Posted on: 29 October 2010

Bombay - The Esplanade and Colaba in the distance (from the top of Watson's Hotel) - March 1870.

Water-colour painting of Mumbai (Bombay) by John Frederick Lester (1825-1915), March 1870. This view shows the British military encampment in the foreground on the left, with the lighthouse, St John's Church, the band stand and the island of Colaba in the distance. The image is part of an album of 30 folios of watercolours made between 1865 and 1877 in Kathiawar, Bombay, Poona, Mahabaleshwar and Savantvadi State.
Originally, Mumbai was composed of seven islands separated by a marshy swamp. Its deep natural harbour led the Portuguese settlers of the 16th Century to call it Bom Bahia (the Good Bay). The British Crown acquired the islands in 1661 as part of the marriage dowry of Catherine of Braganza when she married Charles II. Mumbai was then presented to the East India Company in 1668. The second governor, Gerald Aungier, developed the town into a prosperous trading port and centre for commerce. As inducements were offered to skilled workers and traders to move here Mumbai soon became a bustling cosmopolitan city.

Source : British Library


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Wow. One can identify many of the spots. The Church spire you see in the distance is perhaps the Afghan Church (I don't know why it is called Afghan),in the middle the chimneys are of the defunct textile mill, on the left are the Custom House buildings (still the same) and the foreground is the stretch from Cuffe Parade to the Prince of Wales museum. This painting has the quality of Ayan Ghosh's photographs (India stretched).

The ruins of the mill are still there at Colaba near the Radio club.

beautiful!!

Is there any possibility of getting a larger image (better resolution) one ..... thanks

Shekhar Sathe it's called Afghan Church because it was built to honour those who died in the first Afghan war. The First Anglo-Afghan War - A British Disaster: In 1838 the British invaded Afghanistan and captured parts of it. But as locals increasingly became hostile to British occupation, the British were forced to retreat from Kabul. And guess what? Of the 16500 Indians and Englishmen who retreated, only one man reached India alive. The rest were massacred in skirmishes along the way. The Kabul retreat became the stuff of legend. More about that disastrous war here: http://delhimagic.blogspot.in/2007/07/anglo-afghan-wars.html

The British Colonialists come to enslave the people of India, and still continue to do so with foolish diversions from self realization like Cricket, Rugby, Mc Donald's, Bollywood, etc...etc....

Afghanistan was the home of Queen Gandhari, wife of Dhrtarastra. As explained by my guru maharaja, Srila Prabhupada " Formerly the capital of Afghanistan was known as Gandhar. Now it has become Kandahar. So by historical references, it will be ascertained that the whole, this planet was known as Bharatavarsa. What is now India is now known Bharatavarsa, but formerly the whole planet was known as Bharatavarsa. Formerly, this planet was known as Ilavrtavarsa, but since the time of King Bharata, who also, the forefathers of the Pandavas, the planet is called Bharatavarsa. So everywhere there was Vedic culture. The treasures are still available, and the history of the whole world is called Mahabharata. The same point, Bharata. And Mahabharata means "greater Bharata," greater. Just like nowadays we say "greater India," greater some city, "greater New York," so this Mahabharata means is history of the greater Bharatavarsa."

Shekhar Sathe: Is that Colaba textile mill the Mukesh Mill?