পুরনো কেল্লার ঘাট, কলকাতা, c১৭৮৭
This is a view of the Old Fort Ghat adjoining old Fort William. The old Fort was built at the turn of the eighteenth century. In 1757, an attack on the fort by the forces of Siraj-ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, led the British to build a new fort in the Maidan. The old Fort buildings were repaired and used as The Company’s factory and offices including the Customs House that stared functioning from 1766. Both goods and passengers were unloaded from ships at the landing-stage shown here. According to the instructions issued by the Customs House in February 1807, “no goods whatever imported at Calcutta. From sea, or for exportation from Calcutta by sea, will, in future, allowed to be landed at, or shipped from any other Ghaut, but that to the south of the custom house at Calcutta.” The ghat was also a popular bathing place for the people of Calcutta.
Coloured etching with aquatint by Thomas Daniell (1749-1840) c1787
Chandpal Ghat, Calcutta, c1814
চাঁদপাল ঘাট, কলকাতা, c১৮১৪
This view of riverside depicted by James Baillie Fraser with bathers and ferry near Chandpal Ghat, the bussiest ferry ghat of Calcutta for a long time. Existence of Chandpal Ghat as the southernmost Ghat on Hooghly is easily discernable in the ‘Plan of Fort William and part of the city of Calcutta’ surveyed in 1753. With the landing of Sir Philip Francis and his fellow Councillors of the Supreme Council for India under East India Company at Chandpal Ghat in 1774, it became a class apart from the other Ghats. Incidentally, this Ghat took its name not from an elite Indian, but from an obscure and forgotten native shopkeeper Chandranath Pal or Chand Pal who used to sell his petty merchandise beside the Ghat. Until the railway was opened the principal landing place was customarily the well-known Chandpal Ghat. Lord Cornwallis was the first Governor General who landed at this Ghat on 12th September 1786. Chandpal Ghat became the gateway not only of Calcutta but also of British India for a long time to come. Calcutta was then fast becoming the first City of Asia. Expansion in every sphere of it was then its hallmark, Ghats included. See more
This is plate one from James Baillie Fraser’s ‘Views of Calcutta and its Environs’. Fraser (1783-1856)
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Zenana Bathing Ghat, Calcutta, c1890
রামচন্দ্র গোয়েঙ্কা জানানা ঘাট, কলকাতা, c১৮৯০
The Zenana Ghat was one of the most beautiful bathing ghats on Hooghly, viewed standing with its elegant dome next to Mullick Ghat (hidden behind Armenian Ghat). It was built presumably in late 1880s or early 1890s by Ramchandra Goenka, father of Sir Badrinath Goenka. A leading businesman Ramchandra earned a reputation for the philanthropic works he did all over India, including his home town Dundlod, Rajasthan where he built the beautiful Chhatri of Ram Dutt Goenka and the adjacent well in 1888. He was one of the founders of the Calcutta Pinjrapole, the very first social organization of the Calcutta Marwaris, and established a Vidhowa Sahayak Samiti (widow helper association) in 1899. This institution also helped orphan children below the age of fifteen. The Zenana Ghat meant exclusively for women, which still stands on the river bank with its historic edifice.
This is a cropped view of the original panoramic photograph taken in 1944 by Glenn S. Hensley
