From the History of Portuguese Asia.
‘Gaur, the principal city in Bengal, is seated on the banks of the Ganges, three leagues in length, containing 1,200,000 families, and well fortified. Along the streets, which are wide and straight, rows of trees shade the people, who are so very numerous, that sometimes many are trodden to death.’
“To the contemplative mind, what a striking example must a review of Gaur present of the uncertain state of sublunary things!”
“The Ruins of Gaur,” with eighteen coloured plates, was published in 1817, in one volume quarto, from the manuscript and sketches of the late H. Creighton, Esq.; it is a scarce and interesting work.
CHAPTER XLVI.
SKETCHES IN BENGAL—THE SUNDERBANDS.
Toll at Jungipūr—Bengālee Women—Palace of the Nawāb of Moorshadabad—Mor-pankhī—Snake Boats—Kāsim Bazār—Berhampūr—Cintra Oranges—Cutwa Cloth—Culna—The Timber Raft—Chandar-nagar—Sholā Floats—The Hoogly—Chinsurah—Barrackpūr—Serampūr—Corn Mills—The Shipping—Chandpaul Ghāt—River Fakīrs—M. le Général Allard—Assam Leaf Insect—The Races—Kalī Mā’ī—Dwarkanath Tagore—The Foot of a Chinese Lady—Quitted Calcutta—The Steamer and Flat—The Sunderbands—Mud Islands—Tigers—The Wood-cutters—Kaloo-rayŭ—Settlements—Culna—Commercolly—Rājmahal—Monghir—Coolness of a Native—Pleasures of Welcome—The Vaccine Department—The Gaja Rājā performs Pooja as a Fakīr—The Eclipse—The Plague—The Lottery—Conversations in the Zenāna—The Autograph—Delicacy of Native Ladies—Death of the King of Oude—The Padshah Begam—Moona Jāh—The King’s Uncle raised to the Throne.
1836, Dec. 9th.—Arrived at Jungipūr, where a toll was levied of six rupees on my bajrā, usually called budjerow, and two rupees on the cook boat,—a tax for keeping open a deep channel in the river. During the hour we anchored there, and the servants were on shore for provisions, I was much amused watching the women bathing; they wade into the stream, wash their dresses, and put them on again all wet, as they stand in the water; wash their hair and their bodies, retaining all the time some part of their drapery, which assumes the most classical appearance. They wear their hair fastened behind in the Grecian fashion, large silver nose-rings, a great number of white ivory churees (bracelets) on their arms, with a pair of very large silver bangles on the wrists, and massive ornaments of silver on their ankles; their drapery white, with, perhaps, an edge of some gay colour; bright brass vessels for water (gāgrī), or of porous red earthenware (gharā), in which they carry back the river water to their dwellings. Having bathed, they repeat their prayers, with their hands palm to palm raised to their faces, and turning in pooja to particular points. After sipping the water a certain number of times, taking it up in their hands, they trip away in their wet drapery, which dries as they walk. The skin of the women in Bengal is of a better tinge than that of the up-country women; they are small, well-formed, and particularly graceful in their movements.
10th.—The Bhaugruttī, as you approach Moorshadabad, is remarkably picturesque, and presents a thousand views that would make beautiful sketches. At this moment we are passing the Nawāb’s residence, or rather the palace that is building for him; it is situated on the side of the river, which presents a beautiful expanse of water, covered with vessels of all sorts and sizes, of the most oriental and picturesque form. A fine breeze is blowing, and the vessels on every side, and all around me, are in every sort of picturesque and beautiful position. The palace, which is almost quite completed, is a noble building, an enormous and grand mass of architecture, reared under the superintendence of Colonel Macleod.
The mor-pankhī, a kind of pleasure boat, with the long neck and head of a peacock, most richly gilt and painted, and the snake boats, used on days of festival, are fairy-like, picturesque, fanciful, and very singular. Pinnaces for hire are here in numbers. The merchant-boats built at this place are of peculiar and beautiful form, as if the builder had studied both effect and swiftness; the small boats, over which rafts are fastened to float down wood; the fishermen’s little vessels, that appear almost too small and fragile to support the men, and which fly along impelled only by one oar; the well-wooded banks, the mosques, and the mut’hs (Hindoo temples), mixed with curiously built native houses;—all unite in forming a scene of peculiar beauty. Kasīm bazār adjoins Moorshadabad; both are famous for silk of every sort. In the evening we anchored at Berhampūr; the budgerow was instantly crowded with people, bringing carved ivory toys, chess-men, elephants, &c., for sale, and silk merchants, with handkerchiefs and Berhampūr silk in abundance; all asking more than double the price they intended to take. Four more dāndees having deserted, I have been obliged to apply to the Judge Sāhib to procure other men.