[Reader-list] 5th posting for SARAI fellowship project Heritage Ponds of kolkata

[MRSG]

5th Posting: 

for SARAI fellowship project Heritage Ponds of kolkata

 

We are now almost at the end of our journey to search the heritage ponds of Kolkata. The journey as we mentioned before was through the literatures, journals, memoirs, conversation with people and then simply walking through the streets of the city. The journey was not pleasant always, as you stand in front of a pond with a history of three hundred years, you find a dirty pool where reflection of the sky is censored by the weeds and floating plastics. But they are there. People are using them, bathing, washing, fishing, and spending times around them. They are history in continuation.

 

Ponds (pukur) are there inside the heart of Kolkata. And our walk took us to so many land areas all named after ponds(pukurs). So you walk on the road called Ahiripukur. The 'pukur', the waterbody is long gone but it has stamped its marks on the land. So you roam in the lanes of Manoharpukur without seeing any waterfowl.  In Kolkata you have the places named Bosepukur, Thakurpukur, Paddapukur, Talpukur, Keorapukur, Hanspukur, Shyampukur, Muraripukur, Jorapukur, Jhamapukur, Beniapukur and more. 

 

A recent road directory of Kolkata Municipal Corporation listed 61 roads in Kolkata named after the waterbodies. Apart from being called a pukur, they can be variously called 'Jheel', 'Jala', and 'Dighi'. There are two Jheel Roads, one in the southern fringe of the city at Jadavpur, the other at the northern end at Kashipur and also Motijhil Road. There are roads named 'Seven Tanks Lane', 'Karbala Tank Lane', Tiljala Road, Basak Dighi Lane etc. 

 

But the authorities running the city do not have any care for such evidence of a contemporary history, for them, these old heritage ponds are merely dirty waterbodies. So they go on changing the names with impunity. Sometimes, from pukurs to some local personalities, the local history is wiped in the process and dumped in some reference book. Till now there has been 29 changes in the names of these roads, changes that have come to our notice. Basak Dighi Lane is now Kedarnath Banerjee Lane or Beniapukur Road is now Ramnath Pal Road. With time, Kokata is losing the ponds as well as their role as markers of the surrounding lands.

The report will contain the detailed names and lists of all these roads.

 

Our attempts in documenting these heritage ponds have been multifold.  First, after the site visit, the pictures of these ponds have been taken. The salient features of the ponds have been recorded like the temples or some memorials etc by their side. A route map for the waterbody has been prepared so that anyone willing to visit the site can reach the spot easily. Also it is being attempted to take satellite photograph of each pond from the Google's map along with the latitude-longitude of the site. With each pond there will be a history sheet to record its heritage status. Also the present status of the ponds would also be recorded. All these records have been noted with proper references.  

 

We have till today listed 43 ponds which can be considered as the heritage ponds. A brief introduction of some of those would give an idea about the claim to heritage of these waterbodies.

 

The story of the heritage ponds of Kolkata can start with those waterbodies which were excavated before any idea of Kolkata was ever thought of. That list should start with 'Sen Dighi'. This large waterbody is situated at the extreme southeast margin of the city. This is the oldest waterbody though the exact age of it remains to be researched. The title 'Sen' comes from the Sen dynasty of Bengal which ruled the region through the 11th and 12th century. The Sens are considered last Hindu rulers of Bengal after which the region was conquered by the Muslim invaders. The village where the waterbody is situated is called Boral which is also a very old village of south Bengal. There is the famous Tripur Sundari temple close to the waterbody. This temple is considered as one of the 'peetha' and as holy as renowned Kalighat temple in Kolkata. During recent excavations for renovations and additional construction of the temple, many old artefacts of Maurya period to Sen period have been recovered. Some of these articles are kept at Asutosh Museum in Kolkata and some at the local museum within the temple complex. Hindu temples generally have waterbodies adjacent to them to fulfill different religious rituals and ritual bathing etc. So this waterbody is also linked with the history of this temple considered to be established during Sen period. 

The next old waterbody which also exists for several hundred years is "Ray Dighi". It is located at the southwest margin of the city at he place called Sarsuna. Sarsuna area was once a part of a developed region ruled by the 'Roy' rulers. Raja Prapaditya Roy, one of the famous Twelve Chieftains (Baro Bhuiya) of Bengal who fought against mighty Mughal emperor Akbar to ensure local independence, came from this family. Pratapaditya ultimately was defeated by the Mughal army and died in 1598 in captivity of Mughals. His father Bikramaditya Roy and uncle Basanta Roy were the rulers of this region. Basanta Roy set up his headquarters at Sarsuna and named it Raygarh. He excavated the large waterbody known as 'Roy Dighi'. This nearly 500-year-old waterbody still exists though now reduced to a much smaller size. 

 

The waterbody at Tollygunge in southern Kolkata called "Pagla Pirer Pukur" (waterbody of the Eccentric Muslim Saint) is also more than 350 years old. The 'mazar' of  Hazarat Muksud Gazi  lies at one corner of the pond. The sufi saint was known as 'Pagla Pir' who died in the year of 1690. The waterbody is mired in many myths, even the folk lore says it was created by the wish of the Pir. The water of this pond was sacred to all and no local festivals, marriage would be complete without the use of this holy water.

 

Same year when the Pir died, the English merchant Job Charnolk set up his small office near today's Binoy-Badal-Dinesh Bag by the side of another waterbody named 'Lal Dighi', literally means 'Red Lake'. The lake and its surroundings was later named as Dalhousie Square and now known as Binoy-Badal-Dinesh Bag. This waterbody  was the property of the family of Sabarna Roy Chowdhury, the owner of the village of Kalikata, Sutanuti and Govindapur. These three villages were taken on lease on 1698 by Job Charnok's son-in-law in 1698 which is considered as the beginning of the making of the city of Calcutta, now Kolkata. This 'Lal Dighi' still retains its prime position as the central place of the city. These are the waterbodies which records the history of the new city in building. 'Lal Dighi' has seen the battle between Siraj-ud-Daullah in 1756 when the local king drove away the British from Kalikata. A year later, after the battle of Plassey (Palashi), the British returned triumphantly to start the building of this new city.

 

Mohit Ray