THE Origin of BOMBA L\ ILLUSTRATED with Loixs, Inscripl'loss, A~D :&Urs: by J
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THE ORiGIN OF BOMBA l\ ILLUSTRATED WITH lOIXS, INSCRIPl'lOSS, A~D :&urs: BY J. GERSON DA CUNHA; CHAPTER I; l.NTBODUCIJ.iISll. •· dombay est bilti l l'extremite stid-est de la petite tie de m~mi nom •••• Sa rade, une des plu11 belles et des plus all.res de l'lnde •••• !'aspect en est fort pittoresljue, et ii est peu de ports qu' on pui~se lui compuer. A l'arri5r~·plru:i, las ulciritagnes du continent avec leurs sommetll decou1Hs lie detaclieot sur I' azur dd Ciel, tandiS qu' a leurs pied& les collinl'S et lea iles, chd.rgees durarit fes nl0U880D8 d'nne verdure luxuriante, fornient un tableftui: des pl~s .ravissadts."......: M. ALFRED GRAN0101£a, Le Tour dll Monde, Vol; XX., p. 122. This quotation, from a nfodern French traveller; gives a very concisr, bat accdmte, descriptidn of the ll&pecit cif &mbay; There ii a grrat deal besides the pllncirairla; however, in the topcigmphy and history of the island, which io1 very interesting; Not drilj lhe resi dents, bu~ even those wl:lo hate not had the adv11ntdge; or felt the distress, i(s tl:le ca&e may be; of li•ing in thi'-' hdt add moist tiut in some respects charming city, may like to know it. As a:o iotroduction w tlie suhject; it may be W:ortti wliite in eip'lain the rauon d"Gtre cJf these fragmentary u:otes, wliicli, wiilfoat aay o.,erwetding eeuse of tlieir merit, hnve been put together lindtr the somewhat exotic deitignation of Tlae drigin of nom6dJ1. I say .advisedly eso'tic designatidrt, beca.u:se it is an adaptation from tWe domain of natural hi1toey and b'io1ogy to a descripiite "ccoont of tlie foundation: and political history of a city. Add u these researcties iO: the ancient histo·ry o'f Bomb'a.y can be .trac!ed t.O uiore 'ban one source, I would h&'fe; indeed, preferred, had not th'e e1.pressi0o been unfamiliar to the Eugli1b'. idiom, to' name them, aftt'r the manner of tbe Latin and eognaie laagttag~·a; The Origin! of Bonwa:y. i • 2 .. 2. THE ORIOIN or BOMBAY. Twenty-five years ego, when Bombay had begun to emerge from its merli~vel 11hge, I began to collect, with the enthusiasm and vivacity of youth, documents, legends; nnd tradiLious relative to its pas~ end that of its~. neighbourhood. The singular position of this city between the edremes, which alwnys touch, ot' barbarism 1md ci,-ilisa tion, must strike one-as it struck me on my first visit to Bombay in May 1860, when it was still surrounded by walls arid moats, with gates and suspension-bridges-as R place w11rthy of a laborious and cooscientiom1 study. "Bombay," as I said in the PrP.fnce to rriy work on the History And Antiquities of Chaul end B:issein, "like, probably, no capital city in the world, presents to the scholar the contrndictory nspect of being nt the same time surrounded by sents of very ancient civilise· tions-Buddhist, Sivaite, l\ltihomeden, nod Portugues~od wild tountry fohabited by people as savage as the race living in the deep recesses of the S11tpftras." As the collection of these disjointed locnl historical memoranda in creased, I commenced to publish them uncler the bending of " Words and Place~ in and about Bomblly," in the Indian Antiquary, in 1874. The work .on the nei~hbouring cities of Chaul and Bassein followed, and the natural desire to hunt up the relics of Antiquity amongst t.he ruins of those two 'cities of the dead,' brought to li~ht. some rare coins. They hnd the fa~cin~ting power of drawing me olf from the lirnitod fil'ld of archreology to thrit huge sphl're, where, according to A. de Barthelemy, "La numlsmatiquo •.•• nous e laisse le plus de connai!'JSllnces et de d "to.ils sur les reli~ions enciennes, snr la geogrn· pbie et sur l'histoire de contrc\es dont la tradition ecrite n'a guere fait connaitre que Jes noms." It is said that this crntury is, before all things, the century of hi~tory. Arts nnd literatures, religions and philosophies, are chiefly interesting as sucr.e~sive manifestations of the scheme of human evolution. Ea.ch coin being a contemporary monument of·the event to which it alludes, its sturly eventnnlly resulted in the public11tion of my "Contriuutions to the Study of lndo-Portuguese Numis matics," in which refnence w11s abo made to Bombay. Papers based on these desultory notrs were occesion11.lly pnblished in the Journals of nrious local lenrnecl Sqcieties, such as the BombRy Branch of the Royal Asiatic, th!' ~fodical nnd Physioal, end the Anthroi;ological, as well as in tlw l\Iunicipal Blue-book on the Census of 1881, ns witnesses to the cootim•ity of the historical life of this 2 .,, INTRODOCTIOX, 3 eity. References to the history of Bombay were 11110 made in my memoir, read nt the Inter11ntion11l Congress of Orieotalists of Florence in 1878, an•I published iu the Ll.tti del IY. Congr.es10 biterna:ionale devli Orientaliati. 'J'hese personal explanntioos may, perhaps, to one unacquainted with racts savour of egotism. But as it is a general complaint that lndi11 has not yet had no hi~torian to deal comprehensively with het wonderful career, and that she is equally ddicient in point of biography, which really constitutes tbe bnse of history, I do not know that an apology is needed for entering into the biographical details of the origin of these notes before I enter into tAe Origi11 of Bom/Jay. Good oftentimea adses out of evil. The accumulation of all these chaotic materials would most probably hnve for ever remained unedited, had not the dire calamity wliich has 'Visited Bombay for some months, aud well-nigh depopnla.ted the city, recalled their nearly forgotten existence. This misfortune of the plague, which will in the encl• I hope, prove no essential blessing in disguise, bas now nearly ceased, although some time mo.y yet elapse before complete tmoqoillity is rel!tored t.o the disturbed public conscience~ notwithstauding the pl'Overbially short memory of the people in. general- Nam neque n.os agere hoc patrfo~ tempore i11iquo Possum-us requo animo. To seek inspiration a.midst the ravages. and nnxieties ot the time of terror, of panic and the loo~cning of the moral Iii.ire of this coamo-. politan population; to learn lessons frJm the ca.prices of fortune ; to draw inferences from the e:iperiences. of the past; or to c11st, as it were, the horoscope of Bombay, I unst'alod the11e old papers as if unlocking some syhilline books, laid nside a qunrter of a century before. They c1me to confirm the opinion l had once ventured to express in a pnper only four yea.rs sincP, while commenting on the diary of the French missionnry, the Abbe Cottineno do Kloguen, who wns i11 Bombay in 1827, just seventy yenrs 11go. "The great events," I then said, "that have materially contributed to the mnking of modern Bombay, a.re the Treaty of Bassein, which destroved the Maratha confederacy, the.annexation of the Dekkan, 0 and the opening of the Suez Ca.no.I, which helped considerably to raise this city to the proud position of the gKteway of India. On the ruins of the Peishwa's dominion, just a decade bofore lhe arrival of the 2 '* French ll\ll&1onar.y bere~ wa9 thus rising the edi6ce oE .. ....1111 Jittl~ island on the Kunkan Cons~, destined to ~ule o'fer 11 great put of ~ vMt Cootinl'nt. S,iqce then it hn~ p11llsed throt~y~ nriuu,11. 4'1'i•i~~ fhKsee of gro\~lh 11nd de,-~opmrnt. tb.roni:h ~-ear:s of jo' an~ of eorro.\'{ .. periods ~f ~nnntuJ"al i11~1ttion altern~tiug with *hoee of "l'Pflrent\y hopel .. 111 dep~eion, ~ut, i~ epit-e of 1111 th,is, :Bomt.1. li~e Pari._, ft.uc!uat ~ec mer,g1t1~r." And, li~e P11ri11, a<>m,bny ·hue gro.wn .. ~lne allowance being m_Rrl,e for the bolcl11e•11 o( thP oompari11.• 111 •. elo~lJ !lt first, bnt ~pid!J' d,uring ~he 111st <\nnrler of d~is ~ntqry. From ~buln~agne to !'l!,ap.ol~o1,\\ :fMi8 ton!\ nef\rlJ ten centu,riee to, b;ecom~ f populo~~ city,_ 1u~d B,om,bi'_r, fr~ ll~uhrey Co~ke ~ Jonatb11~ :puncnn, lm;,i_ spent 11b,cut 0,1\e 1,unurc«J. nnd fifty ~·ears to denlop from ~ llMJll'e h11ml.et iuio 11 fair town. 111; HUl P~ris. ~t.aiqed 600,000, 1nho.bit1101s. Fro.II\ tl,nt time to. ~84.6 th~ pop.~la.ti~ il\CJ'f'n,Hed by th\! 1e11.rly nJ~ition of 1,,00..) head,:~. the nu~l~r of h.o.aar~. ~n,c.reRsing i~ vroportion to. Nhelter o,ne m.illio.n of so,nls. From 180~ to ~89.~ 41,Q 10, ne~ hoos ·11 were b.uih, Bll,I\ the popu,~"&io.11 1'1ul. gro,'':11, to. 2,50u,_OAO. The. Puri11in11 11ta1isti.cs d,o, not fornis.11 fignres a.ntprior to 'he 1"1t l""'" of th.e Em,pire.; b,•\t fur. the li\st t~enty-fi_vt\ Y"1"1'1\ th~ ~ity 1'•11 he.e.n e.nricl\M by th.t 11~nn'll irn,m\:rn\tion of 2b,,Oil0 qpu,111.