are attached to the Surma Valley Light
Horse Volunteers. There are no fewer
than about 7,600 persons resident on the
estate, of whom some 3,400 are employed
daily.

The welfare of this community is a
matter which receives the kindliest con-
sideration at the hands of the company,
who not only provide a European medical

433

officer who supervises the work of native
doctors and pays periodical visits to all
the properties, but they have also estab-
lished schools on each division for the
education of the children of their
employees.

The managing agents of the company
are Messrs. Duncan Brothers & Co., 101
Clive Street, Calcutta.

THE SISSI SAW-MILLS AND TRADING
COMPANY, LTD.

This company was formed and regis-
tered at Dibrugarh, in the district of
Lakhimpur, in the Province of Assam, in
September 1889. The mills are situated
at Sissi, on the Brahmaputra River,
opposite Dehingmukh, about twenty miles
down from Dibrugarh.

Logs are felled in the forest within a
radius of less than two miles from rivers
suitable for their being floated down-
stream to the mills, and they are drawn
by elephants to a convenient starting-
point, where they are lashed together to
form rafts, .'\bout thirty elephants are
now employed in transport work, but
arrangements are being made to increase
the number of the herd.

The mills are well equipped with
machinery, including circular saws, log
frames, planing, dowclling, and jointing
machin';s, all of which are driven by steam
power, and the buildings throughout are
lighted with electricity generated on the
premises. The main feature of the mill-
ing is the manufacture of tea chests, or
bo.xes, in various sizes to suit the require-
ments of customers, and these are turned
out at the rate of 240,000 annually.

Forests, however, will not last for ever,
and, as the country surrounding Sissi has
now been almost denuded of serviceable
trees, the directors have decided to open
branch mills at Saikhoa Ghat, in the dis-
trict of the North-East Frontier and
abutting upon the Brahmaputra River,
150 miles distant from Dibrugarh. The
company have obtained timber conces-
sions from the Political Officer of the
North-East Circle of the Frontier
Tracts. It should be mentioned here
that in the year 1910 it became necessary
for the management of the company to
tap the Sadiya forests in order to obtain
a supply of particular kind of trees, and
the felled logs were floated 160 miles
down the Brahmaputra to the Sissi Mills
for manufacturing purposes.

A royalty equivalent to from 6 to 7 per
cent, of invested capital is levied by the

3 K

"•'^»^

'-"7 y-.y fff;^gf--

I. CooLiB Muster.

PATBAKOLA TEA COMPANY, LTD. (DUNCAN BROS. & CO.).

2. GeNERAi, View of Faciorv. 3- Leaf Plucki.ng. 4- Bridge over Doloi River. Pairakola.

434

X. loo-ii.p. Compound Engine.

THE SISSI SAWMILLS AND TRADING COMPANY, LTD.

2. DOWKLLINO AND PlANING MACHINES. 3. SHOOK DRyiNO FlELD. 4. LoO FRAMES AND RECIPROCATING SaW,

435

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Government upon locally made tea-chests,
and this burden places the Indian manu-
facturer at a great disadvantage, inas-
much as those boxes which are imported
from other countries are admitted with-
out payment of customs duty. Further
than that, the Sissi Mills Company have.

in common with other manufacturers in
Bengal, to pay income-tax upon profits,
and these two imposts constitute a very
serious handicap upon Indian goods.

The manager, Mr. G. Sim, has been
associated with the Sissi Saw-mills and
Trading Company, Ltd., for a number

of years, and he has continued as
manager, being assisted by a European
engineer. About three hundred natives
are constantly employed.

The board of directors consists of Mr.
P. C, Moran (chairman) and Messrs.
R. A. Wood and C. W. Allen.

CANE SUSPENSION-BRIDGE, ASSAM.

Photo by Ghoshal Bro^., Skii'.otin^

43^>

AN OLD VIEW OP CHOWRINGHEE, CALCUTTA.

Illustration from " Oriental Scenery." by Thomas Daniell (1795).

INDIAN NOBILITY

THE STATE OF COOCH BEHAR

OOCH BEHAK, a
Native State in
political relationship
with the Government,
is bounded on the
north by the Western
Dooars of the district
of Riingpur; on the
east by Rungpur and the district of Goal-
para; and on the west by Rungpur and
Jalpaiguri. The area of the State, in-
cluding detached tracts in neighbouring
British districts, is about 1,307 square
miles in extent.

While it is usually described as an
almost triangular plain, its surface is in-
tersected by numerous rivers and streams,
but is unrelieved by mountain or hill. In
certain portions of the State there are
slight undulations which are cultivated
chiefly for the growing of tobacco, and
upon which the majority of the inhabitants
build their houses with the view of avoid-
ing discomfort caused by occasional slight
floodings of marshy lands. There are no
forests in the ordinary acceptation of the
term, although patches of brushwood arc
frequently found, but a large number of
trees have been planted in recent years,

many of the roads being flanked on either
side by rows of Sisu or Sal.

The country is a network of rivers and
streams which have played an important
part in the process of formation of soil.
The Teesta River, formerly one of the
largest in Northern Bengal, rises in Lake
Chalamu in Thibet, and after flowing
through Sikkim, and the north-eastern
portion of the district of Darje'eling, it
continues in a southwardly direction until
it enters the State between the taluq of
Baxigunj on the west of Nijtaraf-
Mekhligunj on the east. Other rivers
include the Jaldhaka, Torsa, Dharla, Kal-
jani, and the Raidak or Sankos. Although
these streams are of little value as a
means of internal communication, a con-
siderable number of marts and commer-
cial houses stand on their banks, and a
large trade of a general character is car-
ried on by Bengali and Marwari merchants
with many of the principal commercial
centres of Eastern Bengal.

The State is not specially liable to
droughts, floods, or plagues, but on June
I 2, I 89", the severest shock of earthquake
ever known in India occurred about five
o'clock in the afternoon, and the town

437

of Cooch Behar was very considerably
damaged. The shock lasted for longer
than three minutes, and it was followed
throughout the night by a number of
threatening tremors. All buildings were
more or less severely injured, roads were
badly fissured, bridges were damaged, and
wells and dams were completely choked up.
The damage caused to the palace and the
public buildings in the town amounted
to about Rs. 10,00,000, while private
buildings suffered to the extent of about
Rs. 75,000.

Cooch Behar, situated almost at thq foot
of the Himalayas, is naturally the home
of a considerable number of types of wild
animals. The large game consists of
rhinoceros, tiger, leopard, wild buffalo,
and black bear, while smaller fauna in-
clude wild pig, deer of various kinds,
foxes, jackal, crocodiles, and others.
Birds comprise vultures, the Indian crane,
wild geese, duck, and other fowl.

The variety of the flora of Cooch Behar
is almost bewildering, as the rich alluvial
soil favours the growth of trees, plants,
and vegetables, but special mention
might be made of palms and bamboos of
several kinds, and timber trees, including

V »-i^'*^

jy ^<%^

.«' •

HIS HIGHNESS MAHARAJA JITENDEA NARAYAN BHUP, BAHADUR, K.C.S.I., OF COOCH BEHAR.

Photo by Dciaris Ati Studio, Bombay.

438

HER HIGHNESS THE MAHARANI OF COOCH BEHAR.

I'holo by yohnslon ib- Uoff'mann, L'aku/ta.

439

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

sal, sisu, and teak, while the State might
aptly be termed " a veritable land of
flowers."

The inhabitants of the State are com-
posed of Hindus (including Meches,
Garos, and other animistic tribes), repre-
senting not far short of 70 per cent, of
the total population, and Mussulmans,
nearly 30 per cent., although there are
rather more than a thousand individuals
who are classed as Christians or Brahmos.

The latest census returns stated the in-
habitants were 592,952 in number.

Modern agricultural methods are prac-
tically unknown in the State, and practices
common among ryots to-day are —
generally speaking — as primitive in char-
acter as they were several generations ago.
Owing to the fact that the bulk of the
soil is of alluvial formation, and that
the loam rarely exceeds a depth of two
feet, deep cultivation is neither necessary
nor desirable. The major portion of the
soil is very fertile, although manure is used
by some farmers in connection with the
growing of tobacco, jute, mustard seed,
sugar-cane, wheat, and barley, but the
application of fertilizers is not practised
to any appreciable extent. Cultivators
usually divide the crops of the State into
the following five main groups: (a) food
grains, (b) oil seeds, (r) tobacco, (rf)
produce for manufacturing purposes, and
(e) roots and bulbs. Paddy, tobacco, and
jute are the principal agricultural pro-
ducts. Tobacco is probably the most pro-
fitable of all, and as the quality is excellent
a large quantity of leaf is purchased an-
nually by merchants from Burma, Eastern
Bengal, and other districts. The wet,
marshy land of the State is peculiarly
suitable for the production of jute, and
its fine, fibrous constituent parts are in
great demand in Calcutta.

The great progress which has been made
in the jute industry in recent years has
encouraged the people to increase the
cultivation of the plant to such an extent
that it has become a recognized crop with
nearly every landholder in the country.
Root species include potatoes (universally
grown), onions, garlic, ginger, and tur-
meric.

Nearly all of the people are dependent
for a livelihood upon agricultural pur-
suits in one or other of their manifold
aspects. True, there are both men and
women who are engaged in industrial work
of a minor character, but even in these
instances the occupation is generally sup-
plementary to the prime factor, and is
usually termed a "home industry." For

instance, the Endi silkworm is reared upon
leaves of the castor-oil and other plants,
and a somewhat coarse kind of silk is
woven in a hand loom into cloth some
24 inches in width and 9 feet in length.
This material is made entirely by the
womenfolk, and is intended for personal
wear only. The spinning of cotton is
almost a lost art, and with the exception
of the manufacture of a few rough cloths
for household use, the industry has been
superseded by the importation of Man-
chester piece goods. A large quantity of
jute was formerly made into gunnies, but
these products are now almost wholly
manufactured by the forty or fifty mills
near Calcutta. The absence of a suffi-
cient supply of good clay is not conducive
to the production of good pottery ware,
and the only articles now made include
figures, handis, and saras. A little work
is also done in the manufacture of agri-
cultural implements, weapons, knives, gold
and brass ornaments, wicker baskets,
stools, chairs, sunshades, mats, and fans.

In early days in Cooch Behar the cause
of education was encouraged by Maha-
rajas to the extent only of instruction in
Sanskrit, although many of the ruling
family were excellent Persian scholars.
A vernacular school was opened in the
town of Cooch Behar in the year 1857
for the education of the relatives of the
then Maharaja, and that movement may
be regarded as the foundation of a
popular system of teaching throughout
the State. In i860 the Maharaja Naren-
dranarayan presented a sum of money to
Colonel Jenkins, the Governor-General's
Agent on the North-East Frontier, but the
latter officer generously requested that His
Highness would establish an English
school with the money, and this was ac-
cordingly done, the institution known as
the " Jenkins " school being opened in
I 86 1. The construction of other schools
followed rapidly, and in 1888 the Victoria
College was built to commemorate the
Jubilee of the reign of Her Majesty the
late Queen Victoria. Inspectors of schools
were appointed, and regulations were
framed with regard to the syllabus of
instruction and the annual sums to be
granted in aid. The support of various
maharajas and the efficient control of the
Department of Public Instruction in the
.State have caused a steady and satis-
factory progress to be made, and at the
present time there are four which teach
up to the Matriculation standard of the
Calcutta University, 16 are Middle
English Schools, 280 are Primary Schools,
440

30 are Vernacular, 12 are Girls' Schools,
and five are Mahommedan Muklabs.

The territory of modern Cooch Behar
was originally a portion of the ancient
kingdom of Kamarupa, and had no
separate existence of its own until about
the middle of the sixteenth century, when
it was separated from the then existing
area of the Kamarupa territory. The
greatest difficulty is experienced in obtain-
ing authentic information as to the date
of the founding of the above-named
kingdom or of its exact geographical
situation. There are evidences, however,
that it was in existence for considerably
more than two thousand years before the
Christian era, but passing over the period
covered by the reigns of mythological
kings, one arrives upon safer historical
ground at the commencement of the six-
teenth century A.D. when Chandan, the
first king of the Koch dynasty ascended
the throne. The era of the Cooch Behar
family is reckoned from that date, about
A.D. I 5 10. During the time of the Maha-
raja Naranarayan (i 555-1 587) Cocch
Behar was an extensive kingdom, and
comprised, in addition to the State of
Cooch Behar of the present day, almost
the whole of Northern Bengal, Bhutan,
and Assam, as well as the modern States
of Kachar, Jaintia, Manipur, and Tipperah,
extending to the coast of the Bay of
Bengal.

In this reign the Kamrup country was
divided into two portions, the Maharaja
Naranarayan making over the portion of
the kingdom east of the Sankos to his
brother Sukladhvaja, who thus became
ruler of Assam or Eastern Kamarupa,
while he retained the western portion for
himself. Occupants of the throne in suc-
cession to the Maharaja Naranarayan in-
cluded Lakshminarayan, in whose reign
the Moghals invaded Cooch Behar;
Biranarayan, whose rulership was marked
by loss of territory and tribute money;
of Prananarayan, Modanarayan, X'asude-
vanarayan, Mahendranarayan, and Rupa-
narayan, who was the last king to hold
sway over Western Kamarupa, as from
that time the extent of the kingdom was
virtually confined to the area of the
present State.

Then followed the period covered by
independent kings of Cooch Behar, which
was marked by continual unrest caused
by disorders within and invasions from
without, and in 1772 application was made
to the Government of India for assistance
against the Bhutias and other enemies. A
treaty was concluded on April 5, I773i

1. HIS HIGHNESS THE LATE MAHARAJA SIR NRIPENDBA NARAYAN, OF COOCH BEHAR, IN FULL DRESS.
2. HIS HIGHNESS THE LATE MAHARAJA SIR NRIPENDRA NARAYAN, OP COOOH BEHAR (IN BENGAL

CAVALRY UNIFORM).

441

33
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o

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442

1. MAP SHOWING EXTENT OP THE TERRITORIES OF KAMARUPA IN MAHARAJA NARA NARAYAN'S TIME.

2. MAP OF THE COOCH BEHAR STATE.

443

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

between the Honourable East India Com-
pany and the Nazir Deo, on. behalf of
Dharendranarayan, Raja of Cooch Behar,
which provided, inter alia, for the payment
by the Raja of a sum of Rs. 50,000 jn
return for military services to be rendered
by the Company, for the subjection of the
Raja to the will of the Company, and for
the annexation of the State to the Presi-
dency of Bengal. The right of annexa-
tion was, however, subsequently waived by
the Government.

Cooch Behar became a Feudatory State
by virtue of the above-named treaty, and
Maharaja Dharendranarayan, on whose
behalf the treaty was concluded by the
Nazir Deo, was the first ruler of tlie coun-
try who acknowledged allegiance to the
British Government.

Harendranarayan was less than four
years of age when his father — the last-
named Maharaja — died, and two rival
parties sprang up in the State, namely,
those who supported the Maharani, and
others who were in favour of the adminis-
tration of the Nazir Deo. Trouble arose,
too^ with the Collector of Rungpur in
whom the representation of the State was
vested, but eventually the Nazir Deo pro-
claimed himself king and placed a strong
guard over the young Maharaja and his
mother. The prisoners were subsequently'
released on the authority of Mr. Peter
Moore, who had become Collector at
Rungpur, and the Government, whose
attention had bceij^drawn to the distracted
state of the country, appointed a Com-
mission in 1788 to report on the matter of
succession. This inquiry resulted in a
declaration of the full sovereignty of the
Maliaraja and of the deposition of Nazir
Deo. The Government thereupon ap-
pointed Mr. Harry Douglas as Commis-
sioner or Resident at Cooch Behar during
the jninority of the Maharaja. Reforms
were instituted by that official, the prin-
cipal being in connection with land
revenue, and in the year 1801 Maharaja
Harendranarayan ass'umed control. The
rule of the Maharaja was not a peaceful
one owing to foreign and domestic dis-
putes, but it is worthy of note that the
reign marked the transition from the old
to the new system of administration, and
it was largely due to the action of the
Maharaja that Cooch Behar is still a Feu-
datory State, uncontrolled in its internal
affairs and having a constitution indepen-
dent of foreign interference. That ruler
was followed by Maharajas Shivendrana-
rayan and Narendra Narayan, and then by
Colonel His Highness Maharaja Sir Nri-

pendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur, G.C.I.E.,
C.B., A.D.C., the father of the present
ruler. His Highness Maharaja Jitendra
Narayan Bhup Bahadur.

ensue, deputed Colonel J. C. Haughton,
Governor-Ceneral's Agent, North-East
Frontier, to Cooch Behar as Commissioner
in charge of the administration, this step

The Maharaja Nripendra Narayan was being considered imperative as the only

HIS HIGHNESS THE LATE MAHARAJA BAJ RAJENDRA NARAYAN,
OP COOCH BEHAR.

born on October 4, 1 862, just ten months
and four days prior to the death of his
father, the Maharaja Narendra Narayan.
Dissensions arose in the family as to the
guardianship of the young heir, and the
Government, fearing complications might

444

means of effectually providing for the care
and education of the young Maharaja.
The first five years of the boy's life were
spent at Cooch Behar, where lessons in
Bengali were given to him, but as Colonel
Haughton, whose most anxious care was to

1. COUNCIL OFFICE.

2. LANSDOWNE HALL. 3. RESIDENCE OF PRINCE VICTOR NARAYAN (LATE DBWANKHANA).

4. JENKINS SCHOOL.

445

1, 2, 3, RUINS OF THE OLD CAPITAL, GOSANIMARI,

446

1. THE BLUE DRAWING BOOM (THE PALACE).
3. THE LIBRARY (THE PALACE).

2. THE BILLIARD-ROOM (THE PALACE).
4. THE DINING-ROOM (THE PALACE).

4J7

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

secure proper training for his ward,
strongly advised his removal from the
capital, on February 6, 1868, the Maha-
raja, accompanied by his mother, brother,
and three other boys as companions, left
Cooch Behar under the charge of Mr.
Smith, Peputy-Comniissioner, and was
placed in the Wards Institution at
Benares. Satisfactory progress was
noticeable during the Maharaja's course
of study, and in 1869 Captain Lance,
Deputy-Commissioner, observed that " if
he continues in the same course the State
will reap all the advantages to be gained
from a good ruler." Early in 1872 the
ward was transferred to the Patna Col-
legiate School, where he remained for
about five years. The Maharaja had a
tour in 1875 in the North-Western Pro-
vinces, Oudh, and the Punjab, under the
guidance of his tutor, Mr. H. St. John
Kneller, and in December 1877 he went
in charge of the Commissioner, Lord Ulick
Browne, to the Imperial Assemblage at
Delhi, where he was received by His
Excellency the Viceroy, the late Lord
Lytton. On March 6, 1878, His Highness
was married at Cooch Behar to Srimati
Suniti Devi, daughter of the late Babu
Keshav Chandra Sen, the celebrated
Brahmo Reformer and founder of the New
Dispensation Church. Immediately after
that event His Highness proceeded on a
tour to Europe under the joint guardian-
ship of Dr. (later Surgeon-General
Sir Benjamin) Simpson and Mr. Kneller,
and in the course of ten months the party
visited Italy, France, and Belgium, where
they were received with special marks of
royal favour. While in England His
Highness had the honour of being pre-
sented to Her late Majesty Queen Victoria
and to his Royal Highness, the then Prince
of Wales. He returned to India in
February 1879 and was most enthusias-
tically received by his friends in Calcutta
and his family in Cooch Behar. Before
the end of that year His Highness was
admitted as a law student at the Presi-
dency College in Calcutta, he residing at
" The Woodlands " in Alipore, a fine
mansion which was subsequently pur-
chased by the State.

His Highness completed his twenty-first
year on October 3, 1883, but the installa-
tion ceremony did not take place until
a month later. In handing over the
charge of the State, His Honour Sir Rivers
Thompson, Lieutenant-Governor of Ben-
gal, in memorable words, directed the
attention of His Highness to the great
responsibility of the trust committed to

him, and the latter in reply, said, " It
shall be my earnest endeavour to do
justice to the great trust which I now
undertake." A very large number of
European as well as Hindu guests
attended the festivities, and the extensive
preparations made for their entertainment
were carried out on a most lavish scale.

The Maharaja visited England in 1887,
on the celebration of the rejoicings on the
occasion of the jubilee of the reign of
Her late Majesty Queen Victoria, when
he was invested with the insignia of a
Knight Grand Commander of the Most
Eminent Order of the Indian Empire.
His Highness was accompanied by Her
Highness the Maharani, who was the first
Indian lady to be received at the English
Court, and a further honour was accorded
her when Her Majesty bestowed upon her
the Imperial Order of the Crown of
India. The Maharaja travelled in India
again in the years 1894, 1896, and 1898,
and in the year 1902, he attended the
coronation ceremony of His late Majesty
King Edward VII in his capacity as
A.D.C. His Highness was unfortunately
compelled to seek medical advice in
London in the years 1908 and 19 10, and
died at Bexhill, in England, in 1911.
A special military funeral was ordered
by His Majesty the King-Emperor
George V, and his remains were cremated
at Golders Green, near London, the ashes
being transferred to India to find a last
resting-place in the home of his fore-
fathers.

Although the Maharaja held only
honorary rank in the British .Army, he was
always ready to avail himself of oppor-
tunities of making himself fully acquainted
with the duties of a soldier. He had
training with the 17th Lancers at Meerut,
afterwards becoming Hon. Major of that
regiment, and Colonel of the 6th Bengal
Cavalry. But His Highness was deter-
mined not to be a mere figure-head in the
Army, for when disturbances occurred on
the North-West Frontier, and when war
threatened in the Pamirs in Central Asia
in 1885, he not only offered to raise
troops, but also expressed his willingness
to take his place in the field. He joined
the Tirah Expeditionary Force in 1 898,
and was present in several engagements.
His gallant services were acknowledged
in despatches from General Sir William
Lockhart, His Excellency the Viceroy, and
others, and the congratulations of Her late
Majesty were strengthened by her be-
stowal of a Companionship of the Bath
upon him.

-W8

The Maharaja was initiated by special
dispensation as a Mason in the year 1878,
and during his membership he held prac-
tically every office in the craft. He was
a Past Grand Senior Warden of England;
Past Deputy District Grand Master of
Bengal; Past District Grand Mark Master
of Bengal ; Past Grand Senior Warden of
Mark Masons of England ; Past Grand
Principal Conductor of Work on the
Grand Council of Royal and Select
Masters of England and Wales, Colonies,
and Dependencies of the British Crown;
and Past Grand Senior Warden of the
Grand Council of Allied Masonic Degrees
of England and Wales.

His Highness was a member of several
clubs in London, including the Marl-
borough, Cavalry, Portland, Prince's,
Queen's, Ranelagh, and honorary member
of the Hurlingham Club and of the Mary-
lebone Cricket Club. In India he be-
longed to the United Service Club,
Simla; the Wheeler Club, Meerut; the
Himalayan Club, Mussoorie; the Dar-
jeeling Club; the Calcutta Turf Club,
and the Calcutta cricket, racket, and polo
clubs.

The Maharaja was a keen, all-round
sportsman, not merely as an onlooker, but
as a competitor who had few equals in
many contests. Among his personal suc-
cesses may be mentioned the following:
he conquered Webb, the amateur cham-
pion, at rackets; won the Darjeeling
squash tennis handicap, commencing play
with his scoring sheet showing minus 60;
he was an excellent polo player, and a
fine exponent of billiards. He started the
Bengal Ghymkana (for Indians only), to
be conducted on the lines of the Calcutta
Club, for games of Association football,
cricket, hockey, and tennis. In connection
with cricket it was the custom of the
Maharaja during the winter months to
engage two professionals from England
in order to coach young players. His
Highness was first president of the club,
and that position is now held by the
present Maharaja. He started the Pil-
grims Polo Club for the formation of a
team to play in matches beyond the
borders of Calcutta, and in the first year
of its formation the team won the cham-
pionship at Lucknow, beating the 1 5th
Hussars in the final round. The Cooch
Behar team consisted of Thakur Dhokul
Singh, (2) Shah Mirza Baig, (3) the
Maharaj Kumar of Cooch Behar, and (4]^
Captain Alan Campbell-Ross. The Maha-
raja gave cups annually for racing fixtures
at Calcutta and Meerut, and for football

1, 2, 3, 4. DAMAGE CAUSED BY THE EARTHQUAKE OP 1887.

449

<
►a
0

m
a

O *

o I
O I.

450

INDIAN NOBILITY

matches at Calcutta and Cooch Behar, and
it may be added that similar cups are now
offered by the present Maharaja. With
the above facts in view it will not be a
surprise to any one to learn that His High-
ness made an illustrious name for himself
as one of the most intrepid and most suc-
cessful hunters of big game of modern
times. In the year 1908 he compiled and
published " Thirty-seven Years of Big
Game Shooting in Cooch Behar, the
Duars, and .^ssam: a Rough Diary by the
Maharaja of Cooch Behar." That hand-

records for the first ten years given in the
book, 1871-80, are unfortunately incom-
plete, but they show the following results:
75 tigers, 31 leopards, 55 rhinos, 123
buffaloes, i bear, 118 hog deer, 47 sam-
bhurs, 1 1 antelopes, 40 barasinghs, and
24 pigs. Early in February 188 1 a bull
buffalo was shot, the horns measuring
10 feet I J inches from point to point on
the outside of the crown, and the base of
each horn measured 24 inches. Two years
later His Highness and two cousins ac-
counted for five leopards on one day, and

a considerable number of charges by the
beasts, no fewer than eight were accounted
for. March 2nd was memorable owing to
the fact that two elephants were severely
cut by a rhino, a third was slightly
wounded, and a fourth was gored by a
buffalo in one of its forelegs. In 1884
His Highness was engaged in an expedi-
tion for capturing elephants, and was
therefore not " out for game," but he
relates a curious bag taken on February
19th, which consisted of i pig, i pea-fowl,
I partridge, I porcupine, and a python

H.E. THE GOVERNOR INSPECTING THE GUARD OF HONOUR.

Photo by yohmtoti &• Ifojfmanti, Cahitlla.

some volume, crammed with most inter-
esting accounts of the author's experiences
when following tiger, leopard, bison,
buffalo, rhino, and other inhabitants of the
jungle, iwas " dedicated by special per-
mission to His Majesty King Edward VII,
Emperor of India." In an introductory
note it ig explained that the country over
which His Highness shot extended from
the foot of the Himalayas southwards, and
rarely more than thirty-six miles distant
from the base of the hills. The jungles in
Cooch Behar, the Duars, and Assam, are
all very similar, consisting of heavy grass
of different kinds intersected by rivers
and numerous nullahs, and dotted with
trees outside of the Forest Reserves. The

two days later they encountered a tiger
which showed great sport. The beast was
tracked for a considerable distance, and
before he was bagged he severely mauled
no fewer than seven elephants. This was
a very fine animal, measuring 10 feet
\\ inches in length. The usual annual
shoot for the year 1883 commenced on
February 18, the party consisting of the
Maharaja and eight friends. Some of the
guns returned on March i 5, and the re-
mainder on the 23rd, but the bag included
4 tigers, 6 rhinos, 22 buffaloes, i bison,
I bear, 14 barasinghs, 4 sambhurs, and
10 hog deer. One of the days — February
26th — deserves notice, as the party got
among a herd of i 5 buffalo, and in spite of

which measured 1 5 feet 5 inches. His
Excellency the Earl of Mayo joined the
Maharaja's shooting party on February
22nd, but good luck was not experienced
until about the middle of March, when
the kill consisted of 2 tigers, 10 rhinos,
and 2 buffaloes. Some of the rhino were
brave fighters, one charged four times, and
was not stopped a moment too soon. A
five days' shoot about the end of the month
yielded a tiger, leopard, 2 rhinos, and 2
buffaloes, one of the last-named standing
6 feet 3 inches at the shoulder and
measuring 14 feet 3 inches from nose to
tip of tail. Three weeks' shooting in
1885 produced 10 tigers, 2 leopards, 7
rhinos, 16 buffaloes, and 3 bears. On

45'

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

March 1 7th the Maharaja was at Dal
Dalia, where he knocked over a
leopard which probably holds the re-
cord, as he measured no less than 8 feet
4 inches.

The year 1886 provided excellent sport
for a party which shot from February i 2th
to March 1 2th. The large game com-
prised 9 tigers, 5 bears, 19 rhinos, 28
buffaloes, and i bison, and it might be
added that a cow buffalo, shot on February
14th, had iliorns 11 feet 6?, inches in
length. The bag for the year 1887 was
not so heavy as in 1886, but some really
excelleni sport was obtained. One tiger
was 10 feet i.', inches in length from
nose to tail, body length 7 feet li inches,
upper arm 29 inches, forearm 21 inches,
girth 54 inches, head 40^ inches, and
at the shoulder he was 44J inches in
height.

Good sport, but nothing of a par-
ticularly excitable nature, was obtained
during the next two or three seasons, and
the results for the year 1890 were 21
tigers, II leopards, 6 rhinos, 17 buffaloes,
7 bears, 5 barasinghs, 7 sambhurs, 5 hog
deer, I antelope, and 9 pigs. In 1894 the
Maharaja secured a tiger in the Samer-
danga jungles which was the longest,
though not the heaviest specimen that
had up toi that date been shot by him.
His measurements were: length 10
feet 3 inches, body 7 feet i J inches,
girth 52 inches, upper arm 29 inches,
forearm 19J inches, head 363 inches,
height 3 feet 4J inches, and he weighed
487 lb.

In March 1895 His Highness shot a
bull rhino which is believed to hold a
world record for measurements, which
were: girth 119 inches, largest girth 144
inches, neck close to body 90 inches,
neck near head 74 inches, height at
shoulder 19 hands and J inch, and horn
nearly 1 3 inches.

A fine tiger, bagged in 1897, was not
despatched until he had savagely attacked
one of the elephants and had only missed
the 'mahout by a few inches. A day or
two later news was received in camp that
a tiger had killed a cow, and when a patch
of jungle was tried a fine tigress bolted.
A shot from one of the party had some
eflfect, but it was evident that she intended
mischief. The beast almost immediately
charged from her hiding-place, and the
elephants spun round and began to run
away. A pad elephant was bitten on the
head, above the eye, and it was several
seconds before he could dislodge her. She
then rushed at the Maharaja's elephant.

which promptly turned tail and bolted for
dear life, but the mahout managed to
induce his mount to return, when the
tigress, after wounding another elephant,
was killed. One of the best day's shoot-
ing which ever fell to the lot of His High-
ness was in 1899, when the bag included

1 bull bison, 2 bull and 3 cow rhinos, and

2 bull and 5 cow buffaloes. March 10,
1902, was also a red-letter day with His
Highness, as he shot the longest tiger that
he ever saw, his total length was: 10 feet
5 inches, body 6 feet 11 inches, girth 51
inches, upper arm 26 inches, forearm 18J
inches, head 36 inches, height 41 inches,
and weight 504 lbs. The results for this
year comprised 61 head of big game,
which included several records, and the
bag of I 7 tigers must be regarded as ex-
ceptionally good.

The above is a very meagre descrip-
tion of the fine sport which His Highness
provided, but some idea of the extent of
the entertainment may be gathered from
the following figures, which show the total
number of big game shot between the
years 1871 and 1907: —

Tigers ...

• 365

Leopards

311

Rhinos...

207

Bisons...

Buffaloes

■ 438

Bears ...

133

Sambhurs

259

Barasinghs

. 318

2,079

A son and heir was born to the Maha-
raja on April 11, 1882, and great were
the rejoicings at Cooch Behar as well as
at Calcutta, where the event occurred.
The Maharaj Kumar Raj Rajendra
Narayan, for such was the name given,
was educated at home until the year 1893,
when he was admitted to the Mayo College
at Ajmer. He made good progress with
his studies for about a year, when His
Highness the Maharaja, with a desire to
have his son educated in England, pro-
ceeded with him to Farnborough and made
arrangements for a twelve-months' stay
in the preparatory school at that place.
In 1895 the youth became an Etonian,
and in 1899 he removed to Christ Church,
Oxford. Three years later he joined the
Imperial Cadet Corps, and was also given
a Commission in the Westminster
Dragoons, this being the first occasion on
which a ruling Prince of India or a son

452

of such a potentate had been honoured
in that manner. The Maharajkumar fol-
lowed up his Oxford studies by starting
on a tour of the world, via Japan, in 1908.
When his father, His Highness the Maha-
raja Sir Nripendra Nath Narayan, unfor-
tunately died in 191 i, the Maharajkumar
was installed as Maharaja by Mr. F. W.
Duke, acting Lieutenant-Governor of Ben-
gal. In 19 1 3 he visited England, but to
the great sorrow of his relatives and
friends he passed away at Cromer, a
favourite seaside resort on the coast of
Norfolk, and was succeeded by the
present ruler. His Highness the Maharaja
Jitendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur. His
Highness was educated at Eton, and when
he was in England in August 1913 he mar-
ried the daughter of His Highness the
Gaekwar of Baroda, and in the month of
November following he was duly installed
on the gadi by His Excellency Lord Car-
michael. Governor of Bengal. The Maha-
raja has a brother born on May 21, 1888,
and he was named Victor Nityendra
Narayan in obedience to a command ex-
pressed by Her late Majesty Queen
Victoria, who was graciously pleased to
act as godmother to the infant. The
youngest brother, Hitendra Narayan, born
in the year 1890, and educated in early
days at Eton, subsequently entered the
British Army, and became hon. lieutenant
in the Lahore Division, with which
he served for about fourteen months
on the Western Front in the European
War.

The town of Cooch Behar, the capital
of the State, is about two miles in
length from north to south and about
one mile in breadth from east to west,
and it has a population of about i 1,000
inhabitants.

The principal buildings are the Maha-
raja's palace, the residences of members
of His Highness's family, the Council
House, departmental offices, a first-grade
college, the collegiate high school, and
many other educational establishments.
The chief recreation grounds or open
spaces are the Sagardighi Square, the
Parade Ground, the Narendranarayan
Park, and the Keshabasram. A striking
feature of the town is the number and size
of its tanks, which are of considerable
depth and contain a practically unlimited
supply of pure water for general purposes.
The largest of these is the Sagardighi
tank, which was excavated in the year
1807. It is 954 feet in length and 536
feet in breadth, and it is situated in a
square in which are the Council House

H
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H 2

^1
^*
SI
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453

2 H

1. THE INSTALLATION CEREMONY, H.H. THE MAHARAJA PRESENTING THE NAZZUR TO H.E. THE GOVERNOR.
2. THE INSTALLATION CEREMONY, H.E. THE GOVERNOR PLACING THE RING ON H.H. THE MAHARAJA'S

FINGER, ON BEHALF OP THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA.

PhQtoi bv Johnston &■ HoJfm>inn, Calcutta.

454

1. BAND AND GUARD.

2. POLO PONIES.

S. MADAN MOHAN TEMPLE.

455

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

and other important buildings. The
Bairagidighi tank was considerably en-
larged in the year 1897, and it is now
446 feet in length, 440 feet in breadth,
and has an average depth of 289 feet.

The town is symmetrically and pic-
turesquely laid out by means of straight
and broad roads, which intersect one
another at right angles, and they are
planted with palm, sisii, mango, and other
trees. On every hand is seen a wealth
of luxuriant verdure, and as one alights
from the train at the railway station an

ground. Other apartments include a
large number of bed or dressing-rooms,
dining and drawing-rooms, a billiard
room, four Toshakhana rooms, eleven
bathrooms, and ladies' gallery and
vestibule.

This fine mansion, decorated and fur-
nished in the most sumptuous manner very
largely according to English ideas, is
situated in the south-western portion of
an extensive park, and is surrounded by
tastefully laid out and well-kept gardens.
Within a short distance are stables, coach-

modated in Lansdowne Hall, which was
erected in honour of the visit to Cooch
Behar of the Earl of Lansdowne, Viceroy
of India in the year 1892.

During the minority of His Highness
Maharaja Sir Nripendra Narayan, the
Government assumed control of adminis-
tration, the State being governed by a
Commissioner, but on attaining his
majority he was given full powers, and
from that time the Estates have been
controlled by a Memorandum of Adminis-
tration issued by him.

BUFFALO HEADS.

exceedingly pretty view of the town is
obtained. Green woods and pastures
abound, and away to the north and north-
west are the blue-grey summits of the
Bhutan Hills, and the peaks of the Hima-
layas in the far distance.

The Maharaja's Palace is a large and
magnificent structure, beautifully classical
in design and workmanship. It covers an
area of 51,309 square feet, it is 393 feet
in length, and 296 feet in breadth. The
Durbar Hall, 72 feet by 65 feet, is on the
ground floor, and the central portion is
covered by an elegantly shaped metal
dome surmounted by a lantern, the top
of which is 124 feet 10 inches above the

houses, motor garages, and quarters for
servants, while on the north side of the
palace arc spacious lawn tennis courts,
covered tennis and racket courts, and a
skating rink. The State library, which
must not be overlooked, was established
by Colonel Haughton in the year 1870,
and one historian has expressed the
opinion that " the little State of Cooch
Behar on the borders of Assam can boast
of a library richer than any to be found
in Bengal outside Calcutta." It contains
about nine thousand volumes, chiefly in
English, although there are works in Ben-
gali, Sanskrit, Urdu, Persian, and other
languages. The library is now accom-

The functions of the State Council are
three-fold, viz.: legislative, executive, and
judicial. The Vice-President of the State
Council is the head of the General Depart-
ment, which has branches relating to edu-
cation, public works, agriculture, forests,
and other subjects; the Dewan is the
head of the Revenue, Settlement, and
Dabutter Department, and the Civil and
Sessions Judge presides over the judicial
department.

The inhabitants of Cooch Behar have
for a considerable number of years en-
joyed the advantages of being ruled by
wise administrators, who have taken a
deep personal interest in all State affairs,

INDIAN NOBILITY

and have encouraged the people to raise
themselves in moral, social, intellectual,
educational and other problems.

The present Maharaja is greatly re-
spected throughout the State, and his
geniality and kindliness of heart have
become household words.

His Highness is now causing the town

of Cooch Behar to be greatly improved
in general appearance by the opening up
of new roads, the planting of trees, the
installation of electric light for general
use, and by the construction of a complete
system of waterworks. Particular atten-
tion is being devoted to the class or style
of architecture of the principal buildings

now being erected, and English and Indian
designs are occasionally blended with very
pleasing eflFects.

In connection with Freemasonry it may
be added that His Highness was, in the
year 1905, initiated by special dispensa-
tion, and at the present time he is District
Grand Warden of Bengal.

BERTRAM'S RHINO.

457

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

THE TRIPURA (HILL TIPPERA) STATE

' I ''HE antiquity of an Indian Raj can
only be determined by looking into
the ancient history of India, so fully re-
corded in the old books handed down to
us, together with the inscriptions on old
monuments and coins revealed to modern
times chiefly by European research. That
history is a record of thirty-two centuries,
and divides itself into five distinct epochs,
each of which equals the entire history of
most modern peoples. The greatest San-
skrit scholars have come to the conclusion
that the first Aryan settlement of India
was made in the Indus valley about

2000 B.C.

When the Aryans came to the Sutlej,
having occupied all the land of the Punjab,
they naturally crossed over and entered
into the Gangetic Valley, or the Doab.
During the course of the next four hundred
years, down to looo B.C., the Hindus (by
whom are meant the Indo-Aryans), spread
down the Doab and founded powerful
kingdoms and nationalities, who cultivated
science and literature, and developed new
forms of religion and civilization wholly
different from the Vedic period. Among
the nations who flourished in the Gangetic
Valley the most renowned have left their
names in the literature of Hindu India.
The Kurus established their kingdom
round about their capital, Hastinapur,
near the site of modern Delhi. The
Panchalas settled round about modern
Kanau], and called their capital Indra-
prasthra, to the south-east of Delhi, and
the Kosalas occupied the country between
the Ganges and the Gunduck, including
modern Oude. The V'aidehis lived to the
east of the Gunduck in what is now known
as Tirhut. The Kasis settled round their
capital Kasi, the modern Benares. Con-
tinuing farther cast, and occupying what
is now known as Bengal Proper and the
Province of Assam, were to be found the
kingdoms of the Angas, Bangas (whose
name has survived in the name of Ban-
gadesh or Bengal), Karoli, Mrittikavati,
Mohana, Pattana, Tripura, and Kosala.
Besides these in Northern India there were
numerous great and small kingdoms in
Central and Southern India.

It is unnecessary to describe the great
war in detail, but a brief account is neces-
sary to show what connection the Tripura
Raj had with this ancient episode. Turn-
ing to the " Mahabharat," we find that

By E. F. SANDYS

Yudhisthira sent forth to conquer and
bring to tribute the lesser kings. In the
" Sabha Parva," Chapter XXXI, the six-
tieth verse, it is found that Shahadeva,
the younger brother of Yudhisthira, among
others, conquered the " immeasurably
effulgent Tripura." This epithet " im-
measurably effulgent " clearly proves that
Tripura was a Kshatriya, as only such ever
had this designation applied to them.

.After the departure of the Pandu
brothers into forest exile {vanai'as),
Duryodhana became king and deter-
mined to have himself declared samrat or
emperor. He therefore sent forth armies
under various commanders, one of whom,
Kama, as related in verses nine to eleven
of Chapter CCLIII of Vana Parva of the
" Mahabharat," after conquering various
kingdoms, came to the Batsabhumi or
grazing country, and subjugated Keroli,
Mrittikavati, Mohana and Pattana, Tripura
and Kosala, and made them all pay
tribute.

In the great battle of Kurukshetra all
the kings of the Lunar race ranged either
on the side of Duryodhana or on that of
Yudhisthira. Bhisma, the senapati or
commander-in-chief of the Kuru (Duryo-
dhana's) army, had under his command a
number of subordinate generals. Three
of these are mentioned in the Bhisma
Parva, Chapter LXXXXIV, in the eighth
and ninth verses, and are Drona, Bhaga-
datta, and Vrihatbala, the king of Kosalas.
The last named had in his division the
kinds of Melaka, Tripura, and Chichila.

From the foregoing facts and quotations
it is indisputable; —

Firstly. That whenever the great war
of the " Mahabharat " took place, or
whether it took place at all, or is merely a
Lunar myth, collected by Vyasa, yet the
kingdom of Tripura did exist before
Vyasa's time, that is, before 600 B.C.,
otherwise he could not have mentioned it
in his list of kings.

The Tripura Raj, therefore, was con-
sidered a kingdom of sufficient importance
to have been invaded and made to pay
tribute to Yudhisthira and to Duryodhana,
the samrais of India, and to have taken
part in the great battle of Kurukshetra.

Secondly. That the Tripura, mentioned
in the extracts from the " Mahabharat,"
was in eastern India below the Himalayas
in the neighbourhood of Banga, or what

458

we now call Bengal, that is where the
present Raj of Tripura is now situated,
even in its present shrunken dimensions.
Furthermore, as there is no other raj or
country or king to be found anywhere or
at any time during the, whole Hindu
domination of India elsewhere, other than
the Tripura Raj in question, it cannot be
said that the Tripura of the " Maha-
bharat " is other than the Tripura now
under notice.

Thirdly. That the use of the expression
" immeasurably effulgent " applied to
Tripura shows beyond dispute or cavil that
the King of Tripura was a recognized
Kshatriya of the Royal Warrior Caste in
Vyasa's time, and at least six hundred
years before the Christian era.

Fourthly. That the Rajput princes,
though popularly considered the most
ancient and honourable of all reigning
feudatory rulers in India, only came into
power as rulers about a.d. 750 to 950,
or almost twelve hundred years after the
Tripura kings are cited in at least three
distinct, and far apart, verses of the
" Mahabharat " by Vyasa two thousand
five hundred years ago.

The Tripura Raj is mentioned in the
list of kingdoms on the Emperor Asokas's
pillar in the Fort of Allahabad, and is now
after a lapse of over two thousand two
hundred years, the only one State in exis-
tence of all those mentioned, another proof
of its incomparable antiquity.

The third paragraph of the inscription
on the Asoka Lat or Pillar, at present in
the Fort of Allahabad, built by the Mogul
Emperor Akbar in 1557, mentions Tripura
among the frontier kingdoms, but this
pillar was originally set up at Kausambi,
because it bears, in addition to other
records, an order of Asoka addressed to
the officials of Kausambi, one of the most
celebrated cities of ancient India, which
probably stood on the sites of the present
villages of Kosam Inam and Kosam Khiraj
in the Manghampur tahsil of the Allaha-
bad district, on the bank of the Jumma.
The most recent location, however, is at
Gurgi in the State of Rewah. " Whose
imperious commands were fully gratified
by the payment of taxes and the execu-
tion of his orders by the frontier kings
(Pratyanta Nripati) or Sanatata, Davaka,
Kamaruya, Napala, Kartripura, and other
countries; and by the Matavas, .■Xrjunda-

HER EXCELLENCY LADY CARMICHABL, H.H. MAHARAJA BIRENDRAKISHOR MANIKYA, H.B. LORD CARMICHAEL.

459

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

yanas, Yaudheyans, Madrakas, Abhiras,
I'rajunas, Sanakanikas, Kakas, Kliarapari-
kas, and other tribes."

We gather from tlie I'liratis that I'uru-
ravas was the first of the Chandravansa or
Lunar line of kings. Courth in descent
from I'ururavas was (iritsamada, whose
son was Saunaka. His second cousin
once removed was DirKhatamas, who is
said to have begotten by the wife of Bali,
the sixteenth in descent from I'ururavas,
five sons, named Anga, lianga, Kalinga,
Sumbha, and I'undra, from whom the five
countries of Kast Behar, East Bengal,
Orissa, Tripura, and North Bengal, are
named.

The Rajas of 'I'ripura are Chandravansa
Kshtriyas, and their ancestor 'J'ripur was
descended from Puriiravas.

Chittrayudh was the " immeasurably
eflfulgenl," or the Kshatriya Rajah of
Tripura, who was subjugated by Sahadeva,
the Pandu general sent forth with the
white horse by his eldest brother Yudhis-
thira, the rival of his cousin iJuryadhana
the Kuru. The subjugation of fliit-
trayudh has been related in the twenty-
first chapter of the Digvijaya of the Sabha
Parva of the " Mahal)liarata." Whenever
a Kshatriya Raja of ancient limes wished
to have himself acknowledged as samrat
(emperor) by contemporary rulers, he sent
forth a white horse to wander at will over
the dominions of his neighbours for the
spare of a year. .Should any ruler ojipose
the progress of the white horse, he had to
fight the accompanying army, sent for the
purpose of subjugating refractory neigh-
bours. When the wanderings of the white
horse had been completed the animal was
sacrificed with most imposing religious
ceremonies at an Asvamedha (ast' = horse,
and medha =sarrifice). This sacrifice pre-
ceded the rajasuya or coronation of the
raja as samrat. The coronation ceremony
(described in the Aitareya Brahmana,
Chapter VIII, verse 39) was attended liy
all the rajas who owned allegiance, and
to them were allotted all the great offices
of ceremonial as superintendents in various
departments. At the close of the cere-
mony various honours were bestowed by
the samrat on each of the rajas before they
returned to their dominions. Chitrayudh
attended the rajasuya of Yudhisthira,
when, according to the Kanva text, the
priests addressed the assembly and said : —
" This is your King, O ye Kurus, O ye
PanchallasI "

The honour, or as it would now be
called, the khillat, bestowed on Chit-
trayudh by the Emperor Yudisthira, was

the Svetachattra {svet = white, and chat-
/ra = umbrella) or royal white umbrella,
which to this day is the chief insignia of
the rajas of Tripura, and is unfurled when
they ascend the throne on their installation
by direction of the Emperor of India, who
also bestows a khillat of nine articles.

Era.

It should be noted that the Tripura is
the only ruling dynasty that has an Era
of its own. It dates from A.D. 590, when
Raja Birraj, from whom the jjrescnt raja
is the hundred and seventeenth in descent,
extended his conquests beyond the Gan-
ges. The months of the Tripura year are
the same as those generally prevailing in
Bengal.

The following corresponding dates
illustrate the various eras clearly: ist
.September, 1915, Christian era; 15th
Bhadra, 1322, Bengali; 15th Bhadra,

1325, Tripura; 8tli Bhadra, t322, Easli;
8th Bhadra Budi, 1972, .Samvat; 15th
Bhadra, 1837, Saka; and 20th Sliowal,

'333, Hijri.

Thk Raiamai.a.

The origin and history of the Tripura
Raj is given in the Rajamala (literally
meaning the " Garland of Kings ") or
Chronicles of Tripura. It is the oldest
specimen of Bengali composition extant.
It is in verse, and was in a detached form,
but was collected and written in sequence
by the Brahmin officials of Raja Dharma
Manikya, the hundred and second raja,
who ascended the Tripura gadi in a.d.
1407. His successors have continued the
task year by year until we have now one
<if tlic oldest continuous chronicles of any
Indian reigning family.

Making every allowance for poetic
fancy, Brahminical love of the super-
natural, and courtly flattery, there is a
written record stretching back to the
Aryans in the Epic period, or three
thousand years ago, when Druhya, the
second son of the Samrat or Emperor
Yayati, a Kshatriya of the Lunar Race,
was exiled, together with his elder and
two younger brothers, as is related in the
" Mahabharat " (in Chapter LXXXIV of
the Shambhava Parva of the Adi Parva),
wherein it is described how the aged
emperor called upon his five sons, each
in order of his age, to take upon himself
his old age and give him his youth for a
time. The eldest Yadu, then Druhya,
followed by his two next brothers, Turvasu
and Anu, refused, and were cursed by their

460

father with various penalties and sent into
exile.

The curse upon Druhya is given in the
twentieth, twenty-first, and twenty-second
verses of the above-mentioned chapter. It
is to the efifect that he should go into exile
and spend his days in a pathless country
where the only means of conveyance was
by rafts and floats. Consequently Druhya
retired with his companions to the eastern
parts of the empire, where the floods of
the Brahma|)utra submerged the sur-
rounding country and necessitated water
carriage.

Druhya's descendant Tripura settled on
the banks of the Kapila, a confluent of the
Brahmaputra, and founded the city of
rril)eg ("the place where three stf-eams
meet ") as the capital of his kingdom,
which became known thenceforth to this
day as Tripura, after its founder, who
lived over three thousand years ago.

According to the legend, Tripur was the
grandson of Chitrayudh, who had attended
the rajasya or imperial assemblage of the
Samrat Yudhisthira and had been granted
the Svetachattra or white royal umbrella
as his insignui by the emperor, as already
mentioned. Tripur is said to have been a
jjassionate, tyrannical ruler, who neglected
the due worship of Siva. His subjects
were in great distress and appealed to the
Raja of Hidamba (Cachar), which in those
days was in the valley of the Brahmaputra,
from which its raja and ])eoj)le were driven
by the oppression of more powerful
princes. Under the ancestors c)f ilieir
Raja Govinda Deo, who ruled in the first
half of the thirleenth century, they mi-
grated to the valley of tlie Barak, wliii h
now forms the district of Cachar. '\'\\v
Raja of Hidamba could not or woiilil not
render the Tri])uras any assistance, and,
as Tripur became more and more tyran-
nical and godless, they cried to Siva, who,
when sufficiently provoked by Trii)ur
shooting arrows at the lingam, the emblem
of Siva, and thus bringing his worship into
conteni])!, slew Triinir in wrath. Tripur
had left no son to succeed him, but his
widow was pregnant. Great was the grief
of the innocent and disconsolate rani, and
her entreaties, joined to the prayers of the
Tripuras, allayed the wrath of Siva, who
promised that the rani's unborn ( bild
should be a son, who would lie llir
rei ipient of his godship's favour. .And,
as a sign, he should have on his forehead
the mark of the third or central eye, a
distinguishing feature of Siva. In due
course Tripur's widowed rani gave birth
to a posthumous son, who bore Siva's

HIS UIOHNBJSS .THB LATE MAHARAJA RADHAKI8H0B MANIKYA.

461

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462"

INDIAN NOBILITY

promised token and was accordingly
named Trilochana (three-eyed) in com-
pliment to the god, one of whose names
is Tryambaka, having the same meaning.
So that Tripur founded his capital Tribeg
and was succeeded by his son Trilochana,
a trio of trinities I Ancient history is
usually veiled in myths and related in
legends, but facts in almost every case
form the foundation of these stories.

Trilochana was placed on the throne
amidst the rejoicings of the people, and
was distinguished for wisdom and piety
at an early age. Neighbouring chiefs
paid him homage, and the Raja of
Hidamba (Cachar) offered Trilochana his
daughter in marriage. The nuptials were
celebrated with great rejoicings, and
twelve sons were born of this union.

On the death of the sonless Raja of
Hidamba a dispute arose as to which of
his grandsons was to occupy the vacant
throne. To solve the difficulty peacefully
Trilochana sent messengers to the vener-
ated shrine of Siva on Sagar Island, to
request the priests to come and solve the
difificulty. The name " Sagar " means the
sea, and situated as it is at the point
where the holy Ganges once mingled its
waters with the bay, the island is re-
garded as peculiarly sacred. Thousands
of pilgrims from all parts of India visit
it annually to wash away their sins in the
Bengali month of Magh. In ancient times
there were on Sagar Island a famous tol
or Sanskrit college for Pandits and a
shrine of Siva, erected by the Ra}as of
Tripura when their dominions spread far
more westward than they do now. The
temple and tol were diluviated in 1842.
The Dandis, as -Siva's priests were called,
remembering the persecutions of the god-
less Tripura, were afraid to send any
Pandits to Tripura until they learnt of Tri-
lochana's piety and peaceful habits. Some
of the Dandis returned with the messen-
gers, settled the question of the succession
to Hidamba, and returned rejoicing with
many gifts from Trilochana.

The cult of Siva still continues to be
the State religion of Tripura, but the rajas
are now personally V'ishnavas, probably
since Chaitanya's time, in 1485. It should
be noted that when Siva promised Tripur's
widowed rani a son he stipulated that
Surya and Chandra, or the sun and
moon, as well as the Chaudadevtas,
should be duly and regularly worshipped.
These gods are to this day so worshipped,
and their temples and priests duly pro-
vided for by the State. These gods are:

Hindu trinity; (2) Uma or Durga, the
consort of Siva; (3) Hari or Vishnu, the
preserver in the Hindu trinity; (4) Ma
or Lakshmi, the consort of Vishnu, and
the goddess of prosperity; (5) Bani or
Saraswati, goddess of knowledge; (6)

most sacred river of the Hindus; (12)
Sekhi or Agni, the god of fire; ( 13) Kama,
the god of love; and (14) Himadri, the
Himalaya mountains.

The images of these Chaudadevatas are
made of Astadhatu, an alloy of the eiglit

HIS HIGHNESS THE MAHARAJA BIRCHANDRA MANIKYA.

Kumara or Kartikeya, the god of war and
the commander-in-chief of the gods;
(7) Ganapa or Ganesha, the god of wis-
dom; (8) Bidhu or Chandra, the moon;
(9) Ka or Brahma, the creator in the
Hindu trinity; (10) Abdhi, the god of
the ocean or water ; (11) Ganga, the

463

(sacred) metals, viz. gold, silver, lead,
tin, copper, iron, antimony, and zinc.
Originally the figures were about half lift-
size, but now for some reason there are
only the heads, with a portion of the neck.
The sacrificial worship of these Devatas
is duly maintained, but goats are now

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

sacrificed instead of human beings as in
olden days. The priests are a special
class known as Chuntais, and the chief
Chuntai, according to a very ancient
custom, wears a golden sacred thread
{poita or janeo) and rules for three days
in the year. This period is called the
Ker, during which he and his priests or
Galinis are supreme, but now only sym-
bolically.

Though the limits of the Tripura Raj
have been altered, enlarged, and reduced,
as is only natural through the thirty cen-
turies of storm and stress of the Hindu,
Mahommedan, and British dominations in
India, yet this ancient Aryan Raj still sur-
vives in its present diminished territories,
now bounded by the districts of Sylhet
and Cachar on the north, Lushailand on
the east, the Hill Tracts and Chittagong
on the south, and by the districts of
Noakhali and Tippera on the west. But
so late as the sixteenth century the Raj
stretched from Kamrup in Assam to the
north, to Arakan in the south, from the
empire of Burma on the east to the then
densely populated Sunderbans on the
west.

The capital was gradually moved from
Tribeg, on the Brahmaputra on the north,
to Udaipur, on the Gumti, on the south,
and then back again to Agartala, on the
Haura, where the present Raja has his
seat of Government.

The early history of Cachar, or
Hidamba, as it was anciently called, is
obscure, but it appears that it formerly
belonged to the kingdom of Tripura. It
is, however, certain that the last native
king of Cachar was the descendant of a
line of princes who originally came from
the Assam valley. The Cachar kings were
forced, by the aggressions of the Ahoms
on the north and of the Angami Nagas on
the south, to remove and take up their
abode on the Mahar River. While settled
there, about the beginning or middle of
the seventeenth century, the Cachari king
married a daughter of the Tripura Raja
who received the valley of Cachar as her
dowry, and the capital was transferred
to Kampur between 1700 and 1750.
Govinda Chandra, the last Raja of Cachar,
was assassinated in 1830, and as he left
no heir, natural or adopted, the country
was annexed by the British Government
on August 14, 1832.

Mahommedan Period.

It is unnecessary to go through the
detailed chronicles of the Rajamala until

the first occasion of the Tripura Raj
coming into hostile contact with the Mogul
domination of Northern India which suc-
ceeded the Hindu rulers.

About A. D. 1270, a Hindu Chaudhuri
passing through the Tripura Raj, on
his way to the Court of the Mogul
Subadar at Gour, complained that he
had been robbed while passing through
the Tripura Raj, but had not been able
to obtain justice at the hands of the
Tripura officials. The Subadar was only
too glad to have an excuse for inter-
fering, and he invaded Tripura with a
large army, but was repulsed.

Hari, the ninety-seventh Raja, had
eighteen sons, of whom Ratna, though one
of the youngest, was considered the most
intelligent, and he was sent by his father
to travel abroad and gain experience. He
visited and resided at the court of the
Mogul Subadar, during which stay the
Raja Hari died and an elder son ascended.
Ratna asked Togral Khan, the Subadar of
the Emperor Balban of Delhi, to help him
gain the Raj. This request afforded the
Subadar an e.xcellent opportunity for re-
trieving the before-mentioned defeat of
the Mogul army. As Stewart relates or.
page 70 of his "History of Bengal":
"In the year 678 Hijri (a.d. 1279) ^^
assembled a very numerous army and in-
vaded the country of Jajnagar. After
having defeated the Raja in a general
engagement, he plundered the inhabitants,
and brought away with him immense
wealth and one hundred elephants."

Why Tripura should have been called
" Jajnagar " by the Mahommedans is
not clear, though the historian Farishta
mentions a " Jajnagar " to the east
of the Brahmaputra, and perhaps meant
Tripura.

The following is a list of the rajas
who ruled in Tripura from the year
1279:-

Ratna Manikya

Pratap, Manikya, Mukinda

Manikya, and Maha

Manikya...
Dharmma Manikya
Interregnum
Dhanya Manikya
Deva Manikya
Indra Manikya
Bujaya Manikya
Ananta Manikya
Uday Manikya
Jai Manikya
Amar Manikya
Rajdhar Manikya

1279-

1323

1323-

1407

1407-

1458

1458-

1490

1490-

I 520

I 520-

1535

'535

•535-

1583

'583-

1585

1585-

1596

1596-

1597

1597-

161 1

1611-

1613

Jashadhar Manikya
Interregnum
Kalyan Manikya
Govinda Manikya ...
Chhattra Manikya ... ...

Govinda Manikya (for the

second time) ... ; ■...
Ram Manikya
Ratna Manikya II ...
Narendra Manikya...
Ratna Manikya (for the

second time)
Mahendra Manikya
Dharmma Manikya
Jagat Manikya
Dharmma Manikya (for the

second time)
Mukunda Manikya...
Jai Manikya
Indra Manikya
Bijai Manikya
Krishna Manikya ...
Jahnabi Mahadevi...
Rajdhar Manikya ...
Durga Manikya
Ramganga Manikya
Kasichandra Manikya
Krishnakishor Manikya
Isanchandra Manikya
Birchandra Manikya
Radhakishor Manikya
Birendrakishor Manikya (the

present raja)

1613-

1623

1623—

1625

1625—

1659

1659-

1660

!66o-

1666

1666-

1669

1669—

1682

1682-

1684

1684-

1712

1712-

1714

1714-

1732

'732-

1733

1733-

1737

1737-

1739

1739-

1743

Unce

rtain

1760-

1783

1783-

1785

1785-

1804

1804-

1813

1813-

1826

1826-

1830

1830-

1849

1849-

1862

1862-

1896

1896-

19C9

1900-

Ratna ( 1279— 1323) having, by the help
of the Mogul army, defeated his brother,
beheaded him, and ascended the gadi as
raja in a.d. 1279. Having presented the
Subadar with a valuable ruby, the title of
" Manikya " was bestowed on him. Mani-
kya means a perfect ruby of a certain size
and shape, and this title has been borne
by the Rajas of Tripura ever since.

Ratna Manikya died in a.d. 1323, and
was succeeded by his son Pratab Manikya,
who was defeated by Sultan Iliya Shah,
the ruler of Bengal. Pratab Manikya was
succeeded by his younger brother Mokut
Makunda, who in turn was succeeded by
his son Maha Manikya, who died in 1407
and was succeeded by his son.

Dharma Manikya (1407-58). Mean-
while Sultan Fakiruddin Sikandar, having
made himself independent of the Emperor
of Delhi, became king of Bengal, and
removed his seat of government to Sonar-
gaon, south of Dacca. Fakiruddin was
taken prisoner by Ali Mobarak, an im-
perial official, after a short reign of 2 years
and 5 months. Ali Mobarak was assas-
sinated after i year and 5 months by his
foster brother Haji, who assumed the title

464

INDIAN NOBILITY

of Shamsuddin and made himself King of
Bengal.

After establishing his authority, Sham-
suddin invaded the dominions of the Raja
of Tripura and compelled him to pay a
great sum of money and to give him a
number of valuable elephants, with which
he returned in triumph toi his capital.
Dharma Manikya in turn attacked and
defeated the King of Bengal, Sultan
.Ahmad Shah, and plundered his capital at
Sonargaon. This Raja had the " Dharma

grace Dhanya Manikya was attacked three
times by the Moguls. Hussan Shah, the
King of Jaunpur had contested the
empire with the Emperor Sultan Beloli,
and had, on being defeated, taken refuge
at the Court of Allauddin, King of Bengal.
Hussan Shah was sent at the head of a vast
army gathered from the twelve provinces
of Bengal to invade Tripura. He cap-
tured the fort at Meharkul, near Comilla,
and proceeded up the Gumti River to
attack the capital at Udaipur, but the

number of Mogul sawars. When a
thousand of them mutinied for arrears of
pay and marched on Chittagong, then a
Tripura garrison, the mutineers were
overtaken and defeated, and those of them
who were captured alive were beheaded
at the temple of the Chaudadebta at Udai-
pur. To avenge this wholesale sacrificial
slaughter the Mogul King sent a force of
three thousand cavalry and si.\ thousand
infantry, under Mahammad Khan. At first
he was successful, and the Tripuras lost

1. ARRIVAL OF HIS HONOUR THE LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR AT THE PALACE, AGARTALA.
2. HIS HIGHNESS THE MAHARAJA RECEIVING THE LIEUTENANT-30VERN0R AT THE PALACE.

Sagar " excavated at Comilla, and he also
reduced the great number of human sacri-
fices to a very small minimum. Dharma
Manikya died in 1458.

.An interregnum occurred till 1490,
when Dhanya Manikya (1490—1520), the
brother of Pratab Manikya, ascended the
gadi. The Tripura Raj was at its zenith
during Manikya's reign. In 15 12 the
Raja sent his general, Chuchug Rai, to
attack the important Mogul garrison at
Chittagong, or, as it was named by the
Mogul, Islamabad (the abode of the
Faith), and that e.\pedition proved to be
entirely successful. To avenge this dis-

Tripuras dammed up the river at Sona-
niora, where it debouches into the plains,
and suddenly cutting the dyke at night,
the Mogul encampment was swept away
and most of the soldiers drowned.
Shortly after this disastrous failure the
Moguls again invaded Tripura under
Haitan Khan and attempted to attack
Udaipur, but they were similarly drowned
by an artificial flood created in the nar-
row valley below Debtamora. -A. third
invasion was defeated at Kasba.

Finding the Mogul horsemen such
excellent cavalry, and having none of his
own, the Raja of Tripura engaged a large

465

their commander, but shortly after the
Moguls were defeated and their general
captured. He, too, was sent in a cage to
the temple and sacrificed to the Chauda-
devatas.

Dhanya Manikya died in 1520, and was
succeeded by his son —

Deva Manikya (^1520-35). This Raja
was defeated at Islamabad (Chittagong)
by the Moguls under Sultan Nasrath Shah.
On Deva Manikya's death the Chuntai
(high priest) set up the late raja's nephew,
Panchkauri Thakur, as —

Indra Manikya, but both were killed
by the military party within the year.

2 K

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Bijat Manikya (1535-83), the son of
Deb Manikya, succeeded, and was a
powerful ruler. He defeated the Mughs
at Chittagong. He also regained what are
now the British districts of Sylhet, Tip-
pera, and Noakhali. He also had a
canal excavated between the Hills and
Kasba, known as the Bejai Naddi. Col-
lecting an army of twenty-six thousand
infantry and five thousand cavalry, the
Raja conveyed them over the Megna in
five thousand boats to Sonargaon, the
Mogul capital of Bengal, but contented
himself with laying waste the country.
Crossing the Brahmaputra (then flowing
in its old channel round the Garo Hills
and through the modern district of
Mymensingh) into Sylhet, he dug a large
number of great tanks for the supply of
good drinking water, this being intended
as an act of piety.

Ananta Manikya (1583-85), the son of
Bijai Manikya, declared war against the
Mugh Raja Sikandar Shah (the Mugh
rulers gave themselves Mohammedan
names), but was repulsed, owing to the
assistance of Portuguese gunners whom
the Mugh Raja engaged. The Portu-
guese, under the leadership of Sebastian
Gonsalez, were mutinous sailors who had
killed their officers, and going off with
their ships and driving away the Mogul
Fouzdar, made their headquarters in the
Island of Sandip, off the coasts of Chitta-
gong and Noakhali at the head of the Bay
of Bengal. Having built a fort and firmly
established themselves, the Portuguese
became pirates and preyed upon the coasts
from the mouth of the Hooghly River
along the Sunderbans, the mouths of the
Ganges, Megna, Feni, Karnafuli, and Naaf
Rivers, and from thence southwards along
the coasts of Aracan. Being excellent
gunners, and having armed ships at their
command, these Portuguese took a large
and deciding part in the politics and
history of Eastern Bengal, including
Aracan. They entered the service of the
Mugh Rajas, then of the Rajas of Tripura,
fighting for and against these potentates,
and impartially plundering every trader
they came across. The Raja of Tripura en-
gaged eight of these Portuguese gunners,
and their debased descendants, by low
women of the country, still inhabit Miriam-
naggar, between Old and New Agartala.
Having been repulsed by the Mugh
Raja, Sikander Shah Ananta Manikya sent
a larger army under the command of his
three sons. One of the sons was killed
by a wounded elephant, and the Tripuras
were repulsed. The Mughs followed up

their victory, marched on Rangamati and
sacked the capital. Gopi Prasad, the
Tripura coinmander-in-chief, strangled his
son-in-law, Ananta Manikya, and set him-
self up as —

Udai Manikya (1585-96), and changed
the name of the capital from Rangamati
to Udaipur, after himself, and it is still
known by that name. He was succeeded
by his son, Jai Manikya (1596-7), who in
turn was succeeded by the brother of
Bijai Manikya, named Amar Manikya
(1597— 161 1), who fought the Mughs and
was defeated. The Mughs subsequently
took Chittagong and plundered Udaipur.
The Zemindar of Tarat in Sylhet refused
to supply labourers to dig tanks, and being
attacked by twelve thousand Tripura
troops, was taken prisoner and brought
in a cage to Udaipur. The tank at Udai-
pur was excavated by this raja and named
after himself, Amar Sagar. He was suc-
ceeded by his son, Rajdhar Manikya I
(1611-13). The Moguls attacked the Tri-
puras, but were defeated. This raja was
accidentally drowned in the River Gumti,
on which Udaipur is situated.

Jasadhar Manikya (1613-23), the son
of Rajdhar Manikya I, succeeded, and was
at constant war with the Moguls. The
Emperor of Delhi, Jahangir, required his
generals to procure elephants and a large
army of Moguls under Nawab Futteh
Jung, invaded Tripura in 1620. After
long and severe fighting the Raja was de-
feated and taken captive, and, together
with a large booty and numerous ele-
phants, was sent to the Emperor at Delhi.
Here the Raja was offered his freedom and
restoration on condition of agreeing to pay
an annual tribute of elephants. This the
Raja declined to do and retired to Brin-
daban, where he died in his seventy-second
year.

Brindaban is peculiarly sacred to the
followers of Vishnu, among whom tlie
Rajas of Tripura rank very high. The
descendants of Nityananda, whose name
is associated with the great Vishnuvite
revivalist, Chaitanya, are settled at the
Court of Tripura, and are the Raja's gurus
or spiritual guides.

Meanwhile the Raj was wasted by the
Moguls, and Sarkar Udaipur was formed
and governed by Mogul Governors be-
tween 1623-5, during which there was an
interregnum. It should be noted that, to
avoid the attacks of the Portuguese
pirates, who sailed up the Megna River,
the Moguls had moved their capital, or
seat of the Subadar, from Sonargaon to
Dacca, situated on the Buriganga, a nar-
466

rower and shallower river than the mighty
Megna on which Sonargaon was situated.
Sebastian Gonsalez, the leader of the
pirates and founder of tlieir fortified
settlement in the Island of Sandip, had
married a daughter of the Mugh Raja of
.Aracan, and had driven out the Mogul
Fouzdar from Sandip. This naturally en-
raged the Mogul Subadar, and he deter-
mined to crush the Portuguese and punish
all the rajas who had either employed or
sheltered them. Hence the fierce on-
slaught on Tripura and ultimate defeat
and captivity of Jasadhar Manikya.
Another and more frequent reason for in-
vading Tripura was that the Emperor of
Delhi required a great and regular supply
of elephants for State and war purposes,
and the Hills of Tripura abounding then,
as now, with great numbers of these
animals, tempted frequent Mogul invasions
and demands for them as tribute.

Kalyan Manikya (1625-59), ^ relative.
or Gyanti Bhrata, of the childless Jasadhar
Manikya, was elected by the Tripuras to
be raja. Kalyan Manikya defied the
Moguls and refused to pay any tribute.
During his reign of twenty-four years
there was incessant conflict with the in-
creasing Mogul power, and towards the
end these persistent efforts succeeded, and
Kalyan Manikya had to submit to Sultan
Suja Khan. The great tank at Kasba
named Kalyan Sagar was excavated in
this reign.

It may be noted here that the present
Raja is descended from Kalyan Manikya
through his eldest son Govinda Manikya.

Govinda Manikya (1659-60, and again
from 1666-69) was the eldest son and
Juvaraj of Kalyan Manikya. He was
defeated and dethroned by his half-
brother, Nakshatra Rai, who usurped the
gadi as Chattra Manikya ( 1660-6). Cha-
trakhila, near Comilla is most probably
named after Chattra Manikya. The
French traveller Tavernier (1605-89)
visited the Raj during this reign, and this
fact is referred to in his " Travels " (be-
tween 1 66 1 and 1668), in which he also
gives an illustration of one of Chattra
Manikya's coins.

On the death of Chattra Manikya,
Govinda Manikya, the rightful Raja, re-
gained the gadi, and during his second
reign of three years had the waste lands of
Pargana Maherkul in Chakla Roshunabad
brought under cultivation, and also had
the great tank in Jajiara excavated and
named " Gun Sagar," after his Rani Guna-
vati Mahadevi. On the deatli of Govinda
Manikya his eldest son and Juvaraj-

V|| It I

1. PALACE AT AGARTALA. 2. RESIDENCE OF HIS HIGHNESS, AT AGARTALA.

3. ANOTHER VIEW OF THE PALACE.

467

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Ram Manikya (1669-82) ascended the
gadi and caused the great tank in Maij-
khara, called " Ram Sagar," to be ex-
cavated. He was succeeded by his eldest
son and Juvaraj —

Ratna Manikya ( 1682). During his mi-
nority his uncle Narendra, the second son
of Govinda Manikya, seized the throne.

Narendra Manikya (1682-4) after a
usurpation of two years was displaced by
the Nawab Nazim of Bengal to whom
Ratna had appealed for assistance.

1708— during the reign of Ratna Manikyait(]pi Ghaneshyam Thakur, the second son of

and the government of the Nawab Nazim
Mahomed Murshid Ruli Khan, the greatest
of the Mogul Subadars of Bengal, Behar
and Orissa, and the founder of Murshi-
dabad, the last seat of"the Mogul govern-
ment in Bengal, it is recorded that " the
rajas of Tripura, Cooch Behar, and
Assam, whose countries, although they had
been overrun by the Mahommedan arms,
had never been perfectly subdued, and
who therefore continued to spread the urn-

Ram Manikya and next brother of Ratna
Manikya, murdered the Raja and usurped
the gadi as Mahendra Manikya from 1 7 1 2
to 17 14, when Durjaya Deb as Dharma
Manikya (1714-33), the next younger
brother of Ram Manikya, and the Juvaraj
appointed by him, succeeded.

During this reign, in 1730, Jegat Ram,
the great grandson of Chattra Manikya
and grand nephew of Govinda Manikya,
and according to the Hindu custom of re-

1. KUKI SOLDIERS.

2. THE BINANDIA.S, OR TRIPURA MILITIA.

Katna Manikya (1684— 17 12) regained
the gadi, and had the great temple of
Jaggcrnath, called " Sattra Ratna," built
in the neighbourhood of Comilla in Par-
gana Maherkul, Chakla Roshunabad. To-
wards the end of the seventeenth century
Ratna Manikya shook off the Mogul yoke.
Stewart in his " History of Bengal
(page 372), based upon, if not translated
and arranged from, the best fourteen
Mahommedan historians of the Mogul
period, thus describes the relationship that
existed between the Emperors of Delhi
and the Rajas of Tripura, during the long-
continued efforts made by various Mogul
kings and governors to bring the Trijjura
Raj under the Mogul yoke. Writing of

brella of independence and to stamp the
coins in their own names, were so im-
pressed with the idea of the power and
abilities of Mahomed Kuli Khan, that they
forwarded to him valuable presents con-
sisting of elephants, wrought and un-
wrought ivory, musk, amber, and various
other articles in token of their submission,
in return for which the Nawab sent them
khilats or honorary dresses, by the receipt
and putting on of which they acknow-
ledged his superiority. This interchange
of presents and compliments became an
annual custom during the whole time of
his government without either party
attempting to recede from or advance
beyond the implied line of conduct."

468

lationship, nephew of Dharma Manikya,
displeased his uncle (Dharma Manikya)
and was banished from the country.
Jagat Ram took refuge with a Mahom-
medan Zemindar named Aka Sadik and
entreated his assistance in recovering the
gadi usurped by his great grandfather
Chattra Manikya, or Nakshattra Rai, the
second son of Kalyan Manikya. The
Zemindar being intimately acquainted with
Mir Habbib, the Dewan of the Naib Xazim
at Dacca, recommended the cause of Jagat
Ram to the Dewan and pointed out the
favourable opportunity it would offer of
subjecting Tripura to the Moguls. Mir
Habbib having represented the circum-
stancas to the Naib Nazim, obtained

INDIAN NOBILITY

permission to proceed with all the troops
that were in the vicinity of Dacca to effect
this object. The Mogul troops crossed
the Brahmaputra (which then flowed in
its old course to the east of Dacca and
joined the Megna, the western boundary
of the Raj) and entered Tripura under
tlie guidance of Jagat Ram before the
Kaja was aware of their intention. The
Moguls reached the capital before the
Raja could make any preparations to

British till long afterwards, as will be
related in due course. However, the Naib
Nazim was much pleased at Mir Habbib's
success, and changed the name of Tripura
to Roshunabad, or the " abode of light,"
probably because it was the eastern limit
of the Empire where the sun first rose on
the Mogul dominions. In order to sup-
port the young usurper, Jagat Manilcya,
against Dharma Manikya, and at the same
time to secure his fealty, a considerable

Thakur, a great-great-grandson of Kalyan
Manikya by his fourth son Rajballah
Thakur, who ascended the gadi as Jai
Manikya (1737-9) ^nd named the Par-
gana Maherkul, of Chakla Roshunabad,
after himself as " Jainagar." After an
equally short usurpation Jai Manikya was
displaced by the assistance of the Naib
Nazim at Dacca in favour of Panchkouri
Thakur, a son of Makunda Manikya, and
who ascended the gadi as Indra Manikya

1. RAPIDS ON BIVEB GUMTI, ABOVE UDAIPUR.

2. VIEW OF THE COUNTRY NEAR AGARTALA.

oppose tliem, and he fled to the hills,
and Jagat Ram was raised to the
gadi as —

Jagat Manikya (1732-3) upon the con-
dition that he paid a large portion of the
revenue to the Nawab Nazim. The whole
country in the plain quietly submitted, and
thus the Province of Tripura, which from
time immemorial had been an independent
kingdom, became annexed to the Mogul
Empire. Although the northern and
western portions of the Tripura plains, or
the modern British districts of Sylhet,
Tippera, and Noakhali, had been included
bv Raja Todar Mall, the famous finance
Minister, in the Emperor Akbar's rent roll
(Jaujij in 1582, yet they were not con-
quered and brought into subjection by the

number of Mahommedan troops were left
in the country under the command of Aka
Sadik, the Zemindar who had first be-
friended Jagat Ram, and who was nomin-
ated Fouzdar. However, in 1733 the
usurper was displaced from the gadi by
order of the Nawab Nazim, whose ear
Dharma Manikya reached through the
great banker Jagat Seth of Azimganj, near
Murshidabad.

Dharma Manikya (1733), ascended the
gadi for the second time. The great tank
of Kasba called the " Dharma Sagar " was
excavated by this raja, who appointed his
younger brother Juvaraj. In due course
Chandramaani Juvaraj became Raja as
Makunda Manikya (1733-7), and after a
short reign was displaced by Rudramani

469

( ' 739-43)- The country was rent between
the followers of Jai Manikya and Indra
Manikya, and the former again received
the sanad of the Naib Nazim, but Gada-
dhar Thakur, the son of Dharma Manikya,
managed to secure the favour of the
Nawab Nazim and ruled for a short time
as Udai Manikya, but was displaced by
Jai Manikya (for the second time), who in
his turn was deposed by the assistance
of Ali Verdi Khan, Nawab Nazim of
Bengal.

Indra Manikya returned to the gadi for
the second time, and in turn was displaced
by Jai Manikya, who ascended for the
third time, when Haridhan Thakur. his
youngest brother, deposed Jai Manikya
and usurped the position as Bejaya

2 K*

Bengal and Assam, behar and orissa

Manikya, and received a sanad from the pera, and Chittagong, with permission to

Nawab, but falling into arrears of revenue perform the office (of Naib Nazim) by

was sent as a prisoner to Delhi. deputy."

Shamshcr Gazi, a notorious Mussulman -Vfter Shamsher Gazi's arrest and exe-

KUKI WOMEN.

plunderer in the districts of Tippera,
Noakhali, and Chittagong, having ob-
tained authority in Pargana Dakhinsik,
proclaimed himself ruler of Roshunabad
and agreed to pay revenue to the Moguls.
He caused great tanks to be excavated in
Dakhinsik, his native Pargana, and named
them after himself. Shamsher was at the
same time generous with his plunder to
both Hindus -and Mahummedans,

Shamsher Gazi set up Banamali Thakur,
the elder son of Gadadhar Thakur (the
usurper Udai Manikya), the son of
Dharma Manikya as Raja with the title of
Lakshan Manikya, but the Tripuras would
not accept him as Raja or follow his
standard. His many cruelties and op-
pressions caused the Nawab to have
Shamsher Gazi arrested, sent to Dacca,
and then blown from a cannon after twelve
years of lawlessness.

Meanwhile the Emperor of Delhi in
1740 conferred on Nawazish Khan, the
nephew and eldest son-in-law of Nawab
Nazim Ali Verdi Khan (1740-56) the
titles of Shahamat Junj (Stewart, pages
446-7), " and that these titles should be
supported with proper dignity the Nawab
(Ali Verd: Khan) conferred on Nawazish
Khan the Government of Dacca, to which
he annexed the districts of Sylhet, Tip-

culion at Dacca, Krishnamani Thakur,
brother of Indra Manikya and grandson
of Makunda Manikya, ascended the gadi
as Krishna Manikya (1760-83). A year
after this raja's accession in 1761, the
English East India Company appeared on
the scene, being invoked by the Moguls
under the following circumstances: A
treaty, dated February 7, 1759, had been
entered into between the Nawab Nazim
Siraj-ud-Daula (th^ grandson and succes-
sor of Nawab Nazim Ali Verdi Khan, who
died in 1756) and the East India Com-
pany. Circumstances with which this his-
tory has no concern led to the downfall
of Siiaj-ud-Iiaula and the putting of his
brolhcr-in-law, Mir Jafer in the Nizamat.
A treaty was subsequently entered into
with Mir Jafer confirming the one made
with Siraj-ud-Daula. .Article II of this
treaty recites " that the enemies of the
English are my enemies whether they
be Indians or Europeans." And by an
additional .'\rticle .\1II, the English
Company agreed as follows: " .And.
further, that we shall assist him to the
utmost against all his enemies whatso-
ever, as soon as he calls upon us for
th:it end."

It was this addition of Article XIII that
led to the I'^nglish Company inter-

470

fering with Tripura affairs in a most
high-handed and unscrupulous manner
in 1761.

Chittagong was one of the first districts
of Bengal which passed into the posses-
sion of the East India Company. In 1760
the Company deposed Mir Jafer and ele-
vated his son-in-law, Mir Kasim Ali, to
the Nizamat. By an article of a treaty,
dated September 27, 1760, concluded with
Mir Kasim Ali, the districts of Burdwan,
Midnapore, and Chittagong, were ceded
to the Company by the Nizam, and this
cession was finally confirmed by the
Emperor Shah Alam by a firman dated
August 12, 1765, granting the Dewani of
the three subas to the English Company.

The outlying and remote position of
Chittagong led the Company to give a
strong loral government to Chittagong.
On November 8, 1760, Mr. V^erelst was
appointed Chief of Chittagong, and, to-
gether with a Council, managed the Com-
pany's affairs on the spot.

English Period.

On January 20, 1761, Governor Vansit-
tart wrote from Calcutta to the President
and Council of the factory at Islamabad
(Chittagong) as follows:

" With regard to the Tippera Raja, as
the Nawab's Foujdar has been obliged
from his ill behaviour to take up arms
against him, we desire that you will use
yo.ir endeavours to reduce him to his due
state of obedience to the Government of
Islamabad, acquainting us then what
advantages may accrue to the Company
from the possession of that country, and
we will answer any representations the
Nawab (the Nizam) may make on the
subject."

This frank declaration of greed for their
neighbour's property, which alone seemed
to guide the action of the Company's
representatives, and the calm assumption
that because the Nizam had ceded " the
Thanna of Chittagong " to the Company,
the Government of Islamabad became the
lords of the whole of Eastern Bengal, and
required to reduce him (the independent
Raja of Tripura) to his due obedience to
the Company, not to the Nawab Nazim,
was as astounding as it was shameless.
There never could be any dispute about
what the Nizam granted to the Company
as the " Thanna of Islamabad or Chit-
tagong " by a sanad (see Aitchison, vol. i.
page 48). The River Feni had been its
northern boundary from time immemorial,
separating it from the Tripura Raj and

INDIAN NOBILITY

the rest of Eastern Bengal, riirther, tlie
concluding words quoted, " and we will
answer any representations the Nawab may
make on the subject," clearly show that a
guilty idea was at the back of Governor
V'ansittart's mind.

" In accordance with this order, Mr.
\'erelst, the chief at Islamabad, dis-
patched Lieutenant Mathew with two
hundred sepoys and two guns to Tippera,
where he found the Nawab's Dewan was
already operating with Mahommedan
troops. The Dewan had reported that he
had obliged the Raja to take to the moun-
tains, and had got possession of every fort
in the country. On the arrival of our
troops the Raja at once put himself in their
hands."

No doubt, trusting to the notions of
English honour and honesty, as contrasted
with that of the Moguls, Krishna Manikya
expected to get fair treatment, but found
that he had only escaped from the claws
of the Mogul tiger to fall into the jaws of
the English lion!

" A Collector of Revenue was
despatched from Chittagong with in-
structions to inquire into the resources of
the country and demand payment of the
expenses of the expedition. The C0I7
lector, finding the province desolated by
the Nawab's troops, was compelled to take
payment by instalments, ' as the Raja was
very low in cash.' The revenue for the
first year was fixed at one lakh and one
sicca rupees."

This callous disregard of the crudest
ideas of honesty by a trading Company's
servants, shown in the above quotations
from Mackenzie (pages 271-2), is fol-
lowed by two paragraphs, showing how
even a high official of the Crown had
lieconie infected with no higher ideas, and
his sentiments arc those of one who would
appear to have suffered a personal loss
through the Rajas of Tripura being
allowed to retain even a sera]) of their
immemorial Raj after the Moguls had
robbed them of the fairest and greatest
portions, and the English Company had
jiut forward, under the guise of respect-
ing " a mere scrap of paper," the treaty
with the Nizam of Bengal, and had robbed
the robbers!

The unfortunate Krishna Manikya had
in 1761 been forced by the Moguls into
the hills, and the English had deprived
him of the plains, and being thus restricted
in territory, subjects, and revenue, the
Raja had next to contend against Balaram.
Thakur, the son of the uslirper Jagat

following of Hill tril)es and ousted him
and proclaimed himself lialaram Manikya
in 1776, but he only ruled for about a
year when he in turn was deposed by the
rightful Raja.

Krishna Manikya (1777 to i7Xi)
having refused to settle with the English
for his plains territory, of which the
Company- had deprived him, these were
" attached " and placed under the direct
control of the Company's local officer, who
took all the revenue and doled out a
pittance to the Raja! A tank, named after
his consort, " Rani Dighi," was excavated
in Comilla, and the Raja died childless
leaving his widow, the Rani Jahnabi
Mahadevi, and a nephew, Rajdharmani
Thakur. Several claimants came forward
for the vacant throne, each putting for-
ward a different, and in his own estima-
tion, a better title than his rivals. The
Company's Resident, however, took the
view that no one could deny that the widow
was the Rani, and he recommended her
being placed on the disputed throne. The
Rani, as a pious Hindu widow, wished to
be cremated with her hmband. but acced-
ing to the prayers of her subjects, who
had just grounds for fearing that the Corn-

in order to be cremated when left
in peace to follow her Hindu wifely
wish, and she actually became a sali
in 1785.

Jahnabi Mahadevi reigned from 1783
to 1785, and with a woman's common
sense and regard for justice and equity,
requested the Company to accept Rajdhar-
mani Thakur, her childless husband's
nephew and successor, as selected by
himself, as the Raja, and Durgamani
I hakur, son of Lakhan Manikya (who
had been pitchforked on to the throne
by Shamsher Gazi) as Juvaraj. so
that both the principal claimants
should be satisfied. The C(mipany
accepted the Rani's suggestion, and
consequently —

Rajdhar Manikya (1785 1804), as
Rajdharmani Thakur called himself,
ascended the vacant throne, but had
hardly seated himself thereon when he was
accused by the Company's officials of
" harbouring dacoits," and was deported
to Chittagong, while the plains territory
was again promptly " attached." Thus
the unfortunate Raja was deprived of his
gadi and of his plains territory as well
until 1792, when by some miracle of right

MUESUNGA, ONE OF THE TRIBUTARY KUKI RAJAS.

pany would have an. excuse for taking the
kingless Hills (as they had taken the
plains territory), she unwillingly agreed
to occupy the vacant gadi until a male
occupant was found. Meanwhile she had
the chita or funeral pyre kept alight

dealing his liberty and territories were
restored. But not until the Raja had per-
force entered into a " settlement " where-
by he had to pay an annual revenue
for Chakla Roshanabad, as, in the words
of Mackenzie, " the Company sought

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

rupees, not elephants, and so the hills were
left to their native rulers! "

A Rajbati and Tehsil Cutchery were
built at Mugra in Pargana Meharkul,
Chakia Roshanabad, and the bazar at-
tached was named " Radharganj." In
1800 the Raja empowered his son Ram-
ganga to exercise full authority, but this
act of paternal affection led to very serious
trouble on Rajdhar Manikya"s death in
1 804, when instead of allowing the recog-
nized Juvaraj, Durgamani, to succeed,
Ramganga formulated the doctrine that
the Raja's son as such was the rightful
successor, and that the title of Juvaraj was
merely an honorary one. lieing in pos-
session of Chakia Roshanabad, from which
the main income of the Raj was derived,
Ramganga paid the Company's Collector
the revenue and was acknowledged by that
official as the de facto Raja, but the Com-
pany's Judge, having a judicial way of
viewing such questions, took a legal rather
than a pecuniary view of Durgamani 's
Juvaraj ship and championed his cause.
The higher officials, representing the
Company of Traders, " sought rupees,
not elephants," and consequently they
took a very benevolent view of Ram-
ganga's doctrine, since he was the one who
gave them the coveted rupees. Durgamani
Juvaraj, the legal-minded judge's de jure
protige, was therefore referred to the Civil
Court to prove his claims to the Revenue-
paying Chakia Roshanabad, and he was
promised recognition as Raja if the Courts
declared him to be the person legally
responsible for the revenue.

The Company was as yet only the Em-
peror Shah Ajam's revenue-collecting
Dcwan, by virtue of the Firman of August
12, 1765, granted by His Majesty in grati-
tude for the Company defeating the rebel-
lious Wazir of Oudh and restoring to him
the districts of Allahabad and Kora and
contributing 26 lakhs of rupees a year to
the Imperial purse from the revenues of
Bengal, Bchar and Orissa. They were
essentially traders seeking rupees, or that
which produced them. Consequently the
ideas of justice, equity, and fair dealing
with Indian rajas and other rulers found
no place in the mercantile and pecuniary
minds of its officials, who shuffled out of
the difficulty of inquiring in an impartial
manner whether the Juvaraj was the right-
ful successor to the vacant throne, or
whether he who bluntly stated that a raja's
son was the raja's successor, and further
strengthened his argument by paying the
necessary rupees to the Company, should
be given the position.

')u Rajdhar Manikya's dcatli, as has
been stated, Ramganga seized the throne,
having had possession of the Zemindari
during his late father's reign. Had he
been able to seize Durgamani Juvaraj as
well he would speedily have made himself
de jure as well as de facto raja. Durga-
mani, however, escaped, and lost no time
in gathering together men and means for
the expulsion of the usurper, and all the
feelings of the people were in favour of the
anointed Juvaraj. Ramganga was dis-
liked for the sacrilege of his conduct and
the tyranny and suspicion which he so fre-
quently evinced. Durgamani was soon
able to advance with his expedition, but
the British officials interfered and insisted
on his bringing a suit to establish his right
to the Zcmindari, promising to postpone
recognition of the raja until the case was
concluded. Durgamani therefore had to
acquiesce in this decision, and Ramganga
remained in possession of Chakia
Roshanabad. The evidence of the prin-
cipal officials of the Raj was entirely in
Durgamani's favour. At length, on March
24, 1809, the Sadar Dewani Adalat, the
highest Court in India, as its successor
the High Court is now, gave judgment in
Durgamani Juvaraj 's favour, declaring the
" Zcmindari of Chakia Roshanabad to be
an integral portion of an impartible Raj
to which he, as nominated Juvaraj, should
succeed." The Company accordingly in-
vested him with the insignia of kingship as
regards the Hill territory, while the Civil
Court gave him possession of the lands in
the plains. As Mr. Mackenzie remarked:
" Years of misery might have been avoided
had the Company assumed the paramount
position which the application for recog-
nition had virtually recognized. The Raj
and the Zemindari being treated as im-
partible the Company might well have
decided at once whom it would accept as
heir."

During the years Ramganga had been in
possession of the Chakia he erected several
houses and a temple, and excavated the
great tank named " Ganga Sagar " after
himself at Mugra, completing what his
father Rajdhar Manikya had begun.

Durga Manikya (1809-13), the son of
l.akhan Manikya, the Juvaraj nominated
by Krishna Manikya and his consort. Rani
Jahnabi Mahadevi, was a peaceful and
pious raja, and named the bazar at Sib
Sagar, " Mahadayaganj," after his mother.
Being childless he went on a pilgrimage
to Kasi (Benares), and died en route of
cholera, at Patna on the Ganges. He had
made no appointment of a Juvaraj,

hoping for a son, but had left Ramganga
in charge of the Raj during his absence.

Ramganga Manikya (1813-26) natur-
ally asked for recognition and investiture
from the Company, but the poison of liti-
gation having once entered the Raj there
were several claimants to the throne, and
Ramganga's title was disputed by Arjun-
mani Thakur and others. But so strong
appears to have been the reverence enter-
tained by the people for the customs of the
Raj, that Ramganga had now no difficulty
in securing their allegiance, as he was the
son of Rajdhar Manikya, the Raja before
Durga Manikya, who died childless and
had made no appointment of a successor.
Arjunmani Thakur, however, among
others, claimed the vacant throne.

In order to understand Arjunmani's
claim one must go back to Haramani
Juvaraj, the son of Mukunda Manikya
{^Jiyy)- Haramani died during his
Juvaraji, leaving two sons, Kanthaniani
and Rajdharmani. The former and elder
son was born lame, and therefore, accord-
ing to Hindu law and custom, could not
become a Hindu raja. Consequently the
younger brother Rajdharmani was selected
as successor by Krishna Manikya and also
by his Rani, Jahnabi Mahadevi. But Kan-
thamani Thakur had a son, Arjunmani, the
first cousin of Ramganga, therefore when
Durga Manikya died childless, and not
having nominated any one as a successor,
.■\rjunmani, of the elder branch, claimed
the throne as preferential to Ramganga of
the younger branch. But as Ramganga
was in possession, having been left in
charge by Durga Manikya, and had been
paying the revenue of Chakia Roshanabad
to the Company, and no doubt also owing
to his being Rajdhar Manikya's son and
de facto Zemindar, the Company's officials
continued to accept the revenue from
Ramganga, and as before, referred the
claimant Arjunmani to the .Sadar Dewani
.^dalat (Select Reports for 18 15, vol. ii.
page I 77, Urjun Munik Thakur and others
versus Ramganga Deo), which decided
that Ramganga had the preferential right
to the Zemindari. However, as this
decision of the Sadar .\dalat was only a
summary one in Ramganga's favour, the
unsuccessful claimants filed three regular
suits, which were not finally decided till
1 82 1, when the Company formally in-
vested Ramganga as the Raja. Ramganga
Manikya then formally appointed his
younger half-brother as the Juvaraj and
his own son Krishnakishore as Bara
Thakur. This latter dignity, as will be
seen later on, was the cause of an immense

47^

1. ROCK TEMPLE AT UN KUTI, KOILASHAHAR.
3. KUIN8 OF SIVA'S TEMPLE, UDAIPUR.

2. FOREST SCENE NEAR UDAIPUR.
4. RUINS OF VISHNU'S TEMPLE, UDAIPUR.

473

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

amount of litigation, trouble, and expense.
Ramganga Manikya was a very peaceful
man who practically left the conduct of
affairs to his younger half-brother Kasi-
chandra. During this reign a great in-
justice was committed by the Company's
local officials against the Tripura Raj by
lopping off a large portion of the territory
in the northern portion of the State south
of the Kusiyara River, which formed for
centuries the northern boundary of the
State and the southern boundary of the
district of Sylhet. It will be necessary to
go back for several centuries to under-
stand how the Kusiyara River became at
length the northern boundary (in part) of
the Tripura Raj.

Previous to the Mogul occupation of
portions of India to the east of the
Brahmaputra, that river flowed round the
western end of the Garo Hills and then
nearly due south, through the British
district of Mymensigh, and then curved
west and flowed into the Megna, and thus
formed the western boundary of the Tri-
pura Raj. In A.D. 590 Raja Biraj ex-
tended his conquests beyond the Ganges,
which also then flowed in a south-easterly
course, and through the districts of Farid-
pur and Bakargunj, before entering the
Bay of Bengal, and the Tripura Raj com-
prised the present British districts of Chit-
tagong, Noakhali, Tippera, Sylhet, Cachar,
the Garo-Khasia and Jaintia Hills, Lushai-
land, and the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
Consequently the district of Sylhet formed
a part of the Raj. Subsequently " the
district (Sylhet) was at one time divided
into at least three petty kingdoms: Gor,
or Sylhet proper, Laur, and Jaintia; and
the country south of the Kusiyara seems
to have been under the control of the Raja
of Hill Tippera." (See page 191, Vol.
XXllI, " Imperial Gazetteer of India "):
" Gor was conquered by the Mahom-
medans in 1348, the last Hindu king, Gour
Govind, being overcome more by the magic
of the Fakir, Shah Jalal, than by the
prowess of the officer in command of the
expedition, Sikandar Ghazi. After the
death of Shah Jalal, Gor was included in
the kingdom of Bengal and placed in
charge of a Nawab. In the reign of Akbar
(Emperor of Delhi) it passed with the rest
of Bengal into the hands of the Moguls;
and, in the time of this Emperor, Laur
was also conquered, though its rulers were
for some time entrusted with the charge
of the frontier, and were exempt from the
payment of land revenue." However, the
district of Sylhet was not finally lost to
the Tripura Raj till the Nizamat of Nawab

Ali V^erdi Khan, who in 1740 conferred on
his son-in-law, Nawzish Khan, the Govern-
ment of Dacca, to which he annexed the
districts of Sylhet, Tippera, and Chitta-
gong (sec Stewart's " History of Bengal,"
page 447). Gor (Sylhet) and Laur were
included in Bengal when the British ob-
tained the Dewani of that Province in
1765. Jaintia was never conquered by
the Mahommcdans, and retained its in-
dependence until 1835, when it was an-
nexed by the British Government as no
satisfaction could be obtained for the
murder of three British subjects who had
been kidnapped and sacrificed to the god-
dess Kali. During the early days of
British rule, Sylhet, lying on the outskirts
of the Company's territories, was much

MARRIAGE BEDI.

neglected; the population was turbulent,
means of communication were difficult.
The savage tribes living in the north and
south of tlie valley disturbed the peace of
the plains, and there were continual dis-
putes as to the boundary between British
territory and the Native State of Hill
Tippera ''the Tripura Raj).

In 1820, Lieutenant Fislicr of the Sur-
vey Department, being deputed to ascer-
tain the boundaries of Sylhet, sent in a
report and a map through the Magistrate
of Sylhet. Although, as appears from the
quotation above made (from the " Im-
perial Gazetteer of India," Vol. XXIII),
the country south of the Kusiyara (river)
seems to have been under the control of
the Raja of Hill Tippera, yet by a process
of reasoning and action peculiar to the
Company's officials, and in spite of this
well-known fact of the Tripura Raj ex-

474

tending north to the Kusiyara River, Lieu-
tenant Fisher traced boundaries, which
being accepted by the various higher
officials, calmly lopped off hundreds of
square miles of most valuable agricultural
land, as well as an equal or greater area
of hill land on which there are now all
the tea gardens of South Sylhet with their
thousands of acres of the finest land for
that plant, both areas worth crores of
rupees, the revenues and rents of which
are enjoyed by the Company's successors.
This robbery of territory on the Tri-
l)ura-.Sylhet border did not stop there, for
when the neighbouring district of Cachar
came into the Company's possession by the
assassination of the last and heirless Raja,
Govind Chandra, in 1830, in the reign of
Kasichandra Manikya, the same procedure,
but if anything on a larger scale, was
adopted.

Kasichandra Manikya (1826-30) ap-
pointed his own son Krishnachandra, the
Bara Thakur, but he pre-deceased his
father, and Krishnakishor, the son and
Bara Thakur of Ramganga Manikya, was
appointed Juvaraj by his uncle, then son-
less. Kasichandra Manikya began build-
ing a palace on the eastern bank of the
" Amar Sagar," the great tank at Udai-
pur, but removed his residence to Agar-
tala. The origin of this name, that of
the present capital of the Tripura Raj,
is obscure, but the most probable deriva-
tion is from the name of a respectable
landholder, one Agar Mahammad, whose
descendants are still living and in the
employ of the Raj. It may be mentioned
that the original Agartala, or Puranhaveli
(" old residence ") as it is popularly
called, is some four miles east up the
Haura River, and that the Notunhavcli
("new residence"), or what is now offi-
cially known as Agartala, and the resi-
dence of the late and present Raja, is
lower down the Haura River. About the
only important event of this reign was the
offer made to the Company by Samblni-
chandra Thakur (the grandson of Bijai
^fanikya (Haridan Thakur), the youngest
brother of Jai Manikya, both fatlier and
son being usurpers during the troublous
times from 1737 to 1760, when six mem-
bers of the Tripura Raj family and the
notorious Shamsher Gazi in turn usurped
the throne or power of the Raj, chiefly
through the machinations and assistance
of the Moguls) to farm, as an ijaradar or
thikadar (farmer), the Hill territory at
an annual rental of Rs. 25,000. .-\s
Mackenzie explains: "This offer was
rejected as they had been so long un-

INDIAN NOBILITY

assessed and had come to be looked upon
as independent territory." This was not
the first example of such arrogance
directly encouraged by the behaviour of
the Trading Company's officials towards
the Rajas of Tripura. The former in-
stance happened when Ramganga was
trying to oust Durgamani Juvaraj. At
Ramganga's request the local officers lent
him troops and police, and but for this
assistance he would have been expelled,
for the whole country was hostile to him
and his claims. Durgamani Juvaraj had
obtained the assistance of the Poitu Kukis,
whom Ramganga had oppressed, to help
him enforce his right to succession as the
Juvaraj. When the Company's troops and
poli:e confronted the Kukis, these hillmen
did not understand the Company's action,
and boldly charged its officials with in-
consistency, for they had been told some
years before that the Company had no
concern with the Tripura territory. On
this Mackenzie remarks in a footnote to
page 274 of his " North-east Frontier of
Bengal ":

" How much doubt as to our (the Com-
pany's) position existed is seen from the
fact that in 1800 (during Rajdhar Mani-
kya's troublous reign) offers were made to
the Board (of Revenue) for a farm of the
mountains of Tippera." In rejecting this
the Board say that " they conclude that
the mountains form a part of the estate
(not State, be it noticed) of the Raja of
Tippera (Rajdhar Manikya), and that they
arc included in his existing engagements
executed by him for the general settle-
ment of his Zemindari." In reply to this
the Collector reports that " on a icfcr-
ence to the tahood executed by the Raja
for the general settlement of his Zemin-
du'i (in 1792, while he was a deportee at
Chittagong, on a trumped-up charge of
harbouring dacoits) it does not appear that
tlie mountains of Tippera were included,
but they always have been considered as
constituting his property; neither does it
appear from the records that he ever paid
any revenue to Government for them for
the last twenty-two years (since the time
of Mr. Campbell)." It has been men-
tioned in the previous reign of Ramganga
Manikya, that the Raj was deprived by
Lieutenant Fisher's survey of large tracts
of agricultural and tea lands to the south
of the Kusiyara River and that the same
process of spoliation was adopted in this
reign.

It should be noted that the River Barak
flows westwards out of the Manipur Raj,
through the district of Cachar, and then

bifurcates at Badarpur. The northern
branch, the Surma, curves round the
northern portion of the district of Sylhet,
and the southern branch, the Kusiyara,
pursues a similar course along the
southern parts of Sylhet.

Fisher's survey of the Sylhet boundary
was laid far south of the Kusiyara, as
already stated, and he was appointed to
the newly acquired district of Cachar in
1830, or thereabouts, as Superintendent,
subordinate to the Governor-General's
.■^gent in Assam.

The southern boundary of Sylhet had
ended at the Chattanhura peak, some
2,069 feet in height, and formed the tri-
junction of the three boundaries of Tri-
pura, Sylhet, and Cachar. Starting from

INSIGNIA OF THE EAJAS OF
TRIPURA.

this trijunction, by some clever juggling,
another block of several hundreds of
square miles of hills and valleys, as well
as some more agricultural and tea lands,
were lopped off from the Tripura Raj.
There can be no contesting this or any
other statement similarly made. Chapter
and verse from Government publications
have been given, and will now be quoted
to prove the fact.

In Pemberton's report, dated 1835, it is
shown that all the Lushai country, situated
directly south of Cachar, belonged to the
Tripura Raj. Mackenzie on page 286 in
his " North-eastern Frontier of Bengal "
writes with regard to the south-eastern and
southern boundaries of Cachar, Tripura,
and Manipur, as follows:

" In Pemberton's report we find that
all the Lushai country east to Manipur

475

was once considered to belong to Tippera.
The south-eastern and southern boun-
daries of each are thus given by Pemberton
in 1835:-

" ' P'rom the source of the Juree River
along the western bank to its confluence
with the Borak; then south to the western
bank of the latter river to the mouth of the
Chekoo (or Tipai) nullah which marks the
triple boundary of Manipur, Cachar, and
Tippera.'

" The southern extremity of the Sud-
dashur Hills was the south-east corner of
Cachar. It would appear from this that
the narrow hilly tract running down
between Hill Tippera and Manipur, and
represented in our most recent maps as
part of Cachar, was in Pemberton's con-
sidered to be part of Hill Tippera."

If there is any meaning in the above
quotations from an Official Report, and
statements in books published under
authority, such as are the " Imperial
Gazetteer " and Mackenzie's " North-east
Frontier of Bengal," it must be that the
River Kusiyara (tracing upstreain) formed
the northern boundary of the Tripura Raj
(in a general direction from west to east)
till its junction with the Surma at Badar-
pur; then the Barak (or combined streams
of the Kusiyara and Surma) from Badar-
pur to the Manipur frontier.

This was the boundary when the Com-
pany took possession of the districts of
Sylhet and Cachar, and not a single argu-
ment except the argumentum baculinum
and argumentum ad crumenam to support
the " might is right " procedure, was
adopted by the Company's officials when
dealing with the Raja of Tripura's terri-
tories, whether on the south, west, or
north.

As to the hills and valleys on the east,
it will hereafter be seen how they were
divorced from the Raj in the reign of
Maharaja Birchandra Manikya (1862-96),
and the " Eastern Boundary " question
arose and has been dragging along for
fifty years or so, and is yet unsettled.

However, to return to Kasichandra
Manikya — as already stated, Krishna-
kishor, the son and Bara Thakur of
Ramganga Manikya, had been appointed
Juvaraj by his uncle, therefore when
Kasichandra died in 1830 he was suc-
ceeded by —

Krishna Kishor Manikya ( 1830-49). It
was during this reign that Mr. Dampier,
the Commissioner of Chittagong, to which
division the district of British Tippera
belongs, made an attempt to prove that
the Raja of Tripura was merely a

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Zemindar with no independent Raj what-
soever. This matter is very lucidly and
at considerable length set out in a letter
No. 12 1, dated December 27, 1838, from
the Secretary to the Government of Ben-
gal, acting under the orders of Lord
Auckland, the Deputy-Governor of Bengal
and Governor-General of India from 1836
to 1S42, and addressed to thci then
Commissioner, Mr. Harvey, from which
the following quotations of the most
prominent points of the controversy have
been taken.

This voluminous correspondence began
with Mr. Dampier's letter, dated October
10, 1836, in which complaint was made of
the Raja of Tippera levying " sayerat
duties within his Zemindary on cotton and
other produce, although at the time of the
perpetual settlement " (made with Raja
Rajdhar Manikya in 1792) "a remission
to a large amount was granted on the
jumtna of his estate as a compensation for
the abolition of the sayer mehal, and the
collection of such duties has been ex-
pressly prohibited by law."

(Para. 5). " But it was remarked the
Raja has two capacities, one as Zemindar
within the pale of the Permanent Settle-
ment, the other that of an independent
prince in his own Hill territory, and it was
clear, from a petition presented by his
attorney (Mr. Bignell), that the Raja now
claimed to levy transit duty on produce
within his own territory, it being stated to
be his only source of revenue."

(Para. 71). "To conclude, therefore.
His Honour decides that the Raja has an
independent hill territory; that your pro-
positions for its resumption are totally in-
admissible; that the Raja has a full right
within his hill territory to levy any duties
he pleases; and that there is no ground at
present for setting on foot an inquiry into
supposed encroachments by the Raja on
the Company's territory."

No doubt the above-quoted very im-
])ortant State document — for such it is —
though in the form of a Secretary's letter
to a Commissioner, was one of the chief
documentary proofs of the very explicit
statement already quoted, that —

" Independent Tippera is not held by
gift from the British Government or its
predecessors or under any title derived
from it or them, never having been sub-
jected by the Mogul."

So the question, so often raised and
argued, generally to the disadvantage of
the Raja, as to the independence of any
portion of the former kingdom left by the
rapacity of the Company's officials, may

be said to have been finally settled, and
the delimitation of the Hill from the
Plains Territory taken up, as usual to the
disadvantage of the Raj. However, it
must be admitted in all fairness that the
rajas were badly served by their em-
ployes, who resorted to questionable
methods to try and protect the Raj from
the constant encroachments of its all-
powerful neighbour's officials. But it was
the usual conflict between the weak and
the strong, of cunning and deceit against
might. Had the Company's officials been
less rapacious the Raja's employes would
have been encouraged to be more straight-
forward. However, it is of little practical
use deploring the morality of the methods
employed by either party in days when
India was in the melting-pot and Eastern
Bengal not yet recovered from Mogul days
and ways. The Company was grabbing
an Empire, and the native rulers were
trying by every means to withstand an
overpowering dragon from swallowing
them up and their territories completely.
To make the constant complaints that
Mackenzie does against the rajas and their
employds reminds one of the fable of the
wolf and the lamb, or of the burglar com-
plaining that the householder attempted,
by every artifice he could invent, to pre-
vent himself from being completely robbed
of all his valuables. Mackenzie's invec-
tive on page 272, when he himself gives
the above-mentioned letter in full as
Appendix D, on pages 405 tO' 414, is
utterly absurd: " Not a word is found in
these old papers recognizing the inde-
pendence of the Raja in any part of his
dominions. In fact, no reference is made
to the hills in connection with the arrange-
ments. The officers of the Company had
more regard to substantial advantages
than to theoretical symmetry. The pay-
ing part of Tippera lay on the plains, and
appeared in the Mahommedan revenue roll
as pcrgunnah Roshanabad. For this, of
course, a settlement was made. We found
it a zemindari, and as such we treated it.
But of the barren hills that fenced it on
the cast we took no cognizance. Covered
with jungle and inhabited by tribes of
whom nothing was known, save that they
were uncouth in speech, and not particular
as to clothing, the hills were looked upon
as something apart. The Raja claimed
to exercise authority within them, but did
not, as it seemed, derive much profit from
them. Accordingly the hills became ' in-
dependent Tippera,' and the Raja, who is
an ordinary Bengali zemindar on the
plains, reigns as an independent prince

476

over three thousand square miles of up-
land, and was for many years a more
absolute monarch than Scindia or Pat-
tiala — owning no law but his sovereign
will, bound by no treaty, subject to no
control, safe in his obscurity from criticism
or reform. And yet nothing can be more
certain than the fact that the Mogul
Government, through whom our para-
mount title comes, would have recognized
no such vital distinction between the high-
lands and lowlands of the Tippera State.
It may be true that they never carried
their armies in victorious march through
the bamboo thickets of the hills, or harried
with fire and sword the wattled wigwams
of the Kookie tribes; but when they ap-
pointed whom they would as raja, both hill
and plain passed with the one sanad they
gave. They would have scoffed at the
idea of independence of any fragment of
the entity they conveyed. Indeed, the
chief object of their invasion having been
to secure horses and elephants for pur-
poses of State or war, to have excluded
the hills from the periphery of their
conquest would have cut them ofi^ from the
very source of these supplies. The Com-
pany sought rupees, not elephants, and so
the hills were left to their native ruler, and
no misgiving seems to have cropped up
that trouble would hereafter result from
such a course. Trouble did result, not
so much from the actual independence of
the Raja as from a want of definitiveness
in our relations to him, from the absence of
any means of knowing what went on in
his territory, and from the denial of that
salutary control and advice without which
our best feudatories come to certain
grief."

The above is the most damning proof of
the contempt and utter want of con-
sideration shown to the Rajas of Tippera.
Mackenzie cynically admits that " the
barren hills " were allowed " to become
independent Tippera " because^ " the
Company sought rupees, not elephants.
and so the hills were left to their natixc
ruler," and every acre of rupce-produciii;;
land, whether in the west, in Tippera, m
in the north, in Sylhet and Cachar, w.i^
systematically filched from the Raja, right
up to the " barren hills."

Having accomplished a good deal of
this landgrabbing by main force, a more
refined method was adopted by the Com-
pany's officials, by standing upon boun-
daries thus laid down, not warranted even
by Government records, already quoted,
and then " informing the Raja that
although he could not himself be sued in

INDIAN NOBILITY

the courts of Sylhet, yet he was at liberty
to sue the Government and the zemindars
jointly in these courts, if he thought he
could establish his claim to any lands out-
side the line laid down by Lieutenant
Fisher between 1820 and 1822 in Ram-
ganga Manikya's reign, and Government
would honour the decision of its own
tribunal and make over to him any lands
he might prove to be his." To show how
fruitlessly harassing such a procedure was
(and it is incredible that the Company's
ofificials were ignorant of such an inevit-
able result), it is sufficient to mention that
after years of expensive litigation " the
question of jurisdiction was then taken up
by a full Bench " (of the Sadar Dewani
Adalat at Calcutta) " which ruled, on
September 19, 1848, that questions affect-
ing the boundary of two independent
Powers were not properly cognizable in
Municipal Courts and the Raja's suits
were dismissed after pending for sixteen
years."

It is easy to see from the above, among
many other instances, that the Company's
officials were arrogantly and unjustly
treating the Rajas of Tripura as any-
thing but independent rulers, and that the
Supreme Court of Calcutta, presided over
by independent judges from England, who
were not subservient to the Company in its
search after rupees, declared the Raja to
be an " independent Power " just as much
as the Company, whose officials never
seemed to be able to clear their minds
of the simple fact that the Raja of Tripura
was just as much, politically, if r»ot as
powerful, an independent sovereign as was
the King of England, and certainly much
more so than a company of traders, seek-
ing rupees, by fair means or otherwise,
under the Royal Charter to trade in India.
This arrogance is justified by Mackenzie
when he writes on page 272, " and yet
nothing can be more certain than the fact
that the Mogul Government, through
whom our paramount title comes " (but
which was robbed of its intended Tripura
booty by the instructions issued by
Governor Vansittart to President Verelst
in 1 761, as already mentioned in Krishna
Manikya's reign), "would have recognized
no such vital distinction between the high-
lands and lowlands of the Tippcra State "
(not estate, be it noted). " They would
have scoffed at the idea of independence in
any fragment of the entity they conveyed."
This Mogul idea of political morality is
what Mackenzie adopts and tries to justify
the trading Company's officials adopting
towards the Raja of Tripura.

Even Mr. Mackenzie, although he was
in " immediate charge of the political
correspondence of the Bengal Govern-
ment " (see Preface to his book, " The
North-east Frontier of Bengal "), yet, had
he any glimmerings of political know-
ledge, he could never have written in the
arrogant and contemptuous tone which
blemishes his lucubrations regarding Tri-
pura. And considering that he rose to be
Sir Alexander Mackenzie, the Lieutenant-
Governor of Bengal, he must be con-
sidered to have been above the average

Agents and Residents should ever come
into contact with ruling Chiefs, if their
welfare and that of their Raj subjects is
desired. But in the trading Company's
days there was no such thing as politics
and political training.

Krishna Kishor Manikya appointed his
eldest son, Isanchandra, the Juvaraj, to
succeed him.

Isanchandra Manikya ( 1849-62). It has
been alleged that Isanchandra promised
their father, Krishna Kishor Manikya, that
he would appoint Nilkrishna, then a young

B. F. SANDYS.

Bengal civilian, serving the Crown, and
not a trading company. It is just this
want of the rudiments of political training
and knowledge that has been the bane
hitherto of the Tripura Raj when in con-
tact with the local district magistrate
and Divisional Commissioners, who have
all their official lives been in contact and
dealing with mere zemindars, talukdars,
ijaradars, ei hoc genus in the " Jo hukm "
and " Ji huzur " style they usually adopt,
generally through the medium of their
Amla. None but officials trained in the
political department of the Imperial
Government of India to be political

477

boy and the son of the Patrani, or senior
Rani, as his successor, as by that time he
would be old enough to manage affairs.
But, for some reason or other, this ap-
pointment was not made, and Nilkrishna
left Agartala and lived in Comilla, the
headquarters of the district of (British)
Tippera.

Isanchandra Manikya, who was an ex-
ceedingly devout Hindu, devoting himself
almost exclusively to religious affairs, left
the conduct of the Raj almost entirely in
the hands of his Guru (spiritual guide)
Banwarilal Goshwami. For some time
before his death Isanchandra became para-

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

lytic. As the Raja's end approached he was
urged to appoint a successor, but he put
it off till a day or two before his death,
Nilkrishna was sent for from Comilla.
But the latter delayed his departure, and
as the Raja's end was very near, a Ruba-
kari, or Proceeding, was drawn up by
which Birchandra, the Raja's own younger
brother, was appointed Juvaraj, while his
own elder son, Brajendrachandra, was ap-
pointed Bara Thakur, and a younger son,
Navadipchandra, the Barakarta, thus add-
ing a third eventual claimant to the
throne.

It appears that the unsettled state of
things during the latter period of the
Mogul rule made it necessary to take
greater precaution in the appointment of
the Yuvaraja for the purpose of prevent-
ing a break in the continuity of govern-
ment and in order to avoid disputes with
regard to succession in case the Yuvaraj
died shortly before the death of the Raja
or under circumstances in which a fresh
appointment could not be made to fill the
vacancy thus caused in the office of Yuva-
raj. The Rajas of Tripura therefore
created a new office and introduced the
innovation of appointing what was called
a Bara Thakur, who was to succeed to the
throne in case the Yuvaraj predeceased
the Raja, and if the latter could not or
did not appoint any other person as
Yuvaraj.

The succession Sanad granted by the
Government of India on June 21, 1904,
however, puts the succession on a simple
and definite basis. It is as follows: —

" To His Highness the Raja of Hill
Tippera.

" Whereas, with a view to continuing
the representation of the ruling house and
dignity of the State of Hill Tippera, it is
desirabii to remove all doubts as to the
rule of succession to the Chiefship of the
said State and the ownership of the
Zemindaries and the property in British
India which appertain thereto and are
held therewith, it is hereby declared: —

"(l) That the Chiefship of the said
State is and ever shall be hereditary in the
Deb Burman family of Hill Tippera, of
which His Highness Radhakishor Mani-
kya, the present Chief of the said State,
is now the lawful and acknowledged
Head.

" (2) That the Chief of the said State,
for the time being, may from time to time
and at any time, nominate and constitute
any male ancestor of his to be Juvaraj or
successor to the said Chiefship.

" (3) That in the event of His High-
ness Radhakishor Manikya or any succeed-
ing Chief of the said State dying without
having nominated and constituted a Juva-
raj, or successor, his nearest male
descendant descended through males, ac-
cording to the rule of lineal primogeniture,
and in default of such descendant, his
nearest male heir descended through males
from any ancestor of his, according to the
said rule, shall succeed to the said Chief-
ship, preference in either case being given
to those of the whole blood over those of
the half blood.

" (4) That in matters relating to the
appointment of a successor and the succes-
sion to the said Chiefship not heretofore
expressly provided for, the usages of the
said Raj family shall prevail.

" (5) That every succession to the said
Chiefship shall, as heretofore, require
the recognition of the Government of
India.

" (6) Raja Radhakishor Manikya may
rest assured that nothing shall disturb the
operation of this Sanad so long as he and
his heirs are loyal to the Crown and faith-
ful to the British Government.

(Signed) " Ampthill,
" Viceroy and Governor-General

of India.
" Simla,
" June 2 I, 1904."

It is now necessary to revert to the
death of Isanchandra Manikya in 1862 and
to what occurred thereafter: Nilkrishna,
a younger son of Krishna Kishor Manikya,
had been sent for from Comilla by Isan-
chandra Manikya, as already related, but
he did not return. To avoid any mishap
attending a vacant throne, to which no
successor had been duly nominated, the
Rubakari, or Proceeding, had been drawn
up by order of Isanchandra Manikya
nominating Birchandra, his younger
brother, as Juvaraj, and his sons, Brajen-
drachandra and Navadipchandra respec-
tively as Bara Thakur and Karta.

The British officials were duly notified
of these appointments, and Birchandra
Juvaraj took possession of the Raj. Nil-
krishna protested and impugned the
genuineness of the Rubakari. Instead of
the Government immediately assuming the
paramount position, which the application
for investiture by the Rajas since 1804
had implied, and deciding, in its political
capacity, as to the rightful successor to the
Raj among the claimants, its officials, in
their usual political purblindness, followed
the former mischievous precedent and
478

referred Nilkrishna, as they had previously
directed Rajdharmani in 1804, to the
Municipal Courts, to ascertain whether
he was entitled to succeed to Chakla
Roshanabad, the revenue-paying portion
of the Raj in British Tippera. All the
officials seemed to care about were the
rupees from the assessed portion in the
plains, apparently not caring a jot for the
Raj per se, and thus Birchandra Juvaraj
was acknowledged to be in possession and
to be the revenue payer.

Nilkrishna lost all his money, and died
during litigation proceedings; then Nava-
dwipchandra (Brajendrachandra his elder
brother having died) took up the legal
burden, and thus litigation was prolonged
for eight years in all, until 1870, when
Birchandra Juvaraj was acknowledged the
rightful successor and was duly invested
as Raja.

Birchandra Manikya (1862-96). Dur-
ing the pending litigation, as has been
mentioned, Brajendrachandra, the elder
son and nominated Bara Thakur of Isan-
cliandra Manikya, had died. Conse-
quently Navadwipchandra, as nominated
Karta, claimed to succeed to his deceased
brother's office of Bara Thakur, and when
Birchandra Juvaraj became Raja, Nava-
dwipchandra claimed to be the Juvaraj.
The Privy Council dismissed his suit, and
when Birchandra Manikya appointed his
eldest son Radhakishor to be the Juvaraj,
Navadwipchandra sued to be declared the
lawful successor to Chakla Roshanabad on
the Raja's demise.

At length the High Court of Calcutta
threw out the suit, on the common-sense
ground that it had no jurisdiction, being
a Municipal Court, to decide the succes-
sion to the throne of a Sovereign State
in a roundabout way, by being asked to
declare a certain person the lawful suc-
cessor to an integral portion of an im-
partible Raj.

Legal peace therefore followed for the
remainder of Birchandra Manikya's reign,
until it was broken again in his successor's
time by exactly a similar declaratory suit
being filed.

Reference must now be made to other
and more turbulent peacebreakers of the
Tripura Raj, commonly known as the
Kukis, or more correctly as the Lushais,
living to the east of the State. .\ great
deal of ingenuity has been employed to
define and derive the name Kuki. The
simplest, and apparently the correct deri-
vation, is that from the Persian word Koh
(a hill or mountain) and Ki (of). The
word should therefore be Kokhi (of the

INDIAN NOBILITY

mountain), that is. mountaineers or high-
landers, who seem the world over to be
naturally truculent marauders. The
Persian Kokhi of the Moguls has been
vulgarized by the Bengali-speaking in-
habitants of neighbouring districts into
Kuki, meaning the savages from the hills
generally.

The derivation of Lushai, or more cor-
rectly Lusai, is from Lu (the head) and
sai (to lop off), so that Lushais or Lusais
mean the head-loppers, the fiercest of all
the Kuki or Hill tribes.

reducing Lusailand to a peaceful frontier
district.

That happy conclusion as usual ended
in depriving the Tripura Raj of a large
tract of territory all along its eastern
frontier.

Birchandra Manikya, having been duly
recognized and installed as Raja in 1870,
appointed his eldest son Radhakishor as
Juvaraj, and some years later his fourth
son Shamarendrachandra as Bara Thakur.
This second appointment, as might have
been expected, led to trouble and litiga-

The Political Agency, as a separate
post, was afterwards abolished, and the
Magistrate of the adjoining district of
British Tippera was appointed ex officio
Political Agent, while an Indian Deputy
Magistrate, Umakanta Das, was stationed
at Agartala as Assistant Political Agent.
In March 1890 the Maharaja selected Rai
Umakanta Das Bahadur as Minister, and
all duties in connection with the Political
Agency were transferred to the ex-ofpcio
Political Agent at Comilla, the head-
quarters of the district of British Tippera.

1. CARVED ROCKS AT UN KUTI, KOILASHAHAR.

2. RUINED TEMPLE OF SIVA, UDAIPUR.

Of these tribes, Colonel Lister in 1853
enumerates as the principal the Chilu, the
Tadoes or Tewtangs, the Poitu Kukis, the
Rankhal, the Tanguc, and the Chansen.
These tribes were stated by Lister to reside
both "within our boundaries (Cachar),
to the south and south-east, in the In-
dependent Tippera Hills and in the
Manipur territories."

It would take up an undue amount of
space to enlarge on these Hill tribes.
Suffice it to say that the Government of
India ordered the Lushai expedition on
July II, 1871, and that successful cam-
paign resulted in thoroughly subduing
these formerly troublesome savages and

tion, when the Juvaraj became Raja and
in his turn appointed his own son as Juva-
raj, instead of promoting his half-brother
from Bara Thakur to Juvaraj.

\ Political Agent was about this time
appointed to reside at Agartalla, the Raja's
capital.

The main object of the appointinent was
the protection of British interests on the
eastern frontiers, which were in special
danger from Lushai raids. It was ex-
plained to the Raja that the Government
of India, in sending an Agent to .Agartala,
had no intention of adopting a policy
which would interfere with the exercise
of authority with his State.

479

It may be added here that the appoint-
ment of a Resident Political Agent was
again revived in the year 19 10 with the
view of ensuring direct friendly co-opera-
tion between the State and the Imperial
Government.

One of the results of a Political Agency
was the extradition of criminals escaping
into British territory according to the
general law and rules on the subject for
trial in the Tripura Courts. Offenders
escaping from British territory into the
State are similarly surrendered to the
British Courts, through the Political
Agent.

The practice of Sati in Tripura was for-

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

bidden in 1888, while the abolition of
slavery had been declared many years
previously by the Raja, and both
prohibitions are still in force in the
State.

As already mentioned, serious raids
were committed on Tripura, Sylhet, and
Cachar by the Lushais, and especially by
the two cognate tribes of Sailus and How-
longs, and a strong British force, in two
columns, was directed against the offend-
ing tribes, the Raja supplying transport
for the northern column. The tribes of
powerful chiefs were reduced to sub-
mission; the fines imposed were paid;
captives were recovered ; and verbal
agreements were taken from the Chiefs
to live amicably with all British subjects
between Manipur and Arracan, and to
allow free access to their country. The
expedition produced for a time the desired
effect, as it showed the Lushais that their
recesses were not inaccessible and that
their inroads into British territory or into
allied States would be duly punished.
Since that time no raids have been made
into Tripura. During Birchandra Mani-
kya's reign a regular military force was
organized by the assistance of the Political
Agent, Captain Lillingston. Several
frontier and sub-divisional guards are
maintained, and a body of armed and
drilled troops are kept at Agartala.
Courts of Civil, Criminal, and Revenue
jurisdiction, presided over by trained
officers, were established, and a jail was
built which is superintended by the State
physician. Civil, criminal, and revenue
laws have been framed and are adminis-
tered at the Headquarters and Sub-
Divisional Courts of First Instance and
Appeal. A final appeal lies in all cases
to the Raja, whose sanction is required
before sentence of death passed by the
Sessions Court can be executed.

During this reign Her Majesty Queen
Victoria was pleased to assume the Im-
perial Crown as Kaisar-i-Hind, or Em-
press of India, at an Imperial Assemblage,
the first of three great Darbars held re-
spectively in 1877, 1903, and 1911. The
Ruling Chiefs of India attended and re-
ceived various honours, dignities, titles,
salutes, and banners. Among them, Bir-
chandra Manikya received the title of
Maharaja as a personal distinction, and
was granted a salute of thirteen guns and
banner.

After a reign of thirty-four years Maha-
raja Birchandra Manikya died at Kalighat,
and a samadhi was erected over the chita,
near to that of the Maharaja of Mysore,

who had also died at the same city in

1894.

Radhakishor Manikya (1896- 1909),
the duly appointed Juvaraj of his father,
Birchandra Manikya, was duly installed on
the throne on March 5, 1897. On
June 1 2th, an earthquake reduced the
palaces and other masonry buildings of
Agartala, with one or two exceptions, to
a heap of ruins in a few seconds. The
catastrophe entailed enormous expenditure
on the State, but on the other hand gave
the Raja an opportunity of erecting a more
dignified and suitable Palace and other
public buildings than his predecessors had
been able to provide. Naturally all the
buildings required could not be erected
during his comparatively short reign, but
the present Raja is continuing the policy
of his revered father in this and several
other respects. In addition to the Palace
and commodious family quarters, the
Victoria Memorial Hospital, the Temple of
Jaggarnath, a school and museum were
built, and the jail was removed and re-
constructed on a more suitable site. Ad-
ministration buildings were commenced,
and a technical school was established.

Radhakishor Manikya presented a
handsome donation towards the Victoria
Memorial at Calcutta, besides giving
munificently to deserving institutions and
helping scientists and scholars and the
cause of education generally.

It has already been mentioned that in
the previous reign, Birchandra Manikya,
while appointing his eldest son Radha-
kishor as Juvaraj, also nominated his
fourth son, Samarendrachandra, as Bara
Thakur, and trouble was thus caused
when Radhakishor Manikya naturally
desired to nominate a successor and to
appoint his son Birendrakishor as Juvaraj.
Persisting in the claim that when the Juva-
raj became Raja, the Bara Thakur became
ipso facto the Juvaraj or next successor,
Bara Thakur Samarendrachandra, pe-
titioned the Government, claiming to be
recognized as Juvaraj.

After the fullest consideration the
Government rejected the claim of Sama-
rendrachandra Bara Thakur to be
declared the Juvaraj, and on February 8,
1899, Radhakishor Manikya appointed his
son, Birendrakishor, the Juvaraj. Con-
sidering that due cause of action had
arisen, the Bara Thakur Samarendrachan-
dra filed a suit for a declaratory decree,
in the Court of the Subordinate Judge
of Alipur, that he should be declared the
proprietor of Chakla Roshanabad and all
other State property in British India on
480

the demise of Radhakishor Manikya. Ac-
cepting the precedent of the High Court,
when appealed to in the suit of Navadwip-
chandra, for a similar decree, the Sub-
ordinate Judge decided that his court had
no jurisdiction in virtually declaring the
plaintiff to be successor to the throne, and
he therefore dismissed the suit.

Radhakishor Manikya performed pil-
grimages to Tribeni, near Prayag (Alla-
habad), Brindaban, Gaya, and Kasi
(Benares), and it was during this last pil-
grimage, and on the very last day of his
stay, that a most regrettable motor-car
accident caused His Highness's death on
March 12, 1909. The Raja's remains
were cremated at a ghat on the banks of
the holy Gunga.

Only a few days before his lamented
death, a conference of Pandits from many
lands assembled at Kasi, and conferred a
title on the Raja in recognition of his
piety and benevolence.

Radhakishor Manikya was an exceed-
ingly kind-hearted and generous character.
No needy hand was withdrawn empty, and
no cry of distress went unheard. Though
personally a pious Hindu, and a staunch
follower of Vishnu, yet holders of all
creeds received his unprejudiced bene-
volence and generosity, and all truly pious
persons with whom he came in contact
received his respect and reverence. True
piety, need, and unselfishness received
his full sympathy, and any place of wor-
ship, consecrated ground, or mausoleum
was accorded as much respect as his own
sacred temples. His tastes and dress were
simplicity itself and marked him out in
any assembly. Scientific facts and artistic
objects always excited his interest and
admiration. Radhakishor Manikya was in
every sense of the word a thorough gentle-
man, detesting everything mean, vulgar,
and deceitful, and his memory will be
revered and loved for many a year by his
people and those who had the honour and
pleasure of knowing him.

The Maharaja was succeeded by the
present ruler. His Highness the Bisana
Samara Bijoyi Mahamahodaya Pancha
Srijukta Raja Birendra Kishore Dev
Burman Manikya Bahadur. His Highness
was installed on the throne (singhasana)
by His Honour Sir Lancelot Hare, the
Lieutenant-Governor of Eastern Bengal
and Assam, on behalf of His Excellency
the Viceroy and Governor-General of
India on November 25, 1909.

His Highness the Raja of Manipur
honoured the installation ceremony with
his presence, and His Highness Birendra

INDIAN NOBILITY

Kishor Manikya paid Manipur a return
visit, thus continuing a friendship begun
in Radhakishor Manikya's reign between
the two rulers. It may be mentioned that
several thousands of Manipuris settled in
Tripura in the last century.

His Highness appointed his eldest son,
Birbikramkishor, as Juvaraj immediately
after his own installation, on November 25,
1909.

In former times, owing to remoteness
and want of convenient means of com-
munication, the Tripura Rajas were com-
pelled to seek marriage alliances with the
Kshatriyas of Manipur, as intermarriages
in Tripura itself had come within pro-
hibited degrees according to Hindu law.
But with modern amenities of travel the
field has been enlarged, and His High-
ness has been able to form alliances with
Kshatriya families of Upper India and
Nepal.

The State of Hill Tippera (Tripura)
presents no physical features of special
importance. There are six ranges of
hills stretching from north to south, with
peaks ranging from 1,400 feet to more
than 3,000 feet in height, and the major
portion of these is covered with fairly
dense bamboo jungle. The western part
of the State consists of broken ground

made up of hillocks, which are utilized as
sites for homesteads, and of marshy plains
and valleys, which are cultivated for
crops of several kinds, chiefly, however,
of rice.

There is only one municipality, Agar-
tala, the capital of the State, and the in-
habitants live in that town and in some
fourteen hundred villages.

More than 90 per cent, of the people
depend for their livelihood upon agri-
cultural resources, but the methods of
cultivation are almost entirely of the jhum
type, which consists of cutting down a
forest on the sides of hills and of burning
the timber as soon as it is dry, and of
sowing seeds of various kinds when good
rains fall. This process is repeated for
two or three seasons until the land is im-
poverished by the absence of recuperative
crops or fertilizers, when the happy-go-
lucky agriculturist packs up his traps and
selects another area of forest land.

The principal crop is rice, but others
include cotton, jute, tobacco, mustard,
onions, chillies, and sugar-cane. The
forests on the hills contain sal, bamboos,
and cane, together with mahogany, teak,
rubber, and other trees in reserved areas.

There are practically no manufactures
or industries, as the only product is coarse

cotton cloth made by Manipuri and Tip-
pera women.

Goods exported include timber, cotton,
bamboo, cane, sesamum, and thatching
grass, while imports comprise kerosene
oil, tobacco, European piece goods, salt,
and other commodities.

The question of education had been so
much neglected that at the commencement
of the twentieth century only 2'3 per cent,
of the population were able to read and
write; even in 1903 there were not more
than about three thousand boys and a
hundred girls being taught in schools; but
shortly after that date the State provided
an Arts College, a high school, as well
as a number of primary and secondary
institutions, and is now expending an
annual sum of nearly Rs. 100,000 in order
to provide free instruction for all children.

The State has an area of about 4,000
square miles, and the Raja is not only
ruler of that territory, but he is also owner
of an estate of about 570 square miles in
extent in the districts of Tippera, Sylhet,
and Noakhali.

A military force with a strength of
about three hundred men is maintained
by the State, and the Treasury is also
responsible for the maintenance of ten
charitable dispensaries.

RIVER HAURA, NEAR AGARTALA.
481

1. H.H. THE RAJA CHUBA CHAND SINGH, OF MANIPUB. 2. THE GOLDEN TEMPLE OF GOVINDJI.

3. THE PALACE, IMPHAL.

48.

INDIAN NOBILITY

THE NATIVE STATE OF MANIPUR

'T'HE Native State of Manipur lies in
-'- the mountainous country between the
Assam valley and Burma. It is bounded
on the north by the Naga Hills, on the
west by the Naga and North Cachar Hills
and Cachar, on the south by the Lushai
and Chin Hills, and on the east by the
Upper Chindwin district of Burma, the
little Shan State of Thaungdut, and unad-
ministered hill tracts. The State consists
of a broad valley intersected by lines of
low hills, nearly 700 square miles in area,

average rainfall is about 52 inches in
Imphal, the capital of the State. The
greatest altitude in the hilly portion of
the State is reached in the extreme north,
where a peak on the border of the Naga
Hills attains a height of nearly 10,000
feet. Numerous peaks in the eastern
hills are over 9,000 feet.

The principal rivers are the Barak and
the Imphal, the former with its tributaries
draining the northern and western hills,
and flowing through Cachar and the Surma

up completely during the hot weather pre-
ceding the rainy season. The largest is
the Logtak Lake in the south-west of the
valley. This varies considerably in size
with the seasons, but at its largest it is
about 8 miles in length and 5 in breadth.
Apart from tracks across the hills there
are only three roads into the State. The
chief is the Manipur-Dinapur cart road,
which leaves the Assam-Bengal railway at
Manipur Road Station. It is metalled the
whole of its length, which is 134 miles.

1. A MANIPUR DURBAR AT THE NEW DURBAR HALL.
2. THE RAJA AND STATE ATTENDANTS RETURNING FROM A DURBAR.

surrounded by some 8,000 square miles
of hills.

The Manipuris call themselves Meitei or
Mitei, and their country Manipur or Meitei
leipak. The Burmese name for Manipur
is Kathe, while the Shans call it Kase.
The Ahom conquerors of Assam called it
Mekheli, the Assamese Moglau, the
Kacharis Magli, and the Bengalis Moglai.

The valley of Manipur lies at an ele-
vation of 2,600 feet above the sea, and
the climate is consequently cool and
pleasant, healthy and equable. The

valley into the lower Brahmaputra. The
Imphal River, with its tributaries, drains
the valley, the hills immediately surround-
ing it, and the southern hills, and flows
through the Chin Hills and the Kale valley
into the Chindwin River of Burma. The
eastern hills are drained by a number of
comparatively small streams flowing into
the Yu and the Tuzu, tributaries of the
Chindwin.

The valley, especially in the southern
portion, is dotted with lakes and marshes,
of which, however, all but two or three dry

After passing through Kohima, the head-
quarters of the Naga Hills, it enters the
State at Mao Thana, 67 miles from both
Imphal and the railway. This is the
highest point on the road, 5,762 feet above
sea-level. The other two roads are only
bridle-paths. One passes through the
western hills into Cachar, the headquarters
of which, Silchar, is 125 miles from
Imphal. The State boundary is crossed
at the Jiri River, 24 miles from Silchar.
The other leads through the south-eastern
hills into Burma, the frontier station,

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Tamu, being 53 miles from Imphal and
2 miles from the border of the State.
Through Tamu the road passes on to
Sittaung on the Chindwin River.

The internal communications of the
valley consist solely of unmetalled roads
on raised earth embankments passable for
carts. There are about 250 miles of this
kind of road, usually bad in the rains, but
good in the cold weather. Throughout
the hills there are no roads, but merely

it is seldom that he can see as much as a
quarter of a mile before him. Suddenly
all is changed. The eastern face of the
hill, as it slopes down before him to the
valley, is covered with short grass, and
rolling downs take the place of the dense
tropical forest that lies concealed on the
western side of the ridge. The valley lies
before him like a map. At the northern
end, some twenty miles away, are the
dark-green groves that conceal the town

valleys of Assam, they are almost destitute
of trees, and nowhere in the valley is there
that rank growth of vegetation which is
so distinguishing a characteristic of the
British Province."

The upper slopes of the hUls are invari-
ably well wooded, but serious ravages
have been made among the forests on the
lower slopes by the wasteful method of
cultivation known as jhuming, which is
practised by the majority of the hill tribes.

, i

[\ltX.mi

' : ' .v .:. J- ■»■

ilecft

4^ r -< T : T .

SBm

HIS HIGl

s.srt DOUBLE COMPANY OV

MANlPUKlri, AilACHKU
THE FRONT.

TO otfTH tjrAKv\ 1

MrL.ES, FOR TRAINING FOR

tracks, though two bridle-paths are now
in course of construction.

Completely surrounded as it is by
mountains, the valley of Manipur is one
of the most beautiful spots in a province
which nature has dowered plentifully with
magnificent scenery, and is the Kashmir
of Eastern India. The description given
by xMr. B. C. Allen, I.C.S., in the
" Gazetteer " cannot be bettered. He
says : —

" The traveller who enters Manipur
by the Cachar Road obtains a magnificent
view of the valley from the summit of the
Laimatol hill. For several days his path
has lain across range after range of moun-
tains, covered with forest so dense that

of Imphal. Elsewhere are level rice-fields,
and land covered with grass, about which
are dotted the clumps of trees that mark
the villages. These villages are much
more scattered than they are in the
densely populated portions of Assam.
They do not stretch in one long continuous
line, but stand out here and there, clear
and well defined, and there is many a
square mile of land without a trace of
human habitation. Low ridges of hills
stand up above the alluvium, and sheets
of water gleam in the shallow depressions
on the plain. To the south, the Logtak
sparkles in the sun, and on every side
the view is bounded by hills. But unlike
the mountains that shut in the two great

484

This consists of cutting down the jungle,
burning it when dry, and planting rice and
other crop in the ashes. .After two or
three years the jhum is abandoned, and
reverts to grass and scrub, and another
portion of the forest is selected for the
same process of destruction. In the virgin
forests many valuable varieties of timber
abound. Teak grows on the lower slopes
of hills bordering on Burma, many of the
eastern and southern ranges are covered
with pine forests, several varieties of oak
are found, and the western hills are full
of other useful kinds of timber, which
form the chief supply of the district of
Cachar, no less than twenty-four kinds
being exported. Many wild varieties of

:. OLD MANIPUR, THE CORONATION HALL AND DRAGONS. 2. OLD MANIPUR. 3. OLD MANIPUR.

I, These latter were blown up after the Rising of iSyi. 2. Group taken after the Relief of Kohima by the Maharaja Chandrakirti Singh and Col. Sir James Johnstone.

3. Entrance-gate to the old fort, now occupied as a Cantonment.

485

2 L-

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

bamboo are plentiful. Wild fruits abound,
including the chestnut, walnut, raspberry,
strawberry, apple, and plum. Cultivated
fruits include the orange, lemon, banana,
pineapple, papaya, pomegranate, mango,
guava, peach, and other less known
varieties. The hills are covered with many
beautiful kinds of orchids and flowering
trees and plants, including the wild rose,
azalea, bohinea, begonia, balsam, and
various lilies, and, on the higher slopes,
red and white rhododendron. English
flowers and vegetables grow well, and
experiments are now being made with
English fruits, especially apples. Tea is
indigenous in the hills.

The State is not, so far as is at present
known, rich in minerals ; there are deposits
of copper ore on the borders of the
Kabaw valley of Burma, salt wells are
plentiful, both in the valley and in the
hills, and coarse potters' clay is found in
sufficient quantities to supply the needs of
the people. Small deposits of iron in the
valley were worked in former days, but
have fallen into disuse with the advent of
cheaper and better imported iron. Lime-
stone is found in several places.

The larger kinds of fauna are less
plentiful than would be expected in con-
sideration of the sparse population of the
greater portion of the State, especially the
hills. The hill tribes are keen and un-
controlled hunters, and the former pre-
valence of muzzle-loading guns has had
much to do with the disappearance of big
game. Elephants are found but rarely,
and are mere visitors from the herds of
the Dhansiri valley of Assam and the
Kabaw valley of Burma. The bison {Bos
gaurus) and the tsaing [Bos sondaicus)
occasionally cross the eastern border from
the Kabaw valley, where they are common.
The wild buffalo, plentiful in Assam, is not
found or recorded. Several kinds of deer
occur in fair numbers, e.g. the Malay
sambar {Cervus unicolor equinus), and the
barking deer {Cervulus muntjac) are
found throughout the hills and on the
fringes of the valley, the latter also occur-
ring in the low ridges that intersect the
valley itself, while the hog deer {Cervus
porcinus) frequents the marshes and water
meadows bordering the lakes. Peculiar
to Manipur is the Manipuri deer {Cervus
Eldi cornipes), which lives in the swamps
and bogs in the south of the valley. This
race differs from the other races of Eld's
deer in Burma, Malay, Siam, and Hainan,
in that its habitat is in wet ground, whereas
its cousins prefer dry country. Leopards
are fairly common both in the hills and in

the valley, black specimens occurring
rarely. Tigers are found in the hills,
occasionally visiting the valley. The
clouded leopard is not uncommon. The
Himalayan black bear and the Malay bear
are plentiful in the hills. The goral and
the serao are to be met with in the rocky
and precipitous ranges. Wild cats of
many varieties, wild pigs, otters, many
kinds of monkeys and rats are common,
and wild dogs are not rare. The jackal
is infrequently met with, being an immi-
grant from Assam, but it is increasing in
numbers, an unpleasant legacy of the cart
road. Domestic animals include the
buffalo and a hardy little breed of cattle,
also a small but strong and sturdy breed
of pony. The hillmen keep pigs, goats,
mithuns {Bos frontalis), and dogs, the
latter being utilized both for hunting and
culinary ends.

Manipur is a paradise of small game.
The grey-leg goose is extraordinarily
plentiful on the Logtak, and two other
varieties of wild geese have been recorded.
Large bags of duck and teal can be made
in the cold weather, no fewer than twenty-
two different kinds having been recorded.
Snipe (six varieties) abound in the
marshes, and seven varieties of quail can
be obtained, though not in very large
numbers. The black partridge is com-
mon, and three or four other kinds occur.
Plover, woodcock, pigeon, jungle fowl, and
four or five varieties of pheasant arc also
found, but are generally difficult to bag.
Countless varieties of non-game birds
occur.

Domestic birds include the fowl, the
pigeon, the duck, and the goose, of which
the two last named are not coinmon.

Many species of freshwater fish abound
in the valley, in spite of the relentless pur-
suit of the Manipuris, who, being Hindus
of the Vaisnav persuasion, abstain from
flesh and fowl and subsist on a diet of
fish and vegetables only. The larger hill
streams are well stocked with mahseer.

Cobras and most poisonous snakes are
rarely found, but pythons and harmless
snakes are not uncommon. Many varieties
of lizards occur, and in the lower course
of the Barak there are a few gharial, or
fish-eating alligators.

The People. — Manipur is inhabited by
a medley of tribes. The population of
the State in 191 i was 346,323, made
up approximately as follows: Manipuri
Hindus, 198,000; Manipuri Mussulmans,
14,500; Indians, 3,750; Kukis (17
tribes), 63,500; Nagas (8 tribes), 66,500.
The three first-named classes inhabit

486

the valley and the last two the hills.
Tlie origin of the Manipuris and the
other tribes inhabiting the State will
always be doubtful, though they are, from
their appearance and linguistic affinities,
undoubtedly of Mongolian extraction.
The Manipuris themselves do not seem
very certain of their remote ancestry.
Some claim a Hindu descent, and, iden-
tifying Manipur with the Manipur of the
Mahabharat, assert that they are the off-
spring of Arjun by a Naga woman, but this
is obviously the result of the conversion
of the whole people to Hinduism some
two centuries ago. They claim a clearly
baseless affinity with the Rajputs of India.
Other legends attribute a Chinese origin
to the race, and Captain Pemberton, in
his report of the eastern frontier, says
" we may safely conclude them to be
descendants from a Tartar colony from
China." Later authorities have rejected
this theory and agree that the Manipuris
are sprung from various tribes which
descended upon the fertile valley from the
surrounding hills. Where these tribes,
and the tribes at present inhabiting the
hills, originated is not, and never will be
known, but they all belong to the Tibeto-
Burman family, and probably represent,
with the Chins, Lushais, Nagas, and
various peoples of Burma, successive
waves of immigration from western China
and eastern Tibet. The Kukis are ob-
viously close relatives of the Chin and
Lushai tribes, while the Naga tribes of
Manipur are more or less closely con-
nected with the tribes of the neighbouring
Naga Hills. The Manipuris present
affinities with both.

Religion. — The bulk of the population
of the valley are Hindus. The early
eighteenth century saw the advent of the
first Hindu missionaries from India, and
Gharib Nawaz, or Pamheiba, who came
to the throne in 17 14 and reigned for
about forty years, was the first raja of
that faith. The Manipuris are Vaisnavites,
and worship Krishna under the name of
Govindji. There are 8,000 Brahmans in
the valley and 171,000 Kshattriyas. The
latter include the not inconsiderable caste
of Raj Kumars, or descendants in the male
line of the royal family. The law that the
raja may possess three principal and one
hundred and eight subsidiary wives affords
scope for a large family. The privilege
is not often availed of, but a raja who
occupied the throne for a few months in
1851 succeeded in amassing no fewer than
ninety-six! The Raj Kumar is often an
insignificant person, but he is not allowed

r^'i 7S)«-

'5I25Eftt3BLTL3fcifc3Lafc;at^-

1. THE OLD RESIDENCY, BURNT IN THE RISING OF 1891. 2. THE PRESENT RESIDENCY, FROM THE DRIVE.

3. BACK OF PRESENT RESIDENCY.

487

1. KABUI MAOA DANCE. 2. STATE BOATMEN. 3. MOIRANG LAI HARAOBA. MEN IN BOATING-DRESS.

488

INDIAN NOBILITY

by custom to do agricultural labour. The
raja is not permitted by custom to marry
a Raj Kumari. There are also 18,000
Lois (tributaries), the descendants of sub-
ject communities, which in former times
performed various menial services for the
rajas, and were, in fact, practically slaves.
They manufactured iron, silk, salt, and rice
liquor, and provided grass, timber, fish,
fruit, and -earthenware pots. They pos-
sibly represent the aboriginal inhabitants
of the valley, but their numbers were sup-

their conversion to Hinduism, the Mani-
puris themselves were animists, and, as in
Burma, the old religion still survives side
by side with the new, every house having
its " Imung lai " or lares and penates,
and every village its " Lam lai " or
" Umang Lai," god or goddess of the
countryside and jungle, which has been
incorporated in the Hindu pantheon and
is worshipped either under its own name
or under a borrowed Hindu one. Relics
of the old ritual survive in the " Lai

puri house is sufficient to defile it to such a
degree that it is necessary to demolish
and rebuild it. Hillmen, however, who,
presumably owing to their race connection
with the Manipuris, are permitted to em-
brace Hinduism, may enter the veranda
of the house. In other matters they are
more lax, for example, they permit the
remarriage of widows — doubtless a sur-
vival of pre-Hindu days.

The life of the Manipuri is full of reli-
gious ceremonies apart from the ordinary

1. MANIPUEIS PISHING.

plemented by Manipuris, who were fre-
quently degraded to Loi as a punishment.
They were originally animists, but the
majority have now adopted the Hindu
religion, though certain villages adhere to
the animist cult of their forefathers. The
Manipuri Mussulmans, to the number of
14,500, are the descendants of immigrants
and captives from the Surma valley who
married Manipuri women. There are two
villages of llaris, or sweepers, who are
animists. The hill tribes arc all animists,
with the exception of an inconsiderable
number of Christian converts made by
the ."Xmerican Baptist Missionaries in the
eastern hills, and an offshoot of a Lushai
Mission in the south-west. Previous to

2. SHOOTING CAMP ON THE LOGTAK LAKE.

Haraoba," or pleasing of the god, an
annual ceremony in which each village
propitiates its own particular " lai." The
valley and hills abound in " laiphams," or
god's seats, which are the abiding places
of Lam and Umang Lais, and are rever-
enced accordingly. The ritual of the hill
tribes consists solely of propitiation of the
spirits of the stream and jungle, all of
whom are malevolent in varying degrees.
Both they and the Manipuris are extremely
superstitious.

The recency of the Manipuri's con-
version to Hinduism has rendered him
strict in certain observances to the point
of bigotry. Thus the mere contact of a
European or Mahommedan with a Mani-
489

ceremonial of his religious worship. At
his birth the usual Hindu ritual is
observed, together with a ceremony in
honour of the Imung Lai, or god of the
house. Another ceremony is performed
at the giving of the first rice and aiwther
at the assumption of the sacred thread
worn by all Manipuris. There is usually
a ceremony at marriage, which can be
contracted in several forms, the simplest
being elopement and cohabitation, without
any ceremony whatever. The dead are
disposed of by cremation, with the excep-
tion of very young children, who are
buried. There are various funeral cere-
monies, extending over a period of thirteen
days, though the cremation takes place

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

a few hours after death. The frontal bone
of the deceased is preserved and is taken
at a later date by some member of the
family going on pilgrimage, and after
visits usually to Navadvip and Benares,
is thrown into the Ganges at Radhakund.
An annual ceremony is held in com-
memoration of the deceased.

The hill tribes also have their cere-
monies, in propitiation of the malevolent
spirits who constitute their gods. There
are ceremonies at births, marriages, and
deaths, during illness, in memorial of the
dead, and at every important period of
the year, such as the cutting of the jhums.

gion. More elaborate dresses, based upon
the old national types, are worn by those
taking part in polo, wrestling, boat races,
" lai haraobas," and other State and reli-
gious ceremonies. The women, among
whom the purdah is unknown, wear a
phanek or skirt, folded across the breast
under the armpits and tucked in at the
side. For ordinary purposes this is made
of white or green cotton material, but on
liigh days and holidays striped /;/ia«e^5 of
various colours are worn, made of silk and
cotton and embroidered at the upper or
lower edges with silk. X shawl is worn
over the head or shoulders, on ordinary

MANIPURI GIRL SPINNING.

the burning of the jhums, and the planting
and reaping of the crops. These cere-
monies are invariably attended with the
sacrifice of some domestic animal, from a
mithun down to a fowl, and with libations
of liquor. The hillmen and the Mahom-
medans bury their dead, as the Manipuris
did before their conversion to Hinduism.

Appearance and Dress. — The Manipuris
and hill tribes alike, are fair, well-built,
and muscular. The Mongolian type is
predominant, but many possess regular
features, which appear to indicate a
different origin. The dress of the Mani-
puri man consists of a dhuti (shirt), and
at night or in cold weather, a coat and a
chaddar or shawl. Pagris are worn in full
dress and on ceremonial occasions. The
working dress consists of a dhutl or a
scanty loin cloth round the waist. They
all wear the sacred thread of their reli-

occasions of the same material as the
phanik, but on great occasions of thin
white muslin. Mahommedan men dress
much the same as the Hindus, sometimes
wearing a loose skirt instead of a dhuti,
but the Mahommedan women wear a
coloured cotton sash and pagri in addition
to the dress worn by Hindu women. In
the winter both Hindu and Mahommedan,
women wear a tight fitting bodice with
long sleeves, usually of black, green, or
red velvet. The women tie their hair in
a knot at the back. Unmarried Hindu
girls and the girls of some of the hill
tribes cut their hair in a fringe over the
forehead. Kuki women do their hair in
two plaits, tied together on the top of
the head. Some Naga tribes crop the hair
of the unmarried girls. In others the
women wear the hair tied in two large
knots hanging over the ears.

Manipuri men cut their hair short with
a sacred tuft at the crown of the head.
Some of the older men wear their hair
long and tied in a knot at the back of
the head, as do the Kukis and some Nagas.
Others among the Nagas cut the hair
round the sides, leaving a pendulous mop
on the top of the head. The Tangkhuls
are known by shaving the sides of their
heads, leaving the hair on the top sticking
straight up like a cockatoo's crest. One
tribe of Nagas tie their hair in a tight knot
over the forehead, pierced with an iron pin
and bound round with strings of beads.

Many men and most women wear plain
gold earrings. Women when dressed in
their best wear more ornate earrings,
rings, necklaces, and bracelets of gold.
Ankle ornaments and nose rings are not
worn.

Among the hill tribes, the men of the
Kuki clans wear a dhuti, pagri, and a
wrapper of thick home-made cloth or
blanket. The Tangkhuls, a Naga tribe
of 27,000 persons inhabiting the eastern
hills, wear a narrow strip of cloth, tied
in a knot, with the ends hanging down in
front, and a striped cotton wrapper.
When working they are accustomed to
remove all their clothing. The other
Naga tribes wear a short kilt, like the
Angamis in the Naga Hills. The women
of all the hill tribes wear skirts of various
colours, according to their tribes. The
skirt is arranged like the phanek of the
Manipuri women. The women of the
Kabuis, a Naga tribe of 18,000 souls in
the western hills, wear pagris, as do some
of the Tangkhul women. Tattooing is
practised by some of the Tangkhul women
only.

Earrings of various shapes, sizes, and
materials are practically universal among
the hillmen, men, and women. The Tang-
khuls prefer them of brass, frequently
enclosing the brass ends of two 1 2-bore
cartridges. The northern Naga tribes
affect coloured cotton or wool or brass
wire ; many Kuki men wear cornelian
beads, and the women, rings of brass or
silver, distending the lobe of the ear.
Kabul women wear large brass rings,
dependent from the lobe. Bracelets of
brass are worn by many Tangkhul men,
but the women of the hill tribes as a rule
only wear bracelets until they are married.
Necklaces are largely worn by men and
women. The Kuki women wear necklaces
of cornelian and other beads. The men
of the Tangkhul and northern Naga tribes
wear row upon row of marvellous neck-
laces made of bone and shell and various

INDIAN NOBILITY

coloured beads, which are often of great
value.

The inhabitants of the valley, Hindu
and Mahommedan, are extremely cleanly
in their persons, and except when working
wear spotlessly white clothing. The hill-
men, on the other hand, are dirty, both in
their persons and clothing, a wash being
indulged in only when they happen to
cross a river on a warm day.

Food and Drink. — ."Vs stated above, the
Manipuri Hindu, being a V'aisnavite, eats
the flesh of neither animal nor fowl, but
confines himself to a fish and vegetable
diet. Eggs and intoxicants are " taboo,"
but these rules are relaxed in favour of
children, who may eat eggs and flesh with-
out losing caste. In pre-Hindu days, of
course, the Manipuris ate what the hill
tribes eat to this day, nothing being for-
bidden except milk, which the hill men
regard as an unclean article of diet.
Various hill tribes still have their own
particular " taboos." Thus, no hill man
will eat the flesh of the tiger and leopard;
some will eat monkeys and some not;
dwellers in a large village in the north of
the State do not keep or eat pigs, though
most tribes prize them as an article of
diet. The hillman is not particular as .to
the mode of death of the animals which
he eats, with the result that cattle that
have died of old age or disease always
find some one to take pity on them. The
non-Hindu Lois and the hillmen brew
several varieties of not unpleasant beer
from rice, millet, maize, and other food
grains, the most palatable of which greatly
resembles slightly sour cider. A raw
and disgusting spirit distilled from this
beer is greatly appreciated, and is drunk
undiluted. It has been aptly described
as tasting of candlegrease and methylated
spirit.

The Manipuris smoke tobacco in hukas
made of coco-nut shells, and are also
extremely partial to cigarettes. Among
the hillmen the huka is confined to the
women of the Kuki tribes. The men
either smoke pipes, chew tobacco, or sip
and contain in the mouth water saturated
with tobacco juice from the hukas of their
lady friends and relatives. Betel leaf and
nut are extensively chewed by the Mani-
puris, and to a less extent by some of
the hill tribes. Opium and ganja smoking
is practically unknown.

Agriculture, Manufactures, and Trade.
— The agricultural produce of the country
consists chiefly of rice, which is the staple
food of the population. It grows abun-
dantly and is of e.xcellent quality, espe-

cially iu the fertile alluvial soil of the
valley. The central and lower portions
of the valley are watered by inundation,
but the land near the foot of the hills is
irrigated, without difficulty, by channels
from the many streams that have their
sources in the ranges bordering the
valley. Rice is sown in seed beds in the
spring, and the seedlings are transplanted
by hand in the early summer. Ploughing
is done with a primitive wooden plough
with a small share, drawn by a buffalo
or a pair of bullocks, and is noi at all
deep, merely consisting of churning the
wet surface of the fields into liquid mud.

wheat, mustard, pulses, sugar-cane, to-
bacco, potatoes, vegetables, and various
kinds of oil-seeds, and a little jute. But
these crops are almost entirely grown for
local consumption and are not extensive.
The staple crop of the hills is also rice.
It is chiefly grown in jhums, as described
above, but in the north and east of the
State, where the valleys are more open
and the lower slopes of the hills more
gradual, cultivation consists entirely of
irrigated terraces. Rice in the hills, how-
ever, is largely supplemented by other
food grains, such as millet, maize, and
Job's tears. Other crops grown in the

NAGA GIRL FISHING.

Weeding is done with a wooden harrow,
consisting of a toothed bar of wood, like
a rake, upon which a man stands and is
drawn over the field by a buffalo. Rice
and weeds are pressed into the mud indis-
criminately, the latter dying and the
former rearing its head again and sur-
viving. The rice is reaped with sickles,
from September to December, according
to the variety, and is threshed in the field
with a flail. The straw is mostly burnt,
and the unhusked rice is carried to the
cultivator's granary and stored there. The
carting is usually done in baskets on a
kangpot- a. rough wooden sledge, drawn
by a buffalo.

Other crops grown in the valley are

491

hills are cotton, potatoes, tobacco, and
various kinds of tubers and vegetables.
The chief of these is cotton, which is sufK-
cient to supply the whole State and leave
a margin for export. No cotton is grown
in the valley, but experiments are being
made with foreign varieties, which may
grow in well-drained land near the foot
of the hills.

The manufactures of the country, ex-
cept for local needs, are practically nil.
Every housewife is an expert at spinning
and weaving the cotton cloths required by
her family, of which an inconsiderable
quantity is exported. Silk cloths are made
in those l.oi villages in which the silk
industry is hereditary. The Loi potter

1. MANIP0EI B01S DANCING. 2. MANIPURI DANCE: KRISHNA AND THE MILKMAIDS.

3. MANIPURI DANCE ; KRISHNA KILLING THE CRANE.

492

1. MANIPURI POLO-PLAYEB. 2. MANIPUBI GIRLS' DANCE.

3. ARROW THROWER.
The arrows are carried in a quiver on the pony, and consist of a Iieavy iron hcid attached to a feather streamer. Formidable weapons, they are the favourite arm of the

famous Manipuri cavalry which is reputed to have raided into Burma, as far as Mandalay,

493

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

villagers make earthenware pots for local
use, but by a laborious method, the use of
the potter's wheel being unknown and
attempts to introduce it have hitherto
proved abortive. In other Loi villages,

and brass worker and watch mender who
has evolved a set of false teeth for himself
out of some ivory, lac, and silver wire.

Gold, silver, and brass workers make
for the local market only. No export

1. VIEW OF THE ANGAMI NAGA VILLAGE OF MAO.
One of the stages on the cart road at the boundary of the Manipur State.

four or five in number, salt is made by
evaporating brine from the salt wells on
the eastern fringe of the valley. The brine
is drawn in a closely woven basket from
a well, the shaft of which consists of the
hollowed trunks of trees. It is evapor-
ated in shallow iron pans over a wood
fire, and is sold in thin, round cakes.
Many wells exist throughout the hills and
are the source of a thriving trade. In
former times, certain Loi villagers pos-
sessed the art of smelting iron and pre-
paring spears, daos, ploughshares, axes,
hoes, and other primitive instruments.
But this art is now extinct, having been
killed by the competition of cheaper and
better imported iron and steel. In the
same way, imported cloth and salt are
serious rivals of the local products, al-
though conservative people still prefer the
home-made article.

The Manipuri as a craftsman is found
at his best in the work of the smith and
the carpenter. He is capable of turning
out first-class work and is ingenious and
clever at imitating even the most intricate
articles. There is a sewing machine in
use in Imphal which has been copied in
detail by Manipuri workmen from a Euro-
pean model. There is also an old silver

trade is done in these articles, and the
smiths do not exhibit any extraordinary
talent.

The Manipuris do not paint badly, and
there is a State artist, who with two
or three others in Imphal, turns out
very creditable pictures. At copying a
photograph in colour they are really
wonderful.

The chief articles of export from the
State are rice and timber. Many tons of
the latter commodity are annually floated
down the Barak River into Cachar, and
periodically teak is extracted in the foot-
hills of the Kabaw valley and exported to
Burma. No figures, however, are avail-
able. Rice practically monopolizes the
remainder of the export trade, the amount
exported by the Manipur — Dinapur cart
road in a year being in the neighbour-
hood of 200,000 maunds (i ton = 27-22
maunds). The last figures available are
for 191 4- I 5, when the exports were: Rice,
1,61,795 maunds; cloth and yarns, 207
maunds; ghi, 413 maunds; hides, 369
maunds; wheat, 109 maunds; molasses,
224 maunds; chillies, 158 maunds; mus-
tard oil, 77 maunds. There is also a
considerable export trade in cattle and
ponies, and a transport trade in cattle

494

and tea seed from Burma to Cachar and
Sylhet.

The chief imports are salt, betel-nuts,
and kerosene oil. The figures for 1914-15
of the quantity introduced by the Dinapur
cart road, are as follows: Salt, 26,234
maunds; betel-nuts, 21,090 maunds;
kerosine, 14,313 maunds; piece goods
and yarns, 4,541 maunds; dried
fish, 3,427 maunds; wheat and flour,
2,671 maunds; hardware, 3,147 maunds;
sheet iron, 1,164 maunds; pulses, 578
maunds; sugar 487 maunds; books and
stationery, 387 maunds; ammunition, 252
maunds; glass-ware, 187 maunds. The
export and import trade by the other two
roads leading out of the State, into Cachar
and the Kabaw valley of Burma, is incon-
siderable and is not recorded. These two
roads are merely bridle-paths through the
hills, and all trade passing over them has
to be carried on the backs of coolies.
Practically all the export and import trade
of Manipur is in the hands of foreigners,
chiefly Marwaris, as the Manipuris have
little or no commercial enterprise, and
lack capital.

A prominent feature of the internal
trade and social life of the valley are the
daily bazaars or markets, which usually
take place in the late afternoon and even-
ing. The vendors are women, and men
do not often attend, even as purchasers.
The chief one is the Imphal bazaar, in
which four or five thousand women offer
their wares daily. In this market, custom
lays down that men are permitted to sell
cigarettes and hukas only, and to change
money. But even the dealers in these
commodities are not allowed into the pre-
cincts of the bazaar proper, but are
obliged to sit on the outskirts. There are
ten or a dozen lesser bazaars in Imphal,
and about twenty others throughout the
valley.

The only coin originally recognized in
Manipur was a bell-metal coin, weighing
about 16 grains. The usual variation of
its exchange value is from 450 to 500 for
the Tupee. This coin is said by the
Manipuris to have been first struck by
Pakhangba, the legendary progenitor of
the royal family, who had the power of
turning himself into a snake, and still
reappears as such. Colonel McCulloch,
who was Political Agent in Manipur in the
middle of the last century, credits Kha-
kamba, who reigned during the first
half of the seventeenth century, with first
introducing bell-metal coinage. There is
evidence that a square silver rupee was
coined by Chaurjit Singh in 18 15, but

INDIAN NOBILITY

there is no record of silver coinage by
other rajas or of any gold coinage what-
ever. Indian coins have now almost
entirely ousted the sel, as the bell-
metal coins are called, but the latter are
still current in some bazaars in the valley.
History. — The court chronicler keeps a
record of events which purports to go back
to the thirtieth year of the Christian era.
The early portion, however, is unreliable,
and has probably been committed to writ-
ing in comparatively recent times. The
writings are in the dead language, and in
an almost obsolete character which has
been replaced in modern times by the Ben-
gali character. Our certain knowledge of
early times is confined to the fact that
Manipur was tributary to the kings of
Pong, the great Shan kingdom of Upper
Burma. In 1475 we find the united forces
of Pong and Manipur conquering Khum-
bat, with the result that the Kabaw valley
was annexed to Manipur.

From 1714, the accession of Pamheiba,
or Gharib Nawaz, the narrative is fairly
continuous and authentic. His reign and
those of his successors up to the First
Burmese War are a long record' of
struggles between the Manipuris and the
Burmese, with varying fortunes. Gharib
Nawaz actually reached the walls of Ava,
the Burmese capital, but patched up a
peace and returned to Manipur owing to
the alarm wrought in his suspicious mind
by the fall of his standard in a gale. Sub-
sequently, however, the Burmese were
almost uniformly successful and made
periodical invasions of the valley. It is
said that on their final withdrawal from
the State in 1824, the adult male popu-
lation did not exceed three thousand
souls.

The eighteenth century was also marked
by revolting and treacherous internal
wars. Previous to the reign of Gharib
Nawaz, himself a younger son concealed
by his mother, who came to the throne
owmg to the principal rani being barren,
it had been the pleasant custom of the
royal house to kill all sons born to the
raja by his minor wives. Gharib Nawaz
abolished this custom, with disastrous
results to himself, as he and his eldest son
were surprised and killed, while operating
in Burma, by a force sent by a younger
son who had cast covetous eyes on the
throne. The remainder of the century is
one long record of pretenders, civil war,
and murder in the royal house, brother
killing brother, father destroying son, and
son the father, without the least compunc-
tion. The rajas of the nineteenth century,

supported as they were by the British
Government, and assisted with grants of
guns and money, were stronger and more
secure, and though this period was not
without its pretenders, they were all over-
thrown.

The relations of the Manipur State with
the British Government date from 1762,
when a treaty was concluded whereby the
Government undertook to assist the Raja
Jai Singh against the Burmese. A force
was dispatched from Chittagong, but
disease and difficulties of transport pre-
vented it from penetrating beyond Cachar.
In 1823 Government opened communica-
tions with Raja Gambhir Singh, helping
him with guns, ammunition, and money,
the raja in his turn supplying a contingent
to co-operate with the British troops
in Cachar against the Burmese. In 1833
the Manipur Levy, which since 1825 had
been commanded by British officers, and
armed, accoutred, and paid by Govern-
ment, was discontinued, but arms and am-
munition for the reduction of refractory
hill tribes were supplied to the raja. In
1833 3 treaty was concluded between the

the Kabaw valley to the Burmese in return
for an annual grant from Government of
Rs. 6,270. In 1835 a Political Agent was
placed in Manipur by the Government for
" the preservation of a friendly inter-
course and as a medium of communication
with the Manipur Government, and, as
occasion may require, with the Burmese
frontier, and more especially to prevent
border feuds and disturbances which might
lead to hostilities between the Manipur-
ians and the Burmese " (Lord William
Bentinck's Minute, dated F"ebruary 7,

>835}-

For the next fifty-six years the relations
of Manipur with the Government are un-
eventful, save for the participation of a
Manipur contingent in the first expedition
against the Lushais in 187 i and the relief
of Kohima by a Manipuri force under the
Political .Agent, Colonel Johnstone, in
1879, when that station was besieged by
.Angami Nagas, subsequent to the murder
of the Deputy Commissioner, Mr. Damant,
at Khonoma. In 1891 the treacherous
murder of the Chief Commissioner of
.Assam, Mr. Quinton, together with the

A FINE STONE THREE-ARCH BRIDGE

Across one of the mountain gorges on the cart road, which was opened after tlie military expedition of 1891.

raja and the Government, defining the
boundary between Cachar and Manipur,
agreeing on mutual alliance and assistance
in the event of another war against Burma,
and arranging for trade between Manipur
and British territory. In 1834 another
treaty was signed by which the raja ceded

495

Political .Agent and three other officers
and of two telegraph officers, was a blot
on the modern history of the State.
Five years previously Raja Sir Chandra
Singh had died after a reign of fifty-two
years. His eldest son and successor, who
was deposed by his younger brothers in

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

1890, applied to the Government for
assistance in the recovery of his throne,
and to deport the Senapati, another
brother, who had been the leading spirit
in the revolution. The Chief Commis-
sioner accordingly proceeded to Manipur
with an escort of four hundred rifles, and
was received with every show of respect,
but the Senapati failed to attend the Dur-
bar at which the decision of the Govern-
ment was to have been promulgated.

members of the party. The two telegraph
officers who had left Imphal for Dinapur
the previous day were pursued and wan-
tonly murdered thirty-four miles out of
Imphal.

Columns converged on Manipur from
Cachar, .■\ssam, and Burma, and it was
quickly subdued. The raja and his
brothers were deported, the Senapati and
two others were hanged, and the Govern-
ment of India declared that the Manipur

and benevolent ruler. The period of his
administration has heralded the abolition
of abuses and irksome institutions, to-
gether with the introduction of reforms
and useful schemes for the future. The
British regency was marked by the dis-
continuance of the system by which every
inhabitant of the valley was obliged to
do ten days' labour in every forty for the
raja. His Highness has also abolished
the system of keeping up roads, and local

1. MANIPUEI BOY ON BUFFALO.

2. MANIPUEI MAHOMMEDAN WEDDING.

After some negotiations a force was sent
to seize the Senapati, but it was resisted,
and Lieutenant Braokcnbury was mortally
wounded. The Manipuris then attacked
the Residency, but in the evening a
message was sent to the effect that the
Senapati desired to confer with the Chief
Commissioner. The latter and his party
accordingly left the Residency and en-
tered the fortified Palace precincts. They
were never seen again, but it appears that,
after a fruitless discussion, they were
returning to the gate of the fort when one
of the mob speared the Political Agent.
He died shortly after from the wound, and
the Manipuris, considering that nothing
was to be gained by abstaining from
further treachery, beheaded the other

State was forfeited to the Crown, but
decided to rcgrant it to a scion of a junior
branch. The present raja. His Highness
Chura Chand Singh, was thereupon
selected. He is the youngest of five
brothers, great grandsons of Raja Nar
Singh, through his fifth son. His High-
ness was only si.\ years old in i8gi, and
Manipur passed through a long regency
under the Political Agent as Super-
intendent of the State, until his Highness
was installed on the Gadi in 1908, since
which time he has administered the State,
with the assistance of a Durbar presided
over by an officer of the Assam Commis-
sion, lent to the State for the purpose by
Government.

His Highness has shown himself a wise
496

schoolhouses by forced labour, and of each
village providing carriers for the baggage
of officials on tour within the village boun-
daries, and of supplying them with food,
and grain and grass for their ponies with-
out payment. Other ancient dues and
duties performed by the people were either
abolished or regularized, and clearly de-
fined. Recently an installation of pipes
has been laid down to convey filtered
water to Imphal from the hills ten miles
to the west. The scheme benefits about
50,000 people in Imphal, where the water
supply was exceedingly bad. His High-
ness has recently reformed the judicial
system of the State, and has instituted the
registration of documents. Projected im-
provements include the building of a large

1 TONGKHUL NAGA IN WARPAINT.
V Observe the red-hair tail.

2. TONGKHUL NAGAS IN WAR-PAINT 3-6. NAGA TYPES.

7. MAO NAGAS IN WAR-PAINT.

497

1 OFFICERS' QUARTERS. 2. OFFICERS' MESS. 3. MILITARY HOSPITAL.

4. A TYPICAL REST-HOUSE, ON THE MANIPUR-KOHIM CART-ROAD.

At one of the singes of the journey of 134 miles.

498

hospital on modern lines, a State printing
press, and a residential high school four
miles distant from Imphal. As soon as
suitable officers are available, the forest
and medical departments will be re-
organized under European supervision.
Meanwhile scholarships have been freely
granted to Manipuri boys to continue their
studies outside of the State with a view
to their employment in the higher posts
of the Stat-e service, many of which have

INDIAN NOBILITY

which Government had to refuse owing
to the lack of training officers. He has
accordingly recruited a double company
of Manipuri infantry for active service, and
has offered a non-combatant corps of hill-
men for manual labour in France. His
Highness's great ambition is to be per-
mitted to go on active service with his
men.

Games and Sports. — The national game
of Manipur is polo, which was introduced

secured under the chin. The bridle and
reins arc of cotton rope, and the bridle is
adorned with large balls of coloured cotton.
The saddle carries large curved shields of
lacquered leather on each side to protect
the legs. These doubtless had their origin
in war, in the days when the Kathe horse,
armed with their peacock-feathcr-shafted
darts, were a terror to the Burmese. The
Burman is a poor rider, whereas most
Manipuris are good horsemen.

1. VIEW OF A BOAT-RACE.
The boats are long dug-outs some 50 feet long, manned by 50 or 60 boatmen. Fouling is part of the game, .nnd the endeavours to upset an adversary cause the greatest enthusiasm.
Large crowds assemble to watch these events, and in their excitement men will plunge into the river to assist their partisans.

2. ANOTHER VIEW.

hitherto been held by Indian immi-
grants.

His Highness the Raja has, since the
outbreak of war, rendered to the Imperial
Government every assistance that the
resources of the State could afford. He
has presented four motor ambulances and
an aeroplane, and has invested Rs. 34,000
of the State Reserve Fund in the Indian
War Loan. He has imposed ta-xes upon
carts plying on the Manipur-Dinapur road,
and upon cattle transported through the
State, the proceeds to be devoted to war
purposes. He proposed raising a com-
pany of sappers and miners, an offer

into India from Manipur more than fifty
years ago. It has been played in the
State for two or three hundred years.
There is always an odd number of players
on each side, usually seven, and they play
for a fixed number of goals, the whole
end of the field being the goal. There
are no rules against crossing and fouling,
and if the ponies were not small and
extremely handy, accidents would be
common.

The costume worn consists of a tightly
tucked up dhuti, coloured cloth gaiters,
a tight jacket, often made of velvet, and
a pagri tied in the old fashion manner, and

499

Three varieties of hockey on foot are also
played, one with a rope of twisted grass
and a hard wild fruit of the lemon variety,
another with a short polo stick and polo
ball, and a third with a knobby cane, and
a seed from the jungle, or a polo ball.
Under certain circumstances, tackling h
allowed, whether the player is in posses-
sion of the ball or not.

Foot racing used to be very common
in Manipur, and the winner of the annual
race was excused from all forced labour
for life. This sport has now fallen into
disuse.

Wrestling is a common sport. The

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

contact of any part of the body, except
the foot, with the ground, constitutes
defeat. The costume consists of a very
tightly tied and tucked up dhutl and a
pagri similar to that worn for polo.

In September and on great occasions
there are boat races. The boats belong
to His Highness the Raja, and, like all
boats in the State, are hollowed out of a
single tree, being about 70 feet in length.
They are manned by about fifty rowers,
two or three steersmen and a captain, who
stands on a platform in the bow of the boat
and urges on his crew by raising his
paddle and stamping at intervals with his
foot. The boats are generally manned
by representatives of the four pannas of
the valley, two by two. The pannas were
probably originally military organizations,
but are now revenue divisions of the
valley. The main object is, of course, to
pass the winning-post first, but there are
no fouls, so this object is usually attained
by the boat which gets off ahead running
its nose across the rival boat and boring
it into the bank. By this manoeuvre one
side of the hinder boat is prevented from
using its paddles, and the greatest efforts
of the crew merely succeed in pushing the
leading boat towards the winning post.
The partisans of each crew run along the
river bank and dash into the water, at-
tempting to push their boat away from the
bank and to give it every assistance in
their power. The races are run in two
heats, and in the event of each boat win-
ning a heat, the winner of the first heat
is considered the winner. But the results
are carried on from year to year. In the
good old days, in the infrequent event of
one boat being sunk, the captain became
the slave of the other boat, and was com-
pelled to ransom himself at a fixed price.
The dress of the captains consists of a
dhuii, waistcloth, and sash with a gay
crimson pattern and border, a green velvet
jacket, a pagri similar to the polo pagri,
ornamented with a plume of pheasant and
peacock feathers, and with sprays of
orchid, and gold bracelets and armlets.
The steersmen are slightly less ornately
dressed, and the rowers wear only white
dhutis and pagris.

The Manipuris are very fond of chess,
of which they have a peculiar form of
their own, and they also play many games
of cards. They have other indoor games
of the fox and geese and pitch and toss
variety, and others played with dice.
Pigeon fighting was formerly a common
amusement, but the Manipuris are reck-
less gamblers, and thefts, which are

usually committed by men who have lost
their all, became so common that it was
stopped by a royal edict. Other indoor
amusements are reading, tale telling, and
singing parties, in which sacred songs and
stories, and the national ballads and folk-
lore are declaimed. The singing is fre-
quently accompanied by a monotonous
chant played on a violin made out of half
a coconut, fitted with a single string, or
rather bunch of strings, and adorned with
bells. The players of this instrument sing
in the dead language of Manipur, the lan-
guage of the chronicles.

Horse racing is not uncommon, consist-
ing solely of matches between two
owners, the stakes being either the pony
or a considerable sum of money. The
venue is always a road.

The hill tribes have few sports and
games. Among the Kabuis on certain
occasions, the young men of the village
have a long-jumping competition, which
takes place in the presence of a critical
audience, the old men, as is their wont,
lamenting that the present generation
cannot jump nearly as far as the experts
of their day. All the hill tribes play the
fox and geese and pitch and toss games
of the Manipuris.

Dancing among the Manipuris is alike
an amusement and a religious ceremony.
They have four dances, one performed
by boys alone, the others by boys and un-
married girls. The music is supplied by
a kind of guitar and drums, and by the
voices of the dancers and orchestra. The
most picturesque dance is a scena of
events from the story of Krishna and
Radha, the costume of Krishna, Radha,
and the chorus, male and female, being
gorgeous in the extreme. The dances are
entirely free from the sensuous character-
istics of Indian dancing.

Dancing among the majority of the
hill tribes is confined to men, and is of the
nature of a war dance. These dances are
of little or no aesthetic interest, but the
Marrings, a Naga tribe, have a pretty
dance in which women take part. The
Kabuis, another tribe of Nagas, have a
series of dances, executed by the un-
married men and girls, which are artistic
in form, and the music of which goes with
a swing and is more in accordance with
European ideas of melody than most
Indian music.

fishing and Hunting. — Being the sole
animal diet of the Manipuris, fislv are
ardently pursued by every imaginable
method both by men and women. Weirs,
fishing baskets, traps, spears, drag nets,

500

cast nets and lines, are all used. Poison
was formerly used, especially by the hill
tribes, but a recent order has put a stop-
to this wasteful and destructive method.
Fishing by explosives is also forbidden,
as well as by weirs and drag nets in the
hill streams, which are largely the nur-
series of the fish supply. There are about
twenty-five different kinds of fish in the
State, all of which are eaten by the Mani-
puris. Eels of a red colour are not eaten
by the Manipuris, but are esteemed as a
delicacy by the Nagas, who catch them
with spears with three or four prongs.

The Manipuri, not being a flesh eater,
abstains from hunting, but the Manipuri
Mahommedan is a keen sportsman, those
who have guns shoot duck and geese on
the lakes, and also the deer that are found
in the valley, but as they shoot regardless
of sex, season, or maturity, it has recently
been laid down that no deer shall be killed
in the valley without a permit. The
Mahommedans also kill black partridges
by running them down with dogs. The
birds are marked down and pursued every
time they rise, and after the third flight
they are usually so tired and mesmerized
with fright that they refuse to rise and
can be caught by the dogs. But the most
sporting method of hunting indulged in
by the Mahommedans is that by which
they kill the hog-deer. In the late spring,
when the lakes and marshes have mostly
dried up, ten or fifteen men mounted on
ponies, usually barebacked, and armed
with polo-sticks, and accompanied by a
mob of men armed with spears and sticks,
and having dogs, proceed to the haunts of
the deer. They beat the grass, and when
a deer is put up it is pursued across
country by the riders, who endeavour to
hit it on the head with their polo sticks, or
to drive it towards the foot people, who-
despatch it with their weapons. The
going is usually very moderate, and
tosses are not infrequent, but very seldom
serious.

The hillmcn, too, are keen and in-
defatigable hunters, and their persistent
efforts have greatly reduced the stock of
game in the hills. Certain kinds of
game, such as bison and elephant, have
been completely killed or banished by
them. The Kukis are special offenders
in this line, using the guns with which
former rajas used to arm them as a first
line of defence against marauding out-
siders, such as the Burmese, Chins, and
Angamis. Much has been done in the
way of disarming the hill tribes, a certain
number of guns being licensed and re-

INDIAN NOBILITY

turned to them, but the mischief has been
done, and it is doubtful whether the hills
will ever be stocked with game as they
were years ago. In addition to firearms,
the hillmen use traps, snares, bows and
arrows, and spears to kill all sorts and
sizes of animals and birds. They are
excellent trackers, and can follow wounded
animals for long distances.

Administration. — The raja is the head of
the State and has the ultimate word in all
important matters. He is assisted and
advised by a Darbar of seven members,
presided over by a member of the Assam
Commission lent to the State by the
Government. The various departments of
the administration are controlled by mem-
bers of the Darbar, His Highness the Raja
retaining the Medical and State Works
(roads and buildings) departments in his
own hands. All revenue matters and all
revenue-producing departments are con-
trolled by the President of the Darbar,
who is also in charge of the hill tribes.
There are nine local benches of five
magistrates each, who try petty criminal
and civil cases. In Imphal there are two
benches of six magistrates each, one of
which tries petty and the other more im-
portant cases. The Darbar is the supreme
court of the State. Cases in which hillmen
are concerned are tried by the resident
of the Darbar, and when British subjects
or other foreigners are parties they come
under the jurisdiction of the Political
Agent.

Modern punishments are the same as
those in force in British India, with the
addition of punitive labour for offences
committed by whole villages in the hills,
such as rioting or flagrant disobedience
of orders. The punishments of the old
regime were more brutal and picturesque.
It was the custom to put a murderer to
death in the same way as he had killed his
victim, and it was only about thirty years
ago that the raja, at the instance of the
Political Agent, substituted decapitation
after a particularly brutal murder. Mem-
bers of the Royal Family were executed
by being tied in a sack and thrown into a
river at some place where another river
meets it. Brahmans and women were
exempt from capital punishment. In the
case of the latter, a punishment known
as '■ parading the villages " was substi-
tuted. This is described as follows in
the Chronicles: " She is made thoroughly
naked, only a small piece of cloth being
tied round her waist ; her hair is shaved,
and her bare head and face are painted
with lime, ink, and turmeric; broomsticks

and a drum are tied on her back; a man
in front drags her by a piece of rope tied
round her neck; while a large crowd
gathers behind, beating the drum; her
crime is meanwhile proclaimed to the
public, and thus she is made to walk

in i88r the raja, disagreeing with the
court of justice, which acquitted the
offender, banished his fourth son to a Loi
village for a year for killing one of his
servants.

Crimes of violence are rare in Manipur,

NAGA HEADMEN OF MAO.

through the several streets and bazaars."
Flogging was a common punishment for
theft, and on a second conviction the thief
was liable to have his right hand cut off.
A punishment commonly employed was
banishment to a Loi village, entailing per-
manent social degradation. We read that

but cattle theft and burglary are exceed-
ingly prevalent and are difficult to detect.
Education is entirely voluntary, and
primary education is free. There are 71
lower primary schools, three upper primary
schools, and three middle English schools.
Higher and technical education is pro-

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

vided by scholarships tenable at schools
and colleges in British India. But the
institution of a high school in the near
future is contemplated, the foundation
stone of the building having been laid by
the Chief Commissioner of Assam on the
occasion of his last visit.

Western medical science does not
greatly commend itself to the Manipuris,
who prefer to rely on their own maibas
and maibis, a class of men and women
who combine the most elementary and
extraordinary ideas of medicine and mid-
wifery with soothsaying and prophecy.
Two European remedies, however, are
thoroughly popular, namely, vaccination
and quinine. Statistics show that the
central hospital in Imphal and the four
dispensaries in the valley and hills are
gradually gaining in popularity, and the
State has now several students under
training in a medical school in Assam.

Finances. — It is only in comparatively
recent years that the State of Manipur
has possessed any money revenue worth

speaking of. In the old days a very large
proportion of the revenue was paid to the
raja in kind — rice, salt, cloth, fish, fruit,
iron, timber, and other goods. Colonel
McCuUoch, the Political Agent in 1859,
estimated the cash revenue at that time at
from Rs. i 2,000 to Rs. i 5,000. By i 892-jj,
however, it had risen to Rs. 2,15,000, in
1 900- 1 it was Rs. 3,88,000, in 1910-11
Rs. 4,95,000, and in 1915-16 it reached
Rs. 6,51,000. By far the largest source
of revenue is the land. All land in the
valley is assessed at the rate of Rs. 2-6-3
per acre, producing about Rs. 4,10,000.
The next largest item is hill house-tax,
which, assessed at Rs. 3 per house, pro-
duces about Rs. 75,000. Fisheries yield
about Rs. 70,000, and forests about
Rs. 25,000, with occasional windfalls from
teak. Other less profitable sources are
foreigners' tax, ferries, salt, tea-seed, law
and justice, jail, excise, income tax and
trading licences, water rate, Kabaw valley
compensation, and miscellaneous items.
The chief spending department is that

of State Works, with a present expenditure
of about Rs. 1,60,00. The raja's civil list
accounts for Rs. 1,25,000, administration
Rs. 50,000, education for Rs. 30,000,
military police for Rs. 37,000, and land
revenue for Rs. 30,000. A tribute of
Rs. 50,000 is paid to the Government of
India. Smaller amounts are expended
upon hill tribes, salt, forests, law and
justice, civil police, jail, medical, postal,
expeditions and tours, tea-seed, miscel-
laneous institutions, veterinary, water-
works and repayment of loan. The State
is indebted to the Government to the
amount of about Rs. 1,20,000, being the
unliquidated balance of a loan of
Rs. 1,75,000, contracted in order to con-
struct the Imphal waterworks. Disastrous
floods during October 1915, which sur-
passed any floods in the memory of man,
did immense damage to the roads and
bridges, and destroyed about half the rice
crop of the valley, rendering it necessary
to apply to Government for a further loan
of Rs. 3,25,000.

A STATE OFFICIAL AND BODYGUARD.

502

INDIAN NOBILITY

THE AUL RAJ

The Aul Raj Estate is in the district
of Cuttack and the Orissa division of the
Province of Behar and Orissa.

The numerous waves of political and
religious movements which in early days
passed over Orissa, and the invasions and
conquests which took place alternately in
that country, naturally had an effect upon
the Province of Aul, and therefore the
history of the Raj is very closely con-
nected with that of the area of which it
was an integral part.

According to ancient tradition in Orissa,
the whole of India was at one time under
a sovereign who ruled at Hastinapur, the
ancient name of Delhi. This king ap-
pointed four Maharajas, who, in turn,
selected a number of petty rajas to assist
in the government of his territory; one of
these, known as Gajapati, ruled over the
eastern portion of the kingdom, which in-
cluded the then Province of Orissa. Each
Maharaja had seven kinds of insignia,
those in Orissa being named Deo, Dev,
Rao, Ram, Chandol, Hazari, and Sinha,
and some of these names, together with
a number of coins issued in the year
I I 80, are still in existence.

In A.D. 774, Jajati Kesari drove
from Orissa the Mohammedans who had
been established in the country for a
hundred and forty-six years, and forth-
with set up his capital at Jajpur, in the
district of Cuttack, becoming the founder
of the Kesari dynasty. There is nothing
much of importance to chronicle during
the reigns of several succeeding Maharajas
—excepting frequent internal struggles -
until the year 1175, when Ananga Bhima
Deva ascended the throne. This ruler
became impressed with the idea that he
had observed bad omens at Jajpur, and he
thereupon changed his capital to Cuttack,
where he built the fort of Barabati, various
temples, palaces, roads, wells, and tanks,
and founded 460 Brahman sasans. In
I 197 he built the temple of Jaggannath at
Puri at a cost of 40 lakhs of rupees.

Prominent among his administrative
actions was a settlement of the kingdom,
which was carried out with the help of
his two ministers, Damodar Barapanda
and Iswar Pattanaik. The territory over
which he reigned at that time extended
from Sonepur, in the present division of
Tirhut, in the Province of Behar and
Orissa, to the sea, and from the Hooghly
River to the Godavari, in the Madras
Presidency. Many important works of
construction were undertaken during the
reigns of kings in the next two centuries.

among them being the famous Kanarka
temple, and a fine bridge, with eighteen
spans, at Puri.

In the year 1504 Protap Rudra Dev
ascended the throne, and it is recorded of
him that he was a firm believer in the
teachings of Buddha until one Chaitanua
Dev visited Orissa and displayed such
acquaintance with occult matters in the
name of religion that the Maharaja re-
garded him as an incarnation of Bishnu,
becoming a Baishnab himself and convert-
ing the majority of his subjects to the
same faith. While Protap Rudra Dev was
away from his kingdom laying siege to the
fort of Bijaynagar, the Pathans attacked
Orissa with a very large army, and they
plundered Cuttack and advanced towards
Puri. The worshippers of Jagannath hid
the image on the south-western side of
Lake Chilka, as they feared that the
Pathans might destroy it. Protap Rudra
Dev returned, gave battle to the in-
vaders, but, being worsted, was com-
pelled to submit to terms of peace dictated
by the conquerors.

Upon the death of Protap Rudra Dev
in the year 1625 the independence of
Orissa was partially destroyed, as the
kingdom had been considerably weakened
by repeated attacks by the Pathans and
Deccanese.

This ruler was succeeded by his eldest
son, who was assassinated by his powerful
minister, Govind Bidyadhar; the second
son shared a similar fate after a reign of
only twelve months; then the remaining
thirty sons of Protap Rudra Dev were
killed; Govind Dev assiiined power, and
soon found himself involved in a war
of retribution brought against him by
Mukunda Ilarichandan and Janardan Bid-
yadhar, who were ultimately appointed
respectively to the viceroyalty of Cuttack
and the chief ministership of Orissa.

Mukunda Harichandan ascended the
throne in 1551 with the title of Tailanga
Mukunda Dev, and was the last indepen-
dent King of Orissa. He founded many
Brahman sasans, built several palaces,
temples, and tanks, and defined the
northern boundary of his kingdom by
constructing the Tribeni Ghat on the
sacred waters of the Ganges in Bengal.

Shortly after this, Suleman, the subedar
of Bengal, made several attempts to sub-
due Orissa, but his plans were frustrated,
and he attributed his want of success to
the fact that the Lord Jagannath was
established at Puri. Suleman then made
grants of land to several of his favoured
supporters, and to Kanai Lai, one of the

principal of these adherents, he gave per-
mission to make an attack upon Orissa.

The success which attended the raids
of Kanai, or Kalapahar, as he subsequently
styled himself, was so great that Mukunda
Dev took refuge in flight, hiding himself
in a number of forts between the Tribeni
Ghat and Rajmuhandry in the district of
Godavari, in the Madras Presidency.
Kalapahar searched the villages for the
runaway ; he scoured the forests and
climbed the hills of Orissa, he destroyed
all the idols that could be found, op-
pressed Hindus, and, in a word, he aimed
at rooting out the Hindu religion from
Orissa. His determination to attack the
temple and secure the idol of Jagannath
was frustrated as the Pandas floated the
image on the sea near Puri and thus pre-
served it from the ruthless grasp of the
marauder. Mortified, possibly, by the
failure of many of his cherished dreams,
Kalapahar left the seashore and proceeded
inland, where he plundered districts and
towns as far in a southerly direction as
Samhalpur.

After Mukunda Dev was dethroned,
Orissa was ruled by two petty kings, but
they were killed in the course of battle
and the country was then the scene of
anarchical disturbances for a period of
about twenty-one years. The hiding-place
of Mukunda Dev not having been dis-
covered, his chief minister placed his own
son upon the throne with the title of
Gajapati Ramchandra Dev, and he was the
founder of the Bhoi dynasty. The two
sons of Mukunda Dev — Tailanga Ram-
chandra Dev and Chhakari Bhramarbar —
attacked Puri, but after their defeat by
Gajapati Ramchandra Dev they appealed
to the Emperor Akbar, who deputed Todal
Mall and Raja Mana Singh to make ar-
rangements regarding rents and to com-
mence a survey of the country.

The estates of Khurda, Puri, and others
were given as jaigir to Raja Ramchandra
Dev, together with power to rule over
129 killas of Orissa; to Tailanga Ram-
chandra Dev was granted Aul and 23 other
killas; and Chhakari Bhramarbar received
the fort of Saranggarh.

Aul at that time (1582) consisted of
23 killas and 42 zemindaris, the killas
being Kanika, Rynta, Kojang, Kolla-Dip,
Harispur, Marichpur, Bishunpur, Jamkur-
rera, Chhedra, Darpan, Dholtang, Daljora,
Chatter, Amjera, Balpupur, Alemgir,
Nattaigree, Kaluparah, Bhunia-Bhadrak,
Noundih, Barmatree, Alumpedda, and
Kaljang.

The Aul killa is now — January 191 7 —

J, Raja of Aul im the Lions' Cage.

THE AUL RAJ.
2. Raja and a " Favourite," 3. Raja seated upon a Leopard placed upon the Back of an Elephant.

504

I. The Raja with the HEtR-APfAKENT,

THE ADL EAJ.
t. Raja oh Horseback.

3, The Raja oh His Throne.

505

3 N

Bengal and assam, behar and orissa

situated in a north-easterly direction from
the town of Cuttack, and is divided into
three pergannas, namely, Utihar, Kutab-
sahi, and Dera-Barimul, with an area of
about 134 square miles. The rivers
Brahmini and Kharasrota form the four
boundaries of the killa, and enormous em-
bankments have been constructed in order
to protect the land from periodical floods,
which have in times past caused immense
damage.

After Tailanga Ramchandra Dev re-
ceived this killa from Mana Singh he
defeated the petty local zemindars and
became Raja in the year 1567. He also
conquered Basu Kalpataru, the Jogi Raja
of Derabisi, and proceeded to occupy the
country, securing the mahantship of a
small math, together with power over the
inhabitants of the Baishnab caste. The
last two-named privileges are enjoyed at
the present time.

A lengthy period of peace and pros-
perity ensued during the reigns of Nila-
kamha Dev, Balabhadra Dev, Gopinath
Dev, and of Trilochan Dev, who took a
great interest in furthering trading re-
lationships with various places in India
as well as with other countries.

He equipped a fleet of about two hun-
dred sailing vessels, which visited Bombay,
Burma, Borneo, Java, and Sumatra, and
they were not withdrawn from service until
competition by steamers belonging to a
number of shipping companies rendered
their continuance unnecessary.

Succeeding Rajas included Kishori Dev,
Nilakantha Dev (who constructed a beau-
tiful temple and gave a zilla of Rs. 8,000
for the maintenance of worship), Gopinath
Dev, and Ramkrishna Dev, who received
authority from the Mahratta Government
at Nagpur to be called the Moha Raja of
Aul, in place of Gopinath Dev, and was
invested with the royal insignia and given
authority to keep five hundred cavalry.

During the reign of Ramkrishna, in
1803, Orissa was conquered by the British
and an agreement was concluded under
which a peshkas was permanently fixed,
and all the powers of a KMajat Raja were
conferred upon the ruler. One of the pro-
visions of the agreement then entered into
was that the Raja was required to pay an
annual sum of i 13,436 kahans of cowries,
lo\xx kahans of which were equivalent to one
rupee. Ramkrishna was a great warrior,
and after his army had rendered assis-
tance to General Harcourt in December
1803, in a battle at Kendrapara, he re-
ceived from the Government of India a
letter of acknowledgment of his services.

He was succeeded by his son, Pratap
Rudra Dev, who became insane, and the
estate passed into the management of the
Government Court of Wards, this control
being continued until 1847, when Pad-
manabh Dev attained his majority and
ascended the throne.

Orissa was in his time ( i 866) visited by
such a terrible famine that the flesh of
human beings was partaken of by the
starving crowds of people, and the surviv-
ing subjects were reduced to a most abject
state of misery. Padmanabh Dev was
e.xtremely pious, and introduced into his
country many high caste Brahmans, Kshat-
triyas, and Karans, at the same time
bestowing upon them lands for their main-
tenence. He reigned for forty-seven years
and died in 1888.

His second son, Jadunath Dev, became
the next Raja, and during his reign the
last settlement of the district of Cuttack
was completed. Jadunath was a man of
strong religious tendencies, a considerable
portion of his income being spent in build-
ing temples, in constructing tanks and
wells, and in the establishment of a deity
named Jadukulachandra, and the gift of
property of the value of Rs. 2,000 for its
maintenance. He ruled his subjects with
firmness, tempered with justice, and did
all in his power to promote their happi-
ness. He, further, held a great festival
annually, and for a whole week he, at
a cost of several thousands of rupees,
provided ample food for Brahmans,
Baishnabs, and the needy poor of his
territory. He died while worshipping in
the temple of Lakshmi-Baraha-Jeo in the
year 1900. He left three sons, the eldest
of whom, Pitambar Dev, became Raja of
Aul after his father's death. He had,
however, only reigned for about five years
when the steam launch in which he was
returning from a hunting expedition,
encountered a violent storm and sank
beneath the waters of the river Kharasrota,
carrying with it the Raja and all his
attendants.

As Pitambar Dev died without an heir,
and the second brother had been adopted
by the Raja of Kanika, he was succeeded
as Raja by his youngest brother, Braja
Sunder Dev, who appears to have inherited
all the praiseworthy qualities of his pre-
decessors in office ; he is wise in adminis-
tration, devoted to music and religious pur-
suits, protecting upright men and punish-
ing evil doers; he contributes liberally to
the maintenance of temples, and the cause
of education has in him a warm sup-
porter, he having from his private purse
506

founded Sanskrit and upper primary
schools at Aul, and provided for assistance
being rendered to poor students residing
at a distance from his killa.

The Raja's estate has been considerably
increased by the purchase of a portion of
the Marichpur killa, together with some
zemindaries in the neighbourhood of Aul,
but he never seems to tire of spending the
wealth derived from his properties in
alleviating the distress of the poor, or in
contributing to the support of educational,
charitable, and religious institutions.

The Raja has from his youth indulged
in all kinds of manly sports, and as an
expert with rifle or gun he has few equals.
His hunting expeditions led him to take
a deep interest in the habits of wild beasts,
and his great courage — which is one of the
most noticeable features in his character
— together with the knowledge of his
power over those animals, doubtless
caused him to become a shikari in real
earnest.

There is probably no other occupant of
a throne who has captured and trained
wild animals, and the success of the Raja
in that direction resulted in the formation
of a travelling circus, of which he is the
controlling spirit. Lions, tigers, bears,
and other ferocious inhabitants of the
jungle seem to be as harmless as the
domestic cat when they are brought face
to face with him, and the marvellous
manner in which he compels submission to
his will is a striking proof of the power
of the man.

The Raja has, of course, his own
methods of training, but he is invariably
successful in the end, as his skill in sub-
duing an animal is no less than the won-
derful patience which he exhibits.

The " Aul Raj " circus is known
throughout India and Burma, and numer-
ous letters as to the high-class character
of the performances have been received
at Ranchi, Purulia, Bankipore, Ramnagore,
Vizagapatam, and other places, while in
1 916 His Excellency Lord Carmichael,
Governor of Bengal, presented a testi-
monial to the Raja in recognition of his
extraordinary courage. Medals have
been received at the Delhi Coronation
Durbar in 191 i, at the Cuttack Coronation
Durbar in the same year, and from many
maharajas, rajas, and prominent Euro-
peans at Calcutta.

THE DUDHORIA RAJ FAMILY OF
AZIHOANJ

The hereditary chroniclers of ancient

princely families in India have played a

INDIAN NOBILITY

most important part in recording gene-
alogies and in giving readers of twentieth
century history most valuable and interest-
ing information as to the soul-stirring
episodes which occurred hundreds of years
ago when kingdoms and dynasties were
established or overthrown, when kings and
princes entered into possession of vast
territories, only to be deposed by other
factions more powerful than themselves,
and when wise rulers reigning over peace-
ful communities were very few in number.

I lo B.C., was the first of the princely line
from which the Dudhorias trace their
descent, and there was a direct succession
of Princes until the time of Raja Dudhor
Rao (.^.D. 165), who renounced the ances-
tral orthodox Vedic (or Saiva) faith in
favour of Jainisin, and it was from this
time that the name " Dudhoria " was given
to the descendants of the Raja who bccainc
converts to the new creed. Dudhoria
means literally " the family belonging to
Raja Dudhor."

being the Yoga. Their beliefs include the
eternity of matter, transmigration of the
soul, and, in fact, just those things which
are evident to the senses."

The Dudhorias, after their conversion
to Jainism, engaged in various business
occupations, migrating from place to
place, until about the year 1774 they
moved from Bikanir in Rajputana to Azim-
ganj in the district of Murshidabad, in
Bengal, where Harjimal Dudhoria and two
sons commenced trading in country-made

BAJA BUOY SING DUDHORIA OF AZIMGANJ.
X. .^ziMGANj Rajbati, 2. Raja Bijoy Sing Dudhoria of Azimganj.

And among these curious old documents,
and still more through the medium of
carefully preserved traditions, one is able
occasionally to get glimpses of a noble
house whose lengthy list of princes con-
tains the names of men who were in every
way worthy of the honourable positions
which they occupied.

An interesting illustration of one of
these is found in the chronicles of the
Dudhoria Raj family of Azimganj, in the
district of Murshidabad in the Province of
Bengal. One Raja Chaban, ruler of
Ajmer (an extensive territory in Raj-
putana) between the years 135 B.C. and

" The Jains," says Major TuU Walsh,
I. M.S., F.L.S., in his " History of Mur-
shidabad," " are a dissenting sect of
Hindus, having, however, the same dis-
tinctions of caste. They regard life as
sacred, and will not knowingly kill any
living thing. They sweep the place on
which they are going to sit, and sometimes
even the ground on which they walk.
They prefer to eat by daylight, lest, eating
at night, they should swallow an insect,
and no orthodox Jain may touch animal
food or drink alcohol in any form. The
highest respect and worship are given to
holy men, or saints, their chief authority

507

cloths. A certain amount of success was
gained, but the real beginning of pros-
perity for the family began with Babu
Harek Chand Dudhoria, who became a
leading merchant, and, further, opened a
money-lending business in Calcutta, Siraj-
ganj, Azimganj, Jangipur, and Mymen-
singh. He died in 1862, leaving two sons,
Babu Budh Singh and Babu Bissen Chand,
who succeeded their late father in the
flourishing concern which he had estab-
lished. The new partners gained the
entire confidence of their customers, and
extended their operations by investing
money in landed property, ultimately be-

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

coming Zemindars owning land in the
districts of Mymensingh, Murshidabad,
Birbhum, Faridpur, Nadia, Purnea, and
Rajshahi.

In 1877, however, the brothers agreed
to divide the colossal business into two
equal parts, and from that time the estab-
lishments have been carried on under
separate names. About twelve years later
an incident occurred which led to very
serious trouble, not only for the Dudhoria
family but also for the Jain community to
which they belonged. It appears that Rai
Budh Singh Bahadur had a son, Babu
Indra Chand, who, during the time that
he was receiving an English education in
India, succumbed to an overpowering
desire to visit England and the continent of
Europe, and accordingly he undertook the
journey without the knowledge or consent
of his father or uncle. " The Jains, like
the Hindus, are an orthodox community,
and not only discountenance sea voyages,
but also excommunicate those who under-
take them. Indra Chand's journey to
Europe therefore created an unprece-
dented furore in this community, which
resulted in splitting it up into two power-
ful factions, and creating much bad blood
between them." The matter was subse-
quently taken to the High Court of Judi-
cature in Calcutta, and some time elapsed
before anything approaching peace was
noticeable.

The controversy was as sad as it was
serious, and the cause of it — Babu Indra
Chand— died in 1899, leaving two sons
who were minors.

Rai Bissen Chand — the father of the
present Raja — died after a short illness in
1894, leaving his only son and heir, Babu
Bijoy Singh — a promising youth of about
fourteen years of age. The management
of the estates and business inherited by
the minor was taken in hand by his uncle,
Rai Budh Singh Bahadur, who also gave a
sound and liberal education to his ward
under the tuition of Babu Abinas Chandra
Das, M.A., B.L. When Bijoy Singh at-
tained his majority in 1900, he took over
the direct control of his estates, and of the
banking and other business to which he
had succeeded, and even at this early
period of life he manifested strong com-
mon sense and keen shrewdness in com-
mercial matters, and those with whom he
came in contact recognized that he was
following closely in the footsteps of his
father in exhibiting a sound practical
acquaintance with the duties of a landlord
and as the controlling power over huge
commercial concerns.

It was not likely that a young nobleman
of great wealth and " with superb qualities
of head and heart" would be left for long
without his being invited to enter into
public life, and thus it is noticed that in
1903 he was nominated by the Govern-
ment as a Commissioner of the Azimganj
Municipality.

An all-India Jain conference was held
at Baroda in December 1904, at which
Rai Budh Singh Dudhoria was appointed
President and his nephew, Bijoy Singh,
vice-president. The latter evinced great
interest in municipal questions, and in
1906 he, as a candidate for the chairman-
ship, succeeded after a keen contest in
defeating a rival candidate who had held
the office for nine successive years. In
January 1907 he was appointed an
honorary magistrate of the independent
Bench at Lalbagh, and in June in the
following year, on the birthday celebra-
tion of the late King Edward VII, the title
of Raja was conferred upon him by Lord
Minto, the then Viceroy of India, in recog-
nition of his public services, his liberality,
and his high personal character. The
sanad and Khlllut of the new position were
formally handed to the Raja at a Durbar
held at Belvedere in Calcutta on Novem-
ber 14, 1908, by the Hon. Sir Andrew
Eraser, K.C.S.I., then Lieutenant-Governor
of Bengal. Public addresses — in some in-
stances accompanied by silver caskets —
were presented to the Raja from numerous
public bodies, and his replies proved that
he desired to show his deep appreciation
of the honour conferred upon him by
devoting himself still more fully to the
welfare of the community at large, particu-
larly in the form of educational and charit-
able institutions.

In January 1909 the Raja was re-
elected chairman of the Azimganj Munici-
pality, and in August of the same year he
was the recipient of the highest praise and
warmest thanks tendered on behalf of the
Government by the Hon. Sir Norman
Baker, K.C.S.I., when opening a new
school building at Jiaganj, constructed
by the Raja at a cost of about Rs. 20,000.

The Raja cannot have had many spare
hours to himself since his majority, as in
addition to functions already mentioned he
has acted as member of the District Board
of Murshidabad, was a member of the
Executive Committees of the Imperial
League, the King Edward Memorial Fund,
and of the British Indian Association of
Calcutta, of which he was a vice-president
in 1915.

The Raja is an indefatigable worker,

508

and gives personal attention to details in
all departments, and this notwithstanding
the fact that he has a large staff of capable
officials.

-Although keen in all business questions,
the Raja is generous with his wealth, and
no really deserving object brought to his
notice fails to receive his hearty support.

The liberality of the Dudhoria family is
well known, as they have founded dharam-
salas, charitable dispensaries, hospitals,
and schools, and since he attained his
majority the present Raja has contributed
Rs. 100,000 to Lady Minto's fete in aid of
the Nursing Association; he gave about
Rs. 20,000 for the construction of the
Jiaganj Edward VII Coronation Institu-
tion; a sum of Rs. 4,000 was contributed
to the Krishnagar College; Rs. 10,000
were given to the Imperial War Relief
Fund; during a partial famine in 1906-7
he expended a very large sum in providing
rice for needy poor people; and he sub-
scribes to a number of private charities,
and practically supports very many of his
impoverished fellow Jains.

The Raja was married in February 1894
— when fourteen years of age— to the
youngest daughter of the late Rai Dhanpat
Singh Bahadur of Baluchar, and he has an
only daughter, who was married to Babu
Srichand Nahata, also of Baluchar.

This young nobleman — barely in the
prime of life — has won the affections of his
people by his upright conduct and his
unostentatious kindliness of spirit to all
with whom he comes into contact, and it
has been well said that " goodwill towards
all living creatures, kindness, and human
fraternity, the three principal tenets of his
religion, are well illustrated in the Raja's
life."

The family residence of the Raja,
situated on the right bank of the Bhagi-
rathi River at Azimganj, is a stately
structure, richly furnished, and containing
a rich and rare collection of jewellery,
and it is frequently the scene of elaborate
festivities, to which the elite of the district
are invited.

BAMRA STATE

There are twenty-four dependent ter-
ritories attached to the division of Orissa,
in the Province of Behar and Orissa, and
they are about 28,125 square miles in
extent. The general appearance of the
country is exceedingly fine; there are vast
ranges of forest interspersed with moun-
tains, hills, and highly cultivated plains,
while the Mahanadi, the Brahmani, and

I. Raja S. Tribhuban Deb and Rani.

BAMRA STATE.
2. Raja D. Sudhal Deb and Rani,

3. View of Deogarh, showing the Palace.

509

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

other navigable rivers present a pleasing
contrast to the deep green foliage which
abounds so luxuriously on every hand.

The Bamra State has an area of about
1,988 square miles, and it comprises some
930 villages, and one township, Deogarh,
which has a population of 5,700 inhabi-
tants. The present Chief, Raja Tribhu-
ban, who succeeded his father. Sir Basudeo
Sudhal Dev, K.C.I.E., in the year 1903,
administers the State with the assistance
of three tahsUdars, who are receivers of
land revenues in their respective sub-
divisions. These officials and other
honorary magistrates dispose of criminal
cases, but the Chief, although supreme in
the State, is compelled to have any
sentences of death confirmed by the Com-
missioner of the division of Orissa. The
relationship between the State and the
British Government was defined and regu-
lations were promulgated by a Sanad in
1867, under which the Raja was recog-
nized as a feudatory chief, and the annual
tribute, which is liable to revision, but
which was annexed in 1909 for thirty years
— payable from the State E.xchequer — is
Rs. 7,500.

The various departments of the State
are controlled by able officials, and special
attention is devoted to the preservation
of village forests, which in the past have
been recklessly destroyed by inhabitants.
The State jungle includes ten species of
protected trees, and permission to fell
these must be obtained from the Chief
Officer of the Forest Department.

No assessment is levied upon vendors
of merchandise in the majority of the
markets or bazars, but local storekeepers
pay a small charge, which is levied pro
rata upon the value of the goods sold.

The people, therefore, are not unduly
harassed by taxation, and it is significant
that the average annual number of civil
suits in the Courts does not exceed 400
for the whole State, and about 1 1 per cent.
of these plaints are for sums of less than
Rs. 100. The principal industrial centre
is at the jail at Deogarh, where prisoners
are subjected to definite regulations re-
garding labour, and are taught weaving
under modern methods, brick-making, oil-
pressing, lime burning, and other useful
and profitable trades.

The Raja is deeply interested in the
question of giving sound education to
boys and girls, and the State maintains
more than thirty schools, in addition to
giving substantial assistance to a consider-
able number of private establishments.

The soil is chiefly of light and sandy

character, and the principal crops are rice,
oil-seeds, cotton, and sugar-cane, and the
Chief, who is progressive in this as in
other matters, has established a model
farm of his own, upon which one sees
modern agricultural machinery, and steam
engines and up-to-date plant in factories
and mills. Experiments are carried on
at this place, and every opportunity is
given to villagers to acquire practical
instruction in the problem of making the
land as productive and as profitable as
possible. Nearly 75 per cent, of the
population are engaged in agricultural
pursuits, while employment is found for a
very large number of persons in saw-mills
at Sirid, a village between Deogarh and
Bamra."

The principal exports arc iron, oil-
seeds, timber, pulses, and general forest
produce (including lac, silk, resin, honey,
and beeswax), and the imports include
mill-spun piece goods, salt, sugar, spices,
and brass vessels.

There are State dispensaries at Deo-
garh, Kuchinda, and Barkut, and each one
is in charge of a qualified medical officer,
who attends to about six or seven thousand
cases annually.

The opening of the Bengal-Nagpur
Railway had a very marked effect on trade
generally, large areas of undeveloped land
were brought into cultivation, agricul-
turists found new openings for the sale of
their crops, and a new era of prosperity
dawned over the whole State. Other
means of communication are afforded by
several good roads, and especially the one
between Bamra railway station and Deo-
garh, a distance of more than fifty miles,
and by the Brahmani River, which is navi-
gable for small open boats.

Telegraph and telephone facilities are
available at the principal places in the
State, while the Imperial postal service
has provided letter-boxes in the school-
houses in all of the large villages.

Deogarh, the headquarters of the State,
is, according to an officially published
Gazetteer, neatly laid out with a small park
in the centre, the town is lighted by elec-
tricity, and a waterfall near at hand has
been utilized to supply the town with a
regular supply of water. The surround-
ing hills make a really charming back-
ground.to a thriving centre whose popu-
lation has increased rapidly during the
past few years. A weekly paper is pub-
lished, and a high school, affiliated to
the Calcutta University, with a chemical
and physical laboratory, is maintained by
the State. There are several public build-

ings of an imposing character, including
a masonry jail, police station, dispensary,
and public courts and offices.

Bamra, the principal railway station, is
a depot for the export of a considerable
number of sleepers from the State forests,
and is, further, the residency of a large
number of commercial and industrial
firms.

THE BANAILI RAJ

The Banaili Raj, which is now repre-
sented by Raja Kalanand Sinha and the
Honourable Raja Kirtyanand Sinha, is an
extensive estate in Behar, yielding an
annual income of more than sixteen lakhs
of rupees, comprising properties in the
Districts of Bhagalporc, Monghyr, Son-
thai, Pergannas, Purneah, Maldah, and
Darbhanga. The founder of the family
was Raja Dular Sinha Chaudhry Bahadur,
who was originally a wealthy Maithil
Brahmin Zemindar, residing in the district
of Purnea. He helped the Government
in its war against Nepal, and was con-
sequently decorated with the title of
Raja Bahadur about the year 1825. In
the time of his successor. Raja Bedanand
Sinha Bahadur, the extensive portion of
the estate known as Mahalat Kharakpore,
which was once a principality under the
Mogul Emperors of Delhi, was acquired
in revenue sale in the year 1840. Raja
Bedanand Sinha Bahadur was succeeded
by his son Raja Leelanand Sinha Baha-
dur, father of the present holders of the
estate. Rajah Leelanand Sinha Bahadur,
owing to his extremely generous atti-
tude towards his ryots and the needy,
is still remembered affectionately by the
people of the Bhagalpore division. Raja
Padmanand Sinha Bahadur succeeded his
father. Raja Leelanand Sinha Bahadur,
and during his time litigation was com-
ntenced 'between himself and his infant
stepbrothers Kumar mow Raja) Kalanand
Sinha and Kumar (now Raja) Kirtyanand
Sinha, which led to the partition of the
estate into nine-annas and seven-annas
shares under a compromise decree. The
seven-annas share was again subdivided
into halves in a suit between Raja
Padmanand Sinha Bahadur and his son
Kumar Chandranand Sinha, and latterly
the former sold all his interest to his son
who held the seven-annas share, which
is now represented by his widow, Rani
Chandrabati, a ward of the Court. Raja
Kalanand Sinha and his brother have lent
a large amount of money to their co-
sharer, and they hold the seven-annas

THE BANAILI RAJ.
1. Raja Kalanand Sinha, Bahadur. 2. The Hon. Raja Kiriyanasd Sinha, Bahadur.

3. The Raja Sahibs with Officers and Staff.

4. The Hon. Raja Kirtvanand Sinha on his Favourite Horse,

i. The Raja's Palace.

3. The Temple,

THE BANAILI RAJ.

3. The Rajkumars with their Cousins.

4. The Palace Drawing-room.

512

I^^^^F

—- JiJ.J.„U^

1. The Durbar Elephants in Full State.

THE BANAILI KAJ.

2. Some Tiger and Leopard Skins.
4 A Coating Scene.

3. Shikar Trophies.

513

I. The EuRorEAH Guest-House.

THK BANAILI RA.J.
2. View of the Garden. 3. Electrical Powerhouse.

4. Ruins of " Banaili.'

514

INDIAN NOBILITY

share under a lease from the Court of
Wards.

Raja Kalanand Sinha and his talented
brother, the Honourable Raja Kirtyanand
Sinha, since they assumed the manage-
ment of their estate, about the year 1904,
have been generous supporters of public
charities, the most notable gift being one
of about seven lakhs of rupees to the
Tej Narain Jubilee College, Bhagalpore,
which but for their support would long
ago have been abolished ; and further,
the carrying on of the daily paper
Befwree, published from Bankipore, which
is the ' exponent of public opinion in
Behar. It would occupy too much space
to mention all the public charities helped
and financed by these brothers, whose
names as public benefactors have become
a household word in the Province. The
younger of them, Raja Kirtyanand Sinha,
who is a graduate of the Allahabad
University, is a member of the Behar
Legislative Council as a representative of
the landholders of his Province. He has
been for three years a member of the
Council of Bengal, upon which he has
been doing very good work, and all
measures of public utility have his
heartiest support. His services have been
recognized from time to time by the
Government. He is the President of the
Behar and Orissa Provincial Co-operative
Bank, Ltd., and is also the President of
the committee which is working in Patna
for the establishment of a library of
Sanskrit and Hindi manuscripts and
books, to be called the " Rupkala
Bhagwan Library."

The Hon. Raja is a nobleman of varied
talents. He is a first-rate mechanic,
electrician, and motorist, and is a devoted
student of current English and Oriental
literature. He has a passion for jungle
sport, notably tiger-shooting, and for
many other forms of popular games, e.g.
football, polo, lawn-tennis, billiards, and
yachting, and this is his distinguishingf
characteristic. He has written a book on
shikar, in which he beautifully describes
his chequered experiences with the
carnivora in the jungles of Purnea. Him-
self a writer of no mean order, he stands
as an acknowledged patron of letters.
Several distinguished authors and literary
men of the day are patronized by him.
Apart from this, he has an intimate know-
ledge of Indian music, and is himself a
musicLan. In short, the Hon. Raja enjoys
a unique position among the Behar land-
holders, and stands for all that is good
and progressive in modern Behar.

THE BETTIAH RAJ

The history of the Bettiah Raj may be
traced back as far as the year 1244 A.D.,
when Raja Gungeswar Deo left Nimkhar
Misiri, in Lucknow, and established him-
self at Jaithur, in the district of Saran, in
the Tirhut division of the Province of
Behar and Orissa. Authenticated records
of the Raj begin with Raja Guj Singh, son
of Raja Ugra Sen Singh, the ninth
descendant of Raj Gungeswar Deo, who
received the title of Raja from the
Emperor Shah Jehan. He had six sons,
namely, Raja Dullip Singh and Raj
Kumars Kanak Singh, Kirat Singh, Anup
Singh, Prithi Singh, and Chatrajit Singh.
On the death of Raja Guj Singh in 1694
his eldest son, Raja Dullip Singh, suc-
ceeded him as Raja of Sirkar Champaran.
The latter had five sons, the eldest of
whom, Dhrub Singh, became Raja in 1715,
about the time that the powers of the Em-
perors of Delhi had become nominal and
the Rajas of Bettiah had declared them-
selves to be independent. Raja Dhrup
Singh had only a daughter, whose son,
Raja Joogole Kishore Singh, is said to
have been adopted, and who " entered
into the possession of Sirkar Champaran
at the date when the East India Company
assumed the government of the Province
in 1764." During Raja Dhrup Singh's
time All Verdi Khan, with the aid of an
Afghan chief, Abdul Karim Khan, led an
expedition against Bettiah, and being vic-
torious he entered into an agreement with
the Raja as to the amount of tribute to be
paid by the latter. In 1748 Ali Verdi
Khan, who was then Nawab of Bengal,
was forced to return to Champaran in con-
sequence of the rebellion of his former
allies, the Afghans of Darbhanga, who,
after their defeat, took shelter at Bettiah.
The Raja of Bettiah sent a message to the
Nawab stating that he was ready to pay
three lakhs of rupees if he (the Nawab)
would agree to forgo the surrender of the
Afghan chiefs. The Nawab, however,
refused the offer and advanced towards
Bettiah, whereupon the Raja gave up the
wife and daughters of Shum Sher Khan,
who were subsequently treated with cour-
tesy by the Nawab.

In 1716, Karim Hossein Khan, the
Governor of Purnea, marched to join the
forces of the Emperor Shah Alam, but he
was defeated by Captain Knox and fled
towards Bettiah. Shortly after this Major
Cailland and Miran (son of Mir Jaffur
Khan) set out in pursuit of Hossein Khan
and defeated him on June 25th, his army
being scattered in the hills. Miran was

515

struck by lightning while sleeping in his
tent near Bettiah, and on his death Major
Cailland abandoned the campaign. The
latter had moved his army up to the Fort
of Bettiah, and after receiving the sub-
mission of the Raj (Dhrup Singh) he
marched back to Patna.

Raja Dhrup Singh's term of office was
also marked by the establishment of the
first Mission at Bettiah, in December
1745, by the Rev. Father Joseph Mary
Deibernini, an Italian Capuchin cleric.
The Raja made the acquaintance of the
Reverend Father, and was medically
treated by him at Patna, and at a later
date the priest was invited to visit Bettiah,
where he cured the Rani of a serious
illness. The Raja was so impressed by
his skill that he requested the Reverend
Father to remain at Bettiah, and when
permission had been obtained from Rome,
the latter journeyed back from Nepal on
December 7, 1745, ^nd the Raja assigned
him a house and garden near his palace,
allowed him to preach and make converts,
and granted him 60 bighas of land near
the fort, which is the modern Christian
Tolli, and 200 bighas of land near Bettiah
for the support of himself and his
converts.

Raja Dhrup Singh again rebelled, and
in 1762 Mir Kasim Ali sent an expedition
against him. " The command of it," says
the author of " Sair-ul Mutakharin," " was
given to Bahadur Ali Khan, who had been
for a long time grand master of artillery
to Ali Verdi Khan. He had with him
several commanders with their corps with
some pieces of cannon in the English
fashion, and some regiments of Talingas
disciplined by Gurgan Khan. His orders
were to take the fortress of that name and
to chastise the Zemindar of that country
who had proved unruly." The expedition
proved entirely successful. Bahadur Ali
sent Raja Dhrup Singh and Joogole
Kishore Singh to the Nawab, but the
former died, and the latter returned as
Raja on his undertaking to pay the
revenue and Nazarana. He, however,
failed to redeem his promises and fled
towards Nepal in order to save his life.
The Nawab availed himself of this oppor-
tunity for an expedition against Nepal,
and Gurgun Khan took command, being
followed by the main body of troops under
Mir Kasim Ali, who pitched his camp at
Bettiah. Gurgan Khan commenced the
ascent of a pass through the hills, and at
first he was successful in driving off the
Gurkhas, but his army pushed on to the
summit, and halting for the night it was

BETTIAH HAJ.
I. DooROA Bagh Temple, 3. Palace.

3. Olo Gate,

5t6

I. Manacer's House.

BBTTIAH RAJ.
a. DXAWING-Roou, Manaois's House,

3. Manager's House, the Hall,

517

3 0+

I. Tii« GuEsr H0U3E.

BETTIAH RAJ.
2, Assistant-Manaoer's House.

3. Forest Officer's House.

518

1. Hospital, Operatikc-room.

BETTIAH RAJ.

2. Hospital, Ward-room.

3. Ranee's Palace.

519

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

attacked by the Nepalis as soon as it was
dark, and was compelled to fall back in
disorder on the main camp at Bettiah.
The Nawab with his troops then marched
back to Patna, where matters were taking
a serious turn. Nawab Kasim Ali
arranged to have the revenue of Sirkar
Champaran collected through his amlas,
and Raj Kumar Babu Srikissoon Singh
(who in the absence of Joogole Kishore
Singh represented himself to be the Raja)
with Raj Kumar Babu Abdhut Singh, and
other sons of Satrajit Singh, began to
carry on the affairs of the Zemindari in
conjunction with the amlas. In 1764,
Champaran, with the rest of Bengal,
passed under British rule after the battle
of Buxar. A purwanah dated January 24,
1764, was issued to Raja Srikissoon Singh,
in the absence of Raja Joogole Kishore
Singh, directing him to execute an agree-
ment to pay rent at an enhanced rate, but
owing to the desolate state of the country
as a result of war, the question of assess-
ment was left pending. In the meantime
Raja Joogole Kishore, having received the
news of the flight of Kasim Ali Khan, re-
turned to Bettiah, but when Sir Robert
Barker, with a detachment of troops,
moved from Bankipore to Bettiah in 1766,
he fled to Bundelkhund. Collections of
revenue were then ordered to be made
direct, and on January 8, 1771, the com-
pany issued a puttah, fixing two lakhs and
one rupee as jumma in the name of Raja
Srikissoon Singh and Raj Kumar Babu
Abdhut Singh. The puttah, however,
never came into force. Owing to famine
and the desolate state of the country the
revenue declined considerably, and even-
tually the Council at Patna, on the report
of Mr. Golding, restored Raja Joogole
Kishore Singh to his estate. It was settled
that Raja Joogole Kishore Singh should
retain the Perganna of Semra and
Majhawa, while those of Maisi and Babra
were to be settled between Raja Sri-
kissoon Singh and Raj Kumar Abdhut
Singh, and for these grants the recipients
were to execute agreements with the
Government. Raja Srikissoon Singh,
however, refused to sign any document,
and the Raja Joogole Kishore, although he
signed his acceptance of the terms, failed
to pay the revenue. The entire Sirkar
Champaran then passed into the posses-
sion of the Government, and was held by
farmers of revenue on temporary settle-
ments extending over several years. Raja
Joogole Kishore Singh received an allow-
ance for maintenance from the Govern-
ment, and died in 1783. On October 10,

1789, Mr. Montgomery, the Collector of
Saran, addressed a letter to the Revenue
Board asking for advice, and further men-
tioned that Srikissoon Singh, and Bir
Kishore Singh, son of Joogole Kishore
Singh, were competitors for the Zemin-
dari. The Governor-General in Council
directed that a decennial settlement was to
be concluded with Raja Bir Kishore Singh
for the Pergannas of Majhawa and Sem-
raon, and with Raja Srikissoon Singh and
Raj Kumar Abdhut Singh for the Pergan-
nas of Maisi and Babra. Both parties were
dissatisfied at this decision, as each one
claimed the entire Sirkar Champaran, but
on Mr. Montgomery's advice, they took
possession of the Pergannas, settled in
their own names, and made separate dowl
settlements of Government revenue on the
Mahals of the Pergannas. In the year
1808 Raja Gunga Prasad Singh, son of
Raja Srikissoon Singh, commenced an
action in the Provincial Court of Patna
against Raja Bir Kishore Singh to recover
possession of Pargannas Semraon and
Majhawa, but the suit was dismissed on
the ground that the cause of action was
barred by limitation. From that time until
after the death of Maharaja Sir Harendra
Kishore Singh there was no dispute be-
tween the two branches of the families.

The Raja Bir Kishore Singh was suc-
ceeded in 181 1 by Anand Kishore Singh,
who was created Maharaja Bahadur owing
to the valuable assistance with men and
money rendered by him to the British
Government during the Nepal War.

Maharaja Bahadur Anand Kishore
Singh had no issue, and was succeeded
by his younger brother, Newal Kishore
Singh, who died in 1855. The latter was
followed by his eldest son, Maharaja
Rajendra Kishore Singh, " who gave at
the time of the Mutiny praiseworthy aid
and support to the Government during the
whole of the rebellion," and who was, in
turn, succeeded by his son, Maharaja
Harendra Kishore Singh, who was made
a K.C.I.E. In order to pay off debts
which the Raj had incurred, a debenture
loan of about 60 lakhs of rupees was in
1885 negotiated in London, bearing 5 per
cent, interest and payable in thirty-five
years. Maharaja Harendra Kishore Singh
was a member of the Provincial Legislative
Council for some time, and on his death
in 1893 he was succeeded by his senior
Maharani, who died in 1896. The estate
passed to the junior Maharani in 1897.
Owing to bad management of the Raj the
Court of Wards then took charge of the
estate. The Maharani's title has been dis-

520

puted by the Babus of Sheohur and
Madhuban, who are descendants of Raja
Srikissoon Singh and Raj Kumar Abdhut
Kishore Singh, but their claims have been
disallowed by the High Court and the
Privy Council in London.

The Court of Wards assumed charge of
the Bettiah estate in the year 1897, and
in 1898, when the administration was
commenced, the annual income was
Rs. 17,00,000.

Vast improvements have been effected
within these twenty years, and all minor
debts left by Maharaja Harendra Kishore
Singh have been paid. The property of
Bhoputpur was acquired in Maharaja
Harendra Kishore's time by raising
another debenture loan, but the debt was
paid off in full during the period of
control of the Court of Wards. A new
palace for the present Maharani has been
constructed, old ones have been rebuilt,
and extensive office buildings have been
erected for the management. A first-class
modern hospital, which is acknowledged
to be the best in the whole Province in
point of architecture and equipment, has
also been built, and it has been named
after his late Majesty King Edward VII.
In connection with this remarkably fine
hospital it may be said that, on the death
of King Edward, Babu Sidh Narayan
Singh, the guardian of the Maharani
Saheba, requested Mr. J. R. Lowis, then
manager of the estate, to suggest some
form of memorial whereby his late
Majesty's name would be perpetuated in
Bettiah. This hospital was suggested, and
the foundation stone was laid on August
12, 191 2, by Mr. H. C. Streatfeild, who
was Commissioner of the Tirhut division
at the time. It is a double-storied build-
ing, 2 1 o feet in length and 49 feet in
width, with a frontal projecting block
52 feet by 32 feet, and two wings at the
back 28 feet by 16 feet. The ground floor
contains two general wards, two eye wards,
two godowns, and a staircase room; the
frontal projection consists of a covered
porch, emergency room, offices, and
museum; the two wings contain bathing
and other necessary rooms; and on the
upper floor are various wards, microscopic,
sterilizing, anaesthetic, recovery, surgical
instruments, and store and other rooms.
The style of architecture is English
Renaissance, and the building is con-
structed of red bricks and white plaster.

A splendid supply of surgical and
ophthalmic instruments has been pur-
chased, at a cost of nearly Rs. 25,000,
from the well-known Holborn Surgical

INDIAN NOBILITY

Instruments Company, and Messrs. John
Weiss & Co., of London, and a complete
antiseptic installation has been put in by
Messrs. Incell and Silk, of Calcutta, who
have, further, been responsible for a
supply of hot and cold water to all parts of
the building. Immediately adjoining the
hospital are an out-door dispensary, quar-
ters for surgeons, a matron, nurses, com-
pounders, dressers, and a large staff of
servants, and these structures, as well as
the hospital, are situated opposite the
maidan, a wide stretch of excellent turf
on which games of all kinds are played.
The cost of this handsome block of build-
ings, and its equipment, has been most
generously borne by the Bettiah Raj, and
Mr. Lowis, in his address at the opening
ceremony in March 191 5, stated that the Raj
had further endowed the institution with a
sum of money which would provide suffi-
cient income for its future maintenance.

A " Dufferin " hospital for women was
completed by Maharaja Harendra Kishore
Singh, and considerable additions and im-
provements to it have been made by the
Court of Wards, while minor hospitals
have been constructed for the benefit of
the tenantry. An English High School,
with a commodious hostel and a Sanskrit
school attached to it, has also been pro-
vided. Several upper primary schools
have been opened in the interior of the
district, and a large up-to-date market,
constructed on sanitary principles, has
been established in the town.

Comfortable quarters and inspection
bungalows have been provided for officers
of the estate, and a large number of old
temples which were falling into ruins have
been thoroughly renovated. An electric
installation supplies power for lights and
fans in the Raj houses and in some of the
main streets of the town. Telephonic
communications have been established
between all offices, palace buildings,
railway stations, and residential houses.
Tanks have been re-excavated, numerous
wells have been sunk, and irrigation chan-
nels in many villages have been supplied.
A cattle-breeding farm, veterinary hos-
pital, and an e.\perimental agricultural
farm are some of many other innovations
introduced. No attempt has been made to
unduly enhance the rent roll, and the ryots
and leaseholders of the estate have been
always treated with great consideration,
but as a natural result of better manage-
ment under the Court of Wards the rent
roll of the estate has been increased by
more than two lakhs of rupees, and is now
considerably more than Rs. 19,00,000.

The greater part of this revenue is derived
from villages leased to European and
Indian occupiers. The majority of the
Europeans were originally indigo planters,
but with the decline of this industry in
recent years they have been compelled to
devote their energies to the cultivation of
other crops, and to the development of
rice mills and sugar factories. Mr.
J. R. Lowis has, with short intervals, been
general manager of the estate during the
whole period of control by the Court of
Wards, and it was during his incumbency
that the estate progressed from a condi-
tion of comparative indigence to its
present state of security and prosperity
and that these numerous works of im-
provement were undertaken. He has re-
cently resigned owing to ill-health, and his
place has been taken by Mr. J. T. Whitty,
C.I.E., of the Indian Civil Service.

Mr. J. E. Rutherfoord and Mr. P. B.
Hudson are the European assistant
managers, and Babu Gopi Nath Sanyal
and Babu Hazari Lai Sahu are their Indian
colleagues. Mr. C. G. Lowe was ap-
pointed as e.Kecutive engineer to the estate
three years ago, but his predecessor, Babu
Purna Chandra Mukerjee, had been in
charge of that department for more than
twenty-seven years. Babu Moti Lai Basu
is superintendent of survey.

In addition to the many wars in which
the Rajas of Bettiah were concerned
during the period of their history covered
by these notes, there were two most im-
portant events, namely, the Nepal War
and the Indian Mutiny, which called forth
a manifestation of that loyalty to British
interests which the rulers of the Bettiah
Raj have invariably shown.

The following details regarding circum-
stances which led to the Nepal War may
now be given: —

" The Raja of Bettiah had for a long
time been at war with the Raja of Muk-
wanpur for possession of a portion of the
Semraon Perganna. In 1743 the latter
granted the tenure of two tuppas to one
Abdullah Beg, and this act was confirmed
by the then Nawab of Bengal. The Raja
of Bettiah, who was then in possession of
these lands, resisted, but finally he also
gave a sanad to Abdullah. Twenty years
later Prithi Narayan of Nepal subdued the
Mukwanpur Raja and claimed authority to
avail himself of the grant, but Abdullah
fled to the English authorities, and this
was one of the pretexts for the declaration
of war against Nepal. In 1767 the Raja
of Katmundu, being hard pressed by the
Gurkhas, appealed for help to Mr. Gold-

521

ing, the commercial agent at Bettiah, and
Major Kurloch advanced with his troops,
but having failed in October of that year
to penetrate the hills owing to the un-
favourable climate, he occupied the terai,
or low lands. Abdullah then asserted his
claim to the original grant, but this was
opposed by the Bettiah Raj. In 178 1
Warren Hastings finally decided to restore
Abdullah's jaigir, but the twenty-two
villages occupied by Prithi Narayan and
subsequently taken back by Major Kurloch
in 1768 formed part of Champaran and
were settled upon Raja Bir Kishore Singh,
with whom they remained until 18 10.
When in 181 1 Luksman Gir, the Gurkha
Governor, crossed the frontier and began
to plunder the villages, the Raja of
Bettiah's people resisted, and in an affray
that followed, Luksman Gir was killed.
The British Government directed the
Assistant to the Magistrate of Saran
to make an inquiry, and Commissioners
were thereupon appointed by both Govern-
ments. Major Bradshaw, the British
Commissioner, insisted on the restitution
of the villages as a preliminary to the
inquiry, and after much evasion the Nepal
Commissioner suddenly returned to Kat-
mundu, and war was declared in 18 14.
General Marley, sent to help Major Brad-
shaw, arrived at the frontier in December,
but in the meantime General Ouchter-
lony was successful, and a treaty was
signed at Sugauli in November 18 15, the
ratification of which was withheld by the
Nepal Durbar in order to try the result
of a second campaign. General Ouchter-
lony established his headquarters at
Sugauli, whence he sent out four brigades
to Nepal. This invasion was successful,
and in December 18 16 the treaty of
Sugauli was finally signed, the whole terai
falling into the hands of the British
Government. It is needless to mention
that during the whole of this war the
Bettiah Raja helped the British Govern-
ment in every possible way, and Lord
William Bentinck, the Viceroy at the time,
conferred the title of Maharaja Bahadur
upon the then ruler in recognition of his
services."

The Mutiny of 1857, which was a most
formidable menace to British supremacy,
affected many houses of Indian nota-
bilities, but the Bettiah Raj— as in the
case of the Nepal War — never flinched
so much as the breadth of a single
hair from its allegiance to the Throne
and from its generous support of the
forces which eventually crushed the
rebellion. Major Holmes was in com-

I. St, Paul's Church.

BBTTIAH BAJ.

2. Bettuii, fbom the Palaci.

522

BBTTIAH RAJ.
t. Electric Power-house. 3, 3. TiMBER-yARDS,

523

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

mand of the 12th Irregular Cavalry in
1857 at the Sugauli Cantonment, 14
miles from Bettiah, and as danger began
to threaten he took stern repressive
measures to prevent the spread of mutiny,
but these were nullified by the action of
the local Government. On July 26th the
regiment rose in rebellion, murdered the
European civil and military officers, to-
gether with their wives and children, and,
after plundering the treasury, marched
to Siwan. Martial law was proclaimed on
July 30tli, but when two Gurkha regiments
came to the help of the British, the confi-
dence of the people was restored. An
attempt was made by the rebels at Bagaha
Ghat, thirty-two miles from Bettiah, to
effect a further insurrection, but it was
frustrated by the Gurkhas. Towards the
end of December, the Maharaja Jung
Bahadur, Prime Minister, and Com-
mander-in-Chief of Nepal, arrived with his
forces at Bettiah, and on December 26th
fought a battle with the mutineers at
Sahebgunge, on the River Gandak, and
completely defeated them. From that
time forward there has not been any dis-
turbance upon the Bettiah estate.

THE BURDWAN RAJ ESTATE

One of the largest Zemindaries in the
Province of Bengal is that of the Burdwan
Raj Estate, of which the present owner
is the Honourable Maharajadhiraja Baha-
dur Sir Bijay Chand Mahtab, K.C.S.I.,
K.C.I.E., I.O.M., Maharaja of Burdwan,
and there are in existence most interesting
records showing the history of the family
practically from its commencement.

It appears that in the sixteenth century,
Sangam Rai, a Kapur Kshattriya of Kolti
Mahalla, in Lahore, one of a band of
pilgrims who, after visiting the shrine of
Jaggannath in Orissa, were returning to
their homes, was so much attracted by
the great fertility of the soil and the
luxuriance of the crops in that portion of
the province now known as the District
of Burdwan, that he established a home
and commenced business at a place called
Baikunthapore, where he succeeded so well
that he had amassed a large fortune at
the time of his death. He was succeeded
by his son, Banku Behari Rai, who was
in due course followed by Abu Rai, who,
according to the records, " was the real
founder of the Burdwan house. In the
year 1657 the latter was appointed by
the Mogul Government to be Chaudhuri
and Kotwal of Rekabi Bazar, in the town
of Burdwan, and his son, Babu Rai, who

owned Pargana Burdwan and three other
estates, succeeded to the Chaudhuri and
removed from Baikunthapore to Burdwan,
since which time the family has been
settled there." His son, Ghana Shyam
Rai, left a consolidated estate for Krishna
Ram Rai, who acquired other properties
and was the recipient of a firman
(1694 A.D.) from the Mogul Emperor
Aurangzeb, confirming him as Zemindar
and Chaudhuri of Parganas Burdwan and
other lands. The two subsequent suc-
cessors, Jagat Ram Rai (1696- 1702) and

cipient of the title of Raja in the family,
and he added the parganas of Man-
dalghat, Arsha, and Chandrakona. The
owner of the Burdwan Raj was now a
recognized dignitary of the Mogul Court,
and his cousin and successor, Tilak Chand
(1744-71), was created successively a
Raja Bahadur and a Maharajadhiraja.
Further honours and privileges were
bestowed upon Tilak Chand, who was
styled by the Mogul Emperor " Fidvi
Khas "; and he was eventually made a
" Panch Hazari Zat " — that is, Com-

THE HON. SIR BIJAY CHAND MAHTAB, MAHARAJADHIRAJA BAHADUR
OF BURDWAN, K.C.S.I., K.C.I.E.

Kirti Chand Rai (1702-40), enriched the
original estate by further additions. It
may be interesting to know that Kirti
Chand not only obtained from the Mogul
Emperor the Zemindari of Bishnupur, but
he won by his sword the estates of the
Rajas of Chandrakona and Bardha, as
well as of the Balghara Raj, in the
Hooghly district, and added to the parent
estate the parganas, inter alia, of Chitwa,
Bhursut, and Manoharsahi.

Chitra Sen Rai (1740-44) was the re-

524

mander of 5,000 infantry, with permission
to keep 3,000 cavalry — and was permitted
to have guns, bands, and nakarae. After
his death, Tej Chand (1771-1832), his
son, was confirmed in all the honours of
his father, and the Burdwan Raj was
meanwhile treated more or less as a semi-
independent State, and the owner wielded
the power of administering the internal
affairs of the estate independently. It
was during Tej Chand's time, however,
that the vast estates of the Burdwan Raj

INDIAN NOBILITY

were brought under the operation of
Regulation No. i of 1793, the basis of
the Permanent Settlement of Bengal. Tej
Chanel's son, Pratap Chand, was instru-
mental in bringing up Regulation VIII.
He died during the lifetime of his father.

The proprietor of the Raj had now
become an important personage in the
ranks of the Indian nobility, and Mahtab
Chand (1832-79) was recognized by the
British Government as Maharajadhiraja
Bahadur, and in 1864 was "appointed
an Additional Member of the Viceregal
Legislative Council, being the first noble-
man in Bengal to be thus honoured."
Further honours were showered upon this
potentate, as in 1868 he obtained for him-
self and his successors the Royal Licence
to bear " Arms and Supporters," and nine
years later the privilege was granted to
him of receiving a personal salute of
thirteen guns. Mahtab Chand was suc-
ceeded by Aftab Chand Mahtab, who died
on March 25, 1885, leaving a widow but
no heir. The Maharani Adhirani, in pur-
suance of authority given to her by her
husband, adopted the son of Raja Ban
Bihari Kapur Bahadur, who received the
name of Bijay Chand Mahtab, and he is
the present Maharajadhiraja Bahadur.

Born on October 19, 188 i, the installa-
tion ceremony of Bijay Chand Mahtab
(which had been postponed in November
1902 owing to the death of Sir John
Woodburn, the Lieutenant-Governor) was
conducted by the acting Lieutenant-
Governor on February 10, 1903. On this
occasion he was presented with two
Sanads, signed by the Viceroy (Lord
Curzon) — one conferring upon him as
" Zemindar of Burdwan the hereditary
title of Maharajadhiraja to be attached
to the Estate," and the other the high
personal title of Maharajadhiraja Baha-
dur. The whole title of Maharajadhiraja
Bahadur was subsequently, in 1909, made
hereditary and attachable to the estate
by a Sanad received under the signature
of Lord Minto. In February 1909
Maharajadhiraja Bijay Chand Mahtab
Bahadur was created a Knight Com-
mander of the Most Eminent Order of
the Indian Empire, and at the same time
was admitted into the Third Class of the
Civil Division of the Indian Order of
Merit " in recognition of the act of
bravery of the Maharajadhiraja Bahadur
for conspicuous courage displayed by him
at the Overtoun Hall, Calcutta, on
November 7, 1908, in connection with the
attempt upon the life of Sir Andrew
Fraser, the Lieutenant - Governor of

Bengal." Sir Bijay Chand Mahtab was
gazetted a Knight Commander of the
Most Exalted Order of the Star of India
on December 12, 191 2, and was person-
ally invested with the Star and Collar of
the Order by His Majesty the King-
Emperor at a Royal Chapter held on the
occasion of the Great Durbar at Delhi.
The Raj estate is more than 4,000
square miles in extent, and the greater
portion of this area is highly cultivated.
The revenue that the Burdwan Raj pays to
the Government is larger in amount than
that of any other landholder in India.

THE CHOTA MAGPUR RAJ.

There is something very quaint in many
of the traditional accounts of the origin
of the kingdoms and States of India, and
also of mythological statements as to the
remarkable manner in which ruling chiefs
and other notable personages are con-
nected, through a lengthy genealogical
tree, with some planet, animal, or bird, or
even with some episode in the history of
one of the prominent Hindu deities.

One of the most curious of these old
legends is associated with the family of
the Maharaja Pertab Udai Nath Shah Deo
of the Chota Nagpur Raj in the division
of Ranchi in the Province of Behar and
Orissa. Dalton, in his " Descriptive
Ethnology of Bengal," speaks of an old
tradition relating to the origin of this
family, and it appears that they claim
descent from the great serpent, which is
king of hell, that is to say, the devil, and
this is considered to be a very ancient
and honourable connection.

The current belief is that the Mundas
were the first people to clear the jungle
and subsequently cultivate the land in
this district, colonizing some twenty or
twenty-five villages. The question of the
appointment of a Raja was a continual
source of disagreement among the
villagers, and an ancestor of the present
Maharaja was eventually approved by the
whole tribe.

Tradition is responsible for the fol-
lowing: One of the Rajas, named Janame-
jaya, in revenge for the death of his father,
determined upon the destruction of the
whole of the " Nag " or serpent race, but
one Punderika was saved. The latter
adopted the customs and dress of a Brah-
man and proceeded to Benares to the
house of a Brahman, under whose tuition
he desired to perfect his knowledge of
the sacred books. The pupil was so
diligent in his studies, and delighted his

525

instructor so much that the latter gave his
beautiful daughter Parvati as wife to the
Nag; but it is said that Punderika could
not rid himself of his serpent-like, or
double tongue, and this so exasperated
Parvati that she rose into open rebellion
against her husband. Some consolation to
the offended wife was, however, afforded
when she was taken by her husband to
Puri, on the sea-coast near Cuttack, in the
Province of Behar and Orissa (now one
of the most fashionable holiday resorts on
the eastern littoral), where she enjoyed
herself so thoroughly that the objection-
able features of her husband were for-
gotten. On returning from Puri the
couple halted by the side of a lake of
water, and Parvati, who had again become
embittered against Punderika, gave birth
to a son, and was so overwhelmed with
sorrow that she prepared a funeral pyre
and became sati. Another Brahman who
passed near the lake at this juncture heard
the cries of a child and discovered the
newly born babe lying in a sheltered
place and guarded by a large hooded
snake. This was Punderika, in the form
of a serpent, protecting his child, and the
Brahman thereupon prophesied that the
boy would become Raja of the country to
be called Nagpur. The infant was taken
to the house of a neighbouring Raja, who
took charge of and educated him until
he was fourteen years of age, when at a
meeting of Rajas of adjoining territories
it was decided that the youth should be
named Phani Mukuta Raya, and that he
should be proclaimed Raja of Chota
Nagpur. In connection with this tradi-
tion it may be mentioned that the official
seal and coat-of-arms of the Raja and his
family show as a crest a cobra with a
human face under its expanded head sur-
rounded by all the insignia of royalty.

Chota-Nagpur — as part of Behar and
Orissa — was ceded to the British Govern-
ment in the year 1765, but the earliest
arrangement with a Raja of which record
can be found was in 1772, when it is stated
that the chief appeared before Captain
Camac, commanding a force in Palamau,
and after exchange of turbans with the
Government's representative, he duly
acknowledged himself a vassal of the great
Power, and further agreed to pay tribute.
An interesting sidelight is given in coimec-
tion with this interview, as it is said that
Captain Camac solemnly assured the Raja
that it was customary in England for the
parties to an agreement to exchange head-
wear in order to give validity to the pro-
ceedings, but the humorous side of the

t. I}|IAWIN0-SOOM,

CHOTA NAGPUB BAJ.
J. Makakaja's Palace. 3. Maharaja Praiap Udai Naih Shah Deo, oy Chota Nagfuf.

526

OHOTA NAGPUE EAJ.

I. Ratu Lake, constructed in the Famine Year of 1897. 2. Manager's Bungalow, Raiu.

3. Jaooernathpur Temple, erected in Sambat 1742 (a.d. 1683). 4. Chutia Temple, erected by Harnath Bramchari, in Sambat 1742 (a.o. 1685).

527

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

matter appears only when it is added that
the Raja's turban was literally studded
with valuable precious stones, whereas that
belonging to the captain was of a very
ordinary description!

For many years the Raja was permitted
to administer the territory as the chief of
a tributary makal, but he was deprived of
magisterial powers, and the estate was
placed under the control of the magistrate
of Ramgarh.

The new form of administration did not
suit the people at all, and they soon gave
expression to grievances of various kinds,
the difficulties being mainly concerned with
rights to hold lands. Disturbances arose
in i8i 1, and it became necessary to call up
a force of soldiers before the trouble was
quelled. More serious conflicts with the
authorities occurred in 1820, and very
stringent measures had to be adopted. In
1 83 I the Kol insurrection broke out with
the suddenness and fierceness of a forest
fire, and raids on villages, involving con-
siderable loss of life and destruction of
property were participated in by large
bodies of malcontents. The armed forces
sent to quell the disturbances were not
able to secure peace in the country until
more than a year had elapsed.

The experiences of the past few years
led the Government to make radical
changes in the administration of the
territory, the principal one being the
organization of the disturbed districts as
a " non-regulation Province under the
name of the South-Western Frontier
Agency." A system of zemindary was
adopted, and for the future protection of
the law-abiding portion of the inhabitants
the Chota-Nagpur police force was
established.

THE DARBHANGA RAJ.

The history of the Darbhanga Raj dates
from the early portion of the sixteenth
century, when Akbar, the Mogul Emperor
of Delhi, granted certain estates to Sriman
Mahamahbpadhyaya Thakur Mahesh, the
ancestor of the present Maharaja. A pre-
decessor of Thakur Mahesh Mahamahopa-
dhyaya Gangadhar Jha flourished some
seven centuries ago, and one of his
descendants, Swami Sankarashan Thakur,
received some grants of land in Khandwa
in the Central Provinces, together with
the title of Thakur, and since that time the
title has remained in the family. It is re-
corded that the lands and honour thus
conferred were granted on account of the
piety, intellectual abilities, and high social

position of the recipient, and the Emperor
agreed to the continuance of them so long
as the Rajas ruled wisely and made it one
of the chief objects of their lives to pro-
mote the material and moral well-being of
the people.

These admirable qualifications appear to
have been hereditary traits in the charac-
ters of succeeding chiefs, and the present
Maharaja — to whom reference will be made
hereafter — has not been surpassed by any
of his predecessors in his loyalty to the
conditions imposed by the Emperor.

This grant by the Emperor Akbar was
further augmented by another from the
Emperor Shah Alam, who gave a parganna
in the Purnea district to Raja Ragho Singh
and bestowed upon him the hereditary title
of Raja Bahadur. Maharaja Chhatra
Singh received a similar honour for his
splendid services in the Nepalese War, and
that distinction has continued in the
family, without interruption, thus making
it practically hereditary.

The estates originally extended from
the Ganges to the Nepal mountains, and
from the Gunduck River to Kosi, and com-
prised the present districts of Darbhanga,
Muzaflarpur, and Champaran in the Tirhut
division of the Province of Behar and
Orissa, together with portions of the
district of Bhagalpur and Purnea. The
Raj now consists of properties in the
districts of Darbhanga, Muzaff^arpur,
Monghyr, Bhagalpur, Purnea, Gaya, and
Patna, together with palaces at Rajnagar,
Darbhanga, Bankipore, Darjeeling, Simla,
Allahabad, Calcutta, Purnea, Benares,
Muzaffarpur, and other places.

The magnificent and stately pile of
buildings at Darbhanga, which is the prin-
cipal home of the Maharaja is famous
throughout India. It is most sumptuously
furnished, possessing collections of objects
of art of the greatest beauty and value.

The extensive gardens and grounds,
superbly kept under the management of
an expert, are a wonderful manifestation
of the art of horticulture. A considerable
portion of the grounds bears a striking
resemblance to those beautiful parks which
are seen in every county in England, but
there are also avenues of graceful tropical
palms, shady walks, and flower-beds,
glorious in their profusion of hundreds of
flowersemittingthemost delicate perfumes.

The present Maharaja, His Highness
Sir Rameshwara Singh Bahadur, K.C.I.E.,
G.C.I.E., the youngest of the three sons
of Maharaja Maheshwara Singh Bahadur,
was born at Darbhanga in January i860.
The eldest son predeceased his father, who

528

died while the other two brothers were
still minors, and the Raj was consequently
placed under the management of the Court
of Wards. The youths were educated at
Darbhanga, Muzaflarpur, and Queen's
College, Benares, and they subsequently
enjoyed private tuition under Mr. Chester
Macnaughten, who afterwards became
principal of the Raj-Kumar College, at
Rajkot. The elder of the brothers. His
Highness Sir Lakshmeshwara Singh,
G.C.I.E., ascended the gadi on attaining
his majority, while the younger received
Bachuar in the district of Darbhanga as
Babuana Parganna.

The latter exhibited great scholarly
attainments, but he also manifested keen
business qualifications which fitted him to
undertake the personal management of his
estates. With the view of obtaining
further insight into ofiicial life he entered
the Bengal Statutory Civil Service in
1878 and became joint-magistrate at Dar-
bhanga, Chappra, and Bhagalpur, his
ability in mastering details of evidence, his
untiring patience, and his sound judg-
ments earning for him the warm approval
of Government and the goodwill of the
public generally. He was appointed a
member of the Bengal Legislative Council
in 1885, and the title of Raja Bahadur was
conferred on him in 1886, while other
honours, including exemption. from atten-
dance in civil courts, and the allowance of
a personal following of twenty-five armed
men, followed in quick succession.

He succeeded to the gadi of the Dar-
bhanga Raj on the death of Sir Lakshme-
shwara Singh in 1898, and from that date
to the present time he has exhibited all the
qualifications of a wise administrator, and
has been the generous supporter of a very
large number of philanthropic movements,
exclusive of the immense sums of money
which he has given to private charities.

One of the most noticeable features in
the character of the Maharaja is that he is
a Hindu of the Hindus, strictly orthodox
of the most orthodox type, but his catho-
licity of spirit is so remarkable that he is
continually persevering in his efforts to
promote cordial relations between Mahoni-
medans and the holders of his own creed.
He is credited with originating the idea of
establishing the All-India Hindu Associa-
tion, which has three special objects,
viz. (i) to promote and protect Hindu
interests, (2) to foster friendly relations
between Hindus and other communities,
and (3) to instil principles of loyalty to
the King and Government.

The Maharaja is well versed in the

THE DABBHANGA RAJ.
I. The Ananda Bhag Palace. 2. The Rajnagar Palace.

52Q

t. Ths Kahkali TEMru.

THE DARBHANGA RAJ.
, Ae Juran Cuaffra, Muzaffarpur. 3. Darbhanoa House, Middletom Street, CAtcVTiA.

530

THE DARBHANGA RAJ.
I. The Maharaja's Dhag-aso-Four, with ihb Guard. 2. The Maharaja's Stud. 3. The Darbuasoa "Twins.'

53^

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

sacred lore of Hinduism, and he is recog-
nized as an authority upon customs, rites,
and ceremonies of all kinds, and as head
of the Maithil Brahman community, his
decision in disputes, particularly with
regard to caste problems, is always final.
His acquaintance with the spiritual tenets
of the Hindus is probably unique, and
he scrupulously observes strict Hindu rites
and ceremonies, even to the performance
of penances and the observation of fasts.
Under the presidency of the Maharaja the
Sree Bharat Dharma Mahamandal, an all-
Hindu religious association, has done
good work in publishing books, training
preachers, and arousing interest in the
religion taught by ancient Rishis, the an-
cestors of the Hindus. His Highness has
presided over several conferences at Cal-
cutta, Allahabad, and elsewhere, including
the All-India Brahmana Conference held
at Lahore in 1902, and more recently at
Hardwar and Muttra, when Hindu leaders
of all sects from all parts of India assem-
bled to further the interests of their cult.
* On two occasions he presided over the
conference at which professors of all
faiths met together in a friendly spirit
and expounded the tenets of their respec-
tive creeds. He once led a deputation of
Hindu leaders from all parts of India
which waited upon Lord Minto on behalf
of the Hindus, and he has also presided
over an industrial conference at Lahore.

It would be impossible to find in India
a more consistent supporter of the cause
of education than the Maharaja of Dar-
bhanga. He has endowed elementary and
higher schools for instruction in English,
Sanskrit, and the vernacular tongues; he
maintains an English High School at Dar-
bh^nga; Sanskrit colleges at Darbhanga
and Benares; he is sole trustee of the
Mahakalee Pathsala, which was the first
institution in Bengal to impart religious
and moral instruction to Hindu girls, and
from its foundation he has liberally sup-
plied it with funds.

Two and a half lakhs of rupees have
been given to the University of Calcutta
for the building of a library ; a magnificent
grant of five lakhs was made to the Hindu
University, of which he was the president
before its incorporation, and on whose be-
half His Highness has devoted an enor-
mous amount of time and much of his tire-
less energy. He has, further, undertaken
long tours to collect donations for the
same, and as illustrating the broad-
mindedness of the Maharaja it may be
said that he presented Rs. 20,000 to the
proposed Muslim University.

That the munificent donations of the
Darbhanga princely house have not by
any means been confined to purely reli-
gious or educational purposes the fol-
lowing facts will show: He gave to the
Victoria Memorial Hospital, Muzaffarpur,
Rs. 34,000; to the Famine Relief Fund
(1900), i|- lakhs of rupees; the Queen
Victoria Memorial Fund, i lakh; the Cal-
cutta University, 25 lakhs; the Bharat
Dharma Mahamandal, Rs. 25,000; King
Edward Memorial Fund (Bengal), i lakh;
the Patna Municipality, Rs. 25,000; the
investment for Anathalaya, Rs. 1,00,243;
and to the Muzaffarpur Waterworks,
Rs. 75,000.

The Maharaja has, further, constructed
temples in several places in the district
of Darbhanga, also at Bankipore, Benares,
Kamakhya, Kharagpore, and other places,
and he has restored others which were
partially destroyed by earthquake in the
Kamakhya, Sylhet, and Khangra valleys.
The marble temple built by him at Raj-
nagar is a standing monument of his deep
devotion and piety. Within his own State
he maintains a large general hospital, a
hospital for women, and a number of dis-
pensaries in various parts of his territory.

His Highness has always been a
prominent figure in functions of a public
character, and his election on five occa-
sions by the non-official members of the
Bengal Legislative Council to represent
them on the supreme legislative body of
India, proved that he had at that compara-
tively early stage in his career become a
leader among men.

He is Life-President of the Bharat
Dharma Mahamandal, of the Behar Land-
holders' Association, and the Maithil
Mahasabha. On four occasions he has
been elected president of the British
Indian Association, the premier land-
holders' association in Bengal. The
Maharaja was a most efficient chairman
of the reception committee in connection
with the visit of Their Majesties, the King
Emperor and the Queen Empress, when, as
Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and
Princess of Wales, they visited Calcutta in
1906, and in commemoration of the event
he offered one lakh of rupees to be
devoted to such charitable objects as Their
Royal Highnesses might approve. The
money was subsequently apportioned be-
tween the Medical College Hospital, Cal-
cutta, and the Lady Dufferin Hospital
fund. On the occasion of the lamented
death of His Majesty the King-Emperor,
Edward VII, the Maharaja organized and
led a mourning demonstration consisting

532

of a vast concourse of Hindus, who
marched from the City of Calcutta to the
maidan, where His Highness read his his-
toric speech, in which he voiced the feel-
ings of hundreds of thousands of Hindus
when he expressed their profound sorrow
at the loss of their beloved ruler.

When the Coronation Durbar was held
at Delhi in 191 i the Maharaja, acting
on the suggestion of His Honour the
Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, or-
ganized a grand procession of Hindus,
who offered prayers for the long life and
prosperity of Their Majesties, and he sub-
sequently led a deputation of leaders of
different Indian religions and sects which
was presented to Their Majesties.

His Highness is very highly respected
in all parts of the country, but he is
beloved most by those who know him best,
ample evidence of the sterling worth of
this popular ruler.

His library at Darbhanga is one of the
finest in India, and it contains very many
valuable works, principally in English and
Sanskrit, but the Maharaja is conversant
with English, Sanskrit, Persian, Urdu,
Hindi, and Bengalee. His favourite
pastime is reading, but he also takes the
deepest interest in the management of his
estate, and he personally supervises the
whole work of his numerous staff.

In the year 19 12, when Behar and
Orissa were separated from Bengal and
formed into a new Province, the Maharaja
Bahadur was appointed member of the
first Executive Council, and during his
service of the full term he has displayed a
diplomatic statesmanship which has gone
very far to accentuate the mutual under-
standing between the Government and the
people. The rulers look to him for sage
counsel, and for important and timely sug-
gestions of policy, and the ruled look up
to him for the sympathetic representation
of their multifarious concerns. It can be
safely asserted that it is only the Maharaja
Bahadur who could have combined, ad-
justed, and reconciled all varying interests
in such a harmonious fashion.

During his Executive membership, his
activities in other directions have been no
less remarkable. He is the originator
and author of the idea of the Common
Formula of Prayer for the long life and
prosperity of Their Imperial Majesties,
and for the triumphaxit victory of the allied
forces. The form of the prayer is not yet
definitely settled, but it has naturally en-
listed the support of the entire Hindu
India, and the Viceroy's Goverrunent have
also approved the idea. In this connec-

INDIAN NOBILITY

ion he made an all-India tour, which was
he most successful of its kind, and the
)vation accorded to him in all places,
rom Kashmir to Rameshwaram, and from
Peshawar to Puri, is eloquent testimony of
lis universal popularity. The rapt atten-
ion with which thousands of hearers
vould listen to his fervid and masterly
ixposition of the secrets and glories of
he Hindu religion bespeaks the venera-
ion in which he is held, while the eni-
jhatic and thorough approbation with
vhi<;h the -entire population of the Flindus
n India received the common prayer,
estifies to the deep-rooted loyalty of the
rl Indus, of whom the Maharaja is so
vorthy a member and so great a leader.

The Maharajah was awarded the Kaisar-
-Hind Gold Medal in the year 1900; he
served as a member of the Police Com-
nission, travelling all over India, in
1902; he was created Knight Commander
)f the most eminent Order of the Indian
2mpire in 1907; he received the heredi-
ary title of Maharaja Bahadur in 1907;
md more recently he was invested with the
lonour of G.C.I.E.

His Highness has three children,
lamfely, the Maharaj Kumari, born in
1905; the senior Maharaja Kumar, the
leir-apparent, Maharaj Kumar Kame-
ihwara Sing, born in 1907; and Maharaj
Sumar Vishweshwara Singh, born in 1908.

THE DINAJPUR RAJ

The district of Dinajpur, in the division
jf Rajshahi in Eastern Bengal, has an
irea of about 3,900 square miles, and
ilthough it cannot be said to possess
^reat natural physical attractions, it en-
joys considerable fame on account of its
intiquities. In addition to very fine
:emple3 at Kantanagore and Gopalganj,
there are a number of ruins, as well as
mcient buildings, which are traditionally
:onnected with some important historical
events.

Closely associated with this district is
Ihe Dinajpur Raj, which was founded
about the middle of the fourteenth century
by the celebrated Raja Ganesh, a " Hindu
and Hakim of Dynwaj," who was a tribu-
tary chief under the kings of Gour. In
the sixteenth century the Raj was in the
possession of Srimanta Dutta Chowdhury,
who was succeeded by his son Harish-
:handra. As the latter died without
issue, the property, which at that time
iomprised ninety-three parganas, passed
n the year 1644 to Raja Sookdeb Ray,
he son of Srimanta's daughter. Sookdeb

died in 1681, and was followed in succes-
sion by his three sons, Ramdeb, Jaydeb,
and Prannath, the last-named ascending
the gadi in 1687. He considerably
increased the area of the Raj, and was
honoured by the Imperial Court of Delhi
with the hereditary title of Maharaja
Bahadur. He commenced the building of
a beautiful terra-cotta temple at Kantana-
gore with the intention of dedicating it to
the god Kantaji, which he got at Brin-
daban, on his way back from Delhi, but
he died in 17 19, and the structure was
completed and the god installed by his
successor, his adopted son, Maharaja
Ramnath Roy Bahadur. It was during the
rule of the latter that the Raj attained its
highest prosperity and glory, as the Maha-
raja had the oversight of 126 parganas,
and was the recipient of high honours from
the Emperor of Delhi. He maintained a
regular military force, and fortified the
original town of Dinajpur with moats and
ramparts. He died in the year 1760, and
was succeeded by his son Maharaja Baid-
yanath Roy Bahadur, who alienated not
a small portion of his property by the
creation of Brahmatta tenures and other
endowments. He died without issue in
the year 1780, and his widow, Maharani
Saraswati, adopted Maharaja Radhanath
Roy Bahadur. On payment of a fee of
seven hundred and thirty gold mohurs he
was declared successor to Maharaja Baid-
yanath Roy Bahadur, and was granted a
sanad from the Emperor Shah Alam, which
was countersigned by Warren Hastings
on July 17, 1780. Maharaja Radhanath
Roy Bahadur died in 1801, while still
young, and as he did not leave issue he
was succeeded by Maharaja Gobinda Nath
Roy Bahadur, who was adopted by his
widow. Maharaja Gobindanath died in
1 841, and the Raj devolved on his son
Maharaja Taraknath Roy Bahadur, who
died in the year 1865, and whose widow,
Maharani Syammohini, adopted Maharaja
Sir Girija Nath Roy Bahadur, K.C.I.E.,
who now represents the historical house
of Dinajpur.

Maharaja Girija Nath Roy Bahadur was
born in i 862, and was adopted at the early
age of four years and ten months. His
early education was obtained at Queen's
College, Benares, under the direct super-
vision of Maharani Syammohini, but his
studies were completed at home under the
guidance of distinguished teachers. While
the present Maharaja Bahadur was a
minor, the estate came under the manage-
ment of the Maharani, who was assisted
by her son-in-law. Raja Bahadur Khettra

533

Mohan Sinha. The services of the latter
were rewarded by the bestowal of the
title of Raja by the Government of Lord
Lytton. The title of Maharani, conferred
upon the present Maharaja's mother,
Syammohini, was given for her great ser-
vices during the distressing time of the
famine of 1873-74, when her liberal
assistance enabled the rayats of Dinajpur
to tide over the crisis. Since attaining
his legal majority, Maharaja Girija Nath
Roy Bahadur has taken a very active part
in the administration of the district. He
was Chairman of the Dinajpur Munici-
pality for six years, and at present holds
that ofSce; he is also a member of the
District Board, and an Honorary Magis-
trate. As a member of the Legislative
Council of the Lieutenant-Governor of the
late Province of Eastern Bengal and
Assam, his services were of grea; value
and were duly recognized by the Govern-
ment. His wide knowledge and ripe
experience have enabled him to give useful
aid to the authorities, and he has always
been foremost in forwarding the public
movements of the day, by showing him-
self willing to assist with his purse, time,
and labour, in all measures promoted for
the welfare of the people. His public
gifts, too, have been most generous. He
founded the Diamond Jubilee and weaving
schools, together with the Sanskrit Tol,
and also two charitable dispensaries. At
the expense of the Maharaja's estate, the
Ghagra and Thomson canals (the latter
named after Sir Rivers Thomson, formerly
Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal) were
built at Dinajpur, and they have greatly
benefited that town by improving the
means of sanitation. The title of Maha-
raja Bahadur was bestowed, by a sanad,
upon the Maharaja in 1907, at a public
Durbar at Dacca, when the Lieutenant-
Governor, in making the presentation,
spoke as follows in appreciation of the
Maharaja's character and services: " By
your unswerving loyalty, high character,
and readiness to give your time and labour
to promote all useful public objects, you
have gained the high esteem of your coun-
trymen and the grateful recognition of the
Government. It is very gratifying to me
to be able to express, by the ceremony of
to-day, the satisfaction with which the
Government has viewed your career."
The Maharaja was chairman of the
Reception Committee of the All-India
Kayastha Conference held in Calcutta in
December 1912, and was President of the
Conference held in Allahabad in 19 14.
He received the decoration of K.C.I.E.

2P*

DINAJPUR RAJ.
I. SiRrzxT Gate ix the Raj Palace, 2. Black Stone Gate.

4. A Buddhist Chaitya, or Stupa,

3. A Pillar of Siva's Temple, built a.b. 966.
5. Temple at Kantanagar.

534

DINAJPUR RAJ.
I. Maharaja Sir Girija Math Rov, Bahadur, K.C.I.E., op Dinajpur. 3. Maharaja Kumar Jagadish Nath Roy.

3. Front View or tub Palacjk,

535

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

on the birthday of His Majesty the King-
Emperor in the year 1914.

The Maharaja is an orthodox Hindu,
and he not only has taste for music, but
is himself well versed in the art. In his
early life he was fond of outdoor games,
and was known in the locality as a keen
sportsman.

Being without issue the Maharaja in the
year 1900 adopted as his heir the Maha-
raj Kumar Jagadish Nath Roy.

THE DHENKANAL FEUDATORY STATE

Dhenkanal, one of the Feudatory States
of Orissa (styled " the Gurjat mehals "),
is situated between 20-30° and 21-12°
north latitude and 85-15° and 86-5° east
longitude. It is bounded on the north
by the Pal Lahera and Keonjhar Feuda-
tory States, and the Sukinda Zemindari
in the Cuttack district ; on the west by
the district of Angul, and the States of
Talcher and Hindol; on the south by
the Baramba, Tigiriah, and Athgurh
States, and by the Balarampur, Madhu-
pur, Darpan, Kalkala, and Dalijori
Zemindaries, in the Cuttack district, on
the east. In addition to the above, there
are two detached villages, called Kabat-
bundh and Galiamuhapatna, which lie
beyond the boundary of the State,
within the district of Cuttack. The area
of the State, which stands third in posi-
tion among the Feudatory States of
Orissa, is 1,463 square miles in extent. Ac-
cording to the census of 191 i, the popula-
tion consisted of 269,853 souls, of whom
131,240 are males and 138,613 females.

The State is divided into two natural
divisions, viz. the North Brahmani and
the South Brahmani, these being created
by the Brahmani River flowing in an
easterly direction from one extremity of
the State to the other.

Dhenkanal is politically divided into
two subdivisions for administrative pur-
poses, viz. (i) the headquarter sub-
division, comprising 15 bisos (parganas)
with 656 villages, and (2) the Bysingha
subdivision, consisting of 9 bisos (par-
ganas) with 438 villages.

The State is interspersed with hills and
forests, chiefly towards the north and
south-east, and, although other parts have
been opened out, they contain a certain
number of wooded sections.

The most important hills are as fol-
lows : (i) Kapilas, 2,239 ^eet in height,
in the south-eastern part of the State, is
widely known throughout and beyond
Orissa as a place of pilgrimage, owing

to the existence of the Temple of Chandra
Sakhar Jew and many other ancient archi-
tectural constructions since the time of
Pratap Rudra Deb, the Maharaja of
Orissa, whose name is associated with the
establishment of this famous resort of
devotees. A large meld (fair) is held here
annually on the " Sivaratree " day by
pilgrims who come from all directions.
There is a perennial spring of health-
giving water in the middle of this hill,
where the temple stands. (2) Satsajia,
1,981 feet in height, is situated in the
south-west portion of the State. Here
is also a permanent spring running down
from the top of the hill.

The River Brahmani, as stated above,
passes through the middle of the State,
dividing it into two equal parts; and
other waterways, tributaries of this river
and of the Mahanaddy, are the Ramial,
Lingara, and Sapwa.

There are 175 miles of road in the
State, the important ones being : from
Cuttack to Angul, 37 miles in length,
connecting Dhenkanal with the districts
of Cuttack and Angul ; the Tangi road,
22 miles, uniting the headquarters of
Dhenkanal with Kapilas, and also with
the Kapilas Road Station of the Bengal-
Nagpur Railway at Tangi; Bhuban road,
17 miles, between the headquarters and
Bhuban on the Brahmani, an important
centre of trade; and the Sankarpur,
Baramba, Palasuni, Aluajharan-Murhi, the
Noagan, and other roads.

Mining and manufactures have not been
greatly developed, but iron is smelted by
I.ohard-Kamirs in Palasuni, Parjang, and
Jenadesh Bisos; gold is found in small
particles, which are obtained by washing
the sand of the Ramial rivulet ; mica
(black and white) is found in Kapilas
and many other places, and a mine is
now being worked at Dhobabahali; coal
is found in occasional places; and bauxite
is obtained near headquarters and in other
parts.

Bell-metal and brass utensils are manu-
factured at Bhuban, Indipore, Oakhama,
and in other villages. Tassar cloth is
manufactured from the cocoons produced
in the State forests, lac is obtained from
kusum-trees, and cotton cloth is woven
in the Bhuban and Siminai villages.

The present ruler of the State, Raja
Sura Pratap Mahindra Bahadur, is the
sixteenth ruler since the foundation of the
State, and the eldest son and heir-
apparent is Yubaraj Sankar Pratap Rai
Sinha Bhramarabara Rai.

Before the predecessors of the present

536

Raja occupied the Cadi of the State as
ruling chiefs, and prior to the formation
of the present compact area, a stretch of
land to the south of the Brahmani River
was subdivided into small principalities
(comprising strips of lands and jungles),
ruled over by semi-independent chiefs of
Hindoo and aboriginal descent. At that
time certain other land in and around the
present headquarters of the State, com-
prising an area of one kosh (equivalent
to two square miles), was ruled over by
a chieftain named Dhenki, a member of
the Savar tribe of the aboriginal class.

A similar area towards the west, called
Gar-Besalia, was at that time ruled by
a chieftain of the Bhanja clan, named
Sreedhar Bhanja (known as Samanta
Singhar). Sreedhar killed Dhenka in an
affray, and it is said that Dhenka, on his
death-bed, asked Sreedhar Bhanja that,
as the latter had mortally injured him and
had intended to take possession of his
favourite place, he should, in order to
maintain his memory, name his territory
after his (Dhenkd's) own name, and that
he would preserve and worship a relic
of his own, representing his head.
Sreedhar Bhanja was succeeded by Nila-
kantha and Sadasiva Samanta-Sinhars,
the last chiefs of the Bhanja family. The
name therefore owes its origin to the
territory of Dhenka Savar, which was
styled after him.

The genealogy of the line of the present
ruling chiefs originates from Raja Hari
Singh (afterwards Hari-Singh Bidya-
dhar), who came to Puri from the Paschim
(Rajputana States), in company with
his two brothers, Govinda Singh and
Janardan Singh. These three brothers
were Kshattriya descendants of the Yadu-
bansa (dynasty of Yadus) family. They
came to Puri in the time of Maharaja
Protip Rudra Deb of Orissa, and took
shelter under Jagannath Mahaprobhu,
and it is said that, according to the com-
mand of the Mahaprobhu in a dream, they
served the then Maharaja as Bhois, or
collectors of land revenue, having taken
the Sarhi (office) as Patras (officers).
Their family title was Sinha, but subse-
quently all were styled Bidyadhar Maha-
patra. In recognition of their meritorious
services, Govinda Bidyadhar rose to the
office of Prime Minister, Janardan Bidya-
dhar was appointed Financial Minister,
and Hari Bidyadhar became Commander
of the Army.

The eldest, Govinda Bidyadhar, became
the Maharaja of Orissa, after the death of
Maharaja Protdp Rudra Deb. Hari

THE DHENKANAL PEUDATORV STATE.
The Five Rajkumars of Dhenkanal Raj. a. Raja Sura Pratap MahindRa, Bahadur, Feudatory Chief of Dhenkakal,

3. The Late Raja Dinabandhu Mahindra, Bahadur, Present Chief's Father,
4. The Late Maharaja Bhagiratha Mahindra, Bahadur, Present Chief's Grandfather,

537

I. Thi Palace, Duehkaiiai..

THE DHENKANAL FEUDATORY STATE.

2. Interior of Durbar Hall. 3. Baldev Jew's Temple. Dhenkanal.

4, The Duamsa, Chadaknaii, and Nisuah,

538

I. The State Jail.

THE DHENKANAL FEUDATORY STATE,
2. The State H.E. School. 3, View in the Eastern Part op Dhenkanal.

4. Teuple of Chandra Sakhar Jew.

539

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Bidyadhar accompanied the Maharaja in
his expedition to Southern India, who,
having won victories in several cam-
paigns, was able to vanquish a chief from
whom the minaketan katdri and minakeian
pugree (dagger and headgear marked
with " Minaketan ") were wrested for the
Maharaja. The Maharaja offered him, as
jagir, a strip of land called the Karamol-
Patna or Singha-Rai-Khole (now called
Karamol Patna and Singhari-khola of
Dhenkanal), Comprising seven kosh (one
kosh being equivalent to two miles) in
the Jharkhanda, and made him a Raja
of Jharkhanda, and also made him a
present of the minaketan katari and
minaketan pugree, to use as his santak, or
family insignia. He was then styled the
Raja of Karamol Patna in the Jharkhand.
As a brother and a favourite of the Orissa
Maharaja, Hari Bidyadhar was very am-
bitious, and in attempting to extend his
possessions he overthrew the last Bhanja
chieftain, Sadasiv Bhanja, and then added
his territory to his own. He, at the
request of the last Bhanja chieftain, and
in honour of the last wish of Dhenka
Savar, styled his territory " Dhenkanal,"
in place of " Jharkhanda Karamol Patna,"
with the permission of the Puri Maharaja,
Ram Chandra Dev. After establishing
his capital, and with an extended terri-
tory which he obtained through the
co-operation of Lokenath Chainee and
Murari Patnaik, both of whom accom-
panied him from Puri, Hari Bidyadhar
went to the Gajapati Maharaja of Puri
to do homage. The Maharaja received
him cordially, as a kinsman of his own,
and honoured him, as a faithful general
and dependent, with the hereditary title
of Raisingha Bhramarabar Ray, and
styled him " Jharkhanda Padisha." He
further allowed, in recognition of his
relationship, some special concessions and
privileges in the Jagannalh Temple (Sree
Mandir of Puri) for darshan to the deity,
and also permitted him the proud privi-
lege of full enjoyment of all the time-
honoured customs and usages prevalent
in the royal family, to be hereditarily
held in the Dhenkanal Raj family, and
it may be added that they are still
enjoyed by them. Hari Bidyadhar ruled
from 1529 to 1584.

Lokhnath Rai Singh Bhramarbar, chief
between the years 1585 and 1606, was son
of Hari Singh Bidyadhar, and when he
succeeded his father he maintained the
order and peace in the territory which
had been established by his predecessor.
The long period of his rule was very

peaceful, and in pursuance of a progres-
sive policy he laid the foundation of the
Baldev Jew's temple at headquarters,
which is at present the most important
shrine in Dhenkanal. An old poetical
work on a palm-leaf, entitled " Balbhadra
Boli," gives an account of how the deity
(Baldev Jew) was brought from Angul,
Hindol, and other places by the Maharaja
Ananga Bhim Deb of Puri, while on his
way from Bhim Nagari to Puri, and how
he happened to remain at Dhenkanal.
Along with the history of Baldev Jew,
the poem contains a contemporary
account of the line of the ruling chiefs
of Dhenkanal, commencing from the
founder. This has been handed down
by the people of Dhenkanal from genera-
tion to generation, and it inspires them
to hold the Thakur in high reverence as
the Protector of Dhenkanal.

The Dhenkanal State has endowed ex-
tensive landed properties for the Seba
and Bhog of this Thakur, and the biso
(pergana) " Balrampur," where these
lands exist has been named after the
deity. It was during the time of
Lokhnath Bhramarabar that the proposal
for the large temple to locate Baldev Jew
was made, and he had only laid the
foundation of the building when he was
succeeded by his son, Balabhadra Rai
Singh Bhramarabar Rai.

As the Dhenkanal territory was in-
habited chiefly by low-class Hindoos and
aboriginal tribes, the Rajas of the State,
with the view of setting before them good
examples of high morals, peaceful citizen-
ship, and religious life, after the example
of Puri Rajas, established Brahmin
Sasans (colonies of Brahmins) by immi-
gration from Puri and other noted
places. Grants of brahmottar, or rent-
free Lakhraj lands, for their homestead
and for cultivation, was also made, and
the chief established Lokenathpur Sasan
in his own name.

Balabhadra Rai Singh Bhramarabar
Rai, who ruled in 1606-32, succeeded his
father in the former year, and he annexed
a portion of tlic adjoining Talchar State
and founded the Mundailo Balabhadrapur
Sasan, after his own title.

The rule of Raja Nilakantha Rai Singh
Bhramarabar Rai, from 1632 to 1652, was
a very peaceful one, and he established
the Nilakanthapur Sasan.

The rule of Nrusinha Rai Singh
Bhramarabar Rai, son of Nilakantha Rai
Singh Brahmarabar Rai, is the most
important chapter in the history of
Dhenkanal. The name of this chivalrous

540

chief (during the long period between
1652 and 1694) is still proverbial among
the people of the State. There is an old
poem, called the " Madhupur Koily,"
which depicts the valour and skill of this
warrior chief in defeating the Raja of
Madhupur and in annexing a part of his
estate. He further extended the area of
Dhenkanal by attaching to it portions
from Keonjhar, Athgurh, Tigria, Mad-
hupur, and Sukinda, and he completed
the temple of Baldev Jew and set up the
idol in it. Up to the time of Nrusinha
Bhramarabar the capital town of Dhen-
kanal had been at Karamol Gurh and
Hadgurh, but this ruler founded the
present one, where he spent a certain
period in each year. He also established
the Rai Nrusinhapur Sasan.

Kunja Behari Rai Singh Bhramarabar
Rai, the next in succession (1694-1720),
annexed the Gotmara Biso from Angul
and established the Kunja Beharipur
Sasan and the Mandir of Sambhu Gopal
Jew at headquarters, while Braja Behari
Rai Singh Bhramarabar Rai (1720-44)
was responsible for the Braja Beharipur
Sasan and the Mandir of Joygopal Jew.

Nothing of importance can be traced in
the time of Damodar Rai Singh Bhrama-
rabar Rai, who ruled from 1744 to 1746.

Trilochan Mahindra Bahadur (1746-
88), who was a valiant warrior chief, fell
out with the Mahratla Rajas of Nagpur,
who had been establishing their
supremacy in Orissa, owing to some
disagreement in the payment of pesh kush
(tribute). It appears that Rajaram
Pandit, who demanded double pesh kush,
sent troops to Dhenkanal, who were
defeated at Motori (at present called the
" Motori Gurh " in Dhenkanal). The
Subadar then appealed to the Bhonsla
Raja of Nagpur, and, in response to a
requisition for fresh troops, a large army,
led by Chimna Jea Babu, was sent to
subdue Dhenkanal. A closely fought
battle ensued, in 1781, which terminated
in a treaty entered into by the parties,
under which half of the tribute demanded
was remitted. The dhansa (big drum)
and the cliadak-nali (matchlock) were the
trophies that the Raja received from the
Mahratta force. The Maharajas of Puri
conferred on the Raja the hereditary title
of Mahindra Bahadur, reserving that of
Rai Singh Bhramarbar Rai to be en-
joyed by the Yubarajas (heirs-apparent).
A contemporary poet, named Braja Nath
Badajena, has depicted the battle in
his work called the " Samarataranga "
(" Waves of the Battle "). The Raja

INDIAN NOBILITY

also annexed a part of Keonjhar, and
strengthened the borders of his State by
the construction of well-defended forts
and by stationing militia within the walls.
Dayanidhy Mahindra Bahadur (1788-98),
son of Trilochan Mahindra Bahadur, had
a peaceful rule, and was followed by Ram
Chandra Mahindra Bahadur, who formed
the Sasan of Ramchandrapur.

The next rulers were Krishna Chandra
Mahindra Bahadur (1812-22) and Syam
Sundar Mahindra Bahadur (1822-32),
and the latter was succeeded by Maha-
raja Bhagirath Mahindra Bahadur (1832-
77). This period is a very important
one in the annals of Dhenkanal, as it
introduced an entirely new era. Maharaja
Bhagirath, a profound scholar of high
Sanskrit learning, an able administrator,
a patron of learning and industrial im-
provements, a man of rare intellect, high
morals, exemplary character, and of
liberal views, restored all administrative
reforms and secured order by settling the
tenure of the State and by introducing
working methods and the keeping of
accounts in the various departments. The
establishment of all public institutions,
such as schools, dispensaries, jails, and
courts, was undertaken by him; he built.
the present palace, and by virtue of his
successful rulership he was created
Maharaja by the British Government.
His substantial donations towards the
establishment of public institutions
abroad, such as the Ravenshaw College
of Cuttack, the Cuttack Printing Com-
pany, and medical schools, and to several
pundits and scholars, who surrounded him
from all quarters, his charity to the poor
and the needy, and his impartial and
even-handed justice, testify to his liberal-
mindedness and to his sympathetic heart.
He was a successful sportsman and a keen
shot, and he killed no fewer than 352
tigers during his lifetime. The aboriginal
classes of " leaf -wearers " (the Juangs)
had a superstition that they would be
eaten up by tigers if they wore clothes.
But the Maharaja's high moral per-
sonality induced them to adopt proper
costumes, for which purpose he made a
free distribution of apparel among them.
His highly talented, able, and far-sighted
Dewan, Baba Banomaly Singh, a local
man of high birth and rare intellect, and a
true loyal benefactor of the Raj whose
memory is ever green in the mind of the
people of this State, enjoyed a long life,
and died as recently as the year 1912.

Maharaja Bliagirath, having no issue
of his own, adopted as his heir Raja

Dinabandhu Mahindra Bahadur, the
youngest brother of the late Chief of
Boad, who came of a distinguished
Kshattriya family. Dinabandhu was a
minor when he died in 1885, the State
having been imder the management of the
Court of Wards since the death of the late
Maharaja, and he left an only son — a babe
six months old (the present ruler) and
his widowed Rani, the daughter of the
old Chief of Banai, who is widely known
as the " Rajarshi " (the most pious and
orthodox ruler).

Sura Protap Mahindra Bahadur, the
present chief, was born in 1885, and he
took charge of the State in 1906, after
completing his twenty-first year, up to
which time the Court of Wards' manage-
ment had been continued. The State,
therefore, had remained under Govern-
ment management for the long period of
about thirty years. During his minority
the chief was carefully educated for his
high and responsible office by the Govern-
ment at the Ravenshaw Collegiate School,
under the direct guardianship and control
of his Mother, the Dowager-Rani, whose
piety is proverbial. This noble lady has
been, since her widowhood, leading a life
of austerity as a religious devotee, and
she has fully dedicated herself to works
of public good and to ameliorating the
cause of suffering humanity. The large
Narayan temple at Kapilas, the vast water
reservoirs constructed by her orders,
orchards planted at her own cost, and
many other acts for the benefit of the
public, will serve as lasting monuments
to immortalize her name; and it was the
noble example of such a virtuous mother
which moulded the life of the present ruler.
He has married the highly accomplished
and well-educated granddaughter of the
present Chief (Raja Bahadur) of Serai-
kella, whose high literary attainments and
religious sentiments are manifested in the
pages of his voluminous literary works,
and who is a Kshyattriya of high order,
being a member of the eminent Sinha
Bansa. A treatise on music for beginners,
compiled by her in the Uriya language,
is now of great use to beginners of both
sexes in Orissa. The Chief has five
Kumars, the eldest of whom, Yubaraj
Sankar Protap Rai Sinha Bhramarbar
Rai, is the heir-apparent.

The Raja, since his installation to the
gadi, has reserved forests by introducing
forest laws, improved the working of the
same by appointing qualified officers,
reclaimed jungle lands by leasing them
out on easy terms, executed irrigation

541

works on important lines for facilitating
agriculture, encouraged the breeding of
cows and horses by the free distribution
of good bulls and stallions, developed
various kinds of arts and industries, such
as weaving, carpentry, works in fine arts
filigree, horn, and ivory; has sent candi-
dates abroad for technical education;
erected magnificent buildings for the
English High School in commemoration
of his illustrious grandfather; founded
the George Primary School ; started
large orchards ; erected pucca granaries
for the storage of paddy and grain for
people during famine ; improved the town
by the construction of fine buildings;
encouraged people by grants of loans and
gifts of timbers ; made nice roads and
streets; strengthened the police force by
qualified officers; settled the Pans (pro-
fessional robbers) by giving work and
land and by starting Pan schools ; worked
the mica mines; constructed a masonry
stockade in a convenient position in the
hills, where elephants can resort through-
out the year; controlled education by
placing it upon a satisfactory and per-
manent footing by the introduction of an
education cess; and supplemented the
Courts of Justice by creating additional
magistrates for the speedy disposal of
cases. Further, for the protection of old
and infirm cows from the grasp of
butchers, and to shelter and give them
proper attention, he started an asylum,
the " Sankarasrama," so styled after the
name of the Yubaraj Sankara Protap Rai
Sinha Bhramarabar Rai. Aiming at the
social amelioration and with the view of
improving the education of Brahmins, he
opened a Samittee of the Brahmins in
every Brahmin village. During the
famine of 1908-9 the Chief expended a
sum of Rs. 60,000, three-fourths of which
were spent in gratuitous relief by giving
rice from kitchens started throughout
the State; and, in addition to opening
the reserve forests and lending money to
shopkeepers to enable them to sell paddy
and rice at cost prices, and by meeting
the cartage thereof from the State
Exchequer, he induced the Mahajans and
rich people to advance cash and paddy
on the security of the State. Such Maha-
jans were, for their benevolent act,
rewarded with gold and silver medals,
certificates, and titles of honour in a
public State Durbar, at which the Political
Agent of the Orissa Feudatory States dis-
tributed the rewards at the request of
the Chief. With similar precautionary
measures and help, he assisted the people

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

to avert the pangs of scarcity during the
years 191 5-16.

Loans in cash and paddy were given
from the State, as well as from the Amars
of the Rani Saheba and Rajmata, and
thousands of maunds of imported rice and
paddy from the latter's granaries were
sold at much lower rates than the existing
market prices, and thus a threatened
famine was avoided. Suspension of rent
also was granted to deserving villages.
Besides the judicious precautionary
measures stated above, the Raja opened
a State bank, from which tuccavi (agri-
cultural and other loans) were made to
the people at nominal interest. As per-
manent measures against scarcity of food,
he started big irrigation schemes by
damming up streams and rivulets, which
irrigate many miles of adjoining land, and
thereby saved his people from the effects
of drought. The large lake at head-
quarters, called the Annapurna Sarobar,
was excavated, at the expense of the
Dowager-Rani, as a relief work during
the strenuous portions of the past two
years. The nice stone temple with marble
pavements, dedicated to Lord Sree-
krishna, has been constructed, with all up-
to-date improvements and designs, upon
a hill which overlooks the Annapurna
Sarobar; and the temple in the town,
dedicated to the goddess Kamana Devi,
has been built by the Rani Saheba with
the same object of affording relief. The
new guest-house on the hill, with the new
temple by its side and the extensive
Sarobar underneath it, are located among
the many mango groves planted by the
Chief, by his late father and grandfather,
and by the present Rani and Dowager-
Rani. The above structures, combined
with the High English School, the hostel,
and the Circuit-house, situated upon hills
overlooking each other, present a pic-
turesque sight and afford a panorama of
enchanting views in the eastern portion
of the headquarters. The addition of a
magnificent Darbar hall, called the
Rangmahal, the Devi mandir in front of
the palace, and the Dhenkanal Castle at
Pari, called the Annapurnalaya, after the
name of the Chief's mother, do credit to
the skill of the late State engineer, Rai
Dwarkanath Sircar Bahadur, whose valu-
able services were employed to complete
these important works. Rai Bankun
Chandra Majumdar Saheb, a very able
and skilful officer with vast experience, has
succeeded the late Rai Bahadur and taken
up all important projects, including irri-
gation works of the nature stated above.

The land revenue settlement of the
State, started by the Chief on an
improved method of measurement, is
nearing completion under the control of
the tactful and experienced Dewan Babu
Raj Kishore Tripathy.

As already inentioned, the Chief took
the reins of administration of his State
into his hands in 1906, with the customary
full powers of a Feudatory Chief, but he
was invested by Government in 1909 with
Sessions power in recognition of his sound
and effective rulership on progressive lines.

It may be added that the Chief was an
invited guest at the Coronation Durbar
at Delhi in 191 1, and that he was
honoured by having a prominent position
in the procession of nobilities who passed
before the Royal Party.

THE DUMRAON RAJ.

The Dumraon Raj estates are situated
in the district of Shahabad, in the Province
of Behar and Orissa. The ancestral
domain of the Maharaja is situated near
to the town of Dumraon, which is
about four hundred miles distant from
Calcutta.

The present chief, the Maharaja Kesho
Prasad Singh, claims descent from the
ancient family of the Raja Vikramadait
of Ujjain in the district of Malwa, but
authentic records lof early history are
difficult to obtain. During the Indian
Mutiny of 1857, the then Maharaja ren-
dered very valuable assistance to the
British troops in quelling disturbances,
and his services were duly acknowledged
by the Government.

THE GANGPUR STATE

The Feudatory States of Orissa— of
which the Gangpur State is one of the
largest — form a succession of ranges of
forest-clad mountains and hills, with well-
watered valleys, in which a productive soil
yields bountiful harvests of rice, pulses,
oil-seeds, and other crops. The majority
of the people are almost wholly dependent
upon agriculture, and the remainder
may be classed as blacksmiths, potters,
barbers, washermen, and a few carvers,
while nearly every village has its own
weaver of cotton cloths.

The Gangpur State was ceded to the
British Government in the year 1826, and
in 1905 it was transferred from the
division of Chota-Nagpur to Orissa. It
has an area of about 2,500 square miles,
and consists chiefly of an undulating
tableland, some 700 feet above the level

542

of the sea, while in several parts there
are ranges of hills with peaks rising to
a height of more than 2,200 feet.

The present Chief, the Maharaja
Raghunath Sikhar Deo, came into power
in the year 1858 while still a minor, and
his relations with the British Government
are regulated by a Sanad granted nearly
twenty years ago, and renewed, with
certain alterations, in 1905. The Maha-
raja assumed control of State affairs in
1 87 1, and he has been untiring in his
efforts to promote the well-being of his
people, especially with regard to educa-
tion, which was in a very backward
condition until a few years ago.

The Chief has subscribed handsomely
to the various war funds. The title of
Raja Bahadur was conferred on him by
the Government on the occasion of the
visit of their Imperial Majesties to India
in the year 191 i, and the title of Maha-
raja was granted as personal distinction
in the year 1915. The State was recently
visited by His Excellency Sir Edward
Albert Gait, K.C.S.I., Lieutenant-
Governor of Behar and Orissa, when the
magnificent newly constructed Court build-
ings at Sundargarh were formally opened.

The inhabitants have increased rapidly
in number since a portion of the Bengal-
Nagpur Railway system passed through
the south-eastern portion of the State and
provided additional means of communica-
tion and facilities for transport of
produce. In the year 1872 it was
estimated that the population consisted
of about 70,000 persons, but at the census
of 191 1 the number had risen to 303,829
inhabitants, of 1,132 villages. The prin-
cipal races are the Oraons, the Gonds,
the Bhuiyas, and the Agarias, the
majority of whom are skilled agricul-
turists ; but it must be added that,
notwithstanding the encouragements of
the Chief and his able Diwan, Mr. J. A.
Craven, there is still a large proportion
of the people who manifest a disinclina-
tion to occupy and cultivate land on their
own account. It is a somewhat curious
fact that in Gangpur — as in every other
State — one can observe an intelligent and
systematic course of husbandry in certain
areas practically side by side with tracts
which arc subjected to the most primitive
methods of tillage.

It is probable that agriculturists are the
most conservative people in the world,
and it is a common experience in India
to hear the remark that the system of
cultivation practised two or three genera-
tions ago is quite good enough for

THE DUMEAON BAJ.
I. Maharaj Kumar Rama Ranabejai Prasad S.nob. a. Maharaja K^shava Prasad Sinob, Bahadur.

Phoio by yohmton &■ //qffmann,

543

X. NOWRATLAN.

THE DUMRAON RAJ.

■ a. Manager's Bungalow.

544

THE DUMBAON RAJ.
I. Bbhasijes's Temple.

2. Kakijee's Teuplb.

545

THE OANGPUR FEUDATORY STATE.

1. General View of Sundargarh. 2. The Ib River at Sundargarh,

3, The Junction o» the Koel and Sankh Rivers, foruing the Brahuani River at Panposh, the Birthplace of the bAOE Viuvas.

546

I, The Boys' School, Sundaroarh.

THE GANGPUR FEUDATORY STATE.

». Th« Victoria Mxhoxial Hospital at Sundaroarh.

3 The Court BuaDiiioi,

547

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

present-day requirements. This spirit of
laissez-faire is discouraging to all who,
by example or precept, are endeavouring
to teach men to grow two blades of grass
in places where only one had previously
been produced. The Governments of
Provinces and States in India have in
recent years spent very large sums of
money in giving practical demonstrations
and instruction in arable and pastoral
farming, but there are still vast tracts
of land tilled or grazed in a haphazard
fashion, which can only result in unsatis-
factory crops or ill-conditioned strains of
half -starved cattle.

The soil in the southern portion of
Gangpur is rich in plant-forming con-
stituents, and the clever Agarias make the
most of their agricultural knowledge, and
as a result they reap heavy crops of first-
class quality. This success has not been
attained without an intelligent application
of such essential principles as thorough
cultivation and cleaning of the land, a
knowledge of the nature of the soil, and
an ability to supply suitable manures for
its sustenance, a judicious rotation of
crops, and the selection of sound seeds.

The Agarias understand the value of
co-operation, and they have wisely acted
in conjunction not only with one another,
but also with their headmen in carrying
through schemes of irrigation or drainage
on dry and wet lands respectively. The
cultivators in the northern portion of
Gangpur are certainly at a disadvantage
in having to deal with soil somewhat in-
ferior in composition, but their compara-
tive lack of success is partly the result of
ignorance coupled with absence of energy.

The general condition of the total
population, however, is one of prosperity,
and as it is extremely difficult to obtain a
sufficient supply of labourers in farming
and in various trades, such as masons,
carpenters, and the like, it follows that
wages are based upon a fairly liberal
scale.

About 85 per cent, of the people are
engaged in agricultural pursuits, and
about 10 per cent, are employed in
industrial work of various kinds.

Rice, sugar-cane, oil-seeds, and tobacco
are the chief crops, although extensive
areas are cultivated for grain, pulses, and
millets.

Coal, limestone, gold, and iron are
found in the State, and the mining of
manganese is now a most important in-
dustry. There are sawmills at Raurkela
and Kalunga, but it is unlikely that any
real advance will be made in the timber

trade for some years to come, as the
forests were ruthlessly denuded of nearly
all serviceable trees prior to the promul-
gation of Regulations regarding felling,
and before the appointment of properly
trained Forest Officers, who are directly
responsible to the Head of the State.

The principal exports are cotton, sesa-
mum, arrowroot, catechu, wax, and honey,
while imported articles include piece
goods, salt, sugar, spices, and kerosene oil.

The Bengal-Nagpur Railway system
extends for a considerable distance within
the borders of the territory. There is
a good road connecting the principal town
of Sundargarh with the railway-station at
Jharsuguda, and during recent years
several others of importance, spanned by
masonry and iron bridges, have been con-
structed or are at the present time being
made.

The rivers include the lb, the Sankh,
and the South Koel, the last two-
mentioned streams uniting in the eastern
portion of the State and forming the
Brahmani, which flows in a southwardly
direction into the plains of Orissa.
Cobden-Ramsay, in his Gazetteer of the
" Feudatory States of Orissa," says :
" The confluence of the Koel and Sankh
is one of the prettiest sights in Gangpur,
and it is said by local tradition to be
the scene of the amour of the sage Para-
sara with the fisherman's daughter
Matsya Gandha, the offspring of which
was Vyasa, the reputed compiler of the
Vedas and the Mahabharata." Here an
important " Mela " is held once a year,
and is attended by a large number of
pilgrims.

The Chief of the State is responsible
for the general administration of affairs,
but he has "advice from the Commis-
sioner of Orissa on important matters
relating to the settlement and collection
of land revenue, the imposition of taxes,
the administration of justice, arrange-
ments connected with excise, salt, opium,
and disputes in which other States are
concerned."

The cause of education is one in which
the Maharaja takes a deep personal
interest, and although the percentage of
literates is still e.xceedingly small, it is
satisfactory to note that steady progress
is being made, and that State Inspectors
have been appointed to supervise methods
of teaching and to induce parents as well
as scholars to realize the vast importance
of training the young.

Some reference should be made now to
the system of administration— especially.

548

with regard to land revenue— prevailing
in the villages. The latter, in the State
of Gangpur, says Sir W. Hunter, in his
" Statistical Account of Districts," " are
held either on feudal tenure or on farming
leases. The feudal tenures date back to
early times when the vassals of the Chief
received grants of land in consideration
of rendering military service and making
certain payments in kind. These pay-
ments were gradually commuted to a quit
rent in money, but the service conditions
were rigidly enforced. When the Raja
went on a journey his military fief-holders
were obliged to accompany him with their
naiks, or headmen in charge of villages,
and paiks, or foot-soldiers." A time
arrived, however, when the payments
made to the State were insufficient to meet
the growing demands of the Treasury,
and a cess, or tax, which was regarded
by headmen and paiks alike as being
entirely distinct from ordinary rent, was
levied on behalf of the Chief. The em-
ployment of paiks as State militia has now
been discontinued in Gangpur. Certain
villages are held under leases for five years
by small farmers, called gaontias, who
pay an annual rent, and when the term
is extended a bonus is demanded from
the occupier. The principal officials in
Gaontia villages are the headman, the
priest, and the watchman, the latter being
also an assistant to the first named, who
is, ex-officio, a police officer, in the detec-
tion of crime. The first regular survey
and settlement of all cultivated lands in
the State was concluded in the year 191 o
for a ten-year period, and a uniform
assessment was made at fair and equit-
able rates. This has been the means
of inducing immigrants from adjoining
States and Districts to settle in the State,
and upon reclaimed jungle areas which
have been thrown open to cultivation.

The village headmen, it will be seen,
have obtained a very prominent position
in the administration of the land in
Gangpur, and many of these officials are
occupiers of extensive areas whose pro-
ductiveness has rendered them unusually
wealthy men. There are, too, vast tracts
of uplands handed over for cultivation
to occupiers from whom no rent is re-
quired, but who, in return for their hold-
ings, render free service to the State.

The entire area of the State is highly
mineralized. On the east the Bisra Stone
Lime Company have their manufacturing
works and headquarters at Bisra, on the
Bengal-Nagpur Railway, which is con-
nected by a system of light railways with

THE QANGPUR FEUDATORY STATE.
I. The Kajbari, j. Some Man-eating Tigers and some Leopards shot by Mr. Craven.

3. The Dewah's House,

549

2Q*

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

the limestone quarries. The company, of
which Messrs. Bird & Co., of Calcutta, are
the managing agents, have lately acquired
further large concessions from the State,
and contemplate the construction of a
broad-gauge line from Panposh, on the
Bengal-Nagpur system, northwards to
Raipura, on the border of the district of
Ranchi, where the most valuable deposits
have been located.

The Tata Iron and Steel Company hold
the lease of valuable dolomite quarries
near Panposh, which yield an annual
output of about 75,000 tons, which are
conveyed to Sakchi for utilization in the
company's iron and steel works there.
Manganese occurs throughout the State,
but the most valuable deposits are at a
village called Gariajore, about 10 miles
south-east of Sundargarh. The lease of
these mines is held by a Nagpur syndi-
cate. The annual output exceeds 50,000
tons, and arrangements are in progress to
double this figure. The mines are con-
nected by a light railway with Dharuadih
Station on the Bengal-Nagpur Railway.

Coal has been found in the Hemgir
Zemindary, in the western portion of the
State, and a mining lease for the same is
held by the Hemgir-Rampur Coal Com-
pany, but work has not yet commenced.

Mica has lately been discovered in the
Sarapgarh Zemindary of the State, and
negotiations for a lease are in progress.

The fauna in the Feudatory States are
of a diversified character, the principal
carnivora being the tiger, panther, hyena,
wild dog, jackal, and fox. Wild buffaloes
are now nearly extinct, and bison are
foimd in the denser portions of forests in
nearly all of the States, while the tiger
is frequently met with. Many of the last
named are notorious " man-eaters," and
Mr. Craven has relieved the Gangpur
State of some of these terrors to mankind,
which have been responsible for the
killing of about 130 natives.

Sundargarh, the headquarters of the
State, is a small town of about 3,000
inhabitants, and is situated on the lb
River, which traverses the district from
north to south and finally joins the
Mahanadi in the district of Sambalpur.
It contains the residence of the Chief,
post and telegraph offices, a court-house,
a large English school, a dispensary, and
other buildings of a public as well as
private character.

THE HUTWA RAJ

Shakesfteare, in " The Merchant of
Venice," wrote that " it is a wise father

who knows his own child," but with
apologies to the shades of the Bard of
Avon one might be tempted to paraphrase
those words by saying that he must be
a happy man who can trace his descent
in an unbroken line for many hundreds
of years through a succession of eminent
men, the majority of whom have — accord-
ing to the spirit of the age in which they
lived — exerted a beneficial influence upon
those by whom they were surrounded.

It must be remembered that in India —
a country of great antiquity — traditions
have played an important part in its his-
tory, but these legends have been handed
down most carefully from father to son
by poets or bards who held special
appointments as such in the houses of
nobles of the land.

Generation has followed generation and
kings and other rulers have arisen and
have passed away, yet a number of
Rajas of to-day are proud of the fact
that amid all the wars, rebellions, ahd
political upheavals of Governments, their
possessions have remained practically
intact.

In a " Brief History of the Hutwa Raj,"
compiled in 1909 by Bebendra Nath
Dutta, Diwan of the estate, the writer
says that in the Province of Bengal and
Behar there are many ancient Rajs which
pay revenue under the Permanent Settle-
ment, and that " of these ancient and
aristocratic houses Hutwa is one of the
most eminent, its pedigree is one of the
oldest in the land, the family has a stir-
ring and somewhat romantic history, and
traces its chronology back to remote
antiquity."

The Hutwa family belongs to the caste
known as Trikarma Brahmins, or, in
popular phraseology, Bhuinhar Brahmins,
a name which has been bestowed upon
those who disregard the last three of the
customary duties of a Brahmin, which
are : (a) performing sacrifices, (b) giving
of alms, (c) acquiring knowledge, (rf) offi-
ciating as priests at the time of sacrifices,
(e) taking of alms, and (/) teaching
others.

The Diwan above referred to is confi-
dent that the earliest historical records
of the Hutwa Raj were either destroyed
or improperly removed, but tradition
speaks of a Raja Birsen, from whom the
present Maharaja is 103rd in the line of
descent. An actual date regarding this
ruler's accession cannot, unfortunately, be
given, but by allowing twenty-five years
as a moderate estimate for the life of each
Raja, it would appear that he must have

been in power about 600 years before
the Christian Era. There are evidences,
apart from manuscripts, that Raja Kale-
yan Mull, the 86th in descent, was the
first to receive the title of Maharaja, and
that his successor. Raja Khemkaran Sahi.
obtained the two titles of Maharaja
Bahadur and Sahi from the Emperor of
Delhi, but the earliest authentic records
commence with the time of Fateh Sahi,
the 99th Maharaja.

The history of this ruler is one of the
darkest pages in the Hutwa annals.
Cruelties and acts of violence were
common ; even murders were attributed
to him ; and he crowned his infamous
practices by assisting in an attempt to
overthrow British power. Though coura-
geous to a degree, he was controlled by
unworthy ambitions which caused him to
make alliances with other potentates who
were inveterate opponents of British
authority, and who ultimately led him
into open rebellion. Buoyed up by the
plausible and tempting overtures of these
rulers, he not only refused 10 pay revenue
to the East India Company (who had
obtained administrative powers in Behar),
but he took up arms against the
Company's forces, and the latter had
considerable difficulty in overcoming
him.

Fateh Sahi then fled into the jungle,
whence he had easy access to the
dominions of an independent prince,
where the British troops could not touch
him ; and he forthwith commenced a
series of freebooting excursions with the
object of plundering villages and prevent-
ing the collection of revenue. The Hutwa
estates were, about the year 1774, taken
into direct management by the Govern-
ment for a year, when they were let to
one Babu Basant Sahi, cousin of the
Maharaja, and Mir Jumla was appointed
Superintendent of Government Revenue.
In May of the following year these two
officials were killed by Fateh Sahi during
a night attack upon them at Jadopore,
on the bank of the Gundak River. Several
attempts were made to arrest the Maha-
raja, but he always managed to escape
into friendly territories, and the object
of the troops was rendered all the more
difficult by reason of the fact that the
Hutwa people were attached to their ruler
and gave him such protection as was in
their power to bestow.

Matters had not improved in 1786.
when, with the Maharaja still at large
and the country in a state of terror, the
Government was approached with the

THE HUTWA RAJ.
1. Interior of Dukbar Hall, 2. Rbsidential Palace.

551

i»5t .v--.>v.

l&ELSJBit

I. UaNACBR'S BUN0AU3W,

THE HUTWA RAJ.
2. Kaserbach Gardens,

3. Moior-Cars,

4. Carriages,

552

I. OiD Fort and Palace.

THE HUTWA RAJ.
«, VicToKiA Hospital. 3. Interior of Operating-room.

4. £o£N School,

553

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

view of securing the deposition of the
rebel and the subsequent appointment of
his successor ; but it was felt that the
time had not arrived when it would be
politic to accede to the request.

Shortly after this date Fateh Sahi went
to reside on a portion of his property
in the district of Goruckpore, wisely
abandoning his lawless acts; and he does
not appear to have taken any steps — even
if he had the desire — to be reinstated,
as in the year 1808 he renounced this
estate in favour of his family and became
a fakir.

Such was the end of the career of a man
whose abilities were misapplied, and who,
though courageous against foes, was weak
enough to be lured into the commission
of crimes of the deepest dye.

During the retirement of Fateh Sahi
the Government of Lord Cornwallis, the
Viceroy, bestowed the Hutwa estates upon
Chhattradhari Sahi, but as the latter was
at that time only five years of age the
property was placed in the management
of the Court of Wards. The appointee
attained his majority in the year 1802,
and one of his first acts was " to found
the seat of Hutwa, where he built his
palace and fort, surrounding them by
moats." The British Government did not
feel able to recognize the new ruler in a
formal manner as Maharaja, as Fateh Sahi
was still living and had not been deprived
of the title; but in 1837 representations
were made by the Commissioner of Patna
that " he could confidently assert that
the general character and circumstances
of the Maharaja were such that this
honour might be conferred upon him with
propriety, without fear of lowering the
value of the distinction in the public
estimation. His family is well known,
as an individual he is highly respect-
able and respected, of commanding
wealth and proportionate influence." The
title was therefore conferred by the
Government of Lord Auckland on Sep-
tember 10, 1837, Fateh Sahi liaving died
in the meantime.

If there was one trait in the character
of Chhattradhari Sahi which seemed to
outshine all others, it was that of loyalty
and whole-hearted devotion of his
resources to British authority, and con-
spicuous examples of his services were
manifested during the Sonthal rebellion
in 1854 and in the Mutiny, which occurred
three years later. At the time of the last-
named outbreak, the Maharaja, who was
then about seventy years of age, adopted
such measures for the maintenance of

peace in his Raj that not a single case of
disaffection occurred, although the adjoin-
ing districts of Goruckpore and Shahabad
were seething with rebellion. Further
than that, he kept the Government well
informed of movements of rebels ; he
subsequently collected a large body of
armed men for guarding the river ghats
and the private residences of Government
oflicials; and he finally succeeded in
inflicting a crushing blow on the rebels.

The Maharaja was the recipient of
many congratulatory letters from public
officials, and Sir Frederick James Malli-
day, then Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal,
wrote as follows : "1 have to offer my
acknowledgment for the loyalty and
good-feeling evinced by you towards the
Government. I have noticed with great
satisfaction the willing assistance you
have rendered to the local officers in the
district of Saran and the measures you
have taken for the apprehension of any
mutineers who may attempt to take
shelter in your Zemindary."

The strain of the Mutiny had a serious
effect upon the constitution of the Maha-
raja, and he died at Hutwa on March 16,
1858, beloved by his subjects, honoured
by all with whom he came into contact,
and enjoying the complete confidence of
the British Government.

Writing to the great-grandson and
successor of the late Maharaja, the
Secretary to the Government of India
said : " 1 have known him since the year
1837, when 1 was an Assistant at Chapra,
and I always entertained a high respect
for him, especially for the exemplary way
in which he discharged his duties as a
landlord and as a loyal subject of the
British Government. The manner in
which he behaved, from the first
breaking-out of these unhappy mutinies
until the day of his death, was such as
to command the admiration of all his
friends, and to entitle him to a high iplace
in the estimation of the rulers of the
country."

The Maharaja was devoted to intel-
lectual pursuits, and as the patron of
Sanskrit learning " he opened a Sanskrit
school, under the supervision of the re-
nowned Ramnijaram Swami (the greatest
savant in India of that age), wherein
nearly a thousand students from all parts
of India received free education and
food."

The late Maharaja's two sons pre-
deceased their father; but each of them
left two sons, and Rajendra Protap Sahi,
the eldest-born of Ugra Pratap Sahi (heir

554

in right of primogeniture, but who waived
his claim), was the favourite great-grand-
child of the late ruler, and he was
eventually recognized by the Government,
with the title of Maharaja Bahadur. The
young Maharaja, on his accession to
power, gave abundant proof of the con-
fidence which his great-grandfather had
reposed in him, as he rendered invaluable
aid to the Government in suppressing the
Mutiny, and his personal example of
devotion to the Throne was a great
inspiration to his subjects. The Com-
missioner of Patna gave a must favourable
report upon this matter to the Govern-
ment, and the latter forwarded a letter
in reply, saying : " You will be so good
as to express his Honour's acknowledg-
ment to the great-grandson of the late
Raja of Hutwa for his ready and cordial
co-operation with the authorities, and
assure him that his loyal behaviour will
not be lost sight of."

The Government redeemed its promise
in the year i860, when His Excellency
the Viceroy (Lord Mayo) " authorized the
Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal to confer
on the Maharaja the propriety right in
confiscated villages in Shahabad yielding
a gross rental of Rs. 20,000; in the fol-
lowing year the Maharaja was allowed to
retain a gun in the Fort of Hutwa, and in
1869 was granted the privilege of private
entree to Government House."

These honours conferred upon the
Maharaja were a tribute to iiis ruler-
ship, and were highly appreciated by
him ; but other events were occurring
which were a source of great trouble, and
which illustrated Shakespeare's dictum
that " uneasy lies the head that wears a
crown." Shortly after his succession,
two members of a branch of the family
commenced legal proceedings with the
view of upsetting the will of the previous
Maharaja, and of having the Raj divided
on the plea that it was an ordinary
Zemindary. The case was argued succes-
sively before the District Judge of Sarun,
the High Court of Judicature in Calcutta,
and the Privy Council in London, the last-
named court deciding that the Raj was
impartible, and that the succession of
Rajendra Pratap Sahi was strictly in
accordance with the " Kulachar," or
rules of inheritance prevalent in the
family. The Maharaja's solicitude for
the welfare of his people grew year by
year until 187 1, when, to the sincere
regret of a very large number of friends
— independently of his own people— he
died at the early age of 33 years.

INDIAN NOBILITY

His only son, Krishen Pratap Sahi, was
a minor of fifteen, and the management
of the estates was placed in the hands
of the Court of Wards for a period of
three years, until 1874, when he attained
his majority and received the titles of
Maharaja Bahadur. The Maharaja exer-
cised a keen personal interest in the
management of the Raj, and many reforms
tending to the welfare of the ryots were
instituted by him. He caused many
beautiful buildings to be erected, chief
among them being a new palace, con-
taining the magnificently furnished and
decorated Durbar Hall, which is referred
to in another portion of these notes.

The Maharaja, as a landowner and an
enthusiast in political and economic ques-
tions, was held in high esteem by the
Government, and he was on several
occasions offered a seat in the Legislative
Council, although an inherent retiring
disposition caused him to decline the
honour. He possessed a thorough know-
ledge of the English language, and edited
or translated many important works into
Sanskrit, while his services and gifts to
religious and educational institutions were
of a remarkably generous character. A-
number of free primary and secondary
schools were established by him, and he
maintained a high-class English school
at Hutwa, with scholarships for advanced
education. A recognition of his public
and private benefactions was bestowed
upon him in i88g, when he was created a
Kniglit Commander of the Most Eminent
Order of the Indian Empire.

During the year 1896 the Maharaja was
attacked by a very serious illness, and
after si.K months of intense suffering he
passed away on October 20th, when
forty years of age, leaving a son aged
four years, together with an infant
daughter. The Raj was again managed
by the Court of Wards, but the children
found a most devoted mother and
teacher in the person of Her Highness
the present Maharani Sahiba of Hutwa.
The latter's guardianship of her young
son was of a very onerous character
owing to family troubles.

The present ruler, Guru Mahadeo
Asram Prasad Sahi, was born in the year
1893. He came of age in July 1914, the
title of Maharaja Bahadur having been
conferred upon him some months earlier.
The installation ceremony was performed
by Sir Charles Stewart Bayley, the
Lieutenant-Governor of Behar and Orissa,
at a Grand Durbar held at Hutwa on
December 2, 1914; and the religious

ceremonies of the guddi followed some
months later amid great rejoicings and
festivities, which continued for more than
a month on a lavish scale commensurate
with the wealth and dignity of the Hutwa
House. When in his teens the present
Maharaja Bahadur developed the most
noble qualities of head and heart, and he
was described as " most amiable and
intelligent, particularly gentlemanly in
his manner, and a thorough English
scholar "; and it may be added that he
has fully maintained the promise of his
youth. He is noted for his hospitality,
and keeps an open house for European
residents in the district, who gather
weekly at Hutwa for games of polo, while
the yearly festivities at Hutwa during the
Dusserah is a great event in Behar. The
Maharaja is a most devoted son to his
mother, the venerable Maharani Sahiba,
and most considerate to his tenants and
the officers of his Raj. He is extremely.
pious and whole-heartedly loyal to the
British Throne, and on the breaking out
of the Great European War, he and his
mother most promptly made a handsome
donation of Rs. 1,00,000 to the Indian
War Relief Fund.

The Hutwa Raj estate — one of the
largest in Eastern India — covers an area
of about 800 square miles (512,000
acres), and it is distributed over the dis-
tricts of Saran, Champaran, Muzaffarpur,
Patna, Shahabad, Darjeeling, and Cal-
cutta in Bengal, and Benares and Goruck-
pore in the United Provinces of Agra and
Oudh. Nearly all of the land is in a high
state of cultivation, and this accounts for
the fact that there is a consequent lack
of good pastoral ground for improving
the breeds of horses and cattle. A stud
farm of 500 acres has, however, been
started at Siripore — twelve miles distant
from Hutwa — and this is now producing
fodder crops for the rearing of buffaloes
and other cattle under the management
of a European superintendent. Taking
the estate as a whole, it is noticed that
the principal crops are rice, wheat, barley,
oats, maize, beans, peas, sweet potatoes,
cotton, hemp, and flax, together with a
small quantity of tobacco, sugar-cane,
indigo, and opium, which is grown under
Government licence.

Very little of the original jungle now
remains, the only portions which can be
designated even as small forests being
situated at Thawe, Husseypore, and
Charkia, in which there are wolves,
jackals, wild pigs, porcupines, and
nilghai. The principal timber trees in-

555

elude mango, red cotton, tamarind, jack,
banyan, and palms, while a number of
mahogany, sal, teak, and fir trees have
been planted around the town of Hutwa.

The Raj is very densely populated, its
inhabitants being about 600,000 in
numbers, or rather more than 700 persons
to the square mile; and the annual rent-
roll exceeds thirteen lakhs of rupees.

The town of Hutwa, said to be " one of
the cleanest and most picturesque places
in the Province of Behar," is situated
about three miles distant from the railway-
station of Hathua, on the Siwan-Thawe
branch of the Bengal and North Western
Railway system. The country surround-
ing Hutwa is remarkably well wooded,
and its park-like appearance, with towers
of palaces and temples rising above the
foliage of the trees, is not the least of its
many charms.

The Maharajas of the Raj have resided
here since the beginning of the nineteenth
century, and the palace is an exceedingly
beautiful building containing a large
number of roorns, which have been fitted
and furnished with exquisite appointments
at a cost of large sums of 'money. The
floors of many of the apartments are of
solid marble, and the decorative work
throughout is of that peculiarly handsome
character which is only seen in Oriental
mansions.

It may be mentioned that one room
contains a bedstead made of gold and
silver, and this is only a solitary instance
of the magnificence of the interior of
the whole palace. The banqueting-hall.
library, and billiard-room are also fine
examples in architectural and upholster-
ing work. The Durbar-hall, situated on
the western side of the courtyard of the
palace, was completed in the year 1896.
It was designed by Diwan Debendra Nath
Dutt, and a description of the building
may be extracted from his History of the
Raj already referred to. He says : " It
is a lofty building of brick, and faced
with fine white plaster stucco resembling
marble. At the four corners are towers
in the Egyptian style of architecture. It
has a portico of majestic proportions, and
marble steps leading to a vestibule, with
staircases to right and left leading to the
upper story. This entrance is quite
French-like, and it opens directly on to
the lofty Durbar-hall, which is furnished
according to the period of Louis XV.
The upholstery of the gilded chairs is-
of rich brocaded damask silk, which
harmonizes beautifully with the delicate
tapestry-like painted walls. The state

I, GorALHAKDII TlUPU.

THE HUTWA RAJ.
a, DuKBAX Hall and Palace, 3. Thawe Temple,

4. Thawe House.

556

I, Elephant Lines.

THE HUTWA BAJ.
i, Sripore Farm Cattlc.

S, 4, Cattle.

557

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

chairs and couches at the southern end
are of gold and silver and upholstered
in rich crimson velvet. Enormous
Venetian mirrors reflect in endless
variety the beauties of the room, and
wonderful glass chandeliers hang from
the ceiling, which is decorated with
rectangular alto relievo panels of polished
teak in the Queen Anne style. The wall
at the southern end is adorned with a
portrait of Her Majesty the late Queen
Victoria, while facing it at the northern
end is one of the late Maharaja Bahadur.
The side walls are embellished with oil-
paintings of Their Majesties the present
King and Queen (when Prince and
Princess of Wales), the late Czar of
Russia, the King of Spain, and Royal
personages, together with others of Presi-
dents of Republics and noted statesmen.
Suites of apartments on the upper story
are decorated in different colours, such
as the red, green, and other rooms, and
the artistic work on the panels of the
doors is very effective in its representa-
tions of many leading Shakespearean
characters. When the annual Dusserah
festival is held in this hall, the Maharaja
receives a large number of officials and
European guests, and he then wears " a
tunic embroidered with gold and pearls,
and dons a richly ornamented sword;
while his neck and arms, the front of his
tunic, and turban are resplendent with
jewels of great value, forming part of
the priceless collection left him by his
father, and which comprise the accumu-
lations of many generations of wealthy
ancestors." There are many other very
imposing structures in the vicinity of the
Durbar-hall, and one of the first to be
noticed is the residential palace of the
late Maharaja, known as " Rajendra
Bhaban," in which may be seen a very
fine collection of works of art and a
number of sacred, mythical, and alle-
gorical pictures relating to Hinduism.
Another one, called the Manager's House,
is a very handsome and commodious
building, with ample accommodation for
thirty guests, is situated in a finely
wooded park, and the pleasing picture
presented to the visitor brings to the mind
very forcibly those " stately homes of
England " concerning which so much has
been written. Not far from this house is
the Eden School, opened in 1881, which
was built by the late Maharaja, and
adjoining it is a library which contains
a valuable collection of historical and
fictional works. An extensive enclosure
on the south-western side of the gardens

contains a fort, which was in earlier years
the residence of Maharajas, but which now
embraces the Raj Treasury and other
official buildings. A huge vault of solid
masonry walls and iron girders sunk in
the ground to a depth of 10 feet, which
might be fairly described as being as safe
as " the old lady of Threadneedle Street,"
has been the receptacle for a number of
years of about 60 lakhs of rupees, each
lakh being enclosed in a separate box.

The Great Temple of the Gopalji is
a very fine structure situated in the
western portion of the town of Hutwa,
and its treasures include images of Radha
and Krishna and a number of ancient oil-
paintings, together with a library of
valuable Sanskrit works.

One of the most cherished desires of
the late Maharaja was that he might be
able to construct a hospital worthy of
being associated with the name of Her
late Majesty Queen Victoria; but his
premature death prevented the realiza-
tion of his scheme, and the present
Maharani Sahiba has made it a part of her
life-work to give effect to the wishes of
her late husband. The foundation-stone
was laid in 1899 by Sir John Woodburn,
K.C.S.I., then Lieutenant-Governor of
Bengal, and about four years later the
hospital was opened for the reception of
patients. It is a magnificent building,
in which there are eighty beds, separate
wards for infectious cases, two fine
operating-rooms, a complete plant for
sterilizing purposes, a dark-room for
ophthalmic work, and a dispensary for the
relief of suffering and needy poor persons.
The medical staff comprises three prac-
titioners, one of whom is a lady.

The Maharaja has a very beautiful
country seat at Thawe, which is one of
the most densely wooded and picturesque
portions of the Hutwa Raj, and in it may
be seen interesting relics of an old
fortress. Other mansions belonging to
this young ruler are situated at Chapra,
Patna, Benares, Calcutta, and Kurseong.

The Raj stables are substantially built
of brick, and they contain about too
houses for harness and saddle, while
the adjoining coach-houses are filled
with a considerable number of state
and other equipages. It should be men-
tioned here that the horses include eight
English-bred animals, which were brought
to India for the use of Their Majesties
the King and Queen at the Delhi Durbar,
together with several pure white ones
which are trained for dancing at
festivals.

558

The motor-garage is occupied by a
dozen or more cars of a most costly
description, one of them, a " Cadillac,"
fitted with electric gearing and all latest
improvements, being valued at no less
than Rs. 25,000.

A recreation-ground comprising 300
acres is devoted to all kinds of sports,
of which the Maharaja is a warm sup-
porter, and polo and' other manly games
are provided for the occupants of the
palaces.

The Maharaja has inherited many lov-
able features of character from Her
Highness the Maharani Sahiba, and it is
her diligent training and teaching which
have instilled into the young ruler a keen
and affectionate interest in the welfare
of the Hutwa people, and which manifests
itself in the many benevolent actions
which stand to his credit.

On the authority of Diwan Devendra
Nath Dutt's History of Huttwa, we give
the following figures relating to the
various amounts paid from the Raj
Treasury for educational, medical, and
other institutions showing the average
stuns expended in ten recent years : —

The Raj pays annually —

Rs.

As Government revenue ... 2,00,075
As road, public works, and

embankment cesses ... 78,545

For education ... ... 19,138

For medical relief ... ... 24,112

For agricultural and sanitary

improvements ... ... 41,073

For Sripore Experimental

Farm ... ... ... 30,000

For religious purposes ... 31,462

For charities and donations 61,153

THE KANDI AND PAIKPARA RAJ.

The Kandi and Paikpara Raj family,
generally known in the Presidency of
Bengal as " Lala Babu's family," belong
to the " Uttarrardhi " class of Kayasthas,
and their origin is traced from .Anadibar
Sinha, who settled in Bengal in the ninth
century during the flourishing reign of
King Adisur of Gour.

It is a matter for regret that the early
history of many noble families of India
is shrouded in so much obscurity, and that
authentic literary documents are not forth-
coming, but it is some satisfaction that
local traditions have in numerous in-
stances been so faithfully handed down
from generation to generation that sub-
stantially reliable particulars concerning
these ancestors can be obtained.

•I

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559

S5i5t« -'■.;.«

560

1-3

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M •<

Q I

P E

561

2 It

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

in connection with the Raj now under
notice it is clearly established by tradi-
tional accounts that Rana Madan Sinha
and Raja Laksniidhar, the fifth and eighth
in descent, were great feudal lords to the
Hindu Kings of Bengal, and that the ninth
in succession, V'yas Sinha, a devoted
minister of King Ballal Sen, suffered a
martyr's death for the sake of his reli-
gion. From the same source it is learned
that Raja Binayaka Sinha and Raja
Laksniidhar II, the twelfth and thirteenth
descendants, were feudal lords to the
Pathan Kings of Delhi, rendering immense
services to them in the internal adminis-
tration of the empire, and, further, that the
brothers, the Rajas Jibadhara and Prava-
kara, were noted for their strict ad-
herence ito religious practices and their
munificent charitable donations, they
being regarded as heads of their com-
munity, a distinction, by the way, which is
enjoyed by the family even to this day.

Really authenticated history commences
with the time of Harekrishna Sinha, who
first settled in Kandi, in the district of
Murshidabad, where he carried on an
e.\tensive business as banker and silk
merchant, but he subsequently removed
to Boalia, a village in the district of Raj-
shahi, which, together with others, was
acquired from the Nawab of Murshidabad.

Harekrishna, a zealous Vaishnava, left
a son named Murlidhar, whose second son,
Gouranga Sunder, amassed great wealth
and became possessor of a number of
mahals, taluqs, and lakhiraj lands. The
latter obtained from Shah Alum II, Em-
peror of Delhi, a sanad in perpetuity in
order to enable him to endow the shrine
of Thakur Sri Sri Radhaballav Jiu, and
also received from the same source the
title of Mazumdar. He adopted as his
successor his nephew Radha Kanta Sinha,
who held office under the " Bangad-
hikaris," and who rendered exceedingly
valuable services to the British Govern-
ment at the time of the establishment of
the Diwani of Bengal, Behar and Orissa,
for which he was rewarded by the Govern-
ment with the grant of a sayar mahal,
together with the right of collecting octroi
at Hughly. Radha Kanta Sinha further
gave great assistance to the British forces
when Suraj-ud-Daula attacked Calcutta in
1757, and after the memorable battle of
Plasscy in June of that year he was ap-
pointed to manage the Revenue Depart-
ment of Mir Jafar, who had become
Nawab of Bengal upon the authority of
Lord Clive. He was subsequently in-
stalled as Diwan by Clive when he pro-

posed the abolition of the dual form of
Government set up by that general, which,
in a word, gave the British the right to
receive revenue and maintain the army,
while criminal jurisdiction was vested in
the Nawab of Bengal. Radha Kanta died
in the year 1179 (Bengal style), and by
a deed of appointment he entrusted the
management of his estates, together with
the control of all matters relating to the
worship of their family deity, Thakur Sri
Sri Radhaballav Jiu, to his two brothers,
Radha Charan and Ganga Gobinda. The
last-named was largely responsible for the
abolition of the joint administration above
referred to, and when that event took place
he was appointed by Warren Hastings to
the high office of Diwan of the Committee
of Revenue. He was afterwards selected
for the important post of Head Com-
missioner with power to make investiga-
tions with regard to the settlement of
revenue, and it is recorded that he dis-
charged his duties in a most exemplary
manner. His high| attainments and
strength of character secured for him the
confidence of the people, and he was
frequently called upon to solve difficult
problems in State administration, and to
undertake missions which could only be
entrusted to a person possessing sound
judgment combined with, great tact.
Warren Hastings, on the eve of his depar-
ture from India, expressed in a public
speech his high appreciation of Ganga
Gobinda's tenure of the diwani of the
Calcutta Committee of the Honourable
The East India Company, and further
referred at length to the exceptional
ability and fidelity displayed by him in
the execution of most responsible official
duties.

It was at the instance of Ganga
Gobinda that Warren Hastings made
grants of land which had a rent roll of
Rs. 2,38,061-12-1.

Ganga Gobinda was a staunch supporter
of Hindu religious and other customs, and
this trait in his character was exemplified
in the imposing funeral rites on the death
of his mother, and in the marvellous
Sradha ceremony, when tens of thousands
of people were present, exclusive of
invited pandits, rajas, and noblemen from
all parts of India. The guests were re-
ceived in large shamianas erected for the
purpose, and they were lavishly supplied
with ghee, oil, rice, honey, milk, vege-
tables, and other food. The cost of this
entertainment, amounting to 20 lakhs of
rupees, given in days of " peace and
prosperity," is evidence of the magnitude
562

of the gathering. Other large sums of
money were spent on several occasions,
and Ganga Gobinda not only founded four
temples, but also liberally supported pil-
grims, pandits, scholars, and a large num-
ber of needy persons. He was a great
advocate of Sanskrit learning, and con-
tributed a considerable amount of money
towards the advancement of that lan-
guage. He died in the year 1206 (Ben-
gal style), leaving a son, Pran Krishna
Sinha, who, having been adopted by his
uncle Radha Kanta Sinha, became heir to
two estates and the recipient of the major
portion of the wealth of the family.

Pran Krishna for a number of years
held the office of Naib Diwan, and also
increased the area of his estates, but as
neither wealth nor honours was sought by
him, he retired into private life, devoting
his energies to the cause of religion. He
died in the year 12 15 (Bengal style),
leaving an only son, Krishna Chandra
Sinha, who proved to be an exceedingly
pious man. His early training included a
thorough grounding in the Persian, Sans-
krit, and Arabic languages, but the most
remarkable feature of his character was
an intensely benevolent spirit, which was
manifested while he was still young. It
is related that, when seventeen years of
age, a Brahman asked him to give a
thousand rupees for the marriage expenses
of his daughter, and Krishna Chandra at
once instructed his father's cashier to pay
the amount, but that official reported the
matter to his employer, who ordered hira
to comply with the request on the
understanding that Krishna Chandra
should in future make all such gifts
out of his personal earnings. The youth
thereupon forsook his studies and went
to Burdwan, where he became Sharis-
tadar, and, in 1803, Diwan in charge of
Settlement. During those years, however,
he acquired a considerable amount of
money, out of which he purchased a num-
ber of properties and pergannas, in addi-
tion to the zemlndary of Bisalakshmipur.
Krishna Chandra and his father never met
again after the incident connected with
the Brahman's visit, but when Pran
Krishna Sinha died, his son celebrated the
Sradha ceremonies with great splendour.
Shortly after that date Krishna Chandra
resided chiefly in Calcutta, spending much
of his time in the company of learned
Brahmans, acquiring a knowledge of the
Puranas and other literature. He subse-
quently retired into private life, and after
fully providing for his only son's edu-
cation, and making arrangements for

INDIAN NOBILITY

the management of his vast estates, he
removed to Brindabun, in the division of
Agra, in the United Provinces of Agra
and Oudh, where he gave himself up
entirely to religious exercises and the
bestowal of charities.

Krishna Chandra took with him to Brin-
dabun a sum of 2 0 lakhs of rupees, which
he expended in gifts and in the erection of
a magnificent temple in honour of Sri Sri
Krishna Chandra Jiu. Sir Charles Met-
calfe, who had been made acquainted with
Krishna Chandra's ascetic life and his
extraordinary benevolence, presented him
to the Emperor of Delhi as one who had
rendered meritorious services to the East
India Company in positions of great re-
sponsibility, and acting upon a suggestion
af the Resident, the Emperor desired to
:onfer upon Krishna Chandra (then
familiarly known as " Lalu Babu "), the
title of Maharaja Bahadur, but this honour
ivas respectfully declined.

After the construction and endowment
jf temples at Brindaban, Krishna Chandra
decided to become a Yogi, and with this
;nd in view he went to reside at Gobard-
han in the division of Agra, where he
became a disciple of Krishna Das Babaji. .
^fter his assumption of sanyash he never
issociated with worldly people of either
>ex, and when the Maharani of Gwalior
nsisted on making her obeisance to such
I holy man, he attempted to avoid her
md was accidentally trodden upon by one
jf the lady's horses. That sad event
Kcurred in the forty-sixth year of his age.

Sri Narayan Sinha, the next in succes-
sion, ;was a minor on the death of his
'ather Krishna Chandra, or " Lala Babu,"
ind the management of the estates fell
nto the hands of his mother, the Rani
Catyayani, but as the duties were too
)nerous for her the Revenue Board
issumed full control, leaving the Rani
ree to act as guardian to her son.

Sri Narayan, whose youth was care-
ully fostered by his mother, gave early
)romise of becoming a worthy son of his
llustrious father, and while his educa-
ional studies were of a comprehensive
haracter he manifested a pronounced
alent for musical and vocal accomplish-
nents, but he was by no means neglectful
)f art and literature. Unfortunately, how-
;ver, he died while still young, having
)reviously given permission to his two
vives to adopt sons after his death. This
las done according to the tenets of Hindu
aw, and the Rajas Pratap Chandra and
swara Chandra were in due course
elected. The Rani Katyayani charged

one of her large estates with the payment
of an annual sum for the upkeep of the
famous Thakurbati temple at Cossipore
which she had previously founded, and
she, further, expended Rs. 500,000 in
Anna meru and Tuladan ceremonies.

The Dev Seva and the charity house
established by her at Cossipore remain
to this day as a lasting memorial to her
benevolent nature.

The Rani appeared to be tireless in her
devotion to charitable works, and after
having spent a further sum of 16 lakhs
of rupees in donations to needy institu-
tions and persons, she passed away in the
year 1268 (Bengal style).

Raja Pratap Chandra Sinha proved to
be a worthy representative of this dis-
tinguished family, and he contributed
liberally towards the erection of the
Medical College Fever Hospital at
Calcutta.

He was an enthusiastic supporter of
education, establishing several primary
and high schools, including the High
English School at Kandi. He was further
a strong advocate in favour of the move-
ment for the remarriage of Hindu widows,
to which fund he gave a quarter of a lakh
of rupees. The Raja was Vice-President
of the British Indian Association (which
was originated by him), and of several
other (district societies, and he was the
prime mover in the revival of Hindu
drama. The free dispensary at the Paik-
para Rajbati was founded by the Raja,
and briefly, it may be said that he was a
staunch patron of a host of other praise-
worthy institutions.

Notwithstanding his great abilities and
his enormous wealth, the Raja was un-
ostentatious in manner and kindly in dis-
position; as a zemindar he was consider-
ate to his tenants, evincing a real desire
to promote their welfare; and, indeed, one
might say that he appeared to live almost
solely in order to benefit his fellow-men.
In his more public life he was known to
be a keen sportsman, and one who ren-
dered most valuable help to the Govern-
ment during the Mutiny of 1857.

His unselfish services were rewarded by
his being made a Raja Bahadur in 1854,
and by his appointment to a Companion-
ship of the Star of India, an honour which
was conferred by Lord Canning, then
Viceroy of India. The Raja died in
1866 at the early age of thirty-nine,
leaving his widow. Rani Padmamukhi, and
four sons. •

Kumar Sarat Chandra Sinha, the
youngest son of Raja Pratap Chandra

563

Sinha, was born in the year 1859, '*nd his
early education was received at the
Metropolitan Institution in Calcutta, but
he was subsequently instructed by eminent
tutors in his own home. In later years he
became an expert in the art of photo-
graphy and in engineering, and he sub-
mitted his special knowledge of these
subjects to a practical test by remodelling
the Cossipore Thakurbati and the man-
sion at Belgachia, near Calcutta, which
belongs to the family. That palatial
building, surrounded by spacious and
artistically laid out gardens, was visited
by His late Majesty King Edward VII,
when Prince of Wales, in 1875, and in
1882 by the Marquis of Ripon, when
festivities on a grand scale were held.

The Kumar was a public-spirited man,
taking a keen interest in matters which
tended for the good, not only of his own
people, but of the community at large.
Mention might be made of his foundation
of the " Uttar-rardhi Kayastha Sabha,"
an institution for the furtherance of the
educational, social, and moral progress of
his own people, of his liberal donations
to the Victoria Memorial Hall now being
erected in Calcutta, to the Jessore Water
Works scheme, the establishment of a
dharamsala at Muttra, the founding of two
scholarships in the University of Calcutta,
and a charitable dispensary at Kandi.
He managed his own estates with the
assistance of highly paid efficient em-
ployees, and his consideration for his staff
and strictly honourable dealings with his
tenants made him beloved by all who knew
him, and he was succeeded by his only son
Kumar Birendra Chandra Sinha, who is
now (191 7) the eldest representative of
the princely house of Paikpara.

It has been truly said of some men that
they are at a disadvantage by being the
sons of their fathers, implying that their
sires were particularly famous as states-
men, politicians, scholars, or as princes
among merchants. True as this aphorism
may be in thousands of instances, it
certainly cannot be applied to Kumar ■
Birendra Chandra Sinha, as he is as good
a landlord, as keenly intellectual, and as
munificent in his liberality as his pre-
decessors.

The Kumar was born in December
r 88 I, and his early scholastic training was
received at the Metropolitan Institution
at Calcutta, while his education was com-
pleted under the very efficient guidance
of the learned pandit, Hari Mohan
Bandyapadhyaya. He is a student in
every sense of the word, being passionately

W%^i

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564

THE KANDI AND PAIKPARA RAJ.
Kumar Birendra Chandra Sinha.

565

2 K''

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

fond of literature, general history, philo-
sophy, and the English and Sanskrit lan-
guages, and he has obtained a high degree
of efficiency in photography, horticulture,
and the decorative arts' and sciences.
Prominent among his personal character-
istics are the virtues of thrift, persever-
ance, patience, and industry, and in the
management of his extensive estates he is
noted for his deeply rooted interest in the
welfare of his tenants and for a due appre-
ciation of the excellent assistance rendered
by his large staff of employees.

The Kumar has made such improve-
ments in the mansion at Belgachia that it
is now recognized as one of the " show
places " near Calcutta, and his studious
nature has led him to make regular
additions of standard works to an already
well-stocked library. He may not be
regarded as an orator— that, perhaps, is
not an unmixed blessing in these days
of super-abundant talking — but if his
speeches be few, his kindly actions to-
wards his fellowmen are worth far more
than volumes of words uttered merely for
the sake of speaking. The Kumar is
therefore a man of action; he thinks in-
telligently; he arrives quickly at just
decisions ; and he is prompt in doing what
he believes to be his duty. A warm-
hearted and philanthropic man, he en-
deavours to do the greatest good to the
greatest number, and even in religious
matters he is no bitter sectarian, but is
broad-minded in his views, showing great
tolerance for all castes and creeds. His
amiable and refined manners have en-
deared him to many highly placed Govern-
ment officials, and even the members of
the Government manifested their appre-
ciation of his sterling merits by appointing
him an Honorary First-class Magistrate
for the Presidency of Bengal. He was
further honoured in igo6 when he was
selected as page to His Majesty the King
(then the Prince of Wales) at a reception
given during a visit to India in that year.
The Kumar is a zealous custodian of the
traditions of his noble and ancient family,
and one of these — a reputation for
liberality — is not in the slightest danger
of being lowered by the present head of
the house. His charitable activities are
not by any means confined to donations
to people of his own race as the following
instances {inter alia) of his liberality will
clearly prove. He made large grants in
aid of persons who suffered from the
effects of an earthquake in the Kangra
Valley in 1905; he constructed a burning
ghat at Cossipore; he gave Rs. 50,000 for

the Tropical School of Medicine in the
Calcutta Medical College; and he has
subscribed most liberally to various relief
funds during the course of the European
War. The Kumar has always taken a
leading part in public movements, and the
success which attended the demonstrations
in connection with the King Edward
Memorial in the northern suburbs of Cal-
cutta was largely attributable to the zeal
manifested by him as a member of the
committee. He is a prominent member
of the British Indian Association, and
is on the governing body of a number
of societies and institutions throughout
India.

THE KANIKA RAJ

Some time about a.d. 1200 a brother
of the then Chief of Mayurbhanj, by
name Bhujabal Bhanja, acquired by
conquest a small territory in what is now
known as Kanika. The place was then
ruled by a Raja of low caste, and
Bhujabal Bhanja, having subdued the
Raja, set up a Government of his own
and thus founded the Bhanja Raj of this
Killa, the status of which was recognized
by the Vishnuvite or Gajapati (Gangetic)
dynasty of Orissa in the middle of the
thirteenth century of the Christian era.

The Killa originally consisted of what
is now known as Elaka Chhamuka, to
which the portion lying in the District
of Balasore, and called Panchmuka, was
soon added. Elaka Kerara was some time
after acquired, probably by conquest, the
date of which cannot now be ascertained.
The last Elaka Kaladwip, which until the
close of the eighteenth century formed
part of a separate Raj known as Hari-
chandan, was acquired by matrimonial
alliance with its last Raja, whose daughter
was married to Raja Balabhadra Bhanja
Bahadur, of Kanika. The Killa is
situated along the seacoast on both sides
of the estuary of Dhamra, extending about
20 miles inland, and contains an area of
440 square miles, with a population
of 100,000 souls.

The seat of the Raj was originally at
a place called Bajarpur, on the right bank
of the Baitarani River, and was after-
wards removed to Righagarh, on the right
bank of the Brahmani River. The latter
place having proved unhealthy, it has
since been removed to Raj kanika, which
is situated directly on the Cuttack-
Chandbally road, about four miles to the
south of the Chandbally Port. The place
is easily accessible from Cuttack and Cal-

cutta by steamer plying with the port
of Chandbally, and by rail from Bhadrak,
the nearest station on the Bengal-Nagpur
Railway.

The heraldic emblem of the family is
the figure of a peacock, from which ia
derived the name of the Feudatory State
of Mayurbhanj, a brother of the Chief of
which State, as mentioned above, founded
the Bhanja Raj family in Kanika. The
family has its origin in the Solar dynasty,
being a branch of the Raj family of Jaipur
in Rajputana.

The following is the succession list ol
the Chiefs of the Killa since its founda-
tion down to the British occupation oi
the Province in 1803: (i) Bhujabal
Bhanja, (2) Bishwanath Bhanja, (3) Tri-
lochan Bhanja I, (4) Gopinath Bhanja I,
(5) Paramananda Bhanja I, (6) Dibya-
sinha Bhanja I, (7) Narasinha Bhanja 1,
(8) Tribikram Bhanja I, (9) Gangadhai
Bhanja, (10) Gopal Bhanja I, (11) Basu-
deb Bhanja I, (12) Raghunath Bhanja,
(13) Lakshman Bhanja, (14) Bairagi
Bhanja 1, (15) Trilochan Bhanja II, (16)
Gopinath Bhanja II, (17) Paramananda
Bhanja II, (18) Sarbasinha Bhanja, (19]
Basudeb Bhanja II, (20) Dibyasinha
Bhanja II, (21) Narasinha Bhanja II,
(22) Tribikram Bhanja II, (23) Gadadhai
Bhanja, (24) Gopinath Bhanja III, (25]
Dasurathi Bhanja, (26) Gopal Bhanja II,
(27) Bairagi Bhanja II, (28) Balabhadra
Bhanja.

The status of the Chiefs of the KUIa
down to 1803 was more or less that cA
a semi-independent ruler of a small
principality. They were in possession oi
full sovereign right within the Killa, and
their allegiance to the Kings of Orissa,
and subsequently to the Mahommedar
and the Mahratta rulers of the Province,
was only nominal.

" Kunka (Kanika) is a town in the Pro-
vince of Orissa, in the district of Cuttack,
80 miles north-east from the town ol
Cuttack. This is the capital of one of the
Tributary States in Cuttack (subject tc
the British regulations), the exact limits
of which have never been ascertained, but
which have been roughly estimated al
75 miles from north to south by 50 from
cast to west. Prior to the acquisitior
of Cuttack by the British, the Raja ol
Kunka, who possessed this inundated and
unhealthy tract of country, had long
baffled the Mahratta generals in all thcii
attempts to subdue him. The Mahrattas
had been accustomed to embark troops
and artillery on large, unwieldy flat-
bottomed boats, unmanageable in large

566

THE KANIKA RAJ.

I. The Hon. Raja Rajendra Narayan Bhanja Deo, Bahadur, of Kanika. 2. Rajkumar Sailemdra Narayan Bhamja Deo, of Kanika (Heir-Appahehi),

3. Shreemati Jema Kanaklata Devi, of Kanika.
4. Group showinq the Hon. Raja Bahadur, Heir-Apparent, and Daughter, toqether with Officers of the Raj.

567

THE KANIKA RAJ.
2. The PaiaCe at Raj Kakika. 3. The Temple at Righaour, the Ancient Capital of the Raj.

I. Kamika Rajbah at Cuttack.

4, One op the Rocue Elephants shot by the Raja Saheb, at Dhenkanal. .

5. The Temple at Keraracarh,

568

INDIAN NOBILITY

streams or near the sea, in consequence
of which their ill-constructed fleets always
fell a prey to the Raja's light-armed
vessels, which were long, narrow, with
barricades to cover the men, and some
of them having loo paddles or oars.
When these squadrons met, the Ooria
boats moved quickly round the heavy
Mahratta armada and picked off the men
with their matchlocks, until the remainder
were compelled to surrender, when they
were carried into a captivity from whence
they seldom returned, the pernicious
atmosphere of these morasses permitting
none to live but the aborigines." ■

The following extracts from Govern-
ment publications will throw a light on
the status of the Killa and the history
of this ancient Rajgee and Raj family : —
la) " The ancestors of the present Raja
of Kujang and Kanika were barons of the
land, created by the Gajapati Kings of
Orissa." -

(6) " Aul, Patamundai, and Tirtol were
for centuries under the influence of native
Chiefs, and the Rajas of Kujang, Kanika,
and Aul long exercised considerable
power in the south-eastern and north-
eastern parts of the district." 3

(c) " When the English conquered the
Province they found a few landowners of
a superior class, descendants of noble
families or high officials to whom larger
States had been assigned for maintenance,
subject only to the payment of a quit rent.
Such were the Rajas of Kanika and
Kujang, who were originally members of
the Royal Family of Mayurbhanj, and
were established in their possession about
the thirteenth century, a.d." 4

On the British occupation of the
Province in 1803, treaty engagements
were exchanged between the then repre-
sentatives of the British Government
appointed by the Marquis of Wellesley
and the then Chief of Kanika. 5 Both of
these documents are reproduced below : —

XCVII.
" Treaty Engagement executed by the
Raja of Killa Kanika, a Tributary Mahal,
subordinate to Cuttack, to the Honourable
East India Company's Special Commis-
sioners for the Soobah of Orissa, Messrs.
Harcourt and Melville, 1 803.

■ "Orissa," pp. 38-9, By Andrew Sterlin|;, Esq.,
Persian Secretary to tlie Bengal Government.
Edited by James Peggs, 1846.

" "Statistical Account," vol. jtviii., p. 12s. Bv
W. W. Hunter. • F :> y

' •' Bengal District Gazetteer, Cuttack," p. 54.

' Ibid., p. 161.

5 Vide pp. 314-16 of Part III. of Vol. I. of Aitchi-
«ons "Collections of Treaties, Engagements, and
Sanads." - s s .

I, Raja Balabhadra Bhanja, Raja of
Killa Kanika, in the Soobah of Orissa,
engage faithfully and correctly to abide
by this engagement, entered into by me
with the Honourable East India Company,
as contained in the following clauses, to
wit : —

Clause 1. 1 will always hold myself
in submission and loyal obedience to the
Honourable East India Company afore-
said.

Clause 2. I will continue to pay, with-
out demur, to the said Government, as my
annual peshkus or tribute, 84,840 kahans
of cowries, in three instalments, as
specified herein below.

Clause 3. I will, on demand to that
effect, cause any person who is an in-
habitant of the Soobah appertaining to
the Honourable Company aforesaid, and
who may have fled and come into my
territory, to be forthwith arrested and
delivered over to the Government.

Clause 4. Should any person, who is
a resident in my territories, commit a
crime within the limits of the Mogulbundi,
I hereby engage, on demand to that effect,
to cause such person to be arrested and
delivered over for trial to the Government
Authority. Moreover, I further bind
myself, in cases where I may possess any
claim or demand on one who is an
inhabitant of the Mogulbundi, not of my
own authority to enforce such claim; but
I will notify the same to the constituted
autliority and will act in accordance with
such orders as may issue from him.

Clause 5. I engage that whenever the
troops of the Honourable Company's
Government shall pass through my terri-
tories, I will direct the people of my Killa
to supply, to the extent of their capability,
all russud and supplies, which shall be
sold at fair prices. Further, I will, on no
manner of pretext whatever, ever stop,
or detain, or offer any let or hindrance to,
any subject of the Honourable Company's
Government, or to any other person what-
ever, who may be proceeding by land or
water, with goods or orders, or with any
perwannah on the part of the Government,
through my boundaries, and will rather
take care that no loss or mischief shall
befall such parties in life or goods.

Clause 6. In case any neighbouring
Raja or any other person whatever shall
disobey the said Government, I engage,
on demand and without demur, to depute
a contingent force of my own troops with
the forces of Government for the purpose
of rebuking and chastising such rebel and

569

bringing him under the subjection of the
aforesaid Government. Such contingent
to receive only rations agreeably to the
previously current practice, so long as
they shall be present.

These shall be the instalments of my
peshkus, to be paid : —

In the month of Cheyt, kahans 28,840;
Jeyt, 28,000; and Ashar, 28,000; total,
84,840.

Dated the 22nd November, 1803.
Saban 6th, 1 2 1 1 .

Umlee."

XCVIII.
" Kaool-N amah granted by the Honour-
able East India Company's Commis-
sioners for the Soobah of Cuttack to
Rajah Balabhadra Bhanja, Raja of
Kanika, 1803 : —

We, Lieutenant-Colonel George Har-
court, commanding the victorious troops
of the Honourable East India Company
and Commissioner of the Soobah of
Orissa, and John Melville, Commissioner
of the same, appointed by the Most Noble
the Marquis of Wellesley, Governor-
General, for the settlement and pacifica-
tion of the said Soobah, do, on behalf of
the East India Company, execute this
acknowledgment as set forth in the
following paras., to Raja Balabhadra
Bhanja, Raja of Killa Kanika, in the said
Soobah of Orissa : —

Clause I . The annual peshkus pay-
able by the Raja for his Rajgee of the
said Killa, is fixed in perpetuity at 84,840
kahans.

Clause 2. No further demand, how-
ever small, shall be made on the said
Raja or received from him, as nuzzur,
supplies, or otherwise.

Clause 3. The Government of the
Honourable East India Company, it is
well known, is ever gracious to those
Rajas who are always loyal and obedient
to them, and constant in the impartial
administration of justice to all its subjects
alike, and therefore in like manner
extends the same impartiality to the
Rajas, such as have been indicated above,
and seeks always their prosperity and
peace. Therefore any just representation
or complaints made to the Government
by the said Raja of Kanika will meet with
a decision in accord with justice.

Dated 22nd November, 1803. Saban
6th, 1 2 1 1 .
{Signed)

G. Harcourt (Lieut. -Colonel),
J. Melville,

Commissioners."

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

The following is the succession list of
the Rajas of the Killa since the British
occupation of the Province, i.e. after
Raja Balabhadra Bhanja : ( i ) Jagannath
Bhanja, (2) Harihar Bhanja, (3) Benayak
Bhanja, (4) Tribikrani Bhanja III, (5)
Padmanabh Bhanja, (6) Nripendra Nath
Bhanja (died minor), and (7) Rajendra
Narayan Bhanja Deo (the present Rajah).

The Honourable Raja Rajendra Nara-
yan Bhanja Deo, the present proprietor
of the Estate, is the second son of the
Raja of the adjoining Killa Aul. He was
born in 188 1 and adopted into the Kanika
family in 1896. During his minority the
Estate was under the management of the
Court of Wards. He was educated at
the Government Collegiate School and
College, Cuttack. He married in 1899
a daughter of the late Chief of Nayagarh.
He assumed management of the Estate
fr<Mn the Court of Wards on attaining*
inajority in 1902. In December 1906
he presided over the Utkal Conference
held at Berhampore, in the Ganjam Dis-
trict. In 1907 be visited England and
travelled in other parts of Europe. In
1908 he was nominated a member of the
Bengal Advisory Fishery Board, and in
the following year he was elected as the
representative of the Landholders of
Orissa and Chota-Nagpur to the Bengal
Council.

In 1910 he visited England again, join-
ing Lincoln's Inn, and in 191 1 he
attended the Coronation ceremony of
their Imperial Majesties at Westminster
Abbey, in London. On his return to
India, in December in the same year, he
attended the Imperial Coronation Durbar
at Delhi, and on the creation of the new
Province of Behar and Orissa in 19 1 2
he was elected to the Provincial Council
as the representative of the Landholders
of Orissa. He was again elected to the
Council of Behar and Orissa by the same
constituency in 191 6. He has since been
elected as an additional member of the
Council of the Viceroy and Governor-
General of India to represent the land-
holders of the entire Province of Behar
and Orissa.

Raja Rajendra Narayan has always
taken an active part in all matters before
the Council, especially those relating to
the interest of his constituents. The most
important measure affecting their in-
terests, before both the Bengal and the
Behar and Orissa Provincial Councils,
during his term of office was the Orissa
Tenancy Bill. He vigorously opposed the
passing of the measure, doing his best

to protect the interests of the landlords,
and although the Bill was eventually
passed into law, he was no doubt able to
secure certain rights and privileges for
them .

The Raja has always taken a lively
interest in every matter of public concern.
He is President of the Orissa Land-
holders' Association and one of the Vice-
Presidents of the Bengal and the Behar
Landholders' Associations. He is also a
member of the Royal Asiatic Society,
London.

The Raja signalized the assumption of
management of his Estate from the Court
of Wards by providing the handsome
" Lady Woodburn Female Ward," which
supplied a long-felt want in the General
Hospital, Cuttack. On several occasions
he spent large amounts in relieving dis-
tress among his tenantry, and his services
in this respect were always recognized by
Government. In connection with the
famine relief measures of 1913, the Hon.
Mr. McPherson, Chief Secretary to the
Government, thus spoke at the Council
Meeting on August 29, 1913: "Local
relief funds have been opened, and in
this connection Government desire to
record their appreciation of the generosity
of the Hon. Raja Rajendra Narayan
Bhanja Deo of Kanika, who has con-
tributed very largely to the fund and has
taken effective steps to assist the tenantry
of his estate."

In reference to the same subject, at the
Durbar held at Cuttack on November 28,
1913, His Excellency the Viceroy and
Governor-General of India thus observed :
" I am happy to think that on this occa-
sion there was no loss of life in your
district, and I trust that the prompt
advances made by Government and the
organization of relief funds, to which the
Raja of Kanika so generously contributed,
together with the repair of the irrigation
channels, have done all that is humanly
possible to minimize your losses, while
some consolation is to be found in the
anticipation of bumper rabi crops as
the result of seasonable rainfall and the
unusual amount of silt deposits."

The Raja has always taken great
interest in the cause of education. He
was a member of the Patna University
Committee, and is at present a member
of the Governing Body of the Ravenshaw
College, as well as of the Managing Com-
mittee of the Ravenshaw Girls' High
English School, Cuttack. He has made
provision for boys' and girls' schools on
his estate, besides contributing liberally

towards institutions outside. He main-
tains a High English School and several
Upper and Lower Primary Schools, and
there are, further, six tols to teach
Sanskrit for the Oriental Titles.

The Raja maintains four charitable
dispensaries within the estate, for free
medical treatment of the tenantry as well
as of the outside public. The Raja is
an expert at billiards, tennis, and bad-
minton, and is a great shikari and an
admirable shot. In short, he possesses
all the qualities and qualifications neces-
sary for a refined nobleman of high and
eminent order.

Titayet Sailendra Narayan Bhanja Deo,
born on September 29, 1908, is the son
and heir of the Raja. He is a fine and
fair-looking lad, and is being brought up
in a manner consistent with his position in
life.

The usual places of residence of the
Raj family are Cuttack and Raj Kanika,
and at each of these places there are suit-
able palatial buildings. The one at
Cuttack, with its spacious lawns and large
tank, is quite imposing, being the best in
the town, while the ideal palace at Raj
Kanika, richly fitted and furnished, with
its beautiful and spacious compound finely
laid out, is considered to be the best
structure in Orissa.

THE KASIMBAZAR RAJ.

The founder of the ancient and illus-
trious house of Kasimbazar was Dewan
Krishna Kanta Nandy, who flourished
during the days of Warren Hastings, the
first Governor-General of India. When
the latter was Commercial Resident of the
East India Company at Kasimbazar, Seraj-
ud-Dowla, then Nawab Nazim of Bengal,
failing to extort money from him, sent him
as a prisoner to Mushidabad and ordered
him to be put to death. It was at that
juncture that Babu Krishna Kanta Nandy
went to the rescue of Warren Hastings by
giving him shelter under his roof, and sub-
sequently helped him to escape, thereby
saving his life. This good deed was never
forgotten, for in 1772, when Warren
Hastings was appointed Governor-General.
he made Krishna Kanta his Dewan and
confidential agent. Krishna Kanta was at
the time in aiifluent circumstances, having
been employed as an English clerk in the
Residency at Kasimbazar, and having also
carried on business as a silk and rice
merchant. Hastings subsequently con-
ferred on him a jaigir in Ghazipur, and
obtained for his son, Lokenath, the title of

THE KASIMBAZAR BAJ.
I. Kasimbazar Rajbari. 2. The Calcutta Garden House. 3 The Hon. Maharaja Sir Manindra Chandra Nandy, K CLE.

571

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Maharaja from the Nawab Nazim of
Bengal. Before his death, in 1778, Kanta
Babu, in addition to his ownership of the
jaigir in Ghazipur, was possessed of im-
mense property in the districts of Rang-
pur, Dinajpur, Burdwan, Bogra, and the
24 Parganas, Rajshahi, Maldah, Bir-
bhum, and Murshidabad. Though he had
not the advantage of being thoroughly
acquainted with the English language, he
had a good knowledge of it, as well as of
Persian and Bengali, and was highly
spoken of for his business capacity, ad-
ministrative experience, and knowledge of
the world. His son, Maharaja Lokenath
Rai Bahadur, who was subject to an in-
curable malady, died in 1804, leaving a
minor son, Kumar Harinath.

When the latter came of age, he main-
tained the reputation of the family by his
charity and upright conduct, and Lord
Amherst (then Governor-General of India),
in appreciation of his beneficence, con-
ferred on him the title of Raja Bahadur.
The impetus given by him to the teaching of
Sanskrit drew students from far and near,
and many who became proficient in that
language came into prominence during his
lifetime. He was very fond of music and
athletics, and maintained a gymnasium to
encourage wrestling and sword-play. He
passed away in 1832, when his minor son,
Krishnanath, succeeded to the estate.

Krishnanath was a good scholar, and as
he spoke and wrote English well, he was
always in the company of his European
friends, mixing freely with them. During
the administration of Lord Auckland he
won the distinction of Raja Bahadur. He
was a great huntsman, and his shooting
excursions were literally moving camps,
but he frittered away the surplus that had
accumulated during his minority, spending
nearly half a crore of rupees within the
short period of four years. It should be
said to his credit, however, that he
liberally supported every movement of
public utility, and the officials of his staff,
whom he believed had his welfare at heart,
enjoyed his bounty. On October 31, 1848,
he brought himself to an untimely grave
by committing suicide while in a state of
temporary insanity. A day before his
tragic end he left a will bequeathing his
estates for educational purposes, reserving
only a grant to his wife, Rani Surnomoyee,
of a paltry sum of Rs. 1,500 a month for
her maintenance.

Maharani Surnomoyee was born in the
year 1827 at Bhatakul, a village in the
district of Burdwan, and in 1838 she mar-
ried Raja Krishnanath Rai Bahadur. They

had no son, and the Raja Bahadur had in
his will unfortunately withheld from her
the right of adoption. Rani Surnomoyee
commenced an action at law, and it was
ultimately proved that, at the time of the
execution of the will, the Raja was of un-
sound mind, and accordingly the case was
decided in her favour. In 1871 the
Government of India recognized her bene-
ficence and loyalty by granting her the
personal distinction of Maharani, and a
promise was at the same time held out to
her that the title of Maharaja would be
confirmed ' on her nephew and heir,
Manindra Chandra Nandy. The valuable
services rendered by her during the ter-
rible famine of 1874 were greatly appre-
ciated by the Government of India, and
they affirmed again that the distinction of
Maharaja would be extended to her suc-
cessor. In 1878 Her Majesty the Queen-
Empress Victoria was graciously pleased
to admit the Maharani to the Order of
the Crown of India. At the Durbar held
to invest her with the insignia, the
Divisional Commissioner, while enumerat-
ing her charitable acts, brought to the
notice of his hearers that up to that date
the Maharani had spent the munificent sum
of eleven lakhs of rupees, and further
observed: "Your appointment to the
Order is in recognition of the public spirit
as well as of the munificent charity you
have at all times and in so many ways dis-
played. There are doubtless many who
hear me to-day who are far better ac-
quainted than I am, not only with your
good deeds, but with the manner in which
your vast estates are managed, but there
may be some who are not so well informed
on those points, and who, while knowing
your reputation for charity, have no idea
of its scope or of its nature. Under these
circumstances it will not, I think, be out
of place if I mention a few of those acts
of benevolence and liberality which have
procured for you this signal mark of the
approbation of Her Majesty the Empress.
It would not be difficult for me to recount
the doings of your long past years which
have, with those that have followed, made
your life one long act of charity. In this
country we are accustomed to see a good
deal of what I mav call spasmodic money-
giving, where large sums are frequently
given to purposes no doubt very good and
very useful, but which are aided not so
much because they are so, as because the
donors hope to bring their names before
the public, or obtain some future reward.
This has not been your case. You have
not been content to wait till you were

572

asked to give, but have taken steps to
ensure worthy objects for assistance being
brought to your notice and have then given
liberally, hoping for nothing in return. In a
word, your charity has been such as springs
from a simple unostentatious desire to
do good, when the left hand knoweth not
what the right hand doeth, which is as
admirable as, I fear, it is uncommon.
Of the management of your large estates,
lying in no less than ten districts in Bengal
and the North-Western Provinces, 1 need
say but little. In this you have always
taken an active part and have manifested
an acquaintance with detail and an apti-
tude for business generally, almost, if not
quite, without parallel among persons of
your sex in this country. The consequence
is that, aided by your able adviser, Babu
Rajib Lochan Roy, you have, while secur-
ing the rents to which you are justly en-
titled, done so without harassing or op-
pressing your ryots, and have thus escaped
those difficulties and complications into
which so many landowners have of late
years fallen. For myself 1 need not say
that the duty which I am called upon to
perform to-day is one that gives me great
pleasure, for both as Magistrate of the
Twenty-four Parganas and as Commis-
sioner of the Dacca Division, I have had
on more than one occasion reason to thank
you for assistance freely and liberally
given to projects which I had in view, and
I cannot let this opportunity pass without
thanking you for the aid you afforded to
the sufferers from that fearful calamity
which, on October 31, 1876, swept over
the southern portion of the District of
Backergunj, carrying death and destruc-
tion with it, and leaving behind it distress
and misery from which it will be long
before the sufferers fully recover. It only
remains for me, Maharani, to hand to you
the insignia of the Order to which Her
Majesty has been pleased to appoint you,
with the congratulatory letters of His
Excellency the Viceroy, and His Honour
the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, and
to express the hope that you may live long
in all prosperity to enjoy the honour you
have now attained and which you have
worthily deserved."

The hostel for the lady students attend-
ing the Calcutta Medical College was one
of her gifts; she inaugurated the water
works (called after her) at Berhampore at
a cost of three lakhs; she paid annually
twenty thousand rupees towards the
maintenance of the Berhampore College;
she distributed clothes to poor Brahmins,
mendicants, and others; and fed a large

THE KASIMBAZAR RAJ.
I. GoLA Bari. 2. Saidabad Palace.

3. Banjetia House.

573

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

number of people on festival days. Her
name was a household word in Bengal,
and even to-day it is venerated. This
noble and philanthropic lady passed away
on August 25, 1897. The estate then
reverted to her mother-in-law, Rani Hara-
sundari, a recluse at Benares, who relin-
quished her right in favour of the rever-
sionary heir, Manindra Chandra Nandy,
her grandson by her daughter Gobinda
Sundari. An honorarium of nine lakhs
and a monthly allowance of ten thousand
rupees was settled on her during her life-
time.

Maharaja Manindra Chandra Nandy
was born in the year i860. A chain of
misfortunes befell him while very young,
for he lost his mother when he was barely
two years of age, his father died when he
was twelve, and his elder brother passed
away in his thirteenth year. Illness of a
virulent type, at the comparatively young
age of fourteen, stood in his way of obtain-
ing school education, but when change of
air and skilful medical treatment recruited
his health, he improved his knowledge by
private study. Pursuant to the promise
held out to Maharani Surnomoyee, the
Government of India conferred the title
of Maharaja upon him on May 30, 1898.
He is a great benefactor to his country in
his generous support of the cause of edu-
cation. He maintains a first-grade college
at Berhampore, called the " Berhampore
Krishnath College," at an annual expense
of Rs. 45,000, and he maintains all the
boarding establishments and messes at-
tached to the college and college school
at an annual expense of Rs. 15,000.
Owing to a large influx of students from
various parts of Bengal, additions had to
be made to his old college building at an
enormous cost. For the accommodation
of the college school students the Maha-
raja spent about Rs. i 50,000 upon a large
building which was constructed on the site
which had been transferred by the Govern-
ment, free of revenue, to the college
authorities. He has further been corre-
sponding with the Government of Bengal
for the establishment of a thoroughly
equipped technical college. At Mathrun,
his ancestral village, he has established
an English high school, with a hostel
attached to it, at a cost of half a lakh of
rupees; he maintains high schools at Sak-
tipur, Ethora, Beldanga, Jabagram, Saida-
bad, and Ulipur, where the children of his
tenants receive education at a nominal fee.
At his own expense he has sent out
students to England, Japan, America,
Austria, and other parts of the world to

obtain experience in industrial concerns.
The .Association for the Scientific and In-
dustrial Education of Indians, the National
College, the Bengal Technical Institution,
the Deaf and Dumb School, the School for
Blind Children, the Mahakali Pathshala
in Calcutta and at Berhampore, and the
Mohula Ramkrishna Asram count him
among their patrons. He pays the fees of
fifty pupils attending the Sanskrit College,
and more than Rs. 2,000 every year to
the poor students sitting for University
examinations, while more than a hundred
and fifty others are provided with free
board and lodging at Berhampore, Math-
run, and Calcutta. For the encourage-
ment of artisans and agriculturists, he
holds an annual exhibition at the Banjetia
Gardens, Kasimbazar, the major portion
of the expenses being borne by him. He
is the foremost patron of Bengali litera-
ture: he has engaged Pandit Rash Behari
Sankhatirtha to edit the great Vaishnab
Qranthas, he has commissioned Babu
Jageswar Banerjee to prepare a most
valuable work on the history of the
civilization of the world, and he has ap-
pointed Babu Lalit Mohan Banerjee and
Babu Radhakamal Mukherjee to be editors
respectively of the Vaishnab magazine
Gouranga Shcbak and a magazine of a
general character called LJ pasana. The
sites on which the Bungya Sahitya Pari-
shad building stands, and on which the
Ramesh Bhaban is to be built, are a free
gift by the Maharaja. The Sahitya Sam-
milan, for promoting the advancement of
the Bengali language and literature, was
first held in 19 10 under his auspices at
the Kasimbazar Rajbari. For educational
progress alone he spends a lakh and a
half annually, two lakhs are given for
other charitable purposes, and he ex-
pends annually about Rs. 1,500 towards
the maintenance of Sanskrit Toles. He
contributed Rs. 15,000 in the construction
of the ."Mbert Victor Hospital at Belgachia,
Rs. 5,000 for Daulatpur College, Rs. 5,000
for a library at Navadwip, Rs. 50,000 for
Rangpur College, and Rs. 5,000 for the
Puri Ved Bidyalaya. He contributed a
lump sum towards the building fund of the
charitable dispensary, and, further, makes
donations to the maintenance of that insti-
tution whenever he is called upon to do
so. He established the Curzon Charit-
able Hospital at Kasimbazar, he maintains
similar institutions at Ulipore, Rajshahi,
and Ballia, which were founded by his aunt
and predecessor, Maharani Surnomoyee,
and the water works at Berhampore, in-
augurated by her, were completed by him.

574

He carefully manages his estates, which
are scattered over thirteen districts of
Bengal and the United Provinces, as well
as the six trust estates in Sribati, Matiari
in the Katwa subdivision, Berhampore, the
city of Murshidabad, and at Gaya.
Prompted by his generous nature, the
Maharaja took over the management of
these heavily encumbered estates with the
view of relieving their proprietors from
their embarrassment, and he supplied
funds from his own treasury for the
liquidation of their respective debts. He
has been Chairman of the Berhampore
municipality for more than fifteen years,
and has held important offices in such in-
fluential bodies as the British Indian
Association, the Bengal Landholders'
Association, the Bengal National Chamber
of Commerce, and the Murshidabad .Asso-
ciation. When the right of nominating
a representative to the Bengal Council was
conferred on the British Indian Associa-
tion the Maharaja had the honour of being
nominated for the position, and since then
has been re-elected. In 1912 he was
elected to the Imperial Council as repre-
sentative of Bengal landholders, and he
was again returned in the year 191 5.
Dirring the year 19 14 he contributed
Rs. 5,000 towards the Medical College
and Hospital for Women and the Nurses'
Training Institution at Delhi in memory
of the late Lady Hardinge, who initiated
the scheme.

When His Majesty the King-Emperor
conferred Birthday Honours in June 191 5,
the Maharaja received the well-merited
distinction of K.C.I.E. ■

Numerous acts of munificence and use-
fulness distinguish the career of the Maha-
raja, and in leading an exemplary life he
is in every way worthy of the trust reposed
in him by the Government, as well as by
the people.

THE HAYURBHANJ STATE

Mayurbhanj State, the largest and
wealthiest of the Feudatory States of
Orissa, is a good illustration of a territory
which for several generations has enjoyed
the advantage of being ruled by Chiefs
possessing initiative, energy, and adminis-
trative ability. Their personal acquaint-
ance with their country, and readiness to
distinguish and accept practical sugges-
tions for development have resulted in
the establishment of sound commercial
prosperity.

The greater portion of these States
consists of forests of considerable extent,

THE MAY0RBHANJ FEUDATORY STATE.
I. Maharaja Purna Chandra Singh Bhanj Deo. 2. Rantrai Sahib Sridam Chandra Singh Bhanj Deo,

575

:^'a

THE MAYUBBHANJ FEUDATORY STATE.
I. General View of Baripada, the Capital. a. Hariballadeb Temple amd Tank. 3. Slperiniendeni's Bungalow, Belgaria.

576

THE MAYUKBHANJ E'EUDATORIf STATE.
I. Talbahdh, Tirhikus or Railway Extension. 2. Baldiha Irrigation Dam. 3. Tata Company's Iron-ore Mines at Gueumuhisai,

4, Falls on the Burrabalang River, at Baripaoa,

577

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

interspersed with extensive ranges of
mountains and cultivated plains; and it
is a common experience in India, Africa,
and other countries that the aboriginal
natives who first inhabited hill fastnesses
were of a very warlike character, and that
they invariably quarrelled not only among
themselves, but also with their neigh-
bours. This appears to have been pre-
cisely what occurred in the district now
known as tlie Feudatory States, as it is
related that the petty Chiefs of numerous
tribes or groups warred against each other
until they in turn were ousted by enemies
more powerful than themselves.

When the conquest of Orissa by the
British took place in 1803-4, several of
the States — including Mayurbhanj— were
ceded with the remainder of Orissa, and
treaties were entered into whereby the
Rulers undertook, among other things, to
preserve loyalty and to pay certain sums
as tribute money.

At the time of the cession of the Mayur-
bhanj State, the position of Ruler was
held by Rani Sumitra Dei Bhanj, and in
18 1 2, during the Chieftainship of her
successor, the annual tribute to be paid
by the State was fixed at the sum of
Rs. 1,001 .

The grandfather of the present Chief —
Maharaja Krishna Chandra Bhanj Deva
— was an exceedingly able and wise Ruler,
not only in administrative work, but also
in his encouragement of the people to
develop manufactures and industries. His
death in 1882 was greatly mourned
throughout the State, and in 1890 his son,
Sriram Chandra Bhanj Deva, attained his
majority and took over the management
of the State, which for eight years pre-
viously had been controlled by the
Government. This . was another well-
educated and enlightened chief, who
followed in the footsteps of his late
father by the exercise of great liberality
and by giving assiduous attention to all
State matters. The title of Maharaja was
bestowed as a mark of personal distinc-
tion at the Imperial Durbar held at Delhi
in January 1903, when he was also the
recipient of a gold medal. In 19 10 Lord
Minto, in a Durbar, conferred upon the
ruling Chief the dignity of Maharaja as
a hereditary family title.

Once again the State came under the
direct control of the Government, as on
the death of the Maharaja, in February
191 2, the heir to the gadi was still under
age.

The majority of the young Maharaja,
Purna Chandra Bhanj Deo, will not take

place until the year 1920. He is mean-
time being educated in the Mayo College
for Chiefs, Ajmere, where he has made
his mark as scholar, prefect, and captain
of the College cricket XI. He is also a
keen polo player, and both he and his
younger brother are fine horsemen and
keen sportsmen.

Mayurbhanj is essentially an agricul-
tural State, and fully 95 per cent, of the
population are wholly or partly dependent
upon the products of the land. This has
been accorded a growing and intelligent
recognition by recent rulers. An experi-
mental farm has been established in
charge of a trained agriculturist ; many
canals, dams, and other irrigation works
have been carried out or are down for
future construction ; and experiments
with fruit trees and some new staple crops
are slowly overcoming the prejudices of
local conservatism.

The principal crops grown are rice,
maize, millet, and oil-seeds, and various
kinds of vegetables.

Irrigation is necessary in several por-
tions of Mayurbhanj, and this process is
carried on with water obtained almost
wholly from the rainfall. The water for
the main irrigation system is conserved
in two storage dams. The present
scheme, however, is incomplete, and as
it is dependent almost entirely upon
somewhat uncertain sources for its suc-
cessful working, a much more pretentious
one is now contemplated.

Extensive surveys have already been
made, and it is proposed to utilize the
water to be obtained by the construction
of a dam across the Burrabalang River,
a perennial stream and the largest in the
State. It is anticipated that a quantity
will thus be available sufficient to irri-
gate the greater part of the area of the
Sadar subdivision, and it is expected that
the extreme length of the distributories
will be not less than 80 miles. The total
cost of the proposed new works is about
50 lakhs of rupees.

It will be seen from the above that
the State authorities are doing all in their
power to prove to the people that agri-
culture is a science, and that the applica-
tion of this science, supported by sound
practical experience, is the only method
by which the best results can be obtained.

There is considerable mineral wealth,
especially in iron ores, in the State, and
in 1909, shortly before the death of the
late Maharaja, negotiations were com-
menced with the Tata Iron and Steel
Company, Ltd., for the lease of iron-ore

578

deposits in the Gurumasaiani Hill, in the
northern subdivision of the State, and the
result was that the company shortly after-
wards obtained rights over an area about
5i square miles in extent. The mining of
the ore proved to be so successful that
arrangements are now (19 16) in progress
under which it is proposed that a further
area of about 14J square miles shall be
granted to the company under similar
conditions. The ore is transported to the
Tata works at Sakchi by means of a
branch railway running between the mines
and the main line to Bombay.

The Tata company raised about three
lakhs of tons of iron during the year
191 5, and upon this quantity a tonnage
royalty was paid to the revenue of the
State.

There is now afoot a scheme to quad-
ruple the output of the Tata works. If
this materializes, the works will employ
some 12,000 to 15,000 hands and export
10 to 12 lakhs of tons of iron ore. The
scheme involves an extension of the
broad-gauge Bengal-Nagpur Railway into
the heart of the State to tap new rich
deposits found there.

A geological survey of a considerable
portion of India was made some years
ago, and since that time it has been left
to individual enterprises to ascertain the
mineral wealth of certain districts. A
survey was undertaken in Mayurbhanj
recently, when it was discovered that,
among the valuable deposits, iron ore was
undoubtedly the richest — in fact, it was
stated that in all probability there were
not more extensive or richer fields in
India. Gold, too, is found in various
parts, but hitherto not in paying quanti-
ties. A few native workers earned a
scanty livelihood by washing river
deposits. There are extensive granite
qimrries leased at present to the Bengal
Granite Company, and soapstone quarries
near Lubang turn out quantities of pots
and dishes, which find a ready sale. The
reserved and protected forests, about
1,700 square miles in extent, are found
both on the hills and on a portion of the
plains, but up to about twenty years ago
felling was carried on by persons who, in
the absence of any State regulations, cut
down selected trees in districts favoured
by having comparatively satisfactory
facilities for removal. A Forest Depart-
ment was subsequently established, and
full control over the timber purchasers
has now been fully secured.

The first real aid to the opening up of
the country on a more generous scale by

I. The Leper Asylum.

THE MAYUBBHANJ FEUDATORY STATE.

2. ClIAHALLA FoREST BUMOALOW, IN RESERVE. 3. MaHADEV MaNDIR AT KiCHING.

579

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

the reclamation of jungles, thus giving
increased opportunities for obtaining
greater productiveness from the land, was
the construction of the Mayurbhanj State
Railway ; but the further possibilities
which presented themselves for a much
larger and more systematic trade in
timber caused the formation of the
Mayurbhanj Light Railway Syndicate,
who are extending the line from Bari-
pada, the chief town in the State, to
Talbandh, a distance of 32 miles. The
necessary earthworks have already been
completed, and progress in other direc-
tions is being made. It is expected that
the extension will be open for traffic by
the year i 9 i 7 .

The timber industry has now been
established on a firm basis, and by far
the greater portion of it is in the hands
of Messrs. B. Borooah & Co., of 5 Royal
Exchange Place, Calcutta, who (under the
direct supervision of the State Forest
Department) are engaged chiefly in
manufacturing railway sleepers for Sal
[Shorea robusta). Nearly all of these
are taken by the Bengal-Nagpur Rail-
way Company, but timber goods of
various descriptions are being supplied in
increasing quantities to contractors and
others.

It has been shown that, as nearly all
of the inhabitants are engaged in some
form of agricultural pursuits, it follows
that there has been very little develop-
ment of manufacturing or industrial con-
cerns, although it should be added that
a considerable number of aboriginals are
employed in the weaving of coarse cloths
and the production of tusser cocoons and
lac. Statistics show that the volume of
trade in the State has increased to a
remarkable extent during recent years,
and while the output of forest produce
shows the greatest advance, the exports
of rice, millets, hemp fibre, and oil seeds
are by no means inconsiderable.

There is a large supply of nux vomica,
used for manufacturing strychnine, for
which Messrs. Smith, Stainstreet & Co.,
of Calcutta, hold a lease; and the State
forests supply myrabolams, and other
tanning products to which the war has
given a greatly enhanced value and a
consequently accelerated development.

What looks like becoming one of the
most valuable side-products is Sabai
grass, from which an excellent quality of
paper can be made. The Titaghur Paper
Mills are at present negotiating for huge
supplies of this from the State.

While the social and economic condi-

tions of the people have been greatly
improved under the beneficent rulership
of enlightened chiefs, that important
essential in the true prosperity of a
country — namely, education — has received
its full share of recognition. New schools
are being opened yearly, and there is now
a large number of teaching establishments
for boys and girls under the supervision
of an Educational Officer specially
appointed for the Feudatory States.

There are unusually good means of
communication, not only within the State,
but also from its borders, to important
centres in other districts; and in addition
to the railway facilities already referred
to there are about 150 miles of gravelled
and 350 miles of unmetalled roads, while
felled timber is floated down the Burra-
balang River.

Baripada, the headquarters, is situated
in the north-eastern portion of the State.
It was constituted a Municipality in 1905,
and is administered by a chairman, vice-
chairman, and 15 commissioners.

The ruins of an ancient city were dis-
covered at Kiching a few years ago, and
excavations have revealed the presence of
a large number of most interesting relics,
including a Mandir of Mahadev, with
beautifully carved frescoes and bas-relief
panelling, and a number of more or less
intact figures sculptured in a peculiar
hard black stone. Further excavations
will be undertaken, and it is hoped to be
able to reconstruct the temples on their
original sites.

THE MURSHIDABAD SERKAR ALI
(HOUSE OF MURSHIDABAD)

The real history of Murshidabad com-
mences in the year 1704, when Murshid
Kuli Khan, Dewan of Bengal and Orissa,
made that place the capital of Bengal.
In 1 7 1 3 the Dewan was appointed Subadar
and Nawab Nazim of Bengal and Orissa
by the then Emperor of Delhi. He was
independent and very powerful, and it is
an undoubted fact that he was the greatest
and most energetic ruler in Bengal since
the days of Sher Shah. His son-in-law,
Suja-ud-Din Khan, the good Nawab, suc-
ceeded in 1725 to the Subadari of Bengal
and Orissa, to which Bihar was afterwards
added. He proved to be a capable and
wise administrator, and he was succeeded
in 1 739 by his son Sarfaraz Khan, who was
killed by Ali Verdi Khan at the battle of
Giria Nala in i 740.

Ali Verdi Khan therefore became Nawab
Nazim of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, in

580

1740, and for sixteen years he proved
himself to be an able ruler, possessing
great military talent. During his reign
the interests of England advanced very
considerably.

Ali Verdi Khan was succeeded by his
grandson, Seraj-ud-Dowla, in the year
1756. The latter unhappily turned out to
be a cruel, unprincipled, and despicable
ruler. His people became gradually
alienated from him, exasperated by his
inordinate rapacity, insolence, and pro-
fligacy. When they found that their life
and liberty, property and honour were
at the mercy of so self-willed and arbitrary
a ruler, they formed a conspiracy to bring
about the downfall of the tyrant. Then
was fought the great and decisive battle
of Plassey on June 23, 1757, between the
East India Company and Seraj-ud-Dowla.
It took place on an assurance given by
Meer Jaffer to Lord Clive that he would
withhold the troops under his command
and not interfere in any way on behalf of
Seraj-ud-Dowla, as the latter had by his
infamous treatment of Meer Jaffer ren-
dered himself despicable alike to him
(Meer Jaffer) and to his subjects, who
were therefore in favour of Meer Jaffer
ascending the throne of Murshidabad as
Subadar of Bengal, Behar and Orissa, in
place of Seraj-ud-Dowla, Meer Jaffer
being a prince, a general, a leading states-
man of the kingdom, possessing great
wealth and power and holding large terri-
torial property, and who, in the words of
Lord Clive, " was as much esteemed as
the other was detested."

As the power of the Great Mogul began
to decline, the Nawabs Nazim became vir-
tually independent rulers of Bengal, Behar
and Orissa, and although Mir Quassim
came to the throne in 1760, Meer Jaffer
was reinstated in 1763. Meer Jaffer was
succeeded by his son, Nujmud Dowla, in
1765, at the age of twenty years. During
the reign of Nujmud Dowla, the revenue of
Bengal, Behar and Orissa, together with
Nizamut Zygirs (freeholds), the income of
which was about 1 6 lakhs, was made over
to the East India Company for a stipend
of Rs. 53,86,131. This was done after
the grant of Dewani by Shah Alum with
the consent of the Nawab Nazim. In
August 1765 Lord Clive obtained the
diwani, or financial administration, of
Bengal, Behar and Orissa with the
nominal sanction of the Emperor Shah
Alum. In 1766 the Nawab sat as Nazim,
with Lord Clive on his left, as Diwan,
and he opened the ceremony of com-
mencing the annual collection of revenue

THE MURSHIDABAD SERKAR ALL
I. His Highness the Hon. Nawab Bahadur of Murshidabad, Amir-ul-Omra, K.C.S.I., K.C.V.O.
. Thb Heir-Apparent, Murshio Zada Asif Jah Saivid Wares Ali Mirza. 3. The Nawab Bahadur on Venus.

Photo by Bourne &■ Shepherd, hta.a.

581

3S*

1. The Palace,

THE MURSHIDABAD SERKAR ALL
?. The New Palace, or Wasif Manzil 3. The Drawing-room of the New Palace.

582

I. The New Palace,

THE MURSHIDABAD SEEKAR ALL
2. Tke Palace fkoh the Farther Side of the Bhagirathi.

3. The Landscape Garden.

583

feENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

(

in full Durbar. Nujmud Dowla died on
May 8th in that year. During the regime
of the next ruler, Saifud Dowla, a reduc-
tion of the stipend stipulated to be paid
to the Nizamut at the time of the transfer
of the revenue collection to the English
took place. The Nawab died of small-
pox on March i o, 1 770, and was succeeded
by his younger brother, Mobaruk-ud-
Dowla, whose pension was fixed at the
sum of Rs. 3,181,991 ; two years later this
amount was reduced to Rs. 1,600,000.
The civil and criminal Courts were trans-
ferred from Murshidabad to Calcutta in
1790. Nawab Mobaruk-ud-Dowla died in
1793 and was succeeded by Babar Jung
Nasir-ul-MuIk, Zynuddin Ali (or Ali Jah),
Wala Jah, and Humayun Jah respectively.
The building of the palace of the Nawab
was commenced in 1829 and completed
in 1838, at a cost of over Rs. 1,600,000.

Humayun Jah died in 1838 and was
succeeded by his son Munsur Ali Khan,
who visited England about the year 1869
for the purpose of conferring with the
Home Government on questions relating
to his position and dignity as a sovereign
prince, and also with regard to the amount
which should be paid annually to him.
He, however, resigned his title and posi-
tion on November i, 1880, and was suc-
ceeded by his eldest son. His Highness
Nawab Ali Kudr Syed Sir Hussan Ali
Meerza Bahadur, G.C.I.E., in February
1882, when he was honoured with the
hereditary title of the Nawab Bahadur of
Murshidabad, Rais-ud-Dowla, Amir-ul-
Omra, and whose family still continue to
occupy the gadi.

The Nawab was the eldest of a very
large family, and his education, which was
entrusted to English tutors, was well cal-
culated to fit him for the exalted position
which he held, but side by side with his
literary studies he entered with zest into
games of all kinds, becoming an expert
athlete, a fine horseman, a good shot, and
an excellent pig-sticker. When quite a
boy the conduct of the young Nawab was
marked by steadiness of purpose, great
amiability, and a high moral tone, traits
which, in the opinion of his tutors, were
inherited from his mother.

At nineteen years of age the Nawab and
two of his younger brothers visited
England in the care of Colonel Herbert,
and there is no doubt that his experiences
gained in conversing with men of position
in the old country, in seeing large and
busy cities with their factories, railway
centres, harbours, museums, and art
galleries, and by an intelligent observation

of the habits and customs of Western
people, were of incalculable benefit to him
in the high office to which he succeeded.

The travellers broke their journey at
Cairo and Alexandria, and having dis-
embarked at Southampton, made their way
to London, where they took up their resi-
dence at South Kensington. While the
trip was in itself of great educational value,
it should be mentioned that purely literary
studies were not neglected, as a specially
qualified tutor was then engaged to look
after that portion of their training.

The party arrived in London during the
most favourable portion of the year, as
the first city in the world is dressed in its
fresh spring costume from April to June;
its street; are closely packed with pedes-
trians and vehicles of all descriptions, its
shops are more than usually attractive, and
there is a ceaseless activity on all hands
which must inevitably make a lasting im-
pression upon the mind of one brought up
in the East.

The stately dignity of the magnificent
buildings appealed to the sightseers, while
diversion of a lighter character was found
in visits to picture galleries, museums,
parks, races, theatres, and other places
where innocent pleasures could be
obtained.

It is related that in the Natural History
Section of the British Museum, when the
youths were deeply interested in inspect-
ing the beautiful collection of birds, one
of them exclaimed in surprise: " I always
understood that the ."Xlinighty made ten
thousand birds of all kinds, but how many
more are here ? "

The trio received the greatest kindness
from distinguished persons, who vied with
one another in providing excursions and
amusements for their pleasure; but they
never forgot the levee held by his late
Majesty King Edward VII, when Prince of
Wales, to which they were by virtue of
their high rank granted a private entrance.

Among a number of notable persons
whom they met was Lady Williams, a
granddaughter of Clive, who remarked
upon the fact that she, a descendant of
one who had played such an important
part in the settlement of Bengal, should
have met youths one of whose ancestors,
Meer Jaffer, had, along with Lord Clive,
been chiefly instrumental in laying the
foundation of the British Etnpire in India.

After " doing " the metropolis
thoroughly the party left for Sandgate
(for Dover Castle), Southsea, Portsmouth,
and other places in the southern and
western counties of England, but before

584

they left for the midland and northern
cities they had the pleasure of seeing the
yacht Victoria and Albert, belonging to
her late Majesty Queen Victoria.

The large industrial centres claimed
their attention next, and at Birmingham
they witnessed the manufacture of glass,
papier-mache, brass bedsteads, steel pens,
screws, and small arms; at Coventry they
were shown the weaving of ribbons from
silk, some of which had been imported
from Murshidabad, the place of their
birth ; the weaving of carpets was seen
at Kidderminster; and glove factories
were visited at Worcester, while the
Royal Porcelain Works, in the same city,
held a peculiar charm for individuals who
were accustomed to the artistic pottery
work of India.

The summer was now advancing, but it
was unthinkable that the northern coun-
ties should be entirely overlooked, and
therefore they entrained for Manchester,
the world's emporium of the cotton trade,
where they beheld thousands of busy
operatives at the numberless looms in that
great city. A visit was also paid to Eaton
Hall, the magnificent pile of buildings
belonging to the Duke of Westminster,
and to many other places of historical or
commercial interest.

London was preparing for Christmas
when the party again reached the banks of
the Thames, but this added to, rather than
detracted from, their enjoyment of a round
of drawing-rooms, theatres, shops, and
other amusements, which fully occupied
their time until December 2nd, when they
left England for the Continent of Europe.
Opportunity was there found for flying
visits to Paris, Bologna, Geneva, Florence,
Leghorn, Rome, Naples, and Pompeii, and
early in March they arrived in Calcutta,
where they received a most cordial wel-
come from many relatives and friends.

The Nawab's subsequent life was
marked by an intelligent use of the op-
portunities which so exalted a position
conferred, and his transparently honour-
able dealings with all with whom he came ■
in contact were an important factor in
establishing the most friendly relationship
with his people.

This Prince lived only for others. He
was a glory to the Murshidabad Musniid,
which he adorned with a credit few of
the family equalled but none ever sur-
passed. His high cliaracter, his innate
sense of justice, and his unbounded
generosity towards all classes of people,
without distinction of caste or creed,
spread his fame far and wide as an able.

I. The State Motor-car.

THE MURSHIDABAD SERKAR ALL
3. The State Carriage. 3. Group of Polo Ponies.

4. Poto PoNv, Venus,

585

t. Tux Ihakbarah

THE MURSHIDABAD SEEKAR ALL
2. The K*tra Musjid, built by Nawab Murshedkuli Kham. 3. Seraj-uo-Dowlah's Tomi

B. 4. The Jaffraganj Ceuetery.

586

1. Moil Mahal.

THE MURSHIDABAD SEBKAR ALL
2. The South Gate. 3. The Stables.

14. The Clock Tower.

587

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

just, and wise administrator. Government
appreciated his inestimable character and
large benefactions for public good by suc-
cessively honouring him with the titles of
K.C.I.E. and G.C.I.E., and other high
distinctions.

His Highness held rank as the premier
noble of the Province under the Governor
of Bengal, with the hereditary title (in
addition to that of Nawab Bahadur of
Murshidabad) of Amir-ul-Omra, which
means " chief of the nobles," and he was
the only hereditary Nawab in Bengal.

The Nawab resided in a magnificent
palace, proud of his allegiance to the
King-Emperor, and resting in full enjoy-
ment of privileges — especially of peace —
to which the majority of his ancestors were
strangers.

It may be added here that the esteem
in which His Highness was held was mani-
fested by the bestowal upon him of the
following honourable titles: Ali Kadr, sig-
nifying "of first rank"; Ihitsham-ul-
Mulk, " dignifier of the country "; Rais-
ud-dowla. " premier of the State "; and
Mahabat Jang, " horror in war."

His Highness the present Nawab, the
Honourable Ihitsham-uI-Mulk, Rais-ud-
dowlah, Amir-ul-Omra, Nawab Sir Asif
Saiyid Wasif Ali Mirza, Khan Bahadur,
Mahabatjang, K.C.V.O., K.C.S.I., the
eldest son of the late Nawab Bahadur, was
born in the year 1875, and at an early age
he manifested a deeply intelligent mind
and an ability to grasp the meaning of
educational questions, a characteristic
which is not frequently seen in one so
young in years.

After a course of study at the Doveton
College in Calcutta (where he obtained a
good general knowledge of the English
language) he proceeded to the Old
Country and passed through the schools
of Sherborne and Rugby and the Univer-
sity of Oxford. During this period of
his life, however, he travelled over a con-
siderable portion of the British Isles, the
Continent of Europe, and Egypt, and it
was his constant ambition to make himself
acquainted with the habits and customs
of the people whom he met, and the ex-
periences then gained have been of in-
calculable benefit to him in the respon-
sible position of acting on his father's
behalf in the administration of domestic
affairs, as well as in the larger matters
of the Raj estates. He comes of a suc-
cession of potentates who learned to rule,
not by force, but by a spirit of justice and
kindly consideration of the needs of their
people, and his counsel is eagerly sought

by tliose who know the sterling worth of
his character.

The business capabilities of His High-
ness were recognized when he became
Chairman of the Municipal Council of
Murshidabad; in 1901 he was nominated
by Sir John Woodburn, K.C.S.I., Lieu-
tenant-Governor of Bengal, to a seat on
the Legislative Council of that Province;
and in the following year he was chosen by
Lord Curzon as representative of Bengal
at the coronation of his late Majesty King
Edward VII.

The Prince possesses charming and
refined manners, and it has been truly said
of him that he has all the attributes of
an eastern prince with the bearing of a
we item gentleman. His noble appear-
ance, beaming with intelligence, attracts
the attention and admiration of every one
with whom he comes in contact. His
command of the English language and
literature, and his knowledge of English
manners, customs, and etiquette, acquired
during a lengthy residence in England,
are a theme of admiration everywhere.
His wonderful presence of mind, his in-
domitable energy, and his buoyant habit
of looking at the bright side of everything
under all difficulties and adverse circum-
stance, are some of the most brilliant traits
of his noble character.

He has always taken a deep interest in
healthy outdoor pastimes, such as cricket,
football, and tennis, and his love of sport
has lured him on to the shooting of tigers
and pig-sticking, while in polo — at which
he is a crack player — he has usually
captained a team whose colours are very
rarely lowered.

There are many ancestral " palaces "
or " mansions " in Europe, and India too,
to which these terms may be applied in
their rigid exclusiveness, but those to
which the word " home," dignified by
family ties and associations of the closest
description, can be given are compara-
tively few in number. One of these
highly favoured residences, the Nizanuit
Kila (or fort) or Hazar Dawari, to give it
the name by which it is known to natives
in Bengal, is the palace belonging to His
Highness the Nawab Bahadur of Murshi-
dabad. The construction of the building
was commenced in the year 1829, and
from the date when it was first occupied
(1837) it has been inhabited by members
of the same distinguished family.

It is 416 feet in length, 204 feet in
width, and 85 feet in elevation, and it cost
about i6g lakhs of rupees, or £167,000
sterling. Surrounded by some of the most

588

charming wooded scenery of Bengal, and
standing on the east bank of the Bhagiratlii
River, it presents a noble aspect, and its
well-kept lawns and drives, its graceful
proportions, and the splendid dome of the
adjoining Imambara (or " house of
prayer ") add to the genera! beauty of
the picture.

This is one of the most historically and
architecturally interesting mansions in
India, as it is a veritable storehouse of
magnificent paintings of Dutch, Flemish,
French, and Italian schools, of works of
art, priceless gems, and stately statuary,
yet withal it is one around which are
clustered such tender memories that its
domestic life may, without challenge, be
said to be one of its greatest attractions.
The building follows the Doric style of
architecture, and is approached by a noble
flight of 36 steps, the bottom and top ones
being 108 feet and 65 feet in width respec-
tively. The portico is supported by
Doric pillars, and the entrance, oval in
form, is paved with polished grey marble
which was imported from Italy for the
purpose.

Immediately after entering, one notices
the circular Durbar Hall, in which is the
gadi, or throne, of the Nawab, constructed
of marble, richly decorated with gold. .'\
silver chair is used on State occasions,
and there are other richly furnished seats
for distinguished personages.

By passing through a door from this
hall one enters a spacious dining-room
94 feet in length and 57 feet in width, but
when State banquets are given sliding
doors are opened, and smaller apartments
on the eastern and western sides afford
sitting accommodation for about 350
guests. On the walls are hung speaking
portraits of her late Majesty Queen Vic-
toria, H.R.H. the Prince Consort, the
Duke of Wellington, and other notabilities
of the early portion of the nineteenth
century.

A visit must now be paid to several
picture galleries, which contain priceless
examples of many of the most famous
masters, and one is perplexed to know
which are to be left out in giving a brief
description, but the following may suffice.
There is an exceptionally fine painting by
Schotel, named " A Sea View," and the
artist with consummate skill appears to
have put actual motion into the scurrying
clouds and the surging waves of a tem-
pestuous sea. Near to this one are others
truly characteristic of the great genius of
Raphael, Snyders, Rembrandt, and others,
while in the grand salon is an original

X. The CitowK Musjid.

THEilMURSHIDABAD SEBkAB ALL
2. The Chanoney Chowk, showing Tripolia Gate. 3. The Bakr-Id Procession from the Chowk Musjid.

589

I. The Garden House, Mobarak Manzil.

THE MURSHIDABAD SERKAR ALL
2. Interior of the Power-house, 3. The Great Gun, Jahan Kosha.

4. The MoiijHiL Garden House,

590

INDIAN NOBILITY

life-size portrait of King William IV.
This picture is very highly prized by the
house of Murshidabad, as it was painted
expressly at the King's command to be
sent by him as a present to the Nawab
Nazim Humayun Jah Bahadur, and it was
accompanied by a personal letter from His
Majesty. This was in September 1836.
One must not overlook a famous painting
by Sir Edwin Landseer, the world-
renowned portrayer of animals, which is
executed in the best style of the artist.
There are probably thousands of engrav-
ings of the original picture, which is
therefore, by description, well known
among all classes of people. Who can
forget the solemn dignity of a French
poodle which occupies the judge's seat in
a court of law, or the judicial manner in
which he, with one paw on an open legal
text-book, calmly surveys counsel, repre-
sented by a curious collection of dogs of
various breeds? The scene is so well
depicted that one is almost persuaded that
a question, or a rebuke to an over-zealous
advocate, is about to fall from the lips of
the president of the court.

The furniture in the salon is of the
Georgian period, but the most interesting-
objects are couches and chairs of ex-
quisitely carved ivory, similar to the
delicate lace-work for which the ancient
city of Murshidabad was justly famed,
together with ivory horses, camels. State
elephants, carriages, gods, goddesses, and
other subjects.

In the immediate vicinity of the salon
is a State bedroom, 47 feet by 29 feet,
and adjoining it is the family portrait
gallery, containing a splendid collection
of paintings of past and present members
of the Nawab's family, including the
Nawab Murshid Kuli Khan, the Nawab
Mir Jaffar, two sons of the present Nawab,
and a host of other historically interest-
ing personages. The principal drawing-
room, truly a restful apartment, is beau-
tified by a large number of exceedingly
fine water colours, while other rooms con-
tain paintings, pictures, and works of art
far too numerous to particularize. The
magnificent ball-room is above, and of the
same size as the banqueting-hall, but the
large library is worthy of some notice. It
contains about five thousand English
volumes and nearly four thousand printed
in several Oriental languages. Many
illustrated books are of priceless value,
but particular mention should be made of
three volumes of the sacred Koran, beau-
tifully illuminated in gold and dated
1277 - 1 28 1, and 1724, respectively.

Very valuable illustrated editions may
be seen of Shakespeare (1803), of
Hogarth's drawings, Lewis's " English
Scenery," and many works dear to the
hearts of literary connoisseurs. It should
be mentioned here that His Highness, with
his large-hearted consideration for others,
has presented several rare and costly
volumes to the trustees of the Victoria
Memorial Hall, now being erected in
Calcutta, his reason for making the gift
being that " he would rather they were
viewed by thousands of interested persons
than be displayed to a few visitors at
the Palace."

One of the wonderful sights in the
mansion, however, is the Toshakana, or
treasure house, which contains a marvel-
lous collection of armour, jewels, personal
adornments for State ceremonies and
other very valuable insignia of high rank.
The eye will speedily be attracted by
magnificent emeralds, measuring 2 inches
by I J inches, which are worn occasionally
as armlets, or on the belt, or as part of
an ornament for the head, when they are
supported by beautiful diamonds. These
were presented by a former Emperor of
Delhi, and their value has never been
appraised. There are jewelled swords to
be seen, one of which was given by the late
Queen Victoria to His Highness's father,
and another one which formerly belonged
to the Mogul Emperor, Humayun. In
another portion of the wizard's cave is
a Sedan chair of solid silver, and around
the walls and standing in various corners
are old cannon of Hindu, Ma/.ioiTimedan,
English, and Dutch manufacture, swords,
spears, muskets, and a curious assortment
of weapons of different types.

Outside the fort and not more than
half a mile from the Palace on the Ber-
hampore road is an extensive range of
stables for horses and elephants, together
with coach-house for State and other
carriages.

The manufacture of silk was one of the
earliest of the industries in Murshidabad,
and ancient records state that as far back
as the year 1621 the East India Com-
pany, who had established a factory at
Kasimbazar, " were forbidden to make
further purchases of raw material." But
the industry was not thereby killed, as it
is known that about the year 1750 it was
in a flourishing condition. The Company
took a deep interest in the question, going
so far as to offer to ryots waste lands for
a period of two years provided that they
undertook the cultivation of mulberry-
trees.

THE NADIA RAJ

The district of Nadia, in the Presidency
division of Bengal, is bounded on the
north by the districts of Murshidabad,
Rajshahi, and Pabna, on the east by the
districts of Faridpur and Jessore, on the
south by the district of 24 Parganas, and
on the west by the districts of Hooghly,
Burdwan, and Murshidabad.

The Nadia Raj family claim direct
descent from Bhattanarayan, who was one
of the five Brahmans selected by Adisur,
King of Bengal, for the conduct of cere-
monies of purification. It is one of the
oldest and most respectable Hindu noble
families in Bengal. The present Chief,
the Maharaja Bahadur Kshaunish Chandra
Ray, is thirty-sixth in the genealogical
line, and it was at the time of the Corona-
tion Durbar at Delhi in December 191 1
that the title of "Maharaja" was bestowed
on him. He was made a " Maharaja
Bahadur " in January 19 17, and he enjoys
the privilege of a return visit from His
E.xcellency the Governor of Bengal.
Maharaja Bahadur Kshaunish Chandra
Ray was born at the Palace, Krishnagar,
on October 29, 1890. He married Maha-
rani Jyotirmoyee Dabee, the youngest
daughter of the late Raja Ashutosh Nath
Ray, of Kasimbazar, in the district of
Murshidabad. The Maharaja has one
daughter, who was born in Calcutta on
November i, 19 16.

The early history of the family is based
to a very considerable extent on tradi-
tions, but according to such statements,
and to certain Sanskrit writers, it appears
that Bhattanarayan's estate comprised a
number of villages which he had obtained
by purchase or grant from Adisur. There
are few legendary events of importance
during the rule of several of the earliest
Chiefs, but the estate of Kasinath — nine-
teenth in succession — was invaded by
Mussulmans, who eventually captured and
put him to death. His posthumous eon.
Ram, became a great scholar, and his
property was enlarged by the devise of
the kingdom of Harikrishna Samaddhar,
he being subsequently known as Ram
Samaddhar. Durgadas, alias Bhabananda,
son of the last-named, received from the
Delhi Emperor, Akbar, the title of Majum-
dar, and he inherited his father's estate
and built a palace in Parghana Bagwan,
which was the largest zemindary of the
Nadia Raj in those days. Majumdar sub-
sequently rendered valuable services to
Raja Man Singh, Akbar's general, in the
expedition against Pratapaditya, the Chief
of Jessore. Man Singh took Majumdar

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

to Delhi and presented him to the Emperor
Jehangir, bringing to His Majesty's notice
the services rendered by him. The Em-
peror restored him to his ancestor's (Kasi-

of the English settlement at Calcutta.
The latter, in token of his regard for Ram
Krishna, placed at his disposal a garrison
of 2,500 soldiers. He was of a somewhat

MAHARAJA K8HAUNI8H CHANDRA RAY BAHADUR, OF NADIA.

I'ltiitu by Edna l.oretiz.

establishment of British power that Lord
Clive bestowed upon him the title of
" Rajendra Bahadur," and also presented
him with twelve guns and a sword used at
the battle of Plassey. These gifts may
still be seen at the Palace at Krishnagar.
Krishna Chandra lived to a good old age,
and was followed by Siva Chandra, Iswar
Chandra, Girish Chandra, Srish Chandra,
Satish Chandra, and Kshitish Chandra, all
of whom encouraged education and •
strenuously supported measures of reform
tending to elevate the social condition of
their subjects. The Government recog-
nized and confirmed Srish Chandra's title
of " Maharaja Bahadur " conferred by the
Mahommedan rulers, and bestowed upon
him the usual khilat and other honours
appertaining thereto. The same title and
honours have all along been enjoyed by
the head of the family of the Nadia Raj for
the past seventy years. Maharaja Bahadur
Kshitish Chandra died in August 1910,
and was succeeded by his only son,
Kshaunish Chandra, who has already been
referred to.

The family holds a unique position in
Hindu society, having been the recognized
patron of Sanskrit teaching in Navadwip,
the " O.Kford " of Bengal, for centuries
past. Maharaja Krishna Chandra, the
most famous man of his age, was known as
N abauwipadhipati, and the successive
Maharajas have held the title since that
time. He was universally considered the
head of Hindu society, and the arbitrator
on all questions of caste.

In works of munificence and public
charity the family yield to none in the
country. It is a well-known fact in Bengal
that there is scarcely a house of learned
Brahmans which does not enjoy a free gift
of land from the Nadia Raj, and there
have also been numerous grants of Pirottar
lands to Mahommedans.

At one time the family property con-
sisted of extensive zemindaries, and com-
prised 84 pergannas, but it is now reduced
owing to the unlimited charity of the
Maharajas from the time of Krishna
Chandra. The family, however, maintains
its position as one of the noblest in
Bengal.

nath's) Raj, and conferred on him the title
of Maharaja. This was about the begin-
ning of the seventeenth century.

Ram Krishna — twenty-seventh in succes-
sion— administered the affairs of the Nadia
Raj for a long time, living happily at the
new capital, Krishnagar, and he was also
on terms of amity with the then Governor

aggressive nature, and added land to his
territory by the conquest of the Raja of
Jessore, but he ultimately became a
prisoner and died in confinement.

Bengal was passing through a most
critical period during the rulership of
Krishna Chandra, thirtieth in succession,
but the latter assisted so loyally in the

592

THE NASHIPUR RAJ.

The Hon. the Maharaja Ranjit Sinha,
of Nashipur, son of the late Raja Kirti
Chandra Sinha Bahadur, was born on
June 9, 1865, and he has a most distin-
guished ancestry, the family history being

INDIAN NOBILITY

traced to Maharaja Tarawah, who was the
ruling chief of Bijapur, in the Deccan, in
the fourteenth century. After the Maha-
raja Tarawah, his son Prince Madan Singh
came into possession of the vast zemin-
dary, and Rai Sambhunath, another of the
present Maharaja's ancestry, was ap-
pointed by the Emperor of Delhi as
Subadar and Nazim of the whole tract of
country from Shahranpur to Meerut, and
his brother, Rai Badrinath, took part in
the battle of Shamli under Colonel Burn.
But the credit of founding the Nashipur
Raj belongs to the Maharaja Devi Sinha
Bahadur, whose father Rai Dewali Sinha
left Panipat in the beginning of the
eighteenth century and arrived at Murshi-
dabad, then the capital of Bengal. Devi
Sinha entered the service of the Honour-
able East India Company in the Revenue
Department, in which he held a high and
responsible position in connection with the
permanent settlement of Bengal. He
farmed the revenues of Purnea, and of
the districts of Rungpur, Dinajpur, and
Edrakpura, and in the year 1773 became
Steward or Secretary to the Provincial
Council of Murshidabad. Having ren-
dered important services to Lord Clive at '
the battle of Plassey he was honoured with
the title of Maharaja Bahadur. Later on
in the history of this family is found the
name of Raja Udmunt Sinha Bahadur, who
was widely known for his liberality, and
it was during his time that the Thakoor
Bari, which is not only picturesque but
grand, was constructed.

The Maharaja Ranjit Sinha's father
died when the former was very young, and
consequently his extensive zemindary,
situated in the districts of Birbhum, Mur-
shidabad, Malda, Pabna, Bogra, and Raj-
shahi (of which the Government revenue is
Rs. 3,32,000), was managed by the Court
of Wards during his minority. The young
Maharaja received his early education at
the Berhampore College, Bengal, where
he had a brilliant career, and he devoted
himself specially to mathematics, in which
branch of study he made considerable
progress and in which he even now takes
great interest. From his boyhood he was
remarkable for punctuality and steady
habits, and his high intelligence attracted
the notice of his teachers and professors,
all of whom were of opinion that this youth
would in the future be a leader of men
in his own country. On attaining his
majority in the year 1886, he directed his
attention to the management of his estate,
I establishing it on a firm and sure basis,
jbut he was specially concerned in the im-

provement of the condition of his tenants,
and in this respect he has proved himself
a model zemindar. Unlike some zemin-
dars he does not leave the management of
his estate in the hands of subordinates,
and he has introduced rules for its
guidance which have proved so useful that
they have been adopted by many of the
leading landowners of Bengal. His book,
named " The Rules for the Management
of the Nashipur Raj Estate," though pre-
pared with the chief object of controlling
his own estate, is a model guide to zemin-
dary matters, and it shows the close and
comprehensive grasp which the author has
of such questions. His ofKcials are
governed by those rules, and enjoy privi-
leges, such as leave and pension, while
everything is conducted in accordance with
the strict rules and procedure laid down in
the book above referred to.

The chief characteristic of the subject
of this sketch is versatility. His varied
talents are used with discretion, and what-
ever he takes in hand he does well. He is
very regular and punctual in the discharge
of his duties, attending his office regularly
from I I a.m. to 5 p.m. During the cold
weather he tours the Mofussil, and he has
gained such vast experience that he can
enter into the details of his zemindary
work with admirable precision and con-
sideration.

The Maharaja's public career began in
the year 1887, when he was appointed
as an honorary magistrate of the Lalbag
Independent Bench. In 1888 he was
elected chairman of the Murshidabad
municipality, and during his incumbency
of that office he introduced many sanitary
reforms which made him highly popular
and earned for him the golden opinion of
the local authorities. In the year 1889,
when he was still chairman of municipality,
the town of Murshidabad was heavily in-
undated, and many families were reduced
to the brink of starvation and ruin, their
houses having been swept away by floods.
But the Maharaja, although a young man
at the time, had the pluck to risk his own
life in saving the lives and houses of many
of these families, and for this benevolent
and heroic act Sir Steuart Bailey, the then
Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, applauded
his services very highly. On January i,
1891, he was created Raja, and Sir
Charles Elliot addressed him thus: "It
is a very great pleasure to me to convey
to you the Sanad of the title of Raja which
the Viceroy has been pleased to confer
upon you. The title is one which has been
honourably borne by your family for many

593

generations, and it is now committed to
you to hold untarnished. One of your
ancestors. Raja Devi Sinha, rendered very
valuable services to Clive at Plassey, and
the continued favour in which your family
has been held and the honour which is to-
day entrusted to you, is a proof that the
Government of India is never slow to
recognize and never forgets services ren-
dered to it by the houses in this country.
You have lately attained your majority and
succeeded to your property. I trust you
will manage your estate in a manner
worthy of your ancestry, and that your
career may compare favourably with that
of other zemindars in the Province, and
that it will be so distinguished that further
honours will be conferred upon you,
not on account of the good work of
those who have gone before you, but
as a reward for your own merit and
exertions."

In 1894 he was invested with the powers
of a magistrate of the second class, em-
powered to sit singly. In this capacity
he displayed so much zeal and ability that
the Government in* appreciation of his
services conferred upon him the powers
of a magistrate of the first class on March
I, 1897, and entrusted him with powers to
take cognizance of offences on complaints
and reports of police. It was during that
time that he was placed in entire charge of
the Lalbag Bench, and he virtually dis-
charged the duties of a Sub-Divisional
Officer after the abolition of the Lalbag
Sub-Division. In 1899, and again in 1903,
he was re-elected as chairman of the Mur-
shidabad municipality, and in that capacity
he was at the helm of its administration
for about ten years. In 1897 he was
created Raja Bahadur, and when con-
ferring that title upon him Sir Charles
Stevens observed as follows: " Raja, you
are a scion of a very ancient and respect-
able family, and as the proprietor of ex-
tensive zemindaries, have conducted your-
self in a manner worthy of your origin and
of your rank and responsibilities ; you
have the reputation of being a good and
liberal landlord to your own ryots; but
your desire to do good service to the
public has led you to enter a more ex-
tended sphere of usefulness. As a muni-
cipal commissioner and an honorary
magistrate you have rendered great assis-
tance to the local authorities. It has been
deemed just and proper that you should be
raised to the dignity which your father
enjoyed. You have therefore been created
a Raja Bahadur, and it gives me great
satisfaction to hand you the Sanad and

I. Th£ Hon. Mahakaja Ranjii Sinua, of NASutrini,

NASHIPUR EAJ.

2. The Palace, Nashipur.

?. The Nashipur Raj Temple.

594

INDIAN NOBILITY

the Khilat which mark your elevation to
that rank."

On January i, 19 lo, the title of Maha-
raja was conferred upon him by the
Government on account of his manifold
services of public utility, and Sir Edward
Norman Baker, K.C.S.I., on the occasion
of the presentation of the Sanad and
Khilat to the Maharaja, said: " It is
always a matter of gratification to me to
be the instrument for conveying marks of
public recognition to those who have de-
served well of the State. That pleasure
is much enhanced when the recipient of
the honour is an old and valued friend of
my own. In your case, our friendship
dates back to the year i 898, when we were
serving on the Bengal Council, and when
1 first learned to appreciate in you those
qualities of rectitude, sincerity, straight-
forwardness, and moderation which have
given you so high a place in my regard.

" The family of which you are the head
is both old and distinguished, and one
member of it enjoyed the title of Maharaja
as long ago as the year 1800; more than
a century ago. Twice already you your-
self have received marks of the favour of
Government, in 1892 and again in 1897;-
and it gives me peculiar pleasure now to
hand you the Sanad of the still higher
title of Maharaja, together with the Khilat
which accompanies it.

" This honourable distinction you have
worthily earned, not merely by service in
a variety of public offices, as chairman of
of the Murshidabad municipality, as an
honorary magistrate, as member of the
Legislative Council and the like; but
still more by the loyal and devoted spirit
which you have invariably displayed in
times of difficulty and temptation, and by
the influence which you have uniformly
exerted to counteract the evil forces of
sedition, and to further the cause of law,
order, and good government. 1 am hope-
ful that influence will be further
strengthened by the honourable prefer-
ment which you have now received, and
which I earnestly hope you will live long
to enjoy."

That the Government held him in high
esteem is evidenced by his being appointed
as a member of the Bengal Legislative
Council in the year 1899. In that body
he has played the part of an active and
patriotic member, and his speech on the
amendment of the Municipal Bill was
recognized as a masterly performance.
This memorable address made him highly
popular with his own countrymen, and his
name became a household word in every

cultured family in Bengal. The Govern-
ment also recognized in him a true coun-
cillor who fearlessly expressed his opinion
in a very considerate and able manner, so
as to justify his being classed as a truly
wise statesman who might take place by
the side of such distinguished leaders as
the late Babu Krishtadas Paul and the
Maharaja Sir Jotindra Mohan Tagore.
He is not an impetuous politician, but a
sound and sober statesman, who is never
contented with merely taking a superficial
view.

The superb mansion at Nashipur, in
which the Maharaja generally resides
with his family, is a palatial building con-
structed after the style of Government
House in Calcutta. The Maharaja is
always a kind patron and benefactor, par-
ticularly to the inhabitants of Nashipur,
for whom he has sunk wells, founded
schools, and established a charitable dis-
pensary called the Nashipur Raj Chari-
table Dispensary, which is under the
supervision of an able medical officer.
The inhabitants of Nashipur are particu-
larly grateful to him for the manifold acts
of kindness which they receive at his
hands, and, in fact, he might reasotiably
be called the uncrowned king of Nashipur.

There is no public institution in Bengal
with which he is not connected; his
charities are unbounded, and many
thousands of rupees are systematically
spent every year in benevolent donations.

The Nashipur Raj family has always
been treated by Government with great
honour on account of its loyalty, and it,
indeed, reflects great credit upon the
Maharaja that when the atmosphere of the
country was surcharged with political dis-
content, he remained firmly loyal to the
Government and never allowed his own
men to be swayed by the empty vitu-
perations of political anarchists. His
keen insight has helped him rightly to
understand the political condition of the
country, and with the view of inducing
the people to take an impartial view of the
economic situation of India, he published
an "appeal" to his countrymen, in English
and Bengali, urging them to be firmly
loyal to the Government, and at the same
time respectfully to represent their legi-
timate political aspirations. He was the
first among native princes who responded
to the call of Government for aid in the
suppression of anarchism in India. In his
private life the Maharaja is a Hindu of
the best type, and although moderate in
his views, he is orthodox in all social and
religious observances. He is endowed

595

with an amiable disposition, and is uni-
formly courteous to all. He has a family
of four sons and four daughters.

In recognition of his great services in
the Council, the District and Local Board
members of the Presidency Divisk>n
elected him again as their represen-
tative in the Governor's Council in the
election held on January 6, 191 3. The
Bengal Council elected him as an addi-
tional member of the Imperial Council,
thus making him a member of both Coun-
cils, and since the separation of Behar
from Bengal, the Honourable the Maha-
raja, though belonging to the aristocracy,
and being himself a wealthy zemindar, has
been elected to the Council as representa-
tive of the people. He therefore enjoys
a unique position enjoyed by no other
member of his class in Bengal. The
Honourable Maharaja's services to both
the Councils have been largely appreciated
both by the Government and the people,
mainly on account of his moderate views,
and he has laid the inhabitants of Bengal
under deep obligation for his strenuous
efforts in moving both the Councils to
adopt measures for the prevention of
malaria and other epidemic diseases which
have caused so much havoc among all
classes. He has made education and
sanitation special subjects, and by his
advocacy has endeavoured to educate the
public mind to realize the great impor-
tance of these questions; his versatility
and thorough genius enable him to handle
other important political and social
matters with that keen penetration and
deep insight which have made him so
famous.

It is interesting to note that the eldest
Maharaj Kumar Bhupendra Narayan Sinha
successfully passed the I. A. examination
in the first division in 1 9 1 1 ; he took the
B.A. degree at the Calcutta University
in 1913; and is now a graduate preparing
himself for both the M.A. and law
examinations. The Maharaj Kumar has
been nominated by the Government as a
member of the District Board of Murshi-
dabad, and as a Commissioner of the
municipality of the same city. He has,
further, been appointed as an honorary
bench magistrate, and has already com-
menced his public career as such. This
reflects great credit upon him, as sons of
rich men in India seldom achieve such
distinctions in the acquisition of know-
ledge, preferring rather to lead lives of
ease and luxury. The second Maharaj
Kumar Nripendra Narayan Sinha is pre-
paring for the B..A.. degree; the third

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

\taharaj Kumar Rajendra Narayan Sinha
is studying for the I. A. examination; and
the fourth Maharaj Kumar Birendra Nara-
yan Sinha is still young in years. The
Government has been pleased to declare
that the title of Raja Bahadur shall be an
hereditary one in the Nashipur family.
The Dewan of the estate is Babu Deven-
dranath Sen, M.A., B.L., who is known as
a good and able officer.

THE STATE OF NAYAROARH

The Nayargarh Feudatory State of
Orissa is bounded on the north by the
States of Daspalia and Khandpara, on the
east by the State of Ranpur, on the south
by the Khurda subdivision of the district
of Purr and by the district of Ganjam in
the Madras residency, and on the west by
the district of Ganjam.

It is 590 square miles in extent, and
is divided into nine zillas or pergannas,
and three mats which are occupied by
aboriginal Khonds. The State contains
710 villages, or about five villages to every
four square miles of territory, and the in-
habitants are about 151,293 in number.
The physical aspects of the State present
wonderfully divergent features, the south
and south-eastern portions being too hilly
to be cultivated, while elsewhere there are
widespread tracts of highly cultivated
lands. Ranges of hills of various alti-
tudes are found in all parts of the State,
and the Sulia range running through the
centre has a number of peaks which are
from 2,000 feet to 2,500 feet in height.
The majority of the hills are covered with
fine timber trees, and the whole of the
western portion of the State bordering on
the Ganjam boundary contains valuable
forests which yield a handsome revenue.
5a/ and piasal sleepers, and minor forest
products such as kamalagundi (a dye
for colouring silk cloth), kuchila (nux
vomica), myrabolam, and char seeds (for
making sweetmeats), are exported to
other States and districts from Khurda
Road station on the Bengal-Nagpur sys-
tem of railways. The forests are con-
trolled by a ranger and two deputies, all
of whom were trained for the purpose in
the Kurseong School of Forestry.

There are five rivers in Nayargarh, but
all are practically dry about the end of
December, and not one is navigable even
for a short distance. The State therefore
enjoys complete immunity from danger of
floods, although there are a sufficient num-
ber of natural springs to ensure an ade-

quate supply of water for all practical
purposes.

The means of communication are of an
indifferent character; there is no railway
within the State, and there is only one
metalled road connecting the headquarters
at Nayargarh with the village at Dighari,
where it meets another road leading to
Khurda Road station. The Nayargarh-
Ranpur road — 10 miles in length— passes
through the State of Ranpur to the railway
station at Kalupara, while another highway,
from Nayargarh to Daspalia, is in course
of construction and will probably be com-
pleted by the end of the year 19 18.

The " Ramsay " bridge has been con-
structed on the Nayargarh-Bolgarb road
at a cost of Rs. 56,839, and the
" Madagni " bridge on the Nayargarh-
Ranpur road cost Rs. 8,120.

About 60 per cent, of the population
are dependent for a livelihood upon agri-
cultural resources, but the methods of cul-
tivation are of a very primitive character.
Sugar-cane is the most profitable crop,
but the absence of any permanent means
of irrigation tends to prevent ryots from
growing it; the soil throughout the State
is admirably suited for rice, which is sown
upon nearly 70 per cent, of the cultivated
area; and cotton, wheat, jute, potatoes,
and oil-seeds of various kinds are receiv-
ing more attention.

A number of irrigation bundhs, invalu-
able in times of drought, have been con-
structed, but many others are needed
before agriculture can become the success-
ful occupation that it ought to be.

Local manufactures and industries are
of an insignificant character, the principal
being the making of cotton fabrics, tusser
cloth, wooden cups, brass and bell-metal
utensils, ivory chains, buttons, sticks and
ornaments, while the chief exports include
timber, rice, cotton, oil-seeds, hides, and
minor forest products.

Education is making steady progress
in the State, there being 79 schools
as follows: one middle English school
and two Sanskrit tols at Nayargarh; one
maktab; seven upper primary schools;
and 68 lower primary institutions.
There has been a notable increase in the
number of special schools for Pans,
Khonds, and other races, and there is a
demonstration farm in charge of an agri-
cultural expert, who gives weekly lessons
on practical agriculture to a considerable
number of boys. A joint sub-inspector
has been appointed for Nayargarh and
Daspalia States to supervise the work done
in the upper and lower primary schools.

596

The State does not possess an unhealthy
climate, but a considerable amount of
sickness frequently takes place owing to
a lack of energy on the part of the people
with regard to the adoption of modern
hygienic methods. Reforms in this direc-
tion have been introduced and great bene-
fits have resulted from the opening of two
dispensaries, which are under the control
of a qualified sub-assistant surgeon.

There are also two indoor wards for
patients, one at Nayargarh and the other
at Orgaon, and a sub-assistant surgeon
from the Cuttack Medical School is per-
manently employed in primary vaccina-
tions and re-vaccinations of the people.

The principal buildings in the State are
well constructed, and they comprise the
Rajbati, Jagannath Jews' temple, Gopi-
nath Jews' temple, the State offices, a dak
bungalow for an inspecting officer, a
middle-class English school and hostel,
a dispensary, and wards for in-patients, to-
gether with a police station and quarters
for officers and constables.

The relations between the State and the
British Government are regulated by a
sanad granted in 1908, and the amount
payable annually as tribute is Rs. 5,525,
while the income reaches Rs. 2,27,802.

The State is now under the management
of the Government, and the present chief
is Raja Narayan Singh Mandhata. The
Jubaraj (heir-apparent) is aged six years
and the San Deo (second Raj-Kumar)
three years.

THE RAHGOPALPUR RAJ

Raja Jogendra Kishore Roy Chow-
dhury belongs to an ancient Zemindar
family of Ramgopalpur, in the district of
Mymensingh, Bengal. The family history
commences from Srikrishna Chowdhury,
the founder of the family. Raja Jogendra
Kishore is the sixth descendant of him
who obtained the Parganas Mymensingh
and Jafarshahi from Nawab Murshidkuli
Khan of Bengal in the early part of the
eighteenth century. He was an inliabitant
of Karai, a village in the district of Bogra.
His daughter-in-law, Narayani Devi,
gained the share of her ancestral property
after several contested suits with her co-
sharer, and she took possession of her
share on the strength of a sanad granted
to her on July 12, 1774, by Warren
Hastings. Narayani Debi's great-grand-
son was the late Kashi Kishore Roy
Chowdhury, the father of the present Raja.
On Kashi Kishore Roy Chowdhury was
conferred, for the first time in the district

INAYARGARH FEUDATORY STATE.

4. The Raja and the Jubaraj.

597

3T*

I, Thx New Rajbaii. NayargaKH,

NAYAEGARH FEUDATORY STATE.

2. The Old Rajbati. 3. Jacgahatu Temple.

4. Office Buildino,

598

INDIAN NOBILITY

of Mymensingh, an Honorary Magistracy,
and he exercised his powers for a period
of twenty-two years with extraordinary
ability and success, holding his court at
his own residence at Ramgopalpur.
Kashi Kishore Roy Chowdhury nicely
managed and greatly increased his ances-
tral property by the purchase of new
Zcmindaries in the districts of Faridpur,
Dacca, and Silhat. In recognition of his
loyalty to the British Raj as a leading
Zemindar in the district of Mymensingh,
a certificate of honour was presented to
him by the Government in the year 1877.
Kashi Kishore Roy Chowdhury was an
orthodox Hindu of exemplary character
and scholarly attainments.

Raja Jogendra Kishore Roy Chow-
dhury was born in the month of January
1858. He has inherited all the equalities
and virtues of his father, and, like him,
he is trusted and regarded highly by the
Government for his loyalty, munificence,
and devotedness to the welfare of his
tenants. Many Sanskrit scholars, hailing
from different parts of the country, are
welcomed by him every year, and they
are encouraged with annual donations
according to their merits. In 1897 a-
certificate of honour was presented to him
in the following words : —

" By command of His Excellency the
Viceroy and Governor-General in Council
this certificate is presented in the name
of Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen
Victoria, the Empress of India, to Rai
Jogendra Kishore Roy Chowdhury, Baha-
dur, son of Babu Kashi Kishore Roy
Chowdhury, Zemindar, in recognition of
his excellent management of his estate
and public liberality.

" [Signed) A. Mackenzie,
" Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal.

" June 20, 1897."

Raja Jogendra Kishore is known to the
public for his liberality and high-
mindedness. His charities are many-
sided — a first-class charitable dispensary
and a High School arc supported by him
at his own residence, and he has an
Atithshala at Ramgopalpur, where thou-
sands of travellers are sumptuously fed
year after year. He has spent a large
sum on the extension of education, and
the Kashi Kishore Technical School at
Mymensingh owes its existence to his
donation of nearly Rs. 45,000. The
Anandamohan College at Mymensingh is
the outcome of his timely donation of
Rs. 30,000, and it was proposed by the
Government to name it after the donor;

but the benevolent Raja, in order to com-
memorate the memory of the late Anan-
damohan Bose, requested the Government
to connect the name of the latter gentle-
man with the college, and this was
accordingly done. Raja Jogendra Kishore
has since contributed Rs. 2,000 towards
the college fund. His monthly subscrip-
tions to many institutions and hospitals
are still continued. Towards the excava-
tion of tanks, wells, and the extension of
waterworks at Mymensingh and Dacca
he gave altogether nearly Rs. 20,000.

Hall at Jamalpur, the Sir John Woodburn
Memorial Fund, the Keshab Academy in
Calcutta, the Kangra Valley Earthquake
Fund, the Endowment Fund for a Hindoo
Hostel at Mymensingh, Famine Relief
Funds in several districts, the Dacca Mit-
ford Hospital, the Pasteur Institution in
Shillong, and towards the renovation of
Barabanal Kunda at the Chandranath
Shrine.

For his liberality and public spirit, the
Government conferred upon him the title
of Rai Bahadur in 1895, and in 1909 he

BAJA JOGENDRA KISHORE ROY CHOWDHURY,' OF RAMGOPALPUR.

Among his numerous donations the fol-
lowing deserve mention. He gave
towards the Lady Dufferin's Fund the
sum of Rs. 1,500; to the Darjeeling
Sanatorium, Rs. 1,200 ; the Queen
Victoria Memorial Fund, Rs. 1,200; the
King Edward Memorial Fund, Rs. 2,000;
the Mymensingh New Hospital Fund,
Rs. 1,000; and the Mymensingh Old
City College Fund, Rs. 1,000. Besides
making these gifts he has lent his sup-
port to the Dacca Northbrook Hall, the
Mymensingh Alexandria Girls' School,
the boarding establishment in connection
with the Eden School (Dacca), the Town

599

was honoured with the title of Raja. At
the time of the Investiture Durbar at
Dacca, His Honour the Lieutenant-
Governor of Eastern Bengal and Assam
alluded to him as follows : —

" It is with much pleasure that, by the
direction of the Government of India, I
now confer upon you with this Khilat the
title of Raja. As owner of a very exten-
sive Zemindary, you have shown, by your
residence on the estate and your careful
regard to the requirements of your
tenants, by your loyalty during the recent
disturbance in your district, and by your
unswerving support of the ofRcers of

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Government in their efforts to maintain
order, eminent and distinguished services,
which the Government are very pleased
to acknowledge and reward. Your
liberality has been conspicuous. Your
charitable donations for public purposes
amount to very large sums, including a
contribution of Rs. 30,000 towards the
Mymensingh College, and a promise of
Rs. 30,000 towards the construction of a
bridge over the Brahmaputra River. I
trust and feel sure that you will continue
in the same course of meritorious action
in the future as you have in the past, and
that your tenants and the public may look
to you for support and assistance. I wish
you long life to enjoy the honour which
has now been conferred upon you."

TALCHER FEUDATORY STATE.

Talcher, a Feudatory State of Orissa,
lies between 20° 52' and 21° 18' N.,
and 84° 54' and 85° i6'E., at a distance
of nearly 60 miles from Cuttack, the
capital of the Orissa Division of the
Province of Behar and Orissa, and a
station on the Bengal-Nagpur Railway.
It is bounded on the north by the Bamra
and the Pal-Lahara States, on the east
by the Dhenkanal State, and on the south
and west by the district of Angul. It
covers an area of 399 square miles, and
has a population of 66,206 persons
scattered over five hundred villages. The
net income of the State, from all sources,
is nearly two lakhs of rupees, of which a
sum of Rs. 1,039-10-5 is paid as tribute
money to the British Government.

The State contains a workable coal-
field, and the Brahmani River, which tra-
verses the State, washes down small quan-
tities of gold, while iron and limestone are
found in nearly all parts.

The country is full of beautiful hills and
dales situated on both sides of the Brah-
mani and on the spur qf the great Indian
tableland. Talcher has one of the finest
climates in Orissa, and it may one day
become an important sanatorium for the
Province. The soil consists of sandy
clay, disintegrated from rocky matter, and
is highly productive.

It is said that at the end of the twelfth
century four younger brothers of the
Jaipur Rana Thakur family, who belonged
to the ancient Surya Vansa (Solar Race),
quarrelled with the eldest son and went
to Puri to see the idol Jagannath. They
were so proud of their Surya Vansa and
Rana Thakur family that they did not
properly salute the then Raja, and in con-

sequence they were not allowed to see the
idol. Two of them were killed and the
other two fled to a place named Bhimana-
gari, in the State of Dhenkanal, where
the eldest of them ruled up to his death.
He built a temple near his fort and set
up an idol named Ramchandi Devi. The
place and the idol now belong to
Dhenkanal.

The name of the elder of the two
brothers was Narahari Sinha, while the
other was called Udeykar Sinha. After
the death of the former, his son Tej Bhanu
Sinha became Raja of that place and con-
quered Parjang and Subalaya, now in the
Dhenkanal State. His uncle, Udeykar
Sinha, then went to Bonai, and became
Raja of that State. Tej Bhanu's son and
successor, Raja Govind Charan Routa Rai,
was the first to assume the title of " Birbar
Harichandan." Six generations followed.
The last of these. Raja Padmanav Birbar
Harichandan, left Subalaya, defeated by
the Raja of Dhenkanal State, and crossed
the Brahmani on an expedition of new
conquest, during which the goddess Tale-
swari is said to have made him victorious
over his enemy the Khondual Zemindar of
Remwa. The deity Hingula Devi, ac-
cording to tradition, also befriended him
in a battle, appearing in the shape of a
royal Bengal tiger, which became the State
insignia. The Raja, in honour of Tale-
swari, then gave the name of Talcher to
the place where the victory was won.
Raja Chakradhar Birbar Harichandan was
the next ruler, and his son Gopinath suc-
ceeded him in 165 i.

Until 1803 the ruler of the State was a
feudatory of the Mahrattas, but in Novem-
ber of that year he entered into a treaty
with the British Government, whereby he
engaged to be loyal and submissive to
them.

Raja Dayanidhi Birbar Harichandan,
the present Raja's grandfather, helped the
British troops at the time of the rebellion
of the Angul Raja in 1847, and was re-
warded with the title of Mahendra Baha-
duY, and the gift of a Khilai and an
elephant.

The present chief, Raja Kishore Chan-
dra Birbar Harichandan, born on June 9,
1880, succeeded his father. Raja Ram
Chandra Birbar Harichandan, in December
1891. During his minority the State was
under the administration of the Govern-
ment, and he was educated at the Cuttack
Ravenshaw College. In very early days
he was eager to learn and studied dili-
gently; but he was not unmindful of his
physical training, and entered heartily

600

into all games and manly exercises and
distinguished himself in athletics.

His formal installation took place on
June 9, 1901, when he attained his legal
majority. The State has prospered under
the Raja's rule as he has initiated several
reforms, among which may be mentioned
the thorough reorganization of the revenue
department and its establishment under
a competent revenue officer. The method
of levying the land tax has been improved,
and protection has been, as far as possible,
given to ryots against heavy and unjust
assessments. The Raja is keenly in-
terested in, and devotes much time and
attention to, the construction of public
works, and in recent years he has spent
vast sums of money upon a number of fine
buildings, four hundred miles of roads
leading to every nook and corner of the
State have been opened, *nd several dak-
bungalows have been erected.

The Raja pays special attention to the
subject of education, and there has been
a marked progress during his rule. He
raised the local M.V. school to the status
of a Middle English school, and this again
to a High English school, and there are
now the following educational establish-
ments in the State: namely, the Juvaraj
High English School, the Sanskrit Tol,
one upper primary girls' school, six upper
primary schools, fifty-four lower primary
schools, five lower primary girls' schools,
one training school, and one low caste
school.

In the matter of affording medical
relief, the State has adopted standards
which are generally approved at the
present day. This department is con-
trolled by a fully qualified medical officer,
and the hospital is equipped with up-to-
date medical appliances.

The Forest Department has also been
considerably improved. Before the
present chief came to the f^adi, the forests
were scanty and had been denuded of all
the best timber trees, but now there are
nearly 39 square miles (comprising
18 blocks) of reserved and 144 square
miles of protected forests.

Wild anima,ls, including elephants,
bison, deer, sambur, bear, tiger, leopard,
and pig, are fairly numerous, and keddahs
are constructed for the purpose of cap-
turing wild elephants from the jungle.

Endeavours are being made to secure
efficient conservancy and the planting of
new trees, while the felling of forest trees
which bear fruit for food of value to the
poor and destitute is strictly prohibited.
The department is under the charge of

TALCHEB FEUDATORY STATE.

I. Raja Kishore Chandra Birbar Harichandan, Feudatory Chief of Talcher State. 2. Juvaraja Hridaya Chandra Dev.

3. Pataei Promoda Chandra Dev. 4. The Shikar Trophies of the R«ja.

601

l/-

TALCHEK FEUDATOEY STATE.

1. Raja Ram Chandra Birbar Harichandan. 2. The Lion's Gate, Talcher State. 3. The Raj Palace, Talcher.

4. Ra;a Dayanidhi Birbar Harichandan Mahindra, Bahadur (Grandfaiuer).

602

INDIAN NOBILITY

a. forest officer and a trained staff of
rangers.

The ruler of Talcher is most enthusiastic
in the matter of improving his subjects,
and experimental farms have been estab-
lished in various places for the guidance
of occupiers of land in modern methods of
cultivation. Several channels and tanks
have already been excavated in order to
facilitate irrigation, and a considerable
number in addition are now under con-
struction. The chief is most energetic in
his attempts to promote the industrial
education of artisans, and for this purpose
he has opened a school and workshop at
Talcher, where various kinds of indigenous
arts and trades are taught in a practical
manner. It may be added that this school
is the only one of its kind in Orissa.

The Raja is a profound believer in edu-
cation, and with the view of providing a
plentiful supply of cheap literature he has
founded the Talcher Kishore Steam Press,
in which the entire work of printing is
carried out by local residents.

Further, the inauguration of the Kishore
Chandra Sahitya Samaj for the literary
advancement of the Talcher people
denotes a marked advance in the path of
progress. The chief is a man of high
literary distinction, and in recognition of
his merits in this direction the Utkal
Sahitya Shabha of Orissa invited him to
preside at their last annual conference
held at Cuttack. He is enthusiastic in his
encouragement of authors, and is always
prepared to render financial assistance to
them; while he is deeply interested in
the annual examination held under the
auspices of the Utkal Sahitya Shabha at
Cuttack, when a medal for research work
in the field of old Uriya literature is
presented.

Patriotism is a distinctive feature in the
Raja's character, and he is a loyal sup-
porter of any movement devoted to the
welfare of his motherland. In fact, it was
in order to do honour to him for his deep
attachment to his own country that he was
unanimously elected as President of the
third session of the Utkal Union Con-
ference held at Balasore.

The inhabitants of Talcher are the
special objects of the chief's love and care,
and he gives much thought to the question
of the improvement of their condition.
Without the help of a dewan he controls
all State affairs, and thus by coming into
close relationship with his devoted people
he is able to exercise special personal care
over their interests.
^Kln short, the Talcher people are con-

tented and live peacefully under the rule
of the chief, who may be regarded as the
creator of modern Talcher.

For the purposes of administration the
State is divided into five zillas and three
police thanas. There are the first and
the second class magistrates' courts, the
revenue court, the Dharmadhykohya's
court, the assistant session judge's court,
and the sessions court, for administration
of justice. All appeals from the lower
courts are heard by the chief, who exer-
cises full powers in both civil and criminal
actions. Death sentences are, however,
subject to the confirmation of the Com-
missioner of the Orissa Division of the
Province. The Raja personally supervises
the work of all departments and attends
daily to all State correspondence.

In private life the Raja is a perfect
gentleman, sociable, and courteous in be-
haviour, and he is simple in manners and
habits. As a social reformer, his efforts
to destroy several evil practices have been
most successful. He takes great interest
in the development of commerce, and his
private enterprises in this direction are
distinctly encouraging.

The Raja, with a keen eye for men of
ability and character, has surrounded him-
self with very able and experienced
officials, who co-operate with him, in
every possible way, in the work of
administration.

No more keen and enthusiastic sports-
man than the Chief of Talcher can be
found in the whole of Orissa, and his skill
as a marksman is rarely at fault. He
has bagged forty-seven tigers in addition
to numerous other animals.

The chief married the fourth daughter
of the late Maharaja Sir Basudeb Sudhal
Deb, K.C.I.E., of Bamra, and has two sons
and one daughter. The eldest prince was
born on February 27, 1902, the second on
September 12, 1903, and the princess, an
accomplished girl, on December 10, 1900.

The Raj-Kumars are very amiable and
accomplished, and give promise of being
worthy sons of their worthy father. Their
education, carried on under the personal
supervision of the chief, is not a bit in-
ferior to that given to any of their rank in
Raj-Kumar colleges. They are very eager
to learn and are diligent in their studies.
Like their father they are even now brave
riders, expert cyclists, good shots, and ex-
cellent motor-drivers. They take deep
interest in all kinds of sports and pastimes,
and it is through their enthusiasm that the
Talcher Club, organized to cultivate the
physical development of the young men of
603

Talcher, has made such rapid progress in
athletics.

Talcher, the headquarters of the
State, and the residence of the Raja, is
situated on the right bank of the Brahmani
River, and has a population of nearly five
thousand inhabitants. The town contaias
several main streets with masonry houses
and shops of prosperous traders. There
are also the State offices and courts, the
Sudor police station, a commodious jail,
the State hospital, the Ayurvedic Hall, the
Juvaraj High English School, the girls'
school, the training school, a resthouse,
an imperial post and telegraph office.

Talcher is a mart of considerable im-
portance.

The palace of the chief is a spacious and
imposing edifice, superbly furnished and
picturesque, being situated on the bank of
the Brahmani River. The Talcher " lion's
gate," unique in Orissa, is one of the finest
examples of the magnificent architecture
of India.

The conservancy and sanitation of the
whole town are conducted by the Talcher
municipality.

THE HON. RAJA RESHEE CASE
LAW, CLE.

Many of the existing families in India,
and notably in the Province of Bengal,
are able to trace an honourable history
through many generations, and the com-
mercial and social spheres in which their
predecessors moved have been raised to
a higher level mainly through their instru-
mentality. Ancestors made their mark as
merchants, or in some other calling, but
their true memorial — namely, the respect
and affection with which their names are
cherished to-day — will last far longer
than any masonry monument which may
have been erected over their remains. The
history of the Law family, widely known
in Bengal, affords an excellent example of
the manner in which leading men in
Calcutta and elsewhere can look back
with pride upon the records of their
forefathers.

The founder of the well-known firm of
Prawnkissen Law & Co., merchants,
capitalists, and zemindars of Calcutta,,
was Prawnkissen Law, who was born at
Chinsurah, about 23 miles from Howrah
Station, on the East Indian Railway
system, about the beginning of the nine-
teenth century. He was a man of shrewd
common sense in business, and although
he never attained a leading position as a
merchant during the years that he traded

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

in opium, salt, and other produce, he
nevertheless laid the basis of a concern
which is to-day one of the leading
establishments in financial, mercantile.
and land-holding circles in Calcutta.

Mr. Prawnkissen Law left three sons,
the eldest of whom was the Maharaja
Durga Charan Law, born at Chinsurah in
November 1822. He received a sound
general education in private schools and in
the Hindu College, until he was seventeen
years of age, when he became an assistant
to his father, until the latter's death in
1853. He then assumed full control, and
at once grasped the opportunity afforded
him of displaying those natural business
qualifications which he had inherited from
his father, and which had been put into
practice during his years of training.

It was recognized by those with whom
he came into contact that he was a man
of sterling integrity, and it was not long
before positions of responsibility and
honour were conferred upon him by the
Government. He was made a Justice of
the Peace and an Honorary Presidency
Magistrate, and his opinions on important
questions were so respected that he was
frequently consulted by the Government
of the Province upon various matters
affecting administration. He has been a
Port Commissioner since the foundation
of the Port Trust about fifteen years ago.

Durga Charan Law was never one to
thrust himself into prominent positions —
he was too modest for that; and as his
business capabilities could not be hidden
from the general public, he was accord-
ingly appointed Sheriff of Calcutta, a
member of the Legislative Council of
Bengal in 1874, and in 1882 and 1886
he occupied a seat on the Imperial Legis-
lative Council of India. A Companion-
ship of the Indian Empire was conferred
uf)on ihim in 1884, be was elected
President of the British Indian Associa-
tion upon two occasions, he became a Raja
in 1887, and only four years later he was
raised to the dignity of a Maharaja.

The business of the firm continued to
grow rapidly, as it was founded and con-
ducted upon strictly honourable lines.
While it was expanding, however, the
Maharaja never lost sight of what he
regarded as his duties towards his fellow-
man, and his donations to public institu-
tions and to private individuals were both
numerous and generous. In order to
illustrate this, reference may be made to
his foundation of scholarships in several
schools and colleges in Calcutta and
Chinsurah by a gift of Rs. 50,000 to

the Calcutta University, a donation of
Rs. 24,000 to various charitable societies,
and of Rs. 5,000 to the Mayo Hospital,
in Calcutta, of which he was appointed
a Governor in 1883.

Durga Charan did not take any active
part in the working of the firm after about
the year 1894, and he only ceased to be a
partner thereof on his death in 1904. He
retired after a most successful business
career, and although he naturally was
proud of the position which he had
attained in the world of commerce, he
appeared to value most of all the
privileges which his wealth afforded him
of benefiting others by his large-hearted
support of educational and charitable
institutions.

The strenuous life which he had led
caused a considerable strain upon his
physical vigour, and after a brief retire-
ment of only about ten years he died,
deeply regretted by a very wide circle
of friends.

The present proprietors of the firm are
Raja Kristo Dass Law, the Hon. Raja
Reshee Case Law, C.I.E., Babu Chundy
Charan Law, and Ambica Charan Law.

Prior to about twenty years ago the
firm held banianships for various Calcutta
firms, and were large exporters, and
dealers in all kinds of imported goods
and country produce, but its business
is now confined to imports only from
England.

The partners are owners of extensive
zemindaries in various parts of Bengal
and Orissa, and their properties in Cal-
cutta comprise a large number of
tenanted houses and private residences.

The mantle of Durga Charan Law has
truly fallen upon the shoulders of his
successors, and munificent gifts are
continually being made by them to
charitable and public objects. Among a
number of charitable donations have been
Rs. 80,000 towards the construction of
waterworks for the Chinsurah and
Hooghly Municipality, and Rs. 75,000 to
the University at Benares; but it is un-
necessary to prolong the list, as it is
almost a daily occurrence for the partners
— either collectively or individually — to
assist some worthy cause or to render
help in an unostentatious manner to
private persons.

Raja Reshee Case Law is the younger
of the two sons of Maharaja Durga
Charan Law, CLE. He was educated
in the Calcutta Hindu School and after-
wards in the Presidency College of Cal-
cutta. When he was about nineteen years
604

of age he was taken by his father from
the College and placed in the firm of
Messrs. Kelly & Co., with the view of
giving him a good commercial training
in exports and, in a small way, in imports,
and his quick intelligence enabled him
shortly to understand thoroughly the
intricacies of a mercantile concern. He
stayed there for several years, but was
afterwards transferred to his father's busi-
ness, where he used to attend to not only
the commercial but also the Zemindary
branches of the concern. During the life-
time of his uncle, Babu Sham Charan Law,
and after his death, the management of
the extensive Zemindary property of the
family devolved upon him, and though
at first quite a novice in the work, he
managed it to the satisfaction of his father
and uncles. He has had a considerable
experience of Zemindary work, covering
a period of about thirty-five years, and
he only retired from the management
about two or three years ago, owing to
ill-health and to pressure of public duties.
He left the Zemindary on a firm footing,
with a contented tenantry and as a profit-
able concern. Mter the death of his
father he became, and still is, a partner in
the firm of Messrs. Prawnkissen Law &
Co. He is connected with almost all the
well-known public bodies in Calcutta. He
is an Honorary Presidency Magistrate of
Calcutta, has been a member of the
Calcutta Corporation for over ten years,
was elected a member of the Calcutta Port
Trust for the first time by the Bengal
National Chamber of Commerce, and
afterwards on four occasions by the
Calcutta Corporation as their representa-
tive; and he has been a member of the
Calcutta Improvement Trust as the
representative of the Calcutta Corpora-
tion since its establishment and a member
of the District Board of 24 Parganas for
more than twenty-five years. As Presi-
dent of the Bengal National Chamber
of commerce for over ten years, and as
Secretary of the British Indian Associa-
tion, his work has always been highly
appreciated. He was also Vice-President
of the latter association; he has been a
member of the Local Consulting Com-
mittee of the East Indian Railway for
several years ; he is a Director of the
Sara-Sarajgunge Railway, a member of
the Advisory Board of the China Mutual
Insurance Company, a member of the
Bengal Chamber of Commerce, Secretary
of the Imperial League, and a Governor
of the " Refuge." He is a Vice-President
and Trustee of the Ram Mohan Library,

I. RESIDEK'CE.

HON. RAJA RESHBE CASE LAW, CLE.
2. The Hon. Raia Reshes Case Law, CLE. 3. Kumar Suhendra Nath Law.

4. Kumar Narendra Nath Law,

60a

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

which was founded largely through his
help and efforts, President of the Suvar-
navanik Samaj for some years— an honour
which has been placed upon him by his
fellow caste-men — and he was elected as
the President of the Conference of the
Suvarnabanik of Bengal which was con-
vened for the purpose of amalgamation
of all the sections of the caste for the
improvement of their education and for
the removal of the abuses which have
crept into their marriage system. He is
also a member of the Suvarnabanik
Charitable Association, a Joint Secretary
of the Suvarnabanik Samiti (a charitable
institution). Honorary Secretary of the
Maharraj Mata Hindu Widows' and
Brahmamoyi Hindu Orphans' Funds,
President (Calcutta Branch) of Anath-
bhandar Ram Krisha Mission (a chari-
table institution), a Trustee and Honorary
Treasurer of the Indian Museum, and a
member of the Government Art Gallery.
He is, further, a member of the Royal
Society of Arts (England) and of the East
India .Association (England), a member
of the Executive Committee of the Bengal
Branch of the Imperial Indian Relief
Fund; he has also served as a member
<rf the Advisory Board of Fisheries, as a
member of the Executive Committee of
the King Edward Memorial Fund, of the
Executive Committee of the Imperial
Reception Committee, and of the Calcutta
Military Tournament, and as a member
and Trustee of the College of Physicians
and Surgeons. He was recently elected
by the Bengal National Chamber of Com-
merce to represent the Indian Commer-
cial Community in the Ports Facilities
Committee, which was appointed by
Government to consider the question of
the development of the Port of Calcutta;
he was Joint Honorary Secretary of the
Burdwan Division Flood Relief Fund
(when he was highly praised for his
efficient and economical work); he was
also Joint Honorary Secretary in the
Eastern Bengal Famine Fund, and has,
in addition, held many minor posts which
need not be recapitulated. He has been a
member of the Bengal Legislative Council
since December 1909, and although
he was offered a seat in the Imperial
Legislative Council, he was compelled for
various reasons to decline the honour. He
was appointed Sheriff of Calcutta for one
year in December 191 4.

The double honour of Raja and the
Companionship of the Indian Empire was
conferred upon him in recognition of his
manifold services to the Government and

the general public, while the interest
which he takes in all public affairs and
the whole-hearted way in which he dis-
charges his public duties cannot escape
attention.

There is, in fact, hardly any movement
in Calcutta of a public nature with which
he is not connected in some way or other.
The Raja is a man of retiring disposition,
and, like his illustrious father, he is too
modest to thrust himself into prominent
positions.

PRITHI CHAND LALL CHOUDHRY
(ZEMINDAR OF NAZARGUNGE)

This wealthy Zemindar and banker of
Purnea, in the division of Bhagalpur, in
the Province of Behar and Orissa, was
born in 1886, and during the lifetime of
his father was educated at the Purnea Zilla
School. After his father's death his edu-
cation was continued privately under the
supervision of Rev. A. H. Manning, a
Cambridge graduate.

Prithi Chand Lall entered into posses-
sion of his splendid inheritance on his
coming of age on March 3, 1906. He suc-
ceeded his father, Dharam Chand Lall
Choudhry, in March 1899, and as the
property had been managed during his
minority in a most able manner by the
executors of his father's will (one of whom
was a European), Prithi Chand Lall had
the felicity of inheriting a well-organized
and systematically conducted estate. He
is probably one of the richest men in the
district, and certainly the wealthiest in the
town of Purnea itself, and, like his father
and grandfather before him, he is a
philanthropist as well as a business man,
and his splendid gifts to all charitable
institutions are well known.

Babu Nackched Lall Choudhry, the
grandfather of the present incumbent of
the estate (known as the Nazargunge
estate), was most public-spirited and
liberal. He, among other charitable acts,
subscribed Rs. 80,000, representing more
than half the cost of the construction pf
the fine Sowra bridge over the River Sowra
at Purnea, which now connects the civil
station with the old city of Purnea.

Babu Dharam Chand Lall Choudhry
succeeded his father, Nackched Lall
Choudhry, when quite young, to what
might be called rather a small estate,
but having had a keen insight into
both the zemindary and banking busi-
ness, he increased the latter enormously
by wise administration and careful in-
vestments, and although he died in the

606

prime of life, he left a very large
sum of money. He was intelligent and
hardworking, and by personal supervision
of his property he became one of the
foremost zemindars of the district.

In public life he was equally hard-
working, and was much respected as a
honorary magistrate. Among his numer-
ous charitable acts was a substantial con-
tribution towards the establishment of the
Lady Dufferin Hospital at Purnea. He
died in 1899, much regretted by all who
knew him, his death being regarded as
a serious public loss.

Since his accession, Prithi Chand Lall
Choudhry has personally managed the
affairs of his State with great ability,
thereby giving abundant evidence of the
careful training he had received. He is
very persevering and enterprising, and in
proof of this introduced in his office a sys-
tem of division of work with a responsible
officer at the head of each department.
Although that system worked well, he
required more time to devote to the
call of public duties, and in furtherance
of that object he in 191 1 entrusted his
whole estate to the management of the
Honourable Rai Bahadur Nishi Kanta Sen,
B.L., F.R.S.A., a well-known man of
exceptional ability and intelligence
throughout the Province of Behar and
Orissa. Under this new regime many
reforms have been introduced, and the
reputation of the estate has been firmly
and wisely established.

Prithi Chand Lall is very popular with
European oflScials and others, with whom
he associates freely. He is the ruling
energy of the Purnea Polo Club, keeping
a large number of ponies; he has several
good performers on the turf; he rides well,
and is a volunteer in the Northern Bengal
Mounted Rifles. He is an honorary magis-
trate of the Purnea Sudder independent
bench, a member of the District Board,
and vice-chairman of the Purnea muni-
cipality. He takes a keen interest in
municipal affairs, devoting much of his
time to them, and his work in a responsible
position has been highly eulogized by the
Government in its annual administration
reports. His charities are numerous, and
in addition to defraying the expenses of
many poor boys at schools and colleges
and subscribing liberally to educational
establishments and hospitals, he has
created a trust of Rs. 3,500 a year, charge-
able on his property, of which the chair-
man of the District Board is trustee, for
the following purposes: —

" I. That out of the Trust Fund the

I. Jasmine Talace, Purnea City.

ZEMINDAR OP NAZARGUNGE.
2. Zemindar of Nazargvnce on Sultan.
4. Zemindar of Nazargunce in State Costume.

3. Nazarccnge Polo Team.

607

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

trustee will pay Rs. 8 a month for a
scholarship called the ' Prithi Chand
Scholarship,' to be awarded to the student
who stands first in order of merit in the
matriculation examination from the Purnea
Zilla School, but who fails to secure a
Government scholarship, the scholarship
to be tenable for two years, provided
the student continues his study in any
approved college and is of good
conduct.

" 2. That a gold medal called ' Bhag-
wanbati Choudhrain Medal,' Rs. 60 in
value, shall be given annually to the lead-
ing student of the Purnea Zilla School in
the matriculation examination.

" 3. That Rs. 2,000, or an approximate
sum which the trustee shall think suiifi-
cient, shall be paid annually to the Purnea
Charitable Hospital to be utilized, in the
first instance, for the maintenance of a
surgical ward to be constructed by Babu
Prithi Chand Lall in the Sadar Charitable
Hospital compound, to be called the
' Dhuram Chand Surgical Ward,' and,
further, for the general benefit and
relief of poor patients confined in that
hospital.

" 4. That the sum of Rs. 1,200 a year
shall be paid to the President of the

Purnea City Dispensary Committee for the
purpose of making provision for the
supply of good and fresh drugs for medi-
cines, and for engaging an efficient senior
sub-assistant surgeon for the said dis-
pensary. The Trustee shall be at liberty
to fix the amount which will have to be
paid out of the aforesaid sum on account
of the extra remuneration to be paid to
such surgeon who is to be engaged by
the District Board."

In addition to the above Trust a sum of
Rs. 20,000 has been promised by Mr.
P. C. Lall for the construction of the
above-named surgical ward in the Sadar
Charitable Hospital. This splendid en-
dowment has brought Mr. Lall to the front
rank of public-spirited men in Behar
and Orissa, and it will undoubtedly be
a lasting monument to commemorate
his memory. His liberal donations of
Rs. 15,000 for the Hardinge Memorial
Park at Bankipore and of Rs. 9,000 for
a motor ambulance car as a contribution
to the " Behar War Fund " have not
passed unnoticed by the public. He is a
liberal-minded young man of broad views,
and never refuses when his helping hand
is sought in furtherance of objects of
public utility. He takes special interest

in agriculture and in indigenous industries,
and has established a model farm in the
vicinity of the city of Purnea under his
personal supervision. Attached to the
annual Purnea city fair, of which he is the
proprietor, an industrial and agricultural
exhibition is held every year, and four
gold and eight silver medals and money
prizes are awarded by him to exhibitors
gaining the highest distinctions. The
cattle show is also an important function
in connection with the agricultural section
of the exhibition, and handsome money
prizes are awarded to the owners and
traders of the best animals. The Govern-
ment Agricultural Department and the
Purnea District Board render assistance
by contributions towards these two
exhibitions.

The building built by himself in Purnea
is a palatial one, and it is exquisitely fur-
nished and equipped with a complete
electric installation.

Prilhi Chand Lall Choudhry is a well-
educated young man of temperate habits,
affable, courteous, and pleasing in man-
ners, and he is also a promoter of all
kinds of healthy sports, while he person-
ally is a keen sportsman and has accounted
for a large number of big game.

608

iissiiii^gtmmm^u^a^^mmm

THE RACECOUKSE, CALCUTTA (VICEROY'S CUP DAY).

P/io/o Ay yolnstm &■ Hoffman ii.

SPORT

HE " sport of kings,"
as racing is usually
termed, is a manifes-
tation of that in-born
spirit of emulation
which is common to
all races of mankind
and to all species of
the animal kingdom. In other words there
is in a healthy body a natural desire to
strive against some other man or animal,
to overcome that opposing force, and to
enjoy the sensation of being an easy first
in the struggle.

\'ery interesting notes are given in Tllr
India Sportinii Review, vol. i., .March-
Jimc, 1S45, regarding the origin and
intiqiiity of horse-racing, and it is toler-
ibly certain, from the earliest records of
his sport, that games were held in patri-
irchal times, when horses, yoked to
rhariots, were driven by Romans or
jrecks. " The first account of these races
vas given in connection with the festivities
)f -Mithras, or the Sun, to whom Porphyry
issures us the people paid their worship
n a cavern." Persian monarchs celebrated
lie worship of Mithras with great pomp,

THE TURF

and it is clear that horse-racing, to which
they were greatly attached, was included
in their progrannne of sports. This may
be inferred from Holy Writ, where it is
stated that on account of the idolatry of
the King of Judah, some 2,550 years ago,
or 633 years before the Christian era, King
Josiah " took away the horses that the
former had given to the sun, and he also
burned their chariots." But the holding
of these Mithraic festivities spread from
Eastern to Western countries, as the
ancient Greeks had their hippodromes, and
the Sicilians had their Ludus Trojanus.
.Sculptures representing the sacrifices and
symbols of Mithraic worship have been
discovered in many cavernous places in
the East, but in the year 1747 others were
unearthed in the city of V'ork, in England,
proving that the Romans had introduced
the festivities into Britain during the five
centuries of their power in that country,
that is, between 55 B.C. to A.D. 446. In
a description of London, written by Fitz-
stephen in the reign of Henry II, a refer-
ence is made to horse-racing, and this
sport was frequently indulged in during
the reign of Charles I (1640) at Xew-

609

market and other places. Charles II
spent a considerable sum of money in the
importation of high-class mares for breed-
ing purposes, and from that time to the
present there has been steady progress in
the evolution of the horse.

Notwithstanding the above-mentioned
facts, it may be taken for granted that
horses began to compete against each
other when in a wild state long before they
were taken in hand by man and subse-
quently trained for sport. And after many
long years we have secured the perfect
symmetry, the courage, and the ability to
end'ure which are so much to be admired
in the thoroughbred's now seen on race-
courses in all parts of the world.

The old question as to whether racing
really tends to improve and encourage the
breeding of horses has been answered so
completely in the history of the turf, and
by the e.\periences of owners of studs,
during recent years, that it need not be
considered in these notes.

The high standard of the racehorse of
to-day is due in a very large measure to
racing, hunting, and, in later years, polo.
Winning sires and dams on the flat or over

2 U

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

sticks, and hunters which have carried
their riders without fault for long and
tiring days are eagerly sought after for
stud purposes, and even then the greatest
care is taken in making a judicious selec-
tion of sires and dams in order that points
of excellence may be maintained or
strengthened, or, on the other hand, that
any slight fault in conformation may be
cot reeled.

The genealogy of the principal turf-
winners of the present day can be traced

has been made in the quality both of
horses and sport. The hardy, and in some
instances remarkably well-bred, ponies
provided an unusual amount of enjoyment
at meetings, sometimes extending over a
week, held in all parts of India, and it is
a well-known fact that lovers of horse-
flesh were in the habit of riding many a
dozen miles in order to be present at some
of these gatherings. And what gatherings
they were too! One can easily picture
a number of tents, forming almost a small

states that " the want of a journal to
record sports in the East has been strongly
felt," and that " the decision to publish
one was only resolved upon at the repeated
instigation of a number of s])ortiiig
men."

.Although racing was to have priority
of place in the new publication, the table
of contents of that volume includes articles
on " The Osteology of the Elephant,"
" Elephant Hunting in Ceylon," " Review
of the Calcutta Hunting Season,"

1. MONSOON RACES, CALCUTTA. 2. MAYFOWL, WINNER OP THE VICEROY'S CUP ON FOUR OCCASIONS.

3. FITZGRAPTON, WINNER OF THE VICEROY'S CUP IN 19C6 AND 1907.

to ancestors whose sterling worth was
proved in many exceedingly keen contests,
and proud indeed were those successful
owners who in many instances not only
rode their own horses but also bred them
in their own stables, and trained them on
their own private courses. But it must
not be forgotten that we are now dealing
with India and mu.it refer to some aspects
of racing in the Provinces of Hengal,
Bchar and Orissa, and Assam, in that vast
country.

There is little doubt that this princely
pastime was popular in far-off ages, and
even with the comparatively few authori-
tative available records it is not difficult
to learn that very great and rapid progress

town of canvas, pegged out among the
most charming scenery, and occupied by
well-to-do men who kept open house for
all comers, in addition to acting as hosts
for perhaps twenty or thirty invited guests.
Grand stands, starting gates, and other
adjuncts of present-day conditions were
then unknown, but their absence did not
appear to militate against successful
meetings.

By the kindness of Mr. James Hutchi-
son, the secretary of the Calcutta Turf
Club, access has been had to some of the
earliest available records of racing in
India, and extracts therefrom are made
in the.se notes. In the previously men-
tioned Sporting Review a prefatory note

6lO

" Cricket," " .V Glance at the Stage,"
and " The Dacca Turf," together with
reports of fixtures at Calcutta, DiiKipore,
and elsewhere.

Particulars are given of the races at
Calcutta for the meetings of 1844-3, '"'•'
the principal feature of the fixture was
the remarkably fine performances of the
two maidens, Crab and Oranmore, belong-
ing respectively to Mr. Petre and Mr.
Alexander.

Crab won four times at the first and
se;ond meetings, while Oranmore a-
counted for six races. They ran three
dead heats at the two meetings, the first
two at equal weights of 8 stone 7 11>., while
Oranmore was in receipt of 2 lb. in the

T. HcNnso Jackals.

SOME OLD VIEWS OF INDIAN SPOBTS.
(From " Oriental Field Sports,'" by Edward Orme, London, 1H07.)
a. Shooting a Leopard. 3. Huniinc an Old Buffalo.

4. Hunting a Kutlauss, oe Civet Cat,

611

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

third contest. For the Bengal Club Cup
(2 miles) Oranmore won his heat, cover-
ing the mile in i min. 52 sec, while in the
dead heat the time was i min. 5 1 .J sec.

There were thirty-four races; twenty-
two horses were saddled; thirteen were
winners; and of the nine who were beaten
only two came out twice. The winners
were Elcpoo, seven times; Oranmore, six;
Crab, four; Soldan, four; Rocket, four;
Jack Cade, two ; and Young Gazelle, Flib-
bertigibbet, Clem of the Clough, Selim,
Chusan, Cashmere, and Marsaroni, one
each. The famous Elepoo arrived in Cal-

wilh notes on nominations and prospec-
tuses for other meetings. It is observed
that Calcutta is not mentioned in that list
of fixtures, but in the racing season in
1 845-6 nominations were invited for a cup
presented by the Deputy-Governor of
Bengal " for all maideh horses, English
excepted," the race to be run in Calcutta.
Tlie names of leading owners at that date
included Barker, Green, East, Petrc,
Jones, Abrani, " The Squire," Robert,
Sheik Ibrahim, and Newton, while well-
known horses comprised Janbay, Sheriff,
Banker, Burkra, Daroit, Oberon, Flail,

rLAH or THE

C.MXUTT.V R.vrK toi RSK

IS4i.

PLAN OP THE CALCUTTA RACECOURSE IN 1845.

cutta in the hot weather of 1842, and his
first appearance under silk was in the
Derby in December 1 843, and during that
and the second meetings of the same
season he ran eleven times in five days,
winning the first Calcutta Derby, the Great
Welter, the Calcutta Stakes, the Maiden
Arab Purse, the Purse and Sweepstakes ( 2
miles), the Bengal Club Cup, the first
Calcutta St. Leger, the Welter Sweep-
stakes, the Radamadub Banerjee's Purse,
the Trades' Plate, and the Maiden Arab
Sweepstakes. During the meetings of
1844-45 Elepoo won the Governor-
General's Cup and a Handicap Purse, and
" walked over " five times, thus making
thirteen contested races without having
been beaten once.

The next periodical to be noticed is
The Bengal Sporting Magazine, dated
October 1845. Its contents included
articles on pig-sticking, fishing in Tirhut,
races at Karachi, Simla, Meerut, Allaha-
bad, Sonepur, and Umballah, together

Camel, Merry Monarcli, Oily Gammon,
Energy, Farewell, and Oueen Bee.

An important event in sporting circles
in Calcutta occurred on February 27,
1847, when a meeting of gentlemen in-
terested in the turf was held at the Race
Stand, the chairman being Mr. J. F.
McKilligin.

A paper, signed l)y thirty-six gentlemen
who were stewards, owners of horses, and
others in favour of the formation of a
sporting club, was presented, and after
discussion, a comprehensive resolution,
proposed by Mr. J. Staniforth and
seconded by Mr. W. Grey, was carried
unanimously to the effect " that the Cal-
cutta Turf Club be constituted, and that
the following gentlemen form the com-
mittee until the 1st of December next, on
which date an election shall take place
annually."

The names put before the meeting were:
Messrs. J. Staniforth, J. Beckwith, W.
Grey, W. F. Fergusson, and W. P. Grant.
612

It was further resolved that one gold
mohur should be charged as admission fee,
and also for every annual subscription.
Mr. James Hume was appointed secretary.
During the following half-dozen years
racing was warmly supi)orted, but in the
Sporting Review for the latter portion of
the year i 855 it is stated that "Calcutta is
no longer the centre of a great and active
s])orting interest," and it was a sore dis-
appointment to many that for the meeting
in 1854-56 subscriptions had not been
])aid, and that there had been no racing
worthy of the name, whereas in 1850 some
350 gold niohurs were subscribed, and
twenty-nine races were pulled off at two
meetings, the stakes amounting to nearly
£8,000. The reason given for this failure
was that owners ran horses for gambling
only, and that the true sporting clement
had almost disappeared. It seems that
this aljsefice of real interest on the part of
owners, as sportsmen, in Calcutta, was a
kind of epidemic, as there are no records
of meetings at Krishnagar, Berhampnre,
Jessore, and other well-known places.
Many were the lamentations respecting
this set-back, and, as troubles never come
singly, the stewards in the early portion
of the year 1856 were threatened with llie
possible breaking up of their racecourse
and the conversion of it into market
gardens. Captain Turnbull, who was
secretary at the time, worked with a will
to prevent such a desecration, and he
ultimately succeeded in obtaining a fresh
list of subscribers, and further secured
considerable support for forthcoming
meetings.,

A revival set in, I)ut it was checked l)y
great unpleasantness occurring in connec-
tion with what was known as " The
Dealers' Plate," and as to the admission of
jockeys, stable-keepers, and dealers as
owners of running horses.

The stewards therefore held a confer-
ence prior to the meetings in 1856-57, and
it was unanimously decided " that no horse
could start on the Calcutta course unless
declared bona-fide the property of a
gentleman subscriber, nor could any con-
federacy with dealers or jockeys Euro-
l)can or native) be allowed."

It is believed that this decisive action oil
the part of the stewards had a most bene-
ficial effect upon subsequent racing, but
it is unfortunate that few particulars rcl.it-
ing to turf matters in Calcutta can he
obt.iined until the year 1870, when the
Oriental Sporting Magazine took the jilace
of the Indian Sporting Review. The
stewards for the Calcutta first meeting

I, Death OF the Bear,

SOME OLD VIEWS OF INDIAN SPORTS.

(From "Oriental Field Spirt?," by Kdward Orme, London. 1S07.)

2. A Tiger springing cpon an Klephant. 3, Chasing a Tiger across a Kiver.

613

2V*

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

held on December 17, 1870, and January
I, 1 87 1, were the Hon. Major Bourkc,
Mr. J. .\. Crawford, Colonel Raikes, Mr.
T. M. Robinson, and Major Mylne. The
clerk of the course was Mr. W. Pritchard ;
the judge, Mr. J. A. Crawford; and the
secretary, Mr. Charles Hartley.

Racegoers of those days assert that tlic
entries for the principal races were ex-
tremely good, but it was feared that, owing
to continued heavy rains, which had im-
peded the training of horses, the success
of the forthcoming meeting was somewhat
doubtful.

It appears that Bombay horses were
strongly in evidence for the Derby Stakes
(so much so that only three Bengal entries
were seriously mentioned in the money
market), and the result of the race proved
the correctness of public opinion, as The
Earl, belonging to a Mr. Field, hailing
from the Western Presidency, won with
a length to spare from Mr. W. W. Grey's
Warrior, who was a similar distance in
front of Silvertail, belonging to H.H. Aga
Khan.

A controversy sprang up about this date
as to the advisability of holding racing
fi.xtures during afternoons instead of
mornings, and one sporting writer, in
giving vent to his opinions on the subject,
said: " Why races are held in the morn-
ing I cannot conceive. We do not leave
the lottery room until after 2 a.m. to make
arrangements for racing which is to com-
mence at seven o'clock. It is nonsense to
say that it is on account of the heat, as
it is hotter with a rising sun at 9.30 than
it is at 3.30. Nearly every one who is
interested seems to prefer afternoon sport;
the majority of owners, the jockeys to a
man, and certainly all the ladies, would
welcome the change. Why, then, should
stewards persist in the antediluvian and
barbarous custom of racing before break-
fast? Up in the morning before daylight,
out on the maldan in fog bad enough to
produce phthisis in man and pleuro-pneu-
monia in horses, simply because stewards
refuse to listen to the protests of owners
and others."

The question was left in abeyance for
a time, but it was ultimately decided that
" out of a total of eight days' racing at two
meetings, two days during the first fix-
ture should be given up to afternoon
racing, and the remaining six days should
be devoted to early morning racing as
heretofore."

Prior to the racing season of 1872-73
the stewards were compelled to re-model
their prospectus as the Lieutenant-

Governor of Bengal refused to allow the
usual English Derby lottery to be held
in Calcutta, and as the percentage upon
tickets sold had for many years past pro-
vided the club funds with an annual sum
ranging from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 8,000, it
became necessary to reduce the value of
the purses, and further, to obtain gifts
of special cups to meet the deficiency.

The baneful effect upon raring in India
caused by the veto placed by the Sultan
of Turkey upon the exportation of Arab
horses was never more keenly realized than
it was at the Calcutta Christmas meeting
of 1873. The imported animals of pre-
vious years had been absorbed in various
parts of the country, with the result that
the entries for the forthcoming Derby were
no more than eight in number, whereas
between twenty and forty horses had
hitherto been counted u])on.

The season of 1875-76 will long be
remembered for the visit to Calcutta of
his late Majesty King Edward VTI, when
Prince of Wales, and the event proved to
be a landmark in the history of the turf in
India.

A specially attractive programme of
events was prepared; purses of large
amounts were promised ; and the Viceroy
and a number of Indian gentlemen offered
cups with the object of inducing owners
of the best horses in India to attend the
meeting. Stewards and members of the
club vied with one another in making ar-
rangements, and a sum of Rs. 6,000 was
expended in repairs, repainting, and re-
furnishing the grand stand, and a further
amount of Rs. 2,000 was spent on the
course. The grand stand was reserved
for the royal party, the Viceroy, Govern-
ment ofificials, and a number of chiefs from
all parts of India, and the spectacle of
the sombre garments of the West pre-
sented a fine contrast to the dazzling cos-
tumes and jewels of Eastern potentates.

The royal cortege, it is said, arrived
upon the coiirse in true Ascot fashion, and
it was met by stewards at the two-mile
post and at the foot of the steps of the
grand stand.

Royal success attended a royal meeting,
and the Prince of Wales, with his cus-
tomary courtesy, expressed his great satis-
faction at the manner in which the ar-
rangements had been carried out.

A glance may now be taken at the
results of some of the principal races held
in Calcutta in recent years. Thirty years
ago ( 1887) in the race for His Excellency
the Viceroy's Cup {\\ miles), the bay
Australian gelding Myall King, belonging
614

to that fine sportsman. Lord William
Beresford, won in 3 min. 9J sec. ; and the
same horse pulled off that event for his
owner in the following year in two seconds
less time and carrying a burden of 9 St.,
this being 6 lb. over the weight of the
previous year. In 1890, Myall King was
again saddled for the same race, and once
more he brought a cup to swell the list of
Lord William's trophies. Probably the
chief feature of this event was the un-
paralleled success attained by Mr. after-
wards Sir) A. A. Apcar with his grand
horse Mayfowl, who was stripped for the
race in 19 10 and who was first past the
post with his weight of 9 st. 3 lb. in the
remarkably good time of 3 min. 2 sec. In
191 I, Mayfowl, again carrying 9 st. 3 lb.,
ran away with the Cup in 3 min. i^ sec.
In the following year the same old horse
was again sent to the post by .Sir .A. A.
Apcar, and after a most exciting race,
fought inch by inch with the English mare.
Brogue, owned by Mr. M. Goculdas, the
judge was unable to separate the pair, who
were respectively ridden by the brothers
C. and A. Hoyt, time 3 min. 3§ sec. But
Mayfowl was not done with yet, even for
first -class performances, and in 191 3 he
again secured His Excellency's Cup in
3 min. 7J sec. He ran in that race for
Mr. " R. R. S.," who won the same event
in 1914 with Bachelor's Wedding in
3 min. 8 sec. There are few racegoers
of to-day who do not remember with
pleasure the splendid victory of that keen
little horse, Kiltoi, who carried to the
front the colours of General Nawabzada
Obaidulla Khan in 1915.

His Majesty the King-Emperor when
in India in 191 i presented a Cup to be
competed for annually, and the first race
took place in 19 12, over a course i mile
5 fur. 58 yds., when first blood was drawn
by Mr. J. C. Galstaum, of Calcutta, one of
the staunchest supporters of the turf in
India. In 191 5 this event was won by
Bachelor's Wedding, who, it will be re-
membered, had in the previous year
secured the Viceroy's Cup for Mr.
"R. R. S."

The Indian Grand National Steeple-
chase of three miles is one of the prin-
cipal attractions of the year, and in 1895
and 1896 His Highness the Maharaja of
Patiala was the winner with his horses,
Prince Imperial and Wanderer, in the
respective times of 6 min. 58 sec. and
7 min. 3 1 sec. This event has not been
won twice in succession by any horse, but
Mr. Straw took honours in 1897 and
1898; the Hon. Mr. A. A. Apcar in 1906

I. liEATING SUGAR-CANr FOR A HoC.

SOME OLD VIEWS OF INDIAN SPORTS.

(From "Oriental Field Sports," by Kdward Orme, London, 1807.)

2, The Chase after the Hoc. 3. The Hog at Bav.

4, The Dead Hog.

61s

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

and 1907; Mr. Curtis-Hayward led in his
horse Pilot in 19 14 after a journey covered
in o min. losecand in the following year
Mr. M. Goculdas was the proud owner of
the winner, First Venture, who safely
negotiated all obstacles and passed the
flags in 6 min. 55 sec.

Records show that " slcy " meetings
were held at various places in Bengal and
Behar in the forties of last century, but
they lapsed for several years and were
revived again early in the twentieth cen-
tury. One of the earliest in Calcutta was
held in December 1844. The chief event
was for a purse of Rs. 200, together with
plate and a cup. The weights appear to
have been most irregularly apportioned,
but sheer good fun permeated the whole
meeting. One horse. Monument, standing
16 hands i inch, was supposed to carry
13 St. 7 lb., but when the time came, for
weighing out not a single competitor could
adjust his balance. Some one proposed
that Monument should carry a man and a
boy, as the jockey's normal weight was
only 9 St., and others suggested the carry-
ing of two saddles, but eventually an
agreement was arrived at, and the first
heat resulted in a win for Over-thc-left,
Monument, the favourite, having refused
to leave the starting-post. In the second
heat Monument's jockey won " hands
down," with the others nowhere. The
Earl of Mayo, during his viceroyalty, was
a warm supporter of, and constantly at-
tended race meetings in various parts of
India, and he was always assured of an
exceedingly warm welcome at the small
but intensely enjoyable fi.xtures at Sone-
pore.

There are few sportsmen in India who
have not heard of, even if they have not
participated in the enjoyable annual fort-
night spent in racing and general sports
at Sonepore, in the district of Saran, in
Behar. These festivities were established
many years ago by planters who made
these gatherings the occasion for enter-
taining friends in a princely fashion; races
of all kinds were held daily, the evenings

were devoted to dances and other amuse-
ments in which the ladies of the party were
the leading spirits; and the fun and frolic
which took place on those occasions was
a thing to be remembered for many years
afterwards. A meeting held in November
1844 may be specially mentioned, as it
witnessed the striking success of a Captain
Lovatt, who won seven out of nineteen
events, and secured second honours on six
occasions. The last race of that fixture
was probably the most interesting event.
It was open to all horses, with weights
according .to the Calcutta standard, which
was for two-year-olds, feather-weight;
three years, 7 st. 4 lb.; four years, 8 st.
4 lbs.; five years, 8 st. 13 lb.; six years,
9 St. 3 lb. ; and aged, g st. 5 lb. Captain
Lovatt was represented by his Cape horse,
Napoleon, who was opposed by Ecartd,
Gre,gor, Orville, and Minor. Gregor made
the running, and was followed by Minor,
but all competitors were bunched together
at the end of a.mile.' At the turn for home
Napoleon shot ahead and soon outpaced
the others, cantering in an easy winner in
front of Ecarte and Gregor.

At the fixture held in the month of
November 1871, His Excellency Lord
Mayo received Sir Jung Bahadur in open
Durbar. The latter arrived with his en-
tourage— in all the splendour of an
Oriental potentate; he was received with
a salute of artillery; and the proceedings
were marked by great enthusiasm and
delight among the crowd of visitors at
this most enjoyable annual gathering.
The visit of His Highness was returned by
the Viceroy during the afternoon of the
same day, when the latter reviewed and
complimented the smart and soldierly ap-
pearance of Sir Jung's military escort.

]\Iany years ago very enjoyable " sky "
races were held at Dum Dum, a canton-
ment situated about four miles from Cal-
cutta. The special interest attaching to
these fixtures was that they were held in
the " off " season as regards leading-
centres of racing, which corresponded with
the time of year when the ordinary in-

habitants and visitors in the chief city on
the Hooghly had, as they expressed them-
selves, nothing to do by way of amuse-
ment. After a long interval these meet-
ings were resumed on November 18, 1S74,
chiefly through the enterprising spirit of
the 62nd Regiment (stationed at Dum
Dum) and of military detachments from
Calcutta. Success, written in capital
letters, must be the historical verdict of
the proceedings, as everything went with
a swing from start to finish. Many first-
class horses were saddled for cross-coun-
try events, and there was a general con-
sensus of opinion that the majority of the
performers (which belonged to non-pro-
fessional racing men, and were piloted by
gentlemen riders) were capable of acquit-
ting themselves with credit upon any race-
course in India.

The fine sport afforded by the meeting
just referred to was so greatly appreciated
that early in the year 1875 energetic
stewards were appointed to collect sub-
scriptions and issue a prospectus for
another one to be held in the month of
November following. There was a very
gratifying response both as regards money
and horses, and long before the eventful
day, November 6th, the Dum Dum Execu-
tive formed the opinion that future meet-
ings would be the commencement of first-
class fixtures. A sufficiently warm sun for
an early winter day put gladness into the
hearts of visitors, and with a well-filled
card and the course in an excellent con-
dition, there was every prospect of real
enjoyment, provided, of course, that the
unexpected did not happen, and that the
vision of prospective winnings might not
give place to a clouded horizon upon which
banknotes were drifting farther and
farther away.

As far as racing went, however, there
was nothing left to be desired, as scratch-
ings were remarkably few in number.

In four events, for example, the
starters comprised twelve, ten, ten, and
six horses, while the other events were
nearly as well supported.

POLO IN CALCUTTA

'"PHE claim of Calcutta to be the nursery
-*• of the modern game of polo is indis-
putable; it would, indeed, be hardly an
extravagance to contend that it was also
its birthplace. It is true that before the

By pat LOVETT

Calcutta Polo Club was established there
existed, for a year or a little more, a polo
club at Cachar, the members of which were
planters and Manipuris. It was formed
by Colonel R. Stewart, the superintendent,
616

who got the Manipuris to teach the game
to the Europeans of the station. That was
undoubtedly the germ of the sport which
reached its full stature in the historic
international encounter between England

SPORT

and the United States of America at Long
Island, New Vork, in June 1 9 1 4, when
Captain Barre'.t, 15th Hussars, wlio took
a notable part in the jubilee celebration of
the Calcutta Polo Club, led to victory the
team which vindicated the primacy of
England. The Cachar Club, however, was
never more than a local institution which
cannot be said to have had any part in the

well-known merchant, Mr. " Bobbie "
Hills. He was a gallait sportsman and a
raost popular member of Calcutta Society,
and to him belongs the glory of founding
the Calcutta Polo Club in 1862. His
portrait will be seen in the historic group
accompanying this article. It is a remark-
able coincidence that in the larger group,
in the year of the jubilee of the club, there

efforts of a few enthusiastic merchants td
keep the game alive in spite of the most
heart-breaking obstacles and discourage-
ments, would take far more space than
is at my disposal. At first things went
with a bang. Hockey on tats was inex-
pensive and did not involve hard train-
ing. Matches were easily arranged be-
tween sides composed of members of the

CALCUTTA POLO CLUB.
JrBiLEE Tournament and I.P.A. Championship, 1862-63 — 1912-13.

Photo by Hiinrnt ir Shcflunl.

Jltiik Roic islitiiiliiiil).
Mr. O. !•;. Llewelyn (Hthar Light Horse).
Mr. C. Ismay {Committee C.P.C.).
Mr. H. 1). Cartwright lCommitt;e C.P.C ).
jemadar Sunda Singh ( Patialaf.
Capt. Guiida Singh (Patiala).
M.ijor J. J. Kichardson ( Hon. Sec. IP .V ).
Thakur Kateh Singh (Kishengluir).
Mr. R. (). Bates (Steuard, C.P.C.i.
Col W. McL. Campbell 12nd Ball. Black Watch I,
Mr. li. K. Forrester I 2nd Uatl. Bhack Walch).
Mr. H. B. Turner (I7lh Lancers).
Capt. T. Nisbet (Behar Liglit Horse).
Capt. \. G. B. Henderson (2ncl Ball. Black Watch).
Capt. K. Kergusson-PoUok (Old Fettesians).
Capt. J. Henderson (Old Fettesians).
Mr. K. Danby (Behar Light Horse).
Mr. W. H. Todd (Old Fctttsians).

Front A*i>i£' islntnliii^-
Capt. Thakura Singh (Patiala).

development of hockey on slow, diminu-
tive tats, 12-2 hands in height, to modern
polo on galloping ponies of 14 hands. It
is a cherished tradition that the Manipur
game was introduced into Calcutta by a

Col. Jugendra Singh (Patiala).
General Saroop Singh (Patiala).
Capt. Jnswant Singh (Patiala).

Prince Sii-dar Singh (Kishcnglun). ,

Col. Chunda Singh (Patiala).
Capt.T. P. Melville dTlh l.anceis).
Capt. F. St, J. Atkinson (Tigers).
Thakur Dhonkal Sinuh ( Kishenghur).
Lt.-Gen. Sir B. Mahon, K.C.V.O., CIS. (Tige)S ; Steward,

C.PC).
Count ]. de .\Lidre (Tigers).
Thakur Bane Singh (Kishenghur).
Capt. J. F. Todd (Old FcUesians).
Mr. IJ. C. Boles {17th Lancers).
C.ipt. K. B. Worgan (Calcutta).
Mr. F. Lyall. LC.S. (Behar Light Hoise).
Capt. D. Wood (HE. the Governor's Staff).

/^icA' A*(>ic {smlt-d).
Capt. A. C. I«oss (Calcutta).
Mr. C. T. Hills (C.P.C.)

is also a Mr. Hills, who likewise did much
to maintain the prestige of Calcutta in
the world of polo.

To write a full account of the vicissi-
tudes of polo in Calcutta and the heroic

617

Mr. E. C. Aposlolides(Stcw.ard, C.I^C).

H.H. the Mahar.aja of Patiala (Patiala).

H.IC. LoriD Cakmichaei., Go\'kr\<>k ok Bkxo\i..

H.H. the Maharaja of Ivishenghur (Kishenghur).

Sir Cecil Graham (Calcutta).

Capt. F. W. Barret (Tigers).

Capt. V. Lockett (17th Lancers).

Front li^^w {st-itlcil),
Mr. E. Sniallwo.xl (Calcutta B.).
Prince Hitendra of Cooch Behar (Calcutta B.).
I.t'.A. Ctlainpiottsllip Clnillciiiic Cttp.
Capt. W. Kenworthy (H.E. the Governor's Staff).
H.Iv the Governor's Cup, presented for Tile C P.C. Jnbilii

Toiinuitiiatt.
Capt. K. liobertson (Calcutta).
Tlic Ezni CItalleiiilc Cup.
Mr. K. R. Gilroy (2nd Bait. Black Watch).

Club, or between Calcutta and Barrack-
pore. So many were the thrusters for
glory that it was possible in 1874 to start
a n:-w polo club at Calcutta, for which, we
read, " Mr. R. B. King, the first honorary

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

secretary, did eminent service." The
second honorary secretary of this club was
no less a personage than Mr. Henry
Neville Gladstone, third son of the great
commoner. Candour compels the ad-
mission that for many years after the in-
stitution of polo tournaments, namely in
1876, the standard of the game in Cal-
cutta was what soldier players derisively
call " bumblepuppy." The reason is not
far to seek. Shortly after the spread of
the game through Northern India by
General Stewart and Lieutenant Sherer,
polo became par excellence the sport of
the cavalry. The British and Indian horse

polo in Calcutta was at a low ebb in the
'eighties, when changes were being made
at Meerut and Hurlingham which com-
pletely revolutionized the game. At the
end of 1899 the two clubs were amal-
gamated, and we soon saw the dawn of a
better day. The late Mr. J. D. West was
then honorary secretary, in which office
Mr. E. C. Apostolides was presently asso-
ciated with him. " Peter " and " The
Apostle " worked with a will to give the
Calcutta Polo Club the best polo ground
in the world, and to attract to the annual
tournament the most famous teams in
India. Their success was wonderful.

THE ORIGINAL POLO CLUB, CALCUTTA, 1864-65.

Colin Smith.
Duncan Stewart.
r. e. goolden.
D. G. Landale.

R. S. Hills.
George Miller.
Elliott Angelo.
John Thomas.

Capt. Showers, A.D.C.

W, Blandford.
Montague Champnevs, I.C.S.
Lewis Pugh Evans.
Capt. Cross (52ND Regt.).

regiments produced the most famous ex-
ponents, who set the fashion in the increas-
ing height of the ponies and the conse-
quent intenser pace of the play. Calcutta
has never been a cavalry station. A
detachment of Indian cavalry at Bally-
gunge and the Viceroy's bodyguard in the
cold weather were all the citizens ever saw
of the aristocracy of the Army, except on
the rare occasion of a royal visit, when a
full rlsala would be imported from the
Punjab to astonish the vulgar. There has
always been a British infantry regiment
in Fort William, and two native infantry
regiments in the neighbourhood, but their
support of polo has been fitful. Calcutta
was thus out of the beaten track of first-
class polo, which in the 'eighties found a
much more genial atmosphere at Bombay.
Although the senior and junior clubs
continued to eke out a separate existence,

Thanks to the liberality of the Calcutta
Turf Club it was possible to spend large
sums of money each year on the ground in
the middle of the racecourse. The result
was that teams in the very first flight were
glad to journey from all parts of India for
a game on a ground which had no equal
in any other country.

The Calcutta tournament gained great
distinction from the countenance of that
magnificent Viceroy, Lord Curzon, whose
Stafl'always included players of the highest
order. Every year some native prince
visited the Viceroy at Calcutta, and if he
were a Rajput or Sikh, brought with him
his polo team, which almost invariably was
pila lumba.

But what gave Calcutta its biggest lift

was the great tournament held during the

visit of the Prince of Wales in 1905-6.

The (earns engaged were the most splendid

618

in India. The Indian aristocracy was
fully represented, and so was its greatest
rival, the British cavalry. The cup was
won by the Golconda team from Hydera-
bad, which displayed such perfection of
skill and horsemanship as to fairly witch
the spectators. This tournament gave the
Indian Polo Association furiously to think,
and it was not long before it came to the
conclusion that Calcutta was the only
proper and logical venue for the yearly
discussion of the championship of India.
The Indian Championship Tournament
of the Indian Polo Association was first
played in Calcutta in 1907, and appro-
priately enough it was won by the Calcutta
" A " Team, which beat the 12th Lancers
in the final. This victory gave Calcutta
polo izzat and standing in the great
mofussil military and native teams, which
were ever after most eager to come to the
premier city of India to dispute the title
of primacy. In 1909 and 19 10 Calcutta
again defeated all comers: but in the next
year the coveted championship was
wrested from the Calcutta Polo Club by
the doughty i oth Hussars, the regimental
champions of India. Just before the war
Lord Hardinge's Stafif won the title.

During the war there has not been a
first-class tournament in Calcutta, but the
game has not been allowed to die out. and
the ground is still maintained in tip-top
condition in the hope that when peace is
restored Calcutta will once again become
the Mecca of Indian polo-players.

This hasty sketch would be incomplete
if mention were not made of the en-
couragement given by Lord Carmichael,
the first Governor of Bengal. He pre-
sented a handsome cup for a handicap
tournament to spread the sport among
" small " men who could not afi'ord to
keep and train more than two ponies. It
was a happy idea, and but for the war
would have gained its whole object.

The present honorary secretary of the
Calcutta Polo Club is Mr. Claude Ismay,
who in his day was the most brilliant
civilian player the club had ever pro-
duced. He keeps the sacred flame alight
with wonderful resource and enthusiasm,
and is admirably assisted by Mr. Ross
Craik and the evergreen "Apostle." who
has done more for polo in Calcutta than
lovers of the game can possibly repay. .-V
Calcutta Calendar of enthusiasts would
include scores of distinguished men, but
I doubt that any will be so honoured by
posterity as Mr. J. D. West and Mr. E. C.
Apostolides, who saved the cult in its
worst crisis.

SPORT

' I 'HE climatic conditions of Bengal do
not lend themselves to any appre-
ciable extent to games such as hockey and
Association and Rugby football, but
nevertheless these games arc played year
ill and year out by a large number of
persons. The games arc confined to the
leading European, Anglo-Indian, and
Indian (Native) clubs, the members of
which display a keen interest in them, but
none of the clubs has really good teams.
Individual members of some of the Euro-
pean clubs are what would be called at
Home first-class players, inasmuch as they
have represented counties in the Old
Country, and a noticeable feature of the
game played in Bengal is the number pf
men who play for their clubs in all the
various games. So far as Bengal is con-
cerned, Calcutta is really the only place
where these games are seriously played,
and this is chiefly owing to the fact that
the English have introduced the games
and the native clement has entered into it.
Rugby football was the first game
played in earnest in this country, but the
effect of the climatic conditions is realized
to a greater e.\tent in this game than in
any other, as it can only be engaged in
for a very limited period. It is a game
which does not appeal to the native as he
cannot understand it, and the physique
and strength of the ordinary Bengali does
not encourage him to play it. The Asso-
ciation game has therefore always been
far more popular than Rugby, as physical
strength is not such an important factor
as cleverness and trickiness in controlling
the ball. The Indian is an adept in the
latter tactics, and it is a most noticeable
feature that a large number of Indian
teams have now taken up " Soccer," and
that they have a much larger following
than in either Rugby football or hockey.
So far the professional element has not
interfered with the game, but there are
indications that this is coming into Indian
football. The casual way in which players
transfer their interests from one club to
another is rather striking, but this is not
done for the benefit of the club which a
man proposes to join; it is rather for per-
sonal flattery and " kudos " that he so
readily does this.

Hockey, as at Home, is only a new
game and has only been in existence for
about fifteen years. A number of Indian
teams entered into it after the European
community had started it and interest is

ATHLETICS

gradually growing, but it is one in which
.Anglo-Indian teams display their best
skill, as, generally speaking, they arc fast
and very clever with the sticks.

It would perhaps be as well to give
a few details about these games. Hockey
is played from the middle of February
until about the middle of April, but there
is not a great deal of interest displayed
in it. The Calcutta Eootball Club hold
the premier position, but all the local clubs
play in a League competition, controlled
by the Bengal Hockey Association. They
play each other on the League system of
so many points for a win. At the end of
the season a knock-out tournament is held
for the Beighton Cup, and all the local
teams enter for this, one or two up-country
teams frequently visiting Calcutta in order
to participate. The Aligarh College team
(United Provinces), composed of Mahom-
medan players, has always done well
during the past two or three years. This
is a game that British regiments stationed
in Fort William have not been keen upon,
and ihey have never entered for the
League or Beighton Cup competitions.
Native regiments play hockey to a certain
extent, but they are practically beginners
as far as Calcutta is concerned, although
in other parts of India it is believed
that there are regiments which have really
good teams. Bengalis have never yet
excelled at the game, but they are gradu-
ally improving players, and it will not, in
all probability, be long before they are
admitted into the first League.

The leading clubs are: Calcutta,
Rangers, Dalhousie, Customs, and Sib-
pore College.

There are no players of any particular
merit, but several of the men have in the
past played for counties at Home, or their
Universities, or in large trial matches in
England before the war.

Mr. Cole, of the Chartered Bank, was
perhaps the best player seen in Calcutta
for many years, but he has now retired
from the game, and Mr. A. L. Hosie is
said to be the best exponent of the game in
Calcutta at the present time.

Hockey does not attract a large crowd
of Indians.

Association football may be regarded
as the most popular game in Bengal, and
it is probable that there are nearly a
hundred and fifty Indian clubs in Calcutta
and district. The standard of their play
is, on the whole, good, but not good
619

enough to compete with the leading mili-
tary and civilian teams. " Soccer " has
almost invariably been the great game of
the British soldiers stationed in Calcutta,
and many regiments, containing excellent
teams, have played there, such as the
Black Watch, the Gordon Highlanders,
and others. The Calcutta team have
always had good players, but the extra
training of the soldiers has always told,
and although Calcutta have occasionally
won the League and Shield competitions,
they have generally succumbed to the
military. This game is more or less con-
trolled by the Indian Football Associa-
tion, composed of members of one or two
European clubs and a very large number
of Indian team representatives. Many
competitions are played for from the
middle of April until the second or third
week in September. The grounds during
.April, May, and part of June arc very hard
and fast, but after the monsoon has broken
they are soft and slippery, and this con-
dition is detrimental to the play of Indian
teams, as practically all of them play with-
out boots or socks. This game is im-
mensely popular, and during important
matches in the Cup competition there are
proljably between 1 0,000 and 1 5,000
spectators. The most important league
is controlled by the Indian Football Asso-
ciation, and is composed of the leading
cluljs, such as Calcutta, . Dalhousie,
Rangers, Customs, regiments stationed at
Fort William, a few minor clubs, and one
or two Indian teams, the most important
of which is the Mohan Bagan. The last-
named have secured the majority of the
best-known Bengali players, owing to the
fact that men who become really efficient
seem to be always ready to forsake their
own team in order to gain personal popu-
larity. This is not a prevailing character-
istic of English players, who remain with
their own clubs for years although they
may not be on the winning side. After
the League fixtures at the end of June a
Cup competition is held for which there
are generally from twenty to twenty-five
entries. Many up-country British regi-
ments send representative teams to Cal-
cutta, and some exceedingly good games
are witnessed, but the refereeing at many
of the matches leaves a great deal to be
desired. During the season there are
three and sometimes four large charity
matches, such as Civil versus Military,
or England versus Scotland, the proceeds

1. THE RACECOURSE, SHILLONG.

4. CRICKET AT SHILLONG.

2. POLO GROUND, SHILLONG. 3. GOLF.

5. KHASI ARROW-SHOOTING.

Vhotos by iiho^hal Hros.
620

of which are devoted to local chnrities.
This game is also most popular amongst
European players and others, but native
regiments have not entered into it to any-
large extent.

Rugby football is only played during
the monsoon period, when the ground is
soft enough to permit of it. It commences
as a rule at the end of July as soon as the
sister game is finished, and it is continued
until about the middle of September.
Indian teams have never entered into the
game as it is too strenuous for them, nor
is it one which greatly attracts British
soldiers, and it is seldom that Calcutta
is visited by a regiment playing Rugby.
Anglo-Indian teams also are not keen about
it. and, although some of them have taken
it up, their success has not been great, and
they have eventually discontinued it. The
game is virtually only just kept alive by
the Calcutta Football Club, who play
many inter-club games in order to get
into practice for the tournament games.
Formerly there was a Kugby League, but
owing to the small number of entries, that
has been abandoned, and the tournament
contests are the chief games of the season.
Until the war broke out the Presidency
towns of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay
always had an annual meeting, and those
events added considerable interest to the
game, many successful tournaments having
been held. The number of entries has,
however, generally been small, not more
than eight teams playing, of which three or
more have been up-country regimental
teams, the leading ones during recent
years being the Welsh, the West Riding
and the Leicester Regiments. The two
former have on many o:;casions annexed
the Cu]), and although Calcutta has pilt up
a good fight, the trophy has not been
secured by the city team for several
years past.

I'erhaps the best-known player of
recent years was the late Mr. H. W.
Thomas, who played for Wales for two
seasons, the class of football played I)y
him being far superior to that of the
ordinary players in Bengal.

Cricket is played in the cold weather
from the beginning of November to the
end of February. The class of cricket
is on the whole fair, but it does not
compare with even second or third-class
form in England. The season is not
only short, but it is seldom that the
leading clubs get good games, as the only

SPORT

days on which they can play are on Satur-
day and Sunday, and the many counter
attractions of Calcutta during the cold
weather are largely responsible for men
deserting cricket for racing or other sport.
The premier club is the Calcutta Cricket
Club (whose members are drawn almost
entirely from the mercantile community
in the city), who have by far and away the
best ground at their disposal at the Eden
Gardens in Calcutta, and they are one of
the few clubs that are permitted to play on
Sunday.

The majority of the otiier clubs have
grounds on the maidan, but as they are not
allowed to play there on Sunday, and only
. have Saturday afternoon for any play at
all, it is impossible to raise enthusiastic
support among either European or Indian
teams for the game. The best cricket is
played at Christmas time, when the Cal-
cutta Cricket Club have all their important
matches. In pre-war days a European
team from Bombay, Colombo, or some
other ))art of India visited Calcutta
for ten days or so and played the two
hirgest clubs, and possibly a Maharaja's
team.

During the past few years several rajas
have taken up this game, and, although
they do not maintain regular teams, they
manage to get the services of many well-
known Indian players, generally from
Bombay, to play for them for a month or
two during the cold weather. The Maha-
rajas of Cooch Behar, Nattore, and
Mymensingh have all had teams, and in
many instances they have also been able
to obtain the services of a well-known
English professional. The first two of
these Maharajas have their own grounds
in Calcutta. The leading clubs are the
Calcutta, Ballygunge. Rangers. Customs,
Dalhousie, Aryans, and the Town Club.

At intervals there have been a few well-
known first-class players in Calcutta, and
during recent years Mr. H. L. Simms and
Mr. M. C. Bird are perhaps the best
known.

The class of cricket played by these
two gentlemen is very different from the
style usually seen in Bengal, and the bowl-
ing of the former during the season of
1916-17 will long be remembered by the
various batsmen playing against it. The
Indian displays a certain amount of
interest in this game, but thj standard of
play by the ordinary Bengali is poor.

Tennis is perhaps the most popular

game in India, as it is one in which
ladies and gentlemen can participate, and
it is also a game that is perhaps more
suited to this country than any of the
games previously referred to in these
notes. It < an be played for about eight
months of the year, from I^ovember until
June, and there are many exceedingly
good private courts in and about Cal-
cutta. The standard of play is on the
whole good, and compares favourably with
that of an ordinary individual who plays
the game at Home. It is' not first-class,
but the average man not only plays until
he is more than fifty years of age, but he
plays an exceedingly good, steady game,
whereas in the Old Country it is generally
found that a man considers himself too
old at forty, and even then- he is only a
mediocre player. The conditions under
which one plays tennis are more favour-
able, because during the eight months
referred to above one can almost guar-
antee a fine day, although in April, May,
and June it is too hot to be really
pleasant. The comfort of the player is
studied as far as possible, as there are
boys who pick up stray balls, and every
court has blue screens behind it. These
conditions do not obtain in England, and
perhaps it is the very existence of them
in India which eni"ourages men to con-
tinue playing to a greater age than they
do in England.

The only important tournament is the
Bengal Tennis Championship, which takes
place at the Eden Gardens, Calcutta,
towards the end of January or the begin-
ning of February in each year. The
entries are, as a rule, fairly good, but for
many years past there has only been one
really first-class player in Bengal, namely
Mr. A. R. F. Kingscote, who played in,
and easily won, the Championship in the
year 1914. This tournament has always
been won by Europeans except on three
occasions: a Japanese player, Mr. Z.
Shimidzu, has won it twice, and a Madrassi
player has secured it on one occasion.

In recent years the Championship has
been extended, and ladies arc now allowed
to enter for it. There are mixed double
and ladies' single Championships.

L'ntil very recently the Indian has
displayed very little inclination for this
game, but there are indications that he
is taking it up more seriously and is
likely to become a gradually improving
player.

-^^'=^^J)

621

THE COUNCIL HOUSE, CALCUTTA.

Illustration from "Oriental Scenery," by Thomas Daniell (1793).

SUGAR

By WYNNE SAYEK, B.A., Assistant to thu Agricui.tl-ral Auviskk to the Government of India.

r is probable that the
sugar - oane plant
originally spread
from the tropical
islands of the East
Indies, but whether
this be so or not, it
has existed for so
long in this country that it is impossible
to trace any record of its original im-
portation. Some idea of the antiquity
of its cultivation may be gathered from
the fact that it is definitely mentioned
in the Instilutes of Mann and in the later
Hindu medical works. The art of sugar
manufacture has also been known in
Bengal from that time, as in the same
Institutes crystalline sugar and sweetness
arc mentioned.

There is a saying in Eastern Bengal
and Assam which runs : " Unless a man
has seven sons and twelve grandsons he
should not cultivate sugar-cane." This,
I think, shows more effectively than any
other explanation the fact that sugar-cane
as a crop requires more watching and
irrigation than any other crop grown, and
it is this fact, coupled with the labour
and water difficulties which are continu-
ally arising, that limits its cultivation to
a great extent among the people of these
three Provinces.

In our discussion of the crop it will l)e,
perhaps, best to divide it into the follow-

ing heads: (1) General features of the
three provinces, and the conditions of
rainfall and climate; (2) area under cane,
varieties of cane, methods of cultivation;
13) fungus diseases and pests attacking
the crop; (4) jaggery and sugar-making,
sugar factories; (5) the work done by the
.Agricultural Department in improving the
crop ; and (6) past history of sugar-
making and the general outlook for the
development of the industry in the three
Provinces.

I. General Features, Rainfall, Soil,
AND Climate.

(a) General Features.

We may, therefore, in the first place
consider the nature of the soil, rainfall,
and climate, and here we can do no better
than summarize the information given in
the Imperial Gazetteer of India.

Bengal. — Bengal proper sub-divides
itself naturally into four distinct parts :
West Bengal, Central Bengal, East Benga',
and North Bengal. West Bengal lies out-
side the true delta. The eastern portion
of this tract is low and of alluvial for-
mation, but farther west laterite begins
to predominate. Central Bengal was
formerly the Ganges delta, but it has
gradually been raised above flood-level,
and now no longer receives any fresh
deposits of silt. East Bengal includes
the present delta of the Ganges and

622

Brahmaputra, and here the process of land
formation is still going on; but in the
south-east the hill range which divides
Assam from Burma projects into it, while
on the confines of Dacca and Mymensingh
the Madhupur jungle, a tract of quasi-
laterite, rises above the recent alluvium.
North Bengal is mostly alluvial. In spite
of its proximity to the hills, the general
level of this alluvial country is very low,
especially in Cooch Behar, Rangpur. and
the central part of Rajshahi; and it also
suffers from obstructed drainage, due to
the silting up of the rivers and the general
raising of their beds by this means.

Behar. Behar is divided by the Gauge.-,
into two parts : north and south. North
Bihar is a level plain falling very gradu-
ally from the foot of the Himalayas, and
with a belt of fairly high land along the
bank of the Ganges. Between these two
extremes the general elevation is lower,
and considerable areas are liable to
damage by floods. The soil consists
mostly of the older alluvium, or bangar,
a yellowish clay with frequent deposits
of kankar; but in many parts this has
been cut away by the torrents that rush
down from the Himalayas, and the low
land through which these rivers have
at one time or another found an exit to
the Ganges is composed of more recent
deposits of sand and silt brought down
by them when in flood. In South Behar

SUGAR

tile effects of recent fluvial action are less
marked, especially towards the east, ( n
account of the outlying hills and undula-
tions of the Chota Nagpur plateau.

Chota Nagpur and Orissa. — Chota Nag-
pur is a rugged tract of hill and jungle
broken by deep ravines and river valleys.
The greater part of Orissa belongs to
the same formation as Chota Nagpur, but
along the coast there is a narrow belt of
alluvium formed from the silt deposited
by the rivers which drain the hills as they
find their sluggish way to the sea.

Assam. — The province of Assam falls
into three natural divisions : the valley of
tlic Surma, the valley of the Brahmaputra,
or .Assam proper, and the intervening
range of hills. The Surma Valley is a
flat plain, about 125 miles in length by
00 miles in width, shut in on three sides
by ranges of hills. The Brahmaputra
Valley is an alluvial plain, about 450 miles
in length, with an average breadth of
about 50 miles, enclosed by hills on every
side except the west. In the centre of
this valley the soil consists of a light layer
of clay superimposed upon beds of sand.
Farther back from the Brahmaputra the
alluvium is more consolidated, and here,
and there are to be found the remains
of an older alluvium of a closer and
heavier texture, corresponding to the high
land of the Gangetic plain. Outlines of
gneissic rock from the Asca-n range are
common between Goalpara and Gauhati,
and are found as far cast as Tezpur.

(b) Clima'e and Rainfall.
Although Bengal is situated almost
entirely outside the tropical zone, its
climate for about two-thirds of the' year,
i.e. from the Middle of March to the end
of October, is of the kind usually de-
scribed as tropical; it has a high tem-
perature and humidity, and dry and wet
seasons. During the other montlis the
temperature is much lower, the liumidity
is slight or moderate, and the rainfall is
generally scanty. Hence during these
months fine dry weather prevails in all
parts of the Province. Excluding the
Darjeeling hills, the areas of greatest
precipitation are in the south-east, where
the rainfall ranges between 100 and 140
inches. In tlie remaining portion of East
Bengal it is between 70 and 80 inches;
but it again rises in North Bengal, to
84 inches in Rangpur and to between i 00
and 130 inches in the sub-montano plains.
In the coast districts of Central and West
Bengal the annualfall is generally from

inches. In the other districts of Bengal
proper, where the influence of mountain
ranges and cyclonic storms is less
apparent, the rainfall is lighter and more
uniform, being generally between 50 and
60 inches. Irrigation is necessary for
cane mainly in Western Bengal, and in
the laterite soil of Northern and Eastern
Bengal from November to April.

In Orissa, where the effect of cyclonic
storms from the Bay of Bengal is felt,
the annual rainfall is generally from 60 to
-o inches. In the cast of Behar, where
the influence of mountain ranges and
cyclonic storms is less apparent, the rain-
fall is lighter and more uniform, being
generally between 50 and 60 inches.
Farther west it diminishes to 45 inches
in Chota Nagpur and 42 inches in South
Behar. In the sub-montane tracts of
North Behar the annual fall varies from
50 to 55 inches.

The clim.ate of Assam is characterized
by coolness and extreme humidity, re-
sulting from its geographical situation.
Its most distinguishing feature is the
copious rainfall between March and May.
The year is thus, roughly, divided into
two seasons — the cold season and the
rains, the hot season of the rest of India
being completely absent. The total
amount of rain which falls in Assam
during the year is always abundant, and
although it is sometimes unfavourably
distributed, there have been no complete
droughts atTecting the general harvest to
any serious extent. The Province has a
decided advantage over nearly all other
parts of India in regard to the cultivation
of sugar-cane, as the need for irrigation,
which adds greatly to the cost of cultiva-
tion elsewhere in India, is seldom felt
here. The climate closely approaches
that of the cane-growing countries in the
tropics. The peculiar difficulty in Assam
is the almost entire absence of a labouring
class. In the Surma Valley, Kamrup, and
Goalpara agricultural labourers are few
in number, and in Central and Upper
Assam they are practically non-existent.
The climate of the country during the
rains is not calculated to stimulate the
inhabitants to prolonged physical exer-
tion.

2. Are.\ under Cane. Classes of Soil
ON WHICH THE Crop is Grown.
Methods of Cultsvation and
Varieties of Cane.

In Bengal sugar-cane cultivation is
undertaken wherever water is available.

623

The normal area under this crop in this
Province is 260,000 acres, of which the
Dacca and the Rajshahi divisions account
for nearly 150,000 acres. It is cultivated
more or less in every plains district, but
in the hill districts the crop is negligible.
In the open well-cultivated parts of
Eastern Bengal sugar-cane has a formid-
able rival in jute, but, on the other hand,
the cultivation of sugar-cane has been
rapidly increasing in those more back-
ward tracts where jute does not thrive
well. There can be no doubt that, with
the sole excej)tion of jute when grown
in those portions of the country most suit-
able to its cultivation, there is no crop
which pays the cultivator so well as
sugar-cane— a/u'flj's provided he can com-
mand the necessary labour. The growing
demand for " jaggery," which has been
brought about by the increasing pros-
perity of the rural population, and the
opening up of communications in the
interior of the country has undoubtedly
increased the profitable nature of the
crop.

Nearly all kinds of soil — from the
Sedentary Archaan strata of Chota Nag-
pur to the old alluvium of North Behar —
are suitable for growing cane. In alluvial
tracts the most suitable soils are good
firm loams or light clays, but the irrigated
crop adapts itself to any description of
soil of fair depth if drainage is secured by
a pervious subsoil or other similar pro-
cess, as waterlogged soil is not favour-
able to successful cultivation. It is said
that in Bengal the best canes grow at
the junction of old and new alluvia on the
sides of streams and rivulets where the
soils are red clay loams, rich in mineral
matter.

In the Province of Behar and Orissa
the total area under this crop in 19 14- 15
was 270,300 acres, but the crop is of
greatest importance from the point of
view of white sugar manufacture, espe-
cially in North Behar, where it covers an
area of nearly 100,000 acres in Saran and
the adjoining districts of Muzaffarpur,
Champaran, and Darbhanga. The sugar-
cane industry is being revived there
consequent upon the decline of indigo.
Labour is comparatively cheap, and cane
is grown in some parts without irrigation.
The future of Behar seems to lie in the
development of the sugar industry, and
sugar factories now working in Behar are
proving a financial success. Assam and
Behar offer good openings for the estab-
lishment of central factories for the manu-
facture of white sugar direct from the

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

cane ; but Behar has an advantage over
Assam in that the industry is already well
established there and there are compara-
tively good communications in the shape
of railways and roads, while in Assam
land has to be reclaimed, roads made, and
labour-saving appliances arranged for, as
labour is both costly and scarce.

The area under sugar-cane in districts
in Assam in 1914-15 was 37,620 acres,
viz. : Cachar, 8.519 acres; Sylhet, 7,036;
Goalpara, 1,474; Kamrup, 5,444; ^ar-
rang, 2.541; Nowgong, 1,938; Sibsagar,
7,005 ; and Lakhimpur, 3,663. The
rapid development in Cachar and in
Sylhet is said to be due to time-expired
garden coolies opening up hilly land pre-
viously under jungle. In Lakhimpur and
in the cast of Sibsagar and Darrang culti-
vation is mainly in the hands of Nepalese,
who plant the cane on virgin soil in forest
clearings. The bulk of the crop is grown
in small patches of one or two bighas.
The soil is generally loam or clayey loam,
while the old alluvium found in many
parts of the Assam Valley, especially in
Golaghat, is very popular. In Upper
Assam and in the hilly tracts in the south
of the Surma Valley this nomadic system
of cultivation is practised by the Nepalese
on land newly reclaimed from jungle, and
as the soil is rich in humus it gives the
best outturn. In the open thickly popu-
lated parts of East Bengal this crop is
grown on alluvial land beyond the reach
of floods, and as the soil is usually of a
loamy character, and as it is seldom
allowed to remain fallow, it is too poor
as a rule to bear sugar-cane without
manure. The crop is, therefore, invari-
ably manured and cultivated with great
care and attention. The varieties of
sugar-cane usually grown in this class of
land are the medium soft yellow, or white
cane preferred for the manufacture of
jaggery, and also used for chewing. In
the deltaic districts of the Dacca and
Rajshahi divisions, where alluvial land is
annually submerged and enriched with
silt, the thin and hardy kinds of cane
which can bear submersion are favoured.
The jaggery made is of inferior quality,
and in many places where the inundation
is heavy and of long duration, the crop
droops prematurely as the result of pro-
longed waterlogging, and it has to be
harvested as early as October.

'J'hin, hardy canes arc also grown for
preference in the old alluvium {khiar or
harind) in the Rajshahi division, where
the prevailing soil is a red or yellow
clay, more difficult to work tlmn new

alluvial soil and liable to suffer from
drought.

Methods of Cultivation.
It is important that the field selected
for cane should receive a thorough pre-
paration, the soil being carefully worked
by ploughing, cross - ploughing, and
laddering, until it is brought into a fine
state of tilth. For this preparation of
the land the implements used generally
are the ordinary country plough and
harrow (a ladder made of bamboo or a
beam of wood). I land-hoeing with the
kodali is also done in many districts. The
system of planting common among ryots,
— that is, on the plough furrow — not only
requires more than three times the seed
that is necessary under the ridge and
furrow system, but the outturn per acre
of gar in maunds is also lower. Further,
the cost of cultivation in the local ryot's
method is higher than in the trenching
system. In some of the more advanced
sugar districts in Bengal the bunds, or
ridges, on which sugar-cane is planted
are so arranged that they serve a double
purpose, viz. to give facility for irriga-
tion and to remove the rain-water from
the field as speedily as possible. The
Mauritius system of planting is not un-
known in Bengal, but among planters in
Behar the trenching system is commonly
adopted, in which tops of sugar-canes and
also parts of the stem (sets) are used.
To a limited e.\tent, in places where white
ants are troublesome, the whole cane,
without being cut, is sown in shallow
trenches, the number of sets planted per
acre varying from 12,000 to 30,000. The
manures commonly used are from cows,
pigs, and horses, sweepings, ashes, and
mud from tanks, although sheep-folding
is also practised in some parts. Cow-
dung is ordinarily put on at the rate of
100 maunds per acre. On land thus
treated oil-cakes are generally used
during earthing-up, and it is a common
practice in Bengal to apply from 10 to
15 maunds at sowing-time, and the same
amount again when the plants are from
I to 3 feet in height. It has, however,
been found on the Government Farms
that 200 maunds of cowdung, plus
8 maunds of castor cake per acre, is
the most economical for sugar-cane, but
seet, or indigo refuse, is generally
used as manure by planters in Behar.
As a protection against high winds,
ravages of wild animals, and other ad-
verse influences, the practice of tying a
number of plants together is in some
places adopted where the canes are thick

6.^4

and tall. The time for harvesting is
generally from December to February,
and this is also the usual time for plant-
ing. The early varieties are planted in
November and December, however, and
are reaped about the same time the fol-
lowing year. The earlier the cane is
planted the better it is, in order that it
may be established before the hot weatlu-r
sets in. When irrigation is poor, sowing
in Bengal is generally left over until
.^pril. The crop does not as a rule
occupy the groimd for a longer period
than twelve months.

In Behar sugar-cane is jjlanted in
February and reaped in January-March
of the following year.

Sugar-cane is considered an exhaustive
crop, and is therefore not grown on the
same field twice consecutively; but it fre-
quently follows aus paddy, and a rotaiinii
with pulse crops is also common.

Green-manuring is practically unknown
in Bengal, but in Behar it has been found
that indigo forms a good rotation with
cane, while ratooning is practised to a
limited extent with some varieties in tlie
latter Province and in the deltaic areas.
The planting season in Eastern Bengal
and ."Xssam extends from January to May.
In moist alluvial soil planting takes place
as a rule in the first three months of the
year, but where the soil is liable to become
dry during the hot weather this work is
deferred until the spring showers of :\\ix\\
and May have sufficiently moistened it,
and in unfavourable years it may be con-
tinued up to the first fortnight of June.
In the case of such late planting as this,
the invariable custom is to put the sets
in seed-beds, and then transplant them
at a later date in the field. This appears
to be the usual custom in most parts of
the Assam Valley and in portions of tlic
Surma Valley division.

The reaping season for jaggery-canes
is governed largely by the exigencies of
general agriculture. In .\ssam the rea])-
ing commences with ratoon-cane, which
attains maturity in a sliorter time than
plant-cane ; and where there is much of it
crushing may commence as early as the
middle of November — that is, as soon as
the weather has become fair and settled.
The bulk of the cane crop is reaped lu-
tween the middle of January and the eiul
of March, but in localities where it is
largely cultivated reaping may continue
to as late a period as the end of .Vjjrif;
The period which elapses between i)lant-
ing and reaping may be said to vary from
seven to twelve months.

SUGAR

Varieties of Ccne.

It is probable that a considerable
amount of deterioration has occurred in
Indian canes, and this is due to the fact
that in the majority of cases the Indian
peasant is not in the habit of selectingi
his seed for replanting. It has been
shown by Geerligs and Kobus, of Java,
after lengthy experiments with many
canes, that, in the main, cuttings from
strong sweet canes give strong plants, and
that in this way it is possible to improve
the stock of cane both by field and
chemical selection. In India until very
recently nothing appears to have been
done to improve the varieties existing in
the country, or even to try if such a course
were possible. The classifications of cane
previously made rested upon the basis
of some superficial characteristics, such
as local names, and not upon fundamental
properties such as early or late ripening,
or hardness or softness of cane, which
are physiological properties of the plant
very unlikely to change. Diff'erences in
soil and climate produce great modifica-
tions in canes, and it is possible that the
country canes of India, though all directly
descended from a common stock, have '
developed to som.e extent such different
characteristics that they are likely to be
classified by ordinary observers as being
of different races. Now that trained and
skilled botanists are available in the
Agricultural Departments, the systematic
classification of canes, based upon
chemical and botanical observations, is
being taken in hand.

This is not a scientific treatise, and
therefore, for purposes of convenience, the
canes indigenous to Bengal and Behar
have been classified here as thick canes
with soft rinds and thin canes with hard
rinds. Among the latter are the Khari,
Ketari, Khelia, Khagri, Nargori, Mango,
Shakar-Chinia, Maneria, Pansahi, Bunsa,
Baraukha, Kevali, Buxaria, Ketar, Hemja,
Chynia, Rheora, Lata, Paunri, Poraya, and
Lewari.

The thick canes include the Bhuri,
Poori, Fundi, Kajla, Dhalsunder, Sham-
shara, Bombai, Ruppa, Sukli, and Bangla.

In addition to these, striped Mauritius
and Bourbon canes have also been intro-
duced. A sliort description of some of
the principal varieties is given here.
Shamshara, a large-sized cane, is a great
favourite in the deltaic area of Bengalj
but pigs and jackals must be carefully
excluded, as they do much damage. A
plentiful supply of water is necessary
throughout the early growing season.

This variety produces a light-coloured
rab which is much prized by confec-
tioners. Poundia and Bangla are appre-
ciated as chewing varieties, while Poori,
or Koori, is said to be one of the richest
in sugar of all the Bengal species; but
it is liable to break, and hence is not
much cultivated. Dhalsunder is not so
easily damaged by waterlogging as other
soft canes, and it is cultivated largely in
East Bengal. Of the thin canes, Shoori,
Poraich, Ikri, and Khagri grow in low
lands and withstand waterlogging. Reora,
thoiugh rich in sugar, is not suited to
heavy soils, as it suffers from a super-
abundance of water. Khari is a thin but
very hardy variety, withstanding drought
and waterlogging remarkably well. Being
very hard and thick-skinned, it resists
attacks of animals and is not much
harmed by white ants. It is very prolific,
a good yielder, and produces a fine
quality of gur.

In Behar, Mango is very popular; it
resists drought, and although its per-
centage of sugar to juice is large, it is
liable to damage by waterlogging. Khari
and Shakar Chinia are early ripening
varieties (the former being more fibrous
than the latter), and both of these can be
cut in January without serious loss. The
dwarf canes, Buxaria, Poraya, Paunri,
Rheora, Hemja, and Mango, ripen late,
and have a medium content of a highly
absorbent fibre. When properly grown
they should never be cut before February,
as they show a large increase in saccha-
rose even up to March.

A collection of the canes of Bengal
Was made at Sabour in 1908, and an
examination of the varieties and races of
cane was taken up from a chemical and
botanical standpoint. The results of the
work have been published in Vol. VII,
No. 2, Botanical Series, Memoirs of the
Department of Agriculture in India.

3. Fungus Diseases and Insect Pests.
Fungus Diseases of tfie Stem.
The most serious disease the sugar-
cane is subject to in these Provinces is
that known as " red rot " (red smut),
caused by the fungus Colletotriclium
falcatum. Went. Red rot is capable of
arising from wound infection of the stem
of the cane, but this mode of attack is
secondary in importance to infection
through the unwounded shoot and " root
eyes " at the nodes. In Northern India
the disease generally comes from the
planting of infected canes, and systematic
and thorough selection of the sets used
625

for planting has been found instrumental
in greatly diminishing the incidence of
the disease. In India the thin varieties
of cane are, on the whole, found to be
less susceptible than are the thick ones.

.Smut caused by Ustilago saccfiari,
Rab., is the most easily recognized of
the fungus diseases of sugar-cane. As
a rule it does not cause much damage,
since it is only prevalent in certain
varieties of thin or reed-like canes.

Boiryodiplodia tiieobromw, Pat., is
also found in Bengal. This species is one
of the many which can live both as a
parasite and as a saprophyte, i.e. on
living or dead material ; and as belonging
to the latter family. Dr. Butler found
it on canes that had been killed by red
rot, and on others that had apparently
withered naturally. As a parasite, its
effects appear to be not unlike red rot;
but it is not so common nor so virulent,
and it is, in fact, at present of quite minor
importance.

Wilt. — Another disease which causes
distinct reddening of the cane pith has
lately been found throughout North-
Eastern India. It is due to Ceplialo-
sporium saccfiari, Butl. This fungus can
enter the cane through wounds, through
the uninjured root eyes at the nodes, and
through the planted sets. The control',
therefore, should be much on the same
lines as in true red rot. As, however,
wound infection is very common, diseased
clumps must be removed before they have
time to rot and set free the spores.

Collar rot, caused by Hendersonina
saccfiari, Butl., was found by Dr. Butler
on the Jorhat Farm, in Assam, attacking
several varieties of thick cane; it is found
also at Samalkota and in Mysore. The
last two diseases have been described in
Vol. VI, No. 6, Botanical Series, Memoirs
of tfie Department of Agriculture in India.

Fungus Diseases of tfie Leaf.

Among these is the brown-leaf spot
caused by Cercospora longipes, Butl.,
which is responsible for heavy loss in the
yield of sugar. It is exceedingly comrnon
in North and South Behar. Like smut,
it chiefly occurs in the thin canes, and it
attacks almost if not quite every variety
of these; but it is sometimes found on
thick canes as well. The disease, like
several other of the leaf diseases of the
sugar-cane, is confined to the leaf blade,
and is not found on the sheath. It
appears when the leaves are not yet fully
grown, and it continues to show itself
with increasing vigour until they fade,

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSi^

Resembling the last disease in several
respects is the ring sjjot caused by
Leptospharia sacchari, Br. d'H., but the
damage done by it in these Provinces is
comparatively slight.

Sooty Mould. — It is not uncommon to
find leaves or even whole plants of sugar-
cane turned black by the deposit of a
superficial black mould, and such plants
are always found to be infested by mealy-
bugs. Though the fungus is entirely
superficial, and not a parasite, its
presence is harmful to the plant. The
mould develops in a sugary excretion
known as honey-dew, produced in con-
siderable quantities by the insects which
are the real cause of the disease. In
Saran the disease is locally known as
" Lahi," and is considered in some places
to be the worst disease of sugar-cane,
Treatment should be confined to getting
rid of the insects, as the fungus cannot
flourish in the absence of honey-dew.
Excepting the red rot, none of these
diseases cause losses approaching those
experienced in other countries from cane
diseases such as " Sereh," " Gummosis,"
and root disease, which have not yet
reached India.

Insect Pests.

A detailed study of the insect pests
affecting the sugar-cane in Bengal, Behar
and Orissa, and Assam has not yet been
completed, but the literature available for
reference shows that those found to attack
sugar-cane in these three Provinces are
known, in ordinary phraseology, as leaf-
eating, leaf-mining, boring, and sucking
insects.

Of the leaf-eating insects Cercospora
trachypterus is the most important. In
particular years, more especially when
there is no rainfall during May and June,
the hoppers appear in large numbers and
devour the tender leaves of the newly
planted sugar-cane. They generally
breed in grassy lands, and when such
lands are near enough to sugar-cane
plantations they move into the latter and
do much damage. The best method of
dealing with these pests is to bag them
in the open with large field bags.
Marasmia trapezalls occurs as a very
minor pest during the rains, and is easily
kept in check by plucking away the folded
leaves within which the caterpillar feeds
and ultimately pupates.

A small black beetle, Phidodonta
modesta, with spines on its body, also
attacks cane. The grubs tunnel into the
leaves and form irregular, whitish patches

on them; the pupa is within the tunnel,
and the adult, after emergence, remains
feeding on the leaves, making long, thin,
membranous slits upon them. This is
easily checked by bagging with hand-nets
and cutting away the affected leaves.

The borers, taken together, play an
important part in the economy of success-
ful sugar-cane cultivation in these Pro-
vinces. The ordinary cultivator does not
realize the gravity of the situation, and
it will take some time before he is
convinced of the necessity of adopting
preventive and remedial measures to cir-
cumvent the loss annually brought about
by them. Of these the moth borer, Chilo
simplex, and the white moth borer, Scirpo-
phaga auriflua, are the most important.
The moth borer lays its eggs in two rows
on the leaves and produces the charac-
teristic dead hearts so often seen in
infested fields. Systematic and persistent
removal of the dead hearts as soon as
they are seen in the fields, planting only
healthy sets, planting maize as a trap
crop, and destroying stubbles of Andro-
pogoit sorghum after the crop is har-
vested, have given good results in the
past.

In some years the white moth borer
does great damage in Behar. The infested
cane ceases to grow, and has a general
appearance of drying up owing to
withering of the top shoots. The col-
lection of egg-masses and the systematic
and persistent removal of the dead hearts
have been found effectual against the pest.

Of the other borers, two, Sesamia
inferens and Anerastia ablutella, bore into
the stem, and are occasionally bad in par-
ticular localities. Polyocha saccharella,
though perhaps the most deadly of the
cane-borers, attacks the roots, but it is
not greatly in evidence.

The white ant, Termes sp., sometimes
causes great loss in particular localities.
Dipping the cane sets, before planting,
in a strong solution of copper sulphate
in cold water prevents them from being
eaten up while under ground. Later on,
charging the irrigation water with crude-
oil emulsion, at 13 pints to an acre, has
been found effective in driving away the
ants and mitigating the damage.

Of the sucking insects, Pyrilla aberrans,
Repersia sacchari, and Aleurodes haro-
densis are the most important. The first
named, which is a leaf-hopper, sucks the
juice of the leaves and then lowers the
vitality of the plants. The second one
occurs on the nodes below the sheathing
leaves, Ji.nd it§ presence is not easily

()36

detected. It occurs also on rice, and if
the two crops are close to each other,
transference takes place from one to the
other. Planting only healthy sets, and
dipping them in crude-oil emulsion after
stripping the sheathing leaves, has been
found effective. A. barodensls occasion-
ally does considerable damage to cane
in some places. Removal of the infested
leaves in early stages of the development
of the pest does much to check it, but
if this is neglected the infested leaves
turn pale yellow in colour, and the crop
not only appears sickly in appearance but
produces very inferior sugar.

4. Extraction of Juice and its Con-
version INTO " GuR " OR Sugar.

The old Kolhu and chaki have been
generally supplanted by iron roller cane-
crushing mills in Bengal, but the shallow
evaporating-pan has not yet been adopted
to any great extent. Cultivators as a
rule do not take much care in the manu-
facture of gur, the juice being rarely
strained and the scum not always wholly
removed. Liming is sometimes resorted
to in order to neutralize the acidity of
the juice. Milk diluted with water is
often added to the boiling juice to assist
coagulation and to bring the scum to the
surface.

In Lower Bengal, when the cultivation
of cane and gur-makmg is done by hired
labour, the cost per acre is about Rs. 224,
while the outturn is Rs. 342. A net profit
of Rs. 118 per acre is thus obtained under
normal conditions.

Rab and gur are the two products
obtained by cultivators out of the cane
juice, rab being liquid and gur a solid
mass, not liable to drainage.

Prior to the foundation of central fac-
tories, a large amount of sugar was refined
by native manufacturers, either by the
rough sewari method or by the more
refined course of the hand centrifugal.
The sewari method appears to be largely
the same as the so-called claying of the
early days of West Indian manufacture,
and, further, to depend upon the wash-
ing of the sugar with a limited supply of
water. To achieve this end the sugar
is put into a basket and a layer of water
weed is placed on the top of it; after a
short time the weed is removed and the
top layer, which is found to be whitened,
is scraped away, leaving a surface of un-
cleansed sugar, on which a fresh layer of
weed is placed.

Chilli is made by refining and draining

SUGAR

the molasses contained in rab and gur.
There are several classes of this drained
sugar, of which " kuchcha " sugar is one.
As the rab is not subjected to any refining
process in the making of " kuchcha "
sugar, the quality of the " chini " entirely
depends upon that of the original rab.
This " kuchcha " sugar is valued by con-
fectioners for making different kinds of
sweetmeats, and it is also consumed in
the hot weather in the form of sherbet.
In the Bengal districts both cane and date
" kuchcha " sugars are highly valued for
making sandesh, the best kind of bazaar
sweetmeat made in Bengal. Mauritius
sugar, beet sugar, and all other refined
sugars are not adapted to the preparation
of sandesh and batasha, simply because
they do not contain sufficient molasses to
produce adhesiveness between the sugar
and the curd in native sweets.

Pakka chini is made by refining rab
or gur by reboiling it, and with the assist-
ance of defecants, and by draining off
the molasses afterwards. Pakka dolo is
an intermediate class of " chini " made
in the date-growing districts by refining
a mixture of gur and juice and then drain-
ing off the molasses. Dowara chini is
double-refined " chini " and is so called
from refining pakka, or dolo sugar, over
again. Doem chini is a second crop of
sugar obtained by reboiling the molasses
separated in the manufacture of kachcha
and pakka chinis.

Dowara sugar is the dearest in Bengal,
and its use is limited to the preparation
of the best kinds of native sweets.
Statistics regarding the output of small
native refineries where sugar is manufac-
tured according to indigenous methods
are not available. It may be mentioned
that while an efficient factory run on
European lines recovers 70 to 80 per
cent, of the total possible sugar, the native
methods extract probably not more than
40 per cent, of the total saccharose, the
rest remaining in the molasses.

In Behar the cost of cultivation does
not exceed Rs. 50 an acre, and the manu-
facture of gur costs about Rs. 20 more.
The yield in gur per acre is 30 to 35
maimds, which is usually worth about
Rs. 3 to Rs. 4 a maund. The quality of
gur manufactured is inferior, and so the
product is largely used for refining. In
Bengal good outturns as obtained 31 the
Agricultural Stations were 50 to 70
maunds per acre. The usual price per
maund of gur is higher. It therefore pays
cultivators in Bengal to convert their crop
into gur. This, coupled with the fact

that the crop is cultivated in small plots
of land, explains to some extent the
absence of factories manufacturing sugar
direct from the cane. In Behar, as the
price of gur is low, the cultivators are
not averse to selling their crop to fac-
tories. Sugar-cane is grown in some
parts of Behar, without irrigation, and
labour is comparatively cheap ; herice cane
is available for factories at a price which
leaves a margin of profit when working
it up into sugar.

In Assam the iron mill has supplanted
the old wooden one in Cachar, and
amongst the Nepalis ; but the latter is
still used by the Assamese. Gur is very
cheap in the Sadar sub-division of
Lakhimpur and in the Langai and Singla
Valleys of Sylhet, owing apparently in
both districts to the planting of cane on
virgin soil. Mr. Basu estimates the
normal yield per acre to be 9 tons of
cane in the Brahmaputra Valley and
2,200 lb. of gur for the Province. Mr.
Basu's figures, given below, show that it
should pay cultivators well to take up
sugar-cane extensively on the virgin forest
soil; but the great difficulty is the lack
of enterprise and capital amongst the
people, and also the labour difficulty ;
Lakhimpur (Dibrugarh average of three
years) — cost of cultivation per acre,
Rs. 40 ; cost of manufacture per acre,
Rs. 48 ; total cost per acre, Rs. 88.
Yield per acre, 42 maunds; value of yield
per acre, Rs. 173. Net profit per acre,
Rs. 90.

In Bengal sugar is also extracted from
the date palm {Phoenix sylvestris) and
the palmyra palm (Borassus flabelli-
formis). The cultivation of date palms
is an important industry in Jessore; the
other districts where it is carried on are
Khulna, Nuddia, Faridpur, Backergunj,
and 24 Parganas. The amount of palm
sugar produced in Bengal alone is prob-
ably some 100,000 tons, worth well over
£500,000 sterling; thus the industry is a
source of profit to a large number of
people. Palm gur and its products are
largely consumed in the districts in
which they are made, but in the Jessore
district there are many refineries. Most
of the sugar refined in Jessore goes to
Calcutta, and is largely used for the pre-
paration of native sweetmeats. Mr. H. E.
Annett has investigated the condition of
the date-sugar industry in Bengal and
published the results in the Memoirs
of the Department of Agriculture in India,
Chemical Series, Vol. II, No. 6. The
methods of sugar manufacture and rcfin-
627

ing carried out in the district are vel'y
crude, and are, in that author's opinion;
capable of great improvement.

At present only 240 trees per acre are
usually grown, giving a yield of 2*3 tons
of gur; but by the regular planting of
350 trees per acre, an average of 3 tons
of gur can be obtained. It has been
found that the thickest trees are the
largest yielders ; hence the sowing of
selected seed from such trees is well wortH
trying. The present method of refining
by means of water-weed is an exceedingly
slow process, and ii centrifugals were
introduced the process would be much
quicker and the turnover much greater.
The juice exuding from a freshly cut sur-
face of the date-tree contains only
sucrose, and inversion takes place after-
wards while it is standing in the pot
overnight. Mr. Annett recommends
washing the cut surface of the tree
with formalin once a week and the
addition of a small quantity of formalin
to the pots daily, and if treated in this
way a very appreciable increase in yield
of sugar per tree might be obtained. It
was at first supposed that the use of dirty
earthen pans in which the juice is boiled
is to a large extent responsible for the
dark colour of the date gur, and that
with the substitution of iron pans jaggery
of very fine quality could be produced.
It has, however, been established that the
substitution of metal pans for earthen jars
does not produce a lighter coloured gur.
The dark colour of the date gur is due
to the inherent alkalinity of the palm
juice, and by rendering the latter slightly
acid gur of an excellent colour can be
obtained. The fuel question is one of
importance, as it adds considerably to the
cost of preparation. A very large number
of experiments have shown that 2 to 3
maunds of coal (costing 15 annas) or
7 to 9 maunds of fuel (costing Rs. 1.20)
are required to produce i maund of gur.
From this it would seem that there is a
considerable future for coal fuel. The
furnaces at present in use have no under-
draught at all and are simply holes in the
ground, and a cheap furnace which will
burn coal is being evolved. At present
the day juice in the palm groves is largely
allowed to run to waste, but from heavy
yielding trees it is collected and boiled
in the evenings to a syrup. Owing to the
high glucose ratio it does not crystallize,
but by the use of lime or of formalin in the
collecting pots this juice has been found
capable of being manufactured into very
good crystallized gur. Metal buckets are

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

how being substituted for earthenwares
for collecting the juice. In Mr. Annett's
opinion, there seems no reason why, with
careful seed selection, the amount of
sugar in the juice should not be raised
considerably, and under these circum-
stances there might be openings for large
central factories. The same author calls
attention to the long season which is pos-
sible when dealing with palm sugar. The
date-palm yields its juice in the hot
weather from April to September. There
are many places where these palms would
grow very well together, and thus a fac-
tory would be able to make its sugar-
boiling season last over practically the
whole year.

5. Work done by the Agricultural
Department.

The Department of Agriculture, Bengal,
has the cane crop under study at Dacca
and Burdwan. Local varieties are being
collected and tested with a view to find
out the most suitable kind. Vandamakhi
and White Tanna have proved their
superiority at Rajshahi and Burdwan
respectively, while at Dacca, of the five
varieties tested — Dacca Gande.i, Yellow
Tanna, Striped Tanna, B. 147, and
B. 208 — up to date B. 147 has been found
the most promising. It has a richer juice,
and yields far more heavily than the local
Ganderi. It is a hard cane, and therefore
not suitable for chewing purposes.
B. 208 has the highest percentage of
sugar in the juice, but it is rather too
soft and too delicate for Dacca. Yellow
Tanna, though not very rich, is very hardy
and a good yielder. Striped Tanna is a
thick cane with a luxuriant growth; but
it has two defects — the impurity of its
juice and the difficulty of crushing it.
Sarethi of Aligarh promises to do
extremely well. Ratoon canes of all the
five varieties are found to be badly
attacked both by red rot and the stem-
borer. The advantage of the ridge and
furrow system of planting and cultiva-
tion is being demonstrated, especially in
places where irrigation is possible. The
advantages of castor cake in combination
with cowdung as a manure for sugar-cane
are also being demonstrated. An experi-
ment is also being made on the Dacca
Farm to see whether any advantage will
be gained by running off water from the
soil.

In Assam the Agricultural Station at
Jorhat, which was taken up in 1906, has
been devoted mainly to the sugar-cane
crop. Although owing to the exceeding

poverty of the soil the sugar-cane experi-
ments on this farm were at first unpromis-
ing, the work done there by Messrs.
Meggitt and Birt is now beginning to
yield results of great interest and value.
The qualities of different local and im-
ported canes have been carefully studied,
and as a result it has been found that,
in Assam, local varieties of cane are
incapable of competing with exotic varie-
ties. Barbadoes and Mauritius canes
have proved their superiority in all ways,
the average yields from these canes being
20 to 30 tons, which is a great advance on
Mr. Basu's figures. Demonstrations have
been given on cultivators' holdings along-
side the local cane, and some 75,000 sets
were distributed in the Assam Valley in
the year 191 5 of the three best varieties,
viz. striped Mauritius, B. 147, and
B. 376. Experiments on the study of the
questions of tillage, manuring, and
drainage in the light of local conditions,
so as to increase the average outturn per
acre, are being carried on at Jorhat.

.■\t Sabour, in Behar, much useful work
has been done by Messrs. Woodhou^e and
Taylor in connection with the botanical
and chemical aspects of this crop.

As a result of experiments, it has been
found that heavily manured canes ripen
from a fortnight to a month later than
lightly manured crops, and that variation
in the date of planting does not alter the
date of maturity. The Agricultural
Department is demonstrating the supe-
riority of Khari and Mango canes and the
advantages of the ridge and furrow system
in certain parts of Orissa and Bhagalpore.

6. Past History and General Out-
look FOR THE Development of
THE Sugar Industry in these
Provinces.

There is an interesting note on the past
history of the sugar-cane crop in Bengal,
by Mr. C. S. Taylor, in the Bengal
Quarterly journal, vol. iii, Nos. 2 and 3,
to which I am indebted for much of the
information given in this section as
regards past efforts in the direction of
sugar-making in Bengal and Behar. Tlie
sugar trade from Bengal was, in the first
half of the eighteenth century, a great
source of profit to the merchants of Cal-
cutta. Towards the latter half of the
eighteenth century this trade was almost
annihilated, partly on account of diffi-
culties of transport and the preference
given by England to the West Indies over
all other sugar-producing countries, and

628

partly on account of the rise in the price
of native sugar, due to wasteful methods
in native factories. Towards the end of
the eighteenth century attempts were
therefore made to establish the industry
upon European lines by starting factories
financed with European capital and run
under European supervision. It was fore-
seen that the only arrangement by which
a European could hope to succeed in cane
cultivation would be by obtaining land
at a low rate and with good irrigation
facilities. The charges of cane cultiva-
tion by a European planter, however, are
higher than when the crop is raised by
the ryots; it was therefore thought that
the cane-farming system would, in theory,
pay both manufacturer and ryot better
than the plantation system, provided steps
were taken to ensure an absolutely certain
crop within feasy distance of every factory
so as to ensure success. Small central
factories located in a cane-growing tract
and buying their cane from natives were
advocated. Towards 1845 planters began
to come over in large numbers from the
West Indies, and as the price of indigo
had fallen to Rs. iio per maund at that
time, the Behar planter thought of sub-
stituting sugar for indigo. To this end
he was encouraged by the exceedingly
good returns obtained in the first place
by the planting of Otaheite cane on a
small scale in particularly good land, and
on these calculations from £700,000 to
£1,000,000 were invested in the importa-
tion and setting up of expensive machinery
from England. All kinds of land were
put into cane, and no rotation of crops
was followed, nor was manure applied in
the majority of instances. The result was
a falling off in yield, and sugar did not
pay. Thus it was that about 32 distinct
sugar concerns started between 1842 and
1850 closed down within a couple of
years, and as the price of indigo rose at
the same time sugar was rapidly aban-
doned for indigo. In the opinion of Mr.
Taylor, the failure was due to erroneous
calculations in the first place, followed
by want of system afterwards. For fifty
years after this great failure no attempt
appears to have been made by Europeans
to start the manufacture of refined sugar
on a large scale, but in 1900, owing to
the fall in the price of indigo, the sugar
question again came into prominence. A
Sugar Commission, appointed by Govern-
ment to consider the question, came to
several definite conclusions on the subject
which led them to believe that success
might be achieved by central factories

SUGAfe

alone. Large concerns sprang up soon
after this report.

A modern factory fitted with plant
capable of turning out a large quantity
of vacuum-pan sugar demands such an
outlay of capital that it must make large
profits to pay the necessary interest.
Unless such a factory is placed in the
midst of a country almost devoted to
cane-growing, So that the sugar is, as it
were, at the very doors of the concern,
endless delays and numerous stoppages
must take place owing to the non-delivery
of the raw material. A large factory in
such a tract would, owing to its greater
efficiency, be of greater use than a small
one. In India, with the inefficient means
of transport and a hot climate, the losses
due to inversion and fermentation on the
road, and storage in the event of
stoppages, are very serious. It is some-
times suggested that all Indian sugar fac-
tories should act primarily as refineries
taking the gur from the native manufac-
turer for the following reasons : gur is
made very cheaply by the ryot, there is
less trouble in carrying the manufactured
article than the more bulky cane, and
because the prices could be graduated by
the quality of the gur. But this sugges-
tion on trial in Behar has not met with
much success owing to the great fluctua-
tions in the supply and price of gur.
Where the factory can rapidly obtain gur
or raw sugar from outside its province,
as is the case at Cossipur, it has naturally
succeeded.

The majority of canes in Behar are
grown by the ryot under contract,
although some land is under the direct
control of the factory. In this way the
factory is dependent to a considerable
extent on a supply of cane from land not
under its direct control, and management
becomes difficult. The ryot, whose sole
object is to sell his crop, becomes care-
less, and very often restive in his desire
to clear the land early and prepare it for
the following crop. Sometimes an exces-
sive quantity of cane will be received,
and at others it will be insufficient to keep
the factory at work; but another defect
is that canes are bought by weight, with-
out reference to their richness in sugar.
The climate of Behar is not so favourable
to cane as it is in Java, where the whole;
of the cultivation is done on a different
plan. It is of the utmost importance in
Behar that facilities for irrigation in the
cane-growing tract should be obtained
and that manuring on a liberal scale
should be practised. As Mr. Taylor has

pointed out, the lands are highly cal-
careous, giving every chance to the
nitrifying organisms of the soil to supply
every trace of applied nitrogen to the
nitrogen-loving cane crop; and therefore
by manuring properly, together with
irrigation, extremely good results have
been achieved. Unless the cane is con-
tinuously irrigated during the dry months
there is every likelihood that the entire
crop will be carried off by white ants.

It has been proved that substantial
profits may be made by a man who has
an estate and who will set up a small
sugar-making plant and run it himself,
but it is essential that the proprietor must
not be afraid of working and that he must
personally supervise the whole of the
work, or the majority of the profits will
be lost in paying the expenses of the staflf.

There is great scope for improvement
in Behar, both in the direction of better
cultivation and in the introduction of
canes of high purity to increase the weight
of cane and sugar per acre. The usual
weight of thin cane per acre is 1 2 to 15
tons and 20 to 25 tons for thick canes,
and it requires from 16 to 18 tons to make
1 ton of sugar. In other countries 30
to 40 tons of cane per acre is the usuaJ
outturn, and 10 tons of cane for a ton of
sugar; and this brings us to the fact that
while an acre of land in other countries
will produce 3 to 4 tons of sugar, in Behar
it will only yield three-quarters of a ton.
It was principally with a view to ascertain
whether this defect of low yield can be
remedied that the Board of Agriculture
in India recommended the establishment
of a sugar-cane station in North Behar to
act as a receiving station for the seedling
canes produced by the sugar - cane
specialist. Dr. Barber, at the cane-
breeding station in Madras. This station
would grow and test the seedling canes
before they are given out to cultivators,
and it will also be a centre for intro-
ducing improved methods of cultivation.
It is certain that, with the introduction
of improved canes evolved by Dr. Barber
and some exotic canes tested by Mr.
Clarke at Shahjahanpur, the sugar
industry in Behar will be placed on a
firmer footing.

At the present moment there are no
fewer than 10 central factories in Behar,
crushing approximately 3,000 tons of cane
a day, and the addition of others is in con-
templation. These factories are all work-
ing during the present time (1916) at
very handsome profits, owing to the rise
in prices brought about by the war; but

629

even before the war, when the price ot
sugar dropped to a very low figure, the
majority were giving excellent financial
results. That the price will ever be as
low again as it was before the war is
highly improbable, and we are therefore
safe in assuming that sugar factories in
Behar have a good future before them,
given that they are run on proper lineS
and do not fall into the errors which led
te the downfall df indigo.

The cost of cane in the Behar factories
varies a little according to quality and the
distance it has to be brought, but it may
be said to cost from 4 to 6 annas a maund
at the factories, according to quality. As
regards the size of central factories in
Behar, it has been found that those having
a capacity of 300 tons of cane per 24
hours answer the requirements of success-
ful working. The smallest unit area to
feed such a factory is one of 2,000 acres
of cane, which postulates some 6,000 to
8,000 acres of land in order to allow free
scope for rotation, and it is on obtaining
this area that- the future of a central
factory must rest.

The cost of cane is a basic figure in
calculating the success or otherwise of a
central sugar factory. It can be safely
said that wherever cane can be grown in
a more or less compact area, and in suffi-
cient quantities at from 4 to 6 annas a
maund, according to the quality of the
cane, the success of a factory is assured.
There are large areas in Behar and
Gorakhpur where cane can be grown and
sold at this figure. The gur produced
in these parts is of inferior quality, suit-
able only for refining purposes. The
cultivators have therefore no objection to
selling their canes direct to factories. In
parts of North Behar cane is grown with-
out irrigation, but if water be required
it can be had at a low cost. Floods in
Behar are not frequent, and do not last
long enough to do any appreciable
damage to the sugar-cane crop.

The heavy crops of cane on the Pusa
Farm, where the soil is by no means of
the most favourable type, but rather the
reverse, show what can be done by im-
proved cultural methods. Mr. Coventry
is of opinion that by the introduction of
an improved cane and the application of
improved methods of cultivation in Behar
we could raise the production of sugar
per acre to a very much higher figure than
it stands at present, and it is not too much
to say that it could be easily doubled.
At present there is no other part of India
where the prospect of successfully intro-

2X*

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

ducing the central factory system is so
promising as in Behar. Progress is at
present slow owing to the fact that owners
of indigo estates on which cane can be
grown are unable to find the requisite
capital.

There is no sugar factory in Assam
which is equipped with modern machinery,
if we leave out of consideration the few
Sugar-cane farms in Lakhimpur and Bar-
pathar, where steam-power mills are said
to be employed in crushing. The object
of these two farms is, however, the pro-
duction of gur. A ton of cane would seem
to cost about Rs. 5 in Lakhimpur. The
expense of cultivating forest land is so
low that a few years ago gur was selling
at Rs. 2.8 per maund in the Dibrugarh
market. The cost can no doubt be
reduced considerably by improved culti-
vation, and it may not be too sanguine to
expect that, under favourable conditions,
a ryot should be able to deliver cane at
the factory door at about Rs. 4 per ton.
If cane could be taken to a factory and
disposed of there at a rate which would
leave a fair margin of profit, it is probable
that many persons, who are now deterred
by the cost and trouble involved in the
crushing of sugar-cane and the manufac-
ture of jaggery, could be induced to culti-
vate this crop. The great majority of
ryots keep barely enough capital to till
their holdings, nor can they spare any
for the crushing of cane. Central mills,
where the cane would be crushed by
steam power, are expected, therefore, to
be popular when the ryots are persuaded
to sell their crops instead of making
jaggery for themselves. There are large
unoccupied tracts of land in Goalpara,
Kamrup, and Nowgong eminently suited
to the growth of heavy crops of cane, and
the climate, both as regards temperature,
rainfall, and its distribution, is excellent.

The apparent richness of the soil, its
excellent conditions as regards moisture,
and the facilities for irrigation would show
that if these large blocks of land could
be brought under cane cultivation they
would probably yield very handsome
returns. Assam thus offers a possible
area for a large number of central
factories.

Only the advent of the capitalist into
Assam can put the sugar-cane industry
on a proper footing. The growth alone
of high-class canes for central factory
work demands more care in cultivation,
more capital, and more supervision than
the ryots are at present prepared to give.
The cost of machinery for manufacturing
into sugar, the cost of land reclamation,
and the labour provision all indicate the
necessity for well-financed concerns.
Nothing in the way of improvement or
extension can be hoped for from the com-
paratively limited areas now under cane
under the ordinary ryot's conditions.
With a view to help capitalists to form
a clear idea of the prospects of sugar
in Assam, the Local Agricultural Depart-
ment has opened a station at Kamrup, as
recommended by the Board of Agriculture
in India. The object of the experiment
is to ascertain whether it is possible to
produce, on sufficiently large and compact
areas, crops of high-class cane at a low
cost, ranging from 4 lannas to 6 annas per
maund of 82 lb. and averaging 25 to
30 tons per acre, so as to give a crushing
season of at least 1 00 days per annum,
and thus furnish the matrix of a properly
controlled industry. The land on the
above-named station has been reclaimed
from waste and put under cane on a small
scale, and it is intended to increase the
area to 1,000 acres. After the cessation
of the heavy rains the cane was found to
make wonderful growth, and on the

higher-lying areas it made a good crop.
Tillering was extraordinarily good and the
crop extremely healthy. In the light of
experienced gained, there appears to be
every prospect of success with earlier
planting and a thorough scheme of
drainage.

Labour in Assam is notoriously de-
ficient, but this difficulty, it is thought, can
be overcome by the use of steam tackle
and labour-saving appliances. Experi-
ments to this end are being made, and
the results so far are full of promise.
These are the districts where no tea is
being grown, and there is already a fair
indigenous native population, which, with
the aid of steam tackle, will be found
sufficient for the cultivation of sugar. In
the areas in Lower Assam not likely to
compete with the tea industry for labour,
there is every probability of the Local
Administration granting tracts of land on
a 30 years' lease, in the first instance, for
sugar-cane cultivation on terms as favour-
able as those for tea. If the present
experiment proves that a plantation con-
taining a factory is a sound investment,
there is every hope that the lower districts
of the Assam Valley will be opened up
by the sugar industry just as the upper
districts have been developed by the
growth of tea.

This gives a view of the general condi-
tions for producing cane and sugar in the
three Provinces, and provided that the
possibility of improving the output of
sugar per acre becomes an established
fact, and assuming that sufficient land to
maintain a factory running full time can
be obtained, there is certainly, under
present conditions, a great future for
sugar-cane, so great a future that there
should be no difficulty as to getting the
requisite capital necessary for launching
out on a large and paying scale.

630

\IMAL life in the
Bengal Presidency
and in the Provinces
of Behar and Orissa,
and Assam, is ex-
ceedingly abundant,
but it varies greatly
in chara::ter accord-
ing to the physical conditions prevailing
in the several divisions. In regions where
the rainfall is slight the fauna is of an
inferior character to that found in those
tracts where such soil is productive of a
wealth of luxuriant vegetation.

It is true that some of the larger species
of wild game are becoming extinct, and
that many others have been driven from
their homes in the fastnesses or forests and
mountains by the ubiquitous hunter or by
the agriculturist who has cleared away
jungle for the cultivation of larfd. But
the lordly elephant still roams in many
forests, the beautiful tiger levies toll upon
cattle, and even mankind, the agile leopard
is a menace to goats, sheep, and cattle,
ferocious buffaloes afford dangerous and
exciting sport, and the comparatively
small wild boar retains his title of the
pluckiest of all wild animals in India.

It will be understood that space will
permit reference to be made only to some
of the principal fauna which are most
commonly met with.

The elej)hant, the largest of the

FAUNA

By W. M. NUTTALL

Ungulata family, haunts forests and -vilJ-
looking jungle in many parts of the Pro-
vinces, but particularly in the territory
sloping northward towards the Himalayas,
or in the dense vegetation to the north
and south of the Ganges River, in Upper
Assam, and in the central and north-
eastern portions of the Feudatory States
of Orissa. Their chief habitat in these
States is in the exceedingly sparsely popu-
lated and forest-clad parts of the State
of Mayurbhani; in fact, it is said that
practically all the elephants in Orissa have
at one time or other been domiciled in
those fastnesses.

The height of an adult male at the
shoulders varies from 9 feet to 9 feet

DUCK-SHOOTING AT TURKOULIA.

6 inches, while that of a fully grown
female is about 8 feet, although in the
Calcutta Museum there is the skeleton of
a male which measured i i feet 3 inches,
631

Two methods of capture are usually
practised, in India, namely, ( i) by driving
and impounding the animals in stockades,
and (2) by hunting them on tame ele-
phants and subsequently noosing them, or,
as the natives say, " mela shikar." Im-
pounding may be carried out by driving a
herd into a strongly constructed stockade,
but this practice frequently involves the
hardships and disappointments of follow-
ing and guiding a herd for several days,
and of being compelled to camp out in
all weathers, frequently in jungles, in
order that sight of the quarry may not
be lost. The plan more generally adopted
is to build a Keddah at one of the outlets
of a salt-lick or poong, where obtainable,
which is voluntarily visited by elephants,
and for native servants to be in readiness
to secure all barriers as soon as the herd
has entered the enclosure,

The noosing plan appeals with pecu'.iar
force to sportsmen qf a true type who
believe in giving an opponent what is
known as " a fighting chance." Further
than that, the sport requires sound nerves
and good judgment, especially as hunted
animals usually make for the densest
jungle, full of thorns and cane, impass-
able as a rule to any beast but an elephant.

Medium-sized animals are caught in this
manner, but stockades enclose young and
old, of all ages. Fully grown elephants,
with the whole <jf their lives spent in the

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

enjoyment of liberty, naturally enough
resent the encircling ropes which threaten
them with captivity and obedisnce to man.
Their struggles for continued freedom are
frequently so severe that the ropes cut
their flesh, and the subsequent process of
training is thus delayed by reason of the
time required for the healing up of
wounds, and of the more or less surly
temper of an enraged beast.'

Young animals are easily and quickly
trained, and therefore command a ready
sale throughout India, but the education
of an old one necessitates the constant

in colouring and in the folds of skin cover-
ing their bodies. They inhabit grass
jungle in remote localities, delighting in
swamps and mud holes, and they are fre-
quently met with in flowing rivers. As
their name implies, they have one horn
which usually measures from lo inches to
12 inches in length, although a few have
been obtained which reached i6 inches.
This horn is, in reality, a conglomeration
of hairs, liable to be destroyed by injury
or disease, whereupon another one grows
in its place. The skin of the animal is
remarkably thick; its colour is dusky

INDIAN RHINOCEROS, ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, CALCUTTA.

attendance — and tuition too— of at least
three huge koonkies, or tame elephants.

Tiger {Felis tigris). — This beautifully
marked specimen of the feline family is
found in almost every part of the Pro-
vinces, and the majority of them are killers
of cattle and other game, while not a few
are destructive to human life. Their
tracks are regular " beats," several miles
in length, and one native method of killing
them is to set traps, in the form of a
gigantic bow or arrow, on their well-
defined paths. Tigers do not as a rule
attack man, but Government statistics
prove that very large numbers of cattle,
goats, and other domestic animals are
destroyed by them.

The rhinoceros belongs to the one-toed,
or perissodactyle ungulates, and two
varieties are met with. One of these (/?.
sondaicus) is found in Bengal — especially
in the Sunderbunds— occasionally in
Assam, throughout Burma, and as far as
the Malay Peninsula, They differ slightly

black ; its length of body is about i o J feet ;
its tail measures 2-| feet; and its height at
the shoulders varies from 5 feet 6 inches
to more than 6 feet.

Considering its huge bulk, great weight,
and its awe-inspiring and formidable head,
the rhinoceros is naturally a timid beast,
and will generally endeavour to escape
from close quarters with human beings.

When, however, it is suddenly dis-
turbed or wounded, it will make a series
of most ferocious charges which result in
death to any living creature with which it
comes in contact. On the other hand it
is easier to kill than many other wild
animals, and is far less tenacious of life
than the wild boar, which probably affords
finer sport than any other inhabitant of
the jungle.

The natives of Assam are very keen
upon securing its flesh, as they have a
profound belief in its medicinal proper-
ties, and as the species is becoming some-
what scarce in that Province the Govern-

633

ment has provided reserved areas for its
preservation.

Wild buffaloes {Bos bubalus) usually
inhabit tracts of swampy jungle, such as
are seen at the foot of the south-eastern
portion of the Himalayan range, or in the
deltaic areas of the Ganges and Mahanadi
Rivers and in Assam. ■

It possesses a well-rounded body
covered with a thin, dark-brown or
blackish-grey coat of hair, it has white
legs, and contrasts most favourably with
the domesticated type, which is frequently
of a lean and scraggy appearance.

Buffaloes are remarkably savage
animals, an infuriated bull having on
several occasions been known to charge
a line of shooting elephants, and many a
hunter in India has had nerve-racking ex-
periences both in jungle and upon open
ground.

The gaur {Bos gaurus) is generally
designated by the name mithan in Assam,
and by bison in other parts of India.
They herd together in the denser portions
of the forest, but they emerge into open
places occasionally, but especially when
young blades of grass are sprouting after
the vegetation has been burned off the
land. These temporary excursions are
made in the early hours of the day, and at
sunrise the animals seek the glades of the
forest, where they remain hidden during
the day. They are, further, frequently
found grazing in close proximity to ele-
phants. Some of these animals are 5 feet
in height at the shoulder, and have massive
forequarters and chest, small legs and
hoofs, and rather poor hindquarters. They
are nearly black in colour, with reddish
lower parts, and white legs from hoofs
to knees and hocks.

Grasses and creepers of various descrip-
tions form their staple food, but as they
lie perdu during the day one must be afoot
early in the morning in order to bag one.

This animal must be distinguished from
the gazal, or Bos frontalis, which is a
slightly smaller animal of the same colour
and having nearly straight horns. It lives
in hilly tracts, and while it is occasionally
kept in captivity, it has been found that
even in its wild state it will inter-breed
with tame cattle.

Sambur {Cervus unicolor), the largest
member of the deer tribe in India, is
fairly numerous in almost inaccessible
heights, but as the females of the species
appear to be surprisingly unable to realize
when they are in danger, they and their
calves are indiscriminately shot by native
hunters, and thus the species is decreasing

FAUNA

at a rapid rate. Although sambur prefer
to roam among the hills, one may occa-
sionally see a stray animal feeding upon
open ground in the early morning, espe-
cially in Assam, where it is found upon
numerous plains, but it is always within a
short distance from its sheltered retreat
where it rests during the greater part of
the day.

It is of a fairly dark brown colour, with
a whitish-yellow shade between the thighs,
and the height of a fully grown stag is
about I3i hands. The males are much
darker than the females.

The handsome spotted deer {Cervus
axis) need not be sought in any place
where there is not an abundant supply of
good water for drinking purposes, as it
suffers from an almost unquenchable
thirst. It is generally found among jungle
at the base of a range of hills, but occa-
sionally it ascends to a height of about
3,000 feet.

Among the smaller species of this
family is the barking deer [Curvulus
muntjac) whose home is on thickly wooded
hills. It is not more than about 20 inches
in height, and its horns do not, as a rule^
exceed 5 inches in length.

Other animals of the same species are
the Indian antelope (Antelope cervicapra),
found in nearly all districts where the
jungle is not particularly dense; together
with the handsome little mouse deer, which
is not more than 10 inches or 12 inches in
height at the withers. It is found chiefly
on hill ranges at an elevation of about
1,500 feet.

The Leopard {Felis pardus). — The two
varieties of this species in India are usually
known as panthers and leopards, and they
differ slightly both in colour and size.
The former varies in length from 6 feet
to nearly 8 feet, with skins of light yellow
colour, while the latter rarely exceeds
6 feet, and has darker spots placed close
together. It is said that black specimens
are occasionally seen in the district of
Cachar in the Surma Valley in Assam.
Both types destroy and eat cattle, dogs,
deer, pigs, monkeys, and other animals of
a smaller size, and their boldness is mani-
fested by their entering villages and car-
rying away their prey from the houses of
natives. They are widely distributed, and
are usually found in moderately open
country near cultivated areas, but they
frequently conceal themselves in trees.

Striped hyaenas (Hyena striata) com-
mon in all parts of the Indian Peninsula,
prowl fearlessly in the neighbourhood of
native villages, where stray goats, dogs.

and other domestic animals fall an easy
prey to them, but in the absence of a
living victim they are always ready to
satisfy their hunger with carrion.

Other members of the feline family
found in nearly every district of the three
Provinces include the cheetah (or hunting
leopard), the clouded leopard, the ounce,
and the fisliing cat.

The Indian wolf {Canis palUpes) is a
determined hunter of various kinds of
deer, as well as of sheep and goats, and

them when feeding upon the carcases of
sambur and other animals which have died
several days previously. It searches
during the night for food, which includes
termites, or white ants, which the bear
obtains from the ground by digging to a
depth of from 3 feet to 6 feet.

The length of body and head varies
from 4 feet 6 inches to 5 feet 8 inches;
and the height at the shoulder ranges from
2 feet 2 inches to 2 feet 9 inches. .

The Malayan species, only rarely found

HEAD OF RHINOCEROS, SHOT BY W. M. NUTTALL.

natives have asserted that children have
occasionally been carried off by a pack
of these ferocious animals.

The Indian sloth bear (Ursus labiatus)
has long and shaggy black hair, especially
on the shoulders, together with white fur,
in the shape of a horse's shoe, on the
chest. It has indifferent eyesight, and
when charging (as it invariably does when
disturbed suddenly) it is guided chiefly by
its sense of hearing and scent, both of
which are unusually keen. This species
of bear is common in the Provinces, being
met with upon forest-clad ranges of hills
where there are caves or recesses, from
which it emerges to take its nocturnal
rambles. In Assam it is in the habit of
making small machans in trees — similar to,
but stronger than, a stork's nest — in which
it sleeps during the daytime. It is not
generally known that sloth bears will eat
carrion flesh, and a well-known hunter in
Assam asserts that he has frequently shot

633

in Upper Assam, is black in colour, with
short hair, and an almost white muzzle.

Sus Indicus, the Indian wild boar, is
one of the best-known species of game
in the Peninsula. It belongs to a family
which has types in nearly every country
of the civilized world. It was formerly
common in England and France, and is
still plentiful in Russia, Spain, and else-
where in Europe. It is a remarkably
courageous animal, and more than one
historian has stated that a full-sized tusker
will quench its thirst at a pool of water
with a tiger drinking on either side of
him. Colonel Heber Percy says that in
several instances an old boar has beaten
off a tiger and has subsequently killed
him, while the writer, shooting from the
back of an elephant, wounded one, which
immediately charged and inflicted injuries
to the legs and trunk of his mount.

Pig-sticking is possibly the most excit-
ing and dangerous sport in which a man

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

can engage, and many hunters will, to the
end of their lives, carry indelible scars
resulting from their adventures.

The boar is in the habit of making
small but exceedingly strong houses of
grass, leaves, and jungles; these are cir-
cular in form, with an entrance on one sidie,
and they are used as shelters during the
heavy rains of the monsoon period. It
usually feeds upon roots, but it has been
known to dig into the earth to obtain
worms, while it is not averse to carrion.
In certain districts there are trees which
during the months of August and Septem-
ber are laden with nuts, similar in shape
to but harder than walnuts, and when
these fall to the ground one is certain
to find a number of pigs feeding upon
them.

The boar is from 2 feet 6 inches in
height at the shoulder, and it will fre-
quently turn the scale at 200 lb. to 300 lb.,
some even exceeding this weight.

Wild dogs (Canis rutilans), which are
very numerous in well-wooded districts in
each Province, are exceedingly destructive
to small game. They usually hunt in
packs, exhibiting considerable intelligence
in following their quarry, and it is said
that a number of them have been known
to pull down and kill an Indian gaur.

The jackal is no stranger to any one
who is acquainted with India. Its wail-
ing howl, repeated three or four times and
followed by as many sharp yelps, resounds
through the stillness of the night as the
animal emerges from its jungly haunts
bent upon scavenging excursions in the
neighbourhood of native villages.

It is impossible to refer here to many
varieties of smaller animals, including
weasels, martens, monkeys, polecats, and
badgers; to birds, such as vultures, kites,
falcons, parrots, cranes, wildfowl, and
hundreds of other species; or even to
alligators, crocodiles, snakes, lizards, and
other unpleasant reptiles ; and it need only
be added that a special article on salt and
fresh-water fish will be found on another
page of this volume.

The eastern portion of India, to which
these notes refer, is second to none as a
hunter's paradise. The majority of the
haunts of large and small game can at
the present time be reached in comfort in
luxurious railway carriage.; or well-fitted
steamers, and guides and beaters are
always available at the nearest town or
village. Opportunities for obtaining " my
first tiger," or a record trophy of one of
the various antlered animals, are presented
jn such a manner that the traveller must

be a listless hunter if he does not avail
himself of them.

The city of Calcutta is an admirable
place for headquarters, and all kinds of
weapons, ammunition, and other equip-
ment can be procured there at an exceed-
ingly moderate cost.

The following notes relate to a few of
the many exciting incidents which have
been experienced by me during several
years' enjoyment of big game shooting in
the Province of Assam, and not at any
great distance from my home on the
Digultarung Tea Estate, Rungarara,
Upper Assam: —

" An old Assamese shikari of mine was
killed lately by following up a wounded
tiger. He had fired at it at close quarters
from a machan, and as he felt certain that
it would be found lying dead in the
vicinity, he collected a number of friends
to assist him in the search. The brute
had lost a good deal of strength, but he
had sufficient left in him to make a charge
at some of the party, and in the general
scurry which took place a boy fell to the
ground almost within reach of the tiger.
The shikari returned to render help, but
he himself was badly mauled, being bitten
at the waist, and he succumbed to his in-
juries on the following day." The writer
is confident that a tiger can exist for two
or even three weeks without any flesh food,
and he supports his opinion by the follow-
ing incident: " I recently got information
of a ' kill,' not far distant, and as the
tiger which had been seen in the neigh-
bourhood did not appear to be at all shy,
I was urged to hurry along in the hope
that I might bag him before darkness set
in. The ' kill ' could not be seen, as it
had been placed in long grass at the
bottom of a broad and deep nullah with
a high bank on either side. I therefore
sat on the ground in such a position that
I could sei the opposite bank and jungle
from which it was expected the tiger would
emerge on his way to the ' kill.' I had not
waited long when, as the sun was sinking
on the horizon, I caught sight of a magnifi-
cent tiger — truly a monarch— standing on
the opposite bank and casting his keen
eyes up and down the nullah. Just as his
gaze fell upon me I levelled my rifle and
fired; there was an awful roar as he
bounded high in the air, and then, rolling
down the bank, bounded off into a patch
of long grass. Thence he dragged him-
self into a mass of terrible jungle and
eventually crawled into low, broken, bog-
land covered with trees.

" I could at that time only obtain leave

634

of absence on Sundays, so on the first
available day I took native shikaris with
me to endeavour to drive the tiger out of
his lair on to higher and clearer ground.
The land was very broken and boggy, so
it will be understood that we were keenly
on the alert to prevent a surprise.

" Trees were climbed in order to give
us an opportunity of seeing what might be
ahead, and after a long time, spent in
arduous work, we eventually drove our
game out, but why he did not charge us I
cannot say.

" I then became nervous about the pos-
sible fate of the villagers and decided that
I would follow him up on elephants and put
an end to his career. We found his tracks
which led in the direction of the village,,
and after making circuits around them, I
soon afterwards succeeded in laying him
low. This was a fine tiger, although very
emaciated, and I am able to state con-
fidently that he had been without meat
food for more than three weeks. My
opinion was that the monster was then on
his way to secure easy prey as he was far
too weak to hunt and kill game on his own
account. In all probability this tiger
would — owing to his parlous condition —
have become a man-eater. My first bullet
entered his mouth, carrying away one of
his fangs, and I believe that it was thereby
diverted, as, instead of penetrating the
brain, it passed down the throat, and then
shattered the shoulder.

" Monkeys, by giving utterance to a cry
totally different from their usual chatter,
have frequently informed me of the
presence of a tiger, and my discovery of
this was made when I was returning home
with a dead one on thei back of my
elephant.

" Luck has a good deal to do with
getting a glimpse of a tiger, but in a
general way I may say that experience is
necessary in order that one may observe
tracks, or recent lairs, or some other un-
usual feature which would never be
noticed by an uninitiated hunter.

" I have a perfect recollection of my
first tiger! It was not the tedious track-
ing, or the long waiting for a shot, but it
was the excitement of the moment when
my bullet went home 1

" In later days I was in^ the habit of
walking in a circle round the ' kill,' and
I invariably found that, when I approached
the place where the beast was lying in
a concealed spot, he would move away
to a distance and again hide himself. I
therefore tried the following method, and
as it was so successftjl I have since that

fAUNA

time always adopted the same plan when
sitting in a maclian over the ' kill.' I took
elephants and men, and instructed the
natives to arouse the tiger while I hid
myself in a tree. At a given signal they
were to assemble near the ' kill,' and then
march away singing and shouting, when I
expected the tiger would return to the bait.
The beast did so, and found everything
quiet, but still hearing the men, he fol-
lowed them for some distance and once
more made his way to the bait to enjoy his
meal, but he never finished it, as I rolled
him over while my servants were still
singing. The tiger was strapped on an
elephant within twenty minutes of our
arrival.

" I was out one day with a friend when
we picked up the tracks of a very fine
tiger and followed them from morning to
dusk, but as it became too dark to see
clearly we decided to encamp for the night
and endeavour to secure our prey on the
morrow.

" As soon as it was light we went to a
neighbouring village and were told that
on the previous day a native had shot at
and wounded a large cattle-killing tiger,
whose tracks we had been following in the
semi-darkness not many hours before. It
was a great piece of luck that there was no
accident. On another occasion I followed
a tigress (which was stalking pig) and
upon shooting her I found that she had
only three legs, one of them having been
broken ofT at the hock joint, where a hard
pad had subsequently been formed.

"People have been heard to declare that
elephants appear to be dense and devoid
of understanding, but such an opinion can
be held only by those who have never
had anything to do with them.

" I remember on one occasion that a
mahout unconsciously dropped his knife
while riding his elephant, and when the
animal suddenly stopped and refused to
proceed, the man was unable to discover
the reason until his loss was pointed out.
A really well-trained animal would have
picked up the knife and handed it up to
the owner.

" On another occasion my servants were
engaged in driving wild elephants towards
a stockade, but on nearing the entrance
they broke and fled in all directions. Our
only course then was to return to our
camping-place of the previous night and
endeavour to collect the herd on the
morrow. This proved to be a difficult
matter, as the journey was a long one, and
it became so dark that I could not see
the driver sitting on the neck of my own

elephant. One of the men shortly after-
wards called out that his mount refused to
proceed farther, and he suggested that we
had probably arrived at the camp. I
therefore struck a light and found that the
unerring instinct of the so-called dense
elephant had guided us to our destination!

" I have witnessed some striking inci-
dents in noosing wild elephants. I
remember seeing some phandis (noosing
men) separate a very large female and her
two daughters (one nearly full-grown and
the other quite a youngster) from the herd.
The mother charged the men as they ap-
proached her and actually put up a good
fight with the tame elephants, but the
young ones returned to the herd, the elder
of the two commencing to charge while
the mother and baby made themselves
scarce. They relieved one another in this
manner for a considerable time, in fact,
until one of the daughters was captured.

" Elephants have remarkably keen
scent, and I have frequently seen tame
ones pointing, with their trunks high in
the air, in the direction of a wild herd.
They raise or lower the trunk according
to the probable distance of the troop, and
thus render most important assistance to
the hunter.

" If a wild herd suspects danger ahead
while being driven, no power on earth —
not even the firing of a cannon — can make
them proceed. They will wheel round and
break off in a lateral direction, or return
towards their pursuers, and Heaven pro-
tect the latter if they are in the course of
flight.

" One day when suffering from fever
I was returning along the bank of a river
in the direction of my home and saw a
fine male sambur standing in the stream.
I felt too unwell to trouble about it, but
■as my shikaris required food for the larder
I stopped for the purpose of securing him.
I fired two shots without any apparent
effect, but the third attempt caused him to
make for the jungle. I followed a blood
trail, and eventually found and killed the
animal, when to my surprise I discovered
that my first two shots had actually found
their mark, although the sambur had re-
mained perfectly still.

" Very fine sport can be had in shoot-
ing gaur. A friend of mine (J. W.)
wounded one, but we did not succeed in
bagging it until four days later, and this
was only accomplished by waiting for it
to return in its previous tracks.

" We sent men on elephants to follow
it while we searched for convenient
hiding-places for ourselves. Before I had

635

secured a place, the beast came bounding
along the track, and as he swung round
a bend in the path I had barely time to
step aside and get a rapid shot at him.
On another occasion I crawled through
an exceedingly dense patch of cane jungle,
but when I was near the gaur I could only
see a black shape and a switching tail.
I fired, however, and he immediately
turned and charged in my direction, when
I managed to drop him. An examination
of the place where I had come upon him
showed that he had been standing in a
cul-de-sac, caused by a fallen tree, and
was therefore unable to go forward. He
was nearly 6 feet 8 inches in height at the
shoulder.

" I once shot what I thought was a full-
grown bear resting in a tree, but I soon
found that it was a large cub, and that its
mother, though unseen at first, was near to
it. The latter dropped from the tree and
began to stalk me in the dense jungle.
It moved about in a circle, gradually
reducing the radius until she stood on her
hind legs, towering above me, when I
placed the muzzle of my gun upon her
chest and fired. I have frequently
noticed that bears drop or fall from great
heights without any apparent ill effects.

" One of the most thrilling hunting ex-
periences I ever had was when two friends
(C. and H.) were shooting buffaloes in the
jungle in Upper Assam. Mounted on
elephants we left camp in the early morn-
ing, and, after proceeding for about two
miles along the bed of the Kolopani River,
came upon the tracks of a very large bull
which had been previously seen by me and
which possessed a pair of very fine horns.
The ground was hard owing to the absence
of rain, and this rendered it an exceedingly
difficult matter to trace the spoor, but
towards evening we discovered marks
which had been recently made by the
buffalo. It was then too late in the day,
however, to pursue him further, therefore
on the following morning we set off in con-
fident hope of securing a fine trophy.
Soon after we started I scented our
quarry, and I at once signalled to that
effect to my friends.

" It is an easy matter for an experienced
hunter to tell when buffaloes are near, as
they emit a very strong odour when they
have been resting for a whole night. We
moved along very cautiously, but sud-
denly there was a crash in the jungle and
I caught a glimpse of tho bull as he
charged away from us without affording
the slightest opportunity for a shot. My
mahout then guided the elephant through

ELEPHANT CATCHING AND TEAININO.
rkalos by II'. .1/. Nultatt.

636

ELEPHANT CATCHINO AND TRAINING.

Pkoliis by II'. M. Xmlall-

(>o7

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR ANt) ORlSSA

the' dense fdliage and pointed out a huge
female buffalo, which had evidently joined
the male, and was lying down calmly
chewing her cud. I saw her distinctly
enough, but as I personally only wanted
the bull, I tried to show C. where she was
hiding. He advanced in the right direc-
tion, but the cow must have heard or
scented him, as she rose quickly and
charged in the direction of the elephant
ridden by H. As the undergrowth was
nearly as high as the elephants we were
quite unable to see where the buffaloes
had gone. I called a halt and explained
to my friends that our only chance of
securing them was to proceed on foat.
They agreed to my proposal, and I led
the way, my tracker behind me, then came
my two friends, with the elephants in the
rear. After we had been following the
spoor for about an hour I heard the two
animals in the jungle ahead, and at once
sent my tracker to the remainder of the
party, who had lagged behind, to caution
them against a surprise rush. I then tried
to get round the buffaloes with the view
of making them break back towards C.
and H., when there was a sudden crash of
jungle and a charge of the two beasts in
my direction. The bull tore off at an
angle where I was standing, while the
other turned back on her own tracks and
nearly knocked over H., who had barely
time to fire and then jump aside as she
pursued her headlong flight. We sub-
sequently found a trail of blood at the
spot where the cow had been hit by H.
I was very anxious to secure the bull on
account of his exceedingly fine head, but
as I did not wish to leave a wounded
animal to succumb to its injuries, I deter-
mined to follow up the latter at the risk
of losing her mate. My tracker and I
therefore took the lead, and soon left my
companions behind as the evening was fast
approaching. The trail led us into the
most impossible places, such as muddy
pools where the cow had rolled in order
to keep flies from her wound. This mud,
thick upon the undergrowth, soon covered
me from head to foot, and 1 became un-
recognizable. On reaching a pool of
water, however, we noticed that it was
disturbed as if an animal had recently
passed through it, and as we were thereby
convinced that our quarry must be near,
we crawled through exceedingly dense
jungle, over fallen trees, and through
pools of mud, but always on the alert,
looking carefully into the thick foliage
lest the wounded and infuriated beast
should take us by surprise. As I was

climbing over a fallen tree my tracker
pulled me back saying that he could see
the cow about twenty paces ahead of us,
and as she moved I managed to let her
have a bullet. Suddenly she broke
through the jungle, leaving a track which
showed that she was bleeding profusely.
My friends — who had now joined me — were
convul.sed with laughter at my torn cloth-
ing and muddy appearance. It seemed
to be madness to follow the cow in a
waning light through such jungle, but I
determined to have her if possible, and
arranged with my tracker that he should
lead the way and should immediately step
out of the line of fire if he discerned any-

A TIGRESS WITH THREE TOES.

thing. The jungle now consisted of
masses of thorns and brambles, which were
continually tearing our hands and faces,
but as we were ascending a slight incline,
my servant called out, in Assamese, ' It's
coming ! it's coming I ' and then ran behind
me. There was a terrific crashing noise,
and although I was unable to, see any
animal I suddenly found myself flying
through space, eventually falling flat on
my back, half stunned, but fortunately
grasping my rifle. Never shall I forget
the moment when I was conscious of my
position, as the brute was standing over
me! I had fallen upon the slope of the
incline, and that piece of luck undoubtedly
saved my life, as the buffalo began to horn
me most savagely, cutting and bruising
the side of my face. Another servant who
carried my spare rifle would have shot,
but he was afraid of hitting me. Oh,
the horrors of those passing seconds !
Thousands of thoughts passed through my
mind: I pictured myself sitting comfort-
ably in my bungalow; I wondered where

638

my friends were, and why they did not
come to my assistance ! At last she ceased
horning me and began to administer
similar treatment to my tracker, who had
also been knocked over. The cow then
managed to get one of her horns between
his back and his cartridge case, which was
quickly torn off, and at the same time she
inflicted a slight cut into his flesh. The
buffalo then turned her attention to me
again, horning me with renewed vigour,
but on her hearing the approach of my
friends upon their elephants she raised
her head and snorted, thus giving me time
for thought as to my course of action. 1
accordingly picked up my rifle, a "577
bore, but in doing this I must have touched
her. as she treated me to a kick with one
of her hind feet, knocking the weapon out
of my hands. I again secured the rifle,
but owing to the undergrowth I did not see
any chance of making use of it. Even-
tually I placed the butt end on the ground
between my legs and took the best aim
possible in that most dangerous position,
as I felt certain that if I killed her she
would probably fall upon and crush me,
and that, if only wounded, she would
become much more infuriated. Hopeless
as either way seemed to be, I fired, and the
brute in bounding forward damaged the
muscles of my thigh. The cow was now
standing slightly behind me, bellowing
furiously, and as I was unable to move on
account of the numbness in my leg,
I pointed the rifle behind my head and dis-
charged the second barrel, the bullet
smashing the pelvis and causing her to
collapse. The native servant with my
spare gun saw me crawl away and at once
fired at the buffalo, but probably from
excitement he nearly shot me! As it was
practically dark by this time we had to
grope our way homewards, thinking
possibly that we might be lost, but we
suddenly found the bed of a river which
was known to us, and after following this
for a short distance, we saw our camp
fires, which sent to us one of the most
inviting welcomes that has ever fallen to
our lot.

" I have had several exciting encounters
with large game since that day, but keen
as I am on sport, I have no desire to
repeat the experience of lying almost help-
less under a maddened Indian buffalo.

" Bad luck seems in some mysterious
way to breed bad luck, as shortly after my
encounter with the buffalo referred to I
had two narrow escapes with my life. In-
formation reached me one Saturday that
two wild buffaloes had been visiting cer-

FAUNA

tain villages and were causing a great deal
of trouble by annoying tame herds belong-
ing to natives, and by threatening and
chasing their cowherds, who had attempted
to drive away the intruders. On the
following morning— a peaceful Sunday
which seemed to promise anything but
exciting adventures — I took three ele-
phants, one being a very staunch animal
which I rode myself, and soon picked up
tracks leading across a river, through

possibly owing to its extreme density, one
of the pair could not force its way through
and came full speed for me, and as I had
only one barrel left I steadied the ele-
phant and fired at the head of the brute
when he was not more than 20 feet from
me. He turned a complete somersault,
and after attempting in his convulsions to
stand on his head once or twice, he fell
dead at the feet of my elephant. We then
went in pursuit of the larger of the two

few yards, and although a large fallen
tree (over which my elephant scrambled)
sent the buffalo to a point at a right angle
to me, it was impossible to get a shot
at him. Imagine my position! I could
not release my hold of the rope in my right
hand, my rifle was in my left hand, there
1 was upon a runaway elephant with an
infuriated buffalo at its heels, the two
spare elephants shrieking with fright, and
tearing along in front of me, to say

1. LEOPAED SHOT BY W. M. NDTTALL. 2. SOLITARY BULL MITHAN, 20 HANDS HIGH, SHOT BY W. M. NDTTALL.

3. WILD BUFFALO SHOT IN OPEN COUNTRY THATCHLAND, NORTH BANK OF THE BRAHMAPUTRA.

which we had to swim. It was evident
that the wild buffaloes had turned away
from the villages in the direction of their
natural haunts, but unfortunately the tame
animals from the village had wandered
with or after them, towards the jungle,
which was very dense. After following
up the spoor for a considerable time we
came to an open glade, where I saw the
two beasts enjoying themselves in a
wallow. 1 was about to fire when my
mahout stopped me by calling out that
they were tame animals, but during this
palaver the quarry bolted into the jungle,
affording me only a ' snap-shot ' at one
of them. The two bulls were now indis-
tinguishable in the thick undergrowth, but

bulls by following the trails of blood
which were fairly distinct, but every time
we got near to him he plunged still deeper
into the recesses of the forest. He ap-
parently grew tired of these tactics, as he
suddenly charged back on his tracks,
snorting furiously, and this assault was so
unexpected that the two spare elephants
lost nerve, trumpeted, and bolted, while
the one I was riding — although she had
remained staunch and true in many tests
— whisked round and followed her com-
panions. What a ride we had, to be sure;
it was uncertain whether we were to fall
or be dragged off the elephant, be killed
by the buffalo, or impaled on a branch of a
tree. The bull was gaining ground every

639

nothing of the forest jungle with every
conceivable kind of thorn and creeper to
arrest one's progress, or the uncomfort-
able nautical roll of an elephant travelling
at its fastest speed.

" Once or twice I was nearly dragged
off by creepers, or ran the risk of having
my eyes torn out by bamboos, but my
native servant behind me was not so for-
tunate, as some tendrils encircled his neck
and hurled hin. to the ground while he
still retained my spare rifle in his hand.
The buffalo came on in his mad rush,
nearly goring the native as he passed, yet
in this most dangerous predicament in
which I found myself, I could not help
admiring the pluck of my pursuer. My

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

mahout succeeded — at my urgent request —
in stopping the elephant for a few seconds
when I managed to get a one-handed shot
just as the buffalo crashed into us. The
next thing I remembered was that I was
trying to raise myself, as when falling I
had been struck on the head by the branch
of a tree. My elephant had been knocked
over and was attempting to get on his
legs again, and the bull, a few feet away
from me, was endeavouring to stand up.
Fortunately my shot had had some effect,
so I seized my rifle and fired the remain-
ing bullet into the animal's face. 1 immedi-
ately opened the breech for the purpose
of reloading when to my horror I found
that the gun had exploded, that the two
barrels were wide apart, that one was
choked with earth, and the other had be-
come shortened by about 2 inches. After
a hurried council with my faithful old
servant, the latter rushed towards some
rising ground, while I made for the jungle,
only to 'be promptly followed by the
bull.

" Placing my useless rifle at the foot of
a tree, I managed to raise myself a few
feet from the ground, and although this
was no place of safety I had the utmost
satisfaction in seeing the wounded animal
staggering along and passing me in his

blind rage. We were now several miles
from home, our elephants were lost, and
we possessed two broken rifles. Truly our
position was not an enviable one, but late
at night we were met by a party of natives
who had been sent in search of us. It
appears that one of the mahouts, who was
riding the elephant which had been the
first to bolt, had been severely cut on the
face by a sharp piece of bamboo and had
fallen to the ground, but he managed to
reach camp, when his blood-stained con-
dition gave some verification of his highly
imaginative story that the Sahib's elephant
had been knocked over, and that every
member of the party had been killed. The
servants on the other elephant were thrown
to the ground before they had travelled
far, but they eventually reached home.
On the day following the adventure we
found the dead buffalo, but several days
elapsed before we recaptured the lost
elephants.

" After the mishap which had previously
befallen me when I was lying beneath a
bufl^alo, a sportsman with many years'
experience advised me never to go on
foot after large game in that awful jungle,
and especially when animals have been
wounded and the hunter is following them
with light weapons. Buffaloes are, in my

opinion, by far the most savage and dan-
gerous of all our local wild animals.

" It will be admitted that the work of
that eventful Sunday was an expensive
item, but even that has not prevented me
from occasionally engaging in a sport in
which I take such a keen delight.

" Finally, it may be said that one's
fascination for hunting dangerous large
game does not arise so much from the
mere fact of killing, but of tracking when
it is extremely difficult to arrive, at a
definite conclusion as to the age of the
trail marks or as to the probable distance
between pursuer and pursued. It is also
produced by the existence of other in-
habitants of the jungle which have to be
avoided, as they frequently give the alarm
of danger from one to another.

" This curious method of signalling is
sometimes helpful, however, as a hunter
may by it be informed of the presence of
the game for which he is searching, while
on the other hand squirrels with their
chattering, and wild fowl uttering their
shrill cries, frequently dispose of all
chances of a shot.

" The jungle is an open book, full of
interest to those who understand it, and
happy is the man who can read its
secrets."

THE EACE-STANDS, CALCUTTA.

64Q

1. FQLb-GROWN JUTE.

2. CUTTING JUTE.

JUTE

HE spinning andweav--
ing by hand of
fibrous plants in
India have been prac-
tised from time im-
memorial, but it is
not necessary in this
brief review to pene-
trate into the history of the industrial
occupations of the people farther back
than the beginning of the nineteenth cen-
tury, when the native inhabitants of the
country were in the habit of weaving jute
into cordage, and cloth for bedding,
garments, sacliing, and other purposes.
Dr. Forbes Royle, in his " Fibrous
Plants of India," published in 1885,
wrote : " The great trade and principal
employment of jute is for the manufac-
ture of gunny chuts or chuttees, i.e.
lengths suitable for making bags. This
industry forms the grand domestic
manufacture of all the populous Eastern
districts of Lower Bengal. It pervades
all classes and penetrates into every
household — men, women, and children
finding occupation therein. Boatmen,
in their spare moments, husbandmen,
palankeen-carriers, and domestic servants
— everybody, in fact, being Hindus (for
Mussulmans spin cotton only) pass their
leisure moments, distaff in hand, spinning
gunny twist. Its preparation, together
with the weaving into lengths, forms the
never-failing resource of that most

humble, patient, and despised of created
beings the Hindu widow, saved by law
from the pyre, but condemned by opinion
and custom for the remainder of ' her
days, literally, to sackcloth and ashes and
the lowest domestic drudgery in the
very household where once her will
was law. There is, perhaps, no other
article so universally diffused over the
globe as the Indian gunny bag. All the
finer and long-stapled jute is reserved
for the export trade, in which it secures
a comparatively high price. The short
staple serves for the local manufactures,
and it may be remarked that a given
weight of gunny bag may be purchased
at about the same price as a similar
weight of raw material, leaving no
apparent margin for spinning and
weaving."

These hand-woven bags and cloth were
exported to Great Britain in increasing
quantities, and it was through such con-
signments that flax and hemp-spinners in
Dundee had their attention directed to
the valuable nature of Indian fibre.
Several of them essayed the manufacture
of this imported jute with the spinning
machinery in their mills, but it is
generally believed that the raw material
with which experiments were made must
have been of an inferior character, as the
results were so unsatisfactory that Dundee
merchants felt compelled to guarantee the
output of their mills tQ be " free from

641

Indian jute." It is related, however, that
after further trials had been made it was
clearly demonstrated that Indian jute was
particularly suitable for sacking and
wrappers for packing and other purposes,
and this important discovery, together
with the effects of the Crimean War, was
the means of establishing an industry in
Dundee which has added enormous wealth
to that city and has given employment
to thousands of its inhabitants.

Before reviewing the circumstances
which led to the construction of jute
mills in Lower Bengal, and to the mar-
vellous progress which has been made in
this branch of commerce, a few words
should be said as to the nature of the
jute plant and the method qf cultivation,
and a reference to the various processes
of manufacture.

There are twQ species of jute in India
from which fibre is obtained — namely,
Corchorus eapsularis and C. colitorius,
and they are annual plants with a growth
of frorn 5 feet to 10 feet in height. The
stalks are cylindrical in form; their leaves
are qf a bright green colour, and flowers
small in size and of a yellow shade. The
leaves are valuable, as they are extensively
iised as pot-herbs, and it may be added
that their employment in the domestic
cuisine was centuries ago, and still is,
a common practice not only in India but
also with the Greeks and other people on
the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Jute

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

is usually known by the name of pat in
Eastern Bengal and Assam; in Orissa it is
called nalita, and in Behar the word is
patna. Nalita, however, is generally
applied in all these Provinces to the
leaves when used as edible vegetables.

It is believed that the word " jute "
is derived from jhot or jhout (Sanskrit,
jhat), this being the vernacular name in
the district of Cuttack, where the East
India Company had roperies about the
year 1795.

The Province of Bengal, however, is the
real home of the jute plant, as the climate,
rainfall, and nature of the greater portion
of the soil are extremely favourable for
its cultivation. New alluvial soils, such
as are seen in Eastern and Northern
Bengal and in Northern Behar, are par-
ticularly suitable, and the enormous
quantity of jute produced in these areas
annually verified the truth of the saying
that its fibre " occupies a position in the
manufacturing scale inferior only to
cotton and flax." The greatest danger
to the young plant arises from water-
logging; hence it is that a loam or sandy
loam soil — through which rain can perco-
late— is infinitely better than clay, which
cannot absorb or get rid of an abnormal
quantity of water.

Thorough preparation of the land by
four or five ploughings and weeding is
absolutely essential to the successful cul-
tivation of jute; large clods of earth must
be broken by harrows or kodalis; and
the surface must be thoroughly pulverized
until a very fine tilth is obtained. From
8 lb. to 10 lb. of seed to the acre are
sown broadcast during the season, which
extends from the middle of February to
the end of May ; and it is a common
practice for the sower to walk over the
ground a second time in order to secure
an even distribution of seed.

Jute grown on the same land year after
year in succession is an exhausting crop,
and the cultivator who looks for satis-
factory results, unless he has applied a
liberal dressing of manure, is doomed to
disappointment. From experiments which
have been made in recent years, it has
been shown that cowdung is the best
fertilizer, used alternately with castor-oil
cake.

Jute is cut with a sickle shortly after
the commencement of the flowering
period, and the plants are then tied in
bundles and kept under water for the
steeping or " retting " process until the
fibre can easily be separated from the
woody portion of the stem. The time

taken up by this treatment extends from
five or ten days to even a month, the result
depending upon the maturity of the plant
and climatic and other conditions.

Professor Finlow (Jute Specialist in
Bengal and Assam), writing of this pro-
cess of separating the fibre, says : " This
is brought about by fermentation, during
which time the tissue in which the fibres
arc embedded is softened or dissolved.
It is apparently the result of the work of
a particular bacterial organism, and
sterilized stems of jute inoculated with
what are believed to be pure cultures of
this organism ret rapidly."

The work of stripping the fibre from
the stem should be completed within two
or three days after retting has been com-
pleted, and the separated portion is then
washed in clean water and subsequently
placed on a bamboo frame to be dried,
after which it is tied in bundles for
transfer to the jute-pressing machine.
The contents of these bundles are sorted
into lots, according to the various
qualities of fibre ; and after these
separate parcels have undergone immense
hydraulic pressure, they reappear in the
well-known form cf bales of 400 lb. in
weight.

A fair average return from a jute crop
is about 15 maunds, and although 30
maunds have sometimes been obtained
from plants grown on well-manured land,
a yield of 20 to 24 maunds is by no means
uncommon.

The various articles manufactured from
jute in India and Europe include hessian
cloth, gunny bags, paulins, corn sacks,
wool sheets, nitrate and sugar bags, shirt-
ings, curtains, carpets, rugs, sacking,
string, rope, sails, paper, cord, and kampa
(a net-like bag for carrying bundles on
bullocks). Inferior fibre, known as
" rejections " and " cuttings," can now
be worked up in the mills, or it may be
used in connection with the manufacture
of paper, or in steam ropeworks in the
preparation of cordage.

In the earlier portion of these notes it
has been shown that Dundee spinners,
manifesting their hereditary traits of
caution and shrewdness, were in no hurry
to accept Indian raw jute as a possible
profitable factor in commerce ; and,
although they eventually realized very
large pecuniary results from the products
of the previously despised fibre, it was left
to an Englishman to seize an opportunity
which, in its far-reaching effects, has
literally been the making pf the city of
Calcutta,

64?

The Englishman just referred to, a Mr.
George Acland, who in early life was in
the employ of the East India Marine
Service, arrived in Calcutta in the year
1853, and his keen business instincts led
him to the conclusion that a very great
saving would be effected if Indian jute
could be manufactured in India, as such a
course would obviate the heavy freightage
to Europe ; and, what was an even
stronger argument in favour of his idea,
the cost of labour would be immeasurably
lower than the wages paid to mill hands
in either Scotland or England. Here,
then, was the opportunity and here was
the man to grasp it. Acland proceeded
to the Old Country in 1855 and became
acquainted with Mr. John Kerr, a promi-
nent figure in the machinery world in
Dundee, who warmly advocated the ship-
ment of a quantity of plant for a mill to
be erected in some place near Calcutta
which would be within a reasonable
distance from the jute-growing centres of
Bengal.

A plot of land was acquired on the
western bank of the River Hooghly at
Ischera (Rishra), near Serampore, which,
by the way, was a portion of the property
formerly belonging to Warren Hastings,
and about 14 miles distant from Calcutta;
and a factory was built under the super-
intendence of Mr. Acland, which was the
forerunner of some 40 or 50 mills that
have added enormous wealth to the city of
Calcutta.

Jute yarns were therefore first spun by
machinery in Bengal in 1855, and the
original modest output, which was only
8 tons per day, has grown to about
1,000,000 tons, this being the total pro-
duction of the mills for the year 1915.

There are always difficulties to contend
with at the commencement of a business,
in the flotation of a company, or in the
foundation of an industry ; but all
originators of commercial concerns are
not called upon to face a mutiny such as
that which broke out in 1857 at Barrack-,
pore (within two or three miles distance
from the Ischera mill), and it is not sur-
prising to learn from history that Mr.
Acland applied to the military authorities
for the grant of an armed guard for the
protection of his property. Shortly after
this time the mill buildings were con-
siderably extended, and a limited liability
company was formed under the name of
the Ischera Twine and Varn Mills Com-
pany, Ltd.. but this concern is now known
as the Wellington Jute Mills.

The Borneo Jute Company was the first

Jute

tb be registered in England, and the first
to introduce power loom for jute cloth
—this was in 1859— and the success which
attended this venture was so great that
the inill was, within half a dozen years
from its erection, enlarged to fully twice
its original size. In I872 the concern
became the Barnagore Jute Manufacturing
Company, Ltd., and it then had more than
5^0 looms and a capital fund amounting
to considerably more than the value of
the property.

During the years 186 1-2 the Gouripore
and Serajgunge Companies were formed,
and these were followed hy the India Jute
Mills erected at Serampore in 1866.

Up to this period there was practically
no e.xport trade, with the exception of
gunny bags consigned to Burma; but,
notwithstanding this fact, the five com-
panies already mentioned found that their
mills were veritable gold mines, owing
to the remarkably extensive and profitable
businesses in which they were engaged.
A boom in jute products commenced about
the year 1868; factories were enlarged,
machinery was imported, and the 950
looms of a couple or more years pre-
viously were increased to 1,250 in
number. One who was well-known in
the manufacturing world at this time
asserted that " it was only necessary
to issue a prospectus of a jute mill to
have all the shares snapped up in a
forenoon."

So buoyant was the jute market at this
period that during the years 1872-3 the
Fort Gloster, Budge-Budgc, and Seeb-
pore mills were erected, two companies
registered in England commenced opera-
tions in the following year, and from 1874
to 1876 no fewer than eight other
factories had been built. With thirteen
new companies thrust upon the market
within the space of about five years, it is
not surprising that the increased output
had a (most serious effect on the financial
status of several of the concerns. In fact,
the history of the jute trade during the
succeeding decade may be summed up
in the words " a struggle for existence ";
but it is satisfactory to note that nearly
all of the mills were able to keep open
doors until outlets for manufactured
goods were secured in other countries
than Great Britain.

The events which led to this most
serious depression were not calculated to
encourage the opening of other factories,
and thus it is found that only six were
started between the years 1876 and 1894
—namely, the Kamarhatty, Hooghly, Tita-

ghur, Victoria, Kanknarrah mills, together
with the Calcutta Twist mill.

The tide of events took a favourable
turn about the year 1884, principally in
hessian cloth destined for the United
States of America, although outlets which
have grown to very large dimensions were
found in South America for nitrate bags
and in Canada and Australia for wheat
sacks.

At this juncture, however; with hessians
showing a most appreciable advance in
output, and in price tooj and notwith-
standing the opening up of other foreign
markets, it cannot be said that the mills
were giving satisfactory results to the
shareholders. The demand for manu-
factured articles was not keeping pace
with the supply from the mills, and
several meetings of directors and
managers were held with the object
of reversing this state of affairs. Steps
had been taken to limit production tem-
porarily, but the absence of unanimity
among the millowners prevented the
achievement of the end in view. The
question of a bona-fide combination then
forced itself upon the attention of those
interested, and an association of mill-
owners was formed at a meeting held on
November 10, 1884, at which it was
arranged that managers should meet
weekly to fix the prices of their manufac-
tured goods. The output from the mills,
however, continued to be larger than the
quantity required to meet current orders,
and the managers of all the mills
excepting two agreed to work the
machinery for a reduced number of hours,
and this arrangement met with varying
success until the early part of the year
1891.

In the year 1892 the price of raw jute
increased to such an unusually high figure
that several mills were closed temporarily,
and others were compelled to curtail their
already shortened working hours, but a
general improvement of a most promising
character was manifested in 1894.

Between the years 1885 and 1895 the
companies in existence increased the
number of their looms from 6,700 to
nearly 10,000, but it is noted that the
advance made during the following five
years was still more marked, as no fewer
than 20 mills were added to the list. In
order to illustrate the growth of the jute
industry the following figures may be
given : In 1895 the mills on the Hooghly,
numbering about 40, contained 9,700
looms and 203,522 spindles, and at the
commencement of the year 191 o the

643

numbers were 30,685 looms (comprising
12,950 for sacking and 17,735 fo"" hes-
sians) and 677,070 spindles. The
employees too, in 1895, were 57,000
Indians and 180 Europeans, and in igio
they had reached a total of nearly
200,000 Indians and some 450 Euro-
peans.

Other statistics show that in 1901
North America (including Canada) im-
ported 34,ooojooo bags and 319,000,000
yards of cloth, and that in 191 o those
countries took no less than 63,ooojooo
bags and 713,000^000 yards of hessians;
while the total exports and the Indian
consumption of jute fabrics during^ the
same period increased from nearly
263,000,000 bags and 416,000,000 yards
of cloth in 1901 to 465,000,000 bags and
1,006,000,000 yards of cloth in 1910.
Japan, China, Africa, and other countries
are increasing their imports at a fairly
rapid rate, while the figures for Australia
at the commencement and close respec-
tively of the above-mentioned decade were
9,000,000 and 22,000,000 yards of cloth
and 38,000,000 and 73,000,000 bags.

Reference has already been made to the
unprecedented rise in the price of raw
jute which had such a serious effect upon
the trade in the early nineties. That
depression was not of long duration, but
the fluctuation of prices remained a
baffling factor in the situation.

In connection with this matter, it may
be mentioned that tabulated reports show
that the average price of raw jute in bales
of 400 lb. at Calcutta was Rs. 37 in the
year 1900 ; it had risen to Rs. 47 in
1905; twelve months later it was Rs. 67;
and in 1907 the sum of Rs. 97 was
obtained. This abnormal increase natu-
rally tended to retard the industry, as it
placed a check on the purchasing market,
which in turn caused a reduction in the
quantity sent to the mills for manufactur-
ing purposes. Again, one might point
to the fact that with a larger number
of mills springing into existence from time
to time, there must necessarily be a
greater demand for raw material, and
enhanced prices had to be given in order
to keep the mills going at all. Investiga-
tions go to prove that practically the
only remedy for this state of affairs is
the cultivation of jute on a larger area
of land than has hitherto been the
practice.

Every mill is now equipped with up-to-
date machinery, and Calcutta has, by the
high-class character of its products, suc-
ceeded in ousting Dundee from its former

BENGAL Alsrt) ASSAM, feEtiAR AND ORtSSA

t)roud position as the jute manufacturing
centre of the world.

True, there are other industries in
bengal and neighbouring Provinces, such
ds indigo, tea, and rice, but capitalists are
always forthcoming when the prospectus
df a new jute company is issued to the
{)ublic. dividends paid are a sure index
of the profitable or unprofitable character
faf any commercial undertaking; and a
glance at bdlarice-sh^ets of jUte mills

recently published shows that, in the
majority of instances, the percentage
varies from 5 to 20, or even 25, upon
invested capital.

At the commencement of the year 19 16
the mills on the Hooghly contained
38,098 looms and 791,194 spindles.

The managing agents, secretaries, or
proprietors of the jute mills in Bengal
include such well-known firms in Calcutta
as Messrs. Bird & Co., Thomas Duff &

Co., Jardine, Skinner & Co., Gillanders,
Arbuthnot & Co., Begg, Dunlop & Co.,
George Henderson & Co., Andrew Yule
& Co., Macneill & Co., Mackinnon, Mac-
kenzie & Co., McLeod & Co., F. W.
Heilgers & Co., Barry & Co., Duncan
Bros. c& Co., James Finlay & Co. Ltd.,
Anderson, Wright & Co., Birkmyre Bros.,
and Kettlewell, Bullen & Co.; and a full
description of several individual mills will
be found elsettfhere in this volume.

1. P3ELING OFF THE JUTE FIBRE. 2. DRUMMING JUTE (FILLING THE DRUM)

i'hotos by yohnslon 6- Hoffman .

644

ps8sr-ssrr.':~:::%%:.rsiif^^f-''-

i -'-*'

CALCUTTA INDUSTRIES

HE most important,
factor in any con-
sideration of the
question of industrial
activities in India is
the inherent character
of the people. Hin-
dus have from time
immemorial been looked upon as being
skilful in certain arts, quiet in nature,
contented with their positions, and
devoted to religious rites and ceremonies.
The average Indian of earlier days was
not distinguished for display of personal
effort, but he has responded in no un-
certain manner to the possibilities of
trading on a large scale which have been
made clear to him by the go-ahead
example of European merchants.

In a country such as India, where
climatic conditions are not conducive to
the expenditure of vigorous strength for
any protracted period there is quite
naturally a tendency to take things as
easily as possible, but a remarkable change
has been manifested in recent years, and
great progress has been made in the
strengthening of old-established indus-
tries and the commencement of new
ventures.

Again, the Hindu has been hampered
by venerable religious and social customs
which have kept him in certain prescribed
grooves, and have placed a check upon

any laudable desire to extend the horizon
of his activities, but in this aspect of the
question too, there has been an influence
at work which has been permeating the
whole brotherhood, and its effects are seen
to-day in the removal of many barriers
and the opening up of avenues of profit-
able service.

India has been noted for certain in-
dustries from time immemorial, and the
"Rig-Veda" (1500 B.C.) refers particu-
larly to certain arts which had been
practised in very early days, special men-
tion being made of weaving, and the
manufacture of silk and other articles.
History tells us of traders who in far-
gone days visited India and took away
with them muslin, cloth, gold and silver
vessels and ornaments, and many beautiful
temples and mosques speak silently but
truly of the wonderfully skilful work of
Indian masons and carvers.

Many of these industries have, however,
been discontinued from various causes,
and it is a matter of history that the East
India Company in the eighteenth century
favoured its shareholders rather than the
Indian people, and that its policy tended
in some directions to suppress local
manufactures. It must also be remem-
bered that the majority of the vast popu-
lation of India is supported by agriculture
in some shape or form, and that in prac-
tically every village there are artisans who

make their own community self-supporting
and entirely independent of outside in-
fluences. Ninety per cent, of the people
of India lead isolated lives in villages
almost entirely unaware of what is happen-
ing in the outer world, and this fact alone
has forced the country to be a home of
small industries.

The first sign of industrial evolution in
India occurred shortly after the establish-
ment of British rule, when more stable
conditions of life, improved means of
transport, and the growth of mutual con-
fidence between the two races, made enter"
prise possible. The spread of education
also had its influence on industrial con-
ditions; and so it came about that the
quiet and comparatively uneventful life of
economic India was aroused, and a mag-
netic wave of pulsating Western indus-
trialism spread over the whole country.

Industrial enterprises began to develop
at a great pace, and the introduction of
cotton spinning and weaving machinery,
invented in England by Arkwright, Har-
greaves, Crompton, and others, tended to
put an end to many small industries which
had for centuries been indigenous in
India, but it caused employment to be
found for hundreds of thousands of its
population.

Then followed the building of jute,
cotton, and flour mills, the opening of tea
and other estates, and the development of

2 Y*

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEtiAR AND ORISSA

coal fields, and all these industries have
bfeen manned by Indian workers, showing
that under European leadership there is
in this vast country an almost limitless
supply of effective labour.

In due course of time the twentieth cen-
tiiry has been marked by a steady and
continuous growth of trade relations, not
bnly between India and other countries,
but also within her own borders, and
Europeans and Indians alike are to-day
reaping a ridh harvest from the industrial

large number in various districts in
Bengal).

The notes contained in the following
pages will serve as an illustration of the
growth of industrial activities of a few
Hindu commercial houses.

ALECK APCAR, C.E>

For considerably more than a century
the name of Apcar has been prominently
connected with the commercial and in-

ALBCK APCAR, C.E.

agencies which were established only a
few years ago.

The more recently established industrial
concerns in Bengal, Bchar and Orissa, and
Assam, financed and managed almost
wholly by Europeans, include bone-crush-
ing mills, chemical works, cotton mills ( i 2
in Bengal), flour mills ( l8 in Bengal), iron
works (45 in Bengal and 3 in Behar and
Orissa), jute mills (47 in Bengal), jute
presses (45 in Bengal), potteries and
brickyards, saw-mills (13 in Assam), ship-
builders' yards ( 12 in Bengal), coal com-
panies or collieries (127 in Bengal and
224 in Bchar and Orissa), and tea com-
panies or estates (238 in Assam and a

dustrial activities in the East, and the
member of the family to whom these notes
refer is the eldest grandson of Aratoon
Apcar, the founder of the well-known firm
of Apcar & Co.

Mr. Aleck Apcar, son of the late Apcar
Aratoon Apcar, was born in India in 1848,
and when he was still young in years
he was sent to England to be educated
at the fine old school of Harrow. He
was a painstaking and successful scholar,
yet at the same time lie had a keen love
of sport, in which field he was the winner
of many handsome trophies.

It was Mr. Apcar's intention to join
the Royal Engineers, but he was induced
646

to return to India with a view of enter-
ing his father's office (Messrs. Apcar &
Co.) in Calcutta, and although he held
a position therein for a few years, he
eventually left of his own accord, as the
prospects did not seem to be sufficiently
encouragirtg. He then obtained several
small steatners and tugboats, and with
these he became the pioneer in opening
up trade relationships between Calcutta,
Balasore, Ghatal, and Midnapore; but,
unfortunately, this venture was not a
success, and he was compelled to dispose
of his vessels.

The difficulties experienced by Mr.
Apcar in this early stage of his career
did not daunt him, and he turned his
attention to the jute trade, in which he
gave assistance to his son, who had
agencies in the Dacca and Mymensingh
districts. Once again the fates were
against him, but his innate energy caused
him to make a bold stroke by starting
business as a coal merchant, builder, and
contractor, and his qualifications as a
civil engineer, architect, and surveyor
were a great aid to him in this matter.

The business has grown rapidly, and
Mr. Apcar now has his own brickfields
and soorkey mills in conection with his
building and other workshops at 47
Baniapukur Road, Calcutta, and he is,
further, the owner of several valuable
properties in the city.

A man who had faced and overcome
difficulties was not likely to be allowed
to pursue the even tenor of his way with-
out being invited to take a share in the
local administrative work of Calcutta ; but
although he has on several occasions been
asked to serve as a municipal councillor,
or to take a seat on the board of managers
of other important institutions, he has
been compelled to decline all such
honours, as he was unwilling to accept
responsible positions unless he could
afford the time to discharge his duties
conscientiously.

Mr. Apcar's offices are at 27/7 Water-
loo Street, and his telegraphic address
is " Solace, Calcutta."

■*^

THE ARTISTIC GLASS WORKS

Art in India is as old as the country
itself, and historical records attest the
eminence attained in sculpture and paint-
ing, and afford evidence of the excecid-
ingly fine workmanship in gold, silver,
glass, and metals of various kinds which
was displayed in bygone ages. But in

CALCUTTA INDUSTRIES

recent years there has been a marked
change in ideas, which may in some
measure be due to the influence of Western
example, though it is more probable that
it is the natural result of the establishment
of Schools of Arts throughout India. An
illustration of the advance made by
workers in glass is obtained by a visit
to the Artistic Glass Works at 1-2 Tagore
Castle Road, Calcutta.

The proprietor, Mr. S.N. Banerjee, was
trained in the carriage and wagon work-
shops of the East Indian Railway Com-
pany at Lillooah, and in the year 191 3 he
established what he called a " cottage
industry " for manufacturing silvered
mirrors, and bevelled, frosted, stained,
and decorated glass-ware of all descrip-
tions. Only two years had elapsed, how-
ever, when orders for goods for military
purposes, such as first-class reflectors, and
heliograph and other glasses were pouring
in upon .Mr. Banerjee, and the diminutive
concern of 19 13 became one of the leading
establishments of its kind in India. Since
that date very little manufacturing of a
private character has been performed as
the works have been almost entirely en-
gaged in meeting military requirements.

Mr. Banerjee has formulated many
plans for the further expansion of his
business, but he is utterly unable to
carry them out until the conclusion of the
European War.

J. C. BANERJEE

Mr. J. C. Banerjee, whom the Hon.
Mr. Lyon (member of the Council of the
Government of Bengal) in his speech in
connection with the opening ceremony of
the University Institute by His Excel-
lency the Lord Carmichael, Governor of
Bengal, complimented as " that prince of
contractors," was born in September 1883.
His early education was at the Metro-
politan Institution, Balakhana Branch,
founded by the late Pundit Isswar Chan-
dra V'idyasagar, and subsequently he
5tudied at the General Assembly's Insti-
tution in Calcutta (now the Scottish
Churches College), whence he joined the
Sibpur Engineering College. Leaving
there in 1905, he, unlike most of his fellow
students, never entertained the idea of
entering official life, but started on his
own account as an engineering contrac-
tor. His first undertakings, though not
of considerable magnitude, involved a lot
of technical knowledge and nicety of
judgment, and the execution of works en-
trusted to him and carried out with almost

clock-like precision naturally marked him
as the coming man in his profession. It
may be mentioned in passing that he owes
his present success, not in a small degree,
to the excellent discipline he underwent
at home in his boyhood under his revered
mother, whose loss in 1895 he mourns
even now. Punctuality and honesty in all
affairs have been his watchwords, traits
which he has inherited from his father,
Babu Narendra Nath Banerjee, late head
assistant in the financial department in the
Government of Bengal, and now a retired
pensioner.

It is a pleasure to note here that all the

the leading colleges of Calcutta. It is
extremely gratifying to note in particular
that Mr. Banerjee, within a comparatively
short time, and in spite of his multifarious
business engagements, has been able to
start a new industry in the manufacture
of bolts, nuts, rivets, and dogspikes, under
the name of " The Standard Rivet, Bolt
and Nut Works," which has supplied a
long-felt want in this country. His ex-
tensive workshops at Ramkristopore, with
the most up-to-date installation for manu-
facturing the above articles, are really
worth a visit to any one interested in
Indian indu'^tries and engineering works,

THE ARTISTIC GLASS WORKS.

Glasses Ready for Dispatch to the Milit.^ey Department.

sons of Mr. Banerjee, senior, are useful
members of society in the truest sense of
the term— the eldest, Dr. Satish Chandra,
being the leading medical practitioner in
Muzaffarpur, in Behar; the second son,
Mr. Sarat Chandra Banerjee, a vakil of
the High Court, with a well-known and
extensive practice at Darjeeling; the third
being Mr. J. C. Banerjee, the subject of
these notes; and the fourth, Dr. C. C.
Banerjee, an eminent physician and sur-
geon of Calcutta.

Mr. J. C. Banerjee's first large achieve-
ment was the completion of the Baker
Laboratory (new physics laboratory
attached to the Presidency College,
Calcutta), at an estimated cost of
Rs. 6,75,000. This was commenced in
1910 and finished in less than a year's
time. Since 19 12 Mr. Banerjee has been
literally overwhelmed with work, such as
the construction of the University Col-
lege of Science, the University Institute,
the Government salt golahs at Sulkea, and
last, though not least, the new Royal Ex-
change building, and several hostel? for
647

and a brief account of them will be found
in a separate notice.

THE STANDARD RIYET, BOLT, AND
NUT WORKS

It was not until after the memorable
battle of Plassey was fought, in June
1757, in which Lord Clive defeated Suraj-
ud-daulah, Nawab of Bengal, and virtually
gave Great Britain her Empire in India,
that traders who had made their way to
the shores of Bengal established business
houses on permanent foundations at Kali-
kata, and thus consolidated the trade of
Calcutta, which to-day occupies the proud
position of " the second city in the Em-
pire," and is recognized as one of the
leading commercial ports in the East.

India is a rich agricultural and mineral
country, it has untold potential wealth;
many of its raw materials and much of
its produce are calling for factories and
mills, and the question of a sufficient
supply of suitable labour should not be
an insuperable difficulty.

J. The Nsw Rovai Exchj^xqe,

J. C. BANERJEE.
f. TiiE Baker Labqkatory, Presidency College.
,), The University College of Science.

3, Thp Ukiversiiv I.nshtute.

64S

CALCUTTA INDUSTRIES

True, jute mills have been at work on
the banks of the Hooghly for nearly
seventy years and have proved to be a
veritable gold mine for Calcutta; indigo,
tea, and other products of the field are
being exported in increasing quantities;
and progress is noted in several other
branches of industrial occupations, but
development has been remarkably slow
for a considerable number of years, and
even now, in 191 6, there are many im-
portant industries which are still in their
infancy, while others have not yet been
commenced. This fact leads one to refer
to the Standard Rivet, Bolt and Nut
Works, at Ramkristopore, near Calcutta,
which have not been in existence for more
than about half a dozen years, and are
now the property of Mr. J. C. Banerjee,
engineer, builder, and contractor, of 2 1
Canning Street, Calcutta.

Railway companies, shipbuilders, con-
tractors, and others in daily need of bolts,
nuts, 3nd similar appliances, have until
recently been compelled to rely upon im-
portations from Great Britain, and al-
though some firms in Calcutta are now
manufacturing these necessaries solely for
their own use, it has been left to Mr.'
Banerjee to become the sole proprietor
of the only manufacturing works of this
kind in Bengal whence supplies for
general constructional purposes can be
obtained. The works are situated on the
western bank of the River Hooghly (im-
mediately opposite Calcutta), and the
Port Commissioners' railway, which is
connected with the East Indian and Ben-
gal-Nagpur systems respectively at How-
rah and Shalimar, is within a distance of
12 ft. or 15 ft. from the main entrance to
the shops.

The latter are extensive, but as they are
not large enough for the greatly increas-
ing demands made upon them, Mr.
Banerjee has secured a more spacious
area of land on the foreshore of the river,
and adjacent to the present works, upon
which new buildings will be erected and
new machinery installed, and into which
it is proposed to run a siding from the
Commissioners' railway.

Iron bars and rods, round and square,
are obtained from the Tata Iron and Steel
Company, Ltd., of Sakchi, which is two
and a half miles distant from Kalimati
station, on the Bengal-Nagpur railway.

These are first intensely heated in fur-
naces, and then they are passed along a
line of up-to-date machines in which the
various processes of manufacture are
carried out: they are cut to required

lengths, the embryo rivets, spikes, and
bolts are then forged and compressed to
the necessary thickness, various dies being
used for different diameters, and then
follows the neatest possible work in point-
ing and placing heads upon them. The
" worm " in bolts, screws, and nuts, which
are suitable for household use on the one
hand, or for joining plates on a huge
ocean-going steamer on the other, for
securing fishplates on railway sleepers, for
the construction of bridges, or fixing joists
on buildings, and for general structural
work, is made by steel " chasers " of all
sizes, which perform their work with the
utmost precision.

The whole of the motive power is
obtained from a 24-h.p. steam engine (by
Garrett & Co.), and the manufacturing
plant includes two " heading " machines
by Samuel Platts, two others of similar
character named respectively the " Acme "
and " Horsfall," four screw machines, two
others for pointing the ends of bolts and
spikes, and three for shaping, shearing,
and grinding, while the remainder com-
prises a number of lathes and the cus-
tomary adjuncts usually met with in
a well-equipped foundry.

A dynamo has been installed by Mr.
Banerjee for the supply of electricity for
the lighting of all the buildings. Works
so unique in character as the " Standard "
have naturally so great a demand made
upon them that the sixty hands now em-
ployed experience considerable difficulty,
although they are frequently retained for
overtime service, in executing the large
number of orders for specialities in
foundry products for which the name of
Banerjee has now become so famous.

Orders from Government Departments
throughout India, from railway companies,
owners and builders of ships, the establish-
ments of the Port Commissioners of Cal-
cutta, contractors, and others, are con-
tinually pouring in, and, were it not for the
projected extension of the works, the pro-
prietor might have doubts as to his ability
to execute them within a reasonable time.

A large stock of iron bars, rods, joists
for buildings, and pillars, together with
manufactured products such as bolts, nuts,
and spikes, is always kept on hand, and it
would have to be an unusually large and
comprehensive contract which Mr. Baner-
jee would be unable to undertake.

The proprietor's telegraphic address is
" Boltnut," Calcutta.

649

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SCIENCE,
CALCUTTA

In the construction of this college Mr.
J. C. Banerjee has set permanently before
the public view an example of what might
be termed the " free classic " style of
building, and this is all the more interest-
ing as it has been designed by a Ben-
galee architect.

The building consists of three stories,
arranged with a main block, parallel to
the road, with a long projecting wing at
each end. The plan is a simple one, con-
sisting as it does of a south verandah to
each back wing, from which access is
obtained to the various rooms, and it
therefore follows that each of the latter
has a north light, which is particularly
suitable for all work of a scientific
character. These verandahs lead to the
front block, with its corridor and maia
staircase and lift, and also to the lavatory
block joined on to the main building in the
centre.

This huge building, in common with the
majority of the structures in Calcutta, is
finished in plaster, concealing brickwork;
the floors are supported on transverse
steel beams, and the partitions have been
constructed of light 5-inch reinforced
brickwork, resting in most cases on the
steel beams. The accommodation consists
of numerous laboratories, lecture-rooms,
a library, museum, and workshops for all
scientific occupations, the larger rooms
being on the top floor. There are three
floors, connected by one central main stair-
case and lift, with subsidiary staircases
towards the extremities of each wing, and
these have been constructed in concrete
steel, in the use of which material this
contractor has had so much experience.

Mr. Banerjee has, as usual, faithfully
given expression to the wishes of the archi-
tect in all matters connected with this
building.

The new University College of Science
building in Circular Road, Calcutta, is a
lasting monument to the princely liberality
of the late Sir Taraknath Palit and of Sir
Rashvihari Ghosh. Sir Taraknath made
a gift of the entire magnificent site, about
1 1 bighas in extent, and facing a public
square, to the University authorities, with
the object of founding and conducting a
college in order to encourage higher
research work in the various branches of
science — a feature of education which was
sadly wanted in that part of India.

The building, which is in the " free
classic " style of architecture, was de-
signed by Mr. A. C. Mukerjee, B.A.C.E.,

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

the consulting engineer and architect to
the Calcutta University, is a three-storied
one, the main facade of which measures
200 feet in length, while the dimensions
of each of the two side wings are 288 feet
in length, and between them is a lawn
measuring 160 feet by 109 feet.

The height of the plinth is 4 feet, and
that of the upper stories 1 7 feet 6 inches,
18 feet 6 inches, and 19 feet 6 inches
respectively. Each of the three blocks

A notable feature of the buildings is the
provision of exceptionally large door and
window openings, and fume pipes em-
bedded in the walls, for effective ventila-
tion. Made-up earth was met with in
several sections of the foundations, and
9-inch tarred Sal bulla piles were driven
in these to an average depth of 22 feet
below the level of the bottom of the
trench. The width of the foundation
trenches for the several walls varied from

the " Corinthian classic " style, and has
been designed by the architects, a well-
known Bombay firm, with a view of pre-
serving in a semi-public building of this
nature all those attributes which exist in
the Royal Exchanges of other cities of
the world, particularly in London and
Paris. Bearing this in mind, it will be
seen that Mr. Banerjee has before him a
task of the first importance, necessitating
tlie utmost application on his part, for he

J. C. BANERJEE.
I. The Standard Rivet, Bolt, and Nut Works (Exterior). 2. Interior, Standard Rivet, Bolt, and Xut Works.

has a splendid staircase of its own, with
Chunar stone-paved steps on encased joist
stringers with moulded plaster panels to
the flights and landing.

The ground floor accommodates the
laboratory for higher research work; on
the first floor are the lecture theatres and
demonstration rooms ; and the second fioor
contains the library and museum; the
total floor area being over 60,000 square
feet.

A corridor, 12 feet in width, runs along
the front block with large arch openings,
while a continuous verandah, 8 feet in
width, runs along the rear and the two
jide wings.

7 feet to 13 feet, and the depth of the
excavation was 6 feet below the general
ground level.

Mr. J. C. Banerjee is to be congratu-
lated on his successful completion of the
University College of Science within about
a year, and the building bears eloquent
testimony to Mr. Banerjee's resources and
ability, especially in view of the war
having broken out before the works were
well in hand.

■*«

THE NEW ROYAL EXCHANGE,
CALCUTTA

This structure, upon which Mr. Baner-
jee is engaged at the time of writing, is in
650

must not only reproduce the architects'
requirements to an exactitude, but he must
interpret them in such a way that there is
no room for a feeling of incompleteness
in the mind of the observer as he gazes
on the huge structure of brick and plaster.
And this faithful attention to details is
all the more necessary in this instance as
the exigencies of building work in Cal-
cutta make it impossible for the Exchange
to be erected in stone.

The structure measures roughly
165 feet by 122 feet, and it is nearly
70 feet in height to the top of the four
floors. The chief external features are
the magnificent loggias, the one on the

CALCUTTA INDUSTRIES

principal front being 107 feet in length
and 15 feet in width, with ten columns
which are being skilfully constructed in
reinforced concrete, and measure 3 feet
4 inches in diameter, and nearly 38 feet
in height. There are two loggias in the
other important elevation, and each of
these has two columns of similar
dimensions.

These columns, and the huge architravej

3 feet square, which will be constructed
across their tops, are in reinforced con-
crete. This material is comparatively new
to India, and it certainly is quite a new
departure in building methods in Calcutta,
but Mr. Banerjee has been most successful
in this direction in other parts of the
building, especially in the flooring, all
of which has been laid in this substance,

4 inches in thickness. The method of
construction is a combination of brick
walls and steel stanchions and beams,
necessitated by the large open spans which
are required.

The E.xchange Hall, which will be
finished in plaster in a nearly " pure
classic " style, will be a magnificent room
rising to a height of 30 feet, with a floor .
space measuring 80 feet by 60 feet. Here
will be seen the advantage of the mixed
method of construction, where steel
stanchions stand some 6 feet away from
each side wall and still leave a clear
floor space of 48 feet between them. That
space forms the body of the hall, but at the
same time the long surfaces of the walls
are pleasingly broken up into recesses
containing arched and panelled openings.
Other additions to the hall are a wide
gallery at the west end, and a narrow one
on each side between the columns, to-
gether with the lintelled openings at the
" mezzanine " floor level, whence members
will be able to look from corridor or
restaurant upon the busy throng on the
ground floor.

Numerous large rooms, including a post
office, arbitration rooms, and a large public
hall, are also provided.

Mr. Banerjee has accepted a most
responsible task in producing a building
which will be second to none in the world
for convenience, excellent construction,
and pleasing aspect.

"««

BAKER LABORATORY, PRESIDENCY
COLLEGE, CALCUTTA

This laboratory was designed by Mr.
H. A. Crouch, F.R.I.B.A., Government
architect for Bengal, and with his unerring

taste, and Mr. Banerjee's never-failing
adaptability, the building was erected, and
now stands as a scholastic adjunct to the
great University of Calcutta. The design
is in the " severe classic " style, so easily
conformable to Eastern conditions, and as
the main front faces in a southerly direc-
tion, the long connecting corridors have
been formed as verandahs, with plastered
columns and piers and a well-designed
iron railing between them.

As the biiilding is intended for scientific
purposes, many interesting problems as
regards light, sight, hearing, and ventila-
tion called for solution, and these have
been carried out successfully by Mr.
Banerjee, under the direction of the archi-
tect. The main building consists of two
floors, but the central portion, enclosed
by end pavilions, rises to three stories in
a similar manner to portions at the back
of the side wings. It is 171 feet in length,
and each of the side portions is 107 feet
in length, making a total of 383 feet for
the whole building, with a depth of
80 feet. The height in the centre is
56 feet, and at the ends 40 feet.

The accommodation provided is adapted
for several scientific purposes, and in-
cludes many laboratories and other rooms,
together with large and small lecture
theatres.

Mr. Banerjee has followed his cus-
tomary practice by a free use of concrete
and steel, and this method is chiefly ap-
parent in the staircase, the sloping seating
accommodation, and the galleries in the
theatres.

NEW POLICE OFFICES FOR CALCUTTA

The new offices of the Commissioner of
Police will be built a little to the south of
the former site, with a frontage upon Lall
Bazar Street. It will be a four-storied
structure, brick pointed, with Porebunder
columns, facings, and balustrades repeated
from story to story. The building has
been designed by Mr. Henry Crouch,
architect to the Government of Bengal,
and the work of erection has been en-
trusted to Mr. J. C. Banerjee.

The ground floor will provide ample
accommodation for the motor-car pass
office, the lost property office, the stamp
and accounts departments, the treasury,
and Malkhana. There will be a lift and
three staircases. From the imposing-
looking porch at the rear of the building,
entrance will be given to the main stair-
case, which is intended for officers, while
the other two staircases will be for liti-

651

gants, clerks, and the general public whd

have business there.

On the first floor there will be offices
for the Commissioner, the Assistant and
Deputy Commissioners, Inspectors, report
and record rooms, and several waiting-
rooms for the various branches. On the
second floor will be located the Deputy
Commissioner's offices, the central reserve
office, and rooms for inspectors and sub-
inspectors, in addition to accommodation
for stationery and other departments.
The third floor will consist of two comfort-
able suites of apartments for residential
purposes, and on the fourth floor there will
be the servants' quarters, kitchen, and a
room for the lift machinery.

The plinth of the building, running from
east to west, will be treated with a Mirza-
pore stone superstructure on brick point-
ing, jind the ornamentation will be
strikingly handsome. There will be thir-
teen arches on the Lall Bazar Street
frontage ; the three in the centre will give
entrance to the corridor on the ground
floor, and the fit'e on each side will be
closed up with ornamental railings. Over
this will be Porebunder stone columns,
repeated from floor 'to floor, with hand-
some balustrades of the same material.
The arches over every door and window
will have reinforced concrete ornamenta-
tions. At each of the four corners there
will be a turret of Porebunder stone, and
a royal coat-of-arms worked out in the
same material will be put on the centre
panel.

It may be added that Mr. Banerjee has
quite recently been entrusted with the
construction of the Hongkong and Shan-
hai Banking Corporation building, which
is for one of the premier banks in India.

DR. K. C. BOSE

A laboratory was established in Am-
herst Street, Calcutta, in the year 1909
by Dr. Kartick Chandra Bose, M.B.,
for the purpose of carrying on research
in indigenous drugs and of manufacturing
efficient and high-class pharmaceutical
preparations. Labour and money have
been freely expended in making the
laboratory thoroughly complete and up-
to-date, and Dr. Bose's vast experience
jn this line of his profession, as well as
in the treatment of diseases, has helped
him to equip the laboratory with the latest
chemical and scientific apparatus.

The preparations turned out by this
laboratory are made from the very best
ingredients, and the latest methods are

DR. K. C. BOSE.
I. Dr. K. C. Bose, M.B. 2. A Portion of the Sale-room. 3. Dr. Hose's Laboratory (Head Office).

4. Distillery Building, for Manufacturing Tinctures and Extracts under Bond.

65-'

CALCUTTA INDUSTRIES

employed in their manufacture. All
preparations are scrupulously tasted and
standardized by expert chemists and
physiologists before being sent out,
and thus they can be always safely
depended upon for their efficacy.

Dr. Bose's laboratory consists of four
departments — namely, (i) Pharmaceu-
tical, (2) Chemical, (3) Bacteriological,
and (4) Dispensing.

1. Pharmaceutical Department : This
is fitted with a grinding machine for
drugs, percolators; tincture presses, tablet
machines, vacuum pan steam drying
chamber, and a boiler. Solid and liquid
e.\tracts are prepared from indigenous
drugs, and many of the preparations are
put up in tablet form, for which a
speciality is claimed by the proprietor.

2. The Chemical Department is very
thoroughly equipped, and is in charge of
expert chemists. Original investigations
on the nature and constituents of indi-
genous drugs, standardizations, and the
assay of active principles and determina-
tion of their physiological and other
properties, are conducted, and analyses
of foodstuffs, milk, water, wax, and urine
are undertaken.

3. The Bacteriological Department is
well supplied with incubators, autoclave,
vaccine baths, and electric centrifuge;
and the laboratory not only supplies
vaccines made from the patient's own
infecting organisms, but it also keeps a
stock of recognized vaccines. Examina-
tion of sputum, blood, and other patho-
logical fluids is made with the utmost
care and precision. Lactic acid therapy
has now gained a prominent place in
medical treatment, and Dr. Bose claims
that he is the only bacteriologist in India
who is manufacturing fresh cultures of
Streptothrix dadhi (local strain of the
Bulgarian bacillus), the efficacy of which
in intestinal troubles is now being widely
recognized.

4. Dispensing Department : In order
that the products of Dr. Bose's labora-
tory may be within easy reach of the
public and medical profession, a well-
fitted dispensary, styled the Standard
Drug Stores, has been attached to the
laboratory.

The dispensary is well stocked with
pharmaceutical preparations, patent medi-
cines, druggists' sundries, surgical instru-
ments, and other goods, and it is attended
during the day and night by qualified
medical men, so that professional help
is always available. Dr. Kartick Chandra
Bose personally attends outdoor patients

morning and evening, and this depart-
ment is fully equipped with all kinds of
instruments and apparatus for treatment
of every variety of diseases; but special
arrangements are made for dealing with
affections of eye, ear, nose, and throat.
Prescriptions are dispensed throughout
the day and night.

The Union Distillery warehouse, for the
manufacture of high-class rectified spirit
and alcoholic pharmaceutical preparations
in bond, under the control of the

chase and collection of bills of exchange,
dividends or interest, the granting of
drafts, and the issue of letters of credit.
Current accounts are opened with mini"
mum amounts of Rs. 200, and interest is
allowed at current rates upon daily
balances from Rs. 200 to Rs. 1,00,000.

Savings bank accounts, too, are opened,
and interest is allowed at the rate of 3 per
cent, per annum. Credits are granted on
approved securities, and the directors
further undertake, on behalf of their con'

THE BENGAL NATIONAL BANK, LTD.
Portion of the Interior. 2. E.xterior View.

Excise authorities, is situated at 28 Bahir
Mirzapur Road, in Calcutta.

THE BENGAL NATIONAL BANK, LTD.

This institution (incorporated under the
Indian Companies Act) was established in
the year 1907 with the object of meeting
a long-felt want, namely, the commence-
ment of a bank with Indian capital to
foster and encourage Indian trade and
industries.

Offices were originally opened at 22
Canning Street, Calcutta, but the growth
of business caused the directors to remove
in the year 1913 to more commodious
premises at i i Clive Street, which is
practically the centre of the leading
Indian as well as European commercial
houses of the city.

All descriptions of ordinary banking
business are carried on, such as the pur-

653

stituents, the safe custody of shares, title
deeds, and other securities.

Fixed deposits are received and interest
is allowed at the following rates: 4 per
cent, for a six months' deposit; 4^ per
cent, for twelve months; and 5 per cent,
for a term of two years; but special rates
are arranged for shorter or longer periods
and for large amounts.

The authorized capital of the company
is Rs. 50,00,000, made up of 50,000 shares
of Rs. 100 each, the capital issued amounts
to Rs. 16,00,000, the amount paid up is
Rs. 8,00,000.

The directors are Messrs. B. Chak-
ravarti, P. L. Roy, Upendra Nath Sen,
Mangla Prasad, Jogendra Nath Roy,
Hirendra Nath Datta, W. C. Banerjee,
and R. Mukerjee, managing director.

The Bank has correspondents in
London and in all the principal towns in
India.

J. Prihises (Cycle Department).

B. BROTHERS & CO.
2, Cycle Show-room. 3, Show-room with Manager and Clerks.

5. Steel Tkuhk Departme.ni.

4. Group op Stafp.

654

CALCUTTA INDUSTRIES

B. BROTHERS ft CO.

This firm makes a speciality of the
manufacture of steel trunks and of the
importation of all kinds of bicycles, and
they are in the proud position of being
able to say that by placing upon the
market high-class goods at a uniformly
low price, by efficient management, and
by the manifestation of the greatest
courtesy to customers, their business has
flourished to such an extent that their
books and records contain the names of
a larger number of customers than any
other firm in Calcutta trading on similar
lines.

The late Mr. Abinash Chandra Bhat-
tacharyya, the founder of the establish-
ment, commenced business in 1904 under
the style of B. Brothers & Co., with
premises at 14/4 Old China Bazaar
Street, and he began by importing steel
trunks, cash and dispatch boxes, leather
portmanteaux, handbags, and rugs, in
addition to a large variety of other
travelling requisites.

A sound footing having been obtained
among business concerns in the city, the
firm felt warranted in 1905 in opening a_
branch shop, but this step had only just
been taken when the Swadeshi movement,
which gave to country-made articles a
preference over foreign manufactures, was
started in India. This radical change
placed such an incubus upon imported
goods that it became necessary, in 1906,
to open a factory for the manufacture of
steel trunks, and this building was fitted
with thoroughly modern machinery. A
supplying and forwarding department,
dealing with inquiries from the Mofussil,
was established, and it was soon found
that— particularly from old customers and
Government officials — mail orders had
increased fully tenfold.

The very great demand for cycles
necessitated the commencement of a
separate branch for all classes of these
machines and accessories, and suitable
premises at DhurrumtoUah Street, Cal-
cutta, were secured, Mr. S. R. Bhat-
tacharyya being placed in sole charge.
Wholesale and retail orders for cycles
flowed in from the Mofussil, Burma, the
Madras Presidency, Hyderabad, the Cen-
tral and United Provinces, and the
Punjab, and the resources of the for-
warding stafif were taxed to their utmost
extent in attending to the mass of
increased business. Further accommoda-
tion for this branch soon became neces-
sary, and the entire cycle department was
removed to a desirable and commodious

building at 36 Harrison Road, Calcutta,
wherein are located main offices, show-
rooms, repairing shops, and godowns.

An irreparable loss was sustained by
the firm in 191 2 owing to the sudden
death of its founder, Mr. Abinash
Chandra Bhattacharyya, but the sound
business principles inculcated by him
were not lost upon his fellow-workers,
who, with commendable energy, under-
took the task of maintaining the very high
reputation which had been gained.

The reconstituted firm succeeded in
making rapid advancement, and oppor-
tunity was found for the opening of yet
another branch of business by the
importation of all kinds of musical
instruments, but chiefly organs and
harmoniums.

Messrs. B. Brothers & Co., in common
with other mercantile firms, have felt the
disastrous effects of the European War,
but their indomitable courage, supported
by the strictest attention to details, has
enabled them not only to face these diffi-
culties with composure, but also to make
even further headway in every branch of
their large establishment.

The telegraphic address of the firm is
" Unity, Calcutta."

BUKHSH ELLAHIE & CO.

The honour of being the largest pur-
veyors of tobacco and cigarettes to the
military forces in India belongs to the
above-named firm, of which Haji Bukhsh
Ellahie is managing proprietor. This
gentleman is descended from a family of
merchants who have for a very long
period carried on an extensive business
in Delhi, and in the year 1878, when
quite a young man, he visited Calcutta
and became an assistant with a Mahom-
medan merchant in that city. It was not
long before he manifested such a natural
aptitude for a commercial life that his
elder brother, Haji Karam Ellahie,
decided in 1885 to open a business with
the view of dealing in tea, tobacco, and
other merchandise, under the name of
Bukhsh Ellahie & Co., but under the
directorship of the promising young
recruit from Delhi.

The latter held progressive ideas, and
his determination to follow some line of
business which had not at that time
become overcrowded led him to take up
imported tobacco as the special object of
his attention. He subsequently entered
into communication with some of the
largest manufacturers in America, and
with Messrs. W. D. and H. O. Wills, of

655

Bristol, in England, and that step resulted
in a very considerable development of the
tobacco trade in India.

In 1901, on the eve of the tobacco war
between England and America, Haji
Bukhsh Ellahie, accompanied by his
secretary, Mr. A. Azeez, proceeded to
England at the invitation of Messrs.
Wills, and since the conference which then
took place Messrs. Bukhsh Ellahie & Co.
have been dealing in tobacco imported
from British sources to the exclusion of
consignments from any other portion of
the world, an arrangement which has
made them the chief agents in India of
the Imperial Tobacco Company. The
firm have branches at Delhi, Karachi, and
many other important centres, and they
are the medium through whom a very
large quantity of tobacco manufactured
in England is distributed throughout the
markets of India.

As a citizen of Calcutta, Haji Bukhsh
Ellahie has distinguished himself by his
careful attention to the needs of his own
community, while at the same time he
has not overlooked the claims of the other
citizens of the city of his adoption.
Evidences of his forethought and benevo-
lence are seen in the Mosafirkhana, or
rest-house, situated on the Chitpore
Road, in Calcutta, and, in a particular
manner, in the formation of the Mahom-
medan Burial Association, which provides
for the interment of unclaimed Mahom-
medan bodies with all the ceremonies
prescribed by Islamic law.

Reference may also be made to the
following, among many other, instances
of the generous nature of this honoured
citizen. On the occasion of the King-
Emperor's Durbar at Delhi, 500,000
cigarettes were sent to His Excellency
the Commander-in-Chief for British
soldiers, and a dozen silver challenge
cups were given by way of encouraging
sports competitions among the various
divisions of the Army in India. Many
years previously — during the Boer War,
as a matter of fact — large quantities of
tobacco and cigarettes were presented to
the British troops in South Africa.

Haji Bukhsh Ellahie is a member of
the Chamber of Commerce of Bengal and
the Punjab, of the Calcutta Mahommedan
Orphanage Committee, the Calcutta Dis-
trict Charitable Society, the Central
National Mahommedan Association, and
the Calcutta Mahommedan Burial Board,
and it may be said briefly that he is ever
ready to give the most generous support
to all movements calculated to promote

BUKHSH ELLAHIE & CO.
I. Mb. Abouk Kahiu, Mavagixc Director. 2. Group or Asmshkis,

3. Premises,

656

CALCUTTA INDUSTRIES

the well-being of the public generally.
It was in recognition of his services to
the public that the Government of India
decorated him with the distinguished
honour of CLE. and the Oriental title
of Khan Sahib. He has three sons, who
have been educated and trained to assist
their father in his many-sided activities,
the second in age of these, Mr. Abdur
Rahum Bukhsh Ellahie, being the
managing partner of the firm in Cal-
cutta.

A few words must be added to show
the broad-minded interest taken by the
Haji in public matters. He organized
a splendid entertainment, consisting of an
afternoon party and a treat for school-
boys of all denominations in Calcutta on
the occasion of the Coronation of His
Majesty the King in England in June
191 1. The function was held in the
Town Hall, which had been beautifully
decorated, and it was attended by many
of the leading inhabitants of the city, who
expressed delight at the manner in which
provision had been made with music, toys,
and refreshments for the enjoyment of
the children.

.About 750 scholars were present from
the Catholic Male Orphanage, St.
Joseph's Free School, the Calcutta Free
School, the Mahommedan Ori)hanage, the
Madrassah, and the Martin Institution.

DR. S. K. BURMAN

The medicinal treatment of diseases is
probably the oldest science in existence.
Primitive man was as susceptible to the
countless ills of the flesh as is the indi-
vidual of to-day, and ancient records and
traditions show that even in those far-
away ages his remedies or potions were
the result of practical trials of the herbs
of the field. The physician of the twen-
tieth century works upon similar lines,
although he has incomparably greater and
more efficacious stocks of ingredients in
his pharmacopoeia, and there are now
specialists in every country in the world
who have been true benefactors to the
human race by the discoveries which they
have made.

One of these practitioners — Dr. S. K.
Burman— established a Medical Hall at
4, 5, and 6 Tarachand Dutt's Street, Cal-
cutta, in the year 1884, and his name
has become popular throughout India
on account of the valuable medicinal
preparations which have been issued to
the public. More than forty specifics for
the treatment of various diseases have

been prepared, but special mention should
be made of three which are widely used
throughout India.

The first of these is an essence of pure
camphor, which the proprietor regards as
the best preventive of cholera or choleric
diarrhoea that has ever been discovered.
Hundreds of thousands of phials are
being sold in India, Burma, and Ceylon
every year, and thousands of unsolicited
testimonials as to its curative properties
have been received. The second one to
be noticed is a cure for asthma, which
was not manufactured until after Dr.

and the present proprietor— Mr. C. L.
Burman, a son of the founder of the
practice — is a constant importer of fresh
drugs and chemicals from the leading
manufacturers of Europe.

THE CAPITAL ENGINEERING COMPANY

The construction of places of business,
as well as of private residences, designed
to suit a tropical climate but combining
modern improvements suggested by
Western styles of architecture, is now a
prominent feature with contractors in

DR. S. K. BURMAN.
I. "Camphor House,*' Office of S. K. Burman.

Burman had spent several years in a
careful study of this distressing malady.
It is said that a couple of doses are
sufficient to check the trouble, and that
by continuing the medicine the disease
is absolutely cured.

Practically every district in India is
a hotbed of malaria and ague, but these
recurrent scourges appear to be swiftly
overcome by the use of Dr. Burman 's
specifics, which are said to kill the germs,
create new blood-cells, and restore a
healthy tone to the system.

A certificate of honour was presented
to Dr. Burman in recognition of his
liberality by His Honour the Lieutenant-
Governor of Bengal, in the name of His
Majesty King Edward VTI, then Emperor
of India, by command of His Excellency
the Viceroy and Governor-General in
Council on January i, 1903.

Surgical and optical instruments are
always kept in stock at the Medical Hall,

657

India, and one has only to witness works
now in progress in Calcutta to obtain
abundant proof of this statement.

Old-established firms have recognized
the necessity for remodelling their plans,
but architects and others who have com-
menced business in recent years have
readily adopted the new procedure. The
Capital Engineering Company, by way of
example, have already gained consider-
able reputation for the excellent manner
in which they have carried out works
entrusted to them.

Their offices are at 7 Old Post Office
Street, Calcutta, and they have also
extensive workshops and godowns at
120 Upper Circular Road, in the same
city. The proprietors are consulting
engineers, and their thorough training in
this branch enables them to give sound
advice upon all matters relating to
structural work.

The company have earned high com-

feENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

I, Kaharhatty " A '

THE CAPITAL ENGINEERING COMPANY.
Mill Extension, 2, Premises of Mr. L, B. Dutt, i20,'2 Upper Circular Road.

mendation from the superintendent of
the Kamarhatty Jute Mills for extensive
alterations to those premises, and the

manager of the Kinnison Jute Mills, in a
letter dated September i, 191 5, said that
the firm gave great satisfaction in the

carrying out of various building con
tracts; but these are merely a sampl
of numerous testimonials of a simila
character.

A branch establishment has beei
opened at Bankipore, where a Training
College and Hostel are now being buil
under instructions from the Public Work:
Department of the Government of Beha
and Orissa.

DAS & CO.

If the making of household vessels am
ornaments of brass and other metals am
weaving and spinning done by hand i:
villages are excepted, there were prac
tically no industries in India worth men
tioning at the beginning of the nineteent
century, and this seems to be
particularly strange fact when one reflect
that many hundreds of years ago thi
country was carrying on an extensiv
trade not only within its own borders
but with several European nations, i
great change has, however, taken placf
and among the numerous successful in
dustrial concerns which have been estab
lished on European lines is one in whic
the firm of Messrs. Das. & Co. ar

I, 2. Views cf the Duildino,

DAS & CO.

3. "NooRjAHAH Safe.
658

4. W. N. Das, Proprietor,

CALCUTTA INDUSTRIES

engaged in manufacturing patent locks,
safes, boxes, trunks, and scales and
weights at the " Abba " manufactory at
12, 13, 14, and 1 4/ 1 Cossipore Road,
Chitpore, a northern suburb of the city
of Calcutta.

The firm was founded by Babu Krishna
Lai Das, who commenced business lifo
in one of the Government offices, but who,
finding that his aspirations would never
be realized in a purely clerical position,
looked to the commercial and industrial
world to provide him with the opening
upon which he had set his heart. Select-
ing as a promising field for enterprise
the manufacture of locks for safes and
boxes of various kinds, he managed to
induce the late Kumar Indra Chandra
Sinha Bahadur, of the I'aikpara Raj, to
take an interest in his scheme, with the
result that the latter rendered substantial
financial assistance in furtherance of the
project and a workshop was opened in
1879.

It is said that " money talks," but
money only in this instance was not able
to uproot the ultra-conservative preju-
dices of smiths obtained by Das Babu
from neighbouring villages, who flatly
refused to adopt new methods of work.
This was a disappointing beginning, but,
after exercising great patience and perse-
verance, yoimg boys, tempted by liberal
allowances, were obtained and trained by
the Babu personally. This procedure
naturally occupied some considerable
time, but the proprietor was subsequently
rewarded by the excellent work done by
these new hands ; and after his " safety "
principle liad been patented and then
added to the mechanism of locks, the
Babu received numbers of orders from
heads of Government departments. The
business then progressed rapidly, and a
further impetus was given by a circular
letter, in which the then Viceroy, Lord
Ripon, directed all Government officers
" to use goods of Indian manufacture
wherever practicable."

The Babu, about that time, appointed
a European firm in Calcutta as agents
for the sale of his manufactured articles
in order that he might devote greater
attention to perfecting the various goods
then being manufactured in his shops, and
for this purpose he imported a large
quantity of modern machine tools.

Onerous duties, frequently carried
on under discouraging circumstances,
affected the Babu's health so seriously
that, after giving a preliminary training
to his nephew, Babu Woopendra Nath

Das, in September 1891 he transferred
the whole concern to him as a gift and
retired from active life.

The new proprietor had to face an
organized opposition from workmen who
had prospered under the old regime, but
who, with base ingratitude for the satis-
factory position they had attained, refused
to carry out the orders of a younger man,
who, they ignorantly believed, knew
nothing of the business to which he had
succeeded. " Everything comes to him

Calcutta), or by telegram to their
registered address, " Safeguard, Cal-
cutta."

S. H. DEY & CO.

One of the oldest and largest direct
importers of builders' materials, hard-
ware, indiarubber goods, paints, cements,
rolled steel girders, angles, bars, plates,
galvanized iron sheets, copper ingots,
bolts, nuts, rivets, wire nails, shovels, and

I. Proprietor and Son.

S. M. DEY & CO.

2. .\SS1STA.VTS AND A DISPLAY OP FILTERS.

who waits," however, and Babu Woopen-
dra Nath Das soon came to be recognized
by the obstructionists as a man of experi-
ence and of undoubted ability, and they
began to obey him and carry out his
orders. The firm's business continued to
grow, and in order to meet the wishes of
customers they added carpenter's and
tinsmith's departments and general
engineering works to the business.

A reference to price-lists shows that
the firm have a grand selection of safes,
cash chests, and patented " safety " locks
and boxes, together with a great variety
of iron and brass fittings, for the safe
keeping of personal effects of all kinds,
ranging from the most valuable diamonds
to the ordinary things of daily use.

The sole agents in Burma are Messrs.
S. Oppenheimer & Co., Ltd., Rangoon,

Communications to the firm are
addressed to their head office, 14 Cos-
sipore Road, Calcutta (telephone 416

659

all kindj of mill, factory, mining, and
other miscellaneous stores and requisites,
is that of Messrs. S. M. Dey & Co.,
engineers, merchants' agents, and Govern-
ment contractors, of 41 Strand Road,
Calcutta.

The firm was established in the year
1882 by Mr. Soorcndra Mohun Dey, the
sole proprietor, who is enabled to carry
on a large and prosperous business by
regular importations of goods, which, by
reason of their reliability, have found
favour with a very large circle of
customers.

A special feature is made of the agency
for the Pasteur-Chamberland Filter Com-
pany, of 5 White Street, Finsbury, Lon-
don, E.C., whose filters are the only ones
in the world authorized by the famous
scientist to bear his name. Medical
research has proved conclusively that
certain diseases, such as typhoid fever,
dysentery, and cholera, frequently result

DINSHA.W & SORABJEE.
I. RiSTAUKAMT Car, CALOotrA-DAR/EEMWo Mail Service. a. Refreshment Room, Eastern Bengal State Railway, Sealdah Terminus.

3, Duty Paid Stores,

4. Front View of Pre.mises.

660

CALCUTTA INDUSTRIES

from the drinking of impure water, and
although the germs of these plagues may
to some extent be combated by distilla-
tion, boiling, and sterilization, it is an
undoubted fact that all bacteria can be
strained out by passing the water through
a genuine Pasteur-Chamberland filter.

These receptacles are made in a variety
of shapes and sizes to suit all require-
ments, being serviceable alike for the'
pocket or for large installations for town
reservoirs, and they have been recog-
nized as standard filters in the labora-
tories of the Koyal College of Physicians
(London) and Surgeons (England).
Monsieur Pasteur wrote many years ago
in answer to inquirers that " the filter
was invented and tested in my laboratory,
and was rewarded by one of the prizes
of the Academy of Sciences, and I have
willingly and deliberately authorized Dr.
Chambcrland to add the words ' Systeme
Pasteur ' to the title filtre Chamberland."

Messrs. Dey & Co. always carry a
large stock of these filters and all spare
parts, and a special feature is made in
their works of giving immediate attention
to any repairs which may be needed.

■««
DINSHAW AND SORABJEE

This is one of the best-known business
houses in Calcutta, the firm having ex-
tensive connections throughout Bengal,
the United Provinces, Behar and Orissa,
Assam, and the Central Provinces. Their
wonderful growth from a small beginning
in 1885 is a tribute to the business
acumen of the original partners, namely,
Mr. Sorabjee C. Colah and the late Mr.
Dinshaw B. Bamjee, who commenced
trading at Bogoola, on the Eastern
Bengal Railway, and two years later
obtained their first contract as caterers
on board the ferry-steamers plying be-
tween Damukdia and Saraghat, on the
northern section of the railway. Owing
to the success with which they controlled
this service, and to the recognition by
the railway authorities of the business
capabilities of the partners, they were
offered, and accepted, the entire manage-
ment and control of the refreshment-
rooms throughout the Eastern Bengal
Railway systems. The business from now
onwards showed rapid extension, until in
i8g6 it necessitated the opening of whole-
sale warehouses at 12 Esplanade East,
Calcutta. In the following year the firm
obtained the catering contract on the
Darjeeling-Himalayan Railway, and in
■905 they were asked to take over the

refreshment-rooms on the North-Western
Railway. These responsible positions
were filled with marked success, until in
1911, when they found it almost impos-
sible to control the enormous trade over
such great distances, and were reluctantly
compelled, owing to the exigencies of
their Bengal enterprises and the demand
made on the time of the two partners,
to relinquish their connection with the
North-Western Railway, and thus to con-
centrate their efforts upon their own busi-
ness, where a greater field for their
activities existed. Previous to this, in
the year 1899, to be exact, they found
that their large warehouses at 12 Espla-
nade East were far too small for their
business, and they were compelled to
acquire more commodious and central
premises at 8 Dhurrumtollah Street, but
with a View to serve the public and afford
greater business facilities and con-
veniences to their numerous clients they
opened a branch at 17 Chowringhee
Road.

The volume of trade continued to ex-
pand in a marvellous manner, and again
the acquisition of a large number of
additional warehouses or godowns became
necessary, and in 1908 the increased
space acquired was no less than 20,000
sq. ft. In 1909 the firm suffered an
irreparable loss in the death of Mr.
Dinshaw Bamjee, whose genius and
organizing powers meant so much to the
business, but fortunately the firm pos-
sessed in Mr. J. Dinshaw Bamjee, his
eldest son, one who inherited his father's
great powers.

The establishment had now attained
such huge proportions that the partners
felt compelled to institute closer control
over the multitudinous departments in
which their business was carried on, and
at this time Mr. R. S. Colah, Mr. P.
Bamjee, and Mr. K. S. Colah were
brought into the concern, which thus con-
sisted of one of the original partners and
the sons of both. The fine reputation
which this firm had built up for itself by
careful attention to details, by innate
honesty, punctual services, and courtesy,
is exemplified in their being appointed
caterers to Lord Curzon, Viceroy and
Governor-General of India in 1904, Earl
Kitchener, a former Commander-in-Chief,
and the Governor of Bengal, in addition
to which they practically monopolized the
supplies to a number of messes and clubs
throughout India. It is of interest to see
that Mr. Sorabjee C. Colah, at the age
of seventy, still takes the greatest interest

661

in the business, his great personal gifts
being directed towards the higher con-
trol of the firm's trade, while commercial
details are looked after by the younger
partners.

Messrs. Dinshaw and Sorabjee hold a
number of valuable agencies, among which
are those of Messrs. J. and R. Tennent,
D. and J. McCallum, Robert Brown,
Ltd., William Teacher & Sons, Bisquit
Dubouche & Co., Courvoisier & Co.,
James Keiller & Son, Ltd., Spratt's, Ltd.,
and Chivers & Sons, Ltd. The remark-
able evidence of the continued prosperity
of this firm is exemplified by the busy
hives of employees constantly engaged in
packing wines, spirits, stores, and pro-
visions for up-country constituents, many
of whom reside from two to three thou-
sand miles distance from the firm's head
office in Calcutta.

P. N. DUTT & CO.

The proprietors of this firm were the
first to introduce into India the manufac-
ture of galvanized buckets, baths, drums,
and many other receptacles of a similar
character. There are four partners, all
of whom take an active share in manage-
ment—namely, Messrs. S. N. Dutt, B. B.
Dutt, P. N. Dutt, and G. C. Dutt, and
the senior partner, Mr. S. N. Dutt, has on
more than one occasion visited factories
in Europe, in which he became thoroughly
acquainted with Western methods of
galvanizing. This led to the establish-
ment in 1906 of the Bengal Galvanizing
works, at 43 Musjidbaree Street, Calcutta,
and, commencing with a daily production
of five dozen buckets by hand-power, the
firm now have a factory, constructed on
modern lines and fully equipped with the
most up-to-date machinery and plant
capable of making in a working day some
200 dozens of buckets, together with a
considerable number of baths, drums, and
other sheet-metal goods.

A large quantity of acid being required
in the galvanizing process in the factory,
the partners started in igi2 " the Bengal
Acid Manufacturing Company " at Ulta-
danga, and they are now able to meet
their own requirements and to furnish
supplies to a large circle of private
customers.

The firm are sole agents for the Union
Electric Company, Ltd., of London, and
they are selling-agents at their Ram-
kristopore Steel Yard for the Tata Iron
and Steel Company, Ltd.

The progress made by this firm is an

2Z*

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

excellent illustration of a thoroughly suc-
cessful Swadeshi concern in India, and an
industry, started by the Messrs. Dutt, is
likely to become a most important one
in a country in which such enterprises
are sadly too few.

ticular line of business is Messrs. Dwarkin
& Son, of Dalhousie Square and Bowbazar
Street, Calcutta.

Mr. Dwarkanath Chose, the founder
and present head of the firm, originally
started as a piano-tuner and repairer of

I. Partners of the Firm.

P. N. DUTT & CO.

2. Bengal Galvanizing Works, Interior of Blxket Shop.

The telegraphic address is " Galvanize,
Calcutta."

DWARKIN & SON

What a dismal world this would be
without the uplifting strains of music,
which is the first of the arts to be de-
veloped in childhood ! It is the welcome
of the birds to each newborn day, it is
an inspiration to the tired body and the
depressed mind, it puts new life into the
soldier as he swings along on his weary
march, it is suitable for palace or cottage
or king or peasant, and the man or woman
who is unmoved by it is one to be
shunned. Does not Shakespeare in the
" Merchant of Venice " say : —

The man that hath no music in himself,

Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds,

Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.

These words spring unbidden to the mind
as one enters any of those establishments
in which are seen grand collections of
musical instruments of all kinds, together
with copies of the works of some of the
brilliant composers of this and many
preceding generations.

One of the leading firms in this par-

musical instruments, under the name and
style of D. Chose & Son, and he had a
small shop in 6 Lower Chitpore Road.
In those days Western musical instru-
ments were not used by Indians generally,
and business could only be done among
the few European residents. Bengali
gentlemen, however, appreciated Euro-
pean instruments, and a few of them com-
menced to give expositions of Indian
music on European instruments, and to
sing Bengali songs to the accompaniment
of harmoniums by Alexandre of Paris.
Mr. Dwarkanath foresaw the great possi-
bilities of the musical instrument trade in
India, and in 1878 he established the
firm of Dwarkin & Son, and commenced
importing instruments of all kinds from
England, France, and Germany, as well
as America, and soon succeeded in
creating a demand for them among the
Indian people. The enterprise succeeded
to such an extent that he was soon com-
pelled to remove to larger premises in
2 Lower Chitpore Road. In 1887 Mr.
Dwarkanath invented, and began manu-
facturing, a small hand harmonium, which
was specially suitable for Indian music,
and which could be sold so cheaply as
663

to bring it within the reach of the poorest.
This invention popularized music in India,
and gave a great impetus to the har-
monium trade. The firm's business went
up by leaps and bounds, and more ex-
tended accommodation becoming neces-
sary, they, in the year 1895, removed to
spacious premises in 267 Bowbazar
Street, where they now have their work-
shop, stores, and packing departments,
and in 1903 they opened their splendid
showrooms in Dalhousie Square.

Messir,. Dwarkin & Son import violins
and accessories from Germany and
France, orclxestral and band instruments
from England and France, pianos from
England, Japan, and Germany, and har-
moniums and organs from France,
America, and Japan. They are sole
agents in India for Putnam American
Organs of Staunton, United States, and
of Messrs. the Nippon Piano and Organ
Company of Japan.

This firm keep a stock of orchestral
instruments of various descriptions in
their warehouses, and cabinets and
shelves, almost without end in number,
in their shop are packed with violins,
mandolins, guitars, banjoes, accordeons,
concertinas, musical-boxes, gramophones,
flutes, and sundry other articles. The
immense stock of harmoniums and organs
carried shows what a large business they
do in these special lines. The Indians
are no longer content with their setars
and venri/rs. and to-day there are few
homes that do not possess a Dwarkin's
organ or harmonium. The use of these
instruments has perhaps altered the char-
acter of Indian music, but it is not denied
that music is now more easily learnt and
is more popular than when people had
to depend on purely Indian instruments.

The book and sheet music department
is up to date in every respect, as the
London agents of the firm are exceedingly
prompt in sending to India any compo-
sition of merit which makes its appear-
ance in London or any other important
musical centre.

Messrs. Dwarkin are the largest im-
porters in India of reeds and other har-
monium and organ fittings, and the
progress that the harmonium industry has
made in India recently is largely due
to the efforts of this firm in securing
materials from all parts of the world and
in selling them at a very small profit.

Messrs. Dwarkin & Son possess a large
clientele among the Europeans in India,
with whom they do a brisk trade in music
and small goods, but their special study

DWABKIN & SON.
t, Daliiousie Squaxe Showroom. 2. Bkancb and Godowns at Bowsazax Street,

66j

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

is to meet the requirements for Indians
and Indian music, and in this branch of
business they have practically no com-
petitors.

A unique feature of this firm's business
lies in the fact that they have published
several music books in Bengalee.

Mr. Dwarkanath does not now take any
active part in the business, the manage-
ment being entirely in the hands of his
eldest son, Mr. Kiron Chunder Ghose.

in the business, and of this amount
Rs. 5,00,000 have recently been capital-
ized, and 50,000 fully paid ordinary
shares have been distributed as a bonus
among the shareholders.

There has been a growing demand
among Indians for these cigarettes,
and some twenty brands — including the
favourites known as " Holy," " Crown,"
and " Ram Ram " — are being manufac-
tured. A large factory has been erected

The directors are Messrs. Mahomed
Omari (managing director), A. C. Ban-
nerjee, and Mirza Ahmed Ally.

The registered offices of the company
are at 104 Canning Street, Calcutta.

-%^

D. GOOPTU & CO.

The firm of Messrs. D. Gooptu & Co.,
which was named after its founder, was
established in 1840 by the late Dr.

p-agi;;;A.e^/^ufeaa'a^T»-.-r.t^-i^: .■•■'.-"'^■j^:'.:

THE BAST INDIA CIGARETTE MANUFACTURING COMPANY, LTD., DUM-DUM.

THE EAST INDIA CIGARETTE MANU-
FACTURING COMPANY, LTD.

This is an Indian company, financed
by Indian capital, and depending almost
entirely upon Indian customers for its
support. It was formed in the year 1908
to acquire, carry on, and extend the cigar-
ette manufacturing business of the East
India Cigarette Manufacturing Company,
which had been established and worked
successfully for some years previously
by Mr. Mahomed Omari, the present
managing director. It was incorporated
under the Indian Companies Acts with
a capital of Rs. 30,00,000, of which
Rs. 10,00,000 were issued and fully paid.
A reserve fund of no less than
Rs. 6,50,000 accumulated and was used

at Dum Dum Road, Cossipore, near Cal-
cutta, and it is equipped with modern
machinery of an approved type, which
is capable of turning out about 8,000,000
cigarettes daily. Packets and boxes are
made on the premises, and printing
presses for the preparation of labels
have been installed.

The company have excellent godowns
for the storage of tobacco leaf and other
materials, and more than Rs. 6,70,000
have been expended during the past six
years on the erection and equipment of
the factory and other works.

The turnover in the business is in-
creasing rapidly, and the temporary
depression alluded to above will soon be
a matter of past history.

664

Dwarkanath Gooptu, G.M.C.B., one of
the successful candidates of the first lot
of students who qualified in the Medical
College of Bengal. He was born in the
year 18 18 of respected parents, who had
considerable landed properties in and
about Calcutta. He was one of the
favourite students of David Hare, being
educated under his care at the Hare
School in Calcutta, and on the establish-
ment of the Medical College of Bengal,
in June 1835, he was admitted as one of
the foundation students. Having passed
his final examination in March 1839, he
was apfKjinted by the Honourable East
India Company as medical officer in one
of the north-western towns, but as he was
inclined for independent practice he

tiS ik-^.*

K IS ioli.

f-'^B'f'

^ ^ rtf Ki' ^ I

1 .^ Mm ■■I

1©

ID. GOOPTU & CO. & F. N. GOOPTU & CO.
I. Head Office, D. Gooptu & Co., Upper Chitpore Road. 2. Imterior of Sale-roou, Upper Chitpore Road. 3. Residence op G. C. Goopto.

4. Interior of F. N. Goopiu & Co.s Workshop. 5. F, N. Gooptu & Co.'s Workshop. 6. The late Dr. D. Gooptu. G.M.C.B.

«65

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

refused the post. He soon became family
physician to Prince Dwarka Nath Tagore,
who introduced him to all the Tagore
and many other rich families of Cal-
cutta, and thus at the age of twenty-two
he began his career as a medical prac-
titioner, becoming the chief medical
adviser in all the Tagore households. In
1840 the first indent of Messrs. D.
Gooptu & Co. was written by Sir William
Brook O'Shaughnessy, the then professor
of chemistry of the Medical College, and
it is worthy of note that this firm owned
the first dispensary of English drugs in
India which was started by a Bengalee
doctor. The business grew rapidly in
succeeding years, and in 1871 Dr. D.
Gooptu became the sole proprietor of the
firm, carrying it on until 1882, when he
died, leaving the business in the hands
of his sons, Mr. Gopal Chandra Gooptu,
the late Mr. Ram Ch. Gooptu, and
Mr. Nando Lall Gooptu, who conducted
it until 1913, when Mr. R. C. Gooptu
died, leaving his sons as his heirs and
executors. At present the firm consists
of Mr. G. C. Gooptu, Mr. N. L. Gooptu,
and the executors of the late Mr. R. C.
Gooptu, and business is transacted at
their premises at 369 Upper Chitpore
Road and 13 Esplanade Row East,
Calcutta.

A speciality is made by Messrs. D.
Gooptu & Co. of their anti-periodic mix-
ture, commonly known as " D. Gooptu,"
which is the specific for all kinds of
malarial fever, and it has perhaps one
of the largest sales among patent medi-
cines in India, being held in high esteem
by all who have used it. In addition to
the antiperiodic mixture, there are several
other very good and efficacious pro-
prietary medicines of the firm, the names
of which are (i) antiperiodic mixture
" Falena Parichiyata " ; (2) spleen and
liver ointment ; (3) special liver mixture
for all kinds of disorders of that organ ;

(4) diarrhoea and dysentery pills, a
specific for all kinds of bowel complaints ;

(5) antiperiodic pills for adults and
boys ; (6) liver-purging pills ; and (7)
essence of Jamaica sarsaparilla.

Dr. Dwijendra Nath Gooptu, B.A.,
L.M.S. Gold Medalist, the eldest son of
Mr. G. C. Gooptu, is now the consulting
physician.

"**
F M. GOOPTU & CO.

Mr. G. C. Gooptu entertained the idea
a few years ago of starting a new in-
dustry in Calcutta, and he accordingly

trained his youngest son, Mr. F. N.
Gooptu, in all departments necessary for
the carrying on of a manufacturing busi-
ness. In 1905 the latter started the firm
of Messrs. F. N. Gooptu & Co., for manu-
facturing penholders for the first time in
India. Quite a modest beginning was
made at 5 Middleton Street, the residence
of Mr. G. C. Gooptu, and the proprietor
at once secured the service of a European
expert from England, and himself studied
the secrets of the trade, together with
the methods followed in the Western
world in a manufacturing business. His
enterprise met with unprecedented
success, and through the good offices of
the Hon. Mr. K. C. De, CLE., I.C.S.,
at present Commissioner of Chittagong,
and Mr. M. J. Cogswell, Controller of
Printing, Stationery, and Stamps, he
secured the active support of the Govern-
ment of India in the shape of a standing
yearly order. In 1910 the factory was
enlarged, and the present commodious
workshop was constructed at 12 Belia-
ghatta Road, on six bighas of land, at
a cost of more than two and a half lakhs
of rupees. All the machinery has been
imported from England, and the whole
concern is now being carried on under
the management and supervision of the
founder, Mr. F. N. Gooptu. This firm
has secured the whole of the orders from
the Government of India for penholders,
pens, and pencils, which have, further,
commanded a large sale all over the
country. Mr. J. A. L. Swan, I.C.S.,
visited the factory as a deputation from
the Government of Bengal and expressed
great satisfaction with what he saw there
(vide Mr. Swan's report on the
" Development of Industries in Bengal,"
191 5). Owing to the extreme difficulty
— if not the impossibility — of obtaining
pens, pencils, and penholders from Euro-
pean countries (which have hitherto been
exporters of large quantities, but are now
engaged in war), Messrs. Gooptu & Co.
have secured a practical monopoly for
manufacturing and supplying these
articles throughout the whole of India.

THE HINDU8THAN CO-OPERATIYE
INSURANCE SOCIETY, LTD.

The Hindusthan Insurance Society was
founded in May 1907 on the co-operative
plan, and registered as a joint stock
company with limited liability.

Its establishment was an attempt to
create for the whole of India, firstly, an
666

accumulating and investing centre in
which periodic savings, placed by way
of calls paid on shares in its capital,
or premiums on its life policies, would
remain safe, and grow to the best ad-
vantage. As a means to this end the
respective rights of shareholders and
policy-holders were clearly defined and
safeguarded in the constitution of the
society so as to prevent any danger of
combined exploitation ; the shareholders
were further enabled, under certain con-
ditions, to take life policies in lieu of
profits, and the policy-holders were given
every opportunity to acquire shares, in
order to atford every scope for a mutual-
izing of the business to any desired
extent. The principle of " one man, one
vote " was adopted, with the view of
preventing power being usurped by any
group of wealthy shareholders ; and,
lastly, the different provinces of India,
being entitled to have their own provincial
boards, and having the fullest possible
facilities for representation by proxies or
delegates at the general meetings of the
society, were enabled to feel that they
could have a hand in shaping the policy
and working of the society's adminis-
tration.

Secondly, the " accumulating machine "
being thus created, and started fairly
working, the society's programme in-
cluded the co-operative feature of invest-
ing these accumulations in ways which
would, so far as possible, directly or
indirectly conduce to the benefit of the
contributing locality. This it was pro-
posed to do by financing, in conjunction
with municipal or other corporations, or
public-spirited individuals of wealth and
position, such progressive schemes as
drainage, waterworks, building societies^
and electric power installations at reason-
able rates of interest, and on adequate
security being furnished.

Judging by the progress made by the
society, it may be reasonably expected
that, with the completion of its first
decade on April 30, 191 7, it will have
been soundly and firmly established so
far as the first part of its programme
is concerned. It already has an insurance
business of about one crore and fifty-five
lakhs (Rs. 1,55,00,000) on its books, with
life funds totalling more than twenty-
three lakhs (Rs. 23,00,000), which are
more than fully covered by real assets
invested at a good average rate of in-
terest. It has branches and agencies
throughout India, Burma, and Ceylon,
and it is also represented in the Indian

HINDUSTHAN CO-OPERATIVE INSURANCE SOCIETY, LTD.
I. HiNDusiHAN Buildings, North View. 2. Hindusihan BuaoiNcs, South View.

6r)7

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

communities in Africa, the Straits, and
the Federated Malay Settlements.

A commencement has also been made
with the next part of its policy, namely,
regulating the investment of its accumu-
lating capital in the interest of its
contributories. Schemes are under con-
sideration and preparation for (i) an
up-to-date nursing home with the co-
operation of certain leading medical
practitioners of Bombay, (2) electric
power installations for several small
towns, and (3) building societies in the
suburbs of Madras and Calcutta. The
present European War, with its world-
wide disturbing effects, may retard the
progress of the society for a while, but,
based as its programme is on the per-
manent foundation of the alleviation of
common wants by self-help and mutual
aid, the society's activities must, in the
end, redound to the economic develop-
ment of the localities which are far-
sighted and enterprising enough to join
whole-heartedly in, and thereby con-
tribute to, the strength of its
organization.

The Hindusthan Buildings in Corpo-

ration Street, Calcutta, in which the head
offices of the society are located, repre-
sent an investment yielding a guaranteed
net rent of 7 per cent, per annum on
an outlay of about Rs. 10,00,000.

HAJEE ALLABUX AND HAJEE
HAHAMMED JAN

This enterprising firm was established
in the year 1863 by the above-named
partners, .who, from the very commence-
ment of their career, determined that the
guiding principle of their business creed
should be that all transactions must be
conducted with the most scrupulous
regard for dealing in a strictly honourable
manner with regard to the quality and
price of their goods.

They opened a store at 3 Rathu Sircar's
Lane, ColootoUah, in Calcutta, trading in
stationery, hosiery, matches, fancy goods,
cutlery, soap, cigarettes, and sundry other
articles; but soon discovering that these
premises were too small for their rapidly
increasing business, they removed to
1 1 ColootoUah Street. This building

served their purpose for a time, but a
further expansion of trade caused them
to secure greater accommodation at their
present address. No. 80 in the same
street.

Further assistance in carrying on the
concern became necessary, and they
admitted some of the workers of their
own firm into partnership ; and the firm
now (1916) consists of Hajee Allabux,
Hajee Mahammed Jan, Hajee Mahammed
Ismail, Munsi Mahammed .\min, Hafez
Mahammed Aniin, and Ubaidur Rahman.

It is the boast of the firm that when
they have secured customers they retain
them, because the latter have had reason
to place unbounded confidence in the
partners, and to be completely satisfied
with the manner in which their orders
have been executed. A similar bond
exists between the firm and the manufac-
turers from whom they purchase goods,
and proof of this was given in 191 5, when
a representative visited Japan and found
that manufacturers and agents in that
country who had supplied various goods
in former years were most anxious to
continue business relationships.

HAJEEi ALLABUX AND HAJEE MAHAMMED JAN.
1. View op ihe Premises. 2. Interior of Godown,

668

M. M ISPAHA.NI & SONS.

I. Office Premises at 51 Ezra Street. 2. Hide Store, Kidderpore,

4, Press House for Baling Hides' and ,Skins.

660

3. Interior of Hide Store.
5. Tea Blending Roou.

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

The firm are now manufacturers of
soaps for laundry purposes, under the
style and name of the Salim Soap
Company, the principal kinds being
" Elephant " brand (in qualities Nos. i,
2, and 3), bar, carbolic, and other varie-
ties. The raw materials, with the excep-
tion of grease, are imported from Europe,
and the factory is equipped with the latest
type of machinery and plant. The firm
are sole agents in Bengal for Goodwin's
Soaps and the Imperial Tobacco
Company's cigarettes.

Messrs. Hajee AUabux and Hajee
Mahammed Jan now import the major

ence was at that time given to supplying
indigo to Europe and other countries, but
as this dye was purchased largely in the
Provincs of Bengal, it became necessary
to establish a temporary office in Cal-
cutta. It was shortly after this time that
German Badishe, or synthetic indigo, was
placed on the Indian marl<ct, and the firm
then realized that if they were to retain
their trade in the natural dye it was
necessary that a permanent office should
be opened in Calcutta, and this further
accommodation was secured about the
year 1900.

The general business of the firm has

I. Premises.

JEEWANLALL & CO.

2. Show-room and Assistants.

portion of their goods from foreign coun-
tries, through Messrs. Mohamed Ismail
Mohamed Rafee, who carry on their busi-
ness in the same premises, 80 Colootollah
Street.

M. M. ISPAHAN! & SONS

Messrs. M. M. Ispahani & Sons, of
51 Ezra Street, Calcutta, and of Popham's
Broadway, Madras, are Indian produce
merchants, but they are more than that,
as they have for a number of years
specialized in certain lines, which have
been so satisfactorily managed that they
now occupy a very honourable position
among traders in the East.

It is nearly fifty years since the firm
was established in Madras, and promin-

expandcd very rapidly indeed, and while
the partners are, in every sense of the
word, Indian produce merchants, they
may be described concisely as general
merchants, commission agents, and ex-
porters of tea, indigo, hides, cotton, skins
(raw and tanned), gunnies, and other
merchandise. The firm's branch in
Madras deals in and exports very large
quantities of indigo, ground-nuts, oil
seeds of various kinds, condiments, and
hides and skins ; while buying agencies
have been established at Malabar and
Cannanore, in Southern India, for the
purchase of all kinds of Indian produce.
Skins and hides are either sold in the raw
state or are tanned for consignment to
Europe, Japan, and America.

The turnover of the firm in the above-

670

mentioned articles is very considerable,
but it is in the buying and selling of
tea that Messrs. Ispahani & Sons hold
one of the leading positions among Cal-
cutta merchants. They purchase large
quantities at the auction sales in Calcutta,
and in normal years the amount exported
by them from these sales is not exceeded
by more than two or three other firms
in the city.

Godowns and stores in Calcutta and at
Kidderpore are available for the storage
of skins, hides, tea, and other goods, and
the firm's bright, airy, and commodious
offices in Ezra Street are within a couple
of minutes' walk of the Royal Exchange
and other centres where business men are
in the habit of congregating. The
Madras premises are admirably adapted
for trade purposes, and they are not more
than about 300 yards distant from the
harbour and the joint station of the
Madras and Southern Mahratta and the
Southern Indian Railway systems.

There are three partners in the firm :
Mr. M. H. Ispahani is in charge of the
London offices at 21 Mincing Lane, E.C.,
Mr. M. M. Ispahani is supreme in Cal-
cutta, and Mr. M. .4. Ispahani looks after
the Madras establishment.

Several hundred labourers are con-
stantly employed under the direction of
three European assistants.

■*^
JEEWANLALL & CO.

Comparatively few years have elapsed
since aluminium ware of all kinds for
domestic and other purposes became a
recognized feature in the markets of the
world, and, like other novelties, it was
subjected to a considerable amount of
keen criticism and even prejudice, not
alone from cutlers, ironmongers, china-
ware dealers, and others who had goods
to sell, but from private individuals as
well. The inherent qualities of the metal
have, however, been fully recognized, and
the extent to which it has replaced other
substances, especially in connection with
culinary and other utensils of a similar
character, is strong evidence of its claims
to superiority.

Messrs. Jeewanlall & Co., of 55 Can-
ning Street, Calcutta, are sole agents
in Bengal for the " Crown " brand
aluminium wares manufactured by the
Indian Alumininum Company, Ltd., of
Madras, who produce goods from
British aluminium of a guaranteed purity
of more than 99 per cent. Their busi-
ness was commenced in an unassuming

CALCUTTA INDUSTRIES

manner in the year 1910, the partners,
Messrs. Jeewanlall Motichand, Durlabhdas
Ramjee, Ramjee Hunsraj, and Harak-
chand Motichand, dealing in aluminium
ware, with the purchase and sale of rice
as a branch department.

The proprietors determined at the
commencement of their commercial life
in Calcutta that they would have nothing
whatever to do with any other aluminium
goods than those manufactured from
superior metal imported from England,
and this is undoubtedly the secret of the
successful enterprise which is now estab-
lished on so firm a basis. In strolling
through the Cannon Street stores or the
branch shop at C 53 in the Stewart Hogg
Market, one notices degchies, saucepans,
stewpans, trays of various descriptions,
tumblers, ice-pails, pie and butter dishes,
milk-cans, teapots, kettles, cups, saucers,
tiffin-carriers, basins, jugs, hot-water
bottles, knives, forks, spoons, and a host
of other useful articles. The firm have,
by their consistent dealing in thoroughly
reliable goods, built up a large connec-
tion in Calcutta, while the Mofussil trade,
which is extending rapidly, is in the
hands of Mr. D. P. Desai, travelling
agent and assistant to the manager.

Tenders have been submitted by the
firm for the supply of aluminium^
articles, and contracts have subsequently
been entered into with naval and regi-i
mental messes, hospitals, public institu-
tions of a charitable or reformatory order,
gun and shell factories, and railway and
navigation companies and others, and the
partners have been gratified by the receipt
of numerous unsolicited testimonials as
to the satisfaction given.

.-\ large stock is kept on hand in go-
downs in Canning Street and at 32 and
43 Ezra Street, and from fifteen to twenty
assistants are employed under the super-
vision of Mr. Jeewanlall Motichand, who
is general manager.

The firm are, further, agents for the
well-known " Elephant " brand of alu-
minium wares manufactured by Messrs.
Walter N. Cresswell & Co., of Bombay.

Messrs. Jeewanlall & Co. are now im-
porting aluminium goods from England,
America, and Japan, and they 3re about
to undertake other agencies for foreign

merchants. '

. *«

KAR & CO.

This firm of engineers and contractors
was established in the year 1906 by Mr.
Upendra Nath Kar, M.A., B.E., the
present managing proprietor, who had

a very brilliant career as a student in
general and engineering subjects. He
obtained several open scholarships,
studied for three sessions at the
Engineering College, Sibpur, and subse-
quently obtained degrees, medals, and
further scholarships, which enabled him
to prosecute researches in electrical
engineering.

Mr. Kar served as executive engineer
in the Holkar State, where his services
were highly appreciated by the Ijidore
Durbar. His work in the decoration and
lighting arrangements for the reception
of His High,ness the Prince of Wales at
Indore was fully recognized by Major
Daly, the thep agent to the Governor-
General of Central India. During this
service Mr. Kar very successfully de-
signed and executed a flat bridge of
reinforced concrete.

Business was commenced in 1906 with
works and offices at Canning House, 137
Canning Street, Calcutta, and since that
time the firm have been engaged in con-
tracts for many very important works,
chief among which are drainage works
at Baraset, Barnagar, Kamarhatty, Gya,
Monghyr, and the Corporation of Cal-
cutta ; waterworks at Naihati and Gya ;
the erection of railway buildings at
Kanchrapara and Gangnapur ; the con-
struction of an institute, manager's
quarters, schools, and bungalows for the
Tata Iron and Steel Company, Sakchi ;
the erection of gaol works at Monghyr ;
police buildings at Sakchi ; post-offices
at the same place and at Gya ; and the
building of godowns, boiler-house, coolie
lines, engine-house, and other structures
for the Reliance and Kamarhatty Jute
Mills.

Special reference might be made to the
Gya Waterworks scheme, the principal
feature of which was the construction of
two reinforced concrete reservoirs on the
Mangla Gouri Hills at a height of 139 ft.
above the level of the town. Each reser-
voir has an inside diameter of 65 ft.,
and contains 400,000 gallons of water,
and it should be added that these two
were the first of their kind and size to
be put up in India.

The general manager of the Tata Iron
and Steel Company, Ltd., writing on
January 25, 1916, said that Messrs. Kar
& Co. had done a considerable amount
of very satisfactory building work for the
company, and, further, that the erection
of the " Mrs. Perin Memorial School "
building was a noteworthy example of
their energy, as they completed the first
671

story from the foundation in one month,
in order to have the building in shape
to be formally opened by His Excellency
the Lieutenant-Governor of Hehar and
Orissa during his visit to Sakchi in April
191 5. The officiating sanitary engineer
of Bengal, in a letter dated September 1,
1913, certified that Messrs. Kar & Co.
had been engaged under the Government
Drainage and Waterworks Department on
the construction of waterworks and
sewerage schemes for the Gya Munici-
pality for the previous two years, and
that the scheme was completed to his
satisfaction. The total cost of the works
was about Rs. 300,000.

Very extensive repairs and renewals
were completed by this firm at the
General Hospital, Howrah, a few years
ago, and Lieutenant-Colonel A. H. Nott,
I.M.S., secretary and superintendent,
stated in writing on May 14, 19 10, that
" the supervising authorities were well
satisfied with the character of the work."
Extr.icts could be given from hundreds
of other testimonials received acknow-
ledging the excellent work of this firm,
but, after all, the most valuable tribute
is the fact that these buildings and water
and other schemes are bearing witness
to-day to the skill and the conscientious
service of the contractors.

Messrs. Kar & Co. have several im-
portant contracts in hand at the present
time, and reference may be made to (i)
the building of a college at Pabna, the
foundation stone of which was laid early
this year (1916) by Mr. H. F. Samman,
I.C.S., Commissioner of the division of
Rajshahi ; (2) drainage works at Katwa ;
(3) the erection of Zilla School at Bala-
sore ; (4) new roads for the Calcutta
Corporation ; and (5) road and other
.works to the Tata Iron and Steel
Company.

The firm have brickfields at Gangna-
pur, via Ranaghat, on the Eastern Bengal
Railway, and at Kalimati, Bengal-Nagpur
Railway, together with a soorkee mill at
Gangnapur, while their wood manufac-
turing concern is also established at
Kalimati.

The assistant manager is Mr. A. Dass
Gupta, B.E., formerly district engineer
of Chaibasi, in the district of Singbhum.

The telegraphic address of the firm is
" Karcompy," Calcutta.

•*«
L. H. LILLARAH & CO.

One frequently reads in books, or hears
in conversation, of the wealth of India.

KAR c& CO.
I. PuHrwc Statiok, Gayx Waterworks. 2. Tata Iron & Steel Company's Institute, Sakchi. 3. Reinforced Concrete Reservoir, Gaya.

4. ScHoot. Building, Tata Iron & Steel Company. 5. Manager's Quarters, Tata Iros & Steel Company, Sakchi.

6, Fouhoation Cbrbmonv, Reservoir, Gaya Waterworks,

672

I Workshop,

L. H. LILLARAM & CO.
2 Exterior of Show-room. a. Interior

4. Mr. Lii.laram's Sons.

^73

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

The wealth of this country could never
be reduced to plain figures ; it is too
fabulous and too rich in variety. Many
hundreds of years ago classical authors
wrote of the magnificence of its precious
stones and metals, and the heirlooms of
diamonds, pearls, rubies, and other bril-
liants which are to-day in the possession
of a large number of rulers of independent
States bear abundant testimony to the
truth of this. And now in the twentieth
century every city and town has its gold-
smiths and silversmiths. Calcutta has a
due proportion of these, and foremost
among them is the well-known firm of
Messrs. L. H. Lillaram & Co., of 6 and 7
Park Street.

The business was established about the
year 1875, on ^ somewhat small scale,
at No. 6 in the same street, but as those
premises were required for the extension
of a building belonging to other mer-
chants, possession was obtained of the
present building, in which the shop and
warehouses, covering a large area of
ground, have a very extensive frontage
on a thoroughfare which is in the most
fashionable centre of the city.

The eye is almost dazzled on entering
the spacious showrooms, where cabinet
after cabinet is stocked with a marvellous
assortment of valuable goods, among
which are necklaces, pendants, bracelets,
rings, brooches, ear-rings, and pins, set
with diamonds, rubies, pearls, sapphires,
opals, emeralds, and amethysts ; silver
caskets, rose-bowls, dishes, trays, tea-sets,
presentation cups, smokers' requisites,
writing-desk articles, mirrors, brushes,
toilet and scent jars, liqueur stands,
photograph frames, and a host of other
beautiful things.

The Oriental and general department
contains a fine selection of Indian,
Japanese, and Chinese embroideries;
Rampur, Kashmir, and other shawls;
Indian, Maltese, and Ceylonese laces;
high-class Bukhora, Persian, Indian, and
Turkish silk carpets; brassware ; finely
carved goods from Japan, Thibet, Jey-
pore, Moradabad, and Benares ; and
Indian carved wood furniture; together
with antique and modern curios from
Burma and other countries.

Intending purchasers of jewellery or
art treasures would be exceedingly diffi-
cult to please if they were unable to
obtain exactly what they required in this
establishment ; but Messrs. Lilaram &
Co. do more than keep a stock of
manufactured goods, as they are always
prepared to make jewellery, caskets.

mugs, bracelets, and many other articles
according to special designs submitted by
their patrons. Diamonds of the highest
possible quality are obtained from Native
States of India, but others, together with
certain kinds of jewellery, are imported
from Europe. A very large stock of every
variety of precious stones, valued at be-
tween five and six lakhs of rupees, is kept
by the firm, whose customers include
Indian and European notabilities hailing
from every part of the country.

Highly skilled workers in gold and
silver are employed in the manufacture
of special articles, while the regular stafi'
consists of about 200 persons.

The firm bestow the greatest care in
connection with orders received through
the post, and goods sent on approval, on
deposit of their approximate value, or to
well-known correspondents, are effectively
insured before dispatch.

Mr. Lilaram is assisted in the manage-
ment of the business by his two sons and
Mr. S. Edwards.

J. F. MADAN

Prominent in the ranks of those who
have achieved success in the commercial
world in Calcutta is Mr. J. F. Madan,
of 5 DhurrumtoIIah Street, who was the
pioneer of picture palaces in that city,
and who has, further, established one of
the largest wholesale and retail pur-
veyor's businesses in Bengal. This
gentleman's early educational career
was terminated abruptly by reason of
the very serious financial losses of his
father owing to the failure of the Bombay
Land Reclamation Bank, but this catas-
trophe did not turn out to be a mis-
fortune for young Madan, as it threw
him upon his own resources, and brought
to the front latent qualifications which he
was not slow in turning to good account.
He began by securing a minor position, at
a small salary, with a theatrical company,
and here he gradually worked his way
upwards until he was offered a partner-
ship in the year 1875 'n conjunction with
Dr. N. N. Parekh, Mr. Sakloth, and Mr.
D. M. Wacha. Six years later he — with-
out entirely severing his connection with
the stage — began to visit cities and towns
in India for the purpose of buying up
stocks of merchandise which were adver-
tised for public competition, and his
sound judgment and keen insight enabled
him to acquire a very considerable amount
of profit.

These transactions paved the way for

674

the establishment of a mercantile partner-
ship between Mr. Sakloth and himself,
which continued for two years until 1885,
when Mr. Madan opened a place of busi-
ness on his own account at 5 Dhurrum-
toIIah Street.

All kinds of provisions and household
requisites of all descriptions were im-
ported regularly, and he soon established
a reputation for supplying goods of first-
class quality at reasonable rates. The
business grew very rapidly, and the
requirements of customers in even remote
parts of India were met with that prompti-
tude in dispatch which has ever been one
of the chief characteristics of Mr. Madan,
who cm with confidence claim that he is
the largest importer in Bengal of house-
hold goods and consumable stores. He
publishes a voluminous price list monthly,
which gives full particulars of the many
articles he sells.

Mr. Madan is purveyor to regimental
messes, depots, restaurants, co-operative
stores, leading clubs, steamship com-
panies, and to the trade generally, and
he has been instrumental in the opening
of shops in numerous places in Bengal
and the United Provinces. Branches
have been established at 35 Park Street,
52 Garden Reach Circular Road, and 3
Store Road, Ballygunge, all in or near
Calcutta ; at Piroj Villa, Post Office
Road, and the Stores, Chowrasta, both in
Darjeeling ; at the Exchange Building,
in Lucknow ; and in the Mall, at Delhi.
He is one of the largest and most reliable
contractors for the supply of nearly all
sorts of goods to the supply and trans-
port corps, and he is also sole agent for
the Asiatic Petroleum Company, Ltd., in
Bareilly, Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur, Hald-
wani, Lucknow, Chandausi, Sitapur,
Cawtipore, Delhi, and Darjeeling. Mr.
Madan is now dealing largely in all kinds
of gram, ghee, and other produce, and
the business in these lines has grown to
such an extent that he has been compelled
to make use of several godowns in native
commercial quarters.

Thousands of testimonials have been
received from commanding officers, super-
intendents of Army dry canteens, and
private individuals, and all of these letters
speak in terms of highest praise as to
the excellent quality of Mr. Madan's
goods, and as to the unexampled manner
in which large or small orders are exe-
cuted. Special significance, however, is
attached to a letter dated April 11, 1913,
from the Controller of the Household of
His Excellency the Right Hon. Baron

J. F. MADAN.

I. The Elphinstone Picture Palace, 2. Interior or the Elphinstone Picture Palace. 3. Head Office, 5 Diiubrumtollah Street.

4, Branch at 35 Park Street, 5. Kidderpore Branch. 6. Branch at 3 Store Road, Ballygunge

675

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Ilardinge of Penshurst, the late Viceroy,
in which Mr. Madan is appointed pur-
veyor of wines and oilman's stores ; and
to another communication from the Mili-
tary Secretary to His Excellency the
kight Hon. Baron Carmichael of Skirling,
Governor of Bengal, wherein " His Excel-
lency is pleased to appoint Mr. J. F.
Madan, of Calcutta, to be purveyor in
ordinary, and he is authorized to style
himself purveyor in ordinary accord-
iUgiy."

are certain of witnessing the very latest
productions in the picture world, as Mr.
Madan has secured exclusive rights from
film-producing firms of the highest re-
pute. Two other picture palaces in
Calcutta cater entirely for the Indian
population, and, during the winter
months, another entertainment is pro-
vided in a tent on the Maidan, which is
close to Government House. Mr. Madan
is also the owner of the Elphinstone
Picture Palace in Rangoon (which is

tion was much appreciated by their
Majesties."

The " Kok " drawing-room cinemato-
graph, which is said to be the most perfect
and the safest apparatus for home enter-
tainment, is supplied, togethelr with all
accessories, by Mr. Madan.

Engagements to give bioscope perform-
ances at nautch, marriage, and private
evening parties are undertaken at the
shortest notice, and in this way Mr.
Madan is affording enjoyment to hun-

P. C. MITTBB & CO.

I. Sand Filters under Construction for Howrah Municipality at Serampore.

2. Tumbling Weirs and Settling Tanks under Construction for Howrah Municipality.

3. Laving 24-iN. Steel Main for Howrah Municipality in the Grand Trunk Road. 4. Fa<;ade of Rai Bahadur T. N. Sadhu's Residence, Calcutta.

Reference has already been made to
Mr. Madan's pioneer work in connection
with picture palaces, and it will be of
interest to note that he is the sole pro-
prietor of the Elphinstone Picture Palace
in Chowringee Place, Calcutta. This fine
building, surrounded by the leading
hotels, clubs, and residential mansion
suites, has separate chair accommodation
for two thousand persons, together with
twelve private boxes, two Zenana boxes,
and an exceedingly comfortable gallery.
Two performances are given daily in this
hall, and the crowds of people who attend

practically a copy of the one of the same
name in Calcutta), and he is at the
present time constructing a similar place
of amusement in Mount Road, Madras,
while his representatives are touring
throughout India with up-to-date
machinery, apparatus, and films.

Mr. Madan was an exhibitor of pic-
tures by Royal command before their
Majesties the King and Queen at Govern-
ment House, Calcutta, during the Corona-
tion Durbar in 191 1, and the Controller
of the Viceroy's Household, writing on
February 2, 191 2, said that " the exhibi-

676

dreds of persons who, possibly, never
have the opportunity of attending public
entertainments.

P. C. MITTER & CO.

One of the most promising of the
younger firms in the mercantile world in
Calcutta is that of Messrs. P. C. Mitter
& Co., of 98 Clive Street, whose business
as civil, sanitary, and waterworks
engineers, architects, iron founders,
brick manufacturers, and quarrying and
general contractors was in the year 1908
founded by Mr. P. C. Mitter, B.E., who

CALCUTTA INDUSTRJES

threw into the concern the full weight
of his previous practical experience in
engineering and other work gained during
his connection with some of the leading
firms in the city.

The firm have completed many large
schemes in sanitary, drainage, and con-
struction -work, and reference may be
made to a few of these important under-
takings. They provided the Municipality
of Jessore with a waterworks system
which included the intake and distributing
arrangements, together with the building
of a clear-water reservoir ; they were
responsible for the Howrah Water-
works Improvement Scheme, constructing
settling tanks, filters, and laying 24-in.
steel main pipes for a distance of more
than twelve miles (costing about four
lakhs of rupees) ; they erected the
" Orion " soap factory at Paikpara, and
the Raja Bazaar market, off Upper
Circular Road in Calcutta ; blocks were
also constructed for warehouses at Barra
Bazaar, and residential houses of an
imposing character have been built for
Ray Bahadur Tarak Nath Sadhu, Babu
Nagendra Nath Palit, and many other
leading citizens.

A major portion of the Government
buildings and ironworks designed for
Monghyr Central Jail, estimated to cost
about forty lakhs of rupees, was entrusted
to them, but the contract was suspended
while the works were in progress owing
to tlie project being abandoned in con-
sequence of the separation of the
Governments of Bengal and Behar.

Messrs. Mitter & Co. quarried and sup-
plied about 20,00,000 cubic feet of
standard pitching boulders for the famous
Hardinge Bridge — more than a mile in
length — which spans the Lower Ganges
River at Sara and connects the broad-
gauge system of the Eastern Bengal Rail-
way south of the Ganges with the railways
to the north of that river.

The firm have carried out several
drainage, sanitation, and waterworks
systems for municipalities and village
boards throughout the Province of
Bengal, and they employ from 300 to
500 labourers, according to the extent of
works on hand. Their iron foundry and
workshops are situated at Salkeah, near
Calcutta, and they import from England
a considerable quantity of construction
materials and sanitary and other
appliances.

Mr. P. Mitter has supreme control over
every branch of work, and he is assisted
by eight or ten supervisors and clerks.

The telegraphic address of the firm is
" Eximpeer, Calcutta."

■*«
K. P. MOOKERJEE & CO.

This firm is credited with the honour
of being the oldest established engravers
in the city of Calcutta, and they make a
speciality of engraving on firesentation
articles, as well as on all kinds of metals,
wood, brass, brass and silver stamp's and

Mr. K. P. Mookerjee named the fimi
H. C. Gangooly & Co. to perpetuate the
name of his grand-uncle (who, by the
way, had opened the engraving shop in
the year 1833), and he conducted the
business for twenty-two years with greai
success, drawing to it many df the most
prominent persons of India. He then
retired in favour of his younger brothers,
and commenced trading on his own
account as K. P: Mookerjee & Cd;

KALLY PRASANNA MOOKERJEE,
Proprietor of K. P. Mookerjee & Co.

badges, and upon half-tone, line, and tri-
colour blocks. The manufacture of
rubber stamps is another leading feature
of the firm's industries.

Mr. Kally Prasanna Mookerjee, the
proprietor of the firm, started busi-
ness life in 1868 by entering the en-
graving shop of his father, the late Babu
Durga Das Mookerjee, who had inherited
the property from his maternal uncle,
H. C. Gangooly, who left Calcutta in
1857 in order to illustrate the Comus
newspaper, then being edited by one
Captain Moore, and he died at Delhi.

677

The firm have commodious premises at
7 Waterloo Street, in the very heart of
the city, and they arc described as
stationers, printers, and dealers in fancy
goods, perfumery, jewellery, pictures,
mouldings, and miscellaneous goods, the
majority of which are imported from
England. The printing press is engaged
in artistic and general jobbing, and in
turning out books of all descriptions.

Messrs. Mookerjee & Co. also under-
take painting in oils, the enlarging and
colouring of photographs, and the
framing of pictures. The commission

3 A*

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

agency department is being extended very
rapidly, and goods of all kinds are regu-
larly imported for customers, while their
wide circle of patrons and friends in-
cludes residents in England, France,
Italy, and other European countries.

S. C. HOOKERJEE & CO.

A builder's and contractor's business
was established in Calcutta in the year
1891 by the late Mr. Shama Charan
Mookerjee, who made a special feature
of supplying the Bengal Government
Public Works Department, railway

BUTTO KRISTO PAUL & CO.

" Calcutta can at least boast of one
pharmacy organized and financed solely
by Indian brain and capital, which, only
through unstinted honesty of purpose and
dogged perseverance of its founder-pro-
prietor, has fully won the confidence and
esteem of even the Western world." This
quotation from the Indian Medical Record
of October 1909 has reference to the
business of the highly-respected firm of
Butto Kfisto Paul & Co., at y Bonfield's
Lane and other addresses in the city of
Calcutta.

About the middle of the nineteenth cen-

O. MOOKERJEE & CO.
Workshops.

systems, and jute and other mills with
wood and iron works, and constructing
entire jute-mills, flour-mills, etc.

The foimder's practical experience
gained him the support of a large
number of patrons, and his sons, Messrs.
Amrita Lai Mookerjee and Chuni Lai
Mookerjee, who are now joint pro-
prietors, have not merely succeeded their
father in a business venture which has
been particularly successful, but they
have, in the management of it, fully
maintained the high reputation which
attached to it on their taking up the reins
of government.

The firm have excellent offices and go-
downs at 10 Sukea's Lane, off Radha
Bazar Street, together with a foimdry,
timber-yard, and works at 267 Grand
Trunk Road, Sibpur, near Calcutta.

tury a small single-storied shop in Khen-
graputty Street, Calcutta, was occupied
by Mr. Butto Kristo Paul, who was a
dealer in miscellaneous goods, usually
denominated " smalls," but his keen
observation led him to see that Euro-
pean medicines and Western methods of
treatment in sickness and disease must
eventually supersede indigenous drugs
and Indian systems of applying them.
At the Same time he realized that, with-
out substantial capital, he would be com-
pelled to purchase his stocks of chemicals
from local merchants, and, further, that
he would have to contend with a natural
prejudice on the part of Indians to
foreign goods ; but he had the courage
of his convictions, and " by honesty of
purpose and dogged perseverance " (as
the above quotation says) he succeeded

678

in placing upon the market drugs and
medicines at the lowest possible prices
consistent with purity and freshness.

The firm of B. K. Paul & Co. was then
established, and, as the founder of the
business had by this time so far improved
his financial position that arrangements
could be made for direct importations,
the new management forthwith indented
for a large quantity of genuine drugs,
chemicals, proprietary medicines, surgical
instruments, and other goods to be sup-
plied by well-known and reliable manu-
facturers in England.

In the year 1882 Mr. Bhut Nath Paul
joined his father, and he at once took
upon himself the task of establishing the
European connection of the firm on a
sound commercial basis, with the result
that he secured for the firm a monopoly
in the East for the sale of many patent
medicines of proved efficacy. Shortly after
this time the firm secured a commodious
building at 7 Bonfield's Lane, to which
a very large proportion of the business
was transferred ; but notwithstanding
these additions there was still a real need
for more room, and in 1902 very exten-
sive premises were erected at 12 Bon-
field's Lane, in which a homoeopathic
department has been carried on with
considerable success.

The next advance made by the firm
was the establishment of a laboratory,
which is fitted with up-to-date scientific
instruments and apparatus for manufac-
turing, analytical, and bacteriological
work. This department is in the care
of two highly-qualified chemists.

Still forging ahead, the firm subse-
quently opened an optical department for
supplying spectacles (after examination
by competent ophthalmists), artificial
eyes, magnifying and opera glasses,
microscopes, and other scientific instru-
ments. In 1907 the Ayurvedic, or Hindu
indigenous, method of treatment was
taken in hand, and a well-equipped dis-
pensary was placed under the charge of
an experienced and capable kabiraj.

These brief particulars will sufiice to
show that the insignificant little business
in Khengraputty Street has developed
into an enormous concern, and the un-
pretentious shop— perhaps 10 by 12 ft.
— has been superseded by the following
extensive buildings : 120 and 121 Khen-
graputty Street, with a floor area of
448 sq. ft. ; 7 Bonfield's Lane, 13,92°.
48,276, and 46,818 ft. ; 16 and 17 China
Bazar Lane, 20,640 ft. ; 30 Sova Bazar
Street, 17,700 ft. ; and 18 Soshi Bhusan

B. K. PAUL & CO.

:. 2. Exterior of Main Premises. 3- Imebiob Second Fioog Siore-room.

4, Interior of Store room and Sale Department (Second Floor). 5. Godown.

679

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Soor's Lane, 6,600 ft. ; making a total
of 154,402 sq. ft.

It may be mentioned here that on the
occasion of the visit of their Majesties
the King and Queen to Calcutta in 19H,
Messrs. Paul & Co. were selected by the
Imperial Reception Committee to estab-
lish a fully equipped camp dispensary
and hospital for the gratuitous supply
of medicines and for rendering free
medical aid to retainers who took part
in the pageant, as well as to any of the

debted to the courtesy of Mr. H. D.
Nag for many interesting explanations of
the methods of business in the East, and
this gentleman also conducted me over
the numerous premises controlled by
this firm. . . . The chief features which
arrested my attention were the overflow-
ing stream of customers, the scientific and
progressive organization of the business,
the activity in the dispatch department,
and the systematic handling of the dis-
pensing of physician's prescriptions.

pital, the Police and Albert Victor
Hospital, all in Calcutta ; Colonial
Governments, civil surgeons, District
Boards, Municipalities, and Government
offices, together with a number of native
princes, nobles, and other dignitaries.
One might add that in the year 1906
the firm were appointed chemists and
druggists to the Right Hon. the Earl
of Minto, then Viceroy and Governor-
General, and this honourable distinction
had never previously been conferred upon

Ja hV V V^ u" m v m s

9 '9- mW- S ^nBol-

I. Exterior of New Premises.

vast concourse of persons who attended
the ceremony.

Mr. Edmund White, President of the
Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain,
after a visit to the various places of busi-
ness of this firm, wrote on October 28,
1914:—

" During my stay in India I had many
opportunities of studying the conditions
under which pharmacy was practised in
the East. The firm of Butto Kristo Paul
& Co. is well known in England, but
until I saw their establishments in Cal-
cutta I had no conception of the mag-
nitude of the business carried on by this
tleservedly successful firm. I was in-

BAHIMBUX & MOHAMMED IBRAHIM.
2. Old Premises, Ruttoo Sircar's Lane.

... I feel that my visit to India would
not have been complete without this
entertaining visit, which showed how
much could be done by combining Indian
and English methods of business, and
adapting them both to the needs of
progressive Indian pharmacy."

Messrs. Paul & Co. are chemists and
druggists by appointment to His Excel-
lency the Right Hon. Baron Hardinge of
Penshurst, ex-Viceroy of India, and His
Excellency Baron Carmichael of Skirling,
the Governor of Bengal, and their regular
and distinguished clients include the
Presidency General Hospital, the Medical
College Hospital, the Campbell HqS'

68q

3. S. Fazal Ellahi.

an Indian firm engaged in a similar kind
of business. '

Mr. Bhut Nath Paul, the present head
of the firm, is assisted by his two
brothers, Messrs. Hari Sankar Paul and
Hari Mohal Paul, and constant work is
found for between five and six hundred
employees.

RAHIMBUX & MOHAMMED IBRAHIM

A strict attention to business is invari-
ably accompanied by success, and in Cal-
cutta and other cities in India there are
numberless instances of extensive profit-

CALCUTTA INDUSTRIES

able trading enterprises which have been
developed from very small beginnings.

In the year 1887 Messrs. Haji Ahmed
Jan, Rahimbu.x, Jewanbux, and Khodabux,
established themselves as partners under
the title of Messrs. Rahimbux and Mo-
hammed Ibrahim (the son of Mr. Jewan-
bux), dealing in oilman's stores, which
they imported from the United Kingdom.
The capital with which the business was
commenced proved to be somewhat in-
adequate for a concern which began to
grow rapidly almost from the time of its
foundation, but the deficiency in finances
was to some extent counterbalanced by
the indefatigable energy of Mr. Haji
Ahmed Jan, who, as managing proprietor,
devoted himself whole-heartedly to the
interests of the firm. Strictly straight-
forward conduct was conspicuous in all
transactions, and in order to meet the
increasing demands of customers the firm
extended the scope of their activities by
adding to their stock large quantities of
perfumes, patent medicines, toilet requi-
sites, cigarettes, and other articles of
every day use.

Haji Ahmed Jan gave thirty years of
the best portion of his life for the good
of the firm, and on his retirement from
active service, his son, Mr. Fazal Ellahi,
who had inherited keen business quali-
fications, stepped into the vacant position.
As very large quantities of all kinds of
goods have to be imported, owing to the
enlarged business connections of the firm,
the partners are able to obtain rebate on
most favourable terms, and therefore
they are in a position to offer their com-
modities at a cheaper rate than they could
do if they were only purchasing limited
supplies.

-Mr. Khodabux died in the year 19 13,
and his share in the partnership was
handed over to his legal heirs.

The firm occupy a shop at 49/1 Rattu
Sirkar's Lane, in Calcutta, in addition to
new buildings recently opened at 4 Ram
Mohan Ghose's Lane, which are used as
a godown and dispatching department.

H. RITA & CO.

Not more than five years have elapsed
since Messrs. Rita & Co. commenced busi-
ness at 9 Hastings Street, Calcutta, as
agents for the sale of the " Royal " type-
writer and as importers and dealers in
rebuilt second-hand typewriter machines
and their accessories, but the practical
experience of the partners and the energy
which they have displayed have secured

for them a reputation equal to that of
any other firm of a similar character in
Eastern India.

Further accommodation soon became
necessary owing to the very rapid ex-
pansion of the business, and they were
fortunate enough to secure a commodious
workshop at 8/2 Hastings Street, in the
same city. The firm have obtained up-
to-date machinery for effecting all kinds
of repairs, and it would be a difficult
matter to hand over to them a typewriter

throughout the Provinces of Bengal and
Behar and Orissa.

The proprietors are Messrs. S. Muker-
jee & Brothers, and their telegraphic
address is " Ritaco, Calcutta."

P. 0. AND W. SAWOO

The extensive business of this firm owes
its origin to the untiring energy and
honest industry of the late Babus Patit
Chandra Sawoo and Gobindo Chandra

M. EITA & CO.

I. Portion of the Ofifce.

2. Repair Workshop.

SO much out of order that they would be
unable to return it in a completely
renovated state.

Messrs. Rita & Co. are now sole agents
for machines manufactured by Messrs.
L. C. Smith & Brothers, and they are sole
importers of general stationery and other
goods, all of which are known by the
name of " Ritaco," and these include
ribbon and carbon papers, clipless paper
fasteners, and fountain and stylo-pens.
They are also commission agents, ex-
porters of Indian produce, and importers
of general merchandise, and they deal
largely in articles made by the Caribonum
Company, Ltd.

Branches or agencies have been estab-
lished at Bombay, Srinagore, Bankipore,
Muzaffarpur, Cocanada, and, in fact,
nearly all of the principal cities and towns
in India, and their representatives travel
681

Guine, of the village of Dhankuria, in
the sub-division of Basirhat, and in the
Province of Bengal, who established
themselves in Calcutta in 1852, and,
in company with some other gentlemen
of the same village, commenced trading
in ghee, flour, and country sugar with a
nominal capital. A few years later, as
the business prospered, they included
seeds, and afterwards jute, which was
commencing to be an important com-
modity at the time. About the year 1865
Babu Shama Charan Ballav, the son-in-
law of Patit Chandra Sawoo, was admitted
into the concern, and some years after
the other co-sharers left the firm except
Patit Babu, Govindo Babu, and Shama
Babu. Owing to the subsequent deaths
of Babus Govindo Chandra and Patit
Chandra the entire management devolved
upon Babu Shama Charan Ballav, who

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

had already displayed a remarkable apti-
tude for business, and then the company
was reconstituted under the name and
style of Messrs. P. G. and W. Sawoo,
with Babus Patit Chandra Sawoo,
Govindo Chandra Guine, and Shama
Charan Ballav as partners. Babu
Nafar Chandra Guine, the second son
of Govindo Babu, was also admitted at
this time, and most actively co-operated
with him as a working partner. It was
to the exceptional genius and ceaseless
activity of Babu Shama Charan Ballav
that th« present position of the firm is
mainly due, and if its business may be
said to have been placed on a solid foun-
dation by Babus Patit Chandra and
Govindo Chandra, it was Babu Shama
Charan to whom must be given the credit
of raising the immense superstructure to
a height scarcely anticipated by his
predecessors.

In the early days of the jute industry
the original partners of the firm realized
its great commercial possibilities. Babu
Shama Charan was among those who took
advantage of the new enterprise, and,
being advised by him, the partners began
by hiring the Golabari Press from Messrs.
Finlay, Muir & Co., of Calcutta. Several
other presses were subsequently, and
from time to time, hired by the partners.
Numerous agencies for purchasing jute
direct from the cultivators and local
traders were established in almost all the
jute-producing districts of Bengal, and,
to give an impetus to the extensive cul-
tivation of jute, Babu Shama Charan
adopted the system of giving out dadan
(money advances) to the cultivators. He
introduced several marks for the bales,
of which the " Ballav," which headed the
list, still occupies the foremost place
among the group in the market.

The business of the firm having thus
att::ined considerable proportions, Messrs.
P. G. and W. Sawoo in the year 1891 pur-
chased the Jheel Press at Cossipore, on
the east bank of the Hooghly, and not
more than two miles distant from Cal-
cutta. There were five Nasmith patent
pressing machines in the building at the
time of purchase, but the partners sub-
sequently discarded one of these and
secured two of a more up-to-date char-
acter, known by the name of " Watson's
Patent Press," and, as the accommoda-
tion on the Jheel property was quite
inadequate for the firm's increasing busi-
ness, they utilized adjoining land, and
erected godowns (with room for 1 2,000
bales) and other premises in order that

they might be able to meet the exigencies
of expanding trade. The press was
originally only able to turn out about 800
bales of fibre daily, but with enlarged
buildings the presses can now deal with
some 2,000 bales in the same period. A
private jetty on the river enables the firm
to secure quick transport of raw jute from
up-country boats to the factory, and
special facilities are obtained by the firm
having their own launch and cargo boat
for conveying bales to ocean-going
steamers and to mills up and down the
river.

In 1896 Babu Nafar Chandra Guine
died, and Babu Aukshoy Kumar Guine,
the youngest son of Babu Govindo
Chandra Guine, joined the firm to assist
Shama Charan Babu in working the con-
cern. The death of Babu Shama Charan,
which followed three years after, came
as a great shock ; but Rai Bahadoor
Woopendra Nath Sawoo (the son of Patit
Babu), along with Babu Mahendra Nath
Guine (the third son of Govinda Babu),
took up the charge of managing the busi-
ness, and with their joint efforts and
activity, carried on upon the lines of
their enterprising predecessors, main-
tained the business with continued
success ; and in 1903 they purchased the
Ashcroft Press, by the side of the
Hooghly at Chitpore, to meet the in-
creasing demands of the firm.

The Ashcroft Press contained two
Watson's patent presses, and although
the buildings, including godowns, were
unfortunately burned to the ground about
five years later, premises of a more
modern character and of greater extent
were subsequently erected. These two
presses, which are now in constant use,
are capable of dealing with 1,000 bales
in every working day of 12 hours. The
new godowns have a capacity for storing
about 8,000 bales. The packed bales are
carted from the press to the bank of the
river, where they are placed on cargo
lighters, or flats, whence they are dis-
tributed in a similar manner to that which
obtains at the Jheel premises, and also
by wagons to the Kidderpore Docks and
loaded direct on ocean-going steamers.

The Jheel and Ashcroft Presses are
fitted throughout with electric light and
telephonic connections, and when the
baling of jute is at its busiest season of
the year, about four and five hundred
hands are employed constantly at the
respective places.

In 1910, Rai Bahadoor Woopendra
Nath Sawoo having retired owing to
683

illness (which afterwards resulted in his
death in 191 5). Rai Bahadoor Debendra
Nath Ballav (the eldest son of Babu
Shama Charan) joined the firm to relieve
him. The business of the firm is at
present under the management of the
partners Babus Mahendra Nath Guine,
Aukshoy Kumar Guine, and Rai Bahadoor
Debendra Nath Ballav, the proprietorship
being confined to the families of Rai
Bahadoors Woopendra Nath Sawoo and
Debendra Nath Ballav, and of Babus
Mahendra Nath Guine and .'\ukshoy
Kumar Guine as before.

THE SHAH SUNDAR RICE MILL

The members of the firm of Messrs.
P. G. and W. Sawoo have individually
as well as collectively shown an intelli-
gent interest and keen ability in com-
mercial enterprises, and as a further
illustration of these qualifications refer-
ence may be made to the Sham Sundar
rice-mill, situated at ToUygunge, on the
bank of the Addi Ganges River, which
was purchased in 1914 by Babu Mohendra
Nath Guine and Aukshoy Kumar Guine,
who are sole proprietors.

Paddy is milled on account of the pro-
prietors themselves and on behalf of other
persons, and it is conveyed to the mill
in carts or boats from the various centres
in which it is grown. The processes in-
clude husking, cleaning, and polishing,
and there are eight hullers, which have
a daily output capacity of rice of 450
maunds. The building is equipped with
modern machinery, and the whole of the
plant is driven by a 30-h.p. engine by
Marshall, Sons & Co., which is fitted with
a fire-box specially designed for the eon-
sumption of paddy husks as fuel. The
boiler, of 25 h.p., is by the same makers.
The godowns are unusually extensive, and-
storage accommodation is easily found for
30,000 maunds of the milled product.
All the buildings, in fact, are replete with
modern fittings, which include telephonic
connection with the Central Telephone
Exchange. During the busy season of
the year some 225 hands are employed.

H. N. BALAUB & CO.

In 1914 a partnership was entered into
between Debendra Nath Balaub and
H. N. Balaub (trading as H. N. Balaub
& Co.), and in the following year the
firm purchased a rice-mill on the bank
of the New Cut Canal, and it practically
adjoins the Ultadanghi Station on the

I, MOHEMDRA NaTH GuINE,

P. G. & W. SAWOO,

2, AuKHOY Kumar Guine.
5. AsHCROFT Press.

3. Front View of Jheel Press.
6. Assorting Godown,

4. Jheel Press.

683

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Eastern Bengal Railway system. Paddy
is boiled before being milled ; it is then
cleaned and polished, the eight hullers
being worked by a plant driven by a
loo-h.p. motor engine, the current being
obtained from the General Electric
Supply Company.

The mill — in conformity with the prac-
tice prevailing in Eastern Bengal — is
worked for twelve consecutive hours,
commencing at 6 a.m., and no fewer than
500 maunds of rice are passed through
the machines daily on the account of the
partners alone. Paddy is purchased in
various parts of Bengal, and is conveyed
in carts or canal boats to the factory,
whence it is forwarded to local markets
for sale. The employees are about 225
in number.

■*«
T. P. SEN

Calcutta is not by any means short of
photographers, but of artists in photo-
graphy, of men who really understand the
science of their work, of operators who
can judge distances to a nicety, can
balance lights and shades, and who, above
all, can reproduce a really creditable
picture, she has a remarkably small
number.

Situated in Waterloo Street, a somewhat
secluded yet not unimportant thorough-
fare, is the studio of Mr. T. P. Sen, which
was established twenty-two years ago and
which is still carried on under the same
name, although the founder has been dead
for some years.

Mr. Sen belonged to a very respectable
Baidya family, and even as a young man
was an exceedingly clever photographer,
being well grounded both in theory and
practice. Prior to his death, the founder
had been assisted by his brother, Mr.
R. L. Sen, who had proved himself to be
thoroughly well versed in every branch of
the business, and when the regrettable
separation occurred, the latter took up the
management of the concern with the help
of his younger brother, Mr. H. D. Sen,
whose all-round work in photography, but
particularly in connection with illustra-
tions in newspapers and magazines, has
secured for the firm widespread fame in
England as well as in India.

These two brothers made the best pos-
sible use of the helpful advice and in-
struction given by their late brother, and
the enviable reputation gained by them
is very largely due to their own diligent
and persevering efforts to carry on the
business upon the lines originally mapped
out by the founder.

Personal photographs, as well as artistic
scenic views, sent out from Sen's studio
speak for themselves, but the proprietor
naturally feels proud of the fact that
he has received unsolicited patronage
from His Excellency Lord Carmichael,
Governor of Bengal, and that a large num-
ber of the nobility and gentry of India
have shown their keen appreciation of the
manner in which their orders have been
executed.

•««
C. K. SEN & CO., LTD.

The system of the Ayurvedic treatment
of diseases in India, which in other words
means the application of medicines pre-
pared from indigenous drugs and herbs,
may be " as old as the hills," but it is
only within the past thirty or forty years
that it has come into prominence as
a formidable competitor with Western
ideas .

It was the proud boast of ancient
India that the pharmacology of her
physicians contained reliable prescrip-
tions for the cure of nearly all diseases
to which the human body is subject, and
it is claimed to-day by the successors of
those early practitioners that present
methods of treatment of ailments are just
as efficacious as they were in bygone ages.
There is no other firm in the East which
has done so much to popularize the
Ayurvedic system as Messrs. C. K. Sen
& Co., Ltd., of 29 Colootollah Street,
Calcutta, whose pharmacy and training
school for students have become renowned
institutions in the world of medical
science.

The firm was established in the year
1874 hy the late Mr. C. K. Sen, who was
at that time the leading Kaviraj, or Ayur-
vedic medical practitioner, in India, and
he was consulting physician to the
majority of the Independent Chiefs of
this vast country. The business developed
very rapidly indeed, and it had attained
an exceedingly sound position when the
founder unfortunately died in 1892.

A limited company was then formed,
the shares being taken up by members of
the family only, with the second son, Mr.
U. N. Sen, as managing director.

It may be interesting to note that the
principles upon which the late Mr. Sen
started and conducted the business were
as follows: (i) to diagnose diseases
according to Ayurvedic science, i.e. in
accordance with the directions of the
ancient rishis; (2) to ensure the efficacy
and genuineness of the medicines and

684

drugs by direct and unremitting personal
supervision; (3) to sell genuine medicines
at the lowest possible rates for the special
benefit of the general public; and (4) to
be strictly honest in all dealings.

The extent to which this establishment
has been patronized may be gathered
from the fact that the head office of the
company has been built in the heart of
Calcutta at a cost of more than two lakhs
of rupees, and a large three-storied house
on the opposite side of the street, secured
for about a lakh of rupees, is now used as
a storehouse of medical preparations and
as the residence of students who are
gratuitously taught the Ayurvedic system.

The large hall in the principal build-
ing is thronged daily with patients to
whom free advice is given, but the com-
pany have an increasing clientele in the
Mofussil, from the Himalayas to Cape
Comorin, as well as in Ceylon, Burma,
Java, Arabia, Egypt, Mauritius, Africa,
and England.

It would be impossible to enumerate a
tithe of the diseases and ailments for
which specifics are prepared and sold by
this company, but they include such
troublesome complaints as ague, anaemia,
asthma, bronchitis, cholera, cancer, cata-
ract, diabetes, eczema, elephantiasis, gout,
heart disease, jaundice, malaria, ophthal-
mia, paralysis, phthisis, skin troubles,
ulcers, and many other equally well-
known complaints.

The laboratory is in charge of a com-
petent official, and all preparations are
conducted under the immediate super-
vision of Mr. Upendra Nath Sen, who
is assisted by a large staff of fully
qualified men.

The company are chemists and drug-
gists to several of the ruling chiefs of
India, including His Highness the Nizam
of Hyderabad, and their Highnesses the
Maharajas of Mysore, Baroda, Travan-
core, Indore, Kashmir, Jodhpur, and
Patiala.

The company have received thousands
of unsolicited testimonials from patients
who gratefully acknowledge the great
benefits which they have derived from the
advice and treatment given either at
personal interviews or by correspondence.

Some very old treatises and prescrip-
tions, originally written on palm-leaves,
relating to Ayurvedic treatment have been
translated into Bengali by Kaviraj
Devendra Nath Sen and Kaviraj Upendra
Nath Sen, and the new volumes are now
published in the private printing-press of
the company in Colootollah Street. Notes

I. Upendra Nath Sen.

C. K. SEN & CO.
1. Exterior View of Premises. 3. Compounders.

4. Show-room. 5. Staff. 6. Residence.

68s

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

have been added by the translators, and
the works include : Rasa Ratna Samu-
chyaya. Ayurvedic Sangraha, Charak
Sanhita, Susruta Sanhita, Chakradatta,
Rasendrasar, Sangraha, Bhaboprokash,
Madhabnidan, Sarangadhar, Baidak Sab-
dasindhu, Drabya Guna, Ayurveda Pra-
dip, Pachan Sangraha, Nari-Prokash,
Nari-Bijnap, Paribhasa Pradip, Palmir-
ghantu, and Astanga Hridaya, Sanhita or
Bhagbhat.

SIKDAR & CO.

This happens to be one of the few
purely Indian manufacturing concerns
which have been holding their own against
imported articles for the sufficiently long
period of nearly thirty-seven years, thus
justifying their being regarded as well
established, and recognized — as, indeed,
they are — as the premier manufacturers
of cast-iron rain-water pipes.

Four young men, namely, Messrs.
K. N. Sikdar, P. K. Sen, J. C. Muk-
herjee, and H. C. Paul, with character-
istic juvenile zeal, commenced business
as " E. and H. Union " as far back as
1879, but the firm acquired its present
style of Sikdar & Co. in the year 1885,
and has since been reckoned as one of
the leading Indian firms of importance.
Unlike firms of their kind, limiting them-
selves to execution of orders and works,
Messrs. Sikdar & Co. have always been
busy with experiments, designs, and
specialities, which ultimately resulted in
their manufacturing " C.l." hand print-
ing presses, rice bowls, and pipes. For
these they have obtained a number of
certificates and medals at several exhi-
bitions, a record of which any firm may
well be proud of possessing.

They have now specialized in their
castings, especially cast-iron rain-water
pipes, which they are turning out and
selling daily in considerable quantities.
Their process of manufacture is en-
tirely their own, being with plant worked
under compressed air appliances designed
and placed upon a working basis by their
late engineer and partner, Mr. Prosonna
Kumar Sen, L.C.E., to whom the firm
owes a great deal. Messrs. Sikdar
& Co. are now on the Government list,
enjoying the patronage of the Public
Works Department, Municipalities, Dis-
trict Boards, and several bodies and cor-
porations, in addition to leading firms
of engineers and contractors all over
India, Burma, and Ceylon, and their pipes
are now generally recognized as the best

obtainable, having regard to considera-
tions of quality, price, and promptitude
in delivery.

They enjoy the confidence of the public
also in the matter of structural steel
works and castings, which for beauty and
effect of design, and in price, are known
to excel articles and works of local manu-
facture, and they possess the record of
some of the best undertakings of the
country.

Having their office in 5 Hastings
Street, Calcutta, near the High Court,
and with workshops at 135/3 Manicktola
Main Road, in the same city, situated on
the eastern bank of the canal known as
Tolly's Nulla, the entire business is now
managed and controlled by Mr. N. K.
Sarkar, engineer and contractor, Calcutta,
Howrah, and Bankipore, who carries on
his own business of fourteen years' stand-
ing, he having large establishments
in various places.

The firm is, to a very appreciable
extent, indebted to the present manage-
ment for the satisfactory position attained
by it ; and Mr. N. K. Sarkar's latest
attempt at improvement is the opening
of a London office for the better control
of the securing of raw materials for struc-
tures of all kinds, a duty which has been
entrusted to, and is being organized by,
one of the assistants of Mr. N. K.
Sarkar, namely, Mr. K. C. Bannerjee,
M.I.M.C.E., M.R.San.l., who was form-
erly sanitary engineer of the Province of
Bchar, and engineer to the Calcutta Im-
provement Trust, but who is now in
London. Between Mr. Sarkar and
Messrs. Sikdar & Co. the firm have in
view the successful handling of agencies
for articles of European manufacture, and
it is practically certain that the arrange-
ments now in progress will enable these
to be secured.

SITALPRASAD KHARAGPRASAD

This firm of bankers, mill-owners, and
merchants was established about the year
1833 at 30 BurtoUa Street, Calcutta,
where, at present, they still engage in
their vast business of private banking.
The firm's other banking houses are
situated at Benares, Azmatgarh (district
Azamgarh), Azamgarh proper, Barhal-
ganj (district Gorakhpur), and Fyzabad,
all in the United Provinces of Agra and
Oudh.

The business at Azmatgarh is carried
on under the name of Messrs. Ratan
Chand Lallu Mai, and that at Benares,
686

established immediately after the dar
days of the Indian Mutiny in 1857, unde
the name of Messrs. Balkrishna Da
Bisheshwar Prasad.

The firm is a joint family concern, am
the present members are: The Hon. Bab
Motichand Saheb, CLE., Benares; Bab
Gokul Chand Saheb and Babu Mangl
Prasad Saheb, Calcutta; Babu Shiv
Prasad Gupta Saheb, Benares ; Bab
Harakh Chand Saheb, Azamgarh; am
Babu Makund Lai Saheb, Azmatgarh; am
they are landlords of extensive propertie
in the districts of Benares, Jaunpur, Ballia
Gorakhpur, and Azamgarh in the Provinc
of Agra; Fyzabad and Gonda in Oudh
and Arrah, Saran, and Bhagalpur in th
Province of Behar and Orissa.

The resident members in Calcutta ar
Babu Gokul Chand Saheb and Bab'
Mangla Prasad Saheb.

The firm is one of the largest and mos
influential among private Indian bankin]
concerns, the partners enjoying the repu
tation of being great financiers; but th
firm are also interested in the import o
piece-goods of all descriptions, both o
European and Japanese manufacture.

About the year 1833, when the firr
opened their business in Calcutta railway
were unknown, and merchandise had fo
many years to be brought to Calcutta b;
river craft ; and besides attending to thi
financial part of the business, they insurec
goods against loss or damage in course o
transit from the interior and until safel;
delivered into the consignee's godowns ii
Calcutta. This underwriting of cargi
formed an important part of the firm':
business in its day. But with the adveni
of steam and railways in India the hithertc
universal method of transportation of mer-
chandise by river slowly declined until tht
volume of business passing became sc
meagre that insurance ceased to be 3
necessity, and consequently the firm dis-
continued the practice.

In the year 1908 the firm purchased the
Bharat Abhyuday cotton mills, with build-
ings covering an area of 15 bighas of
land, and situated on the western bank of
the River Hocchly, at Salkia, in the dis-
trict of Howrah. The mills then contained
16,160 mule and ring spindles, but as
the machinery in general was old it was
being replaced by up-to-date plant. In
February 191 5 a fire unfortunately oc-
curred in the spinning department of the
mills, and the whole of this structure was
destroyed, together with portions of other
departments. Owing to the war consider-
able difiiculties in the reconstruction oli

Exhibition Certificate. 1906.

SIKDAR & CO.

2. Exhibition Cektificate, 1900. 3. HxiimiTiON CERTincAiE, 1897.

J. Mr. N. K. Sarker.

4. PcRr Commissioners' Certificate.

687

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

(

the mills had to be contended with, but
by the year 191 6 they had been rebuilt
and fitted out with the latest and most
up-to-date machinery. The main build-
ing of the mills contains 26,356 mule and
ring spindles for spinning cotton into yarn
in counts from 6's. to 50's., but higher
counts can be spun if necessary; while
the grade of cotton used is solely Indian.
It is partly two and partly three stories
in height, and is of fireproof construction.
All the buildings, including mills and out-
houses, are fitted with " sprinklers " and
the latest up-to-date fire appliances.

Adjacent to the main building there is a
three storeyed building in which the reel-
ing, bundling, and baling of the yarn is
effected.

To the north of the main building there
is a ginning block which contains i 5 single
gins and also plant for cleaning " kapas."
Situated near to the ginning block there
is another building which contains a com-
plete plant for the preparing and weaving
of lamp wicks, bed tape, cotton listing,
and twine and cotton cord of various
degrees.

The full product of the mills is con-
sumed locally.

The mills in the hands of the present
proprietors have been a success, and in
eight years the power of production has
been increased by about 65 per cent, in
order to meet the ever-growing demand
for yarns and other goods.

The staff, including the manager, are
Indians, and they attend to the erection,
repairing, working, and maintenance of all
the machinery, while they also have to
supervise eight hundred workers daily.

The machinery in the mills was sup-
plied by the following British concerns:
Boilers by Messrs. Thomas Beeley & Sons ;
engine, Messrs. Yates and Thom; and
cotton machinery, Messrs. Piatt Brothers,
Messrs. Asa Lees & Co., Messrs. Brooks
and Doxey, Messrs. Howard and Bullough,
Messrs. John Hetherington & Sons, and
Messrs. William Tatham & Co.

The family trace their ancestry back for
several generations to Babu Nilkanth,
Agraval Vaishyas of the Punjab, and they
appear to have migrated from that terri-
tory to the United Provinces, first of all
residing at Nagpura in Ballia, and sub-
sequently at Azmatgarh, where they still
have large residential houses. They
have always been noted for their loyalty
and devotion to the Crown, and for their
consistent support of the British Govern-
ment. During the dark days of the Indian
gepoy mutiny of 1857, one of the leaders

of the rebels, Kuar Singh, encamped near
Azmatgarh and demanded to be supplied
with provisions, but the demand being met
with a refusal, the family incurred the
enmity of the sepoys who forthwith pro-
ceeded to attack the firm's business
premises. Information as to the treasure
contained in the buildings was imparted
to the rebels by one Gogo Halwai, and
it is estimated that goods and money to
the value of several lakhs of rupees were
plundered. The family at Azmatgarh
rendered yeoman service to the Govern-
ment during that troublous period, and
the latter entrusted to their custody for
safe keeping a vast amount of Government
treasure. When order was restored, the
Government, in appreciation of the
family's loyalty, and also to recompense
them for the loss sustained when their
premises were raided by the rebels, gave
to the family the confiscated property of
Goga Halwai, and the then head of the
house, Babu Beni Prasad, was exempted
from the operations of the Arms Act, and
also received other privileges in recog-
nition of the valuable services rendered
to the Government.

As in the past, so in the present, do the
family place their services entirely at the
disposal of the Government, as witness the
splendid record rendered through their
head, the Hon. Babu Moti Chand, CLE.,
of Benares, towards the conduct of the
European war.

A contribution of Rs. 2,000 was made
to the Imperial Indian Relief Fund, and
to the St. John Ambulance Fund the sum
of Rs. 400, in addition to gifts of articles
of clothing, metal utensils, and other
goods, for which thanks were received
from Lady Meston, the wife of the
present Lieutenant-Governor of the United
Provinces. Two subscription lists were
opened amongst Indian ladies for the St.
John Ambulance Fund, and a third in aid
of the British Women's Hospital for dis-
abled soldiers and sailors at Richmond,
England. Soldiers when leaving for field
service have been entertained, and the
wants of the wounded provided for on their
return from the front. A contribution to
the Officers' Families' Fund, Berkeley
Square, London, was suitably acknow-
ledged by Lady Hope, the hon. secretary.

At an early period of the war a fully
equipped motor ambulance, costing
Rs. I 5,000, was presented to the Govern-
ment of India, for which an acknowledg-
ment, together with the thanks of the
Government, of the Army Department, and
of the Local Government, was received,
688

as the following excerpts of letters will
show.

On October 29, 191 4, to the Hon. Babu
Moti Chand, Mr. Hopkins, the Commis-
sioner of Benares Division, wrote " to
express His Honour's (the Lieutenant-
Governor) appreciation of your patriotic
offer of a sum of £900 for a motor am-
bulance and an additional £100 for the
fittings," and on November i8th in the
same year, the Under-Secretary to the
Government of the United Provinces wrote
to the Commissioner " to convey the
warmest thanks of the Government of
India to the Hon. Babu Moti Chand of
Benares for his most generous offer of
£ 1,000 for a motor ambulance and fittings,
which has been gratefully accepted by the
Government of India." On December
I 8th, also in 1914, Colonel H. HoUoway,
Secretary to the Army Department of the
Government of India, wrote to the Chief
Secretary of the Government of the
United Provinces to request " that you will
inform the Hon. Babu Moti Chand of
Benares that a suitable motor car has now
been purchased and is being adapted as
a motor ambulance in the conveyance from
the railway station to hospitals of the sick
and wounded Indian troops from the forces
overseas, and it cannot fail to be of the
greatest value in this respect. I am to
add that H.E. the Commander-in-Chief
and Army Member, is very grateful to the
Hon. Babu Moti Chand for his most valu-
able and generous gift to the troops."
Then, on June 30, 19 16, the Under-Secre-
tary to the Government of the United
Provinces wrote, " I am to add that the
Government of India intimate that this
ambulance has proved of the greatest
value in lessening the discomfort entailed
in the carriage of the sick and wounded."

As the prices of foodstuffs were increas-
ing, whereby the poorer classes were being
put to great hardship, the Hon. Babu
Moti Chand organized a grain relief fund
and thus rendered valuable aid.

In order to stimulate recruiting, and to
show his appreciation of the action -of those
who were prepared to leave hearth and
home and give their lives in the service
of their King and country, the Hon. Babu
Moti Chand issued a notification on March
18, 191 5, to all his estate officials and
tenants to the effect that the rents of
those tenants who had gone, or would
thereafter go, to the front, would be re-
mitted for the duration of the war, and
that the dependents of those killed in
action, of those who returned maimed or
seriously injured, and of those who gained

THE BHARAT-ABHYUDAY COTTON MILLS.
I, 2, The CHARAi-ABHyuDAY Cotton Mills. 3. Howrah. 4. The Hon. Babo Moti Chand, CLE,

5. Baeu Gokul Chand Sabeb. 6. Babu Mancla Prasad Saheb.

Photos by Bourne Gr Shefherd, India.

689

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

distinction in the form of the Victoria
Cross or other decoration for deeds of
valour in the field, would receive still
further consideration. The effect which
this notification had on other taluqdars
in following suit in regard to their own
estates, and on the sepoys who were at
the front, and also upon stimulating re-
cruiting, is ascertainable by the follow-
ing extracts of letters sent to the Hon.
Babu Moti Chand. Mr. Lambert, the
District Officer of Benares, on March 23,
191 5, wrote, "I think it is an excellent
move, and 1 wish landlords would adopt
the same line generally. It must be a
great relief to soldiers on service to know
that their families at home are adequately
provided for." On the same date the
District Officer of Jaunpur wrote, " Your
action seems to be highly commendable
and such as might well be followed by
other estates." On March 26th, the
Deputy Commissioner of (londa, which is
one of the best recruiting districts of the
I'nitcd Provinces wrote, " 1 can imagine-
no more patriotic action than that which
you propose to take. I have every hope
that it wi'.l do much to stimulate recruit-
ing for the army in the Gonda district."
On April 3rd, Mr. Hopkins, Commissioner
of Benares, wrote, " The Lieutenant-
Governor desires me to acknowledge your
action with gratitude, and to convey to
you the thanks of Government." .4gain
on May 20th, Mr. Hopkins wrote, " I am
desired to convey to you the thanks of
the Government and to inform you that
it api)reciates the feelings of loyalty which
prompted your action."

On May 22, 191 5, the Adjutant-General
wrote from Simla, " His E.xcellency the
Commander-in-Chief has asked me to
convey to you his great appreciation of
the loyalty and generosity which has
prompted you to make these concessions.
A remission of rent is a form of generosity
which is greatly esteemed by soldiers, and
it is very gratifying to know that you are
taking such keen interest in the welfare
of those who are serving their country at
the front."

On October 4, 191 5, the officer com-
manding the 9th Behar Infantry wrote
from Bushire to the Under-Secretary to
the Government of the United Provinces,
" Would you please convey my thanks to
the Hon. Babu Moti Chand for his kind-
ness, which is greatly appreciated by the
sepoys."

On April 23, 1916, Mr. Hopkins wrote,
" I am glad to hear that your public-
spirited action has attracted public atten-

tion." On June 27th, Mr. R. Burn,
CLE., Chief Secretary to the Government
of the United Provinces, writing from
Nainital, said, " Your noble example in
the treatment of your tenants who have
gone to war has been imitated by quite a
number of landlords."

Ihe Belgian Relief Fund did not escape
attention, as the Hon. Babu Moti Chand
contributed to it the sum of Rs. 500, and
in its behalf issued three appeals for it to
be loyally supported ; these actions were
suitably acknowledged by the Hon. Secre-
tary and the Hon. Treasurer of the Fund
for the United Provinces. Mr. Smith, the
Hon. Treasurer, wrote from Cawnpore on
July 29, 191 5, to the Hon. Babu Moti
Chand, " I am very pleased to see from
to-day's Leader that you are interesting
yourself on behalf of the Belgian Relief
Fund, and I am glad to see that you have
already secured some substantial subscrip-
tions." On August 4. 1915. Mr. J. G.
Ryan, Hon. Secretary, wrote from Cawn-
pore, " I am again to thank you for your
successful efforts on behalf of the
Belgians."

In connection with the United Provinces
special War Fund, the Hon. Babu Moti
Chand contributed Rs. 7,500 for the pur-
chase of a motor ambulance car, and he
raised for the fund the sum of Rs. 500
from among the estate tenants in the
Gonda district.

Babu Gokul Chand Saheb, Calcutta,
contributed Rs. 2,000 to the Marwari War
Fund, Rs. 1,500 to the Y.M.C.A. Relief
Fund, and Rs. 500 to the Bengalee Bat-
talion Patriotic Fund, besides undertaking
the maintenance and upkeep of some of
the men who have joined the battalion.

One of the most pressing needs of the
campaign was the full provision of muni-
tions, and to ensure an adequate and con-
tinuous supply the Lieut. -Governor of the
L'nitcd Provinces appointed a committee
under the presidency of Sir V'erney Lovett,
K.C.S.I., which was called the Munitions
Committee, on which the Hon. Babu Moti
Chand was invited by His Honour to serve.
In that capacity he furnished nearly one-
fourth of the number of lathes supplied in
the Provinces, and he would have provided
more had the necessity for them arisen.
There was further a paucity of skilled
workmen at the munition works, and here
again the Hon. Babu Moti Chand rose to
the occasion and furnished all the skilled
laliour required. There was also a dearth
of unskilled labour, and the deficiency
was filled by him. In this connection Mr.
T. Gregson, the Locomotive Super-
690

intcndcnt, on May 25, 19 16, wrote, " It is
very gratifying to know that you take such
a keen interest in the matter and your
generous assistance in both machines and
labour has been of great service to
Government."

Sir Verney Lovett, President of the
Committee, in a letter to the Government
dated May 10, 1916, wrote, " I have much
pleasure in acknowledging . . . the
energetic and persistent efforts of the Hon.
Babu Moti Chand, CLE., of Benares.
He has done us e.xceptional service." In
acknowledging the final report of the
President, the Government, in a resolu-
tion dated January 10, 191 7, published in
the United Provinces Government Gazette
of January 13, 19 17, said, " His Honour
also desires to thank the members of the
Munition Committee for their useful work,
and more especially the Hon. Sir Verney
Lovett, K.C.S.I., and the Hon. Babu Moti
Chand, CLE., . . . for the energy dis-
played by them in making the scheme a
complete success."

Just as in March 191 5 certain conces-
sions were offered to tenants on the estates
as an inducement to join the army, so
again in March 1916 was a similar notifi-
cation issued to all estate officials and
tenants by the Hon. Babu Moti Chand, but
this time the notification was specially
directed to stimulate the recruitment of
camp followers. Apparently this pro-
cedure had the desired effect, as Mr.
W. S. Cassels, Deputy Commissioner of
Gonda, in his letter dated March 28, 1916,
wrote, " I am very glad to find you are en-
couraging the recruitment of coolies for
the war, and are offering inducements to
those who will enlist." On May 16, 1916,
Mr. Lambert, Collector of Benares, wrote,
" Your generosity places us under yet
another obligation."

In order to carry on recruiting a regular
organization was instituted at the end of
May 1916, and by the second week in
July ninety recruits were made over to
the military authorities at Lucknow.
Lieut. Simmonds, officer in charge of sup-
plies in that city, writing to the Leader,
an Allahabad daily newspa])er, in its issue
of July 12, 19 16, said, " I am very pleased
with his services which he has so kindly
lent to the Government in this war time,
and it would give one greater pleasure
if other taluqdars would come forward as
the Hon. Babu Moti Chand, CLE., has
done and help the Government in like
manner." On July 21, 19 16, the Officer
Commanding Followers' Camp, Lucknow,
wrote to the Leader, " In continuation of

Calcutta industries

my previous letter, will you kindly notify
the following in your columns: I have very
great pleasure in announcing that the Hon.
Balm Moti Chanel, C.I.E., of Benares, has
given a further batch of forty-seven useful
followers to the Officer Commanding
Followers' Camp at Lucknow. He has
also continued his treat of refreshments
to the men at the railway stations, which
have been gratefully enjoyed. His mag-
nificent support to the Government in the
matter of supplies of men deserves every
praise, and has been highly appreciated.
He lias got his own organization for enlist-
ment, and the amount of trouble and ex-
pense involved in recruiting must be very
great. The military authorities are much
obliged to the Hon. Babu Moti Chand
for all that he is doing, and hope that
other taluqdars will also follow his noble
example."

In -August 19 I 6 the military authorities,
finding it necessary to raise two bullock
corps for field service, and they were in
urgent need of a thousand or more drivers,
within a couple of months after the
matter had been brought to his notice the
Hon. Babu Moti Chand supplied more
than four hundred, or 40 per cent, of the
number; the other 60 per cent, being
recruited by the district officers, maharajas,
rajas, and other taluqdars. The military
authorities, to show how highly they
valued the service rendered, and as a mark
of their appreciation of the same, named a
troop in each corps the " Moti Chand
Troop." Touching this matter, Lieut. -
Colonel G. Sanders, Assistant Director of
Supplies and Transport, 8th Lucknow
Division, on October 9, 19 16, wrote, " The
General Ofiicer Commanding has been
pleased to allow a troop of No. i B.C. to
be called after you. ... I am very
grateful to you for your help in procuring
bullock drivers; but for your assistance
No. I Bullock Corps could not be ready
to leave at an early date. The bullock
corps at Cawnpore is still very short of
drivers. 1 hope you will continue to
send in men."

The Officer Commanding the Lucknow
bullock corps on November 2, 19 16, wrote

to the Leader of Allahabad, " The first
bullock corps is now ready and is start-
ing immediately for field service. But
before going I must acknowledge with
thanks the very great help which I have
received from the Hon. Babu Moti Chand,
C.I.K., of Benares, in raising the corps.
But for his magnificent aid we would not
have been able to complete our corps so
easily. At a time when we were hard
pressed for bullock drivers and when the
civil authorities were at their wits' ends
where and how to get them, it was wonder-
ful to see how Babu Moti Chand kept on
supplying the men by dozens every day,
with the result that in but a short time he
gave us as many as 224 of them, and he
would have given more if we had required
them. Our demands have been finished
but his supplies are going on as briskly
as before, and men are now being given
over to form another corps at Cawnpore.
Besides this, Babu Moti Chand was always
ready to give us any other help that we
required. I wish other noblemen of these
provinces would have helped as much as
he has done and is doing. ... I may
also observe that Babu Moti Chand did
not charge the Government any expenses
which he must have incurred in getting
and collecting these men, and these ex-
penses we are sure must have been very
great."

On November 2, igi6, the Under-
Secretary to the Government of the
Llnitcd Provinces, wrote, " I am desired
to convey to you the best! thanks of
Government for your valuable assistance
in the matter of the recruitment of camp
followers and bullock drivers for the
war."

On November 17, 1916, His Honour
Sir James Meston, K.C.S.I., Lieutenant-
Governor of the United Provinces,
speaking at a Durbar at Allahabad,
was pleased to remark, " In many
parts of the Province, zemindars have
come forward to collect followers and
labourers needed for transport and
similar work. Among them I would
mention particularly the Hon. Babu Moti
Chand, CLE., of Benares, both for his

untiring zeal in the matter, and for his
assistance in munition work." Again, at
a Durbar held at Lucknow on January
10, 1917, His Honour the Lieutenant-
Governor again graciously o'jservcd,
" Vou will further be interested to learn
that some of the best work' done in
Northern India, both in the provision of
followers and in ammunition work, stands
to the credit of a gentleman who is a
member of the British Indian Association, .
the Hon. Babu Moti Chand, CLE., of
Benares."

Special Hindu prayers and pujas for
the victory of the British arms have been
organized on different occasions.

The Hon. Babu Moti Chand, CLE., is
a member of the Executive Committee of
the United Provinces Special War Fund,
of the United Provinces Munitions Com-
mittee, and of the War League started by
Mr. Webb, of Karachi.

This gentleman has been the chairman
of the Board of Directors of the Benares
Bank, Ltd., Bena:res, for the last ten years
or more; he was the first non-official chair-
man of the Benares Municijial Board, and
he represents the zemindars (landlords) of
the Province of Agra in the Legislative
Council of the United Provinces.

With regard to the philanthropy of the
family, the following benefactions, among
many others, are briefly noted: A
donation of one lakh of rupees to the
Benares Hindu I'niversity, and Rs. 3 ?,ooo
to the King Edward memorial. The
family defrayed the full cost of, and main-
tain, a free dispensary at Benares, a ver-
nacular school at Benares with a model
agricultural farm and boarding house
attached to it, an English school at Azmat-
garh, a paiHshala at Ayodhya, and many
primary schools in different villages on
the estate. A pucca public road, two miles
in length, has been constructed by them at
considerable cost in the .Azamgarh district,
and it is named after a former Lieutenant-
Governor, Sir John Digges la Touche.

The firm have subscribed Rs. 2,25,000
towards the Indian War Loan.

The Benares residency of the family is
known as the Azmatgarh Palace.

'=:5e-

,^:^~

-!2£?^

'S^:i»

?^^
•^^

6qi

1. PLOUGHING WITH BULLOCKS IN ASSAM.

Pholo by D. C. Ghoshat.

2. BUSH APPLE-TREE AT THE SHILLONG FRUIT EXPERIMENTAL STATION.
3. APPLES GROWN AT THE SHILLONG FRUIT EXPERIMENTAL STATION.

THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

AND COLLEGE, PUSA

By WYNNE SAYER, B.A., Assistant to the Agricultural Adviser to the Government of India

GRICULTURE is
India and India is
agriculture. These
words may sound
too drastic, but the
truth is all too evi-
dent to those who
really know India.
Other trades, other industries may loom
larger to the outside eye, but behind
them, silent and unseen, is the source of
all the real wealth of India, the land and
the wealth of the land — agriculture. To
finance, railways, and export trade agri-
cuJture gives all the sinews of life. The
word " famine " spells loss to them, and
even to law courts, for a famine alone
can deprive the Indian of his favourite
recreation— going to law. This short
introduction may give the reader a slight

idea of the vast importance of agricul-
ture in India. It is in this field of work
that the slightest improvement gives a
return of crores, and there is no industry
more in need of improvement. Agriculture
gives India all its wealth ; yet India
supports agricultural improvement with
an infinitesimal amount, compared with
the sums spent in all other civilized
countries.

The American, who represents 6 per
cent, of the human race, raises one-fifth
of Ihe wheat of the world, one-half of
the cotton, and three-fourths of the corn.
Where is India in comparison with these
figures ? Is there not here food for
thought and an opportunity to realize
where real improvement can be made ?
Could the present yearly income of the
ryot be raised by one-fourth, the sum
692

would pay many a national debt. Where
else can one see an industry which will
repay money spent up>on it like agricul-
ture ? Truly it has been said that one
cannot educate a hungry man, and this
proverb should be well remembered in
connection with agriculture. First im-
prove agriculture and the social conditions
will follow.

General Description of the
Institute.

The Agricultural Research Institute at
Pusa, the subject of the present article,
was founded on April i, 1904 ; and
during the 12 years of its existence it
has achieved practical results which are
of far-reaching importance to Indian
agriculture, while the scientific work
turned out during this brief period has

THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE AND COLLEGE

won for it recognition throughout the
scientific world. It is a " Central
Research Institute " where investigations
are made into the higher problems deal-
ing with soil fertility and kindred sub-
jects, which are of general application to
the whole of India. It was founded in
response to an insistent demand for the
prosecution of research in agriculture,
which is the most important industry in
the country, maintaining as it does about
;o per cent, of the total population of
India. In a backward country like this,
where the development of agriculture
affords the surest way of improving the
material condition of a very large mass
of the 'population, the necessity for a
Research Institute like this cannot be
overestimated. The great importance of
research in unravelling the principles
underlying agricultural practices, and
crop production, and in improving im-
perfect methods and material, is now
thoroughly appreciated throughout the
world, and Institutes such as Pusa, started
with a view to promote and improve the
productive capacity of a country, are con-
sidered, and rightly so, to be good
national investments. The work done by
the Rothamsted Experiment Station in
England is a case in point.

The Pusa Research Institute challenges
comparison with any similar establishment
in the East. It attracts annually increas-
ing numbers of visitors. It has been well
said by Mr. Mackenna that " no visitor
to India who is interested in scientific
agriculture sliould leave the country
without seeing Pusa." The Institute is
located in the district of Darbhanga, on
an estate of over 1.300 acres, bounded
on three sides by a loop of the Chota
Gandak River, on the bank of which the
Institute stands. It is six miles distant
from the Pusa Road Station on the Bengal
and North-Western Railway, with which
it is connected by a good road. It is
situated in a tract of country with a com-
paratively good climate, where the heat
is not so Severe as it is higher up on the
Gangetic plain.

The soil is deep alluvial, and is capable
of growing successfully nearly every
" rains " crop which can be produced in
the plains of India; and with irrigation
from wells or from the river, it can grow
successfully the majority of the more
important garden crops. Provision has
accordingly been made for all necessary
means of irrigation from the river and
from wells. The rainfall of Pusa and
of Behar generally is secure a fact

proved by its population, averaging 950
to the square mile. Pusa is situated
in the heart of an intensive agricultural
district, which is largely controlled by a
community of indigo-planters. And as
a result, agricultural improvements,
through their influence, can be brought
to the notice of ordinary cultivators in
a manner which is unparalleled in other
parts of India. This was one of the
reasons why Pusa was selected as the
Central Research Station, and Mr.
Coventry, an experienced indigo-planter
and an extensive experimenter in agri-
cultural problems, was selected as the first
Director.

The work of the Institute and College
is apportioned under the following sec-
tions : (r) General Administration; (2)
College ; (3) Farm ; (4) Chemistry ;
(5) Botany and Plant Improvement; (6)
Bacteriology; (7) Plant Pathology; (8)
Entomology ; (9) Pathological Ento-
mology.

Officers of mature experience and
standing have been appointed to the
various divisions, in addition to super-
numerary officers to act as assistants, and
as reserves in cases of leave of absence
from duty. The chiefs of the sections
(i) of Botany and Plant Improvement,
and (2) of Plant Pathology, have also a
colleague under the designation of Second
Imperial Economic Botanist and Second
Imperial Mycologist. A higher and lower
subordinate staff has also been appointed.

There is at Pusa the Phipps' Labora-
tory, a two-storied building, magnificently
equipped with a laboratory for each
branch of agricultural science ; and there
is, in addition, a physical laboratory. The
main building also includes museums for
the various sections herbaria and lecture-
rooms. There is also a library, contain-
ing the best and latest literature on all
branches of agriculture and its allied
science, numbering over 21,000 volumes,
which are available for workers in the
Provinces as well as at Pusa. Pot-culture
houses and small outside laboratories have
also been provided. There is an Insectary
for rearing insects and studying their life
history, together with a house for carrying
out experiments in connection with the
rearing of silkworms and the reeling of
silk. The Institute is served with water
power and has a gas and electric installa-
tion. Comfortable quarters have been
constructed both for the Indian and Euro-
pean staffs ; and there is also a hostel
with accommodation for 70 students and
a rest-house for visitors, together with a

6y3

well-equipped hospital and dispensary.
The farm has more than 500 acres under
arable, and some 200 acres in grass for
cattle-breeding. The fruit orchards and
the botanical area are very attractive
features of the Institute. A large vege-
table garden is maintained, and beautiful
lawns, laid out around the College build-
ing, have been planted with trees and
ornamental shrubs. These lawns are
irrigated from the river, as are also
the vegetable and botanical gardens, the
pumping being done by electricity.

Among the most noticeable of the features
of the estate are the existing fine teak,
shishum, bamboo, and mahogany avenues,
which are an object-lesson to many parts
of India. Endeavours are, further, being
made to improve the attractiveness of the
estate by planting and protecting young
trees in the pasture areas, along the
frontage of the river and the avenues ;
while the proper preservation of the
existing magnificent avenues is carefully
looked after, decayed trees being cut
down and all gaps filled up.

Before proceeding to a detailed de-
scription of the work done by each section
of the Institute, it would perhaps be well
to give a brief retrospect of its history.
The post of the Inspector-General of
Agriculture in India was created in 1901,
and its duties were, broadly speaking,
defined as those of an " adviser in agricul-
tural matters " both to the Government
of India and Local Governments. This
central expert authority was appointed
with a view to stimulate agricultural re-
search and to guide and co-ordinate the
efforts of those engaged in agricultural
experiments in different parts of India.
This was an essential step towards the
more active prosecution of that policy of
scientific and practical inquiry and experi-
ment in agricultural matters on which so
much stress had been laid by the Kamino
Commission of 1878, and the necessity
for which was again emphasized by Dr.
Voelcker, who was deputed in 1890 to
advise on the best course to be adopted
in order to effect improvements in Indian
agriculture. To enable the Inspector
General of Agriculture to perform the
task entrusted to him, a Cryptogamic
Botanist and an Entomologist were added
to his staff, in addition to the Agricul-
tural Chemist whose services were already
at his disposal. The provision of a fully
equipped research laboratory, in which the
agricultural experts could pursue their
various inquiries, was under the considera-
tion of the Government of India when

3B-

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Mr. Henry Phipps, an American gentle-
man, came forward with his munificent
donation of £20,000 (subsequently raised
to £30,000), to be devoted to whatever
object of public utility (if possible in the
direction of scientific research) His
Excellency Lord Curzon, then Viceroy
and Governor-General of India, might
prefer. Part of the donation was devoted
to the construction of a " Pasteur Insti-
tute " at Coonoor, in Southern India, and
it was decided that the balance should be
utilized in erecting a laboratory for
agricultural research. The Government
of India originally intended to locate the
laboratory at Dehra Dun, where the
Agricultural Chemist and Cryptogamic
Botanist were already stationed ; but at
Dehra it was found impossible to have
a farm at hand where practical and
scientific work could be carried out,
and where the crops which are of most
importance and require the closest
investigation could be grown in the
immediate neighbourhood. Some other
suitable locality was being sought when
the Bengal Government submitted a
scheme for the establishment of an agri-
cultural station and experimental farm on
the Government estate of Pusa, in the
district of Darbhanga. This estate, first
acquired by Government in the year 1796,
was used as a stud farm until 1874, when
for certain reasons horse-breeding opera-
tions were abandoned and a part of the
property was utilized as an experimental
farm, special attention being paid to the
growth and curing of tobacco. In 1877
it was leased to Messrs. Begg, Dunlop
& Co., of Calcutta, as a tobacco estate
and factory ; but they abandoned the
enterprise in 1897, when the Bengal
Government again took over the property.
It was then proposed by the Bengal
Government to start a cattle-breeding and
dairy farm on this estate, and a scheme for
this purpose was drawn up in 1899.
Meanwhile, however, the question bf agri-
cultural research in Bengal had come into
prominence. Accordingly, proposals for
establishing an Agricultural Research
Station and College were added to the
original scheme. The Bengal Govern-
ment wished the Institute to remain under
the management of the Provincial Agri-
cultural Department, but they expressed
a hope that, having regard to the general
benefit likely to result to agriculture in
Northern India from the work of the
Institute, some contribution towards the
cost of its establishment and maintenance
would be made by the Imperial Govern-

ment and the Government of the United
Provinces. The Government of India, on
the receipt of these proposals, thought
that such a station might be suitable for
the Imperial Laboratory of Agricultural
Research which they intended to establish.
They therefore caused the relative merits
of Pusa and Dehra to be examined by a
strongly constituted committee, and the
opinion of that body was unanimously in
favour of Pusa. With the full concur-
rence of the Government of Bengal, it
was therefore decided to make Pusa the
headquarters of the Imperial Agricultural
Department, and to establish there the
laboratories required by the experts, com-
bining with thera an experimental farm,
an agricultural college, and a cattle farm
for the improvement of the local breeds
of cattle. The Institution was thus made
an Imperial one, under the general
supervision and control of the Inspector-
General of Agriculture in India, who is
now the Agricultural Adviser to the
Government of India. Lord Curzon
utilized the greater part of Mr. Phipps'
donation in the establishment of this
Institute, and the main building, the
foundation-stone of which was laid by the
Viceroy on .April i, 1905, is called after
its donor, the Phipps Laboratories at
Pusa.

The scheme for the Pusa Institute, as
originally sanctioned, comprised: (i) an
experimental farm; .(2) a cattle-breeding
farm; (3) a garden for working out the
problems of economic botany ; (4) a
research institute; and (5) an agricultural
college.

Pusa Farm.

The farm was placed in the charge of
an expert agriculturist from England, and
it was intended that it should serve as a
model for similar institutions in the Pro-
vinces. On it would be initiated lines
of inquiry which would be tested before
being recommended for trial under local
conditions on provincial experimental
farms. It would also test, under different
conditions and with more highly skilled
supervision, results reported from provin-
cial farms, and, in particular, would secure
continuity for any experiments which
might have been tried and then discon-
tinued on a provincial farm. The pro-
gramme was an ambitious one, and it has
not been found possible to work up to
it in all respects. The capacity of the
farm is limited by the conditions of
climate and soil. The Pusa estate, like
other parts of Beliar, is liable to be sud-

694

denly flooded owing to heavy continuous
rain, and it has therefore been found
necessary to throw up embankments. A
power-driven pump has been provided to
deal with excess water accumulating on
the estate, and this pump is worked by
steam-tackle engines to prevent flooding
in the experimental areas.

Reference may now be made to the im-
portant work done on the farm. The
maintenance of soil fertility under a
double-cropping system (i.e. two crops
per annum) by the use of manures is being
investigated, but perhaps amongst the
most useful work carried out on the farm
is that relating to the preservation of
fodder. In a country like India, where
cattle-food supplies are subject to the
vicissitudes of an uncertain climate, this
subject is of the utmost importance, and
the production of ensilage on the American
principle has been found the most satis-
factory method of preservation. Maize
has been found to give the most nutritious
food when thus prepared, but in point of
yield per acre sorghum gives more weight,
and is therefore more economical. An
objection to the American system of
making ensilage in this country is the
expense of constructing the silo. This has
been overcome, and instead of a masonry
silo a simple pit has been found to answer
the purpose quite satisfactorily, even in
the moist soil of Pusa.

Among the labour-saving implements
and machinery tested on the farm may
be mentioned steam threshers and a
Fowler's double-engine steam cultivation
tackle with a disc plough, cultivator,
harrow, and roller. The farm was not
an ideal one for steam cultivation, being
intersected by roads which cut it up into
irregularly shaped fields; but by taking
the whole available area, squaring up
some of the fields, and abandoning odd
corners a sufficient area has been made
available to employ the steam tackle to
the limit of its capacity. The result of
two years' working shows that it is of
particular value at Pusa, with its large
area under crop, in lightening the work
of the supervising staff and allowing of
more concentration on experimental work
and necessary improvements. Trials with
a new type of motor-plougli have shown
that some modifications of the engine are
necessary to suit the Indian climate, and
these are being introduced.

Sheep-breeding experiments were begun
in 1909, when 80 Bikaner ewes — a white-
fleeced breed with a high reputation for
yield and quality of wool — were obtained.

Si'ti'1»S'«iuiiii I- jHWi i^Mll 1(1(1(1(111

THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE, PUSA.

I. The AUHICILTUKAL KESEAKCH IXSriTirii. 2. A COK.NER «V THE CHEMICAL LABOKAIOKV.

69s

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

hut they did not do well. The change
from the arid conditions of the Bikancr
desert to the moist climate of Behar
caused a breakdown in their constitution.
In their place a flock of Gorakhpur ewes,
which are good specimens of the local
breed, was substituted. A cross between
them and the Dumba ram has been suc-
cessfully effected, and the advantage of
this crossing for the production of mutton
has been fully demonstrated. An attempt
is now being made to improve the wool
of these sheep by crossing them with
Merino rams.

Poultry - breeding experiments were
carried out on a large scale at Pusa
during the years 1908-13, with a view to
supply at reasonable prices fresh blood
of imported strains to provincial agricul-
tural farms and private individuals who
are unable to afford the risk and expense
of direct importation. Out of 31 breeds
imported and put under trial, the follow-
ing three were found most suitable for
the country and for crossing purposes :
(i) Buff Orpingtons, (2) White Wyan-
dottes, and (3) Mammoth Bronze
Turkeys ; while Indian breeds, Chitta-
gongs, and Lahha game have proved
useful. These breeds were therefore
distributed. Nowadays there are such
clear indications of a growing general
interest in poultry-keeping in the Pro-
vinces that it has been decided to limit the
functions of Pusa to the importation of
pure-bred birds to maintain the breeds
kept on provincial farms. Besides this,
Pusa will keep in view the possibilities
of the introduction and successful
acclimatization of fresh strains.

Perhaps the most important line of
work in the agricultural section at Pusa
is in connection with the breeding and
rearing of farm live-stock. A carefully
selected herd of Montgomery cattle, one
of the best milk-breeds of India, is main-
tained. The high milking qualities of
these animals are becoming more appre-
ciated year by year, and dealers from
different parts of India carry off large
numbers from the half-yearly fairs at
Aniritsar. The Report of the Imperial
Agriculturist for 1907-9 states that out
of the then Pusa herd of 39 cows 16 gave
over 4,000 lb. each of milk during their
last lactation period (under a year in each
case), and of these five gave over 5,000 lb.
each; one gave 6,300 lb., and the record
of another was slightly under 6,000 lb.
When it is remembered that the average
yield of milk in some of the best dairying
districts in England is said to be under

5,000 lb. per cow, with a considerably
lower percentage of butter fat than is
found in the milk of the Montgomery
breed, it is possililc to realize what a
valuable asset India has in the latter,
especially as the extent to which improve-
ment is possible is not yet in sight.

A large and remunerative export trade
in Indian cattle has already arisen.
Probably no Indian breed will meet the
requirements of this foreign demand
better than Montgomery cattle. They
are useful for milk, for work, and for
beef; and in South Africa, the Southern
States of America, and in the Straits
Settlements — to quote only three of the
l^rincipal export centres — they should
prove very useful, as pure and half-bred
Indian cattle have been found to thrive
well in these parts, as they are not
affected by flies and ticks in the same
disastrous way as are the local cattle.

At Pusa a record of the milk yield of
each cow is kept, with a view to raise the
milking standard (which is now very high)
l)y selection on the basis of these records.
The breeding operations have, since 191 2,
been based entirely on these milk records
of the cows, and the initial steps have
been completed for the building up of a
milk pedigree, which is such an infallible
guide. The poorest milkers in this breed
are being crossed with an Ayrshire bull,
as it has been demonstrated on the Mili-
tary Dairies in Northern India that the
product of this cross is exceedingly useful,
the heifers giving milk in amounts com-
parable with those given by Ayrshire
cows; while the bullocks carrying the free
forehand of the Ayrshire make excellent
work-cattle, being both fast and strong.
Two herds are therefore being maintained
at Pusa — one of selected milkers of the
Montgomery breed, the other a herd of
cross-bred Ayrshire-Montgomery cattle.

The results of Dr. Leather's work on
the yield and quality of milk of the Mont-
gomery herd at Pusa, and the numerical
value of the errors accom])anying milk
tests, have been published in tlic Chemical
Memoir, vol. iii, No. 6. The data
obtained showed that the yield of milk of
most of the cows laid between 10 lb. to
14 lb. a day, and that there was little
diflference in the yield from two sides
of the udder, or of the morning and even-
ing milk, although in point of fat per-
centage the morning milk was always
richer. The mean percentage of fat in
the milk of individual animals varied front
3' 5 to 5'o. Dr. Leather's experiments
have confirmed the value of the freezing-
696

point of milk as a means of detecting
added water in it. The test was applied
to a large number of milk samples at
dairy farms, and although the variation
of freezing-point among milks of Indian
cattle is greater than has been found else-
where, the method has been found to form
a much more delicate test for added water
than any other method.

The cattle-breeding farm of this Insti-
tute was originally intended to serve the
needs of Bengal and Behar with regard
to the supply of best local pure-bred
draught and milch cattle; about 50 cows
and one bull were therefore purchased
in the Shahabad and Ballia diaras, and
breeding operations were continued until
1909. By that time it was found that
the resources of the Institute were over-
taxed in maintaining this herd as well as
the Montgomery herd. The deshi herd,
then amounting to 92 head of cattle, after
rigid selection of young stock, was made
over to the Bengal Department, who
transferred it to the Bettiah Raj Estate,
under the management of the Court of
Wards. The herd is doing well, and the
bulls have proved of great value to the
tenants of the Raj.

AGRicuLTUR.AL Chemistry.

This section was until recently in the
charge of Dr. J. Walter Leather. On
his retirement from service Mr. J. Sen,
M.A., F.C.S., Supernumerary Agricul-
tural Chemist, was appointed Officiating
Imperial Agricultural Chemist. This
section has not only a well-equipped
chemical laboratory, but also a house for
experiments on plants and soils by pot-
culture methods. For a detailed descrip-
tion of this, reference is invited to
Memoirs of the Imperial Department of
Agriculture, Chemical Series, vol. i,
No. 3, 1907. Four drain gauges have
been constructed for the investigation of
the chemical and other effects of the pas-
sage of water through the soil, under
Indian conditions, on the lines of the
Rothamstcd experiments.

Meteorological records are also kept in
this section. At Pusa experiments regard-
ing the availability of various items of
plant food have shown the economical use
of phosphatic manures on a large range
of Indian soils. Valuable work has also
been done on usar or alkali land, and
the question whether this alkaline con-
dition is increased by irrigation has also
been investigated. An examination of the
water requirements of some Indian crops
has been taken up, and the transpiration

THE AGRICULTUBAIi BESFARCH INSTITUTE, PUSA.
I. Harvestixg Oats. 2. One of the Avexies at Pusa,

697

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

ratio of plants at different stages of their
growth, and also the amount of water
required by them at these periods, has
been studied. The interesting and im-
portant discovery has been made that
practically all the water assimilated by
a cro;) is obtained within the root range
— from 6 to 8 feet — and that the great
stores below this depth are of no real
service to the plant. Interesting results
have also been obtained from drain
gauges at Cawnpore and Pusa as to the
rate of evaporation of water from fallow
and from cropped land, and as to the
formation and movement of nitrates in
the soil. A large number of samples of
Indian food grains have been analysed
to determine their comparative value, and
the results are published in Agricultural
Ledgers. The amount of oil contained
in different varieties of oil-seeds, collected
from all parts of India, has been deter-
mined, with the result that large varia-
tions were found in the oil-content of
samples of oil-seeds received from
different parts, more particularly of
ground-nut, sesamum, mustard, and saf-
flower. Vol. i, No. 2 of the Chemical
Series of Memoirs records these results.
Important work has also been done in the
saltpetre industry, and an improved
method of refining crude saltpetre, de-
vised by Dr. Leather, has been described
in Pusa Bulletin No. 24. A study of soil
gases in relation to other constituents in
the soil was taken up by Dr. Leather,
and the results have been published in
Chemical Memoir, vol. iv, No. 3.

Observations on the evaporation from
a plain water surface at Pusa, Lyallpur.
and Madras, published by the Imperial
Agricultural Chemist in the form of a
Memoir, are of practical interest in con-
nection with problems of irrigation and
the storage of water. Dr. Leather's work
on sugar at the Tarnab Farm reveals the
capabilities of the Peshawar Valley for
its production. It has been ascertained
that sugar-cane can be preserved in
" clamps " over the months of February
and March, and that sugar-beet of good
manufacturing quality can be grown there
to perfection and in such quantity as to
keep a factory running from the middle
of March until the end of June.

An examination of the proportion of
starch in some of the Indian starch-
producing crops is being made, and their
possible utility from the manufacturing
standpoint is under investigation. One
of the results of the war has been to cut
off some of the usual sources of manufac-

tured starch, and this has caused greatly
enhanced prices. Hence the inquiry is of
considerable economic importance.

Botanical Section.

Mr. A. Howard, CLE.. M.A., took
charge of the office of the Imperial
Economic Botanist in 1905. He has
under his control at Pusa a large area
of land, which is used partly for growing
many varieties of fruits and partly as a
botanical ' garden chiefly devoted to
economic plants. The rest is really a
field laboratory, in which varieties of some
important Indian crops are tested in small
plots, from which botanical descriptions
and other data are obtained. Those
chiefly dealt with are wheat, indigo,
tobacco, fruit, fibre crops, and oil-seeds.

The most important work which Mr.
and Mrs. Howard have done is in con-
nection with wheat. They undertook a
complete survey of Indian wheats, and
separated type specimens of almost every
Indian variety. The results of the
botanical survey of these are given in the
book entitled " Wheat in India," which
deals in a complete manner with produc-
tion, varieties, and methods of improve-
ment of Indian wheat. From the wheats
of the Punjab 25 types were isolated.
These yielded, as pure types, enormously
increased outturns, although great varia-
tions in yield were found, but none of
them indicated any strength in milling.
These pure types had also another defect,
viz. weak straw. The Howards also found
in all Indian wheats a great liability to
rust, and in some varieties a great ten-
dency to shatter. Finally, varieties differ
in yield, although good cultivation in-
creases production. The Howards set
themselves to work with a view to
eliminate the defects and obtain the
qualities which are essential in a good
wheat. As the Indian wheat season is
a short one they have avoided all high-
yielding varieties with any tendency to
lateness and confined their attention to
those sorts which ripen well within the
available growth period. So far as
strength of flour was concerned, rapid
progress was made by selection from
existing varieties and their propagation
as pure types. For characteristics such
as strength of straw, experiments on
Mendelian lines have been conducted and
are in progress. As a result, a very wide
range of wheats likely to be useful over
a large area in India have been evolved.
Heavy yielding, strong white wheats have
been produced; these have been success-
698

fully grown by the cultivators in other
Provinces and in a new environment. One
of these, Pusa No. 12, has the power of
retaining the quality that gives stability
to the dough to an unusual extent under
varying conditions. This wheat has in-
variably given satisfactory returns (over
a ton of grain), both as regards yield
and milling and baking quality, in almost
every district from Gurdaspur in the
Punjab and through the United Provinces
lo Bhagaljnir in Behar. It is a white
wheat with smooth red chaff and long
ears, which are without awns. In the field
it is an attractive-looking wheat, and the
typical red ears and smooth shining straw
at once distinguish it from other kinds.
It has stood the test of adverse seasons,
and has been taken up for cultivation on
;i large scale by cultivators in Behar, tlie
United Provinces, the Punjab, and the
Central Provinces. A trial consignment
of this wheat was sent to England in 191 5
and also in 19 16, with a view of bringing
it to the notice of home millers, and it is
hoped further to organize the work in
such a manner that some of the local
markets will be able to supply it to the
shippers. Besides Pusa No. I2, two other
new wheats. No. 4 and No. 6, are proving
useful. Pusa No. 4 is suitable where the
supply of soil moisture is limited, and
where the general conditions require a
rapidly maturing wheat, e.g. in Bundel-
kliand. This variety possesses strong
straw and good grain, and is also prac-
tically immune against yellow rust. It
is also useful as a cover crop for Java
indigo in Behar. Pusa No. 6, as a
separate crop, however, appears to be
more suitable for Behar, as it is practically
immune to both the common rusts in
Beliar, and it thrives even under adverse
conditions.

The Pusa wheats have been subjected
to milling and baking tests in England
and placed above all other Indian types.
They have even been ranked by some of
the trade with Manitoba Spring wheats,
which are in greatest demand for bread-
making in England and which command
the highest prices. The Indian consumer
also has expressed a preference for the
varieties which are finding favour on the
English market. Work still goes on to
improve the best of the Pusa wheats in
standing power, rust resistance, and
general hardiness. For this purpose
crosses between Indian wheats of good
grain quality and various English and
.-\merican varieties were made in England
in 1 910. These new wheats are now in

:;;(•»■..''. •,sis:

THE AGEICULTUEAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE, PUSA.
i. MO.NTOOUERV Cow. 2. MOXTGOMERY BlLI..

699

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

the fifth generation and are practically
fixed.

It has been calculated that a safe esti-
mate of the gain to Indian wheat-growers,
if the crop were replaced by varieties like
Pusa No. 12, would be Rs. 15 per acre
per year. The rate at which extension
will take place must depend on the effi-
ciency of provincial organization for seed
distribution. So far as one can predict,
the future seems full of promise.

The investigations on indigo carried out
by the Howards at Pusa, to whom this
work was entrusted after the closing of
the Sirsiah Research Station in 1913, are
reported to have yielded interesting
results. The diseased condition of Java
indigo, known locally as " wilt," which
principally brought about the reduction
in the area under this variety in Behar
from 70,000 bighas in 1910 to 15,000
bighas in 1913, and to which the non-
success of the Sirsiah experiments with
Java indigo has been attributed, has been
said by them to be due to a long-con-
tinued wet condition of the soil, which
destroys the feeding roots. The Howards
also maintain that if Java indigo is sown
for seed early in August on well-drained
land in good heart, the diseased condition
is avoided, good crops of well-developed
seed having been produced ; and it may
be added that these results are reported
to have been successfully repeated under
estate conditions. Besides the seed
supply, other aspects of improvement in
the cultivation of indigo have also been
investigated and some results of practical
interest already obtained. These are
described in Pusa Bulletins No. 51 and
No. 54, and in the reports of the Imperial
Economic Botanist for 1913-14 and
1914-15.

The progress which has already been
made in the indigo investigations indi-
cates that the prospects of resuscitating
the industry are very favourable. The
competition of synthetic indigo having
been for the time removed, a period of
high prices has set in, which will afford
an opportunity of re-establishing confi-
dence and of putting into order those
estates which are still growing indigo,
prior to the introduction of new and
improved methods of cultivation and
manufacture. The Government of India
have also decided to supplement the work
done by the Howards by the employment
of a chemist to continue the investigation
of the chemical problems in manufacture.

Much excellent work has also been done
at Pusa on the tobacco crop. A number

of the American varieties, suitable for
cigarettes, and tried at Pusa, having been
found unsuitable, attention has been
mainly concentrated on the indigenous
varieties, and a type (No. 28) has been
discovered, of light colour, fine product,
and good texture, which has been favour-
ably reported on by the trade as suitable
for the above purpose. On a large scale,
under estate conditions, it has done
exceedingly well, and a great demand for
seed has arisen, not only in Behar but in
other parts of India. The cultivation of
the plant has also been studied, and it has
been found that sann hemp as a green
manure is most successful. In the exist-
ing rough (methods of cultivation many
of the seedlings die and are lost. This
loss, it has been found, can be prevented
by making fires on the seed beds and so
sterilizing them. Some progress has also
been made in the curing process, and,
by a slight modification of existing
methods, it has been found possible to
preserve the colour better. Selected seed
has been distributed to planters, and it
now rests with the factories to assure a
steady supply by offering prices commen-
surate with the extra trouble involved.

Mrs. Howard has studied this crop on
the purely botanical side, and has pub-
lished her work on the inheritance of
characters in tobacco as Botanical Memoir,
vol. vi. No. 3. It has been found that
the possibility of obtaining better tobacco
by breeding is certain, and several
promising varieties have been isolated
during the progress of the work. It now
remains, on Mendelian lines, to isolate
and fix the qualities most desired by the
trade.

The fruit experiments at Pusa have
already yielded results of considerable
practical value, and they have proved the
suitability of the soil and climate in Behar
for growing certain important varieties.
The results are published in Pusa
Bulletins Nos. 4 and 61. A method has
also been devised and successfully tested
for sending peaches and other fruit over
long distances by rail in India.

Among fibre crops studied in the
botanical section, the most important are
sann hemp {Crotalaria juncea) and
Deccan hemp {Hibiscus cannabinus). In
connection with the latter, after selecting
a suitable type (No. 3), a system of re-
moving heterozygotes during the seedling
stage was adopted in order to minimize
the effect of natural crossing. This
proved successful, and when a supply of
pure seed was obtained a sample of fibre,

700

carefully retted and cleaned in clear river
water, was sent home for valuation. It
was valued at £18 per ton, as against £8
for ordinarily cleaned fibre. The type is
being grown on some estates in Behar with
a view to discovering whether it can be
grown on a commercial scale.

Investigations now in progress on some
important Indian oil-seeds, such as saf-
flower, rai, and linseed, point to the neces-
sity of selection in these crops, as some
crossing takes place and because the
range of " form " is very great. Form
separation conducted on a broad basis is
likely to lead to the isolation of a desired
type, which could then be multiplied and
issued to cultivators. The work done is
recorded in the Botanical Memoirs,
vol. ii, Nos. 6 and 7. Practical results
of value have also been obtained from
the work done on soil ventilation and
drainage. The surface drainage method
devised by Mr. Howard is now being
adopted with success on several estates
in Behar, and the practical application of
the conclusions reached regarding soil
ventilation seems likely to lead to a great
increase in the productive capacity of the
alluvial soil in Upper India.

Mycology.

Mycology is the science which deals
with fungal diseases of plants; the work
is highly specialized, and there is wide
scope for research. But the workers are
few, there being only three or four trained
European Mycologists in the Agricultural
Department of the whole of India, two
of whom are at Pusa — Dr. E. J. Butler,
Imperial Mycologist, and Mr. F. J. F.
Shaw, Second Imperial Mycologist. The
field is unlimited, the problems new.
Samples of unknown diseases are being
constantly received, and in each case the
disease has to be diagnosed, the cause
studied, and remedies tried and proved.
In spite of the complexity of the subjects,
results of great practical value have,
however, already been obtained.

The first step was a preliminary survey
of the important fungus diseases of Indian
crops, and the formation of a collection of
types as a basis for the identification of
further specimens. Next, the more im-
portant diseases, many of which were new
or but little known, had to be submitted
to detailed investigation in order to ascer-
tain their cause, the life history of the
parasites, and the effects on the plant.
Not until thes6 are known can measures
to check them be ordinarily recommended.
There are various ways of dealing with

THE AGRICULTaKAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE, PUSA.

1. SOME Ol- TIIK MOXTUO.MEKY MlLCH HEKD. 2. YOIXG AVRSHIRE-MO.NTOOMKKY CKOSS-BKEU STOCK.

701

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORlSSA

fungus diseases, and the treatment is in
many cases drastic. Spraying is not
likely to be taken up in India except with
garden or other equally valuable crops,
e.g. potatoes, which are sprayed against
blight in the Khasia Hills, and areca-nut
in Mysore and South Canara, where the
disease locally called Koleroga, caused
by Phyiophthora omnh'ora, var. arecw, is
being successfully controlled by this prac-
tice. The destruction of diseased parts
of plants or the whole of the crop by
burning is in many cases the only effective
treatment, but it is not always possible
to get the cultivator to agree. Smuts
which are conveyed in the seed may be
killed by disinfection, while the use of
thoroughly healthy seed is another and a
very effective way of preventing an
increase of certain forms of disease.
General measures of plant sanitation, such
as control of drainage, avoidance of exces-
sive shade or overcrowding and the like,
are valuable in many cases. Finally, for
many diseases the introduction of re-
sistant varieties is the only certain method
to avoid epidemics.

Dr. Butler has already studied in this
manner the rusts of wheat and other
crops, diseases of sugar-cane, the wilt of
arhar, several diseases of palms, mul-
berries, and rice, and the tlkka disease
of ground-nut; but these are only a few
of the many investigations that have been
carried out. Mr. Shaw has studied the
various Rhizoctonias in India, a sclerotial
disease of rice, also the tokra disease,
caused by Orobanche, on various crops
such as tobacco and cabbage, and some
allied diseases caused by flowering para-
sites. A serious disease attacking sal
[Shorea robusta) in the forests of the
Buxar Duars Division is also being
investigated by him. Useful work on the
potato blight, which is present in the hills
in India, has been done by Mr. Dastur,
senior Assistant to the Imperial Mycolo-
gist. It has been shown that the disease
cannot long survive the heat of the Indian
plains. If potatoes are imported from
the hills for seed purposes, they should
be obtained in time to allow them to pass
a part of the summer on the plains in
order to kill the fungus in the diseased
tubers. The " black thread disease " of
Hevea brasiliensis in Burma, caused by
a Phyiophthora, is also under study.

Among the achievements of directly
practical value may be mentioned an
elaborate campaign against the bud-rot
disease of palms in the (lodaveri delta.
An organized scheme to |)revcnt the

spread of the disease, and to stamp it out
in the affected area in the Godaveri and
Kistna districts, was started in 1907. The
parasite attacks the crown of the palm
only, killing the tree by destroying the
growing point. The only practicable
method of checking the spread of infec-
tion was to burn the diseased tops before
spores had time to form. A large staff
was employed by the Madras Government
to carry out this work, and over half a
million palms were cut out. In Godaveri
the disease has been confined to the area
originally affected, and it is hoped that its
spread to other areas has been checked.
Madras values the work at a saving,
roughly, of 20 lakhs of rupees annually.

An important discovery recently made
by Dr. Butler is that an eelworm is the
cause of the disease called aira in paddy,
and experiments to combat it are being
carried out by the Imperial Mycologist,
in conjunction with the Bengal Depart-
ment. The losses caused by this pest
are enormous, and its spread must be
checked. The most hopeful method of
attack appears to be the destruction by
burning, or clean cultivation, of the
stubble of diseased fields ; and experi-
ments having proved this to be correct on
a small scale, the remedy is now being
tried on larger areas. The treatment is
simple and easy of application, and this
investigation occupies a foremost place in
the programme of this section.

To obviate the risk of the introduction
into British India of any insect, fungus, or
other pest which is or may be destructive
to crops, both the Imperial Mycologist
and the Imperial Entomologist strongly
advocated the expediency of legislative
measures, and the Destructive Insects and
Pests Act, 1914 (11 of 1914), was passed
into law. Disinfection, fumigation, quaran-
tine, prohibition, and destruction are the
powers with which the law is invested.

Entomologv.

India teems with insect life, some use-
ful, but the majority the reverse, and the
scope for entomological work in India is
unlimited. But there are only three posts
for trained European entomologists in
India, two of whom are at Pusa. The
Entomological section, when first started,
was in the able hands of Mr. H. Maxwell-
Lefroy, and since his resignation in 19 12
Mr. T. Bainbrigge Fletcher has been in
charge.

The application of remedies in India
is exceedingly difficult. It is only when
attacks are concentrated and when whole-
702

sale damage has been done that public
attention is attracted. The early attacks
are not noticed, but their efforts are cumu-
lative, and it is only when they assume
large dimensions that the danger is
realized. Prompt remedies are expected,
though in many cases prevention would
probably be better than cure. Again, in
many parts of the country there are preju-
dices against the only method of cure,
which is destruction.

The Department was fortunate in
securing the services of Mr. H. Maxwell-
Lefroy as its first Economic Entomolo-
gist, who, with his past experience in the
West Indies, started and organized the
work in such a way that within the four-
teen years that the work has been in
progress sufficient men have been trained
to study the pests that levy a heavy toll
on the country's yearly produce, and to
devise and put into practice efficient
means of dealing with them successfully.
A fairly large collection, representative
of the varying fauna of the different parts
of the country, has been made and classi-
fied, life histories of most of the destruc-
tive pests have been worked out in detail,
coloured plates illustrating different
stages of the pests have been drawn and
are available for distribution, with appro-
priate explanations. A large number of
observations of economic and biological
interest have been made. These have
been incorporated in Memoirs and
Bulletins, and are thus available for
reference to the provincial assistants
working in close touch with Pusa, as well
as other workers in India and elsewhere.
Much useful work has been done in con-
nection with the industries dependent on
the products of insects, viz. eri and mul-
berry silk culture, lac culture, and api-
culture. Several Bulletins have been
issued on these subjects, and short courses
are given to students. Among these
publications may be mentioned the fol-
lowing : Bulletin No. 28, on lac culture,
by Mr. C. S. Misra; Bulletin No. 39, on
sericulture, by Mr. M. N. De ; and
Bulletin No. 46, on apiculture, by Mr.
C. C. Ghosh. These contain simple and
practical instructions, and their usefulness
has been widely appreciated. The
Bulletins on lac and silk have also been
translated into the vernacular with a view
to make them useful to the people in those
parts where the two industries chiefly
flourish. The issue of tlie textbooks
" Indian Insect Life," " Indian Insect
Pests," and " Some South Indian
Insects " has removed the long-felt want

THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE AND COLLEGE

of standard books of reference specially
dealinj,' witli Indian insects. In fact,
within the short space of time during
which the work has been in progress so
much material has been accumulated that
it iias paved the way for effectively dealing
with the insect pests which break out every
year in one or other part of the country,
and, along with the accumulation of in-
formation, the training of men who have
to grapple with the difficulties created by
the outbreak of pests has not been lost
sight of. Every Province now possesses
from two to three, or even more, trained
Indian assistants and ficldmen, but there
is no European entomologist except in
Madras. These officials visit places where
a pest has broken out and advise the culti-
vators about the remedial tiieasures to be
adopted. It is with such an organiza-
tion that marked success has been
achieved in the case of the potato moth
(Pthorimcea operculella, Zell.). The
recommendation made by the Department
to store seed potatoes in sand has saved
the country an annual loss of 14 lakhs of
rupees. Extensive operations have been,
conducted in the past to deal with the
greasy cut worm (Agrotis ypsilon, Rott.)
in Beliar and Orissa by catching the moths
in " .A.ndre Maire " traps, and by picking
off the first broods of caterpillars. In-
vestigations regarding the cotton boll
worm have revealed the presence of para-
sites which destroy the worms. Recent
operations against the rice leaf-hoppers
(Nephotettix bipunctatis, Fabr., and A^.
apicalis, Motsch.) conducted by the
Department of Agriculture, Central Pro-
vinces, with the help of the Imperial
Entomologist, are likely to be of far-
reaching economic importance to eastern
rice-growing tracts of the Province. With
the ever-increasing interest that is shown
by the people towards the development
of the sugar industry in India, the study
of insect pests of this crop is assuming
greater importance. Investigations have
revealed the presence of borers and other
sucking insects, which annually lessen the
outturn to a considerable extent ; and as
these inquiries proceed it is possible that
pests which have not hitherto been
reported to occur in the country will be
found to be present in fairly large
numbers in certain parts of India, espe-
cially in the tracts in which sugar-cane is
cultivated.

The object of the entomological work
has been to obtain a comprehensive survey
of the economic pests of the country, and
to devise and recommend such measures,

by means of bulletins, leaflets, popular
lectures, and lantern-slide exhibitions, as
would be readily accepted and adopted
by the people. It will thus be seen that
a great amount of spade work has been
done by Mr. Lefroy and his successor,
Mr. Bainbrigge Fletcher, but no great
success can be achieved in this direction
until the nuinber of entomological
workers, l)oth European and Indian, is
largely increased.

Pathological Entomology.

For a brief description of the work
done in this section of Pathological Ento-
mology, and of the lines of inquiry fol-
lowed by Mr. Howlctt, who is in charge, I
can do no better than reproduce in toto
the very popular account given by Mr.
James Mackenna in his ])amphl(>t on
" Agriculture in India " : —

" A fascinating branch of entomological
work is under the direction of Mr.
Howlett. He starts from the standpoint
that agricultural, veterinary, and medical
entomology has reached a stage at which
methods based merely on a general know-
ledge of life histories, combined with a
more or less superficial study of habits,
have been to a great extent worked out.
This has been done by men possessed of
ingenuity and ability, and in most cases it
is difficult to see how their recommenda-
tions are to be improved upon with the
knowledge at present at our disposal.

" For example, the chief anti-mosquito
measures now advocated are the destruc-
tion of breeding-places by oiling or
drainage, the destruction of larva; by fish,
and the use of mosquito nets — all
measures well known long before the
definite connection flf mosquitoes and
malaria was established. Similarly, the
only practical preventive of several animal
parasites (practically all the ' external
ones) is to wash, spray, or dip the animal
in one of the few well-known mixtures,
such as lime-sulphur or crude-oil emul -
sion, while spraying the crop with these
or similar mixtures is also recognized as
the only method of destroying a large
number of plant-feeding insects.

" There are thus a number of stock
methods which are quite familiar to pro-
fessional entomologists, veterinary officers,
and medical men. In some cases these
methods can be effectively used at com-
paratively small cost, but frequently the
expense makes it difficult to recommend
them unless the crops or animals to be
treated are specially valuable and unless
a cure can be guaranteed.

" Particularly is this the case in India,
where, perhaps, more than in any other
country it is cheap methods that are
required for general use.

" Economy and efficiency can be
attained only by more accurate know-
ledge in certain directions, and Mr.
Howlett is attempting to ascertain the
factors which influence the more prac-
tically important activities of insects, such
as pairing, egg-laying, blood-sucking, and
the choice of food plants.

" He advocates the principle of what
he terms ' control-breeding ' for the
reduction of noxious and parasitic insects,
the idea being to encourage breeding by
the provision of breeding-places, as far
as possible ideal, in areas which can be
easily controlled.

" It is a method which economizes
energy to a marked extent, and will, it
is hoped, have a wide application when
more precise knowledge is available as
to the factors which influence the choice
of breeding-places. Partly with the
object of furthering knowledge in this
direction, Mr. Howlctt is paying special
attention to chemical influences, and he
has succeeded in isolating the actual com-
pounds which exert a remarkable attrac-
tive influence on male fruit-flies. This, it
is believed, is the first instance of the kind
in which the chemical nature of such
substances has been ascertained, and the
discovery opens up a wide field of
research, which it is hoped to pursue with
the ultimate object of introducing more
efficient and economic methods of deal-
ing with insect pests, particularly those
concerned in the conveyance of animal
disease."

The three main lines of inquiry engag-
ing attention arc : (1) A thorough investi-
gation of disease-carrying insects ; (2)
chemotactic reactions of fruit-flies and
chemotropism in general ; and (3) general
bionomics of mosquitoes, especially with
regard to ovulation, aestivation, and hiber-
nation, and the physiology of their
respiration and digestion. With regard
to fi), a large series of observations have
been made on the bionomics of many of
the Indian blood-suckers, and these have
been recorded in manuscripts. An article
on the Indian species of Phlebotomus has
already appeared in the Bulletin of
Entomological Research. Papers bearing
on inquiry No. 2 have been published in
Transactions of the Entomological Society
and the Bulletin of Entomological Re-
search. The work done on (3) has been
published in the form of an illustrated

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

article on " Respiration of Culicida; " in
the Indian Journal of Medical Research.

Agricultural Bacteriology.

Bacteria play a large part in vegetable
as they do in animal life, and agricultural
bacteriology concerns itself with their
action. The subject falls into two main
branches — soil bacteriology and plant
pathology.

Much of the earlier work done by Mr.

checked in the ordinary operations of
agricultural practice. Hence the main
lines of work of this section have been
aimed at determining under what condi-
tions various soils will best serve as
culture media for those beneficial bacteria
naturally present in them.

Samples of soils taken from several
places have been analysed bactcriologi-
cally, pure cultures of bacteria found have
•lecn made and their physiological func-

found that the net result is an extremely
rapid formation of ammonia, part of which
becomes available to plants and part of
which is lost. Depletion of soil nitrogen
is a necessary consequence, and the main-
tenance of fertility must depend on the
restoration of this by green manure or
some other nitrogenous manure.

The chief forms of nitrogenous manures
easily available to the Indian cultivator
are, however, of an organic nature only;

I. BEARING MUGA (SILK) WORMS ON GUM-TREES, IN ASSAM.
2. REELING OF PAT (MULBERRY) WORMS IN ASSAM. 3. SPINNING COCOONS ON SCREEN.

Pholos l'\ P. C. Chosha!, Jorhat.

C. iM. Hutchinson, who is in charge of
this section, has been of a preliminary
nature, and confined largely to trial and
selection of the bacteriological methods
best adapted for dealing with special
conditions of soil and climate in India.

The biological analysis of a soil in-
volves a determination of the number and
kinds of bacteria contained in it, and more
particularly the measurement of the
physiological activity of the soil organ-
isms. In this kind of analysis are also
included investigations having for their
aim the discovery of how such useful
bacterial functions as make for fertility
may be encouraged and harmful ones

tions e.\amined. The systematic investi-
gation of the distribution, physiological
characters, and functions of soil bacteria
in these soils is a huge task, and the com-
plete results are not capable of being
published immediately ; but organisms
interesting or new to science which have
been noticed so far are described in
Memoirs of the Department of Af^riciil-
ture, India, Bacteriological Series.

A special study has been made of the
effect of hot-weather ploughing on the
bacteriological content of the soil, and
the possibility of a bacteriological ex-
planation of the undoubted increase in
fertility resulting therefrom. It was

and when large quantities of nitrogenous
organic matter are turned into tlic soil,
and put under intensive cultivation, much
nitrogen may be lost, in the form of
ammonia, under the high soil tempera-
ture conditions prevailing in India.
Accordingly, methods of biological
analysis have been applied to different
soils to find out the capabilities of
different bacterial flora of dealing success-
fully with the organic matter supplied to
them. Hence, also, the supply of avail-
able nitrogen by the biolysis of such
substances as green manures and root
residues has received careful attention,
from a bacteriological point of view. The

THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE AND COLLEGE

experiments conducted in the laboratory
and in the field have led to a special
modified method of dealing with a green-
manure crop. It consists in hastening the
initial stages of decomposition by steep-
ing the cut crop in water and then
fermenting it in heaps, the fermented
material being then used in the same way
as farmyard manure. The advantages of
this method, in addition to the principal
one of eliminating the uncertainty of the
rainfall as a factoi* in decomposing the

from very extensive areas of land are
exported, the introduction of intensive
cidtivation, leading to a more rapid
conversion of non-available plant food,
especially nitrogen, into the available
condition, renders the study of nitrogen-
fixing members of soil flora such as
Pfilebotomos radiclcola azotobacter, and
Clostridium of very great importance.

The results of the preliminary investi-
gation on nitrogen fixation by Azotobacter
are recorded in a Memoir of the Depart-

amounts, and they flourish in soils in
which excess of water and consequent lack
of air are found. These toxins are for
the most part readily destroyed by oxida-
tion, so that the ordinary methods of
cultivation and tillage not only tend to
inhibit their formation, but serve to
destroy them.

In the domain of plant pathology, the
wilt of tobacco in Rangpur and the rot of
potato tubers have been investigated. The
wilt was found to be caused by a strain

^i^^^^m^isi^^M

. '- * -^^.5,f^|pKr-

BBP*'" **^tt*__

ELEPHANTS REMOVING TIMBER.

buried green material, include the possi-
bility of supplying the fermented manure
at the best rate per acre, and at the best
time for producing its maximum manurial
effects.

An investigation of natural conditions
under which nitrogen is taken from the
air and added to the soil in this country
has also been taken up. It is, perhaps,
unnecessary to emphasize the importance
of the question of the fixation of nitrogen,
but it may be pointed out that, in this
country, where cultivators do not gene-
rally purchase adequate supplies from
external sources, and where bones and
hides, which represent nitrogen, collected

ment, Bacteriological Scries, vol. i. No. 4,
by J. H. Walton.

The action of bacteria upon the organic
matter of soils may result in the forma-
tion, amongst other decomposition pro-
ducts, of toxic substances which lead to
infertility. It has been shown at Pusa
that such toxins are readily formed in
waterlogged soils, and produce infertility
either by direct action upon the crop if
present in large quantities, or indirectly
by interfering with the normal processes
of nitrification upon which the nitrogen
supply of the growing plant depends.
Certain classes of soil bacteria have been
shown to produce these toxins jn large

70.T

of Barillas solanacearum, an organism
known to cause disease in several culti-
vated crops such as potato, brinjal, and
tomato. The Rangpur strain differs
slightly in some of its physiological
characters from those described in
America and Japan.

In connection with the rot of potato,
two kinds of bacteria (rot-producers)
were found to be invariably present, and
these are normally present in Indian
soils. It was found that rotting could
take place in presence of these bacteria
if the dry tubers suffered mechanical
injury, or if the uninjured tuber were kept
under conditions in which its surface

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

could remain moist for a few hours.
Tubers stored in sand to keep out potato
moth can te attacked if the rotting
organisms are present either through
bruising due to careless handling, or by
reason of the sand not being perfectly
dry, or by contact between a rotting
potato exuding moisture and a sound one;
hence this latter possibility necessitates
the frequent examination of stored tubers
and the picking out of rotten ones. Two
per cent, of copper sulphate used as a
wash to the tubers was found to give very
good results. An account of the work
done has been published by Messrs.
Hutchinson and Joshi in Bacteriological
Memoir, vol. i, No. 5.

Agricultural bacteriology in the wider
sense, including bacteriology of industries
dependent on agriculture, has made great
strides in recent years, and development
in practical application of this branch of
agricultural science in the tropics is cer-
tain of conferring benefits on those
engaged in such industries. The Bac-
teriological section at Pusa has carried
out investigations on fermentation organ-
isms, whereby decided improvements in
the yield of alcohol from such fermentable
materials as were utilized in Indian dis-
tilleries have been secured. In another
direction work has been carried out with
a view to the possible improvement and
extension of the indigenous saltpetre in-
dustry, and it has been shown possible
to increase greatly the output and purity
of this raw material by the introduction
of controlled methods.

Agricultural College.

The idea of attaching to the Research
Station an agricultural college really
grew out of the necessities of Bengal.
The Agricultural College at Sibpur was
not successful, its situation being entirely
unsuited to its purpose. There was no
place in Bengal where a new college could
be started with the advantage of an
experimental farm in its neighbourhood,
the only farm belonging to Government
being then at Chittagong. The Bengal
scheme for the utilization of Pusa there-
fore contemplated the transfer of this
college to Pusa. When, therefore, the
Pusa scheme was taken over by the
Government of India, it appeared essen-
tial that Pusa should include a college to
provide for Bengal, even though admis-
sion should not be confined to that Pro-
vince. This, though one of the objects,
was not the chief reason for the establish-

ment of a Central Imperial College. It
was necessary to provide for the exten-
sion and completion of provincial educa-
tional facilities, and also to arrange for
the training of the teachers of the future
and of specialists in the various branches
of science connected with agriculture, so
that India might ultimately be able to
meet her own requirements as regards a
higher agricultural staff. In short, Pusa
was intended to serve as a model for and
raise the standard of agricultural colleges
in other Provinces, and provide for a more
complete and efficient agricultural educa-
tion than was then possible in any of the
existing institutions.

On the educational side the aim at the
outset was twofold. In the first place,
it was intended to train students who
could not attend any of the provincial
colleges or schools, and, in the second
place, to provide a higher course of train-
ing to those who had studied at provincial
institutions, and who desired to qualify
themselves for professorships, research
work, or for posts requiring special scien-
tific attainments. The complete course
of instruction at Pusa was intended to be
one of five years. It was anticipated that
the college would be ready about the end
of 1907, but, pending the opening, some
provincial candidates were taken up in
1904-5 for training in practical agricul-
ture and entomology, in order to qualify
them for posts in Provincial Departments.
This start met with such success, and the
necessity of securing quickly the nucleus
of a staff of trained assistants in each
Province was so great, that arrangements
were subsequently made to train similar
candidates in practical agriculture, agri-
cultural chemistry, mycology, and
entomology.

In the scheme for the expansion of the
Agricultural Department prepared in
'905. great stress was laid on the estab-
lishment in each important Province of
an agricultural college, with a competent
teaching staff and fully equipped labora-
tories. It was held that these colleges
should be located on principal experi-
mental and instruction farms, which would
also be central research stations. The
superior staff proposed was an Expert
Agriculturist, an Agricultural Chemist, an
Economic Botanist, an Entomologist, and
a Mycologist, one of the members of the
staff discharging the duties of Principal
of the College. The staff was to com-
bine teaching with research. It was held
that research work would ordinarily be
more active and better sustained if assQ-
706

ciated with lecturing, as this would check
any tendency to the investigation of
problems unlikely to lead to practical
results. To enable the experts to carry
on research and to tour, an adequate
number of assistants and demonstrators
was to be provided. They would also
assist in teaching, so that the time of
experts might not be wasted in elementary
tuition. The course of instruction was
to last three years, after which it was
hoped that a few of the best students
would proceed to Pusa for a further post-
graduate course of two years in order to
fit them to fill the higher appointments.
This part of the scheme, with the omission
of an Entomologist and a Mycologist, was
sanctioned, and accordingly agricultural
colleges providing a three years' course
were established at Sabour, Cawnpore,
Lyallpur, Nagpur, Poona, and Coimba-
tore. It has therefore been definitely
decided that Pusa shall only be chiefly a
higher teaching Institution with post-
graduate studies, and that it shall be
specially open for admission to selected
graduates of Provincial Agricultural Col-
leges and distinguished science graduates
of Indian Universities. The arrangement
is in every way satisfactory. It has
placed the staff in a position which
enables them to give their undivided
attention to important investigations, and
it provides means for acquiring that know-
ledge which is a condition precedent to
training others. The graduate who has
completed his general agricultural educa-
tion, and is undergoing specialization in
one branch, has the advantage of the
personal supervision of an expert in his
subject and every facility in the way
of laboratories and libraries.

Arrangements have also been made at
Pusa, for the time being, to give instruc-
tion in short practical courses in agricul-
ture, fruit, silk, lac, cattle-breeding, and
other subjects.

If we take into account not only the
students who have undergone training in
post-graduate courses, and probationers
trained for special posts in Provincial
.Agricultural Departments, but also short-
course students and casual workers in the
laboratories, their number already comes
to more than 230.

Not the least important work of the
Institute consists in the publication of the
results of scientific research done by
the officers. Pusa has, in fact, become
the central bureau of information on
Indian agricultural matters. The Imperial
Department of Agricultyre in India issues

tHE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH tNSTlTtlTE AND COLLEGIA

quarterly an agricultural journal which
contains popular articles intended for
educated Indian agriculturists and general
readers interested in agriculture, while
papers of a more scientific or technical
nature are published as Memoirs. These
are issued from time to time under
Botanical, Chemical, Entomological, Bac-
teriological, and Veterinary Series. The
Institute also issues a series of Bulletins,
which are more of practical than scientific
interest, and these are widely distributed
in India and to learned societies and
interested individuals in all countries.
The exchange in publications is con-
siderable, and the Institute corresponds

with some 150 to 200 important societies
at home and abroad, most of which have
entered into exchange relations.

Already over iio Memoirs, 60 Bulle-
tins, and 44 issues of the Agricultural
Journal of India have been published, to
which may be added three important
books on Indian Insect Life, Indian
Insect Pests, and Wheat in India.

The above gives but a meagre descrip-
tion of the work done and of the activities
of the Institute, but space does not permit
of any further enlargement. It may, how-
ever, be remarked in conclusion that the
results already obtained by the Institute
are of far-reaching and great practical

value, and that even greater results may
be contemplated for the future than have
been obtained in the past ; and that, with
an increased staff and wider range of
activities, the Agricultural Department,
furnished as it will be in the near future
with a large number of experiments of
proved value to Indian agriculture, will
go on from strength to strength, paying
tribute to the wisdom of the policy which
led to its establishment from the first on
a basis of research followed by demon-
stration, the only true way to promote
improvements which are to be of any
lasting value to the country for which
they are undertaken.

CLEARING A PADDY-FIELD IN EASTERN BENGAL.

Phyta by D. C. Goshat.

707

KIDDERPORE DCCK3, CALCUTTA.

THE PORT OF CALCUTTA

Compiled from Notes supplied by the Port Commissioners, Calcutta

ORE than one literary
critic has ventured to
question the wisdom
of Job Charnock's
selection of the site
of Calcutta, but those
cavillers appear to
have entirely over-
looked the fact that a position at the
mouth of the Gangetic valley, and a con-
nection, by means of the Ganges and
Brahmaputra Rivers and their affluents,
with an enormous territory of fertile land
inhabited by more than 60 millions of
people, appealed with considerable force
to the astute Charnock, who regarded the
objections that the locality was unhealthy
as meriting little or no consideration, in
view of the vast potential wealth which,
in his opinion, would ultimately be
brought to the projected port.

There were others who held that a sea-
port, to be of any real value to a country,
must be at the outlet of a large river;
but it has been pointed out that, long
before Charnock made his choice, in the
year 1690, Portuguese traders from the
west coast of India moored their ships,
built stores for merchandise, and even
erected a temporary town practically on
the very spot where Calcutta's palatial
offices and mercantile houses now seethe

with activities. The French and Dutch
were pioneers among European traders,
and they, too, established factories not
only within a few miles to the north of
Calcutta, but at other places at much
greater distances from the coast.

When the East India Company came
upon the scene, their servants extended
their business centres from Calcutta to
Dacca, Murshidabad, Berhampur, Patna,
and other towns, and their ships, which
brought goods of European manufacture,
returned with cargoes of country produce
such as silk, cotton, rice, and saltpetre.

Shipping facilities for the growing town
were at first obtained by the erection of
a quay along the western front of the
original Fort William, which occupied the
site of the present Custom House and
the thoroughfares now known as Fairlie
Place and Koila Ghat Street.

Government records show that in May
1758 Clive informed a Select Committee
that " Admiral Pocock, at his departure,
represented to him the necessity of having
a dock in Bengal for the reception of His
Majesty's ships in case the squadron
should winter here ; and as he thinks that
the expense of making such a dock would
be greatly overbalanced by the advan-
tages resulting from having the squadron
refit at Bengal instead at Bombay, by

708

which means they would have it in their
power to return much earlier to the coast,
he hopes, therefore, the Committee will
immediately order a survey to be made of
the spot most proper to make a dock at,
and give directions for its being begun
and completed as soon as it possibly can
be done."

It appears from records still in exist-
ence that wet and dry docks and a marine
yard for repairing vessels of war and
merchantmen were established at Kidder-
pore in 1780 by Colonel Henry Watson,
who acted as " second " to Sir Philip
Francis in his historic duel with Warren
Hastings at Belvedere House, Alipore.
The building of vessels was forthwith com-
menced by Watson, and in the following
year the frigate Nonsuch, with 36 guns,
was launched, while the Surprise frigate,
of 36 guns, was completed about seven
years later. Shortly after this date the
dockyard was taken over by two sons of
Captain Kyd, who was the Chief Engineer
on the establishment of the East India
Company ; and between the years
and 1821 more than 230 vessels
constructed at a cost of more
£2,000,000.

At Fort Gloucester, near Calcutta,
where there are now flourishing jute mills,
there was a dockyard, where nearly 30

I7«l
were

than

THfi i>ORt OF Calcutta

vessels were launched between the years
18 1 1 and 1828, and at Titaghur (12 miles
distant from Calcutta) a vessel of 1,445
tons burthen, the Countess of Sutherland,
was built in 1801.

These shipbuilding yards and places of
anchorage were of little practical value
to the growth of a port, and while it was
generally agreed that the construction of
docks was an absolute necessity to meet
the ever-growing shipping trade of Cal-
cutta, there was at the same time a great
diversity of opinion respecting the most
suitable site for them.

The project of constructing at Diamond
Harbour was under consideration prior to
a report on the subject by Captain Boileau
in 1839, and between the years 1844 and
1847 a thorough investigation took place
with regard to means of improving the
trade facilities of Calcutta. A committee
reported in May 1846 in favour of wet
docks at Kidderpore, while in 1847 Mr.
F. W. Simms, C.E., examined very fully
the proposals of a " Calcutta and
Diamond Harbour Dock and Railway
Company," coming to the conclusion, as
between Diamond Harbour and Kidder-
pore, that " one site possessed no great
advantage over the other." Lord Dal-
housie. Viceroy of India at the time, in
a Minute dated April 20, 1853, emphatic-
ally condemned the project of railway
communication with Diamond Harbour in
these words : " I do not believe that the
formation of a railway to Diamond
Harbour would be of the slightest benefit
to the fine steamships of the I'eninsular
and Oriental Company, the large mail
steamers of the Screw Company, or the
heavily armed steam frigates of the Indian
Navy, which perpetually traverse the
channel without difficulty or danger; it
would not induce any one of them to
anchor there or to depart from their usual
plan of proceeding direct to Calcutta, with
the advantages of proximity to their cargo
and agents, of accessibility to their pas-
sengers, and manifold other conveniences,
both for those who belong to the ships
and for those ashore."

It should be observed here that the
trade had increased to such an extent by
the year 1858 that Lord Canning, the
Viceroy of India at the time, made repre-
sentations to the Secretary of State with
the view of obtaining sanction from the
India Office for the expenditure of 100
lakhs of rupees in the construction of wet
docks at Calcutta. Jetties had been con-
structed on the banks of the river, but
they were totally insufficient to meet the

then existing needs of the port, and it
was further found that direct control by
the Government of shipping affairs was
not conducive to the best interests of
Calcutta.

An Act of Parliament was therefore
passed in the year 1866 under which
management was placed in the hands of
the Municipal authorities, who were
Justices of the Peace, but this plan proved
in practice to be unworkable.

Very valuable reports were about this
time prepared by Mr. Leonard, engineer
of the port, relating to the burning ques-
tion of control, and these were followed in
1870 by an Act of Parliament which gave
the then Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal
power to appoint nine Commissioners, to
whom authority was given to construct
wharves, quays, jetties, and landing-
places, tramways, and warehouses, and to
undertake other works of improvement.
This was the beginning of the Port Trust
as now constituted.

The Commissioners proceeded to spend
very large sums of money in reproductive
works, but still the lack of proper dock
accommodation had become greatly in-
tensified, and at their request a Committee
was appointed by Sir Ashley Eden, the
then Lieutenant-Governor, " to confer
upon a proposal to construct docks at
Diamond Harbour." The majority of the
members of the Committee were in favour
of the scheme, but there was considerable
opposition from leading merchants, who
urged, as one of their main reasons, that
they would be compelled to keep a staff
of officials at Diamond Harbour as well as
at Calcutta.

Very little progress appears to have
been made, however, until the Diamond
Harbour scheme was revived in 188 i, but
in the intervening years various schemes
were launched for wet docks in the
suburbs of Calcutta — namely, at Howrah,
at the Botanical Gardens, Chitpore,
Sealdah, Akra, and Kidderpore.

On February 23, 1883, a Memorandum
was addressed by the Joint Secretary to
the Government of Bengal, Public Works
Department, to the Vice-Chairman of the
Port Commissioners, in which he stated
that Sir Rivers Thompson (who had suc-
ceeded Sir Ashley Eden) had decided that
" before any action is taken upon the
proposals of the Committee, the question
as to the further capabilities of the exten-
sion of the port should receive a fuller
and closer investigation than has yet been
attempted. I am therefore to request that
the Port Commissioners will, in communi-
709

cation with the Chamber of Commefcd,
institute an inquiry, and submit a report
as to the measures which it is possible to
take for the extension of the present
accommodation of the port, and the cost
at which any changes which may bS
recommended can be carried out."

The report of the Committee — dated
September 3, 1883 — recommended, iniet
alia : ( I ) That the accommodation for the
trade of the port requires immediate ex-
tension; (2) that extra wharves should
be provided; (3) that there is room for a
considerable number of additional jetties,
but for general convenience they consider
wet docks to be preferable; and (4) the
immediate construction of wet docks at
Kidderpore, with an entrance through the
Government Dockyard. In connection
with the last-mentioned recommendation
(in preference to the Diamond Harbour
scheme), the Committee urged that the
docks, if constructed upon the site sug-
gested by them, " should be placed in
direct communication with the eastern
canals and rivers round Calcutta, and
cargo coming into port by those means
of carriage for ultimate shipment could
be stored in warehouses in connection with
the docks." In a dispatch dated March 6,
1884, by the Rt. Hon. the Earl of Kim-
berley. Her Majesty's Secretary of State
for India, the following words occur: " I
affirm the conclusion of the Government of
India in selecting Calcutta as the place
for the future docks, and in adopting the
Kidderpore site for them. Pending the
completion of the docks, it is, however,
obvious that such steps as are possible
should be taken for increasing the accom-
modation of the export trade, and the pro-
posals that these should comprise the
organization of a suitable cargo-boat
service, the extension of boat-wharves on
the Howrah side of the river, and other
improvements have my approval."

Several years were then occupied in the
preparation and consideration of plans
and with inquiries into the effects of the
proposed works upon the sanitation of the
neighbourhood in question, and eventually
the sanction of the Government of India
was obtained for the commencement of
construction according to designs pre-
pared by Mr. W. Duff Bruce, M.I.C.E.

These docks consist of a basin, entered
from the River Hooghly by two entrances
—one, a lock pointing upstream at an
angle of about 20 degrees with the flood
tide, and the other, a single entrance by
which the basin is entered direct from
the river. The basin entrance may thus

3 c*

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEttAR AND ORISSA

be used as a large lock, and from it
Entrance is given on the east side of two
dry docks, and at the south end by a
double passage to Wet Dock No. i, which
dock is connected by a single passage
With Wet Dock No. 2.

A dry dock and a slipway for small
traft between the two lock entrances are
entered direct from the river.

The niunerical particulars contained in
the following paragraphs have been
kindly supplied by the Port Commis-
sioners : —

Length of lock, 520 feet ; width of
lock, 60 feet ; width of tidal entrance^
80 feet; depth of water over entrance
sills at mean high water, 34 feet, low
water, 23 feet; mean rise of tide, 11 feet.

Tidal Basin. — Length of basin, 600
feet; width, 680 feet; area, 9I acres ;
quayage of basin, west side, accommo-
dating one vessel, 600 feet.

Dock No. I. — Width of entrance to
tidal basin, 60 and 80 feet; length, 2,700
feet; width, 600 feet; depth of water,
30 feet; water area, 33 acres; quayage,
5,400 feet; 12 single-storied cargo-sheds
with an area of 542,500 superficial feet;
9 hydraulic cranes to lift each 5 tons;
69 hydraulic cranes to lift each 35 cwts.;
and sheers to lift 100 tons.

Dock No. 2. — Width of entrance from
Dock No. I, 80 feet; length, 4,500 feet;
average width, 400 feet ; depth of water,
30 feet; quayage, east side (9 berths),
4,320 feet, west side (6 berths), 2,616
feet; and 5 double-storied sheds (at
produce berths), with a floor area of
492,400 superficial feet.

Each of these berths is provided with
5 35-cwt. hydraulic cranes, and each shed
with 5 35-cwt. electric cranes. One of
the coal berths on the west is fitted wiith
mechanical appliances (Beckett's patent)
for loading, while another one has been
fitted with a belt-conveyor plant.

There are 33 sheds, with an area of
1,081,990 square feet, for the storage of
wheat and seeds, 2 double-storied sheds
on the river bank where tea is received
from inland vessels pending shipment, and
a four-storied warehouse, 670 feet by 120
feet, in which sales of tea take place. A
second four-storied warehouse, 600 feet
by 120 feet, is under construction.

The export trade in hides and skins is
provided for with 357,595 square feet of
warehouse floorage, with drying grounds
attached, the total area occupied being
25 acres.

Water-level in docks is maintained by
pumping higher than the level of high

water in the river, and the docks are in
railway communication with the jetties
and the Indian broad-gauge railways.
Quays and cargo-sheds are lit by
electricity.

The construction of four riverside
berths, built on screw piles, with
4 double-storied transit-sheds, with a
frontage of 2,630 feet, is in hand, and
a riverside coaling berth has been recently
brought into commission. The Port
Commissioners' jetties are 4,735 feet in
length, and can berth 9 large steamers.
The depth of water alongside the jetties
is maintained by dredging, and in the
reconstruction of the older jetties, as well
as in the new ones, a depth of 30 feet
at lowest low water is provided.

The jetties are in railway communica-
tion with the Indian broad-gauge railways
and the Kidderpore Docks, and the
Commissioners' line of railway extends
along both banks of the river throughout
the port. The jetties are equipped with
56 hydraulic cranes, each to lift 35 cwt.;
1 hydraulic crane to lift 5 tons, 2 floating
cranes to lift 30 tons, 2 electric cranes
to lift I ton, II electric cranes to lift 35
cwt., and l electric 30-ton " Goliath "
cantilever crane.

The Commissioners have provided
accommodation at Budge-Budge, i 2 miles
down the river, for all petroleum brought
to the port. There are 5 jetties, with
pontoons, to afford facilities to vessels
bringing cither case or bulk oil, and the
arrangement of storage and factory sheds,
as well as that of tanks for the storage
of oil, has been remodelled so as to mini-
mize all fire risks. This depot, in addition
to 278,000 square feet of covered area
for the storage of oil in tins, has a tank
storage capacity of 23,614,773 gallons for
bulk oil.

Moorings are laid for the accommoda-
tion of a large number of vessels in the
stream, and much of the trade of the port
is dealt with at these anchorages.

The lighters employed in carrying
cargo are accommodated at wharves
known as the Indian vessels' wharves,
which extend for many miles along both
banks of the river, and are in com-
munication with the Indian broad-gauge
railways.

The docks are in direct railway com-
munication with the import jetties, the city
of Calcutta, the East Indian, the Eastern
Bengal, the Bengal-Nagpur Railway sys-
tems, and by the Commissioners' lines
of railway on each bank of the river.

The Commissioners have their own

710

rolling stock, consisting of 58 loco-'
motives and 1,736 wagons, for terminal
purposes and for the carriage of goods
between the jetties, the docks, and the
busy junctions with which other lines of
railways are connected, the length of the
Commissioners' own railway track being
135 miles of 5 feet 6 inch gauge.

A ferry service on the Hooghly, with a
fleet of 13 steamers, was started in 1907,
and landing-stages have been erected at
various places on the river above and
below the Howrah bridge. The number
of first and second-class passengers
carried declined — owing to the utilization
of some of the vessels by the Government
on account of the European War — from
10,248,752 during the year ended March
31, 1915, to 9,795,699 persons in the
corresponding period between 1 9 1 5 and
1916.

It is generally admitted that the
Hooghly presents as many, if not more,
obstacles to successful navigation as any
other river in the world, but the duties of
surveying channels, the erection of light-
houses and lightships, and the fixing of
buoys have been undertaken in suA a
thoroughly capable and scientific manner
that the normal draught of water is
exceedingly satisfactory. It is learned
from the office of the Port Commissioners
that the surveying of the Hooghly pro-
ceeds without intermission throughout the
year, a staff of from 15 to 20 specially
qualified officials having been appointed
for this duty.

Plans are then lithographed and printed
for distribution to pilots, who have tre-
mendous responsibilities placed upon
them in conducting ships either up or
down the river.

The patrolling officers make daily
surveys of anchorages, channels, lights,
buoys, bars, and the famous James and
Mary shoal situated between the mouths
of the Damudar and Rupnarain Rivers,
which flow into the Hooghly. This shoal
received its name from a ship called the
Royal James and Mary, which was
wrecked there in the year 1694.

Various schemes for the improvement
of the channels of the river have been
proposed from time to time, but the most
important one adopted by the Commis-
sioners was the purchase, in 1907, of the
powerful sand-pump dredger Sandpiper,
which has accomplished such good results
that ocean-going steamers drawing as
much as 28 feet 3 inches of water are able
to navigate the river in safety. The
dredger Balari has since been secured.

THE PORT OF CALCUTTA

and a greater depth of water in the
channel is now obtained.

The control of the port is vested in an
authority known as the Commissioners for
the Port of Calcutta, and incorporation
was granted in the year 1870. The
Chairman is usually the senior member of
the Board of Revenue of the Bengal
Government. Both he and the Vice-
Chairman, who is the administrative head
of the port, are appointed by the Govern-
ment of Bengal, who also nominate seven
Commissioners ; two other members are
elected by the Calcutta Trades Associa-
tion, one by the Bengal National Chamber
of Commerce, and another by the Cor-
poration of Calcutta. The Executive
consists of four departments — namely, the
Audit and Accounts Department, the
Chief Engineer's Department, the Deputy
Conservator's Department, and the Traffic
Department ; while the Medical Officer
is Lieutenant-Colonel R. Bird, C.I.E.,
M.V.O., I. M.S. Mr. J. Angus,

M.Inst.C.E., is Consulting Engineer and
London Agent, and Mr. S. C. Williams
is Secretary.

The following particulars are extracted
from the Administration Report of the
Commissioners for the year ending March
31, 19 16. The income of the Trust
during the year 191 5-16 amounted to
Rs. 1,59,35,456, against an expenditure
on Revenue Account of Rs. 1,49,07,001,
showing a credit balance on the year's
working of Rs. 10,28,455. Th€ year,
however, opened with a debit balance on
Revenue Account of Rs. 10,88,490, the
result of restricted trade during the pre-
vious financial year throughout the eight
months of the European War from August

19 1 4 to March 191 5, which had only been
partially met by the special war sur-
charges imposed with effect from Feb-
ruary I, 191 5. The net deficit at the
close of the year under review was
therefore Rs. 60,035.

For the purposes of comparison, it may
be observed that the net tonnage of the
port during the three financial years
191 3- 14, 1914-15, and 191 5 16 was
respectively 4,256,987 tons, 3,705,160
tons, and 2,967,798 tons. During the
past year 1,150 vessels arrived in the
port, with an aggregate gross tonnage of
4,848,961 tons, as compared with 1,428
ships, with a tonnage of 5,997,639, in
1914-15.

The following figures, relating to some
of the imports and exports landed and
shipped over the dock quays, may be read
with interest. Imports during the years
1914-15 and 191 5-16 respectively;
general, 41,526 tons and 13.064 tons;
sugar, 193,267 tons and 229,663 tons;
salt, 3,936 tons and 6 ton3 ; rice, 417,024
tons and 324,491 tons ; and railway-
sleepers, 41,735 tons and 3,263 tons.
Exports : wheat, 272,937 tons and
200,603 tons ; jute, 294,778 tons
and 378,696 tons; tea, 104,710 tons and
119,347 tons; coal, 2,633,805 tons and
1,610,645 tons ; cotton, 8,957 tons
and 13,126 tons; and gunny bags, 25,354
tons and 81,528 tons respectively.

These particulars show, in the clearest
possible manner, how the war has affected
the trade of the port, and, indeed, of the
whole of that portion of India for which
Calcutta is the natural outlet. The exten-
sion of railways is for the time being
practically at a standstill, and therefore

~W^

the import of railway material and
other accessories has been enormously
restricted ; while the demand for jute
fabrics, cotton goods, and gunny bags,
to be used for sandbags in trenches and
for packing purposes, has increased to a
very considerable extent. Although the
past year's working shows an actual
deficit, the Commissioners are confident
that many of the extensions and improve-
ments at the docks which are temporarily
delayed will ultimately be completed in
a satisfactory manner.

These proposals for extensions have
been before the Commissioners for a
number of years, and the works which are
projected will, in all probability, cover
a period of 35 or 40 years. The scheme,
in brief, involves the acquisition of 1,843
acres of land; the making of three large
additional modern docks, and the equip-
ment of them with sheds, quayage, cranes,
and other facilities for the quick handling
of cargoes ; the making of new roads, and
of termini for the various railway com-
panies whose lines will be connected with
the docks; and the erection of suitable
accommodation for the officials of the
Commissioners.

It is anticipated that the entire cost of
these works will not be less than five
millions sterling.

Notwithstanding the adverse conditions
which have so seriously affected inter-
national trade during the past couple of
years, the Commissioners have the satis-
faction of knowing that the balance to
the credit of the Revenue Reserve Fund at
the close of the last financial year was no
less than Rs. 21,75,321 — a very satisfac-
tory record under the circumstances.

^1^

THE PORT OF CHITTAGONG

/^HITTAGONG, the chief port in the
^^ eastern portion of the Bengal Presi-
dency, is situated on the Karnafuli River,
and in the north-eastern extremity of the
Bay of Bengal.

History tells that the Afghans were in
supreme power in Bengal between the
thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, and
that when their reigning king received an
embassy from the Viceroy of Goa, he had
suspicions regarding the bona-fides of the
members of the mission, and forthwith
seized them, together with the crew of
their ship, which had anchored at the
mouth of the Karngfuli. The Portuguese,

in return for this treatment of their emis-
saries, sent a powerful expedition, which
captured the town and port of Chittagong.
Some years later the Mahomniedans
took possession of the place, but it was
afterwards held by Rajas of the Arracan
Province of Burma until the year 1666,
when it became attached to the Delhi
Empire. Chittagong was subsequently the
headquarters of a number of marauders
who had fled from justice in Goa, Cochin,
and elsewhere, who became pirates and
raided a large number of villages in the
estuaries of the Ganges and Brahmaputra
Rivers.

The English made their appearance
in Chittagong about the year 1685, when
the East India Company had troubles with
the Emperor Aurungzebe ; and as trade
had been hampered very considerably by
the Governor of Bengal, Job Charnock
was ordered to take warships for the pur-
pose of seizing and fortifying Chittagong,
Matters seemed to get from bad to worse
up to the time of the Mutiny, when
Chittagong again suffered at the hands
of pirates.

During the whole of this period the
natural harbour at Chittagong had been
constantly used by ships trading between

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

various ports in the East, but nothing had
been done in the formation of quays.,
landing-stages, or berthing-places. The
inhabitants of the town— or rather village
— of those days were not able to set
up commercial establishments owing to
periodical visits of bands of plunderers.

In the year 1887 an Act of Parliament
was passed to provide for the manage-
ment of the port of Chittagong and to
appoint Commissioners, but it was not
until the completion of the Assam-Bengal
Railway in 1904 that definite steps were
taken to provide accommodation for load-
ing and unloading ships, or to erect
warehouses and sheds for the storage of
merchandise and other goods.

The .Act stipulated that there should be
nine Commissioners, of whom six should
be appointed by the Government of
Bengal and three others by firms engaged
in commerce in the port. These officials
were authorized, inter alia, to construct
wharves, quays, jetties, piers, warehouses,
sheds, engines, and other necessary
appliances ; to reclaim or enclose any
part of the bank or bed of the river within
the limits of the port ; and to carry out
all such other works as might, in the
opinion of the Commissioners, be neces-
sary for giving effect to the provisions
of the Act, with the reservation, however,
that all acts and proceedings of the
Commissioners should be subject to the
approval of the Government.

The Government of Bengal, in 1905,
appointed Messrs. Dumayne and Palmer,
Vice-Chairman and Chief Engineer of the
Calcutta Port Commissioners, to inquire
and report upon the needs of the port and
upon the best way of meeting them, and
shortly after that date extensive works
were taken in hand with the view of pro-
viding jetties, sheds, and general equip-
ment to facilitate the berthing of ships
and the handling of cargoes.

In February 1914 the Chairman of the
Commissioners for the port invited the
Hon. Sir Francis Spring, K.C.I.E.,
M.Inst.C.E., the Engineer-Chairman of
the Madras Port Trust, to -report upon the
conditions and prospects of the Port of
Chittagong in matters of finance, adminis-
tration, railway development, and other
allied questions, and in the following
month a most comprehensive and valuable
memorandum was issued.

It is unnecessary to refer in detail to
this Report, but it may be said that Sir
Francis Spring dealt most fully with the
following, among other, subjects : the
port's area of influence, the A^sam-Bengal

Railway in relation to the port, the argu-
ments for and against the port becoming
a section of the railway, the development
of the trade of the port, and other
questions upon financial administration.
Commander B. H. Jones, R.I.M., the
present Port Officer at Chittagong, has
furnished particulars for the following
notes upon the port.

There are two bars, known as the Outer
and the Inner, at the entrance to the River
Karnafuli; and each of these is covered
with from 22 feet to 24 feet of water at
high-water ordinary spring tides. The
latter rise from 13 feet to 15 feet, and
neaps from 7 feet to 10 feet, while night
tides are higher than those occurring
during the day between the months of
September and March and lower between
March and September. Vessels drawing
from 23 feet to 25 feet of water can enter
the port at spring tides between May and
September, but during the dry season the
draught must not exceed 18 feet to 20
feet.

There are four jetties, under the
management of the Assam-Bengal Rail-
way Company, for the berthing of fouT
large steamers, which are respectively 420
feet, 510 feet, 450 feet, and 600 feet in
length, with depths at low water of 21
feet, 20 feet, 17 feet, and 24 feet, but
there are no graving or dry docks. Lines
of railway are laid alongside the jetties,
thus greatly facilitating the transfer of
cargo in bulk direct from steamers into
wagons. Twenty-one hydraulic cranes
have been erected upon the jetties ; each
one of 1 7 of these is capable of lifting]
35 cwts., and 4 can raise 5 tons at full
rake and i o tons at half-rake ; while
there are also sheds in which about
30,000 tons of cargo can be stored.

Messrs. Turner, Morrison & Co., Ltd.,
of Calcutta, have a pontoon for the land-
ing and shipping of goods from and into
vessels belonging to the Asiatic Steam
Navigation Company.

Dredging operations have been carried
on since the year 1907 with the object of
clearing the bars, and in November 191 5
the latter showed a depth of 10 feet at
lowest water during ordinary spring tides.
Cargoes are loaded in the stream, and are
discharged into lighters, ordinary cargo
boats, and country brigs.

The moorings in the stream now avail-
able are as follows : double moorings with
three berths, 520 feet, 580 feet, and 520
feet in length respectively, with draughts
at low water of 10, i i, and 10 feet.

There is one swinging mooring of 2 1 o

71^

feet in length and three of 300 feet
respectively, with draughts at low water
of 12 feet, I I feet, 17 feet, and 12 feet.

There is a mail service between Chitta-
gong and Burma by regular weekly and
bi-weekly coasting steamers, and another
between the port and inland places by
railway and other agencies.

The export trade of the port consists
chiefly of consignments of tea, jute, hides,
cotton, kapas, rice, paddy, eggs, poultry,
and live stock; while imports include salt,
mineral oil, machinery, railway materials,
tea-garden stores, rice, coal, and general
goods.

Pilotage is optional on the part of
masters of vessels, but a cutter with pilots
on board is always stationed at the mouth
of the river. Full instructions for the
guidance of pilots, together with a scale
of fees chargeable for their services, were
promulgated by a Notification of the
Government of Bengal, dated October 31,
1884, and amended by Notification 35
(Marine) on March 18, 1889. The fol-
lowing dues have also been sanctioned by
the Government of Bengal : Port dues,
4 annas per registered ton ; hospital dues,
J anna per registered ton ; Harbour
Master's charges, Rs. 8 up or down the
river; mooring and unmooring in fixed
berths, Rs. 32 each time, and in swinging
berths, Rs. 16 ; shifting vessel's berth,
Rs. 1 5 ; and a berth alongside railway
jetty, Rs. 30 a day or part of a day.
River dues of 2 annas a ton are levied on
all goods landed from or shipped into
sea-going vessels. Customs duty on raw
jute is charged at the rate of 2 annas a
bale of 400 lb., while i 2 annas are claimed
for a ton (2,240 lb.) of manufactured
jute. It should be added, however, that
river dues were temporarily increased
from April i, 191 5 — owing to the Euro-
pean War — from 2 to 4 annas a ton, while
the cost of hauling vessels in and out of
moorings has been raised 25 per cent.
The Commissioners have a powerful tug
for towing vessels.

COX'S SHIPPING AGENCY, LTD.

This agency was established on
November i, 191 1, with the primary
object of undertaking shipping, passage,
and agency business of every descrip-
tion, including the import and export of
cargo and baggage, together with the
storage of personal effects and general
merchandise, on behalf of the numerous
clients of the Army Banking Institution
of Messrs. Cox & Co., of i6 Charing

[

cox's SHIPPING AGENCY, LTD.
I. Cargo Barges ox THE Hooghly coxtaixi\g i6-ton DRUsrs ok Cable for Messrs. Gi over, of Maxchesier.
2. 3-4 Ton Motor Lorries kor Gesehal CoxTRAcrixci Work. 3. Ovkrheak Tank for Water Strpi.v of Caicitta City. .-Ml the ironwork (some

Ft RMTIRE AND Gexeral Warehoise OPFOtlTE iMl'OKT JETHES. 8,5co torn) ill this siriulurc »as moved (roni sleaniir 10 site by Cox's Shipping Agency, Lid.

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Cross, London, whose offices in Calcutta
are at 5 Bankshall Street. The last-
named company has been in existence
since the year 1758, and while transact-
ing all classes of ordinary banking busi-
ness, including the issue of letters of
credit and drafts, is known more par-
ticularly as the chief pay agency of the
British Army.

The Shipping Agency is therefore a
most valuable adjunct to the banking
concern, for whose clients it takes full
control of all shipping and agency
matters. In Calcutta it is the successor
to the Eastern Landing, Clearing, and
Forwarding Company, Ltd. (whose busi-
ness they purchased in 1911)' which had
been established for about fourteen years,
and branches have already been opened
in nearly every city in which the bank
is represented.

The large staff of employees consists
of men trained in shipping work gener-
ally, experts in dealing with the Customs
regulations, and accustomed to the hand-
ling of a'.l kinds of goods, and ample
warehousing accommodation for house-
hold furniture and other goods is pro-
vided in an exceptionally fine, new
four-storied building at the corner of
Strand Road and Hastings Street. This
is an admirable position, as the site prac-
tically adjoins the wharves on the east
side of the Hooghly River, and is liter-
ally within a few yards distance from
the leading banks, merchants' ware-
houses, the General Post Office, and other
important centres of commercial activi-
ties. The floor space is about 40,000
sq. ft. in extent. The structure has an
imposing appearance, and is thoroughly
up to date in every respect. Each floor
is served by two 2-ton electric lifts, and
the lighting and other arrangements leave
nothing to be desired.

The company were, practically,
pioneers in motor - lorry traction in
Calcutta, and as they own three 4-ton
wagons of that kind, and also possess
a fleet of barges for service on the River
Hooghly, they are particularly well fitted
to undertake the removal by land or water
of any kind of heavy or light merchandise
or personal effects.

Many very large contracts in this direc-
tion have been entered into with leading
firms, but special mention may be made
of a contract made with Messrs. W. T.
Glover & Co., of Manchester, which in-
volved the unloading from steamer and
the delivery to an appointed place of
6,500 tons of electrical material and

drums of cable. Another important
undertaking by the Agency was the
removal from ship to site of 8,500 tons
of structural ironwork and machinery for
Messrs. Clayton & Co., Ltd., of Leeds,
who held the contract for the erection of
the overhead tank for the water supply
of Calcutta.

Branch offices have been opened at
Southampton, in England ; at Bombay,
Karachi, Rawalpindi, Murree, and Srina-
gar, in India ; at Cairo, Port Said, and
Alexandria in Egypt ; and, since the
opening of Messrs. Cox & Co. (France),
Ltd., bankers, at Paris, Rouen, and
Boulogne, Messrs. Cox's French For-
warding Agency, Ltd., of Marseilles (an
affiliated company), have opened branches
in these towns also.

In addition to general shipping busi-
ness, the agency arranges passages upon
all shipping lines, and reliable informa-
tion as to dates of sailing and other par-
ticulars is always obtainable at any of
the offices. Railway tickets, too, are
issued for circular tours, and intending
passengers can arrange through Messrs.
Cox & Co. for letters of credit to meet
them at any part or place in the world.

The head offices of the Agency are at
16 Charing Cross, London, and the tele-
graphic address for the head office and
all branches is " Coxia."

THE INDIA GENERAL NAVIGATION AND
RAILWAY COMPANY, LTD.

By Alfred Brame,

Marine Superintendent

The history of this company, the oldest
of those engaged in the inland water
transport of India, may be briefly told
as follows.

In the days before steamers and rail-
ways made their appearance in India, the
principal means of transport in Bengal
and the province of Hindustan was by
boats, laboriously towed or sailed over
the magnificent waterways of the Ganges
and its affluents. Tedious indeed must
have been the conditions of travel in days
when it took one month to reach
Monghyr, two months to Buxar, and
three months to Allahabad, the passenger
being cooped up in pinnaces and budge-
rows, and deprived of the amenities of
life as we know them in the shape of
electric fans, ice, and other luxuries.

A steamer service on the Ganges was
inaugurated in 1834, under the direct
control of the Honourable East India

Company, and was a vast step in advance
of previous means of locomotion. The
steamers were few and ran at long
intervals, with the result that rates were
high and bookings uncertain. Some far-
seeing merchants of Calcutta conceived
the idea that if private enterprise was
allowed to enter into the field it would
conduce to better results for the trade
of the province, and they accordingly
waited upon the Governor-General of that
day. Lord Ellenborough, with their pro-
posals that a private company might be
permitted to provide steamers to meet
the demands of the merchants of Cal-
cutta, leaving the Government steamers
to deal with the Honourable East India
Company's requirements.

Lord Ellenborough was a more than
usually enlightened man, and, instead of
sternly warning them off the Govern-
ment's preserves, he encouraged the idea,
and even went so far as to promise that
when private enterprise had sufficiently
advanced so as to meet the legitimate
demands of trade, the Government
steamers would be withdrawn from com-
petition. Emboldened by this, the pro-
moters of the scheme started the India
General Steam Navigation Company, in
March 1844, with a capital of
Rs. 20,00,000, and ordered a couple of
steamers from Europe. As considerable
time must elapse before these vessels
would be ready, they purchased three
steamers locally and commenced to ply
on the Ganges, the name of the first of
these early steamers being the Assam,
prophetic in view of subsequent events.
In the following year the two steamers
built in England Were sent out in sections,
and were subsequently erected in Cal-
cutta. The company, in common with all
new ventures, made mistakes, and had its
periods of ups-and-downs during its early
years; but it grew steadily, and in 1854
possessed six steamers and eight flat-
bottomed boats, eventually called " flats."

The Indian Mutiny of 1857 brought
continuous and exacting work to the
steamer company, as the East Indian
Railway had only advanced to a distance
of 160 miles from Calcutta, and was
therefore useless for the conveyance of
troops and munitions of war to the scene
of the great struggle which centred at
Delhi, Agra, Lucknow, and Cawnpore.
The entire fleet was taken up by Govern-
ment, and rendered invaluable service in
the transport of men and material as far
as Allahabad, from which place they were
taken by road to the fighting-line.

THE INDIA GENERAL NAVIGATION AND RAILWAY COMPANY, LTD. (KILBDRN & CO.).

I. MaI\ SrEA,MEK "HtKDWAX" WITH FLATS IN TOW. ?. ASSAM DISPATCH STEAMKR " MATI." 3. STEAMER IXDER CllXSTRlCITOX AT RAjnAOAX DOCKYARD

71s

Bengal amd assam, bemar and orissa

Prior to i860 the steamer company had
confined its operations to the Ganges,
but by that date the railway had been
advanced to Patna, running parallel to
the river, tapping the principal marts of
trade. The competition was so keen as
to compel the steamer company to look
elsewhere for an outlet for its energy.
The province of Assam was at this period
coming into prominence on account of the
nascent tea industry, and the India
General Company undertook, with con-
siderable misgivings, to send one steamer
every six weeks to Assam as an experi-
ment. That country was at that time
being developed for tea cultivation, and
the steamer service was so successful that
by 1862 the six-weekly service was
changed into a four-weekly one. In 1863
the district of Cachar, included in the
Province of Assam, but watered by an
entirely different river system, was in-
vaded by steam, and from this time
forward the Ganges trade slowly declined,
and Assam and Cachar absorbed more
and more of the attention of the company.
The East Indian Railway had advanced
to Allahabad by 1864, but it was not
until 1874 that the steamer company
finally abandoned its original hunting-
ground and closed its Ganges service.

Although the block of the company had
increased to 16 steamers and 34 flats by
the year 1870, the carriage of jute from
the districts of Eastern Bengal com-
menced to engage serious attention, and
between 1870 and 1880 considerable
additions were made to the fleet, to meet
the demands of a rapidly expanding
trade. In 1882 the company took over
the transport of goods previously carried
by the Eastern Bengal State Railway
flotilla, and in the same year a sea-going
steamer service was opened to the coast
ports of Orissa. The record of the com-
pany was not one of unchallenged pros-
perity, as at various times rival concerns
were started, flourished for a season, like
the traditional green bay-tree, and were
bought up or amalgamated with, or
succumbed to, the energies of the older
company.

In 1889 the India General Company
entered into an arrangement with the
River Steam Navigation Company, by
which the work of passenger and goods
transport was equally divided, each com-
pany remaining a distinct entity.

In 1890 the fleet consisted of 66
steamers and 72 flats— a marked increase
on the previous decade.

In 1896 the India General Steam Navi-

gation Company obtained sanction to
construct a railway connecting Mymen-
singh with the Brahmaputra River, and
in 1899 it was considered expedient to
transfer the headquarters of the company
to London, the name being altered at the
same time to that of the India General
Navigation and Railway Company, Ltd.
The history of the company since that
date has been one of steady progress, and
at the present date its fleet consists of
136 steamers, 185 flats, and 182 barges.

The Rivers of the Plains.

As has been related in the previous
section, the waterway on which the India
General Company commenced its career
was the mighty Ganges, which rises in
the high plateau of the Himalayas, its
source being not far distant from that
of the Brahmaputra, Sutlej, and Indus,
rivers which run in totally different direc-
tions. It traverses India in a south-
easterly course through a densely
populated and historic country, and
mingles its waters with the Bay of
Bengal, forming an innumerable number
of channels, only one of which, the
Hooghly, is navigable to ocean craft.
Vessels of shallow draught ply on the
Ganges to considerable distances, and
when the India General Company com-
menced its operations the upper terminus
of the journey was Allahabad, 800
miles distant by water from Calcutta,
although during the Mutiny an India
General steamer reached Cawnpore
with men and munitions of war, another
150 miles beyond Allahabad. The
volume of trade was immense, Man-
chester piece goods, ironware, salt, and
manufactured articles being the principal
items of carriage upward, while opium,
indigo, seeds, hides, and general produce
formed the leading downward staples.
These latter cargoes were especially valu-
able, and on one occasion the sinking of
a flat and loss of its cargo swallowed up
the entire profits of the half-year. Bha-
galpur, Patna, Buxar, Ghazipur, Benares,
and Allahabad were large and busy trade
centres, and from the last-named place
goods were transhipped from steamers to
light country craft for further transport to
Upper India.

In the course of time the railways made
their appearance, and their original align-
ment being parallel to the river, they
competed strongly with the steamers
which had hitherto held the field.

Another factor of a disturbing nature
appeared in the shape of the irrigation
716

works of the Indian Public Works
Department on the upper reaches of the
Ganges. During the dry season, which
lasts from November to June, the natural
channels of the river shrink to meagre
proportions, and navigation had always
been difficult. The Irrigation Department
deflected, from the headwaters of the
river, all the water that came down and
sent it into their canals, thus leaving the
scantiest supply for navigation, and river
transport suffered in consequence. Rail-
way competition and a depleted water
supply caused the steamer company to
look elsewhere for a living, and, as we
have seen, they turned their attention to
the Brahmaputra River and the Province
of Assam. The Ganges again heard the
sound of steamers' paddles in the year
1886, when the India General Company
reopened a service to Dinapore, which is
still continued, and steamers maintain a
daily connection for passengers and
goods between Goalundo and the Patna
district; but the importance of the
Ganges trade is overshadowed by the
steadily expanding Assam, Cachar, and
Delta lines.

The Brahmaputra is one of the great
rivers of India and has a romantic history.
It rises in the plateau of the Himalayan
regions (which gives birth to all the huge
rivers of Northern India), and lor 1,000
miles it runs eastward under the name
of the Sanpo, cutting through the main
chain of the Himalayas by gorges which
no traveller has yet traced, and debouch-
ing into a wide valley below Sudiya. For
many years geographers debated whether
the Sanpo ultimately became the Irra-
wadi or the Brahmaputra, and it is only
within the present generation that this
question has been solved. From Sudiya
it then flows in a westwardly direction,
and enters the plains of Bengal at
Dhubri; from here its course is nearly
due south until it joins its waters with
the Ganges at Goalundo, and eventually
it finds its way to the sea after a course
of 2,100 miles.

At the time when the India General
Company sent their first steamer up the
Brahmaputra in iSbo, Assam was the
most backward province of the Indian
Empire. It was not in the direct route
to any place of importance, it was
sparsely populated, it possessed no towns
of any size, and its communications, apart
from the Brahmaputra, were unspeakably
bad. The cultivation of tea was then
commencing, and this proved to be the
salvation of the province. " The history

THE INDIA GENERAL NAVIGATION AND RAILWAY COMPANY, LTD. (KILBURN & CO.).
I. DisciiAR(iixG Tea at the Gakdex Keach Warehouse. 2. Assam Dispatch Steamer Loading at Jagarnath Ghat.

3. Steamers in Dock at Rajbaoan Dockyard.

717

BENGAL And ASSAM, ^EHAR AND ORISSA

ot Assaih is the history of tea," and
although coal and mineral oil have since
been discovered and exploited, and a cer-
tain amount of seed is exported, tea still
remains the backbone of the Assam trade.
The upward cargoes consist of foodstuffs
(as Assam is not self-supporting in the
main staples of food), salt, kerosene
oil, garden stores, piece goods, and
machinery. The principal towns on the
Brahmaputra are Dhubri, Goalpara, Gau-
hati, Tezpur, and Debrugarh, at the last
of which general navigation ceases,
although a steamer service is run to
Sadiya, the farthest outpost of the British
Empire and of civilization on the North-
East Frontier.

The Surma valley, although politically
in Assam, is divided from the Brahma-
putra valley by the range of the Khasia
and Jyntia Hills, and it comprises the
districts of Cachar and Sylhet. The
Surma River, with its tributaries, traverses
these populous districts, rising in the
Manipuri Hills and flowing westward until
it joins the united waters of the Ganges
and Brahmaputra at Chandpur. The
leading exports are tea and limestone, the
latter being found in great quantities on
the southern slope of the Khasia Hills.
The imports are much the same as pertain
to Assam.

The great jute-producing districts are
principally situated in the low-lying lands
formed by the delta of the three great
rivers, Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Surma,
and they centre round Narainganj, Seraj-
ganj, Madaripur, Chandpur, and a number
of smaller places contiguous to these busy
marts.

Jute is the largest, although not the
most valuable, commodity dealt with by
the steamer company, but it is a com-
paratively new staple, the earliest mention
of its carriage by the company being in
1873. Its development has been enor-
mous, and during the season, which runs
from August to December, a very large
proportion of the company's vessels is
engaged in its transport. Owing to the
nearness of the jute districts to Calcutta,
a vast quantity of this commodity is
annually poured into that city, and it is
either worked up in the numerous mills
on the banks of the Hooghly or is
exported to foreign countries.

No survey of the steamer company's
field of operations would be complete
without a reference to the Sunderbunds,
that marvellous network of rivers lying
between the combined main streams of
the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, and the

Hooghly. The greater portion of the
company's flfeet traverses this labyrinth
in their journeys to and from Calcutta.
A large part of the Sunderbunds is dense
jungle, the home of the tiger and deer,
but it is slowly being brought under
cultivation. Its intricate navigation may
be appreciated when we find that between
Calcutta and Chandpur 52 distinct rivers
are traversed in a distance of 450 miles.

The Floating Craft.

When the India General Company com-
menced its operations on the Ganges in
1844, it followed the practice of the
Honourable East India Company by
carrying cargo on steamers and devoting
the attendant flat-bottomed boat, called an
" accommodation boat," to the conveyance
of passengers. This boat was divided into
cubicles, shared by two passengers, but
they messed at the captain's table on the
steamer. The accommodation boat was
towed astern of the steamer, a broad
gangway plank affording communication
between the vessels. In the early fifties
it was found desirable to alter this
arrangement and to carry passengers on
the steamer only, the " boat " carrying
cargo and the name being altered from
" accommodation boat " to " cargo flat."
The steamers were about 1 60 feet in
length, with low-pressure engines which
consumed considerable quantities of coal.
Another change was made about this time,
the flat being towed alongside or abreast
the steamer instead of astern. The enter-
prising skipper who introduced this
practice was solemnly censured by the
directors for needlessly imperilling the
safety of the company's property; but,
nevertheless, the advantage of " towing
abreast " was so apparent that it became
general, and is universally adopted in all
Indian waters. Both steamers and flats
carried masts and yards, and sail was set
when a favourable wind prevailed.

The general features of both steamer
and flat remained unchanged while
engaged on the Ganges, but when the
venue was changed to Assam masts and
sails were done away with, owing to the
absence of " prevailing winds " in the
Assam valley. In or about the year 1872
the compound engine was introduced into
the fleet, resulting in a considerable
economy in the consumption of coal and
enabling steamers to carry larger cargoes.
A steady advance in the size of steamers
took place during the seventies, reaching
a maximum in the case of the Sudiya
(1878)— 280 feet in length and 40 feet

718

beam. This has not been exceeded in
later years. Flats were also advanced in
size until they reached the dimensions of
220 feet by 32 feet in 1882, and they
remained at that size for several years.
The depth of both steamers and flats Of
the main services has remained the same
for fifty years, and it is not likely to be
changed. Six feet is considered the
maximum draft for the rivers of Bengal
and Assam, and no vessel is built to
exceed that depth, although for special
services in very shallow waters a light-
draft fleet has been provided.

Up to 1882 the passenger traffic of
the Assam Province was catered for by
steamers carrying cargo and towing flats.
It was usual for a trip to Debrugarh to
take about eighteen days, even when the
railway was available as far as Goalundo.
A service of small passenger steamers,
under a contract with the Assam Govern-
ment for the carriage of mails, was started
by the River Steam Navigation Company
in 1883, and this was the commencement
of the parting of the ways between cargo
and passenger transport. A period of
keen competition prevailed between the
India General and the river companies
for the passenger trade on the Brahma-
putra, but in 1889 all differences were
harmonized, and the river carrying trade
of the province was equally shared. From
this date forward the older main-line
steamers dropped their passenger-carry-
ing character and became towing steamers
only, and they remain much the same up
to the present day.

The dispatch steamers advanced in size,
speed, and accommodation year by year.
In 1883 the first of these was 145 feet in
length and carried 60 tons. In 1888 they
had advanced to 190 feet and 200 tons
respectively, while in 1902 the figures
were 240 feet and 470 tons, and at the
present day there are 13 steamers of
253 feet, each carrying 700 tons. In
passenger accommodation they have
advanced from 400 in 1883 to 2,200 in
191 5 in each steamer.

The dispatch steamers of the present
day are commodious, double-decked
vessels, the lower deck being principally
utilized for cargo and the upper deck
devoted to passengers. The first-class
cabins are supplied with electric lights
and fans, and a trip on Indian rivers is
now a pursuit of pleasure instead of being,
as in olden days, a period of penance.
Apart from the main-line towing steamer
commanded by Europeans, there is an
intermediate class of similar steamers

THE PORT OF CALCUTTA

commanded by Indians ; these are in-
creasing in size and power, and in time
will be very close competitors with the
larger ones.

For the various services in which the
company is engaged, a varied class of
vessel is provided ; stern-wheel steamers,
some of which are of large size, will be
found on the shallow-watered Ganges;
twin-screw steamers are used for the
Chittagong sea service, and for certain
special services when that type of craft
is found suitable; but the paddle remains
pre-eminent for general inland work.

The cargo-carrying flats of the com-
pany deserve special notice. They
gradually increased in capacity from 250
tons in 1850 to 1,000 tons in 1894, when
they reached their maximum. A reaction
set in, and there has been a general feel-
ing against such large carriers which has
been prompted by various reasons. The
present-day flat is about 500 to 600 tons
burthen, and it is found easier to handle,
to load, and to discharge, and, in the
event of a disaster from fire or
" snagging," there is less va'ue at stake.

Considering the intricate nature of the'
Sunderbund navigation, through rivers so
narrow that one could jump ashore on
either side, and the shoal and tortuous
channels of Assam and Cachar, accidents
are rare in proportion to the volume of
trade and the risks run. Still, accidents
do and will happen, either from fire in
connection with such a highly inflammable
cargo as jute, or from grounding and
straining in tidal rivers, or from contact
with snags in the narrow Sunderbund
rivers. Cyclones, too, occasionally visit
inland waters and do considerable
damage, the Goalundo cyclone of 1909
sinking 19 vessels (steamers and flats)
of the India General and river companies'
fleets.

In addition to steamers and flats, the
company owns a large fleet of cargo boats
and barges, principally engaged in the
transport of jute from the running flats
to the various jute mills scattered along
the banks of the Hooghly over a distance
of 30 miles.

The total block of the company in 19 15
stood as under : Towing steamers, 26;
dispatch, 90; tugs and launches, 20;
making a total of 136. Flats of all
classes, 185 ; and cargo boats and
barges, 182.

The Dockyard.

The existence of a fleet naturally
demands a dockyard where building and

repair operations can be carried on.
Usually the fleet comes first and the dock-
yard afterwards, but the India General
Company obtained possession of a
dockyard before the fleet made its
appearance, thus reversing the general
order. Their first holding was a piece
of land purchased from the Prinsep
family, conveniently situated, with an
excellent river frontage at the upper end
of Garden Reach adjoining the Govern-
ment dockyard. Originally this site was
used for other purposes than that of a
dockyard, cargo godowns, offices, and
loading berths of the steamers being
situated here. A year's experience
showed that it was more convenient to
carry on cargo operations nearer to the
business part of the city, and the godowns
and ofiices were therefore removed to the
Strand Road, in Calcutta. The premises
were thenceforward used exclusively for
the building and repairing of the com-
pany's vessels, and were known collo-
quially as " Carr Company ka Bank-
shall," owing to the fact that Messrs.
Carr, Tagore & Co. were the previous
holders of the place ; and one might
reflect here that names die hard in India.
The first steamers of the company were
built in England, shipped out in sections,
and put together in India — a tedious and
costly undertaking, as voyages were long
and freights were high in those days;
but the company conceived the idea that
it would be cheaper for them to import
the plain iron plates and angles from
England and build the vessels themselves
ab initio. The first vessel built entirely
in India by the company's own engineers
was the Calci tta, in 1855, and since that
date the bulk of the block, both steamers
and flats, has been designed and built
in India. Engines and boilers are in-
variably constructed at Home, but experi-
ence has shown that hulls can be built
in India quite as satisfactorily and
cheaper in cost. The largest steamer,
the Sudiya (1878), and the largest flats,
of the Gunga class (1894), were designed
and constructed entirely by the company's
officers at their own dockyard. From
1844 until 1880 all the building and
repair work of the company was under-
taken at Garden Reach, one single slip-
way sufficing for repairs. The fleet was
about this time undergoing a rapid
increase and, as it outgrew the facilities
of the Garden Reach yard, a large piece
of land comprising 10 acres was acquired
four miles lower down the river at a place
called Rajabagan, and this was laid out
719

as an auxiliary t& the head yard. It was
used at first only as a repairing yard;
a mud dock was excavated, and a slipway
laid down; and it may be here explained
that in the case of a mud dock, the vessel
is floated into the dock at high water, a
mud bund, or dam, is built across the
mouth, and the enclosed water is either
drained or pumped out. A slipway has
rails laid down on a gradient into the
water, and the vessel is placed on a car-
riage or cradle which runs on wheels and
is hauled up to above high-water level.

Year by year Rajabagan increased in
importance, and it became a building
as well as a repairing yard, the first
vessel to be laid down here being the
flat Kullung, in 1882. More land was
taken up, machinery shops were erected,
and additional docks and a slipway were
provided. This was found necessary, not
only on account of the increase of the
fleet, but also owing to the knowledge
that the Garden Reach property would
at some future time be needed for the
Kidderpore Dock scheme, then in course
of extension. In 1898 the final move
was made, the Garden Reach yard was
closed, and all work was transferred to
Rajabagan. A further acquisition of land
was made in 19 10 by the purchase of
6 acres with riverside frontage, bringing
up the total area to about 24 acres. The
Rajabagan property now represents a
valuable site with excellent river frontage,
and is quite an up-to-date establishment
with modern appliances for the building
and repairing of a large fleet. There
is docking accommodation for seven
vessels, independently of the building
slips, which can provide space for the
construction of another five vessels. Thus
twelve vessels can be built or repaired
simultaneously.

There is a large staff of European
engineers, shipwrights, and artificers con-
trolling the work of the yard, and during
a busy time about 2,000 Indian and
Chinese workmen are engaged. Indians
are expert in ironwork, and Calcutta has
for generations been a shipbuilding
centre, both in wood and iron. English
visitors have frequently expressed their
astonishment at seeing Indians, without
any apparent supervision, engaged in con-
struction work which they had previously
considered was the prerogative of the
Clyde, Tyne, or Tees.

In the year 19 13, 13 vessels, steamers
and flats, were built, and 87 vessels were
docked and repaired at the Rajabagan
establishment.

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Cargo Transport and Storage.

As previously mentioned, the earliest
warehouses — or godowns, as they are
termed in India— of the company were
at the dockyard in Garden Reach, but
as this situation was found to be too far
from the business part of the town to
be convenient, wareftouses were rented on
the Strand Road for many years, vessels
berthing alongside the river bank, abreast
of the godowns, communication being
maintained by pontoon stages.

About 1870 the Port Commissioners of
Calcutta commenced building jetties for
ocean traffic along the Strand bank, and
the inland steam companies had to find
quarters elsewhere. These were found at
Nimtolla, about a mile higher up the
River Hooghly. The site was a con-
venient one, as it was near the Indian
quarter of the city, from which part the
greater share of the business is done; but
when the Howrah floating bridge was
built in 1874, this formed a serious
obstacle to inland trade, as the bridge
was only opened twice a week, Tuesday
and Friday, for the passage of vessels
to or from the inland steamer wharves.
Nimtolla remained, and still remains, the
principal place for the company's cargo
operations as conducted by their main-
line steamers and flats, and several com-
modious godowns are situated close by,
where goods are received and delivered.

The dispatch services are accom-
modated at other points. The Cachar
Sunderbund dispatch steamers are
berthed at Armenian Ghat, immediately
below the Howrah bridge; while the
Assam Sunderbund vessels work from
Jagarnath Ghat, above the bridge, where
an immense godown has recently been
constructed by the Port authorities to
meet the demands of a steadily increasing
trade. Tea imports are dealt with at
special godowns at Garden Reach, on the
site of the original dockyard of the India
General Company. Tea and jute intended
for export are received here, and are
railed alongside ocean steamers in the
Kidderpore Docks. Mineral oil (kero-
sene) is not handled in Calcutta, but is
shipped on board inland vessels at Budj-
Budj, twelve miles to the south of
Calcutta. Salt is loaded from the
Government bonded warehouse at How-
rah, on the opposite side of the river
from Calcutta, although in many cases
it is received direct into the company's
vessels from ocean steamers; and coal
is loaded from the depots at Shalimar,
where the East Indian and Bengal-

Nagpur Railways have extensive sidings.
A very large amount of jute imported into
Calcutta is not handled within port limits,
but is conveyed direct in the carrying
vessel to the various mills and presses
which line the banks of the Hooghly
for 30 miles, both above and below the
city. It will thus be seen that the opera-
tions of the company are scattered over
a large area instead of being concentrated
in one or two centres, and this necessitates
the maintenance of a considerable fleet
of harbour launches to attend to the
movements of craft within the larger
limits of the port.

The Howrah floating bridge is now
opened every night for the passage of
vessels, and, aided by the electric search-
light, a considerable number of vessels
are moved up or down the river.

At all the various centres where cargo
is handled, and in spite of the vast strides
that machinery has made in supplanting
manual labour, the method employed is
exactly the same as adopted by Captain
Noah in the good ship Ark. Human
labour in India is cheap, plentiful, and
adaptable. In a full swing of work, a
stream of coolies, resembling a line of
ants, connects the godown with the vessel
by an endless chain ; each man carries
his load on his head, deposits it at the
appointed place, and hurries back for
another load. It is needless to say that
this bustle is only observant where
" piece-work " prices rule, as no living
person ever saw an Indian coolie hurry
over anything if paid a daily wage. From
time to time mechanical appliances have
been suggested and considered, but in
every case a return has been made to the
coolie, who is the basic principle of India
and its industries.

As far as imports are concerned, jute
is easily first in quantity; tea comes next,
and is the staple of the greatest value;
then follow limestone, seeds, hides, and
miscellaneous Indian products.

Exports are extremely varied, but piece
goods, coal, salt, mineral oil, ironware,
manufactured goods, vegetable oils, and
foodstuff^s predominate. In many cases
specially constructed flats are detailed to
deal with particular commodities.

Capital and Management.

The company started with a capital of
20 lakhs of rupees, or £20,000, as in
those happy, far-away days the rupee
stood at the par value of 2s., and the
original shares were of the value of
Rs. 1,000, Of £100 each.

720

From time to time as the company's
property increased in value, the capital
was augmented as follows : —

Rs.

1856

13,00,000

1859

15,60,000

1862

20,28,000

1868

29,00,000

1879

33,00,000

1882

... 55,00,000

In 1883 the shares, which had been valued
at Rs. 1,000/- since the commencement
of the company's operations, were divided
into shares of Rs. 100/- each in order to
bring them more in unison with the
general value of commercial stock. In
1885 the capital was advanced to
Rs. 70,00,000; in 1890 the company was
reconstructed in order to enable its stock
to be divided into ordinary and preference
shares; and in 1895 the capital was in-
creased to Rs. 100,00,000 (100 lakhs);
and it is now (191 5) £1,000,000, in
addition to which there have also been
issued 5 per cent, debentures amounting
to £200,000.

The fleet, as valued at present, repre-
sents £1,080,788, in addition to which
freehold property to the value of
£105,450 is held. The company have
other assets, such as the Jaggarnathganj-
Mymensingh Branch Railway, of which it
is sole proprietor, and the Sylhet Lime
Company, of which it is half-owner.

During the early years of the company
the management was vested in a secre-
tary, acting under a board of directors.
In 1873 Messrs, Schoene, Kilburn & Co.
became managing agents in conjunction
with the directors, and although the title
of the firm was altered to Messrs. Kilburn
& Co. in 1889, this in no way disturbed
the position of this firm.

In 1899 the company was transferred
to London, the name being altered to
that of India General Navigation and
Railway Company, Ltd.. and the capital
was based on a sterling basis. Business
is controlled by secretaries and a board
of directors in London, with managing
agents in India.

JOHN KING & CO., LTD.

A historian of undoubted veracity has
it on record that an English country-
woman, when paying her first visit to the
metropolis of the world, remarked, with
all the seriousness of a philosopher, that
" it is most fortunate for London that
the River Thames happens to flow so

En<;inf, you ss. ''Victoria."

JOHN KINa & CO., LTD.
i. The Shipbiildixg Yahu, Howkah.

3. TiiK Ukad Okfick at Howrah.

721

? fr

I. Steam Tio " VicioRU.'

JOHN KINO & CO., LTD.
2. Steam Tug "Buckleto." 3. Twin-screw Motor Lauxch 'Mithila.'

7^3

THE PORT OF CALCUTTA

near to the huge warehouses and the busy
centres of the great city " ! She entirely
overlooked the fact that the turbid old
waterway pursued its tortuous course
from the Cotswolds to the shores of
Essex and Kent long before the idea
of building even a market town of
moderate size was ever contemplated.
But the pioneers of those days realized
the commercial value of the site where
London now stands, and they looked with
confidence to the results which might be
expected to follow the establishment of
a trading centre on the banks of that
stream and within a very short distance
of the continent of Europe. As it was
in the West, so it has been in the East.
The keynote of the growth of Calcutta
is "trade"; trade depends upon facili-
ties for transport ; and long before the
network of railways had come into
existence, and when roads were merely
jungle tracks, the villages on the Hooghly
— then known as Govindpur, Kallikatta,
and Sutanuti Hat — were selected as the
base of operations for the transfer of
merchandise upon the Ganges, Brahma^-
putra, and other rivers. This was the
beginning of Calcutta, now the second
city in the British Empire in population;
and the history of its rapid progress as
a seaport and city is bound up with that
of business companies and firms whose
descendants are to-day reaping the
benefits which are inseparable from the
exercise of foresight, intelligence, energy,
and straightforward dealings in commer-
cial enterprise.

Fifty years ago — that was in the year
1865 — the well-kno>vn firm of Messrs.
John King & Co., Ltd., of Howrah and
Calcutta, was formed by the late Mr. John
King, who was born and educated in the
famous industrial town of Paisley, in
Scotland. The company had a small
beginning, perhaps, but it was a promis-
ing one, as the founder was a native of
the " land o' cakes," whose sons are
imbued with that dogged persistency and
shrewdness which are the greatest assets
in a business career.

Mr. King was an engineer by pfofes-
sion, and he had the good fortune to
arrive in India at a time when a new era
was dawning in connection with the
development of railways, the bridging of
rivers, the construction of piers, jetties,
and pontoons, and the building of
steamers and other vessels and boats.
He found that he must march with the
times or be left hopelessly in the lurch,
and, setting his mind to the task before

him, he developed the business to a
remarkable extent, but his death in
1890 unfortunately took place before his
sanguine expectations had been fully
realized.

A limited liability company was then
formed, and Mr. John Clarke, who had
been associated with the late Mr. King,
became managing agent. Since that time
the firm has succeeded in establishing one
of the largest engineering businesses in
India, which includes shipbuilding, and
brass founding, general engineering, con-
tracting, and large repairing shops at the
Kidderpore Docks. The work undertaken
by Messrs. King & Co. is of a very varied
character, and includes the turning out
of steamers, launches, barges, ferry-boats,
and pontoons, as well as jetties, bridges,
roofs, engines, and castings up to 15 tons.
Up to the year 1915 the firm had con-
structed more than 700 vessels, and at the
present moment the hands in the yards
are fully employed. The majority of the
steam-launches made by the company are
fitted with engines designed and built in
their workshops at Howrah, and it is
believed that this is a feature which few,
if any, other firms in the East are in a
position to emulate. Cargo boats and
pleasure craft launched from the Howrah
yards are found on the Hooghly and on
rivers and canals in the interior of Bengal
and other provinces; and princes and
other notabilities in India have on many
occasions favoured the firm with orders
for ■ house-boats, yachts, and pleasure
steamers, several of which have been
furnished and fitted throughout in the
most luxurious manner.

It was not long after the company came
into existence that, owing to the exceed-
ingly rapid manner in which the business
had grown, branch works were opened
near to the dry dock at Kidderpore, where
Messrs. King & Co. have for many years
past secured a large share of the work of
overhauling and repairing vessels of all
kinds, and commanders and engineers
have nothing but unstinted praise for the
extremely satisfactory way in which the
firm have discharged such work. These
works had a record turnover during the
past year (19 1 4- 1 5), notwithstanding the
dislocation in the commercial world
caused by the European War, and the
reputation of the firm has been consider-
ably enhanced by the expeditious and
thorough manner in which they fitted out
no fewer than 12 transports.

The company's machinery and stores
department, at 40 Strsjid Road, Calcutta,

7^3

carries considerable stocks of mill and
colliery requirements, machine tooLs,
vertical and Lancashire boilers, engines
and pumps of all descriptions, wire ropes.,
chains, anchors, and machines of various
kimls, together with a huge quantity of
sundry appliances necessary for the
proper conduct of large shipping and
general engineering yards and works.

Messrs. King & Co. hold agencies in
India for several English manufacturing
firms whose productions are noted
throughout the world for their excellence.
These include Messrs. N. Hingley and
Sons, Ltd., manufacturers of " Nether-
ton " iron and chains; Messrs. Thomas
and William Smith, Ltd., of Newcastle,
for steel wire ropes; Messrs. W. B.
Haigh, Gruban & Co., Ltd., of Kcighley,
for wood-working machinery; the Pen-
berthy Injector Company; the Graphite
Products, Ltd.; and the Henry Wells
Oil Company, of Manchester, who arc
makers of special engine and cylinder
oils. The firm are, further, sole repre-
sentatives for Bengal and Assam of
Messrs. J. W. Brooke & Co., of
Lowestoft, builders of the famous
"Brooke" marine motors; and they
hold a similar agency for the British
Steel Piling Company, makers of
" Umiversal " and " Simplex " steel sheet
piling.

Two sons of the late Mr. John King —
namely, Mr. Millar M. King and Mr.
George A. King — are now on the
directorate of the company, and it is
particularly gratifying to them that the
jubilee of the firm, which is being cele-
brated this year (19 15), will be marked
by the completion of considerable altera-
tions and additions to their property, an
occurrence which will commemorate the
occasion in a permanent and progressive
forni.

THE RIVERS STEAM NAVIGATION
COMPANY, LTD.

The Rivers Steam Navigation Com-
pany, Ltd., was formed in the year
1862 under the name of the New River-
Steam Company, but it was recon-
structed in 1873 and converted into a
limited liability company, with a capital
of £100,000, which sum, by the way, has
now been increased to £500,000. The
fleet consisted originally of three steamers
and three flats, but at the commencement
of the present year (1915) it had reached
a total of 417 vessels, of which 141 were
steamers or launches and 185 were flats,

MACNEILL & CO.
KiVEK SiEASi Navigation COMPAXY's Yarp, GAKUEt; Kkach. K2.|Steamkr with Flais.

4. R.S.N. Co.'s Dispatch Steamer "Kohistani."

3. GOUOWNS ON JAGARXATH GHAT.

7-4

THE PORT OF CALCUTTA

together with 91 of a miscellaneous
character, but including 16 vessels owned
jointly with the India General Navigation
and Railway Company, Ltd.

Messrs. Macneill & Co., of 2 Clive
Ghat Street, Calcutta, are agents of the
Rivers Company, and they have for a con-
siderable number of years interested
themselves largely in connection with the
passenger and freight traffic between that
city and Assam, Cachar, and other places.
This firm have been pioneers in reducing
the cost of transport of goods, in secur-
ing greater regularity in the time-table,
and in providing better accommodation
for passengers.

The waterways traversed by the vessels
of the Rivers Steam Navigation Company
extend through the Province of Bengal,
.'\ssam, the United Provinces, and of
Bchar and Orissa, and the mileage of the
rivers navigated is 4,642. The traffic
(excluding coaching) handled during the
year 1913 amounted to 523,14,955
maunds, and the number of passengers
carried during the same period was
76,06,748. while at the present there are
no fewer than 612 stations on the rivers,
which are available for passengers or
goods. This company and the India
General Navigation and Railway Com-
pany have conjointly established a fast
daily service between Goalundo and
Dibrugarh, and between the former place
and Gauhati and Chand])ur, working in
connection with the Eastern Bengal State
and the Assam-Bengal Railway systems.
Further than this, they have special
steamers or flats for conveying raw jute
to the mills on the Hooghly River. The
average number of employees of the
Rivers Company (and of the India Com-
pany where they unite their forces) is
about 13,200, exclusive of those who are
engaged in handling cargo.

The principal dockyard of the Rivers
Steam Navigation Company is about 21
acres in extent, and is situated at Garden
Reach, near to Calcutta. It contains two
dry docks, three shipways, including two
transverse grids which are capable of
accommodating from three to five vessels
at the same time. There are also three
building slips and extensive workshops,
in which all kinds of construction and
repairing work is carried on, and some
2,000 labourers are constantly employed.
Workshops — owned jointly with the India
General Navigation Company — have been
opened at several of the chief up-country
stations, and very extensive warehouses
for dealing with the immense traffic in

merchandise are to be found at Jugger-
nathghat, Kidderporc, Armenian Ghat,
Ninitollah, Chitpore, and other places
in the neighbourhood of the river in
Calcutta.

THE NIPPON YUSEN KABUSHIKI
KAISHA

The Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha,
or Japan Mail Steamship Company, Ltd.
(incorporated in Japan), which owns at
present a fleet of 10 1 vessels with a gross
tonnage of 500,000 tons, came into being
in the year 1885 as the result of the amal-
gamation of two rival companies which
then existed.

At that time the company confined itself
to Japanese coastwise trade, but it gradu-
ally extended its sphere of work to Vladi-
vostock. North China, and Korea, with
regular sailings to those ports, and occa-
sional voyages to both Australia and
Hawaii with emigrants and cargo. During
that period, the company received a yearly
subsidy from the Government provided
that it not only maintained several mail
routes, but also held itself in readiness to
place its entire fleet, if required, at the
Government's immediate disposal for use
as transports and other purposes. The
wisdom of the Japanese Government in
financially supporting and fostering the
company's marine was soon put to a severe
test. War broke out in 1894 between
China and Japan, and nearly every vessel
in the company's fleet was required for
service as a transport, or an armed cruiser,
or a hospital ship. The Nippon Yusen
Kaisha was able to meet the Government's
needs, sacrificing its own commercial in-
terests in so doing. It then became neces-
sary for the company to purchase more
steamers to carry on its business and fulfil
its mail contracts which had been tem-
porarily interrupted or delayed by the
withdrawal of so many ships from the
regular service. This placed the effici-
ency of the company beyond question and
firmly established its reputation. But it
did more than this; it showed the world at
large that Japan had a mercantile marine
of her own which could be depended
upon to supply the Government's wants
if required.

After the close of the war, the Nippon
Yusen Kaisha determined to extend its
foreign lines and fly its flag in all parts of
the world. In order to do this it in-
augurated, in 1896, three monthly mail
and passenger services, namely, a Euro-
pean, an American, and an Australian
line.

725

These three well-established passenger
services arc too familiar to the travelling
public to call for comment here beyond
this, that travellers from India to London
can take one of these European Line
steamers from Colombo, while others
wishing to reach Victoria, B.C., Seattle,
San Krancisco, or in fact, any part of
America or Canada, or even Europe, via
America, may avail themselves of the
American service from Hongkong. The
following particulars in respect of ser-
vices of more recent origin and in direct
touch with India will not be found out of
place.

The Calcutta-Japan Line of the Nippon
Yusen Kaisha, which runs between Yoko-
hama, Japan, and Calcutta^ calling at
Kobe, Moji, Hongkong, Singapore,
Penang, and Rangoon on the way to Cal-
cutta, and stopping at Rangoon, Penang,
Singapore, Hongkong, Shanghai, Kobe,
and Yokohama on the return voyage from
Calcutta, began operations in 191 1, and
there is now a fortnightly service in which
six large steamers are engaged, prin-
cipally for the transport of cargo. The
Calcutta-Japan Line, unlike the majority
of others of the Nippon Yusen Kaisha, has
no connection with the Japanese Govern-
ment, and receives no subsidy. It carries
the Japan mail, however, for which service
a charge is made against the Japanese
Post Office Department. This line is for
the carriage of freight, cargoes from Japan
being of a general nature, while those from
India consist chiefly of cotton, seeds, and
gunnies.

The Bombay-Japan Line of the Nippon
Yusen Kaisha, which connects Kobe and
Bombay, calling at Moji, Hongkong,
Singapore, Malacca, and Colombo on the
way to Bombay, and stopping at Tuti-
corin or Colombo, Singapore, Hongkong,
Shanghai, Moji, and Kobe, on returning
to Japan, was established in 1893, and
was this company's pioneer service to
India. Fine large steamers are engaged
on this run and thus prompt transport of
cargo is assured. Like its sister line to
Calcutta, it has no connection with the
Japan Government and receivtes no sub-
sidy, depending for the main portion of
its revenue upon the carrying of freight.
The distance of both runs is about 5,000
miles, and the voyage occupies about
thirty days.

The Japan-New York Line of the Nippon
Yusen Kaisha is its most recently inaugur-
ated enterprise, and is in keeping with the
company's ambition to fly its flag on all
routes and in all countries. Steamers on

3D*

1. Steamer.

NIPPON YUSEN KAISHA (JAPAN STEAMSHIP COMPANY).

2. SllTE OF KOOMS, BKKKOOM. 3. S.MCKINU-ROOJ]. 4. DKAWING-ROOM.

5. DixiKC.-ROo>r.

720

THE PORT OF CALCUTTA

this service began to run about the middle
of the year 191 6, and there are now six
vessels, each of about 7,000 tons gross,
running every four weeks from Japan.
Before steamers sail from Japan for New
V'ork they usually make a round trip to
Philippine Island ports, and on returning
to Japan, they call at Moji, Kobe, Vok-
kaichi or Nagoya (occasionally), Yoko-
hama, and proceed thence to New York via
Panama, calling at San Francisco en route.
The return journey is made by the same
route to Kobe and Yokohama, after calling
generally at Vladivostock. Shippers in
India having mercliandise for any of the
above ports will do well to remember
that transport can be made economically
and safely, as well as quickly, by consign-
ing the goods via Nippon Yusen Kaisha
from either Calcutta or Bombay for tran-
shipment at Hongkong or Kobe. There is
no accommodation for passengers on this
line, the service being devoted entirely to
the handling of freight of a general
nature. The distance travelled is nearly
I 5,000 miles.

In addition to the lines above mentioned
the company maintains various other
regular lines in foreign as well as in home
waters, a complete list being as follows:
European Line, fortnightly; European
Line (auxiliary service), fortnightly; New
York Far East Line (via Panama), every
four weeks; American Line (Hongkong-
Seattle service), every three weeks;
.American Line (Kobe-Seattle service),
fortnightly; Australian Line, monthly;
Bombay Line, fortnightly; Calcutta Line,
fortnightly; Yokohama-Shanghai Line,
semi-weekly; Osaka, Kobe, Shanghai Line,
weekly; Osaka-Tsingtau Line, twice
a week; Yokohama-North China Line,
three times a. month; Kobe-North
China Line, every si.K days; Kobe- Vladi-
vostock Line, twice every three weeks;
Kobe-Keelung Line, weekly; Yokohama-
Formosa Line, four times a month; Kobe-
Otaru Line, thirteen times a month;
Saghalien Line, six times a month; Hako-
date-Yetrofu Line, six to eight times a
month; Otaru-Wakanai Line, four to five
times a month.

The company employs 750 oflficials in
its head offices and branches, and the staff
afloat is more than 6,000 in number, com-
prising officers, engineers, and others
serving on board its steamers. The capital
of the company is Y44, 000,000, this
being equivalent to about Rs. 6,70,00,000.

Passenger and cargo rales, as well as
other information can be obtained from
the company's offices and agents in India,
Burma, and Ceylon, namely: Nippon
Yusen Kaisha, 2-3 Clive Row, Calcutta;
Nippon Yusen Kaisha, Hornby Road,
Bombay; Messrs. Andrew Yule & Co., 8
Clive Row, Calcutta; Messrs. The Arracan
Company, Ltd., Rangoon; The Bombay
Company, Madras; The Carson Company,
Ltd., Colombo.

The head office of the company is in
Tokyo, Japan, and the branch offices are
at London (4 Lloyds Avenue, E.C.),
Bombay, Calcutta, Hongkong, Shanghai,
Tientsin, Keelung, Nagasaki, Moji, Kobe,
Osaka, Yokohama, Hakodate, Otaru,
Seattle, and New York, while its agents
are to be found in all parts of the world.

1. 8AUGOR LIGHTHOUSE. 2 HOOGHLY PILOT BRIG.

3 SHIPPING ON THE HOOGHLY IN THE NINETIES.

7^7

THE PRESS

"CAPITAL," LIMITED

HE weekly financial
andcommercial paper
known as Capital
was started in Cal-
cutta in November
1888 by Mr. Shirley
Tremearne and the
late Mr. W. H. Tar-
get!. The former was very successful in
the editorial chair, and the journal grew
rapidly in favour with the leading bank-
ing concerns, stockbrokers, and business
houses throughout Bengal. Mr. Tre-
mearne became sole proprietor in 1896,
and his capable conduct of the paper
greatly increased its reputation until the
year 1905, when he converted the business
into a private limited liability company
with a capital of Rs. 3,00,000, of which
Rs. 1,00,000 and Rs. 2,00,000 represented
ordinary and debenture shares respec-
tively, the latter bearing interest at the
rate of 7 per cent, per annum.

The revenue continued to increase
steadily, and annual dividends have, for
some years past, reached more than 30 per
cent.

In 1912 Mr. Tremearne retired from
the editorship, and was succeeded by Mr.
Pat Lovett, under whose guidance the
paper has attained an imperial position,
and has found support in every important
commercial centre in India.

Although Capital is primarily a financial
review, its pages are crammed with good
readable articles on political, social,
trading, and other items of general
interest.

In a comparatively recent issue, taken

promiscuously from the file, the following
brief particulars of its contents have been
obtained. The paper opens with a tren-
chant leading article on India's foreign
trade, in which comparison is drawn
between exports and imports at that date,
and in July 19 14, prior to the outbreak of
the European war. This is followed by
" The Week Abroad," wherein the writer
gives some straight talk on events con-
nected with the war, upon politics at West-
minster as they appear to Britons in India,
and upon important social events in
various parts of the world.

Next in order comes the usual weekly
" Diary of a Ditcher," which contains
crisp, and sometimes caustic criticisms of
men, women, and things as they are seen
by the editor from the window of his
sanctum, or as they are revealed to him
by " persons in the know." On succeed-
ing pages one sees contributions from
Bombay, Madras, the Assam tea valleys,
and other places, all of which deal in an
interesting manner with affairs of a
general character. " The Money Market "
is a most exhaustive review of bank and
other securities, of the balance of trade,
of exchange quotations, of the movements
of gold and silver, and other kindred
subjects. Then follow: Stock Exchange
notes, agricultural and commercial pro-
spects and reports, scientific miscellany,
general notes on Indian products, and re-
ferences to annual reports of a large num-
ber of public and private companies,
together with market, and stock and
share lists.

This paper was never more influential
and powerful than it is to-day, and there
728

is no paper published in India which is
so well known in other countries as
Capital, or which can give greater facili-
ties for advertisements relating to financial
and commercial concerns.

Mr. T. F. Tremearne, the son of the
founder, is manager in Calcutta, and the
correspondents in London are Messrs.
A. H. Wheeler & Co., of Temple Cham-
bers, Temple Avenue, E.C.

"THE ENGLISHMAN"

The UngHshman was founded in the
year 1821 under the title of John Bull,
and the first editor was a Mr. James Mac-
kenzie, who in his introductory address
proclaimed that the paper would be " the
supporter of Church and King, the con-
temner of private scandals, the counter-
poise of the pernicious influence of other
journals." Mr. Mackenzie, however, did
not last very long, and John Bull was
edited from 1822 to 1825 by Mr. Green-
law, a naval officer, who seems to have
combined with his editorial duties those
of the Coroner of Calcutta and of Secre-
tary to the Marine Board. He finally
resigned in order to make room for a
Dr. James Bryce, who was the first chap-
lain of the Calcutta Scotch Kirk. This
was the Bryce who made Bishop Middle-
ton very unhappy in the old far-off day»-
by theological disputations. It is stated
it was he who placed the gilt cock on the
top of the steeple of the kirk in order
that the kirk might crow for ever over
the Established Church. As might be
supposed Bryce was not to be controlled
in the editorial chair. He seems finally

CAPITAL

^^■^^m^

SSCL.

r=zz

IMPORTS

£=r

£lt»«EO

^--

^-\

^l^tMCUl

|..^^

wrtu Ml 1

■.^

■. „

S3:r

HIM

^-_ •

1, THE "STATESMAN" OFFICES, CALCUTTA. 2. "THE ENGLISHMAN" OFFICES, CALCUTTA.

3. "CAPITAL."

7i9

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

to have bought the paper, and then he
began a series of attacks upon everybody,
whether a Tory or no. Finally the East
India Company told him either to discon-
tinue the paper or leave their service.
Bryce then, in 1829, sold it to an agency
house in Calcutta, Messrs. Cruttenden &
Co., who appointed Captain Robert Adair
Macnaughton as editor.

In 1832 the firm of Cruttenden & Co.
failed, and the assignee decided to sell the
paper. In 1833 a purchaser was found
in the person of Joachim Hayward Stoc-
queler, a remarkable personality under
whose able editorship the journal flour-
ished exceedingly. Among his earliest
contributors was Charles Makepeace
Thackeray, an uncle of the novelist, and
the following passage occurs in one of
Stocqueler's diaries: —

" I found a suitable henchman in
Charles Thackeray, barrister by profes-
sion, nothing particular in practice.
Bacchus claimed him, and he had long
yielded to the seductive influence of the
rosy deity. In a word, he was drunk
every day of his life, and consequently,
never was employed by attorneys. He
despised briefs and adored brandy. Send-
ing for him I proposed that he should
join the staff and do the ' grievance' busi-
ness. The terms were ten rupees and a
bottle of claret for each leading article,
long or short. Every day at eleven he
came to the ofiice only half-gone from the
effects of the matutinal ' pick-me-up.' I
put him into a room with a sheet of fools-
cap, pen, ink, and the bottle of claret.
By I p.m. the article was written, the
bottle emptied, and the ten rupees sacked.
Thackeray staggered home. The edi-
torials were vigorous home thrusts. In
vino Veritas."

But apart from the literary ability with
which the paper was conducted, there was
another reason for Stocqueler's success.
To his personal beauty he added a great
charm of manner. In those days the

average newspaper man was a frowsy kind
of individual with no footing in society.
Stocqueler altered all that. He was in-
timate with persons who would not have
allowed his predecessors across their
thresholds. Lord William Bentinck was
quite fond of him and supplied him with
all kinds of information of the most pre-
cious kind. Other oflicials followed suit,
particularly the military, and presently
the paper came to be known throughout
India as the best-informed and most reli-
able of all the daily organs, a position
which it has never lost.

In 1843 Stocqueler sold the paper to
William Cobb Hurry. For twelve years
he managed its affairs with success, and
then came his great opportunity.

In 1857 the Mutiny broke out, and in
the course of a few weeks The Englishman
was recognized as the one exponent of
British feeling about the event. Owing
to the many military correspondents The
Englishman had all over India, its news
about the progress of the tremendous
calamity was fuller than that of any other
paper, and Hurry at his desk was able to
collate, comment, and criticize in a way
that drew everybody to subscribe.

By the time the Mutiny was over Hurry
had made for himself and for The English-
man a great name. The more peaceful
days that followed the hunting down of
the last rebel Hurry found somewhat dull
after the stimulation of Delhi and Luck-
now, and having lost interest in India he
sought to dispose of The Englishman, now
become, of course, a very valuable pro-
perty. People were, naturally, only too
anxious to have a share in it, and Hurry
was soon able to arrange to sell the greater
part of the paper to Mr. J. O'B. Saunders
and a somewhat extraordinary individual
known as " Walter Brett." Hurry kept
a small share for himself. He died in
England in 1862.

Mr. Saunders remained at the
manager's desk till 1867. Then, the

finances of the paper being firmly estab-
lished he went home for two years. But
the ruling passion was so strong in him
that he started a political newspaper called
The Day in London. It did not last long,
however, for the writers concerned in it
were not journalists or literary men but
very selfish politicians. In 1869 Saun-
ders returned to India. He found The
Englishman so well established in the
popular favour that it was hardly neces-
sary for him to retain any of the duties of
management, and he went home again very
shortly afterwards. He paid one more
visit to India in 1876, and died at Ken-
sington, in London, on June 7, 1879, leav-
ing his son, the late Mr. J. O'B. Saunders,
a chief proprietor of The Englishman.

Mr. J. O'B. Saunders, the second, was
in active charge down to the year 1904,
and under his rule the paper continued to
exert a great influence.

In 1903, on the occasion of Lord
Curzon's great Durbar, Mr. Saunders
was decorated with the CLE. He was
twice married, first to the daughter of the
late Mr. Justice Barrow, and his only son,
Mr. J. O'B. Saunders (the third) is now
managing director of The Englishman.
His second marriage was with the widow
of the late Mr. W. Brown, advocate. He
died at Naples in 1905 after a linger-
ing illness, which he bore with great
patience.

For nearly a hundred years the paper
has been established in the affection and
respect of the British community in India
as the faithful exponent of the British
point of view and the frank and fearless
critic of the Government. In pursuance of
that tradition it has vigorously opposed
any agitation from the outside, or any
policy on the part of the Government that
might tend to destroy or weaken the
British character of the administration in
India.

Mr. J. A. Sandbrook is the present
capable editor.

THE FOREIGN AND COLONIAL COMPILING AND

PUBLISHING COMPANY

' I "HE main purpose of these volumes is
•*■ to arouse in the English-speaking
peoples an intelligent and enduring in-
terest in the King's Dominions and
Colonies beyond the seas, and at the same
time to give such an accurate picture of

each section of the Empire as shall make
them standard works of reference for all
who desire a fuller knowledge of the enor-
mous resources and commercial possi-
bilities of each Colony. To this end the
coMipilcrs and editors have kept in view

73°

the Rt. Hon. Joseph Chamberlain's words,
spoken when he held office as Secretary
of Stale for the Colonies, and after he had
returned from his colonial tour. "Books,"
said Mr. Chamberlain, " were required on
the Colonies both for use within them-

THE PRESS

selves and at home and aliroad; books
giving the history, commerce, industries,
and resources of each country; to prove
what industrial enterprise could attain
under new and sometimes hard con-
ditions."

Mr. Somerset Playne, F.R.G.S., foun-
der of the Foreign and Colonial Compil-
ing and Publishing Company, who is the
compiler of these volumes, has now been
associated with this class of publication
for several years. The books themselves
are compiled from information gathered
by personal calls on planters, merchants,
and industrial concerns, the country jour-
neys involving many thousands of miles
of travel and the expenditure of a large
amount of money, and the information
thus gained together with any opinions
expressed by the person interviewed, is
entered in the work under that person's
name. It is confidently believed that the
first-hand information thus carefully col-
lected, and presented in sumptuous and
attractive form, with all the aid that lavish
and artistic photographic illustration can
give, will not only place the country before
the world in a clearer and more favourable
light, and in truer perspective than ever
before, by fully revealing the general
grandeur of its scenery and the magnifi-
cence of its resources, but will ipso facto
render most material aid in its social and
industrial progress and development.

Volumes have been graciously accepted
by His late Majesty King Edward VII,
His Majesty King George V, and H.R.H.
the Duke of Connaught; while the
Colonial and Foreign Offices, as well as
the Governments of the various Colonies
and Possessions, have invariably taken a
keen interest in these books, having
assisted by granting free railway passes
and by the purchase of numerous copies
of the works for libraries and general
distribution.

The Foreign and Colonial Compiling
and Publishing Company was started by
-Mr. Playne in igo8 for the purpose of
compiling a standard work of reference on
British East Africa. This volume was
])ractically "off his own bat," but later
works were produced with the very able
assistance of Mr. F. Holderness Gale,
who collaborated as Editor until his
lamented death in 19 14, when the ser-
\ ices of Mr. Arnold Wright, our present
I'^ditor and Historian, were' secured,
" East Africa," which received the highest
encomiums from the London and Colonial
Press, was followed in 1910 by " Cape
Colony," which is a volume of some

800 pages, illustrated with upwards of
2,000 photographs. At this period Mr.
J. W. Bond joined the staff as a compiler,
and Mr. R. Vintcent Solomon was ap-
pointed to the post of chief clerk and
secretary, while later the literary depart-
ment was strengthened by the addition of
Mr. J. W. Kiddall. The services of
Capt. H. H. F. Stockley, F.R.G.S., were
then secured as another compiler for the
" Orange Free State " volume, and as
soon as this was completed the whole staff
sailed for New Zealand, via Australia, and
thence to India.

A few words regarding the mode of
travelling in the various countries which
were visited may be of interest. As far
as the volume on East Africa was con-
cerned, the whole of the work of compila-
tion was done by Mr. Playne, not in a
luxurious saloon railway car, nor even in a
comfortable motor-car, but upon the back
of a mediocre mule. The photographers,
too, had to rely on this not too comfort-
able beast of burden, or, in the alternative,
they had to make use of the ordinary
" push-bike." Many adventures with lions
and rhinos were recorded, and long jour-
neys over native tracks through the bush
frequently involved a night in the open
without food, and also with grave doubts
as to one's whereabouts.

Numerous hardships were experienced
by the staff in Cape Colony and in the
Orange Free State; nights had to be
spent on the bleak hills, in unsavoury
sheep sheds, or under the Cape cart
(which, however, is the most satisfactory
method of transit in those parts); and
one photographer was snowed up for a
week on the mountains above Cathcart,
without any means of communication. In
negotiating the treacherous drifts across
rivers serious dangers were encountered,
and on more than one occasion it was a
case of stripping off one's clothing and
of taking to the water in order to turn
the frightened horses and bring the outfit
safely to the opposite bank. Many break-
downs occurred to the Cape carts and
horses, owing mainly to the abominable
state of the mountain roads; but when it is
realized that members of the staff covered
some 15,000 miles, it will be considered
singularly fortunate that mishaps were un-
attended by any serious results. New
Zealand supplied a new set of experiences
and extended travelling under novel con-
ditions was again the lot of the compilers;
but thanks to the generous hospitality and
freel/ tendered assistance of the warm-
hearted inhabitants of the Dominion,

rough paths were smoothed out and the
work in hand was carried out under the
pleasantest conditions. Southern India
was the next field of operations, and here
a tour of over 7,000 miles was done in a
motor-car by Mr. Somerset Playne
throughout the Anamalais, Nilgiris,
Wynaad, and the West Coast, Coorg,
and Mysore; while Mr. J. W. Bond and
other members of the staff motor-cycled
throughout Cochin, Travancore, and most
parts of the Madras Presidency.

The life of the compilers, and to a cer-
tain extent that of the photographers, is
one of constant change and excitement.
Many a bad spill, resulting in a long walk,
has occurred; many a tyre has had to
be repaired in pelting rairi or in excessive
heat; and it will be admitted that motor-
ing on unknown, and frequently bad,
roads at night when flocks of sheep or
herds of cattle are lying about, must
occasionally be attended by disaster. To
suddenly round a corner and your head-
lights to show a wild elephant evidently
contemplating whether to take your car
as a personal insult, or to retire into the
jungle, is far from being a pleasant ex-
perience; and yet this happened on more
than one occasion, but luckily the jungle
was in each case favoured. But, after
all, these misfortunes, though distressing
at the time, are usually a source of amuse-
ment subsequently.

SOMERSET PLAYNE, F.R.G.S.

The compiler of works of the magni-
tude of " East Africa," " Cape Colony,"
" Orange Free State," " New Zea-
land," " Southern India," and " Bengal
and Assam : Behar and Orissa : their
History, People, Commerce, and Indus-
trial Resources," must of necessity have
had considerable experience of the world,
and Mr. Somerset Playne has had a more
varied career and can boast of a wider
acquaintance with the Britains beyond the
Seas than most men. He was educated
at Clifton College, and at St. Edward's
School, Oxford. At the age of nineteen
he paid his first visit to the United States,
spending most of his time in the West,
and indulging for some months in the
joys of ranching and cowboy-life. He
was called home to England, but the
spirit of adventure reasserted itself, and
Mr. Playne sailed for South Africa, where
he spent some time on Angora goat and
ostrich farms. The Matabele Rebellion
was then a very recent memory, and

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Francistown was still the terminus of the
railway; but Mr. Playne went up-country
to the then new Rhodesia, and at Inyati
took a hand in big-game shooting, store-
keeping, and trading.

After having travelled in every part of

German East .Africa, and on his return
from this trip he made the acquaintance
for the first time of British East Africa,
travelling over the Uganda Railway from
Mombasa to Voi, which was then the
terminus of the line.

SOMERSET PLAYNE, F.B.G.S ,

COHFILER OF "EAST AFRICA," " CAPE COLONY," " NEW^EALAND," "SOUTHERN INDIA,"
" BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA," ETC.

Africa south of the Zambesi, Mr. Playne Another visit to llic Old Country took

took part, in 1899, in an expedition into place, and then Mr. Playne templed for-

tune for the second time in South Africa,
meeting with experiences not infrequently
the lot of those who venture in " new "
countries. Later he joined a firm which
was engaged on the compilation of an
encyclopa.-dic work on Natal, and on the
completion of the task in that colony he
returned to England to superintend
the passing of the volume through the
press.

For tlic same firm Mr. Playne later
supervised the compilation of books on
Ceylon, the Federated Malay States,
Hong Kong and Shanghai, and visited
Java, Labuan, Borneo, and Formosa.
Then, having meanwhile severed his con-
nection with the business which had
carried him to the Far East, he travelled
through India, and, sailing from Bombay,
arrived in British East Africa in Novem-
ber 1908. on which country he then
compiled his now well-known standard
work.

A trip to Europe via Cairo followed;
thence he sailed to Cape Colony, where
he arrived in March igio. Returning to
England in 191 i, the "Cape Colony"
work was subsequently passed through
the press. Having previously started on
the " Orange Free State " volume, which
had been carried on during his absence,
another trip to South Africa was neces-
sary; and after a stay of a few months
he sailed, in 19 12, for Australia, and
later proceeded to New Zealand in order
to compile his well-known work on that
Dominion. From there he journeyed, in
September 191 3, to South India, where
he covered over 7,000 miles in one tour
by motor-car for compilation purposes.
In 191 4 a short period of two weeks was
spent in England, and in the following
year he proceeded to the scene of his
recent labours in Bengal, Behar, Orissa,
and Assam, practically every part of
which he has toured, mostly by road ;
whilst in 1916, in order to join the ranks
of the benedicts, he again visited New
Zealand for a short period.

Mr. Somerset Playne is a Fellow of
the Royal Geographical Society, a Free-
mason, and a member of the Royal
Societies and Sports Clubs.

Is.

732

THE STEBN-WHBEL STEAMER "KITTY."

Beliiliging to the Fishery Department, Bengal and Behar and Orissa.
/V«?/i' by Moitditl, Indian Museum.

THE FISHERIES OF BENGAL AND BEHAR

AND ORISSA

By T. SOUTHWELL, A.R.C.Sc. (London), F.Z.S., Xatioxal Scholar 1902 ; Deputy Director of Fisheries
Bexual and Behar and Orissa ; Honorary Assistant, Indian Museum ; Late Scientific Adviser and
Inspector of Pearl Banks to the Ceylon Company of Pearl Fishers.

N Bengal the staple
article of food is
rice. Next in im-
portance is fish,
which takes the same
place in the dietary
of Bengalees as docs
meat in the dietary
of Europeans. It is estimated that not
less than 80 per cent, of the entire popu-
lation consume fish as a regular article
of food. During recent years, owing to
a variety of causes, the supply of fish
tliroughout the Province has undoubtedly
l)een insufficient. Consequently the price
has risen everywhere. Many Indians
believe that the diminished consumption
of fish, particularly among the poorer
classes, has resulted in the physical
deterioration of this section of tlie com-
munity.

In certain parts of Behar and .\ssan,i,
wheat, maize, and other grains are pre-
ferred to rice. It is well known that fisli
is more commonly eaten with rice than
with grain. Fish, therefore, is not so ex-
tensively consumed in Behar and parts

of Assam, its i)lace being taken by meat.
It is possible that the general or entire
absence of fish in many parts of Behar
and Assam has necessitated this change
in the two principal foodstuffs.

Tlie first investigations into the fisheries
of Bengal were initiated by Dr. Buchanan,
who joined the Last India Company's
service in 1794. He at once commenced
incpiirics into the " Fishes of the Ganges,"
and published his report thereon in the
year 1822. About the year 1840 Dr.
M'Clelland contributed an excellent
account on " Indian Carps," and did
useful work on the Salt Lake Fishories
situated near Calcutta. Some years later
Edward Blythe, who was Curator of the
Asiatic Society of Bengal from 1841 to
1862, published an account of the ray, or
skate fishery.

In 1808 tlie Government of India
deputed Surgeon-Major Francis Day to
investigate the effects of the anicuts or
weirs on the fisheries in the Madras Presi-
dency. The inquiry was subsequently
generalized and extended to Orissa and
Lower Bengal, and eventually over the

733

whole of the Indian Empire. The monu-
mental work of Dr. Day rejiresents the
first serious attempt made in India to-
wards the improvement of the fisheries.
The work continued until the death of Dr.
Day, in the year 1889. So far as the
Provinces of Bengal and Behar and Orissa
are concerned, no further work was done
on the fisheries until the year 1906.

During this interval, however, very
great additions to our knowledge of the
deep-sea fishes in the Bay of Bengal were
made by Colonel Alcock, I. M.S., Surgeon
Naturalist to the Indian Marine Survey,
and, later, Superintendent of the Indian
Museum.

In 1906 Mr. K. G. Gupta, C.S.I.,
I.C.S. (now Sir K. G. Gupta), a senior
member of the Board of Revenue, Bengal,
was placed on special duty by the Govern-
ment of Bengal in order to inquire into
the fisheries of this Province and its fish
supply, and his final reports were placed
before Government in 1908. As a result,
a steam trawler was purchased with the
object of surveying the marine fisheries
in the Bay of Bengal. Dr. Jenkins, of the

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

Lancashire Sea Fisheries, conducted the
inquiry, which extended over the greater
part of two years. On the return of Dr.
Jenkins to England in 19 lo, the Depart-
ment of Fisheries was amalgamated with
the Department of Agriculture. The
Director of Agriculture thus became
Director of Fisheries. The present
Deputy-Director of Fisheries assumed
charge of the Department in December
191 1, and is assisted by two Superinten-
dents of Fisheries (who have had some
training in Europe and America) and a
temporary officer with the title of Zoo-
logical Assistant. It is now proposed to
separate the Department of Fisheries from
the Department of Agriculture, and to
create a new and special post of Director
of Fisheries.

The work of the Department extends
over the two Provinces of Bengal and
Behar and Orissa. A special stern-wheel
steamer has been provided for work in
the shallow rivers and in the delta of the
Ganges.

Until quite recently the Fisheries of
Bengal were entirely neglected, owing
principally to the fact that their value was
not appreciated. The establishment of a
Fishery Department may be taken as an
indication that Government have at last
recognized the economic importance of the
fishery resources of the Province. Exclud-
ing Assam, the area over which the
Department works, together with the
population according to the census of
191 1, is given in the following table: —

Locality.

Number

of
Disliicts.

Area in
Square Miles.

Population.

Bengal ...

Behar and 1

Orissa j

27
21

84,092
111,829

46,305,642
38-740,935

Total ...

195.921

85,046,577

In addition, the potential marine fisheries
cover an area of over 40,000 square miles.

The area covered by the British Isles
is, roughly, 121,000 square miles, and the
population, in 1911, was about 45,141,000
persons. It will thus be seen that the
area covered by the Provinces of Bengal
and Behar and Orissa is more than one
and a half times that of the British
Isles, and the population is almost
double.

We have no means of estimating the
total quantity of fish caught per annum
in the Province. Calcutta is the great
fish emporium, and practically all the

catches from the larger fishing centres are
sent to Calcutta for disposal. The quan-
tity of fish imported into Calcutta from
all sources and by all routes (railways,
roads, and boats) for the year ending
March 31, 1916, amounted to 8,822 tons.
The following table serves to show the
general inadequacy of the supply: —

It will be obvious that, with the enor-
mous fishery areas just named, a shortage
in the fish supply indicates a lamentable
mismanagement of the potential resources
of the Province. That the supply i-
inadequate is admitted. Many causes
have contributed to bring about this un-
fortunate state of affairs. In the first

Popul.ition.

Tot.ll Quantity

available

per Annum.

Averajic Quantity
Value available per Head
per Annum.

England and Wales ... 35,000.000
Calcutta 900,000

Maunds.
21,966,720

240,143

Rs.

10,009,900 0-63 md. = 50 lb.
4,802,860 027 md. = 21 lb.

It is thus clear that, other things being
equal, the supply of fish in Calcutta is,
roughly, three-sevenths of what is avail-
able over the whole of England and
Wales. Outside Calcutta (that is, in the
Province generally) the supply falls much
below the figure for the city above. Yet
Bengal is rich in waterways, as are also
the Provinces of Assam and Behar and
Orissa, and the potentialities are enor-
mous. The coast-line of Orissa, from the
mouth of the Chilka Lake to Contai, is,
roughly, 250 miles in length, while that
of Bengal is about 400 miles, measured
in a straight line drawn cast from Contai
to Chittagong. The Sunderbuns area
comprises 5,700 square miles. In the dry
season the river area of both Provinces
is not less tlian 3,300 square miles, and
during the rains the area is very much
greater. The Chilka Lake covers an area
of 344 square miles. It is difiicult to
estimate the area occupied by jhecls, irri-
gation canals, and other waterways, but
it is considerable. Finally, it should be
remembered that in Bengal there are not
less than 100,000 tanks in which fish are
cultivated to a greater or less extent.
Until quite recently it was considered a
religious duty for every well-to-do Hindu
or Mahommedan in Lower Bengal to dig
a tank for the benefit of man and beast,
but latterly the practice has fallen into
desuetude, and even existing tanks are
badly neglected. In some districts it is
impossible to construct a house, except
perhaps on the bank of a river, without
first digging a tank and utilizing the earth
for elevating the site. Hence it is that
tanks are so numerous. The tanks are
usually square or rectangular. If exca-
vated by a Hindu, the longer side runs
from north to south, while if excavated
by a Mahommedan, the longer side is
from east to west.

734

place, it should be remeinbered that, until
a few years ago, no official interest was
taken in the fisheries beyond the realiza-
tion of revenue. There are practically
no fishery regulations operative in Bengal.
The Bengal .A.ct No. II of 1882 relates to
laws regarding embankments and water-
courses, and is of no direct importance
so far as the fisheries are concerned. Act
No. IV of 1897 applies to the whole of
India except Burma. This Act merely
prohibits the dynamiting and poisoning
of waters in order to kill fish, but it
empowers Local Governments under
certain conditions to frame rules with
reference to the following points: (a) The
erection and use of fixed engines, {b) the
construction of weirs, (c) kinds of nets
to be used and the methods of using them,
and {d) prohibiting all fishing in any
specified water area for a period which
may not exceed two years.

Unfortunately, up to the present no
rules have been framed under this Act
either in Bengal or Behar and Orissa.

It will be observed that this Act does
not provide for close seasons for any
species of fish, nor are any regulations
laid down designed to prevent the indis-
criminate capture and sale of fry or brood
fish.

The absence of suitable administration
has resulted not only in a serious
deterioration of the fisheries, but also in
Government having lost control over con-
siderable fishery areas, particularly in the
Sunderbuns, owing to the establishment of
prescriptive rights. In consequence of the
Permanent Settlement Act, further extru-
sive river fisheries are now owned by
Zemindars. The river fisheries at present
owned and controlled by Government
probably do not represent more than
one-fifth of the total fishery area.
Further, the irrigation schemes of the

THE FISHERIES OF BENGAL AND BEHAR AND ORISSA

Province, initiated for the benefit of
cultivators, have had a most disastrous
effect on the fisheries ; for, during the
rains, when the principal food-fish of the
Province breed, their eggs and fry are
carried in immense numbers into the
paddy-fields, where they are lost. Lastly,
the absence of fishery laws has left un-
checked the ravages of men. Undoubtedly
there are other minor contributory causes,
but they need not be detailed here.

varying periods. The right to fish may
be sold by public auction, or a private
treaty may be concluded. The lessee of
the fishery, practically in every case, sub-
lets at a large profit, and this process is
carried on through several stages, until
the fishery right comes to be owned in
small lots. The last lessee, as a rule,
compels the fishermen to pay him a
nominal sum per month for the privilege
of fishing; and, in addition, it frequently

parane fena (" A middleman wears gold
ear-rings, but a fisherman wears rags ").
Calcutta is the principal fish market
of the Province, and to this centre fish
arrives daily from nearly all parts of
Bengal, and also from certain places in
Behar and Orissa. The price of fish can
be gathered from the following statement,
which shows the retail prices in the Sir
Stuart Hogg Market, Calcutta, on August
I, 1916: —

1. FISHING ON LAKE CHILKA.

Unfortunately, in Bengal the occupa-
tion of fishing or dealing in fish is looked
upon as a business to be carried on
exclusively by the lower classes. There
are about twenty castes of Hindus and
nine social groups of Mahommedans
engaged in the trade. The whole
industry is thus left in the hands of
people with no capital, no education, no
initiative, and no business capacity.
Under such circumstances, it is hardly to
be wondered at that the fisheries of the
Province are undeveloped and the supply
scanty.

The various fisheries in the Province,
whether belonging to Government or to
private individuals, are leased out for

2. HILSA FISHING WITH CAST-NETS IN THE MAHANADI, NEAR COTTACK.

Photo by Southwell.

happens that the fisherman is obliged to
sell his catches to the lessee at no more
than one-fourth of their face value. Fish
is usually bought from the fishermen at
from Rs. 3 to Rs. 5 per maund, and sold
wholesale at Rs. 20 per maund, while
retail the fish usually realizes Rs. 30 per
maund. This has the effect of keeping'
the fishermen extremely poor, as a result
of which they are unable to procure suit-
able boats and nets. Consequently, many
fishermen have forsaken their calling and
have taken up agricultural pursuits. In
addition, this system of re-leasing keeps
the price of fish high and the pockets of
the middlemen full. A common Bengali
proverb is that Nikarir Kane soita, Jaliar

735

Fish.

Ks. as.

Bhetkes (Jhill) ...

per

seer

I 2

„ (cut pieces)

„

I 6

„ Isalt-waterl

1 6

„ (salt-water,

cut pieces)

„

I 12

Butter fish

Crab ... per lot of 4

Cutla

per

seer

Hilsa (Padmal

each

„ (Ganges)

„

Meergal

per

seer

Mullet

Pangash

)•

Pomfret

Prawns

„ (Bagda) ...

Rohu

„

Sea fish

I»

Large quantities of hilsa {Clupea ilisha)
arrive in Calcutta, during the rains, from
Goalundo, Khulna, Sara Ghat, Daulatpur,

Bengal and Assam, behar and orIssa

Kusthea, Belgachi, and other stations on
the Eastern Bengal Railway ; as well as
from Uluberia and Kolaghat, on the
Bengal-Nagpur Railway ; and Saheb-
gunge, Rajmehal, Monghyr, and other
places on the East Indian Railway.
Bhetki {Lates calcarifer) and topsi or
mangoe-fish (/*£>/ ('//(""("^ paradiseiis) come
from Diamond Harbour, Magrahat, Can-
ning, Dhappa, Khulna, Daulatpur, Budge-
Budge, Huruoa Khal, Chingrighatta,
the Chilka Lake, and from certain
canals.

Carp generally, panagash {Pangash
buchanani), Silundia gangeticas (Silond),
and other species are exported from
Ashuganj, Goalundo, Daulatpur, Khulna,
Paksey, Dacca, Narayanganj, Patna, Raj-
mehal, Bhagalpur, Sahebgunj, Lalgola
Ghat, and Murshidabad. Prawns, lobsters,
and crabs are imported to Calcutta from
Khulna, Chingrihatta, Ashuganj, and the
canals generally. Mullet, pomfret, sole,
and other sea fish come from Puri, Bala-
sore, the Chilka Lake, and certain canals,
and are also imported into Calcutta at
certain times of the year in considerable
quantities.

Oysters are available in small quan-
tities all along the Orissa coast and in
the Chilka Lake, but experiments made
to place these on the Calcutta markets
indicates that there is little or no demand
for them.

The fish most favoured by the Indian
population comprise the various carp, all
of which are fresh-water species. Among
the European population carp are seldom
eaten, but bhetki, topsi, and hilsa are in
great demand. The hilsa is a marine
species which ascends the various rivers
to breed during the rains. It occurs only
on the east coast, and has not yet been
recorded from the west.

Mr. Kemp, of the Zoological Survey of
India, says that the shrimps commonly
brought into the Calcutta markets for sale
belong to two families and to two different
tribes, the Pala-monldm of the tribe
Carideu, and the PenceidcB of the tribe
Penaidea.

The most abundant species in the
former of these families is Palamon car-
cinus, Faber, a common fresh-water form.
Other species of the same genus are
doubtless offered for sale, the most im-
portant being P. malcolmsoni, Milne-
Edwards, while even the much smaller
P. lemarrei, Milnc-Edwards, is probably
eaten in large numbers. Leander
styliferus, Milne-Edwards, a marine form
that appears to migrate into brackish

water at the close of the monsoon, is some-
times to be found on sale.

Of the Penaida, by far the most im-
portant is Penceus carinatus, Dana {P.
ae mi side at us of Alcock's memoir) ; but
many other species, such as Penceus
indicus, Milne-Edwards, Metapenaus
mouoceros, Fabr., and M. brevicornis,
Milne-Edwards, are also sold. Little is
known of the life-history of the Penaida.
The different varieties are only found in
brackish water, and are probably migra-
tory, travelling to the sea at the breeding
season, which takes place in the cold
weather.

Various species of terrapins and mud-
turtles are fished in Lower Bengal, and
at Rajmehal, in Behar.

The principal among these are: (i)
Trionychidce~{a) Trionyx hurum. Gray;
[b) Trionyx gangeticus, Cuvier; (c)
Chitra indica, Gray; {d) Emyda granosa,
Schoepff. (2) Testudinidce—{a) HardeUi
thurgii, Gray ; [b) HardeUi lineata.
Gray ; (c) Kachuga dhonagoka, Gray ;
{d) Kachuga smithii, Gray; {e) Kachuga
tectum, Gray.

In many cases the flesh is eaten
locally, but considerable numbers are
exported to Calcutta, where the retail
price is about 4d. per lb., or 8 annas
per seer. The catches in Lower Bengal
alone amount to no less than 100,000 per
annum.

Several species of mussels are also
fished extensively, both in Lower Bengal
and in the Motihari district in Behar.

The shells principally used in the
manufacture of buttons and ornaments in
Bengal and Behar belong to two genera,
viz. Parreysis and Lamellidens (family
UnionidcB). Representatives of the genus
Lamellidens have shells which usually are
not very massive. Members of the genus
Parresyia, Conrad, 1853, have shells more
rounded in appearance and more massive
than is the case in the genus Lamellidens.

The following are the species most
commonly used for button-making;
Parreysia corrugata (Muller); Parrey-
sia favidens (Benson); Parreysia dacccen-
sis (Preston) ; Lamellidens marginalis,
var. corrianus, Lea; Lamellidens narain-
porensis, Preston.

There are a large number of varieties
both of P. corrugata and L. marginallis in
Bengal, and in all probability many of
these varieties are also used ; but up to
the present a full and specific list has
not been prepared. In olden days the
shells were utilized for the manufacture
<jf pearl buttons and other ornaments. In

73''

Bengal this business is strictly a cottage
industry, but in Behar button-making
machinery has been imported. In the
Mursliidabad district of Bengal mussels
arc fished specially for pearls, but tlic
industry is a very small one, while in
Lower Bengal pearls of considerable valui-
are obtained. Throughout both Provinces
there is a great scarcity of good shell,
due in large measure to indiscriminate
and unrestricted fishing. The deteriora-
tion of the fisheries has also contributed
to a diminished supply, inasmuch as the
larval mussels cannot complete their life-
cycle in the absence of certain species
of fish. Hence a diminished fish supply
reacts directly on the supply of mussels.
In the Dacca, Pabna, Dinajpur, Rung-
pur, Nadia, and Chittagong districts
bangles and other ornaments are manu-
factured in considerable quantities from
the chank-shell [Turbinella pyrum), prac-
tically all of which is imported from
Southern India. The industry is of great
antiquity. The value of the shell imported
to Calcutta during recent years is shown
in the following table: —

1905-6
1906-7
1907-8
1908-9
1909-10

i,S5>385
2,39>o67

95,519
2,38,769
2,38,877

The number of shells imported per annum
is, roughly, 2,000,000, of which number

Ceylon furnishes... 1,650,000 shells
Tuticorin ... 250,000 „

Other sources ... 50,000 „

Total

,950,000

" At the present time the industry enjoys
considerable prosperity. The demand for
bangles suitable for low-caste Hindu
women and for the hill tribes is a stable
one, influenced by no fluctuations of
fashion and dependent only upon the
general well-being of the Province "
(Hornell, " Chank Bangle Industry,"
Mem, .A,S,, B, vol, iii. No, 7. Calcutta,

'913)-

The various methods of fishing prac-
tised in Bengal and Behar and Orissa are
too numerous to describe in any great
detail. They are all surprisingly effec-
tive, even if primitive. These methods
of fishing are to-day similar to those
practised a century ago, and no appre-
cialjle improvement is perceptible.

The cast-net is found throughout both
Provinces. Drag-nets, often provided
with a purse, are iilcntiful, anil are

THE FISHERIES OF BENGAL AND BEHAR AND ORISSA

utilized for the capture of carp in the main
rivers. Gill-nets are also numerous.

Purse-nets [sutyal] are remarkably
common, but perhaps the most interest-
mg net is the Kona Jal, or Labyrinth net,
utilized for catching hilsa in the Madhu-
mati River. It is really a drift-net fitted
with a large purse and two side walls of
net. The net is kept in position by means
of bamboo poles.

For catching hilsa two kinds of nets are
principally used. The poorer fishermen

gathering in their net on the way.
Occasionally 200 hilsa are caught in this
net.

In the River Mahanadi at Cuttack
cast-nets are used by hilsa-fishermen in
the vicinity of the anicut. Poles about
10 feet in length are firmly fixed into the
mud in an upright position. On the top
of the pole, and at right angles to it,
a piece of wood about i foot square is
fixed, and on this the fisherman sits
throughout the hot day ready to cast his

watch for shoals of fish entering a cul-
de-sac in search of food. When the
migration is complete, a bamboo struc-
ture (known locally as a jhan) is thrown
across the entry, and the enclosure is then
ruthlessly fished. Mullet and pomfret are
caught in large quantities by this method
in the Chilka Lake. Other bamboo
structures for the capture of prawns are
extremely numerous and varied.

In certain parts of Bengal and Behar
spearing fish is also practised, especially

1, 2. FISHING-BOATS ON LAKE CHILKA.

3. JHANS IN THE CHILKA I^KE.

4. JHANS.

have a net called the sangla jal. It is
elliptical in shape, and is controlled by
two pieces of split bamboo sticks ; a rope
is attached to the lower piece, and by
means of this rope the fishermen can feel
when a fish enters the net. The boat, with
the sangla net forward, drifts down-
stream, and the hilsa, migrating upstrcarr,
enter the net and are caught one at a
time.

The other net employed in hilsa-fishing
is the burra jal, or big net. This is an
enormous drag-net, cast between two
boats and drifted downstream between
them. When hauling, the two boats
approach the same point on shore,

Photos by permission o the Director, Zoological Survey oj India.

net when a fish is sighted. It is a common
occurrence to see the fishermen coiled up
asleep on the seat, while beneath them
the river flows swift and deep.

There are numerous other forms of nets,
but they need not be considered here.
Fixed engines, or traps, are in use every-
where in both Provinces — from the sea-
face to the smallest pool of water. They
are usually made from split bamboos, and
are frequently employed with various
forms of nets.

The jhan in use on the Chilka Lake
is an example of another method of
capturing fish. At certain times of the
year fishermen are specially deputed to

737

at night. A torch is placed on the bow
of a dugout, and fish, attracted by the
light, are speared alongside the boat. The
bow and arrow is said to be utilized occa-
sionally in the clear water of the Gandak
River. In the dry weather, when tanks
are frequently empty, certain Siluroidea.
bury themselves in the mud, and it is a
common sight to see the poorer people
digging in order to capture the burrowing
fish.

Mussels are fished by naked divers, and
turtles are frequently caught in large
drag-nets.

A peculiar method of catching turtles
is, however, practised near Khulna, but

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

only one species — viz. Trionyx gangeticus
(Khalu Kachim), which is a very gross
feeder — is caught by this method. The
Deputy Director of Fisheries, Bengal, has
seen this species feeding on the highly
putrid carcass of a buffalo, and the fact
that certain turtles are fond of eating
human corpses, left partly burnt in Hindu
cremation grounds, is well known among
fishermen, who actually utilize this fact
in capturing them. The method is as
follows: A man is covered from head to
foot with a white sheet, and is placed at
a short distance from the water, and a
trench being dug between them. The
party of fishermen then cry out, " Hari
bol " — a phrase usual when the dead
body of a Hindu is brought for crema-
tion. At this cry the turtles come out of
the water, and, in their attempt to get
at the supposed dead body, fall into the
trench and are taken by the fishermen.

Another method of fishing for turtles
in beels is common in Eastern Bengal.
During the rains, and for some time sub-
sequently, these beels are connected to
the main river or rivers by a series of
narrow, shallow, and tortuous channels.
As the rains recede, the turtles follow
these channels in order to reach the main
rivers. The turtle-fishermen select a place
along the course of such a channel where
there is a sudden bend, and a small exca-
vation is made in order that the water may
have a fall of about i foot. The turtles
migrate to the rivers during the night,
and on account of the narrowness of the
channel at the site selected, they are
obliged to travel in single file. The
method of fishing is as follows: A fisher-
man stands in the water close to the
■' fall " ; his hands are outstretched in
such a manner that any turtle movingi
downstream falls into his hands. When
caught, the fisherman immediately makes
over his catch to a second fisherman, who
is waiting near by: and after a time the
latter is relieved by another fisherman,
the catches being placed in the hold of a
boat which is kept in readiness. The
success of this method depends on every-
thing being done quietly, so as not to
frighten other turtles in the rear. It is
said that by this method as many as 600
turtles have been caught in one night at
one place, but the average catch is usually
about 100. It is further stated that only
Kali Kattua {Hardelli thurgii) is caught
in this manner, and this species is docile
when caught.

The transDort of the fish from the
various fishing centres to the principal

markets is effected in a variety of ways,
and in this connection there is room for
vast improvement. It should be remem-
bered that among the Indian population
fish which has been gutted and cleaned is
not saleable. It must be intact and whole,
just as obtained from the river.

Many of the bigger fishing centres, such
as Goalundo, Khulna, Saraghat, Monghyr,
Bhagalpur, Rajmehal, Balasore, Puri, the
Chilka Lake, Kolaghat, and others, have
excellent .railway facilities for disposing
of their fish. The East Indian Railway
taps the valley of the Ganges ; the
Bengal-Nagpur Railway offers facilities
for transport from the coast of Orissa,
Balasore, and Cuttack; and the Eastern
Bengal Railway embraces large areas in
Eastern Bengal where tlie most produc-
tive fisheries exist. Large quantities of
live fish and turtles are brought by boat
during the cold weather from Eastern
Bengal to Calcutta, through the canals,
the journey occupying from four to eight
days. The followijog statistics show the
quantities of fish imported to Calcutta for
the year ending March 31, 19 16, by the
means indicated ; —

fishing grounds, as in very many instances
the fisheries are situated several miles
away. In these cases the fish is carried
by coolies from the fishing grounds to the
railways, and during this time the fish
is exposed to the hot sun.

There are many important fisheries,
however, which are situated at a great
distance from the railway. In these cases
no means of transport exist at present.
Frequently there are no roads, or, even
where they exist, they are impassable in
the rainy season.

The Dhamra fisheries are situated 50
miles from the nearest railway-station,
and the journey by boat to Calcutta
occupies well over a day. The same is
true of many of the larger jheels. In
these instances it is clear that the develop-
ment and improvement of the fisheries
concerned depends on the initiation of
suitable methods of transport. At present
the fish is cured at such places and
exported as dried fish.

The estuarine fisheries rank next in
importance to the fresh-water fisheries,
and of these the Sunderbuns, comprising
the delta of the Ganges, and situated in

IVeight.

Names of Places from which Exported.

Maunds.

Seers.

Tons.

Cwt.

Lb.

Railways —

Assam-Bengal

242

108

Baraset-Basirliat Light

6,364

233

Bengal and North-Westerii

5.534

203

Bengal-Nagpur

22,207

815

110

Eastern Bengal

145.705

5,352

East Indian

9.025

331

Howrah-Amta Light ...

1,069

Howrah-Sheakhala Light

—

loS

Total by Railways

190,153

6,985

Steamers —

Calcutta Steam Navigation Company

2,732

100

Country Boats —

Calcutta Canals

31,542

—

1,158

By Road

15,715

557

Grand Total of Imports by all routes ...

240,143

8,801

Fish is very seldom exported in ice,
because in maily cases ice is not avail-
able, and even where it is obtainable the
cost is very high. No care is taken to
keep the fish fresh. It has already been
noted that the fish is never gutted, but,
in addition, it is often knocked about con-
siderably and exposed to the hot tropical
sun. It is not surprising, therefore, that
large quantities of fish are landed in
Calcutta in a semi-rotten condition, par-
ticularly in the hot weather. The rail-
ways do not always pass closo to the

the districts of Khulna and the Twenty-
four Parganas, are by far the most impor-
tant. The Sunderbuns comprises an area
of 5,700 square miles, made up of forest,
swamp, estuary, islands, and a multitude
of rivers which communicate with each
other by innumerable channels. This
enormous tract of potential fishing ground
is, however, comparatively unexploited,
owing to the general absence of suitable
transport facilities. Although fast
steamers (belonging to the India General
Steam Navigation Company) pass through

THE FISHERIES OF BENGAL AND BEHAR AND ORISSA

the Sunderbuns on their way to and from
Calcutta and Khulna, Goalundo and other
towns, they are seldom made use of. This
circumstance arises from the fact that the
service is somewhat irregular ; the
steamers frequently do not call anywhere
en route, and even if theiy did, the fisher-
men, having no agents, are compelled to
dispose of their fish personally, and this is
not possible unless they bring the fish
to Calcutta themselves. Hence in these
cases the present steamer facilities are
of little account. For the development
of these fisheries, suitable, capacious, but
light-draught steamers will be necessary,
and centres will have to be established
where the fish caught can be collected.
As the fishermen found a ready sale for
their fish, they would acquire better boats
and more suitable nets.

It has been pointed out that, as a result
of the representations made by Sir K. G.
Gupta in his report dated January 27,
1908 (where he urged the necessity for
a systematic fishery survey in the bay),
a steam trawler was obtained by Govern-
ment without loss of time, and within six
months was at work in the Bay. This
trawler, the Golden Crown, started on her
first trip on June 13, 1908, and com-
pleted her last voyage on December 17,
1909. The investigations made by that
vessel in the Bay of Bengal, and by the
steam launch lla in the Sunderbuns, were
carried out by Dr. J. Travis Jenkins, of
the Lancashire Sea Fisheries, whose ser-
vices had been specially engaged by the
Government of Bengal. The primary
object of the investigations in the Bay of
Bengal was not to supply the market with
fish, or merely to attempt to prove that
trawling operations in the bay could be
made commercially successful, but to
locate and chart the principal fishing
grounds, to ascertain what kinds and
quantities of fish were obtainable, and
where they were to be found at particular
seasons. The results obtained by Dr.
Jenkins are of great importance, and in
particular he showed that trawling could
be carried on successfully right through
the monsoon. Twenty-eight voyages were
made between June 1908 and December
1909. The kinds of fish obtained during
each voyage were determined in very
great detail and tabulated; the quantity
was also noted, and a comparison made
between the weight of the average daily
catches of thie Golden Crown and those
of other trawlers working in Iceland, the
White Sea, Rockall, Faroe, Bay of Biscay,
North Sea, Irish Sea, English Channel,

Portugal and Morocco, West of Scotland,
and off the coasts of Scotland and
Ireland ; and he showed that the results
obtained by the Golden Crown compared
very favourably with the results obtained
by the first-class steam trawlers in
England.

Dr. Jenkins also located some of the
best fishing grounds, and prepared a chart
showing the area which had been trawled
over, the nature of the bottom, and what
results had been obtained. He further
proved that sea fish could be landed in
a fresh condition in Calcutta from places
as distant as Akyab and Santapillai.

It will therefore be seen that the Pro-
vinces of Bengal and Behar and Orissa
rely for their supply on the fresh-water
fisheries, supplemented by catches from
the estuaries and small consignments from
the foreshore fisheries. The deterioration
of the fresh-water fisheries has been very
marked during recent years, and the
factors which have conduced to bring
about this result are numerous. Reference
has been made to the bad effects which
the various irrigation schemes have on the
fisheries. Througliout India agriculture
has been developed at the expense of the
inland fisheries without even a passing

PRAWN TRAPS.

I'hoto by pirmtssion oj the Director, Zoclosical Siin'ry ol hfiia.

It has been ascertained that the area
covered by the potential marine fisheries
is, roughly, 40,000 square miles, and it
will be obvious that over such a vast area
the supply must be wellnigh inex-
haustible. Foreshore fishing is practically
confined to Balasore, Puri, and Dhamra.
No further direct work on marine fisheries
has been possible since Dr. Jenkins con-
cluded his observations, as no steamer was
available. It is very unfortunate that,
although six years have elapsed since
Government published the results of these
inquiries, capitalists in Calcutta have not
yet taken up these fisheries, which there-
fore remain totally unexploited ; and it
is improbable that they will ever be in
a thoroughly satisfactory condition until
the marine resources have been opened
out.

739

thought for their well-being, and in this
country it is hardly possible for these
two industries to develop side by side.
In order to understand how the irrigation
schemes re-act on the fisheries, it is neces-
sary to state that the eggs of carp (the
principal food-fish of the people of
Bengal) float near the surface of the water.
The fish breed in the rains, and at that time
the Province is flooded, the result being
that the eggs escape into the paddy-fields,
through the irrigation channels, where
they are exterminated by the ryots. The
anicuts over the Rivers Cossye, Sone, and
Mahanadi have an equally disastrous
effect. In the case of the Cossye, the
eggs and fry are carried over the anicut
into an area which practically dries up
six months later. The same is the case
with the Sone River, except that there

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORlSSA

the eggs and fry have a reasonable chance
of entering the River Ganges before the
dry weather sets in. In the case of the
Mahanadi, the fry are carried into
brackish water about 60 miles below. In
all these cases the upper reaches of the
river are being rapidly depicted, since
practically no fish going upstream ever
succeed in passing the anicut. In these
large rivers it is not too much to say that
the anicuts have practically ruined the
fisheries. Another factor tending to
deplete the fresh-water fisheries is at
work in such of the small rivers as flow
into the sea, or which open into larger
rivers in close proximity to the sea.

The case furnished by the Damudar
River is a typical one. This river is a
comparatively short one, and during the
rains the current flows at a rate of about
five miles an hour. The eggs of carp
are carried into the estuaries and
destroyed long before they are capable
of any appreciable movement. That such
is the case is indicated by the fact that
at places like Amta and Champadanga,
situated on the banks of this river, just
beyond the tide limit, millions of carp-
fry are actually removed year by year
for the purpose of stocking tanks. It is
clearly impossible to prevent the escape
of eggs or fry from the rivers to the
paddy-fields, or to prevent them from
being carried into brackish water and

lost ; but it will be obvious that this
extensive drain on the resources of both
the large and small rivers re-acts
extremely adversely on the fish supply
of the Provinces. Further, it is important
to note that the fisheries are entirely
unprotected, and the ravages of rapacious
man proceed unchecked.

The cultivation of fish in tanks is
carried on very extensively in Bengal.
The fish cultivated are Rohu {Labeo
rohita), Catla {Catla buchanani), Mirgal
{Cirrhina mirgala), and Calbasu (Labeo
€albasu). These fish do not breed in tanks,
but the eggs and fry are obtained from the
main rivers during the rains, and are sold
retail by itinerant vendors throughout the
Province. During July and August the
Department of Fisheries, Bengal and
Behar and Orissa, supplied to applicants
seven lakhs of fry for cultivation in tanks.
Usually, however, the cultivation of the
above species of fish in tanks is not so
productive as one might expect, the reason
being that the eggs and fry sold are not
exclusively those of carp. There is a
large admixture of predatory fish such as
Silundia gangeticus, Notopterus chitala,
various species of Ophiocephalus, Sacco-
branchus fossilus, Clarius magur, Wallago
attu, and several species of Macrones. In
addition, many of the fry sold as carp-
fry consist of small species which never
grow more than a few inches in length.

;=^^5?w^^

MAHSEEB WEIGHING 28 LB., CAUGHT ON A LIGHT 14-FT. FLY ROD BY
W. M. NUTTALL IN ASSAM.

Phc/o by N. Ji. ty.

740

The result is that the predatory fish pre-
viously introduced into the tanks devour
the new fry put in year by year, while
the small species, even if not devoured,
never attain a marketable size.

In some parts of Bengal the cultivation
is carried out in a more logical manner.
The fry are allowed to develop until the
species can be recognized; predatory fish
are then thrown away, and the carp, often
4 inches in length, are sold for cultiva-
tion in tanks. The latter method has the
advantage of stopping the introduction of
predatory fish into tanks, and further, the
carp-fry are placed in the tank in such
a condition that they can escape the
pursuits of predatory species.

The price of the small mixed fry is
about Rs. i/- per 1,000, while that of
pure carp, 2 to 4 inches in length, is
about Rs. 6/- to Rs. 8/-. These fry are
only available from the middle of July
until about the first week of September.

Something of the nature of the work
before the Department of Fisheries will
be evident from what has been written.
To increase the fish supply, action must
be taken to prevent wanton, wilful, and
unnecessary loss ; and further, artificial
cultivation of the principal marketable
species must be undertaken. Before this
can be done a knowledge must be
acquired of breeding-habits and means
suitable for artificially cultivating them
must be discovered. With this know-
ledge, simple laws for protecting them
can then be designed.

With reference to the fishing industry
generally, steps are being taken to ex-
clude middlemen as far as possible.
Where practicable. Government fisheries
are leased to fishermen as co-operative
bodies, and up to the present nine such
societies have been formed in Bengal.
These societies are, for the present, still
more or less dependent on the middlemen
for the disposal of their catches, but there
can be no doubt that in due time the
societies will dispose of their own catches
and arrange their own transport. The
movement is growing. Until these
societies were formed the Fishery Depart-
ment had no control over any fisheries
in the Province, but now the Department
is taking over the administration of
Government Fisheries where possible.
The movement has the further effect
of enabling the Department to get in
touch with the fishermen.

Progress is slow, but this is largely
because the staff is very limited and the
area so enormous.

PRIMITIVE METHOD OF TRAVEL,

THE BENGAL PRESIDENCY

HE geographical area
of that portion of
India known during
the past two or three
hundred years as
Bengal has varied
very considerably,
owing to numerous
wars which resulted in the acquisition or
loss of territory, and also to those re-
arrangements for administrative purposes
which the governing authorities from time
to time considered advisable. The early
history, therefore, of the Province, as it is
constituted to-day, naturally relates in
some measure to integral portions of
surrounding countries or States.

Speaking in a general way, however,
one may say that the earliest European
traders were Portuguese who, about the
year 1530, were found at Chittagong, in
the extreme eastern portion of Bengal,
and at Satgaon, near Hooghly, some 24
miles distant from Calcutta. But their
power was wrested from them by the
Dutch, who, towards the close of the
seventeenth century, were the greatest
European force in Asia. Holland's loss,
shortly after this date, of much of her
prestige in Europe seriously affected her
position in the East, and thus the English
and French were left as the dominating
commercial factors in India.

The East India Company, about the

year 1650, established factories at
Hooghly, Kasimbazar, Murshidabad, and
other places for the manufacture of silk
and muslins, and for trading in salt, salt-
petre, and other commodities.

Their proceedings were greatly ham-
pered by disputes with the Nawab of
Bengal, and frequent conflicts took place
between the troops of that ruler and the
forces of the Company, and in one of these
the factory at Kasimbazar was utterly
wrecked. These disturbances were caused
by interference with the Company's boats
as they voyaged up and down the
Hooghly, and by personal grievances
between the servants of the rivals. But
while these troubles were continually
occurring in a comparatively limited area,
neighbouring powers, including Mahrattas
and others, were invading Bengal, with
the result that the country was in a con-
tinual state of turmoil ; rulers were being
deposed and others appointed, and the
form of government which then existed
was entirely unable to grapple with the
difficulties of the situation.

The terrors of the reign of Suraj-ud-
dowlah, the Nawab of Bengal, which led
to the tragedy of the " Black Hole " in
Calcutta in 1756, have been too vividly
described by various writers to need
repetition ; and it need only be added that
invasions from without and disorders
within the Province were of constant

7^I

occurrence until 1766, when Clive left
Bengal in, as he described it, a state of
peace.

With the view of obtaining some defi-
nite method of administration — including
the collection of revenue — Warren Has-
tings appointed collectors in various
districts of the Province, and this step
was rendered necessary, as the East India
Company were only willing to sit at the
receipt of custom without undertaking any
responsibilities of government. During
the Governor-Generalship of Lord Corn-
wallis in 1786 the collectors were made
Civil judges and magistrates, and the
administration of 19 16 is the gradual
outcome of the arrangement th^n made.

The partition of Bengal into two
administrative areas, little more than a
decade ago, was productive of wide-
spread dissatisfaction, not only in India
but also in England, and a dispatch from
the Government of India to the Secretary
of State contained these momentous
words: "There was reason to fear that,
instead of dying down, the bitterness of
feeling would become more and more
acute." The reunion of Bengal, coupled
with the creation of a new Province
elevated to the status of a Presidency
Government, was confirmed by His
Majesty the King-Emperor at the Corona-
tion Durbar at Delhi in igri, and the
pronouncement, thus royally made amid

3E*

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

a. fanfare of trumpets and the thundering
of guns, produced a feeling of intense joy
throughout Bengal, as it foreshadowed a
more democratic form of government ;
and, to quote Lord Hardinge, the Viceroy
of India at that time, " it is certain that
in the course of time the just demand
of Indians for a larger share in the
government of the country will have been
satisfied, and that at last India will consist
of a number of administrations, autono-
mous in all provincial affairs, with the
Government of India above them all, and
possessing power to interfere in cases of
misgovernment, but ordinarily restricting
their functions to matters of Imperial
concern."

Bengal is bounded on the north by
Bhutan and the native State of Sikkim,
on the east by Burma and the Province
of Assam, on the west by the Province of
Behar and Orissa, and on the south by the
Bay of Bengal. The greater portion of
its area, possessing a fertile soil enriched
by copious rains, is primarily an agricul-
tural country, and abundant employment
is found for its dense population in pur-
suits connected with the cultivation of the
land. The great waterways are met with
chiefly in the eastern and central parts
of the Province, and hence it follows that
the land through which they pass is
subject to frequent floods, and is therefore
peculiarly suitable for crops of rice and
jute, which are grown to perfection. The
western portion is more hilly; irrigation
is necessary when the rainfall is slight ;
but rice (the principal product), barley,
maize, wheat, oil-seeds, and gram are
cultivated on an extensive scale.

Food crops represent about 85 per
cent, of the total area cropped, oil-seeds
yield from 4 to 5 per cent., and then
follow cereals, tobacco, and pulses. There
are about 140 varieties of rice, but those
kinds most in favour in Bengal are three
in number. Winter rice is grown on low
land from seedlings planted after the
rains of July and August ; early rice,
sown in April or May, either broadcas,t
or by transplants; and spring rice, from
seedlings planted on banks of rivers or
other moist ground in November, and
harvested in the months of March and
April following. It is said that the
northern and eastern districts of Bengal
are the largest jute-growing areas in the
world. Certainly it is a most valuable
crop for the cultivator, and the processes
of pressing and manufacture in the 40 or
45 mills on the Hooghly, near Calcutta,
give constant employment to thousands

of hands whose earnings contribute
largely to the wealth of the city. Maize
is a very valuable food crop, and it is
somewhat extensively grown, but it is
more productive in Darjeeling than in any
other district.

The cultivation of oil-seeds has int-
creased in recent years, but the value of
the oil expressed by machinery, and,
indeed, of the residuum too, has not yet
been fully realized.

Probably few agriculturists in India
have had more diversified experiences
than the planters of indigo. They have
witnessed 'times of steady progress for
a number of years, they have seen the
flotation and subsequent collapse of com-
pany concerns which ought never to have
been started, and the introduction of
synthetic dyes from Europe deprived
scores of them of a payable market for
their produce ; but they have once again
come into enjoyment of a greatly in-
creased demand — at good prices — for
indican produced on Bengal estates.
The cultivation of indigo is the subject
of lengthy notes on another page. Tea is
grown chiefly in the districts of Dar-
jeeling, Chittagong, and Jalpaiguri, and
while prices remain steady at a mode-
rately profitable figure, improved methods
of cultivation have increased the average
annual yield per acre.

Cultivated fruits include mango, jack-
fruit, guavas. custard-apples, and several
varieties of figs and melons ; while vege-
tables, grown in garden plots or in larger
areas near towns, comprise potatoes,
radishes, onions, carrots, cabbages, and
cauliflowers.

The Government of Bengal is taking
very active measures to improve agri-
cultural knowledge in schools by practical
demonstrations by experts, and by the
establishment of experimental farms, upon
which tests are made of various kinds of
seeds, and instruction is given upon the
highly important questions of the soil and
its constituents, and the necessity for and
the proper use of various kinds of
manures.

The cattle of the Province are as a rule
small in stature and of indifferent milk-
producing capabilities. Recent action by
the Department of Agriculture has
resulted in the crossing of cows in Bengal
with bulls obtained from the United
Provinces, and this has led to the pro-
duction of larger animals and to an
increase in the yield of milk. Horses.
with the exception of imported animals
or their descendants, would be more cor-
742

rectly described as weedy ponies of
stunted growth — the result of indis-
criminate mating and an insufficiency of
food in their early days.

Indigenous forests are a valuable asset,
but it is sad to reflect that during* the
time of the East India Company many
of them were depleted for the sake of the
value of timber alone, without a thought
for the indiscriminate manner in which
this destruction was carried out. Further
damage was done by natives who prac-
tised the system of cultivation of the land
by what is called in Bengal the " jhum "
process. This consisted, in plain words,
in making as much profit as possible out
of certain areas with a minimum of trouble
or expense, and in leaving the cropped
land in an impoverished state for future
occupiers. These men were in the habit
of selecting a portion of forest on the side
of a hill where the soil was productive;
they would fell and then burn the trees,
and subsequently sow seeds in holes in the
ground. When they had reaped their
harvests they would pack up their belong-
ings and proceed to another site and
repeat the operation.

The chief industry in Bengal is the
mining of coal, but the output at the
present time is exceedingly small when
compared with the vast potential wealth
of this mineral, not only in the fields now
being worked, but also in the areas which
are as yet untouched. Two or three
reasons might he advanced in explanation
of the fact that coal mining is only yet in
its infancy. One is that from time im-
memorial there has been an abundant
supply of timber for fuel, and that until
quite a recent period the necessity for
any other substance had not arisen.
Again, steamships visiting the ports of
India were in the habit of using Welsh
coal and industrial development had
scarcely commenced.

Thirty-five years ago the whole of India
produced less than a million tons of coal,
but since that date the railway companies
have greatly increased the length of their
several systems, and mills, factories, and
private houses have become consumers of
coal obtained locally. The total quan-
tity now raised to the surface annually
is about 1 5,000,000 tons, nearly 90 per
cent, of which is derived from the mines
in Bengal and Behar and Orissa. Other
minerals in the Presidency include mica,
gold, copper, tin, limestone, and granite
and other rocks.

Any history of Bengal would have to
be an exceedingly ancient book if it did

THE BENGAL PRESIDENCY

not refer to home industries of various
kinds. Going back no more tlian two
or three centuries, one finds that prac-
tically every village had its weaver, its
worker in gold, copper, brass, and other
metals, and some of the products of those
days are evidences of the artistic skill
of the people.

Cotton goods were in such demand in
Europe very early in the eighteenth cen-
tury as it is on record that, with the
view of increasing the quantity for ex-
portation, steps were taken in 1706 to
induce weavers to settle in the neighbour-
hood of Calcutta.

The cities of Dacca and Santipur were
famous for their muslins, and the beauti-
ful silk produced at Murshidabad, Kasim-
bazar, and other places was known
throughout the world, but the introduction
of machinery into factories in Europe has
almost entirely put these industries out-
side of the list of payable concerns.

Public interest in the manufacture of
silk has, however, been considerably
aroused in recent years. The Government
of Bengal has established sericultural
schools, has employed a silk expert to
introduce improved methods of rearing
silkworms, of reeling, dyeing, and weaving
silk, and has in other ways given incom-
parable opportunities to companies, or
to single individuals, to become profitably
employed in the production of silk.

Jute is worked into cloth for gunny-
bags, sails, quilts, and other articles, or
it is twisted into twine for the making
of ropes. It is not necessary to refer
here at any length to the present-day
weaving of woollen and cotton goods, the
pressing of jute and oil-seeds, the ginning
of cotton, the manufacture of earthenware
vessels, and to a large number of other
industries which are referred to elsewhere,
but one might just remark that the manu-
facture of brass and copper utensils
appears to be the only indigenous
industry which has not been affected by
foreign competition.

Bengal is well supplied with efficient
railway facilities, chiefly by the Bengal-
Nagpur, Eastern Bengal, and East Indian
Railway Companies; steamers belonging
to many of the leading shipping com-
panies connect Calcutta with the principal
ports of the world; and a really excellent
service for passengers and cargo is pro-
vided by small steamers, flats, and boats
upon the waters of the Brahmaputra,
Ganges, Mahanadi, Padma, and other
rivers.
The great rivers of Bengal — the Ganges

and Brahmaputra— with their affluents and
distributaries, provide excellent yet
economical means of transport for pas-
sengers and cargo; they contain a practi-
cally inexhaustible supply of fish ; and
they carry down towards the coast an
immense quantity of fertilizing silt, which
is deposited on the surface of the soil in
their respective deltaic areas.

The Ganges enters the Presidency on
its western boundary, and during its
easterly course its waters have occasion-
ally—owing to the alteration of channels
caused by shifting soil— merged with
those of the Ichamati, Jalangi, and the

sioners, containing 28 districts, and a
nuoiber of subdivisions which are usually
administered by magistrates.

The District Officer is the man at the
helm in administration, as all other magis-
terial, revenue, and police officers within
his area are subordinate to him. An Act
of Parliament of 1885 provided, inter alia,
for the appointment of district and local
Boards, whose members are entrusted
with the maintenance of roads, the control
of dispensaries, pounds, ferries, sanita-
tion in villages, the supervision of certain
schools and other matters of a similar
character.

A TEMPLE AT BISHNUPUR.
Upon the walls of which are inscribed the whole of the Ram.iyan, or Hindu Scriptures.

Photo by T. P. Sen.

Matabhanga Rivers, but it breaks forth
again and continues its flow until it is
met and stopped by the Brahmaputra.
The river below the point at which the
Bhagirathi leaves it is called Padma. The
Brahmaputra has its source in the Hima-
laya range, and it passes through Tibet
to the north of the eastern portion of
the Province of Assam, then southwards
through the Eastern Himalayas to the
north-eastern boundary of Bengal, and
finally discharges itself into the Bay of
Bengal.

Good roads are by no means plentiful,
as the alluvial soil found in so many parts
of Bengal is, by itself, unsuitable; and
as a supply of hard metal is only occa-
sionally available, the difficulties of
construction are very greatly increased.

Bengal, for administrative purposes,
comprises five divisions, under Comrnjs-

74.3

The teaching of the English language
in schools appears to have been under-
taken primarily by missionaries, but Lord
William Bentinck, Governor-General of
India about the year 1830, strongly sup-
ported similar work being conducted in
non-mission schools. Effect was given to
the Viceroy's proposal in 1835, when it
was decided to give instruction in higher
educational establishments through the
medium of the English language. A
Council of Education was appointed, and
arrangements were made for inspection
of schools, the holding of examinations,
and thp granting of scholarships. Rapid
development has taken place throughout
the Presidency in the number of efficient
educational establishments, and in the
percentage of children who are regidarly
receiving instruction. The University of
Calcutta was founded in the year 1857,

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

when regulations were framed for the con-
duct of examinations and the granting of
degrees, while technical and other colleges
and schools are now affiliated with that
Institution. The Department of Public
Instruction is under the control of a
Director, who is assisted by a competent
staff of European and Indian Inspectors
and other subordinates.

The Presidency comprises the following
five divisions, in which there are 28 dis-
tricts : —

1. The Burdwan division, in which
there are the districts of Burdwan,
Birbhum, Bankura, Midnapur, Hooghly,
and Howrah.

2. The Presidency division, with the
districts of Calcutta, the Twenty-four
Perganas, Nadia, Murshidabad, Jessore,
and Khulna.

3. The Dacca division, with the dis-
tricts of Dacca, Mymensingh, Faridpui,
and Backergunge.

4. The Chittagong division, having the
districts of Chittagong, Noakhali, Tip-
pera, and Chittagong Hill Tracts.

5. The Rajshahi division, comprising
the districts of Rajshahi, Dinajpur, Jal-
paiguri, Rungpur, Bogra, Pabna, Malda,
and Darjeeling.

There are also two Native Principali-
ties under the Government of Bengal —
namely, the States of Cooch Behar and
Hill Tippera.

Several towns and villages have been
described in the notes of places situated
upon or near to the railway systems which
intersect Bengal, and a further reference
to them is therefore unnecessary.

The Burdwan Division.

Burdwan, 67 miles distant from Cal-
cutta, and the chief town and civil station
of the district of Burdwan, is a thriving
commercial centre on the East Indian
Railway system, its principal industries
comprising the weaving of cloth for
Indian garments and the manufacture of
brass vessels for household purposes, and
of most artistic ornaments in gold and
silver. The beautiful palace of the
Maharaja and a group of more than 100
temples are worthy of a visit.

Asansol is an important junction on the
East Indian and Bengal-Nagpur Railway
systems, and as it is the centre of the
Raneegunge coalfields it has drawn a
large number of individuals from other
portions of Bengal, with the result that
an insignificant and almost unknown
village has grown into a thriving town of
pearly 20,000 inhabitants. Us locomo-

tive engine-shed is believed to be one
of the largest of its kind in the world.
The railway-station is 132 miles distant
from Calcutta, and is in the district and
division of Burdwan.

Bankura. — This town is believed to
have been named after an early settler
named Banku Rai, and credence is gene-
rally given to this tradition as some direct
descendants of his are living at Bankura
at the present time. The manufacture
of tassar silk is the chief industry, but a
considerable trade is carried on in the
export of rice, oil-seeds, lac, cotton, silk
cloth, and silk cocoons, and in importing
English soft piece goods, salt, spices,
tobacco, cocoanuts, and pulses. The
climate is dry and healthy, and the
delightful position of the town on the
north bank of the Dhalkisor River renders
it a favourite place of residence.

Bishnupur was the ancient capital of
the district of Bankura; but it was more
than that, as, according to the records of
native chroniclers, it was in very early
days a more beautiful city than the beauti-
ful house of " Indra in heaven." The
city was strongly fortified, and its walls
enclosed a citadel containing a palace;
but at the present time one can only see
extensive remains of these and of other
buildings, as masses of jungle have
assisted in the work of destruction. There
is, however, an old iron gun, loj feet
in length, which was given, according to
tradition, by a deity to a Raja, in addition
to the ruins of a number of temples, upon
which may still be seen curious repre-
sentations of birds and flowers.

The town is now a forwarding centre
for large consignments of rice, oil-seeds,
lac, silk cloth, cocoons, and cotton, and
very many of its inhabitants are employed
in the manufacture of tassar silk and silk
scarves and shawls.

Raneegunge is the centre of the most
important coal-producing area in Bengal,
and the extensive mining of this mineral
has led to the establishment of a number
of other industries, chief among which are
the manufacture of paper and of pottery
ware, together with articles suitable for
domestic use. The East Indiah Railway
system bisects this rich colliery area, and
its station at Raneegunge has an exceed-
ingly heavy 'traffic for coal, which is
forwarded to nearly every part of India.
The town has a population of more than
15,000 inhabitants, and is situated about
120 miles distant from Calcutta. There
are about 130 coal or coUiery companies
with mines in the Province of Bengal.

Tamluk is situated on a tributary of
the Hooghly, in the south-eastern portion
of the district of Midnapur. Ancient
Hindu history relates that it was a port
of trade when it was visited by the
Chinese pilgrim Fa Hian in the fifth cen-
tury, and that 200 years later it was
described by another pilgrim, Hiuen
Tsiang, as an important harbour, with 10
Buddhist monasteries, 1,000 monks, and a
pillar, erected by Osaka, 200 feet in
height. It is further stated that there
formerly existed a royal palace and
grounds which covered an area of eight
square miles, but the only traces of that
building to-day are ruins which, owing
to the lapse of years, are frequently dis-
covered at a depth of from 18 feet to
20 feet below the surface of the ground.
The present town has gained considerable
importance as a forwarding station upon
the Rupnarayan River for all kinds of
produce. A very fine temple, dedicated
to the goddess Barga Bhima, or Kali, may
be seen on the bank of the river just
referred to.

Almost immediately opposite Barrack-
pore, on the western bank of the Hooghly,
are the townships of Hooghly, Chander-
nagore, Chinsurah, and Bandel.

Hooghly is about 25 miles distant from
Calcutta, and was founded by the Portu-
guese in the year 1457; but nearly 200
years afterwards it became an English
Settlement, when the East India Company
opened a factory and made it one of their
trading stations.

Chandernagore is a much-favoured
riverside resort of week-end parties from
Calcutta. It became a French Settlement
in 1673, but during the wars of the
eighteenth century, when Bengal was
overrun by invaders from without and
rebels from within, it passed into the
possession of the British on two separate
occasions, but it was finally handed over
to the French in the year of Waterloo.

Chinsurah is visited chiefly on account
of some quaint old Dutch architecture
which is still in existence, although some
of it dates from the closing years of the
seventeenth century.

Bandel, about 25 miles distant from
Howrah Station, was in the hands of the
Portuguese about the year 1596, when
they built a fine monastery and church.
That building was destroyed about 50
years later, and was succeeded by the
imposing structure which is the principal
attraction of the town.

Howrah. — The name Howrah is usually
associated with the city of tliat name,

THE BENGAL PRESIDENCY

which extends for a distance of nearly
seven miles along the western bank of the
Hooghly, and is connected with Calcutta
by a floating bridge.

The district of Howrah comprises about
510 square miles, and the soil, rendered
fertile by the silt deposited by the
Gaighata, Bakshi, Khal and other rivers,
produces excellent crops of rice, wheat,
barley, maize, mustard, and jute. The city
participates to some extent in this wealth
of agricultural produce, but its real
interests lie in the 50 or 60 factories
which are situated either upon or near
to the banks of the Hooghly. These
include jute, flour, and paper mills, rail-
way workshops, engineering and iron
works, shipbuilding and dock yards, in all
of which considerably more than 50,000
persons find constant employment.

Howrah became a municipal town in
1862, and it has progressed at a very
rapid rate in the making of new streets
and in supplying the citizens with a
plentiful quantity of filtered water for
household purposes.

Its principal buildings are the termirtus
station of the Bengal-Nagpur and East
Indian Railway Companies, magistrates'
offices, civil courts, district board and
municipal offices, and the Howrah General
Hospital.

The inhabitants at the census of 191 1
were nearly 200,000 in number.

Ballabpur, a suburb of Serampore, is
about I 2 miles distant from Calcutta, and
may be reached from that city by train on
the East Indian Railway, or by one of the
comfortable steamers which ply daily on
the Hooghly. Two very important festivals
arc held annually, the first being the Stwn
Jatra, or bathing festival, and the second
the Rath Jatra, or car festival, which is
held six weeks later.

The god Jagannath is removed from
his temple at Mahesh, an adjoining vil-
lage, and placed in the temple of another
idol at Ballabpur, and after eight days
the car is returned to Mahesh. A fair,
held during the last-named festival, is
continued for eight days, and no fewer
than 100,000 persons assemble for
religious ceremonies, and for the sale
or purchase of agricultural and other
produce.

Ulubaria, 20 miles distant from Cal-
cutta on the Bengal-Nagpur Railway
system, is known in history as the place
where Job Charnock lived for some time
prior to his selection of the site of
Calcutta. It has a daily service of
steamers to Calcutta and Ghatal, and is

the starting-point of a canal leading to
Midnapur. There were about 5,300
inhabitants at the latest census.

The Presidency Division.

Alipore, the headquarters of the dis-
trict of Twenty-four Perganas, is a
southern suburb of Calcutta and within
the municipal limits of that city. Refer-
ence is made elsewhere to Belvedere
House and Hastings House, which are so
intimately connected with the political life
of Warren Hastings, but the village is now

the outlets of the River Ganges wend their
way to the sea. In earlier days many
ships belonging to the East India
Company were wont to anchor at
Diamond Harbour; and although the
village and harbour suffered very con-
siderably through the severe cyclone of
1864, a harbour-master and customs
officials are still stationed there for the
purpose of inspecting vessels proceeding
up the Hooghly River. Calcutta, about
30 miles distant, can be reached by the
Eastern Bengal Railway system, or by

A FESTIVAL AT PURI.

Phcto fiy T. P, Sen.

a very popular residential quarter for
Europeans who arc engaged in business in
Calcutta. It has also a very large and
well-supplied general market at Orphan-
ganj ; a reformatory in which more than
200 boys can be taught carpentering,
canework, painting, turning, polishing,,
bookbinding, tailoring, gardening, and
other trades of a similar character; and
a jail capable of accommodating about
1,800 prisoners, whose period of detention
is occupied in manufacturing gunny-bags,
cloth, and jute twine. There are no in-
dustries of any importance, but a very
considerable amount of business is carried
on in the native bazars.

Diamond Harbour. — The sub-division,
of which the village of Diamond Harbour
is the principal commercial centre, com-
prises about 1,280 square miles of land,
900 square miles of which are in the Sun-
darbans, a low-lying area through which

745

cart along a we!l-made road. Quarantine
accommodation for pilgrims arriving from
Mecca has been provided here.

Barrackpore. — One of the most charm-
ing drives in the neighbourhood of
Calcutta is along the splendid grand
trunk road to Barrackpore, on the eastern
bank of the River Hooghly, and distant
about 14 miles from the city. It can also
be reached by rail on the Eastern Bengal
system and by ferry steamers. On enter-
ing the spacious park of 250 acres,
beautifully timbered with fine old trees,
one notices the country residence of His
Excellency the Viceroy and Governor-
General of India. The construction of
the mansion was commenced during the
Viceroy alty of the Earl of Minto in 18 1 2,
but it was considerably enlarged by the
Marquis of Hastings. About 100 yards
from the house is a very fine Memorial
Hall in the Corinthian style of architec-

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

ture, which was built by Lord Minto in
1813 in honour of men who fell during
the capture of the Islands of Mauritius
and Java in i8io-ii. The cantonment,
on the northern side of the park, is
usually occupied by British regiments.
Barrackpore was the scene of a rising
among Sepoy troops in the year 1824, and
the mutiny of 1857 may be said to have
broken out there, when disaffected native
infantry were sent from Berhampore to
be disbanded. The men openly defied
their commanding officers, set. fire to
barracks, officers' quarters, and telegraph
station; but they were eventually sub-
dued, and were stripped of their
accoutrements and marched out of the
cantonment.

There is a fine club-house with splendid
tennis-grounds, while many of the river-
side bungalows are extremely picturesque.

Krishnagar City is near Krishnagar
Road Station, on the Eastern Bengal
Railway system, and about 62 miles dis-
tant from Calcutta. It was a thriving
and populous city in the days when
Bengal was enduring the bitter experi-
ences of the wars of the eighteenth
century, but it has now a reputation for
important industries, among which are the
manufacture of mustard-oil and the
making of mats, bricks, and other goods.
Many of its buildings are handsome struc-
tures, but special mention should be made
of a Government College, which is
affiliated with the University of Calcutta.

Santipur, in the district of Nadia, is
one of many unfortunate towns which have
lost much of their former prosperity
owing to outside influences. A century
and a half ago it possessed silk-weaving
factories belonging to the East India
Company, and its muslins were well known
throughout Europe; but the introduction
of machinery into mills in England
administered so severe a blow to those
industries, and the terrible earthquake of
1897 destroyed such a large number of
the principal buildings, that this last-
named catastrophe, falling upon people
whose pockets had already been lightened
by the decline of their chief trade, made
it impossible for a large number of them
to reconstruct their premises and to
regain their former prosperity. The
town, however, is the centre of a
prosperous district, and therefore a
considerable trade is carried on in
agricultural and general produce. The
inhabitants of Santipur at the latest
census were about 27,000 in number.

Perhampore' s place in comparatively

recent history arises from the fact that
some of the first indications of a rising
which eventually led to the mutiny in
1857 occurred there. Very few British
troops were in the town at the time, and
the trouble began among Sepoy soldiers
who had been maliciously told that sub-
stances insulting to the religious faith of
Mahommedans were used in the prepara-
tion of a portion of their food, but prompt
action by the officer in charge suffijced to
quell the disaffection. Another trouble
occurred about two years later among
recently arrived English troops, and
matters became so serious that officers
were threatened and fires were kindled in
the barracks, but a hasty summoning from
Barrackpore of a loyal regiment caused
the mutineers to desist.

The fearful earthquake of 1897 did ex-
tensive damage to Government and other
buildings, the loss being estimated at
about Rs. 60,000.

The only industries in the town are the
pounding of surki, the weaving of daris,
carpentering, and the making of bamboo
and cane furniture and other articles.

A very fine college, founded by the
Government in 1853, a large library
managed by a board of trustees, and the
hospital, containing 36 beds, should not
be overlooked by visitors. The town is
situated on the left bank of the Bhari-
rathi River in the district of Murshidabad.

The old city of Murshidabad probably
figures more largely in the history of the
establishment of British supremacy in
Bengal than any other town Ln the whole
of the Province, and an extended account
of its rise and decline are referred to fully
on another page. Suffice it to say that it
became the capital of Bengal in the year
1706, but the transference of power did
not protect it from assaults by the Mah-
rattas and other warlike tribes, as it was
frequently attacked and a large number
of its handsome palaces and other resi-
dences were razed to the ground. This
city was fbrmerly known throughout
Europe as the chief' place in India in con-
nection with the manufacture of silk, but
since machinery was introduced into
England a very serious check was placed
upon this industry.

Very little now remains of: the ancient
city, although the ruins which are still
visible are forcible reminders of the archi-
tectural splendour of the majority of its
buUdings. There are, however, many
places of interest to be seen at the present
day, among them being the magnificent
palace of the Nawab of Murshidabad, and
746

a mosque, built in the year 1723, in the
courtyard of which are a number of cells
occupied in former days by some 600 or
700 students who attended there for daily
reading of the Koran.

Plassey. — This name will recall to the
mind the cruel tragedies which were
enacted during the period when Suraj-
ud-daula was Nawab of Bengal, for it
was at that place that Clive, in 1757,
inflicted a crushing defeat upon the
Nawab's forces, just twelve months after
that tyrant had been the instigator of the
awful devilry connected with the " Black
Hole " of Calcutta.

This victory practically put an end to
a series of wars in Bengal which had
been almost continuous for very many
years, and it virtually proclaimed the
establishment of British supremacy in
India.

Azimganj, in the district of Murshi-
dabad, derives much of its reputation as
a busy centre for the import and export
of agricultural and general produce from
the fact that it has excellent railway and
shipping facilities for the forwarding of
merchandise to Calcutta and other
markets. The town, which has a popula-
tion of about 14,000 inhabitants, is
situated on the right bank of the Bhagi-
rathi River, and it is connected by river
steamers with Berhampore, the chief city
of the district, and with Lalhagh, Jia-
gunge, DhulLan, and other places in the
neighbourhood. Jain merchants, who are
numerous, have erected temples, as well
as a number of really well-built houses, in
which they reside.

K^ndi, in the district of Murshidabad,
would not be such an important place if
it did not contain the residence of the
Rajas of Paikpara. The founder of the
family — who, by the way, are devout and
wealthy Hindus — was Ganga Gobind
Singh, who amassed a very large sum of
money as banian for Warren Hastings,
and who spent a very large portion of it
in the erection of shrines and images of
Krishna.

Municipal government was granted to
Kandi in 1896, and it has a considerable
nujnber of the usual official buildings.

Jessore, the chief town in the district
of Jessore, practically consists of five
villages, which were amalgamated and
formed the municipality under the single
name of Jessore. It is a busy station on
the Eastern Bengal Railway, as the sur-
rounding district produces and exports
large quantities of bricks, cane and
bamboo goods, coir mats, and jute string.

THE BENGAL PRESIDENCY

One of the villages above referred to was
known as Chanchra, and remains are still
visible of the palace of former Rajas of
Chanchra, and of the rampart and foss^
by which the building was surrounded.
Khulna, about 107 mUes distant from
Calcutta, is the southern terminus of the
central section of the Eastern Bengal
railway, and for a hundred years or more
it has been a receiving depot for large
quantities of rice, sugar, betel-nuts, and
other produce grown in the neighbour-

Dacca, in the district and division of
the same name, situated on the northern
bank of the Burigunga River, and about
187 miles distant from Calcutta, was the
capital of Bengal in the year 1706, when
Murshid Kuli Khan (Diwan of the Pro-
vince) transferred the Courts of Law, the
Mint, and other public buildings to
Muxsudabad, which was thereafter known
as Murshidabad. The city at that time
contained a number of such imposing
buildings of beautiful architectural de-

them be solely kp^roprlated by the
Agents and Overseers to their repairs, and
the necessities of the indigent, who, on
their arrival, are to be accommodated with
lodgings free of expense. And this con-
dition is not to be violated, lest on the
day of retribution the violator be
punished." A fort was constructed in
1690, and although there were formerly
many buildings within its walls, there are
now only ruins, with the exception of the
jail, which is a modern building.

1. NEW GOVERNMENT HOUSE, DACCA.

2. NEW GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT.

photos by Dr. S, C. BaiurU

hood. It is on the verge of the Sun-
darbans, and in a northerly direction it
has a service of steamers to Narayanganj,
Madaripur, Muhammadpur, and other
places.

The Dacca Division.
Narayanganj is a railway-station on the
Dacca section of the Eastern Bengal Rail-
way Company, and there is also a regular
steam ferry service between the town and
Goalundo. Very large quantities of tea,
jute, and other produce are forwarded
from Narayanganj to all parts of Bengal,
and it now holds the position of chief
river port in the Province.

signs that it was frequently referred to
as the " Athens of Bengal." There was
the Great Kuttra, believed to have been
erected about the year 1645, w-hich,
according to tradition, was built as a
palace for Muhammad Suja, and an
inscription in Persian on one of its walls
may perhaps tend to confirm this legend.
A translation of the words is as follows :
■' Sultan Shah Suja was employed in the
performance of charitable acts. There-
fore Aboo-ul-Kasim Tubba Hosseine
Ulsummanee, in hopes of mercy of God,
erected this building, of auspicious struc-
ture, together with 22 shops adjoining,
to the end that the profits arising from

747

Dacca still possesses many signs of its
old-time greatness, although the great
earthquake of 1897 caused a tremendous
amount of damage. Nowadays one may
see the handsome Ahsun Munzul, the
palace of the Nawab of Dacca, many
beautiful mansions belonging to wealthy
Hindu Zemindars, as well as the Court
Houses of the District Commissioner,
judges, and magistrates, and the North-
brook Hall.

Excellent provision for educational
facilities has (been made, but the
principal establishment is the Dacca
Government College. The Chowk, or
market-place, for merchants and traders

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

tiom various places in the division is a
centre where a large trade is done in
agricultural and other produce.

Mymensingh, in the division of Dacca,
is situated in a rich rice-growing district
on the banks of the Brahmaputra River,
and it is one of those towns which have
grown considerably in importance since
the extension of the Eastern Bengal
Railway and the establishment of ferry
services on the waterways of Bengal pro-
vided a larger number of outlets for the
marketing of merchandise grown or
produced in that Province.

Kishorganj, in the district of Mymen-
singh, was formerly noted for the manu-
facture of muslins, and for the silk factory
owned by the East India Company; but
its chief importance at the present day
centres in a large festival, which lasts for
a whole month, held in honour of Krishna.
The town is about 13 miles distant from
the Brahmaputra, with which it is con-
nected by the Kunduli Khal River, upon
whose bank it is built.

Faridpur, on the bank of the Mara
(Dead) Padma River, is connected with
the immense waterways of Bengal, which
are of incalculable value in linking the
city of Calcutta with towns and villages
in the interior of the Province. The dis-
trict, bearing the same name, produces
large quantities of jute, rice, and oil-
seeds; and among the industries of the
town are the pressing of jute and oil, the
manufacture of gold and silver jewellery,
brass and copper utensils, and the making
of cane furniture.

Madaripur is a rapidly growing town
in the district of Faridpur, with two
markets in which extensive trading takes
place in all kinds of agricultural produce,
but chiefly in jute. Steamers run to the
Khulna terminus of the Eastern Bengal
Railway, and to Goalundo, Barisal, and
other places.

The Chittagong Division.

The port of Chittagong is five miles
from the mouth of Karnafuli River, which
flows into the north-eastern extremity of
the Bay of Bengal. The town is more
than a mile farther inland, while the dis-
trict of Chittagong has an area of about
2,560 square miles, its boundaries being:
on the north by Tippera, on the south by
Arakan, on the east by the Mill Tracts of
Chittagong, and on the west by the Bay
of Bengal.

About twenty years ago Chittagong was
the outlet for a very small quantity of
tea grown in Assam, or of produce from

the eastern portion of Bengal; in fact,
by far the bulk of the merchandise was
exported by means of boats upon the
Brahmaputra River. A new era dawned,
however, when the Assam-Bengal Railway,
commenced in the year 1892, drew traffic
from a large number of inland towns and
villages, and such statistics as are avail-
able show that the trade of the port began
to increase simultaneously with the exten-
sion of the line, until at the present time
the value of the trade is fully four times as
great as it was prior to about the year
1890.

The port, and town too, at the latter
date manifested few activities, and the
people themselves appeared to be indif-
ferent to the possibilities of the local
situation. With the completion of the
railway in 1904, it was found that
additional tea gardens had been, opened
by enterprising companies, and that
up-country traders were only too glad
to avail themselves of improved com-
munications for the import as well as the
export of merchandise. The consumption
of salt, sugar, oil, and piece goods — just
to mention some of the imports — has
grown rapidly in the past ten or fifteen
years, while the figures showing the
export of tea and jute in 1900 bear no
comparison with those of to-day.

There is, therefore, the prospect of a
much greater trade being carried on
through the port, provided that — as expert
opinion says — the authorities improve not
only the approaches, but also landing and
shipping facilities, in order that there may
be inducements for shippers to make far
more use of it.

An important memorandum on the con-
ditions and prospects of the Port of
Chittagong in matters of finance, adminis-
tration, and railway development (ex-
cluding engineering problems) was
prepared in 191 4 by the Hon. Sir Francis
F. E. Spring, K.C.I.E., at the request of
the Chairman of the Commissioners of
the Port; and in that document the writer
dealt in an exhaustive manner with the
port's area of influence, the Assam-Bengal
Railway in relation to the port, the
development of trade, and financial and
other questions; and he finally submitted
a series of suggestions which, in his
opinion, would, if carried out, result in
inaking the port and the Assam-Bengal
Railway (which is primarily interested in
the development of the trade of the port)
sound undertakings of a profitable
character. Several jetties have been
constructed, and the handling of cargo

is greatly facilitated by hydraulic cranes
of a modern type; railway lines are laid
alongside the sheds on the wharves, and
a complete system of electric lighting
enables a pressure of work to be dealt
with during the night.

The principal building in the town is
the railway-station, a fine red-brick struc-
ture, ornamented at each end by minarets;
and its really handsome appearance is
intensified by its background of dark
green foliage of palms, cacti, creepers,
and other trees and plants.

Chittagong is the seat of a Commis-
sioner, District Magistrate, and Session
Judges; and while it has a number of
large warehouses and commercial houses,
it also possesses several bazars, which are
not the healthiest and cleanest places in
Bengal.

The town still shows signs of its posses-
sion, in the early days of the sixteenth
century, by Portuguese, as there is a
ruined fort in existence which was doubt-
less once the home of pirates who infested
the seas in that portion of the Bay of
Bengal.

Cox's Bazar, it is said, received its
name from Lieutenant Cox, who was
appointed to control the arrangements
made for the support of Arakanese fugi-
tives who sought shelter in British
territory after their defeat by the
Burmans in 1799.

The weaving of silk lungis, or kilts,
is the chief industry carried on by these
people, but the demand for these goods
does not appear to be making any
headway.

Comilla is the headquarters town of the
district of Tippera, and is situated on the
main road between Chittagong and Dacca.
It suffered in earlier days from the flood-
ing of the Gumti River, but is now
protected by an embankment, which is
maintained by the Raja of Hill Tippera.
The town possesses a large tank, with a
circumference of about a mile, which was
constructed in the fifteenth century.

Much has been done in providing
educational facilities, among which may
be mentioned an Arts College, and a
school for artisans which is attached to
the Engineering College at Sibpur, near
Calcutta.

The Rajshahi Division.

Rampur Boalia, or Rajshahi, is the
principal town in the district of Rajshahi,
and as it is not many miles distant from
the towns of Murshidabad and Berham-
pore, which were, in the prosperous days

THE BENGAL PRESIDENCY

bf the East India Company, noted for
their manufacture of silk, it is not sur-
prising that a similar industry has been
carried on here for nearly 150 years.
The present town, situated on the north
bank of the Padma River, is of compara-
tively modern growth, but it has a popula-
tion of about 21,000 persons. Among
the principal buildings is the Rajshahi
College, which imparts an excellent
education up to the Master of Arts
standard, and a school for the study of
law and Oriental languages.

Dinajpore is the centre of an exceed-
ingly fertile district in which large
quantities of rice are grown, and it is,
further, a busy mart for the disposal of
all kinds of agricultural produce. The
town is situated on the east bank of the
Purnabhaba River.

Rungpur, in the district of the same
name, is one of those many towns in
Bengal which underwent spoliation, and
even capture, at the hands of ruthless
invaders, as it is recorded that a king of
Afghanistan compelled surrender of it at
the close of the fifteenth century. With
the supremacy of the British power, how-
ever, it has regained a position of com-
mercial importance as the centre of a
fertile district in which agricultural
produce of all kinds is extensively grown.
Its industries are not numerous, but they
mclude the making of bamboo and cane
furniture, carpentering, the husking of
paddy and wheat, and the pressing of
oil-seeds. Not far from the town are the
ruins of an old fort, constructed, it is
believed, by Nilambar, the last of the
Khan Rajas, and a shrine said to have
been erected over the staff of Muhammud
Saint Ismail Ghazi, Governor of Chora-
ghat.

flog-z-a.— This town, and Sherpur, are
centres of commercial activity in the
fertile district of Bogra. Remarkably fine
crops of jute, rice, sugar-cane, and oil-
seeds are grown; and the majority of
the people are in a prosperous condition,
chiefly owing ^o the wealth of agricultural
products, although a considerable number
are engaged in minor industries, such as
the making of bamboo furniture and
mats.

Pabna is a thriving town with about
18,000 inhabitants, the majority of whom
are employed in connection with the
export to Calcutta of large quantities of
jute, rice, pulses, and oil-seeds. This is
conveyed either by river boats through the
Sundarbans or by steamer to Goalundo
and thence by the Eastern Bengal Rail-

way. Pabna is the headquarters of the
district of Pabna.

Sera/gun/. —This town, of about 23.000
persons, possesses one of the chief jute-
pressing industries in Bengal. The raw
material is collected from the districts of
Pabna (in which Serajgunj is situated),
Mymensingh, Bogra, and Rangpur, and
the bales are forwarded to factories at
Calcutta. Agricultural produce, too, of
every description is forwarded from
Pabna and adjoining districts for trans-
ference to Calcutta and other markets in
Bengal.

encyclopedia or a volume of travels in
India and read of the huge range of the
Himalayan mountains; they marvel at the
description of the wondrous scenery, com-
prising towering peaks, glistening snow,
fertile plains, and luxuriant vegetation,
but anything approaching a realistic
conception of the transcendent beauties
of the picture cannot be given in cold
print.

Darjeeling is situated at an elevation of
about 7,000 ifeet above the level of the sea,
and the bracing air, swept from snowy
summits about 50 miles distant, gives new

English Bazar. Somewhere about the
year 1675 the East India Company had
a silk factory at this place, situated in
the district of Malda, and 207 miles dis-
tant from Calcutta on the Eastern Bengal
Railway. It is recorded that the
Company's factory attained such impor-
tance as a commercial centre during the
latter portion of the seventeenth century
that its " Diaries and Consultations " from
1685 to 1693 are preserved in the India
Office under the title of " Malda and
Englesavada." The Bazar consists of a
number of trading villages, which have
a population of about 14,000 inhabitants.
At the present time the town is
interested chiefly in the sale of grain,
which is grown extensively in the sur-
rounding district.

Darjeeling.— People in England and
other European couniries may take up an

749

iUii. "PUSH-PUSH."

P/wU fiy T. P. Sen.

life and increased energy to individuals
wliose daily work is carried on in the
humid and depressing atmosphere of
Calcutta and other cities.

The Governor of Bengal and many
Government officials, as well as private
persons, migrate from Calcutta to Dar-
jeeling at the commencement of the
summer months, and the town now enjoys
a well-deserved reputation as an ideal
place for a holiday or as a sanatorium
for overworked or invalid persons.

Further reference to Darjeeling will be
found on another page in this book.

Native States under the Government
OF Bengal.

The Cooch Behar Native State is in
political relationship with the Government
of Bengal, and it is bounded on the north
by the Western Dooars of Jalpaiguri, on

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEMa^ AND 6RtS^A

the south by the district of Rungpur, on
the east by the districts of Rungpur and
Goalpara, and on the west by the districts
of Rungpur and Jalpaiguri. It has an
area of about 1,307 square miles ; its
greatest length is 64 miles, and it is 33
miles in breadth; and the inhabitants, at
the census of 191 1, numbered nearly
600,000 persons.

The State was originally a portion of
the ancient Kamrup kingdom, but it was
recognized as a separate country in 1502.
It is not by any means clear when the
Kamrup dynasty was a power in India,
but it is tolerably certain that Bhuga-
datta, one of its kings, reigned during
the twelfth century before the Christian
era, and Hindu traditions lead one to
believe that its foundation took place
quite twelve centuries before Bhugadatta
began to reign.

The Kamrup country was governed suc-
cessively by Naraki, Pala, and Khen
kings, but troubles arose by reason of a
successful invasion by Mussulmans, who
in their turn were expelled by Assamese,
and by a subsequent period of anarchy,
which resulted in the kingdom being split
up into a number of small principalities.

Chiefs of the great Koch tribe were
paramount in some of these divided terri-
tories, and it is from one of these Rulers,
who was King of Chikna about the year
A.D. 1510, that the Cooch Behar family
can trace its descent.

Cooch Behar, one of the divided areas,
consisted, at the last-mentioned date, of
a very large area of Bengal, but envious
eyes prompted invasions by the Mahom-
medan Governors of Gaur and Chitta-
gong, and by Mir Jumla, Governor of
Bengal, who deposed the reigning king,
destroyed Hindu temples, and created
great unrest among the people. Bitter-
ness among the inhabitants, caused by
intolerant government, followed until the
year 1788, when a Commission was
appointed to inquire into the causes and
effects of maladministration. The inquiry
resulted in the appointment in 1822 by
the Governor of an agent whose head-
quarters were on the north-eastern fron-
tier of the Province, whose duty it
was to act as the medium between the
Government of Bengal and Cooch Behar.

Coming to later years, it is found that
the title of Maharaja was subsequently
conferred upon the Ruling Chiefs, who,
successively, took a deep interest in the
prosperity of their country and in the
welfare of its people. The Maharaja
Sir Nripendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur,

G.C.I.E., C.B., A.D.C., was born in the
year 1826, and he succeeded the Maharaja
Narendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur in the
following year. The early portion of his
life was spent in Cooch Behar, but he
afterwards prosecuted his studies under
accomplished tutors in Benares, and ulti-
mately in Europe, where he visited
England, France, Belgium, and other
countries. He paid frequent visits to
Cooch Behar, however, where he gratified
his natural' inclination for indulging in
manly exercises of all kinds. He became
an expert shot, and it is probable that he
had a unique experience in bagging a tiger
when only ten years of age.

The Maharaja attained his majority
in October 1883, and was formally in-
stalled in his high position on the 8th of
the following month by Sir Rivers
Thompson, then Lieutenant-Governor of
Bengal. His marriage, in 1878, with
Suniti Bala Devi, eldest daughter of
Keshub Chunder Sen, the founder of the
New Dispensation Church, evidently
caused him to establish, in 1888, the
Somaja, or the Reformed Church of the
State.

The Maharaja, accompanied by the
Maharani and their children, visited
England on the occasion of the Jubilee
of Queen Victoria in 1887, and he was
then personally invested with the honour
of G.C.I.E., while his consort was deco-
rated by Her late Majesty with the
Imperial Order of the Crown of India.

The present Ruler is His Highness
the Maharaja Jitendra Narayan Bhup
Bahadur.

The majority of the inhabitants of the
State are connected in some way or other
with agricultural pursuits, and very large
areas are devoted to the cultivation of
sugar-cane, tea, oats, tobacco, and jute.
Ordinary industries are therefore few in
number and do not command much atten-
tion, but mention may be made of the
weaving of silk and cotton cloths, the
manufacture of pottery, gold and silver
ornaments, bamboo cots and chairs, mats,
hookahs, fans, and sandals.

The town of Cooch Behar is situated on
the western bank of the River Torsha,
and a very pleasing prospect meets one's
eye on emerging from the railway-
station, as in the immediate neighbour-
hood are luxuriant pasture lands backed
up by the steely-grey slopes of the
Bhutan range, while the towering heights
of the Himalayas are visible in the far
distance.

Roads and streets, running at right

750

angles, have an abundance of welcome
shade afforded by avenues of palm,
mango, and other trees, while glimpses
of domes and spires of temples and
remarkably pretty private residences are
obtained through the verdant foliage.
The palace of the Maharaja and the public
buildings of the State are clustered
around the Sagai Dighi Square, in which
there is an extensive sheet of water, 945
feet in length and 536 feet in breadth,
constructed in the year 18 12. Other fine
structures include a hospital, dispensary,
a Gothic Court of Justice, and Lansdowne
House, erected in honour of the visit to
the State of the Marquis of Lansdowne,
a former Viceroy of India.

The old palace of the Maharajas was
superseded in 1828 by a magnificent
building, described by the architect as
follows : " The Cooch Behar Palace is
designed after the classical style of archi-
tecture. It is, in the main, with the excep-
tion of the three pavilions on the roof
and the basement of the dome, a well-
defined two-storied building, raised 4 feet
9 inches from the ground, with an area
of 1,309 square feet; its length is 393 feet
and its breadth is 296 feet."

The interior is luxuriously furnished,
almost entirely in accordance with English
tastes, but the Durbar Hall is Oriental in
character. When the Maharaja ascends
the gadi on special occasions a brilliant
and impressive scene is witnessed, in
which the rich costumes of the East,
studded with priceless jewels of all kinds,
form a picture of bewildering beauty.

The palace stands in a magnificent
park, in which there are grounds for
tennis, racquets, and cricket, while the
lovely flower gardens are the envy of all
beholders.

Hill Tippera is a Native State in the
northern portion of the division of Chitta-
gong, and has an area of about 4,086
square miles, with a population of 230,000
inhabitants.

History shows that the ancient kingdom
of Tippera had a much larger area than
the State has at the present time, that
its people were almost continually
embroiled in conflicts with their neigh-
bours, that the Mahommedans and others
raided the country in the year 1279, and
at intervals during the succeeding four
centuries, in which period the extent of
the kingdom very materially decreased in
size. When the East India Company
obtained the dewani of Bengal, they
placed a Raja in power, and during the
past 100 years each Ruler has received

THE BENGAL PRESIDENCY

investiture from the Government of India,
the present Raja, His Highness the
Bisama Samara Bijoyee Mahamahadaya
Pancha Srijukta, Raja Birendra Kishore
Dev Burman Manikyam Bahadur, suc-
ceeding to the title in 1879.

Primitive methods of preparing and
cultivating land are still in vogue
throughout the greater portion of the
State, and these consist chiefly in the fell-

the River Haora, is unimportant, except-
ing' that it contains the palace of the
Raja.

Near to the mansion is a temple
regarded as sacred by the Tipperas,
as it contains fourteen heads (made in
gold and other metals) of their tutelary
deities.

The vast tract of forests and swamps
forming the lower portion of the delta of

among which are a large number of
islands, varying from time to time in size
and shape, according to the action of the
watercourses. Land is being reclaimed
for cultivation purposes, not only from
the swamps but also from the islands,
upon many of which there are dense
forests and jungle.

This alluvial soil is exceedingly rich
in productive constituents, and very

1. A HINDU HOME, BENGAL.

•2. HINDU OFFERING FHUIT AND SWEETMEAT TO THE SACRED RIVER, GANGES.

P/tf/cs by T. I'. Sru.

3. VILLAGE BOAT IN EASTERN ASSAM.

Photo by n. C. Ghosha..

ing and burning of trees and the sowing
of seeds in roughly made holes as soon as
rain falls. The principal crops are rice,
tobacco, cotton, chilies, mustard, sugar-
cane, and onions, and a considerable
quantity of these are exported ; while the
imports comprise European goods of
various kinds, kerosene oil, and salt.

Manufactures and industries are almost
non-existent, although cotton cloth is
made by Tippera and Manipuri women;
and schools have been started, in many
of which carpentering and working in iron
and other metals are taught.

The capital of the State, Agartala,
situated on the right and left banks of

the Ganges River, known as the Sundar-
bans, comprises the districts of Twenty-
four Perganas, Khulna, in the Presidency
division, and Backergunge, in the division
of Dacca, but its physical features are so
distinct from the remainder of Bengal that
it may be advisable to treat it here as
a separate entity. The area is about
6,526 square miles in extent, and it
stretches for 170 miles along the shores
of the Bay of Bengal and for 60 to 80
miles in an inland direction. It is inter-
sected by estuaries of the Ganges, the
chief of which are the Hooghly, Matla,
Raimangal, Haringhata, and Meghna. It
is, in fact, a network of streams and rivers,

heavy crops of rice are grown, chiefly in
the northern portion; but good returns
are also obtained from sugar-cane and
betel-nuts. There are about 2,080 square
miles of reserved forests within the dis-
trict of Khulna, from which immense
quantities of good timber, firewood, and
thatching and other similar materials are
derived ; while in the protected forests
in the Twenty-four Perganas (which about
the year 1910 were about 1,600 square
miles in extent) have in recent years been
thrown open for cultivation, and have
consequently been considerably reduced
in size.

The principal exports are timber, rice,

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

and betel-nuts, together with pottery,
made by inhabitants from black clay.

Port Canning, situated on the Matla
River, and in the north-western portion
of the Sundarbans, is connected by rail
with Calcutta, but the only other means
of communication with that city and other
business centres in Bengal are obtained
by steamers and various kinds of country
boats, which are used for the transport
of passengers as well as cargo.

The dense juingle on the islands is still
the home of a considerable number of
wild animals, which include tigers,
buffaloes, and spotted and other deer.
The rivers are infested with crocodiles,
dangerous to man and beast, and the
cobra, python, and other species of snakes
are far too plentiful ; while geese, ducks,
and other waterfowl may always be relied
upon to provide the enjoyment of a day's
good shooting.

There does not appear to be any his-
toric account of this deltaic plain until
about the middle of the fifteenth century,
when a Mahommedan, named Khan Jahan,
received permission from the King of
Gaur to clear jungle in the area now
known as the district of Khulna.

The Sundarbans are now visited by
tourists, who find much to interest them
in the pleasant trip down the Hooghly
from Calcutta, in witnessing the work of
reclamation of land from swamps, in the
methods of agriculture, and in the habits
and customs of the people. Archaeolo-
gists will endeavour to inspect the tomb
of Khan Jahan; the ruins of Iswaripur, an
ancient capital of a Raj granted by an
Emperor of Delhi to a chief Minister of
Daud, King of Bengal ; and the remains
of the temple of Navaratna, all of which
are near Khaliganj, in the district of
Khulna.

Traces are still visible also of the
Jhatar Dad temple in the district of
the Twenty-four Perganas.

THE ASAMSOL DISTILLERY

This distillery was erected by Messrs.
Carew & Co., Ltd., in 1905-6, in order
to fulfil contracts entered into with the
Government of Bengal for the supply of
spirit to various districts under their con-
tract system; but, unfortunately, the
quantity called for was considerably
curtailed by the partition of Bengal. The
distillery is well equipped with the most
modern plant, and turns out spirit of the
highest quality. It also produces a cer-

tain amount of high-strength alcohol for
medical and industrial purposes, and, with
a view of extending the business, plant is
being erected for the purification of crude
alcohol, producing a spirit equal to the
high standard demanded by pharmaceu-
tical chemists. It also manufactures
methylated spirit.

The raw materials used are Mowha
flowers and molasses. The former are
procured from various districts in Bengal,
Behar and- Orissa, and the Central
Provinces, the best quality being obtained
from the last-named district.

The distillery is a good example of the
ability of India to produce, within her
own confines, articles which she normally
imports from outside.

Asansol is a large town, 132 miles dis-
tant from Calcutta, with a station on the
East Indian Railway system, and it is
situated in the centre of the famous
Raneegunge coal fields in the district of
Burdwan, in Bengal.

THE BENGAL PAPER MILL COMPANY,
LTD.

This company was registered in the
year 1889, and the mill, which is situated
on the bank of the Damoodar River at
Raneegunge, in the district of Burdwan,
is about 120 miles distant by rail from
Calcutta. The manufacture of paper was
commenced there in the year 1891.

The whole of the property extends to
about 173 acres, the mill and adjoining
premises alone covering more than
four acres. The cost of the erection
of the buildings was approximately
Rs. 2,1,60,000.

For several years after formation the
company made little or no headway,
owing to the keen competition of other
Indian mills and the importation of cheap
papers from Europe.

Reconstruction of the company took
place in 1903, and the capital now stands
at Rs. 6,00,000, in 16,000 ordinary shares
of Rs. 25 each and 4,000 preferences
shares of Rs. 50 each, fully paid up,
together with debentures amounting to
Rs. 5,07,700. The directors of the com-
pany are Messrs. C. W. Foley, R. J. G.
Ballantyne, and H. W. Carr. The
managing agents are Messrs. Balmer,
Lawrie & Co., of 103 Ciive Street, Cal-
cutta^ whose oftices are the registered
address of the company.

There are three paper-making machines
in the mill, and one of these is 120 inches
in width and is the largest in India. The

mill steam boiler installation consists of a
battery of ten Lancashire boilers, for
supplying steam for the main engine of
1,300 h.p. and auxiliary plant, and also
for that which is required for boiling
grass and other raw material used in the
process of manufacture.

The chief productions of the mill are
white printing and writing papers, and
Badami and brown wrapping papers made
from grass, wood pulp, rags, and jute.
The whole of the raw material required
is found in India, with the exception of
wood pulp, which, together with all
chemicals, has to be imported from
Europe, and suitable grass is obtained
from the Nagpur, Sahebgunge, and Nepal
Hill districts.

The raw material is first carefully
dusted, then well boiled, and again simi-
larly treated until all the dirt has been
removed, after which it is pulped and
bleached to the required whiteness,
chloride of lime being used in the latter
process. The mills are equipped with
an up-to-date plant, to which additions
are being made whenever improvements
are discovered.

One of the most important phases of
the manufacturing process is carried out
in the beating engines (of which there are
a large number), and it is here that the
sizing, loading, and colouring matters are
added to the half-prepared raw material.
When beating and mixing have been com-
pleted the material is ready to be made
into paper on the paper-making machines,
and it is then run into a large stuff chest
placed at the end of each machine. The
arrangement of the buildings and plant
is so complete that no wastage of water
takes place, as the latter is pumped back
again to storage tanks for further use.
The wet pulp is run through the paper -
making machine at the required thickness,
and it is gradually dried by a large
number of steam-heated cylinders, the
necessary finish being placed on the paper
by means of callender rolls situated at the
extreme end of the paper-machine. The
paper is then cut to the required size and
conveyed to the finishing-houses, where
it is sorted and packed for dispatch.

The average monthly output of the mill
is about 570 tons, a considerable portion
of this quantity being supplied under con-
tracts to the Government of India and to
railway authorities. Water for all pur-
poses is derived from the Damoodar
River.

The mill and bungalows are lighted by
electricity generated by the company's

r;wiBf^rj.Ma^Lir^^'

z. DiATiLLiHQ Yard.

NURSAMOODA DISTILLERY.
2. Fermentation House. 3. Distillery from the Nortu.

4. Manager's Bungalow.

753

I. No. 2 FlNISHINO-ROOM,

THE BENGAL PAPER MILLS COMPANY, LTD.

a. The Mill from the North. 3. The Mill fro.m the West.

4. South View,

754

I, Paper Cutters.

THE BENGAL PAPER MILLS COMPANY, LTD.

2. No. I Beater House. 3. No. 2 Machine.

4. No. 3 MACHfNE.

7SS

BENGAL AND ASSAM, BEHAR AND ORISSA

own electric plant, and protection against
fire is secured as far as possible by an
elaborate hydrant service, which is placed
in conspicuous positions in every portion
of the buildings. Large warehouse
accommodation for raw material is also
available, and the mill is equipped with
the most up-to-date plant in its soda-
water factory, and there are also necessary
engineering workshops for new work and
general repairs.

Mr. Horsburgh, the manager of the
mill, resides at Raneegunge, and he is
assisted by twelve Europeans, for whom
furnished bungalows are provided, while
the average number of the Indian staff
employed is about i,ooo daily.

KUHARDHUBI ENOINEERINO WORKS,
LTD.

These works, of modern and electrical
equipment, are situated at Barakar, in the
midst of the coal and iron districts. They
are devoted to the manufacture of mining
machinery, hauling and winding engines
for steam, air, and electric power, head-
gears, coal screening and preparing
machinery, roofs, bridges, aerial rope-
ways, etc. The establishment comprises
a large up-to-date foundry capable of
turning out 1,500 tons of finished iron and
brass castings monthly. The company is
one of a large group of industrial con-
cerns controlled by Messrs. Bird & Co.,
Calcutta.

KUMARDHUBI FIRECLAY AND SILICA
WORKS, LTD.

This concern is controlled by Messrs.
Bird & Co., Calcutta, and is in close
proximity to Kumardhubi Engineering
Works. It manufactures fireclay, magne-
site, silica, and chrome bricks, and refrac-
tory goods generally for iron, steel,
ordnance, railway, and gas and industrial
works, as well as glazed stoneware pipes
and simile- material.

THE RANEEGUNGE POTTERY WORKS

There is no doubt that India possesses
a practically inexhaustible supply of clays
of various grades, ranging from low-class
substances, which for generations have
been made into sun-dried bricks, to a
high-class composition for the manufac-
ture of earthenware and ornamental
pottery. Every Hindu village has its
potter, who makes small vessels for
cooking and other purposes, and larger

ones for the storage of grain, water, and
other commodities, but in recent years
large enterprises have been established
on modern lines, one of the foremost of
which may be seen at Raneegunge.

These works were established in the
year 1866 by a Mr. George Macdonald,
son of a Caithness (Scotland) minister,
who had previously practi5ed for a
number of years in Calcutta as a civil
engineer, and on his retirement they were
acquired by Messrs. Burn & Co.

There are several varieties of clay
within a radius of a few miles from the
Raneegunge Works, and supplies of these
are conveyed to the yards by bullock-
carts. In the workshops one can witness
the various operations which convert
masses of earth into small pipes for
household purposes, larger ones for
drainage and sewerage works (some of
the latter being 24 in. in diameter and
weighing more than 250 lb.), roofing and
floor tiles, building bricks, glazed stone-
ware, and sundry other articles, and
pottery of the highest grade of ceramics.
Modern machinery is employed in nearly
all processes of manufacture. The clay
is first of all ground or crushed to powder
by rollers. 2j tons in weight ; it is then
elevated to a screen, through which it
is passed. After being mixed with water
it is thoroughly worked in pug mills ;
then it' is forced through a die of the'
required diameter. The length of pipe
is then determined by means of a piece
of thin wire, and finally the completed
pipes are automatically turned out by the
plant. Hand trolleys are used for the
conveyance of the " made " pipes to the
drying tunnel, or shed, which is iio ft.
in length and has a floor space of
45,000 sq. ft. In this building, which
is heated by steam and kept at a regular
temperature, the pipes are remedied
where practicable, but those contain-
ing serious flaws or which are broken in
any way are returned to be re-ground.
When the pipes are sufficiently dry they
are transferred to the kilns to be burned
and glazed. There are sixty-five kilns
in use at the present time. The pipes
manufactured at these works in the course
of a year would, if placed in a line, cover
a distance of more than 130 miles, and
the immense stock kept in the yards
covers an area of not less than 7 acres
in extent. These pipes are well known
throughout the whole of India, and large
quantities arc shipped to Burma, the
Straits Settlements, and Aden and other
distant places.

An excellent supply of water is ob-
tained from a tank 18 ft. in depth and
3I acres in extent. This water is also
available for the large boilers and engines
of over 200 h.p. which have been con-
structed by the company at their Howrah
Ironworks.

For testing purposes several pipes are
taken from each burning, and their
strength is ascertained by subjecting
them to a pressure of 30 lb. to the square
inch. This is merely a private test, suf-
ficient for all practical purposes, but a
few years ago trials were conducted in
the presence of a committee appointed
by the Government of India, and the
results proved that the Raneegunge pipes
were superior to those manufactured in
England. For example, six Raneegunge
pipes of 9 in. diameter required an
average internal pressure of I2r8 lb. to
burst them, while those from England
of the same dimensions withstood only
52'5 lb. Again, a similar number of pipes
were crushed by machines, with the
following results : 9-in. ones from R.anee-
gunge broke at an average weight of
4;03 7'3 lb., English ones gave way at
3,192 lb., while the figures for 12-in.
pipes were respectively 5,069' 5 lb. and
3,472 lb. From the point of view of
strength alone a verdict would be given in
favour of Raneegunge products, but a
further recommendation is that whereas a
1,760 yards layer of pipes from the latter
works costs Rs. 2,640, the charge for iron
ones of the same diameter would be con-
siderably more than Rs. 9,000.

Large sheds are fitted with up-to-date
machinery, which is capable of turning
out some thirty thousand firebricks daily.
Enamelled bricks are made by hand,
being prepared with white faces ; they
are then dried and burned to a " bis-
cuit " colour, glazed, and subsequently
re-burncd. The large stock kept at the
factory includes glazed bricks suitable for
bath and other rooms, together with
damp-proof bricks for stores and go-
downs. Other buildings are occupied by
workers who manufacture sanitary appli-
ances of all kinds, water-filters, fireclay
bricks and blocks for mills, collieries,
ironworks, and tea factories. Roofing
and flooring tiles are manufactured by
the thousand every day of the week.

Something of a more artistic character
is seen upon entering the terra-cotta de-
partment, in which all kinds of mouldings
are stamped from iron moulds, while
larger pieces are produced by hand from
plaster inoulds. Here may be noticed

THE BENGAL IKON AND STEEL COMPANY, LTD. (MARTIN & CO.).
I, I, Coke Ovens, Charging Side. 3, 4. Views or the Bengal Iron and Steel Company's Works at Kulti, East Indian Railway.

{For Icl/crt'ras, see p. 157)

757

3F'

KUMARDHUBI ENGINEERING WORKS, LTD.

I. NUW FOUMDRV AMD BlACKSKITH SHOP UNDER CONSTRUCTION. 2. OFFICE AND CONSTRUCTIONAL YarD.

Interior of Fithno Shop.

758

I. General View.

KUMARDHUBI FIRECLAY AND SILICA COMPANY, LTD.

2. Kilns and Stacks. 3. Interior op Silica and Macngsite Moulding Sheds,

759

THE RANEEGUNGE POTTERY WORKS.
I, Genekal View of a Portion of the Raneegumce Potteries,

2. Stock Yard,

760

THE BENGAL PRESIDENCY

a choice selection of vases, capitals,
cupolas, cornices, scrolls, linings, and
headings, while several statues and por-
tico entablatures of considerable size have
been executed with the greatest skill in
these shops. Many of the finest buildings
in India have been decorated with terra-
cotta made at these works, which adds
very considerably to their appearance,
and among these structures in Calcutta
are the Government Museum, the Serpent
House at the Zoological Gardens, the
boiler-house at the Government Docks,
and shipping and other offices. Another
building to claim notice is the one devoted
to the production of indoor ceramics, and

the visitor is struck by the marvellous
and Unique design of the various works
of art in the process of being manufac-
tured. One operative is busy over an
ordinary household teapot, another dis-
plays, with some pride, a mural panel
upon which a Hindu divinity is depicted,
and, in fact, all the hands are employed
in making choice specimens of vases,
ornaments, trays, images, and a large
number of other artistic wares, all of
which are designed in the company's
drawing offices at the works, or are made
according to the expressed wishes of
clients. Specimens of these articles have
been exhibited from time to time, and

several medals have been awarded for
their excellent style and quality. About
I CO tons of coal are required daily
for the burning process, and this
quantity is obtained from the firm's own
mines on the estate, two shafts, each
of loo ft. in depth, having been
sunk.

Messrs. Burn & Co. have erected very
comfortable lines for their coolies em-
ployed at the Raneegunge Works, and
further provision for the welfare of these
hands has been made by the opening of
a dispensary and the appointment of a
fully qualified medical officer, who resides
near the works.

TARPUR SUGAR WORKS, LTD.
1. The Tarpur Sugar Mill. 2. Factory Yard and Godown.

761

CONCLUDING NOTE

rfEFORE taking' final
leave of this volume,
the compiler finds
pleasure in acknow-
ledging the services
of those who contri-
buted so markedly
to the successful
outcome of the enterprise. To some
extent a stranger in a strange land, he
had no claim, other than his record of
work done in other spheres, to any special
consideration when he commenced his
labours. But nothing could have been
happier than the conditions under which
he actually prosecuted his enterprise in
Bengal and the adjoining Provinces. A
kindly disposition to lighten the work of
himself and his representatives went hand
in hand with the most charming hos-
pitality and a camaraderie which never
failed under the most exacting con-
ditions. But bright as the compiler's
memories are of his Indian experiences,
he would be conveying a wrong impres-
sion if he allowed it to be understood
that the work was all plain sailing. The
European War has raged throughout the
whole period of compilation, causing
inevitable serious delays ; and it was
always somewhat doubtful whether the
valuable letterpress and photographs, dis-
patched week by week, would reach
London in safety.

The general members of the staff
actively engaged in Bengal rendered effi-
cient and loyal service throughout the
period in which the l)ook was in process

of production. Special thanks are due to
Mr. R. Vintcent Solomon, who superin-
tended the Calcutta office, and through
whose hands the entire letterpress and
photographs passed, and who also carried
the management of the business on his
shoulders during the compiler's absence
in New Zealand and Ceylon ; to Mr.
J. W. Kiddall, to whose pen is due the
various descriptive articles of the towns
and districts, together with many valu-
able notes obtained by careful research ;
to Messrs. J. W. Bond and E. T.
Mungavin for help in compilation; and
to Babu G. C. Chatter jee for clerical
assistance.

The compiler was especially fortunate
in securing frorri expert authorities valu-
able monographs on the subjects with
which they are acquainted. In this con-
nection thanks are due and tendered
to His Excellency the Right Hon.
Baron Carmichael of Skirling, G.C.I.E.,
K.C.M.G., Governor of Bengal; the
Hon. Mr. P. C. Lyon, C.S.I., I.C.S.;
and the Hon. Mr. N. D. Beatson-
Bell, C.S.I., C.I.E., I.C.S., Members
of the Bengal Council ; to Captain
H. G. Vaux, Military Secretary to
H.E. the Governor of Bengal; Cap-
tain Oswald Smith, of His Excellency's
Bodyguard; the Hon. Mr. T. R. Filgate,
CLE. ; Mr. C. B. Bayley, C.V.O., of the
Bengal Public Works Department; and
to Mr. McGlashan, M.lnst.C.E., of the
Port Commissioners Trust, Calcutta, for
their advice and kindly co-operation.
Grateful acknowledgments are also due
76J

to the following* gentlemen for the articles
against their names: To Mr. L. S. S.
O'Malley, I.C.S., of the Bengal Secre-
tariat (Native Races); Mr. J. A. Sand-
brook, editor of the Englishman (Com-
merce) ; Mr. T. Southwell, A.R.C.Sc.
(Lond.), F.Z.S., Director of Fisheries,
Bengal, Behar and Orissa (Fisheries) ;
Mr. Walter Nuttall, of Digultarung
Estate, Assam (P'auna) ; Mr. Wynne
Sayer, B.A., Assistant to the Agricultural
Adviser, Government of India (Sugar and
Agriculture); Mr. G. D. Hope, B.Sc,
Ph.D., Scientific Officer, Indian Tea Asso-
ciation (Tea); Mr. J. 'F. Podger and Mr.
F. F. Chrestien (Mica); Mr. D. J. Reid
(Indigo); and Mr. Humphrey G. Carter,
M.B., Ch.B., Officiating Director, Botan-
ical Survey of India (Flora); and
Mr. A. B. Morrison. Thanks, too, must
be given to Messrs. Shirley Tremearne
and Pat. Lovett, of Capital; Mr. James
Hutchinson, Secretary of the Royal Cal-
cutta Turf Club; Captain Alfred Brame;
the Registrar, Assam Secretariat ; Mr.
C. H. Gordon, of Moorla Indigo Con-
cern ; Mr. C. Ismay, of the Bengal-
Nagpur Railway Company, Calcutta; and
Mr. J. A. M. Wilson, of the Behar
Planters' Association.

This is the second volume for which
I have been fortunate enough to secure
the services of Mr. Arnold Wright as
Editor. Mr. Wright is an author whose
books and articles are well known
throughout the world, and who also
served many years in India.

Thanks are also due to Messrs. J. F.

CONCLUDING NOTE

Peters and \V. Van der Lowen, of the
general staff, for the majority of the
photographs in the volume ; and to the
following for permission to reproduce
various illustrated photographs: Messrs.
Johnston and Hoffmann, Calcutta ; the
Himalayan Art Studio and Mr. M. Sain,

of Darjeeling ; Mr. T. P. Sen, of Cal-
cutta; Messrs. Ghosal Bros., of Shillong;
Mr. D. C. Ghosal, of Jorhat ; the
Director, Zoological Survey of India ;
Commander la Touchc, R.I.M.; and
Messrs. W. M. Nuttall and R. O. Podger.
My sincere thanks are also tendered

to Messrs. Unwin Bros., Ltd., printers,
of Pilgrim Street, London, E.G., for the
great care and attention which they have,
as heretofore, devoted to the preparation of
the book for publication under conditions
of serious embarrassment owing to the
heavy military calls made upon their staflf.

The Foreign and Colonial Compiling ami Publishing Company

763

GLOSSARY

Anna. One sixteenth of a rupee ; equivalent to
a penny.

Babadur. Under tlie Mahommedan Govern-
ment a title of honour given to the nobles
of the Court. At the present day a dis-
tinction conferred upon Indian officers in
the service of the Government, usually in
association with an additional title as Khan
Bahadur.

Banian. A Hindu trader, shopkeeper, or money-
lender. In Bengal it is commonly applied
to the Indian cashier or man of business in
the service of European firms.

Bbadra-lok. Indian gentleman.

Chaddar. A sheet or cloth ; also used to
describe a shawl.

Cbowkidar. A watchman.

Crore. Ten millions, a hundred lakhs or
hundred thousands.

D4k Bungalow. A travellers' rest-house main-
tained by the Government.

Debit. Villages collectively belonging to the
same proprietor ; the whole of an estate.

Dewan. The chief executive officer of a ruling
chief.

Dbaramsald. A rest-house for Indian travellers.

Dboti. A scanty loin-cloth worn by men.

Dbniries. Cotton carpets.

FarMbes. Cloths.

Farman. A mandate, an order, a command, a
patent.

Oadl. The seat of rank or royalty ; a throne.

Gbarry. A carriage of any description.

Obit. A landing-place, steps on the banks of
a river, a quay, a wharf ; also a pass
through mountains.

Obee. Clarified butter.

Our. Molasses, treacle, raw sugar, the produce

of the first inspissation of the juice of the

cane.
Hooka. A pipe.
Jemadar. A headman.
Juming;. Wasteful cultivation of land by

devastation of forests for the production

of one crop.
Kumar. The eldest son of a Raja.
Kmnari. The eldest daughter of a Raja.
Kutcbery. A court, a hall, an office. The place

where any public business is transacted.
Lakb. One hundred thousand.
Lota. An earthen vessel.
Lttggy. A pole : a measuring rod.
Hall. A gardener.
Halllck. An owner.
Mantras. Prayers.
Maund. 80 lb.
Mauza. A village.
NaUta. Jute leaf.
Nazarana. Succession fees.
Fagri. A turban.
Fancbayat. A court of arbitration consisting

of five or more members.
Fat. Jute.

Fatbsala. .An aided private school.
Feon. The term commonly used by Europeans

for the Hindustani piuda, a footman, a foot

soldier ; an inferior officer of police, a

personal messenger or servant.
Ferganua. A district, a province, a tract of

country containing many villages, a fiscal

division.
Fesbkosb. Tax, tribute — literally, what is first

drawn ; fine, quit rent ; a fine or present

to the ruling power on receiving an

appointment.
Fice. A quarter of an anna : equivalent to one

farthing.
Fottah. An ordinary lease.
Fuji. Ceremonial worship.
Funkab. An overhead fan.
Purdab. A veil, a screen, a curtain especially

one which excludes the women of a family

from the gaze of men.
Furdab-nisbeen. Literally seated behind a

curtain. An Indian lady who observes

the rules of exclusion.
Babl. A winter crop.
Raj. The estate of a Raja.
Rani. The wife of a Raja.
Ryot. A cultivator, a farmer, a peasant.
Sanad. A grant, a diploma, a charter, a patent ;

a document defining the status and rights

of an Indian ruler under the British

Government.
Saree. A long cloth worn by Indian women.

wrapped round tlie body and passed over

the head.
Sbikarl. .V hunter.

Swadesbi. Refers chiefly to goods manufac-
tured by Indians for Indians ; a swadeshi

industry is one exclusively financed and

worked by Indians.
Tahsildar. A Government receiver of revenue.
Talug. A dependency, a district, a division of

a province, a part of a Zemindari.
Terai. Plains or flat land.
Zemindar. .\ landlord.
Zemindary. An estate.

764

INDEX

The black figures indicate the principal notices in titis work.

Abors described, 49

Acerboni & Co., F., 72

Acland, Mr. George, and the jute industry, 642

Agabeg Bros., 221-3

Agricultural Kesearch Institute and College,
Pusa, article on, 692 ; agriculture in India,
692 ; general description of Institute, 692 ;
Pusa farm, 694 ; agricultural chemistry, 6<>6 ;
botanical section, 698 ; mycology, 700 ; ento-
mology, 702 ; pathological entomology, 703 ;
agricultural bacteriology, 704 ; Agricultural
College, 706

Ahmuty & Co., 73-5

Aka tribes described, 47

Akhaura, 370

Alipore, 745

Allen, Berry cSc Co., 80

Alliance Jute Mills Co., Ltd., 77-80

All India Hosiery Manufacturing Co., 76

Anderson Wright & Co., 80, 644

Angelo Bros., Ltd., 221, 224

Anglo-Swiss Watch Co., 80, 82

Apcar, Aleck, C. E., 646

Apcar & Co., M. v., 225, 226

Arrah, 360

Artistic Glass Works, the, 646

Asoka Pillar, Champaran, 271

Assam, Province of, description, 405 ; early
history, 410

Assam-Bengal Railway Co., Ltd., 369, 405

Assamese, description of the, 44

Assam Oil Co., 378, 415-24

Assam Railways & Trading Co., Ltd. (Dibru-
Sadiya Railway), 374

Assansol, 744

Assansol Distillery, the, 752

Aul Raj, 503; portraits of Raja of, 504, 505

Aurangzebe grants authority to English to
trade, 17

Azimganj, 744

Azimganj, family of, 506

B
Baber Padshah, 16
Badarpur. 372

Baker Laboratory, Presidency College, Cal-
cutta, 648, 651

Balasore, 20, 266, 356

Balaub, H. N. & Co., 682

Bamra State, 508

Banaili Raj, 310; portraits of rajas of, 511;
views of, 512, 513, 514

Bandel, 359

Banerjee & Co., 226-9

Banerjee, J. C, 64

Bankipore, 263, 361

Bankura, 744

Banfcura-Damordar River Railway Co., Ltd.,
385

Banslieria, 359

Bansra Coal Co., Ltd., 236

Barharwa, 362

Barrackpore, 745

Barrah Estates Ltd., and Champaran Sugar
Co., Ltd., 271, 273

Barry & Co., 644

Bayley, C. B., 762

Bealson-Bell, Hon. Mr. N. D., 762

Beaver & Co., George, 83

Begg, Dunlop & Co. (Alliance Jute Mills Co.,
Ltd.), 77-80, 644

Behar and Orissa, early history, 259 ; Province
of, described, 260

Behar, indigo in, article by D. J. Reed, 255

Beharis, description of the, 44

Behar Motor Works, 272

Behar Planters' Association, 268

Behar, town of, 263, 363

Belsund Concern, 272, 274

Belwa Concern, 275, 276, 277

Bengal, early history, 13 ; pilot service estab-
lished, 16; partition of, 40, 741 ; vegetation,
article on, 54 ; trade, 206 ; agriculture, 208 ;
native states, 749

Bengal Presidency, the, 741

Bengal and North-Western Railway, 362

Bengal Coal Co., Ltd., 229

Bengal Iron & Steel Co., Ltd., 157, 210, 757

Bengal-Nagpur Railway Co., Ltd., 3S2

Bengal National Bank, Ltd., 6S3

Bengal Paper Mill Co., Ltd., 752, 754, 765

Bengal Preserving Co., 278

Bengal Sporting Magazine, 612

Bengal Telephone Co., Ltd., 84, 85, 86

Benipore Concern, 278, 279

Berhampore, 366, 746

Bettiah, 263, 362

Bcttiah Raj, 518 ; views of, 516, 517, 518, 519,

522, 523
Bhagalpur, 264

Bharat-Abhuyuday Cotton Mills, 689
Bhicanpore and Japaha Concerns, 280, 281,

282
Bijoy Sing Dudhoria, Raja of Azimganj, 607
Biiaspur. 354

Bird & Co., 88, 88, 89, 90, 91, 644
Bird & Co. (coal departmeni), 230, 231
Birknivre Bros. (Hastings Jute Mills), 85, 87,

644
Bishnupur, 744
Bogra, 749

Bond, J. W., 731, 762
Borooah & Co., B., 380
Bo-e, Dr. K. C, 651
Brahmaputra River, 408, 716
Brame's, Alfred, article on the India General

Navigation S: Railway Co., 714, 762
British Commercial Bank, Ltd., 176
Brooke Bond & Co. (India), Ltd.. 395, 396
Brothers, B., & Co., 634, 655
Bryce, Dr. James, 728
Buksh Ellahic S: Co.. 635, 658
Burdwan, 3(10
Burdwan Division, 744
Burdwan. Maharaja of, 524
Burdwan Raj Estate, 524
Burmau, Dr. S. K., 657
Burn & Co., Ltd., 91 5
liutto Kristo Paul & Co., 678, 679
Byreah Concern, 280

Cable, Sir Ernest, 85

Cachar, 406

Calcutta : Industries, article on, 645 : Baker
Laboratory, Presidency College, 648, 651 ;
Botanical Gardens, 61 ; Black Hole of,
26, 61 ; Chowringhee, 61 ; old view of, 437 ;
Council House, 622 ; cricket clubs, 621 ; de-
scription of, 59 ; football clubs, 619 ; founded

INDEX

by Job Charnock, 21 ; Garden Reach, 71 ;
General Hospital, 66 ; General Post Office,
64 ; Government House described, 62 ;
Government House in 1837, view of, 27 ;
High Court of Judicature, 70 ; Howrah, 71 ;
Howrah Bridge, 65 ; Jain Temple, 6g ;
Kidderpore Docks, 708 ; Lilloah Railway
Works, 74 ; Municipal Offices, 70 ; new
Police Offices, 651 ; polo, 6i6 ; Port of,
article on, 708; racecourse, 609, 6l2, 640;
Royal Exchange, 648, 650 ; St. John's
Church, 64 ; St. Paul's Cathedral, 65 ; tram-
ways, 71 ; University Hall, 70 ; University
College of Science, 648, 649 ; University
Institute, 648 ; Victoria Memorial Hall, 65 ;
views of, 27, 33, 35, 42, 54, 59, 60-72, 244 ;
Zoological Gardens, 70

Capital, 728

Capital Engineering Co., 637

Carmichael, Lord and Lady, and the Maharaja
of Tripura, 459

Carmichael's, Lord, administration, 41, 62

Carter's, Humphrey G., article on the Vege-
tation of Bengal, Assam, Behar and Orissa,
54.762

Chaibassa, 267

Champaran Sugar Co., Ltd., 271

Chandernagore, 359, 744

Chaparmukh, 373

Chapra, 264

Charnock, Job, attacks Mogul troops, 18;
founds Calcutta, 21

Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China,
95 7

Chatterjee, Babu, G. C, 762

Chawgar, India polOi game of, 15

Cherrapoonjee, Assam, 415

Chilka Lake, 35S, 735

Chinsurah, 359

Chittagong, 369, 748

Chitwarrah Concern, 283

Chokidinghi Tea Estate, Ltd., 424, 425

Chota Nagpur Raj, 525; views of, 526, 827

Chowturwa Concern, 283, 284, 285

Chrestien & Co., Ltd., F. K., 215-17

Chrestien, K. F., on Mica, 214, 762

Chulia, 267, 356

Clayton-Daubeny, C. R., 286, 287, 288, 289

Olive, Lord, tights the battle of Plassey, 28

Coal trade, 209, 226-41

Comilla, 370

Commerce and 1 Industries, article by J. A.
Sandbrof)k, 205

Concluding Note, 762

Continental Hotel, the, 97

Cooch Hehar, State of, 387; description of
the, 437, 749; the Maharaja of, 438; the
Maharani of, 439 ; the late Maharaja of, 141 ;
the Palace, 442, 447, 450, 456 ; map showing
the old boundaries of the, 443; the late
Maharaja Raj Rajendra Narayan,444; views
of objects of interest in the, 445, 446, 449,
458; views illustrating installation ceremony,
483,484

Coronation Durbar changes, 40

Cossipore Sugar Works, 199

Cox's Shipping Agency, Ltd., 712, 718

Crawford & Co., 98

Crompton & Co., Ltd., 100

Crown Woollen Mills (Bird & Co.), 89, 91

Crushed Limestone Syndicate, 426, 427

Curlender & Co., S., 100

Cuttack, 266

Dacca, 368

Dacca Division, the, 747

Dacca, views of, 31, 43, 255, 747

Dalsing Serai Concern, 290, 291

Daltonganj, 360

Darbhanga, 264, 362

Darbhanga Raj, 828; views of, 829, 830, 531

Darbhanga Sugar Co., Ltd., 290

Darjeeling, description of, 245, 749

Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, 248, 364, 382

Darjeeling Tea and Cinchona Association,

Ltd. (Kilburn & Co.), 397, 398
,Das & Co., 658
'Oey, S. M. & Co., 659

Dhanbad, 360

Dhenkanal State, 536; portraits of Rajas, 537 ;
views of the Raja's Palace and objects of
interest, 538, 539

Dholi Concern, 290, 293

Dhubri, 410

Diamond Harbour, 745

Dibru-Sadiya Railway, 374

Dickie & Co., R. A., 102

Dimapur, 374

Dinajpore, 367

Dinajpur Raj, 533; views of, 534, 535

Dinapore, 361, 749

Dinshaw & Sorabjee, 660, 661

Doom Dooma Tea Co., Ltd., 428, 429, 430

Dooriah Concern, 294, 295

Doudpore Concern, 296, 297

Dowlutpore Concern, 296, 298

Dudhoria Raj Famiiy of Azimganj, 806

Duff & Co., Ltd., Thomas, 103, 644

Dumraon, 360

Dumraon Raj, 842 ; views in the, 544, 545

Duncan Bros. & Co., 644

Dundee and the jute trade, 641

Dunlop Rubber Co., Ltd., 103, 105

Dutt, P. N., & Co., 661

Dwarkin & Son, 662, 663

Dyce Sombre perpetrates massacre of Patna,
32

Dykes & Co., Ltd., 106

East Bengal Engineering Works, 108

East India Cigarette Manufacturing Co., 664

East Indian Railway Co., 358

Eastern Bank Ltd., 110

Economic development in Bengal, 41, 205

Elephant catching and training, illustrations,

636, 637
Empire Jute Mills (McLeod & Co.), 169
Eiifilishmati, The, 728
European influence in India, rise of, 14

Faridpur, 748

Farm, the, 299, 300

Fauna, article on by W. M. Nuttall, 631

Filgate, the Hon. Mr. T. R., 762

Filgate, the Hon. Mr. T. R., on the Behar
Planters' Association, Ltd., 268

Finlay, James, & Co., 644

Fisheries, article by T. Southwell, F.Z.S., 733

Foreign and Colonial Compiling and Publish-
ing Co., the, 730

766

Fort William constructed, 21

French Motor Car and Electric Co., Ltd., Ill

Galstaun, J. C, 111, 113

Ganges Manufacturing Co., Ltd., 163, 164

Ganges Rope Co., Ltd., 162

Gangpur State, 542, 549; views in the, 546,

547
Garden Reach, 71
Garos described, 48
Gauhati, 373
Gaur, 366
Gaya, 263
General Electric Co. (India), Ltd. (Octavius

Steel & Co.), 114, 115
Ghosal Bros., 763
Ghosal, D. C, 763

Gillanders, Arbuthnot & Co., 204, 382, 644
Girijanath Ray, Sir, Maharaja of Dinajpur,

534
Giridih, 267
Glossary, 764
Goalpara district, 409
Goalundo, 365

Gokul Chand'sahib, Bahu, 689
Gooptu, D. & Co., and F. N. Gooptu & Co.,

664, 665
Gordon, C. H., 762
Gupta, Sir K. G., on The Bengal Fisheries,

733
Guru Mahadeo Asrain Prasad Sahi, Maharaja,

of Hutwa, 555
Guzdar & Co., P. E., 115-18
Gya, 360

Hationg, 373

Hajipur, 264, 362

Hall and Anderson, 65

Hardinge Bridge, 364

Harley & Co., J. H. R., 118

Barton & Co., W. H., 118, 120-3

Hastings Jute Mills (Birkmyre Bros.), 85

Hastings, Warren, administmtion, 34

Hazaribagh, 267, 360

Heatley cS: Gresham, Ltd., 123 6

Heilgers & Co., F. W., 134-6, 644

Heilgers & Co. (coal department), 230

Henderson & Co., 644

Hides and skins, trade in, 209

Hindusthan Co-operative Insurance Co., Ltd..

666, 667
Hing & Bros., K. T., 382, 384
Holmes, Wilson & Co., 126
Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation,

126, 127
Hooghly, 359, 744
Hooghly Flour Mill, 188
Hooghly, Portuguese settlement at, 14
Hope's, G. D., article on The Tea Industry

387. 762
Howrah, 71. 359, 744
Howrah Bridge, 65
Hurdia, 301

Hursingpore Concern, 301, 303
Hutchinson, James, 762
Huttourie, 301, 302
Hutwa Raj, 550 ; views in the, 851, 552, 553,

556, 557

INDEX

India General Navigation & Railway Co.,

article on, by Alfred Brame, 714
Indian Collieries Syndicate, Ltd., 233
Indian Leaf Tobacco Development Co., Ltd.,

349, 3S0
Indian nobility, 437
Indian Patent Stone Co., Ltd. (Bird & Co.),

88,91
Indian Sporting Review, 609
Indian Tea Association, 387
Indigo Concerns, 271-349
Indigo, early history of, 268
Indigo in Behar, article by D. J. Reid, 255
Indigo trade, 209
Iron and steel trade, 210
Ismay, C, 762
Ispahani, M. M. & Sons, 669

J
Jajpur, 266, 357
Jallaha, 304
Jamalpur, 264, 358
James & Co., G. F., 126, 128
Jangipur, 366

Japanese trade with India, 206
Jardine, Skinner & Co., 128-31, 644
Jeetwarpore Concern, 304, 30S
Jeewanlal & Co., 670
Jessore, 365, 746
Jherriah Club, 269
Jherriah township, 270
Jiaganj, 366

Johnston & Hoffmann, 763
Jogapore, 306, 307
Jogedra Kishore Roy Chowdhury, Raja of

Ramgopalpur, portrait of, 599
Joyrampore Colliery (M. V. Apcar & Co.), 22S
Jones, Commander B. H., 712
Jubbulpore, 356
Jute, article on, 641
Jute trade, 208

Kamarupa Kingdom, 440, 443

Kanchrapara, 364

Kandi, 746

Kandi and Paikpara Raj, 358 ; views in the,

5S9, 360, 361, 364 ; portrait of Maharaja of,

S6S
Kanika Raj, 366 ; portraits of Raja and family,

867; view in tlie, 368
Kar & Co, 671, 672
Karimganj, 372
Kasimbazar, 366
Kasimbazar Raj, 370; portrait of the Maharaja

of, 371 ; views in the, 571, 573
Kassiaree, 356

Kellner & Co.. G. F , 68, 131-3
Kesho Prasad Singh, Maharaja of Dunuaon,

542,543
Kettlewell, Bnllcii & Co., 644
Keventer, Kdward, 137
Khana, 350
Khargpur, 354
Khasi coolies, 46 ; dances, 48 ; monoliths, 410 ;

ornaments, 47
Khasi Raja, 411
Kiddall, J. W., 731, 762
Kidderpore, Bengal Xagpur Railway Co.'s

oflices at, 354
Kilburn & Co., 139, 233 6, 397,398, 714-20

Kilburn, Edward Dunbar, 140

King, John, & Co., Ltd., 720, 721,722

Kinnisou Jute Mills Co., Ltd., 133

Kishanganj, 367

Kishore Chandra Birbar Harichandan, Raja
of Talcher, 600; portrait of, 601

Kohlma, 407

Kolaghat, 354

Kooria Concern, 306, 308

Krishen Pratap Sahi, late Maharaja of Hulwa,
533

Krishnagur City, 746

Kshawnish Chandra, Maharaja of Nadia, por-
traits of, 592

Kuchwar Lime & Stone Co., Ltd., 306, 309,310

Kumar Birendra Chandra Sinha, Maharaja of
Kandi and Paikpara, 563; portrait of, 363

Kumardhubi Engineering Works, Ltd., 736,
738

Kumardhubi Fireclay and Silica Works, Ltd.,
756, 789

Kurnowl, 311

Lalseriah Concern, 311

La Touche, Commander, 763

Latu, 372

Lawrence Jute Mills (Bird & Co.), 90, 91

Law, the Hon. Raja Reshee Case, 603, 603

Leslie & Co., W., 63, 142

Lillaram, L. H., & Co., 671, 673

Lillooah, 72, 358

Linde British Refrigerator Co., Ltd., 144

Lipton & Co., 401, 402

Llewellyn & Co., 146

Locke & Co., Ltd., Walton, 147

Lodna Colliery Co., Ltd. (Turner, Morrison &

Co., Ltd.), 236
Lohat Sugar Works, 292
Loheriah and Dhokrana Concerns, 312
Lovett, Pat, 728, 762
Lovett, Pat, on Polo in Calcutta, 616
Lowen, W. Vander, 763
Lumding Junction, 373
Lungla (Sylhet) Tea Co., Ltd., 428, 431, 432
Lyon, Hon. Mr. P. C, 762

Mackinnon, Mackenzie & Co., 644

Mackenzie, James, 720

Macnaughten, Capt. R. A., 730

Macneill & Co., 162, 163, 644, 723-3

Macneill & Co. (Colliery Agencies), 240

Macneill & Co. (Tea Estate Agencies), 398

Madan, J. F., 674, 675

Mahommedan ascendancy, 13

Mahomniedans of Bengal, 43

Main & Co., Ltd., A. & J., 165

.Maitra & Co., H. P., 130

Maldal, 366

Maugalgarh Concern, 313, 314

Mangla Prasad Sahib, 689

Manipur, a dancing girl of, 44 ; Raja Chura
Chand Singh of, 482; description of the
State of, 483; religion of, 486; appearance
and dress of inhabitants of, 490; agriculture,
trade of, etc., 491 ; views of, 496, 497, 498,
502; games and sports of, 499; fishing and
hunting of, 300; administration of, 301

Manipur Road, 374

Manindra Chandry Nandy, Maharaja of Kasim-
bazar, 571, 574

767

Manloii & Co., 158

Marhourah Concern, 313, 315, 316, 317

Marshall Sons, & Co., Ltd., 130, 132

Martin & Co., 153 7, 210, 757

Mather & Platf, Ltd., 159-62

Mayurbhanj State, 574; portrait of Maharaja
of, 575 ; views of, 876, 879

McGlashan, Mr., 762

McGregor & Balfour, Ltd., 167, 168

McLeod & Co., 168, 383, 388, 644

McLeod & Co. (collieries), 236, 238, 239

McLeod & Co. (lea gardens), 398, 399, 400

Mercantile Bank of India, Ltd., 170-2

Mica, by J. F. Chrestien, 214

Mica Industry, article on the, by J. F. Podger,
211

Midnapur, 356

Milton & Co., A., 172

Mitter, P. C, & Co., 676

Mokameh, 263

Monghyr, 264, 361

Moniara, 318, 319, 320

Mookerjee, K. P., & Co., 677

Mookerjee, S. C, & Co., 678

Moore, Mr. G. D. (The P'arm), 299, 300

Moorla Concern, 321, 322, 323

Morrison, A. B., 762

Moti Chand, CLE., the Hon. Babu, 689

Motihari, 264

Motihari, Ltd., 328, 326, 327

Motipur Concern, 321, 324

Moulvie Bazaar, 370

Mullyah Concern, 325, 328

Munjhoul, 318

Murshidabad, 366, 746

Murshidabad Serkar Ali (House of Murshida-
bad), 880; portrait of the Nawab of, 581;
views of, 582, 583, 585, 586, 887, 389, 390

Muzaffarpur, 264, 362

Mymensingh, 368, 748

Nadia Raj, 591 ; portrait of Maharaja of, 592

N'aga Hills, 406

Nagas described, 47

Nagpur, 356

Naihati Jute Mills Co., Ltd., 136

Naraipur Zemindary, 329

Nashipur Raj, 392 ; views of, 594

National Bank of India, Ltd., 174-6

Native races, Mr. L.S.S. O'Malley, I.C.S., on, 43

Native States in Bengal, 749

Nayargarh Stale, 396; portraits of Rajas of,

597 ; views of, 598
Nazargunge, Zemindar of, 606, £07
Nazira, 374

Nepalese, description of the, 46
New Police Oftices, Calcutta, 631
New Royal E.'jchange, Calcutta, 648, 650
New Ttrai Tea Association, Ltd., 403, 404
Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha, 723-7
Nursaniooda Distillery, the, 753
Nutlall's, W. M., article on Fauna, 631, 762

Oil industry, 378

O'Malley, L. S. S., 762

O'Malley's, L. S. S., article on Native Races, 43

Orissa (see Behar and Orissa)

Orissa tribes, 51, 268

Oriyas, description of the, 46

Ottur Concern, 330, 331

INDEX

Pabna, 749

PahargDomiah Tea Association, Ltd., 398

Pandua, 367

Pashok Tea Co., Ltd., 398

Patna described, 263, 361

Patna, massacre of, 32

Patna, views of, 29

Patrakola Tea Co., Ltd., 433, 434

Peeprah Concern, 330, 332, 333

Peliti, Federico, 177

Peters, J. F., 762

Petroleum deposits in Assam, 378

Pirnekpur Concern, 334, 335

Planters Stores and Agency Co., Ltd., 177, 179

Plassey, 746

Plassey, battle of, fought, 28

Playne, Somerset, 731

Podger, J. v.. on the Mica Industry, 211, 762

Port of Calcutta, article on, 708

Port of Chittagong, article on, 711

Polo in Calcutta, 616

Pratap Ndai Nath Shah Ueo, Maharaja of
Chota Nagpur, 526

Pratt, T. R., 180 2

Presidency Division, the, 745

Press, article on the, 728

Prithie Chand Lall Choudhry (Zemindar of
Nazargimge), 606

Puri, 266, 357

Puma Chandra Singh Bhanj Deo, Maharaja
of Mayurbhanj, portraits of, 575

Pursa, Ltd., 334,336, 337

Purtabpore Concern, 338, 339

Purnlia, 356

Pusa, 363

Pusa Agricultural College, 692

Pyne, Hughman & Co., Ltd., 182-4

Raghunath Sirkar Deo, Maharaja of Gangpur,

542
Kahmibux and Mohammed Ibrahim, 680
Railways: Darjeeling-Hima'ayan, 248, 382;

Bengal-Nagpur, 352; East Indian, 358;

Eastern Bengal, 363; Assam-Bengal, 369,

405; I)ibru-Sadiya,374; Bankura-Damoodar

River, 385; Light Railways, 386
Raipur, 356
Rajamala, the, 460
Rajghat Concern, 338
Rajgir, 363
Kajendra Xaraya Bhanja Deo, Raja of Kanika,

portrait of, 567 ; career of, 570
Rajpore Concern, 340, 341
Rajshahi Division, the, 748
Ramgopalpur Raj, 596
Ranchi, 267, 356

Raneegunge Coal Association, Ltd., 233
Raneegunge Pottery Works, the, 760
Rangpur, 367
Ranjit Sinha. Maharaja of N'ashipur, 592 ;

portrait of, S94
Rangamati, 366

Reid's, D. J., article on Indigo, 255, 762
Reshee Case Law, CLE., the Hon. Raja, 603;

portrait of, 60S
Retriever Flotilla Company, 199

Rita, M., & Co., 681

Rivers Steam Navigation Co., 723-5

Ronaldshay, Lord, assumes office in Bengal, 42

Rungneet Estate, 251, 252

Rungpur, 749

Runi Syeddore Concern, 340, 342, 343

Rupsa Junction, 356

R'jssa Engineering Works, Ltd.. 140

Sultangunge, 264, 36^

Sundarbans, the, 751

Suraj-ud-Dowlah and the Black Hole of Cal-
cutta, 26

Sura Protap Mahindra Bahadur, portrait of,
537 ; career and reign of, 541

Sylhet, 372

Sndiya, 374

Sain, M., 254, 763

Salsiccioni, L. E., 186

Samastipnr, 264

Sambalpur, 266, 354

Sandbrook, J. A., on Commerce and Industries,

205, 730, 762
Sandys, E. V., 477
Sandys, E. K., description of the Tripura State,

458
Sasaram, 263, 360
Saunders, J. OB., 73b
Saxby and Farmer (India), Ltd., 186
Sawoo, P. G. & W., 681, 683
Sayers, Wynne, article on Pusa College, 692,

762
Sayers, Wynne, article on Sugar, 622, 762
Sealdah Terminus, 364
Seeraha Concern, 344, 343
Sen, C. K., & Co., 684, 685
Sen, T. P., 684, 763
Serajgunj, 749
Serampore, 359
Shah Jehan, Emperor, 17
Shalimar Paint, Colour, and Varnish Co., 199
Shalimar Kope Works, 76
Shalimar Works, 199
Sham Sundar Rice .Mill, 682
Shaw, Wallace & Co., 185
Sheehan & Co., F. A., 187
Shellac, article on, 218
Shillong, 373, 408, 411, 412, 413, 414, 620
Sibsagar, Upper .Assam, 414

Sikdar & Co., 686, 687

Sikhar, 372

Siliguri, 368

Sissi Saw Mills and Trading Co., Ltd., 433,
435

Sitalprasad Kharagprasad, 686

Sitamarhi, 264, 362

Smith, Stainstreet & Co., 580

Smitti, Capt. Oswald, 762

Solomon, R. Vintcent, 731, 762

Sor.epore, 2O4, 362

Sonepore Festival, 265

South British Insurance Co., Ltd., 187, 189

Southwell's, T., article on Fisheries, 733, 762

Sport, article on, 609

Spring, Sir Francis, 712

Srimangal, 370

Standard & Bhulanbararee Collieries, 232

Standard Life .Assurance Co , 190, 191

Statesmnii, The, 729

Steel & Co., Octaviu-, 114, 115

Stewart & Co., 190, 192

Stewarts cSt Lloyds, Ltd., 193

Stockley, Capt. H. F. F., 731

Sugar, article on, 622

Sugar trade, 209

Tagore's, Sir Jotindra Mohun, residence, 62

Talcher State, 800 ; Raja of, 601 ; views of, 602

Tamluk, 744

Targett, W. H., 728

Tarpur Su^ar Works, Ltd., 761

Tata Iron and Steel Co., Ltd., 210, 244, 577, 578

Tata Sons & Co. (mica mines), 241-3

Tatareah Concern, 344, 346

Tea Companies (Jardine, Skinner & Co.), 131

Tea industry of Bengal and .Assam, 387

Tea trade, 209

Tell & Co., John, 195

Tezpur, 409

Thackeray, Charles Makepeace, 730

Tibetan women, photo of, 50

Tinsukia, 374

Titabar, 374

Titaghur Xo. 2 Jute Mill (Thos. Duff & Co.

Ltd.), 104
Titaghur Paper Mills Co., Ltd., 136
ToUygunje, 72

Tremearne, Shirley, 85, 728, 762
Tripura (Hill Tippera) State, description of the,

458, 750
Tripura, the late Maharaja of, 461
Turcouleah Concern, 311, 317, 348
TurnbuUs (Glasgow), Ltd., 196, 197
Turner, Morrison & Co., Ltd., 196, 193, 236,

237,370,712

Ulubaria, 745

University College of Science, Calcutta, 643,

649
University Institute, Calcutta, 613

Vaux, C.ipt. H. G., 762
A'ictoria Brewery, 253
Viz.igapatam, 357

Waldie & Co., Ltd., 200, 201
Waterloo Motor Works, 200
Wheeler .it Co., A. H., 200, 202
Whiteaway, Laidlaw i^t Co., 65
Wilkinson & Co., 203
Wilson, J. A. M , 7(12
Wiight, .Arnold, 731, 762
Wright, Arnold, Early History of Bengal,
Early History of Behar and Orissa, 259

Yule, Arthurs Co., 644

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