HAND-BOOK TO THE BENGAL PRESIDENCY, AND WESTERN PROVINCES OF INDIA. FORMING A COMPLETE THROUGH ROUTE AND DESCRIPTIVE GUIDE BY ROAD, RIVER, AND RAILWAY, THROUGHOUT THE PRESIDENCY OF BENGAL AND THE WESTERN PROVINCES OF INDIA. CONTAINING IN ADDITION EVERY INFORMATION CONNECTED WITH THE DISTANCES OF STATIONS FROM STATIONS, PER ROAD, RAIL, AND RIVER, TRAVELLERS' BUNGALOWS, TERRITORIES, CIVIL, MILITARY, AND NAVAL STATIONS, ELECTRIC AND RED SEA TELEGRAPHS, RAILWAY, STEAM NAVIGATION, DAWKS, TAPPAL STATIONS, POST OFFICES, BAZAARS, TOWNS, VILLAGES PASSED THROUGH, WITH A TERSELY CONDENSED DESCRIPTION OF THE ETYMOLOGY, SUPERFICIAL CONTENTS, PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS, MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, ZOOLOGY, COMMERCE, POPULATION, MANNERS, REVENUE, RELIGIONS, HISTORY AND ANTIQUITY OF ALL THE VARIOUS TERRITORIES, ETC.; WITH A GLOSSARY OF INDIAN WORDS, &C., &c. Illustrated with Splendid Maps of the Presidency, the North-Western Provinces of India, Plan and View of Calcutta. 1864. [THE RIGHT OF TRANSLATION AND REPUBLICATION IS RESERVED BOTH IN EUROPE AND INDIA.] LONDON:-W. J. ADAMS, 59, FLEET STREET (E.C.); MANCHESTER:-BRADSHAW AND BLACKLOCK, 106, CROSS STREET; MADRAS-PHAROAH AND CO.: HONG KONG:-A. S. DIXON, Esq; SHANGHAI:-S. COMPTON, Esq., North China Herald Office; LIVERPOOL:-T. FAIRBROTHER, 13, CANNING PLACE; BIRMINGHAM:-JAMES GUEST, 52, BULL STREET; SHEFFIELD: ROBERT CHADDERTON, 21, Bow STREET; EDINBURGH:-JOHN MENZIES, 2, HANOVER STREET; GLASGOW:-JAMES REID, 144, ARGYLE STREET; DUBLIN:-A. CARSON, 51, GRAFTON STREET (Corner of Stephen's Green); And Sold by all Booksellers and at all Kailway Stations throughout Great Britain, Ireland, the Continent, Malta, Cairo. Suez, Aden, Ceylon, Kurrachee, &c. PREFACE. THE Work now offered to the public is designed to serve as a complete Guide and Road Book to all the territories under the control of the BENGAL Government. It includes the principal routes, 339 in all, by road and rail, from and to every place of importance in this Presidency, accompanied by descriptions of the towns and villages, and of the natural features of the country, through which each road passes. These routes follow the order of the Government Route Books, compiled for public use in India; that is to say, Calcutta, the capital of the Presidency, and the routes branching from it, are first described, and then the routes from the chief towns, as Agra, Allahabad, &c., are taken as near as possible alphabetically. Experience has shown this to be the most convenient arrangement for a work of this class; and a very full index will make the finding of any place, however small, perfectly easy. All the particulars given for the benefit of travellers in the Government Route Books are here condensed into a small pocket volume, which will have the advantage of frequent corrections at short intervals of time; while the official Route Books are revised but once in ten or fifteen years, and take three or four years to pass through the local press: and it deserves notice that this is the first and only attempt hitherto made to give these details, at full length, in such a moderate compass. As to the spelling of names, the common forms to which the reader is accustomed from long usage, and as they still appear in official maps and documents, are followed in this Hand-book; but the correct native spelling of places is added, to help the traveller in their identification in the progress of his journey. With respect to the authorities on which the work is based, the Government Route Books form the substratum; besides which the compiler has been greatly indebted to Thornton's official Gazetteer of India for the general descriptions. Use has also been made of the official Reports on the Progress of India, now annually presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for India in Council, in pursuance of the Act by which the government was transferred to Her Majesty. These reports must be consulted by every one who wishes to know something of the progress made by India within the last few years, and of the extraordinary development of its resources under the new order of things. Other works, as Bishop Heber's Journal, Russell's Diary, Forbes's Oriental Memoirs, Fergusson's Hand-book of Architecture, Bengal Year Book, Thacker's Post-Office Directory, &c., are quoted in the body of the Hand-book. It is just to the proprietors to state that the substance of this work was compiled some years ago, immediately after the occurrence of the disastrous Indian mutiny; but circumstances having delayed its publication at the time, opportunity has been taken to bring down the information to as late a period as possible, and thus to increase the utility of the work. The unusual facilities of communication and transit now opened up in the East not only serve materially to strengthen the bond of our Indian empire with the mother country, but to promote a more easy and frequent intercourse between them; and so far tend to render the demand for such works as the present indispensably necessary to the oriental traveller. Similar Guides being issued for Madras and Bombay, BRADSHAW'S HAND-BOOKS FOR THE THREE PRESIDENCIES, in conjunction with the OVERLAND GUIDE TO INDIA, already published, will be found to make a useful and compact series, which the proprietors confidently offer as containing every information respecting India which a person proceeding to any part of it, either in a private or official capacity, would wish to possess. To avoid errors in descriptions embracing such an extent of territory, and crowded with so many foreign names, would be impossible; and we shall therefore be much obliged to residents and travellers in India for authenticated corrections relative to any locality with which they may be pleased to favour us, addressed to 59, Fleet Street, London, or 106, Cross Street, Manchester. |