[Reader-list] In search of Heritage Ponds of Kolkata – Posting 4

[MRSG]

In search of Heritage Ponds of Kolkata – Posting 4



We have already walked miles in Kolkata to look for the heritage ponds, the 
ponds whose waves murmur history, murmur stories, talks about unknown 
chapters of this city. Our other journey was inside the four walls, through 
the pages of the books where the waves of these waterbodies have kept a 
permanent watermark. And for the city any literary search starts with Tagore 
(1861-1941). He wrote a full page about a pond in his memoirs of childhood 
days. In ‘Jibansmriti’ he details about the pond and the daily activities 
around it. We get a picturesque description of a pond with a brick-made 
ghat, a huge banyan tree on its side, the line of coconut trees. And then 
the memoir turns into a virtual movie, a young boy presenting the hourly 
description of people, their uses it in their very own styles. For a young 
mind, it was picture book.  But this was no unique feature of Tagore’s 
palatialme and the its adjoining pond, at that time, 150 years ago many a 
houses in Kolkata (today’s North Kolkata) used to have the ponds inside. 
However the pond immortalised by Tagore was filled up by the time he was 
still quite young.

The use of ponds has also been written by Mahendranath Dutta (1868-1956), 
great revolutionary and younger brother of Swami Vivekananda, the well known 
Hindu monk. He has written in his memoirs about the local waterbody at 
Hedua, from where the servants used to bring water for drinking. The lake at 
Hedua still exists, now called Azad Hind Bag. But not all the ponds were 
good. But the ponds (pukurs) were there aplenty. The name of north Kolkata 
localities e.g  Shyampukur, Fariapukur, Jhamapukur all bear the history of 
the past days though now these areas do not have any ponds.

The most well known waterbody of Kolkata is the waterbody at the heart of 
the city’s commercial and administrative centre. This waterbody is called 
Lal dighi or Red (Lal) pond. There are different legends about the name Lal 
dighi. This pond originally belonged to the property of landlord family of 
Sabarna Chowdhury. One story says that after holi, the villagers used to 
take bath making the water red. Another version goes that the name is after 
the landlord …… who excavated it. Later the British-built red-brick 
buildings’ reflections in the water of this waterbody made its name more 
significant. The place was later known as Dalhousie Square, named after Lord 
Dalhousie. It was renamed in 70’s as Binoy-Badal-Dinesh Bag honouring three 
armed revolutionaries who became martyrs in this place during British rule. 
Several old Calcutta paintings by foreigners depicted this waterbody and its 
surroundings. The oldest map of the area, Bailey’s Map shows its name as 
‘Great Tank’ and the area was then known as Tank Square.



Naming the area around a waterbody as ‘square’ was a British practice. So 
Dalhousie Square was known as Tank Square. Other well known squares in 
Kolkata still existing are Wellington Square (now Subodh Mullick Square), 
College Square, Wellesley Square (now Haji Md Mohasin Square), Marques 
Square  etc. Of these squares, Wellington Square lost its watrerbody 
longtime back. It used to be called as Golpukur (Round shaped pond). As some 
chestnut trees surround the pond, it was also known as ‘Badamtalao’. The 
waterbody was excavated in 1822, then was covered up in 1870’s to convert it 
into an underground reservoir to supply water. College Square was known 
previously as Gol Dighi, now a rectangular one. Whether the waterbody was 
once round shaped or not – has been a topic of debate among eminent 
historians. Marques Square had a large waterbody called Basak Dighi (The 
waterbody of Basak family) but it was filled up to create a park. A number 
of these waterbodies were renovated and its surrounding beautified in 1820’s 
by Lottery Committee which raised money by lottery for improvement of 
Kolkata’s roads and parks etc.

Those are the ponds related to Kolkata after the British came in. But 
Kolkata existed before that, there were affluent villages around and some of 
the eminent local kings ruled these places. One of them was Maharaja (title 
obtained in 1574) Pratapaditya Roy, a celebrated Bengali king who revolted 
against the Mughal emperor Akbar (1556-1605) from Delhi. His nephew Basanta 
Roy established his head quarters at Sarsuna, south-western part of today’s 
Kolkata. A large waterbody called Ray Dighi bears the name of the family. 
The waterbody still exists though its area has shrunk from 80,000 sq.m to 
about 20000 sq.m. And then close to that waterbody still exists two other 
smaller waterbodies, Kamala and Bimala, named after two wives of Basanta 
Roy. Hundreds still take bath in these waterbodies, what a way to eternalise 
the names of the wives providing public service.

M Ray