Calcutta by the Hooghly

The Jewel of the English Crown had flourished along the prolific course of the Hooghly River. Several trades prospered here between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, steering the promising dockyard as one of the busiest in the whole of Asia. Explore one of its finest professions on this trail.

Barrackpore

The first retreat of the British in India had observed it all. Mangal Pandey’s bravery during the Sepoy Mutiny, Lady Canning’s beloved riverside or Bengal’s benevolent leader Rani Rasmoni’s command over the Brits! You name it! Over the coming years, the Cantonment rose to prominence due to its geographical position and also because of its proximities to the other European-dominated trade towns across the Hooghly River.

Serampore

During the 14th and 15th centuries, Serampore on the Hooghly was a center of global trade. Indian cotton, oils, sugar, and spices were sold from the port town of Saptagram to Burma, Sumatra, Java, the Malay Peninsula, China, Persia, and the Arab world. The foreign merchants paid in silver, gold, pearls, porcelain, camphor, wood, and tropical spices. The Indo-Danes trade transformed the town into opulent one.

Chandernagore

The Portuguese were the first to settle in Chandernagore in 1537 but were eventually defeated by the great Shah Jahan in 1632. The British East India Company then followed and set up a factory here in 1651. Chandernagore was once a French colony and is still under the influence of French language and culture. The Hooghly dominates the landscape and people use ferries to commute to other towns. The  connected history and cultures of the French and the Bongs in this quaint French pocket of the ertswhile Bengal.

Chinsurah

The Dutch formed their East India Company (V.O.C — Vereenigde Ostindische Compagnie) around 1602, two years after the East India Company of the English. This was merely the result of an act of union among some smaller joint stock companies founded by the Dutch maritime interests during the 1590s. Bengal was the important area for Sugar, Saltpetre, Indigo and Textiles. With the collapse of the Portuguese and the fall of the port at Saptagram, migration of small traders and peasant communities slowly followed at Chinsurah, the Dutch got an entry to carry on trade here. With stories and legends discover the bygone days of the Dutch settlement of Bengal

Bandel

During the Portuguese and the Mughals, Bandel derived from a thriving port on the Hooghly. Primarily the unofficial Portuguese privateers, freebooters, convicts, and adventurers came to this region to make their own fortune, away from the stifling official structures located on the west coast of India. This was called their ‘shadow empire’. While travelling through the western delta of Bengal in 1515, Portuguese traveller Tom Pires mentions Satgoan or Saptagram as one of the chief trading cities in Bengal. He writes, ‘It has a good port; it has a good entrance. It is a good city and rich, where there are many merchants’. Explore the intriguing slice of Potuguese Bengal in an intrepid trail with us.

Cossimbazar

Dating back to the early 17th century, the port-town of Cossimbazar was of great importance long before the foundation of the Mughal city of Murshidabad. The first European traders set up factories here, and after the ruin of Satgaon due to the silting up of the mouth of the Saraswati river, it gained a position as the great trading center of Bengal, which was not challenged until the foundation of Calcutta. The English, Dutch and French East India companies, everyone maintained factories at Cossimbazar. In 1658 the first English agency of the East India Company was established here. Trace the stories back with our storytellers on a multi-day trip.

Murshidabad

Discover Bengal during the Mughal Ruler Murshid Quli Khan’s rule. Before the advent of the British, the city of Murshidabad was the capital of Bengal. With a poignant significance in Indian History as in 1757, the British defeated Siraj–ud–Daula, the last independent Nawab of Bengal in the Battle of Plassey, after which the entire nation was brought under the British Colonial Rule. Even after the conquest of Bengal by the British, Murshidabad remained the seat of administration and commerce for sometime. An abode of Mughal architectural and cultural legacies, the town boasts poignant history related to the ancient Bengal Silk trade.

Chandraketugarh

Chandraketugarh is a city that never existed. The name, like so much else about this site and its 2,500-year-old history, is borrowed from local myths in the absence of actual research. Discovered by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in 1907, it was relegated to be of “no interest” for years. Venture on a day-trip with us to unravel the tales behind the foundation of this ancient ruins.

Bengal Craft Tour

The immensely talented craftsmen from Bengal rely on centuries-old traditions and indigenous methods to make breathtaking craft items with their matchless skills and creativity. Witness the magic of the age-old crafts and know about the utility of crafts inspired by the folk culture on this tour that has been curated to showcase the rich cultural heritage of Bengal embodied in its traditional crafts.

 

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