Posted on: 20 November 2010

View of Circular Road, Calcutta - 1848

Watercolour of Circular Road in Calcutta by Edward Augustus Prinsep (1828-1900) dated c.1848. Inscribed on the front in ink: 'On the Circular Road, Calcutta.'.

Circular Road in Calcutta was one of the improvements implemented by Marquis Wellesley on his appointment as Governor-General in 1798. Part of the road followed Maratha Ditch, a defence that had been dug in 1742. The Prinsep family served in India for several generations. Edward Prinsep was the son of William Princep, a merchant. His uncle, James Princep, was a noted scholar and antiquarian.

Source : British Library


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Here is a comment in Bengali,Which i can't resist..."Somoy Bohiya jay,Nadir sroter pray...".....probably this is the picture 4 which this comment was made...thanx...

Translation ??

actually it means..."time passes as the river flows..."...sorry i'm not that poetic...

Thanks Amita!!! That answers the question I had!

Wow, Amita! Thank you for that. Btw, are there any books on the history of the city that you (or anyone else) would recommend?

How well one remembers both Upper and Lower Circular Road. We lived just off Upper Circular Road on Vidyasagar Street ! And every morning I'd be driven to school : initially Pratt's on L.C. Road , and later C.B.S off Dharamtalla Street. A few years later Upper Circular was renamed as Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road , while the 'tonier' Lower Circular Road became Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Road. The latter was especially sweet for me : as one's earliest years had been spent at Bose Institute where Father was the first Head of its Botany Department from 1941 to 1960.

lovely!