A Bengal Atlas (Set of 2 Volumes)

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

James Rennell (1742-1830) had been recognised as the greatest geographer that Great Britain had produced till the late 19th century. He started his career as sailor but gradually upgraded himself to an outstanding cartographer, a hydrographer and a comparative geographer. He was pioneer in mapping the area under the administrative control of the East India Company and became the first Surveyor General of Bengal and that of India.

Dr. Kalyan Rudra (1952), is presently the Chairman of West Bengal Pollution Control Board and also member of the Central Pollution Control Board. The other important positions held by him are : Advisor to the International Union for Conservation of Nature; Member, National Flood Management Core Group; Advisor to the Government of West Bengal on the issue of Indo-Bangladesh sharing of Teesta water and Member of the West Bengal Education Commission (2014-2015).

Dr. Rudra taught Geography and Environmental Studies in undergraduate and post-graduate level from 1981 to 2010. He has done intensive research on the rivers of the Ganga-Brahmaputra delta and on the water resource management of West Bengal. He has written many books and published research papers in reputed journals of India and abroad. His most recent work is ‘An Atlas of Changing River Courses in West Bengal'.

The emergence of cartography as a systematic science in Bengal began with the advent of the Europeans in the early 16th century before it was laid on strong foundations in the second half of the 18th century when James Rennell surveyed Bengal and Bihar and produced A Bengal Atlas. The famous atlas, in many ways, establishes the linkages between the then river system, navigation, agrarian economy and colonial politics. The colonial logic of embanking the rivers to achieve freedom from floods brought about an ecological rupture transforming flood-siltdependant agriculture to a flood-vulnerable regime. The situation became worse when roads and railways were built on high embankments causing severe drainage congestion. This atlas describes the geography of a period of transition when the political power governing Bengal had just been taken over from the Nawab by the East India Company. It is equally important to understand the dynamic river system of Bengal and that can best be appreciated as and when Rennell's survey is accepted as a baseline work.

My friends, colleagues and students in both the UK and India helped me a lot in this project. I would like to especially thank Pat Saunders, Hugh Brammer and Debanjali Bhattacharya who shared much information and refreshed my understanding. The compilations would have never seen the light of day without the services rendered by the staff of the British Library; Royal Geographical Society, London; National Library, Kolkata; West Bengal Gazetteer Library and Archives of the Government of West Bengal. I also warmly thank Professor Debasish Sengupta who helped me access the library of the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. I owe a debt of gratitude to Mrs Anne Chapman and the late Professor Graham Chapman for hospitality during my stay in Lancaster, UK. Professor Chapman critically reviewed the manuscript and wrote about a week before his sad demise – ‘Many congratulations - you deserve the thanks of so many people for doing this - even if they do not yet realize it.' I also wish to thank Deb Mukherjee for typing all the manuscripts and Prabir Ganguly for necessary proof correction. Ms Sudeshna Banerjee edited the copy. Last but not least, I gratefully acknowledge the cooperation and help extended by my wife, Mrs Gouri Rudra who allowed me to stay away from all other duties to my family during the research.

This volume contains some important works of James Rennell and his biography. The most important document is his diary or journals where the author recorded day to day experiences of his survey. The journals are an immensely important source of information about Bengal in the late 18th century. He described rivers, topography, weather, people, flora and fauna and even important buildings; thus providing a baseline for research on the geographical changes of Bengal since the colonial period.

In 1778 the East India Company published a book written by James Rennell. The book was planned for the use of the Company's servants and all information was compiled in a tabular form. The book contains four exhaustive tables describing all roads radiating from Calcutta, Moorshedabad, Patna and Dacca. An additional table for crossroads was also added. The distances between the towns, trade centres and fords were measured in statute miles and furlongs. Even the points of crossing the rivers were noted as there were no bridges over the rivers. In absence of railways, roads in those days were important means of communication barring the navigational routes. This reprinted book will help researchers appreciate the changes, both physical and cultural, that have happened in Bengal and Bihar since the late 18th century

The initial task assigned to Rennell by the Company was to explore the best possible navigational route from Calcutta to Dacca and further up the Brahmaputra. It took him about thirteen years to complete the river and land survey. He studied the rivers of Bengal in depth and delivered a lecture at the Royal Society, London on 25 January 1781. The title was ‘An Account of the Ganges and Burrampooter Rivers'. He presented to the Society a detailed account of two mighty rivers which have been nourishing the life, culture and economy of Bengal since the dawn of civilization. Notably both the rivers had been flowing through different courses and striking changes had taken place during the preceding centuries. With this backdrop the article was chosen for inclusion in this volume.

The readers will possibly be more interested in the life and works of James Rennell. The best source for information on his life and works is the biography by Clements R. Markham (1895) entitled Major James Rennell and the Rise of Modern English Geography. Markham described Rennell as 'the greatest geographer' that Great Britain had produced till then. Rennell's interest was multidirectional. He was not only an explorer and a cartographer but also a critical and comparative geographer and a hydrographer. His works on western Asia and Africa had been equally important. Markham studied many records of Rennell's family and all published and unpublished maps kept in the British Library and Royal Geographical Society. His treatise was not written in the style of a biographer but as a dissertation which will help readers appreciate the genius of Rennell as well as how cartography emerged as a systematic science in India.

Researchers working on the cartographic history of Bengal will remain ever grateful to James Rennell, who became the first Surveyor-General of Bengal in 1764 when he was just 21. Eventually he became the first Surveyor-General of India in 1767. Rennell carried out the first systematic survey of the Ganga basin, especially undivided Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Western Assam and north-eastern part of Odisha, from 1764 to 1777. The result was his magnificent A Bengal Atlas first published in London in 1780, with later editions. This established him as the foremost cartographer of his generation, and unquestionably the founder of modern cartography in Bengal. This atlas has been frequently referred to by historians and geographers, but although the Survey of India reprinted it in 1910, it has not been widely available in the public domain, with only a few libraries in India having the great Atlas on their shelves and those too either brittle or classified as restricted. This new reprint of the Atlas, wi