The Ghats of Hooghly and the Waterfront.
It was the day three for us at Kolkata and a River Cruise was the highlight of the day, meticulously planned by Mohan and Sushma, it spelt a kind of romanticism for me, that overwhelmed me in the drama and story of the bygone era.
Such was my mindset when we left the hotel for the Hooghly River waterfront, there was a latent kind of exuberance to absorb the look and feel of over centuries of ‘The River Story’ as it flows along from bank to bank
History journeys along with its meandering flow
as a wide birth from bank to a bank has eyes straining
trying to see across to the other side, far too wide.
trying to see across to the other side, far too wide.
Muddy rivulets stirred up by the riverboats drift by
and my dreams become intertwined with what
and my dreams become intertwined with what
I have read and the sleepy houseboats floating near
the banks that the river dwellers call home.
the banks that the river dwellers call home.
Connie Marcum Wong.
The day began just as we got off, in midst of a waterfront hubbub and melee of river dwellers and tourists at the Babu Ghat on the banks of the Hooghly River. To capture this milieu VP, Shail and I reached Babu Ghat a little before the rest of the 23rd bus loads descended. This was maybe providential and a pre-ordained chance for us, and we were able to picture the ambience of the locale as it is on daily basis.
A huge ancient, gnarled Banyan tree caught our eye and was instantly intrigued with the multitudes of small ‘earthen pots and ‘kulads’ embanked around it, strangely, we were told that they were left by grieving relatives of departed souls to sustain them with water on their onward journey.
Babu Ghat is one of the many Ghats built during the British Raj, along with the bank of River Hooghly on The Strand. Prinsep Ghat or James Prinsep Ghat was likewise built during the British era as well, along with this picturesque river bank. Adding to its charm is a quaint little Ghat railway station maintained by the Eastern Railway just 7 meters above the sea level. I presume there would be some kind of a magic with the sound of the trains chug and whistle along with the river lapping on the ghats that could make a day out at Prinsep Ghat otherworldly.
Built-in 1841 and named after James Prinsep, an Anglo-Indian scholar and architect. Prinsep Ghat is a place steeped in history and the columned ornate architecture is rich in Greek and Gothic inlays. With its 6 sets of tall Ionic columns, it bears some resemblance to the Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate.
 |
| King George V and Queen Mary landing at Princeps Ghat, Calcutta 1911 on way to Delhi Durbar |
Prinsep Ghat was built to replace Chandpal Ghat as the point of embarkation or disembarkation for the British peerage and associates. In fact, it has witnessed the Royal visits of 1875, 1905 and 1911. However, over the years, the River Hoogly has retreated towards Howrah. As a result, the steps of the Ghat were buried under the earth and Prinsep Ghat now stands some distance away from the river, dwarfed by the Vidhya Sagar Setu.
Due to years of negligence, both due to lack of maintenance and vandalism, this Palladian porch was in real distress. However, it was restored just in time by the state’s public works department in November 2001 and has since been well-maintained.
Captivating and enhancing this old-world charm the Princep Ghat railway has another stop-over at a dinky size Babu Ghat Jetty station.
Babu Ghat too has a very impressive façade, typical of its colonial construction with tall Doric-Greek style pillars and a pavilion that leads on to the flight of stairs going down to the waterfront.
In the earlier days, there was a Steam Engine installed near the right corner of the Ghat, which used to pump water from the river to clean the city streets. Today, Baboo Ghat is a crowded wharf with vendors and passengers crossing the Hooghly River to reach the Howrah station.
While the name Babu Ghat is well known, not many people, even in Kolkata is aware as to who exactly this ‘Babu’ is.
The answer to this question lies in a plaque above the main entrance of the Ghat.
The plaque contains the following text…
“THE RIGHT HON'BLE LORD WILLIAM CAVENDISH BENTINCK, GOVERNOR GENERAL & c., WITH A VIEW TO ENCOURAGE THE DIRECTION OF PRIVATE MUNIFICENCE TO WORKS OF PUBLIC UTILITY, HAS BEEN PLEASED TO DETERMINE THAT THIS GHAUT, CONSTRUCTED IN THE YEAR 1830, AT THE EXPENSE OF BABOO RAJCHUNDER DOSS, SHALL HEREINAFTER BE CALLED BABOO RAJCHUNDER DOSS'S GHAUT”
Ghaut being the anglicised spelling of ghat, it means a wharf or waterfront quay…that is a point of place for people to get on or off a boat.
Rajchunder Doss would today be spelt as Raj Chandra Das. He was the zamindar of Janbazar, but then again it was his wife Rashmoni who earned the claim to fame. Later she came to be known as Rani Rashmoni. Married at the age of 11, she was not only celebrated for her beauty and her wealth but was widely acclaimed for her immense contribution to charitable causes and civil society activism. These often led to confrontations with colonial authorities.
Legend has it that the British authorities in Calcutta once attempted to ban fishing in the Hooghly by imposing a punitive tax because the small fishing boats immensely hindered their mercantile vessels. The poor fishermen came in droves and beseeched Rani Rashmoni for comfort and support for their livelihood. This young woman listened intently to their plight and astutely paid off all the taxes. But then, in a clever turn of events went on to hang a thick rope right across the river!
This got an instant consequence … All the river traffic came to a standstill! When an explanation was asked for, she said simply, that since she had paid the tax, she now had every right to recover the money by fishing, and the large ships were preventing her from doing so. This flummoxed the British authorities; the tax had to be abolished, and the fishermen went back to business as usual.
Now back to our day of the Hooghly RiverCruise, we jostled through the mass of visitors and vendors to reach the portals of Babu Ghat pavilion dotted with a crowd of mini temples and watchful priests. Some were accosting the believers and some were intent on the delivery of salvation. There was one priest who was perhaps on the direct hotline with his maker, he paused for a moment to give us a perfunctory pass-over and as we did not fit the profile of a potential patron or a habitué he continued in his divine dialogue.
As I had mentioned earlier, that from the pillared entrance of Babu Ghat we go down the wide stone steps that gradually lead on to the waterfront.
Stepping across the narrow tracks of the Ghat railway with Ghat jetty station in the background we wait for the lively energetic 23rders to catch up.
Could we say that destination is just a point to reach,
what really matters is the journey,
be it a river or be it our life?
Comments
Post a Comment