ON THE RIVER-BANK AT PATNA FROM THE GOLA TO THE FORT.

[FROM THE ORIGINAL IN THE RECORD-ROOM OF THE DISTRICT JUDGE'S COURT.]

IV.-The River Front of Patna at the beginning of the Eighteenth Century.

By J. F. W. James.

In the course of the examination of the old records of the Judge-Magistrate of Patna and of the Provincial Court of Appeal, which have survived in very imperfect condition in the District Judge's office, a plan of the bed of the Ganges as it existed at some time between 1812 and 1816 was found last year. It will be remembered that in Dr. Buchanan's time the main stream of the river above the custom-house flowed at a distance from the high bank, leaving a great bed of sand and diara, with the result that the place was almost insufferable in hot weather. From the fragmentary record of which this map formed a part, it appears that the plan was prepared in connection with a suit relating to the diara land; and the main purpose of the surveyor was to make a map of the bed of the river rather than to give a descriptive plan of the bank. But in order to define his position in the river bed, the surveyor from time to time made pictorial sketches of houses on the bank, many of which can be identified with existing buildings. His plan of the Patna bank has been reproduced on a reduced scale for the Journal. It should be remarked that the surveyor did not attain to anything approaching accuracy in drawing to scale; and that he evidently did not attempt to include all the buildings and objects of interest on the bank.

While the reproduction of this plan was under preparation for the Journal, Mr. C. E. A. W. Oldham had been preparing traces of a plan which he found among the Buchanan manuscripts at the India Office. This plan, which also has little pretension to accuracy in scale, is now reproduced in the Journal with the plan of the river bank. It is evidently the plan to which

Buchanan refers in his Journal (J.B.O.R.S., vol. viii, page 344). It is proposed to discuss this plan only so far it describes houses in Bankipore, or is of assistance for elucidation of the plan of the river front.

In the plan of the river front the surveyor begins on the west with the gola. This landmark is naturally prominent in the Buchanan map. The inaccuracy in detail of the Buchanan map becomes at once apparent in the position assigned to Chhajju Bagh, and in the enormous area assigned to the maidan. It will be observed that the gola compound is described as covering the ground between James Lindsay Ross's house (the present Collector's house) and Company Bagh. The great enclosure then and afterwards known as the burying ground of the Nawab Jahangir Quli Khan is ignored.

North-west of the gola is the house known as the Nepali kothi. I do not know how the name became attached to this house and to the house west of it. The bara Nepali kothi has a strong resemblance to other buildings of Garstin's designing; and it would naturally be supposed that Garstin built it for himself while be was erecting the gola. This supposition is confirmed by the description of the house as Garstin's house in the Buchanan map.

In Buchanan's time Captain Peach was beginning to build the house which is now the Commissioner's bungalow. Captain Stuart's house, now occupied by the District Judge, had been acquired by the Collector of Bihar for a local kachahri in 1811. Both of these buildings are omitted in each of the maps. Buchanan's map describes the whole area of their compounds as Bagh Raja Murlidhar, a piece of interesting and comparatively ancient history.

It is possible that the building shown by the diara surveyor, left undescribed by him, is Captain Stuart's bungalow; but it may be the house now occupied by the Civil Surgeon, which we know to have been occupied by the Opium Agent in 1811. Mr. Oldham would identify this latter house with the kamra

Brooke Sahib of Buchanan's map; but that may represent the Court of Appeal.

With the diara surveyor's Court of Appeal we are on certain ground. This was built by William Augustus Brooke in 1787, on the site of the present Collectorate; in Buchanan's time it

was

Occupied by the Provincial Courtof Appeal; and it was here that Bishop Heber preached in 1824.

of the

East of the lane which now bounds the Bankipore Club compound is Company Bagh. The large building shown in each maps is evidently the Company's Commercial Factory, built by Captain Watson for the Commander-in-Chief in 1763-4, and taken for the Factory in 1767, now utilised for Munsif's Courts. East of the great house is the tomb of Randfurlie Knox, beyond which is the house of the Commercial Resident, described by the diara surveyor as that of Mr. Farquharson, who was Resident at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century. This is probably the house, with its appurtenant bungalow (now used for Pirbahor police station), which is shown on the east of Company Bagh in Buchanan's map. The compound of this house was the original Company Bagh, acquired by the Company early in the eighteenth century; but, as has been described in the Patna District Gazetteer, the name came in course of time to be applied to the area on the west, which used as a camping ground by Coote and Clive in 1757 and 1758, and occupied afterwards by Army Headquarters, and subsequently by the Factory. The name appended in Buchanan's map to the house of the Commercial Resident may possibly be a corruption of Ellis, whose name may well have been associated with the house.

was

The diara surveyor has omitted all the houses between Company Bagh and Patna College, except one which is left undescribed, which may be the Murad bagh house. Buchanan's plan here gives more details. The first house beyond what is probably meant for that of the Commercial Resident is described as kamra Kin sahib. This was originally a Factory assistant's house, encroaching on the land beyond the western boundary of