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Kolkata: A city in search of a
birthday
By Sujoy Dhar
KOLKATA - India's bustling eastern metropolis,
which in 1990 celebrated the 300th year of its founding
by British colonialists with much fanfare, is looking
for a new birthday as a result of recent archeological
finds that push its history back two millennia, and the
findings of a court committee on the matter.
Archeologists excavating the northern outskirts
of the city at the mouth of the sacred Ganges river have
dug up artefacts and "habitational deposits" that are
believed to be the remains of an urban settlement dating
back to the 2nd century BC.
The Archeological
Survey of India (ASI), which is excavating the site near
the Dum Dum neighborhood, says that the artefacts and
potsherds appear to be from the Sunga Kusana period
which ruled the region about 2,200 years ago.
But the city's serious identity crisis stems
mainly from the report by an expert committee set up by
the high court in Kolkata, which finally exploded the
myth that a British trader, Job Charnock, founded
Kolkata in 1690. According to the report submitted to
the high court on January 31, there was no particular
year marking the city's birth and its actual founder
could not be determined, though Charnock could be
claimant.
Other claimants include Charles Eyer
and Gold Borough on the side of the British and
Lakshmikanto Roychoudhury, the Sett and Basak families
and the Subarna Roychoudhury family, which sold the
village to the British East India Company.
Archeologist Bimal Bandopadhyay says that
excavations conducted between December 2001 and
April-May 2002 have indicated that an "urban population
continuously lived here for centuries without any
break".
The ASI has not only found artefacts,
potsherds and seals from the Dum Dum site, but also
human skeletons that have been sent for laboratory
tests. The results are being awaited, but scientists are
confident the human remains are at least two millennia
old. "It can be concluded that not jungles and marshy
lands but an urban settlement thrived on the peripheral
zones of the city long before present day Kolkata came
up," says Bandopadhayay.
The site was occupied
in two phases, from the 2nd century BC with continuous
occupation up to the 11th-12th century AD. After a short
gap, it was further occupied during 15th-16th century AD
up to modern times.
The finds include terracotta
plaques displaying figures of yakshinis (female
demons who guard hidden treasures) and materials of a
later period, such as divine and semi-divine figurines,
and punch-marked and cast copper coins datable to the
same period.
Human skeletons were found at the
lowest level and were sent to the Anthropological Survey
of India for study. The archeologists conjectured that
they are from the period just before the 2nd and 1st
century BC. Perhaps the inhabitants buried their dead
close to their dwellings, says Bandopadhayay.
The site yielded beads fashioned out of various
materials, such as semi-precious stones, crystal,
steatite and terracotta besides a remarkable find of a
miniature icon of Mahishasurmardini (the mythological
killing of the bull-faced demon Mahishasur by Hindu
goddess Durga, wife of Lord Shiva).
According to
historian Dilip Biswas, the finds are not surprising, as
the river Ganges, on whose banks the city is situated,
was highly navigable and foreign ships sailed down it
regularly. "The Greeks write of a port named Gange. The
two sides of the Ganga are archeologically very rich,"
he says.
"The blackware and greyware pottery in
fine fabric show a clear affinity with pottery of the
pre-Christian era discovered on the site," Bandopadhayay
of ASI says.
The city's birthday has long fueled
an academic debate, with some historians challenging the
popular belief that Charnock founded it on August 24,
1690. City mayor Subrata Mukherjee, too, believes that
the city was neither born on August 24, 1690 nor founded
by Charnock. "The name 'Kolkata' finds mention in
documents dated much before August 24, 1690. In fact,
the name occurs in documents like 'Chandimangal' [a
religious scripture], written between 1598 and 1606,"
argues Mukherjee.
He says that Calcutta, the
British term for Kolkata, finds mention even in a map
drawn in 1660. The ASI's discovery at Dum Dum bolsters
Mukherjee's claim.
Besides the debate in
academic circles, an aristocratic Bengali family,
believed to have owned much of what is today Kolkata,
had challenged in court the city's birthday and history
leading to the report. The Subarna Roychoudhury Parivar
Parishad (SRPP) - which says that it sold the three
villages that make up Kolkata to the British East India
Co on November 10, 1698 - and some historians went to
the high court, disputing popular notions on the city's
history and birthday.
At present, August 24,
1690 is accepted as the city's birthday because Charnock
was believed to have set foot here that day. But some
historians hold that Charnock had landed in 1676. On
August 24, 1690, Charnock landed in the city for the
third time.
The SRPP claims that if present-day
Kolkata if at all it can have a birthday, it should be
celebrated on November 10, 1698, the day that the city's
ownership was transferred to the British East India Co.
The SRPP's counselor Smarajit Roychoudhury claims that
Charnock died six years (January 10, 1692) before the
sale deal was signed. "How then can Job Charnock be the
founder of Calcutta?" he wonders.
The SRPP
claims that the actual founder of the city was
zamindar (landlord) Laxmikanta Roychowdhury
(1570-1649) who received the ownership rights over eight
villages, including the three that make up today's
Kolkata, from Mughal emperor Akbar as a token of
appreciation for his services.
Numismatic
evidence shows that human settlement began in Kolkata
about 1,500 years ago. The first European traders to
arrive in the region were the Portuguese in 1510. Before
that the Chinese, Arabs and the Malays formed part of
the trading community. The Portuguese were followed by
the Dutch, the Danes, the English and the French. The
Armenians settled in Kolkata at least 60 years before
the arrival of Charnock.
(Inter Press
Service)
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