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This article has been extracted from <br/>

THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908.<br/>	

OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS.
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[[Category:India|H]]
[[Category:Places|H]]
''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. ''
 
=Hooghly River=
The most westerly, and for commercial purposes 
the mcjst important, channel by which the waters of the CjANGES enter 
the Bay of Bengal, being formed by the confluence of the three western 
distributaries of the great stream — the BhagIrathi, JalangI, and 
Matabhanga — which are conjointly known as the Nadia Rivers. 
The BhagIrathi receives also an independent supply of water from the 
eastern watershed of the Chota Nagpur plateau, where its tributaries 
drain an area of about 8,700 square miles. The Bhagirathi joins the 
Jalangi at Nadia town, in 23° 25'' N. and 88° 24' E.,and the distinctive 
name of the Hooghly is by some assigned to the united rivers from 
this point ; according to others the river does not take this name till 
just above Santipur, 24 miles farther down the stream. The united 
stream is joined by the Matabhanga 15 miles below Santipur, and it 
thence proceeds almost due south to Calcutta ; it next twists to the 
south-west, and finally turns south, entering the Bay of Bengal in 
22° 13' N. and 88" 4' E. After receiving the liagher Khal on tiie left 
bank, it marks the boundary between the Twenty-four Parganas on the 
east and the Districts of Hooghly, Howrah, and Midnapore successively 
on the west, thus separating the Presidency and Burdwan Divisions. 

The head-waters of the Hooghly are important as great highways for 
inland trafific. Like other deltaic distributaries, they are subject to 
sudden changes in their channels and to constant silting up ; each of 
them is frequently closed during the dry season, while in most years 
the depth then maintained does not exceed 2 feet at the shallower 
places. During these dry months the waters of the Hooghly are largely 
supplied by underground infiltration of water into the deep trough 
which the river has scooped out for itself; and the depth of the channel 
is maintained by the scouring of the current during the rainy season, 
when the spill streams from the Ganges and the Chota Nagpur 
tributaries of the Bhagirathi pour down enormous masses of water. 
The fresh-water supply of the upper reaches of the river is therefore 
derived partly from the Ganges, partly from the Chota Nagpur plateau, 
and partly by infiltration ; and it is estimated that these three sources 
provide, respectively, 48, 31, and 21 per cent, of the total supply. The 
strong freshes in the Hooghly have a most beneficial effect in scouring 
the channels, and it is noteworthy that the ratio of maximum to 
minimum fresh-water discharge is as high as 13 to 1. The Hooghly 
receives four tributaries on the right bank. The Damodar flows into 
it opposite Falta, 35 miles below Calcutta, and 6 miles farther down 
it is joined by the Rupnarayan ; the Haldi and Rasulpur flow into 
the estuary of the river. All these tributaries drain the eastern flank 
of the Chota Nagpur plateau. 

The influence of the tides is felt strongly as high up as Nadia, 
especially during the dry season ; and it is estimated that the tidal 
inflow during the four months of the hot season is more than double 
the total fresh-water discharge of the year. The tides operate usefully 
in dispersing the alluvium brought down from above, as well as in pro- 
viding water for navigation over the shoals at high tide. The difference 
between the lowest depth of water in the dry season and the highest 
in the rains is no less than 20 feet 10 inches. The greatest mean rise 
of tide, about 16 feet, takes place in March, April, and May, with 
a declining range during the rainy season to a mean of 10 feet, and 
a minimum during freshes of 3 feet 6 inches. 

The tide runs rapidly in the Hooghly, and produces a remarkable 
example of the fluvial phenomenon known as a ' bore.' This consists 
of the headwave of the advancing tide, hemmed in where the estuary 
narrows suddenly and often exceeding 7 feet in height. It is felt as 
high up as Calcutta, and frequently sinks small boats or dashes them 
to pieces on the bank. 

the historic times great changes have taken place in the course 
of the Hooghly. There is good reason to beheve that the BhagIrathi 
represents the old course of the main stream of the Ganges. It is still 
called the Ganges by the people along its banks and is held sacred. 
At Tribeni, on the right bank of the Hooghly, 36 miles above Calcutta, 
is the closed mouth of the old SaraswatI river, which formerly carried 
the main stream of the Ganges by a channel west of the modern 
Hooghly, which joined the present river at Sankrail, 6 miles below 
Howrah. The course of this dead stream can still be traced by pools 
and marshes, and it was an important river as late as the fifteenth 
century. Satgaon, the Muhammadan royal port of Bengal, lay upon 
its bank a short distance inland from Tribeni, and was the traditional 
mercantile capital of Bengal from the Puranic age to the beginning of 
the sixteenth century, when the mouth of the SaraswatI had so far 
silted up that the Portuguese ships could no longer make use of it. 

Another important change has taken place below Calcutta. At one 
time the Hooghly, instead of turning south-west at Calcutta, swung to 
the south-east near the exit of the present Tolly's Nullah, and found 
its way into the Bay of Bengal near Sagar Island. The old course can 
be traced in a series of pools and dips across the Twenty-four Parganas, 
which are still known as the Adi (or ' original ') Ganges. The pre- 
historic shrine of Kali Ghat and other sacred places of Hinduism mark 
its course, and its banks still supply holy spots for the burning of the 
dead. In fact, it is not until the course of the Adi Ganga rejoins the 
present Hooghly that this river is again recognized as Mother Ganges 
and resumes its sanctity ; and Hindus who die below the point where 
the Adi Ganga left the Hooghly have for many generations been 
carried to the Hooghly above that point, or to the old banks of the 
Adi Ganga itself, for cremation. 

The river may be divided into two sections : the first of 64 miles 
from Santipur to Calcutta, and the second of 80 miles from Calcutta 
to Sagar Island, where it becomes an estuary. 

A serious deterioration in the upper reaches of the Hooghly occurred 
during the eighteenth century, owing to an alteration in the course of 
the Damodar. This river originally joined the Hooghly at Naya Sarai, 
39 miles above Calcutta, and it brought down a great volume of water 
to assist in scouring the channel. Gradually, however, its floods worked 
a larger passage for themselves to the southward, and by 1770 it had 
forced an exit at its present moutli, 35 miles south of Calcutta. The 
result was that, during the eighteenth century, the Hooghly above 
Calcutta deteriorated, and shoals formed which rendered the ancient 
trading settlements no longer accessible to sea-going ships. 

The section of The Hooghly above Calcutta has been famous for 
600 years for its entrepots for sea-going trade. Hooghly Town was 
founded by the Portuguese in 1537, after the SaraswatI river silted up 
and prevented access to Satgaon. The Portuguese were followed by 
the Dutch, who established their factory and port at Chinsura, a mile 
lower down, in the seventeenth century. vStill later in the middle of 
the eighteenth century, Chandernagore, 2 miles below Chinsura, 
■which had been founded in 1673 as a small French settlement, rose to 
mercantile importance under Dupleix. The Ostend Company about 
1723 fixed their Bengal port at Banklbazar, 5 miles below Chander- 
nagore, but on the left bank of the river. The Danes in about 1676 had 
selected as their port Serampore, 8 miles below Chandernagore, on 
the right bank of the river. All these ports and settlements lie at 
a distance of from 16 to 36 miles above Calcutta, and are now without 
exception inaccessible to sea-going ships, even of small tonnage. 

The process of silting up was accelerated by the change in the 
Damodar channel above referred to. In 1757 Admiral Watson took 
his fleet, with his flagship of 64 guns, as high as Chandernagore for the 
bombardment of that town, and as late as 182 1 the English pilots 
steered Danish ships of 700 to 800 tons up to Serampore. After 1825, 
however, this section of the river seems to have rapidly deteriorated, 
and the Dutch and Danish ships could go no higher than Cossipore, 
just above Calcutta, and were there unladen into cargo boats. Alluvial 
formations are still going on in the river-bed from Serampore upwards. 
These formations are in many stages of growth, from the well-raised 
island with trees, down through successive phases of crop cultivation 
and reedy marshes, to shoals and little dots of dry land which only 
emerge above the water at certain seasons of the year. Below Calcutta 
changes in the channel are frequent and the rapid tides make navigation 
difficult. Lower down the estuary is notorious for its dangerous sand- 
banks, of which the best known are the Gasper and the Sagar sands. 
These, however, as also the entrance channels, are continually changing, 
and a minute description of them would serve no useful purpose. 

From time to time fears have been entertained with regard to the 
Hooghly approach to Calcutta; and in 1862 it was proposed to found 
a new port at Port Canning, 28 miles to the south-east, on the Matla 
river, to anticipate the silting up of the Hooghly channels. Trade, 
however, has clung to the Hooghly. Port Canning proved a failure 
and has long been deserted ; and a later proposal to build docks at 
Diamond Harbour as an auxiliary port for Calcutta was negatived, and 
there is no reason to believe that the navigable channels are at present 
deteriorating. The chief perils to navigation are the James and Mary 
Sands and the Mayapur bar. The dangerous shoal known as the 
James and Mary lies between the entrance of the Damodar and the 
Rupnarayan, and was early recognized as a danger to navigation. 
On September 24, 1694, the Royal James and Mary was lost on this 
shoal, to which she gave her name. Banks and shifting quicksands 
are rapidly formed and the channels have to be continually watched 
and sounded, for if a vessel touches the sand, she is pushed over by 
the current ; and cases are known in which only the yards of a great 
three-masted ship have remained above water within half an hour after 
the accident. 

Direct efforts to control the channels across these shoals have not 
yielded favourable results. In 186S experiments were conducted on 
the Mayapur bar, and spurs were run out some distance below high 
water-line from both banks of the river ; but they were found inade- 
quate to guide the flood and ebb tide into one channel, and no 
improvement resulted. In 1896 an engineering expert, brought out 
to consider the feasibility of improving the river, suggested that training 
walls should be built to regulate the channels across the James and 
Mary and Mayapur bars ; but his recommendations were not con- 
sidered practicable. A great deal has, however, been done of late 
years by the Port Commissioners to reduce the dangers of navigation, 
A scientific survey staff is employed, and the charts which they issue 
form a lasting and valuable record of the changes that take place. 

The Mayapur and the James and Mary bars are sounded daily, the 
result being telegraphed to both Calcutta and Diamond Harbour for 
the information of inward or outward-bound pilots ; and the height 
of the water on the bars is signalled from the bank, from the time 
vessels enter the river until they pass the last dangerous bar at Maya- 
pur, Much of the credit of maintaining and improving the Hooghly 
as a great waterway is due to the Calcutta pilots, one of the most highly 
skilled and best-paid pilot services in the world. Every incoming 
vessel is boarded from a pilot brig off the Sandheads at the mouth 
of the Hooghly, and remains in charge of the pilot till he makes over 
the ship to the harbour-master at Garden Reach on the southern limit 
of the Port of Calcutta. 

The result is that whereas, in the eighteenth 
century, ships of even 700 tons usually discharged their cargoes at 
Diamond Harbour, vessels drawing 28 feet are now piloted in safety 
up to Calcutta at favourable states of the tide. Great improvements 
have also been effected in the Port {see Calcutta). The Port Com- 
missioners maintain a series of shelters or refuges along the east 
face of the Hooghly estuary and the adjoining Sundarbans, which are 
supplied with provisions and a few necessary tools for the use of ship- 
wrecked mariners and are regularly inspected. The entrance of the 
river is protected against attack by forts at Calcutta, Falta, and Chingri 
Khal, which mount heavy guns. 

The Hooghly is spanned at Naihati by a fine cantilever bridge, con- 
sisting of two spans of 420 feet projecting from the banks, and a central 
span of 360 feet resting on piers of great strength in the middle of the 
river. The bridge links up the East Indian Railway system with the 
Eastern Bengal State Railway and with the docks at Calcutta. Lower 
down Howrah is connected with Calcutta by a pontoon bridge, which 
was opened for traffic in 1874. 

The railways have robbed the upper reaches of the Hooghly of 
much of their boat traffic, but quantities of straw and jute find their 
way by them to Calcutta. The river is, moreover, connected on its 
left or eastern bank by various tidal channels and creeks, known as 
the Calcutta and Eastern Canals, with the eastern Districts, and 
thus forms the great waterway for boat and steamer traffic from Cal- 
cutta, through the Twenty-four Parganas and the Sundarbans, to Eastern 
Bengal and Assam. On the left bank lie Calcutta with its suburbs 
of Garden Reach and Cossipore-Chitpur, and Barrackpore, 
Naihati, S.^ntipur, and Nadia farther up the river. On the right 
bank Howrah is the most important town, followed by Hooghly, 
Chinsura, Serampore, and the French settlement of Chander- 
nagore. 

The scenery on the banks of the Hooghly varies greatly. The sea 
approach is disappointing, and for many miles nothing can be seen 
but sandbanks, succeeded by mean-looking mud formations covered 
with coarse grass and raised only a few inches above high tide. As the 
river narrows above the James and Mary Sands, however, the country is 
not so low, and grows richer. Trees and rice-fields and villages become 
common, and at length a section is reached where the banks are high, 
and lined with hamlets buried under evergreen groves. The palm 
foliage and feathery bamboos now begin to assert themselves more and 
more strongly, and give a luxuriant tropical type to the landscape. 
When at length the Port of Calcutta is reached, a scene of unexpected 
magnificence, unrivalled in its kind, bursts upon the eye. The dense 
foliage of the Botanical Gardens, the long tiers of shipping, with the 
old houses of Garden Reach on the margin in the foreground, the Fort 
rising from the finely timbered plain on the bank higher up, and the 
domes, steeples, and noble public buildings of Calcutta beyond gradu- 
ally unfold their beauties in a long panorama. The traveller really 
feels that he is approaching a City of Palaces. 

=Hooghly Town=
Head-quarters of Hooghly District, Bengal, 
situated in 22° 55' N. and 88° 24' E., on the right bank of the 
Hooghly river and on the East Indian Railway. Hooghly was founded 
by the Portuguese in 1537 on the decay of the royal port of Satgaon. 
At Gholghat, close to the present Hooghly jail, the ruins are still visible 
of a fortress which formed the nucleus of the town and port of Hooghly. 
Exasperated by the havoc wrought by the Portuguese pirates at Chitta- 
gong, and in order to revenge himself for the Hooghly governor's 
refusal to assist him when he was in revolt against his father eight years 
previously, the emperor Shah Jahan sent a Mughal force against the town in 1632, which carried it by storm after a three and a half 
months' siege. Over 1,000 Portuguese were slaughtered, and more 
than 4,000 men, women, and children were made prisoners, and the 
place was then established as the royal port in lieu of Satgaon. 

The 
Portuguese were allowed to return to Hooghly in 1633, the emperor 
making them a grant of 777 bi^has of land at Bandel. The English 
factory at Hooghly dates from 165 1, having been established under 
a fartnan granted by the emperor to Dr. Boughton, a surgeon in the 
East India Company's service, who had cured his favourite daughter 
of a dangerous illness. In 1686 a dispute took place between the 
English factors at Hooghly and the Nawab of Bengal, and a military 
force was dispatched from England to strengthen and protect the 
Company's factories there. An accident precipitated the rupture. In 
October, 1686, three English soldiers were set upon and beaten in 
the Hooghly bazar and taken to the governor's house. After some 
street fighting the battery and the governor's house were captured by 
the English, who subsequently withdrew under an armistice to Calcutta, 
or Sutanuti as it was then called. This was the first collision between 
the English and the Muhammadan government in Bengal. 

Hooghly was the head-quarters of the Burdwan Division from 1871 to 
1875, ^'"id from 1879 ^o 1884 they were at its suburb, Chinsura ; they 
were then moved to Burdwan, but were transferred to Chinsura in 1896. 
The place is now decadent and its population with that of Chinsura, 
with which it is incorporated as a municipality, has declined from 
34,761 in 1872 to 29,383 in 1901. Hindus constitute 82-8 per cent, and 
Musalmans i6-6 per cent, of the total. The municipality was created 
in 1865. The income during the decade ending 1901-2 averaged 
Rs. 50,000, and the expenditure Rs. 47,000. In 1903-4 the total 
income was Rs. 60,000, including Rs. 28,000 derived from a tax on 
houses and lands, Rs. 18,000 from a conservancy rate, Rs. 5,000 from 
a tax on vehicles, and Rs. 3,000 from tolls. 

The incidence of taxation 
was Rs. 1-13-10 per head of the i)opulation. In the same year the 
expenditure was Rs. 53,000, of which Rs. 4,000 was spent on lighting, 
Rs. 3,000 on drainage, Rs. 28,000 on conservancy, Rs. 5,000 on roads, 
and Rs. 900 on education. The municipality maintains 51 miles of 
metalled and 76 miles of unmetalled roads. The grand trunk road, 
which passes through the town, and a few short lengths of road in the 
old cantonment are kept up by Government. The Imambara is a 
Shiah mosque, which was completed in 1861 at a cost of 2-2 lakhs from 
funds beciueathed by a wealthy Shiah nobleman, Muhammad Mohsin. 
The other principal buildings are the municipal office and jail ; the 
latter has accommodation for 437 prisoners, who are chiefly employed 
on bag-sewing for the neighbouring jute-mills and oil-pressing. The 
chief educational institutions are the Hooghly College at Chinsura, possessing a branch in Hooghly itself, a training college for school- 
masters, and the Madrasa.