Rupnarayan
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Rupnarayan
River of Bengal, known in the early part of its course as the Dhalkisor. It rises in the Tilabani hill in Manbhum District, and follows a tortuous south-easterly couise through the south-west corner of Burdwan District. The Silai joins it on the border of Midnapore District; and from this point (22 40' N. and 87 47' E.) it takes the name of Rupnarayan, and after a farther course of 49 miles, during which it separates Midnapoie District from Hooghly and Howrah, it joins the HOOGHLY RIVER in 22 13' N and 88 3' E The Rupnarayan proper is tidal throughout its entire course, and a heavy bore ascends as high as the mouth of the GAIGHATA BAKSHI KHAL, The Rupnarayan originally formed a western exit of the Ganges. It now enters the Hooghly at right angles opposite Hooghly Point, and when in flood it banks up the stream of the Hooghly and forces that river to deposit its silt upon the dangerous shoal known as the JAMES AND MARY.
It thus constitutes the principal danger to the navigation of the Hooghly iivei, The nver is protected on its right bank, within Midnapoie District, by a continuous embankment 29^ miles in length ; and it is also embanked all along its left bank from its junction with the Gaighata Bakshi Khal to its union with the Hooghly river. The bordering lands are more or less inundated by the spring-tides in April and May, which leave behind destructive impregnations of salt, rendeimg them unfit for cultivation unless small defensive woiks are thrown up round the fields every yeai to keep the water out. Grass and hogla leeds (Tyfka elephantine^} are the ordinal y produce, except m yeais when the rams set in and close early,when a late rice crop can be planted in September. The Riip- narayan is navigable throughout the yeai by native boats of 4 tons burden as high as Ghatal village m Midnapore District. It is not fordable at any season of the year within the limits of Hooghly and Howrah Districts It has been spanned by a fine bridge at Kolaghat, where it is crossed by the Bengal-Nagpur Railway.
