The European Connection mail-3
It is interesting to note how places and people gain and lose prominence according to the changing times and needs.....In an inland or continental context of political scene---say,..in ancient and medieval times,where transport was limited strictly to Terra fir ma--mountains and highly elevated or centrally located places became capital cities and head quarters for the governments...Whereas, in 16 th and 17, 18 th century,naval transport gained importance, and necessarily, the port cities shot into prominence....
The dutch were the first to arrive in Bandar, around 1605...They garnered the support of the locals, opened factories ..(warehouses) at both Bandar and Nizampatnam and started to trade....about 1630, their business was at it"s peak and they were said to have done 6 lakh rupees worth business annually...(not to be sneezed at.considering the times)..They mingled well with the locals and earned their friendship...At a point of time, they looked as if they would edge the english and the french out of the indian scene....till,the two rivals conniving among themselves and by playing political cards turned the tables on the dutch...
Bandar holds the dubious distinction of being the first place , the english had set foot in india...yes...In 1611 AD,Bandar was the place where the british built their first fort...or warehouses.(if u want to call it that way), where from they could later on start an empire.
On 31 st august of the year 1611, a Capt. Antony Heston,reached Bandar port ,sailing on a vessel called, The Globe....He was sent as a scout to locate likely places where the british could start their business...As he sailed along the coromondel coast,he observed that the dutch were strongly entrenched at all possible places...Bandar and Nizampatnam seemed to be the best places to establish shop...So, they obtained grants from Venkatarayalu.and opened their factories at both places... In fact, an english employee of East India Company, called Mat hold,visited Bandar and reported that it was a very fertile place,could harvest crops twice and thrice annually, and to cap it all a very cheap place to live in....More about the british fortunes later....
The Portuguese,though statistically first to arrive in..(Calicut and Vasco Da Gama) and last to leave India..(goa)..were never very serious players on the east coast...Once , they resorted to misadventure by looting certain arab ships and were firmly pushed back by the muslim rulers of golconda,who retaliated by seizing two portuguese ships at both Bandar and Pulicat near Nellore,...By 1665, they were completely wiped put from the east coast...
The french began their own innings during the middle of the seventeenth century, and gave the British a stiff competition...In 1669, they opened their offices at Machilipatnam, and what followed next was a series of one upmanship games among the all the three foreign powers...
In fact all of them had their colonies here.. Let me take you on a tour to the north and noreast side of bandar ,...This is where they stayed....While those earlier buildings have now gone to dust, some later ones still stand in state...the court buildings,the dutch graves, collector"s bungalow,noble college, and lady ampthill school.
This is one place, where you can see the influence of all the three foreign powers at one go…..just by looking at the names of colonies…..There is the ollandapalem for the dutch ofcource….,..english palem..you know what it denotes,and the and the paraas peta ….the pet colloquial names for french….yeah.Once upon a time all these people stayed here…..not a very strong presence ofcource,.but there must have been a good deal when the ships came in and unloaded their cargo and men.
There is this funny anecdote about paraaspeta..it is just a small area,named after the French.They must have had some of their settlements here..…Once , during the many squirmishes between the british and French, the british and the muslim, the british and the rajas (as many permutations and combinations as the hairs on my head)the French did get hold of Bandar,but alas,later had to give up,but they gave up in style...with a splendid show of defiance.
They retained the small patch of paraaspet,declared it as the territory of the republic of france,.,established a GENDARMERIE(police station) atop which the proud French flag flew and put a man in there to supervise the administration of the empire.it is said he always received his salary right on time every month, direct from PARIS…..So he sat there in glorious isolation and watched as the wily citizens of the british,intruded into his dominion and happily broke all the English laws.when THE SARADA ACT came in prohibiting child marriages, the enterprising parents took their off springs into paraas pet,performed the wedding and calmly returned.Sometimes the british police could not stand this any longer and chased the law breakers into the republic.Then,the gendarme,sat down and penned a strong letter of protest to the district collector at this blatant violation of his borders…
You can see many European constructions in this part of Bandar.They are not really of any architectural value,as they served mostly just as accommodation sans any frills,but they are large,cool , comfortable,set in spacious grounds and quite Spartan.
i wish i could provide some photos here...may be i will one day
The dutch were the first to arrive in Bandar, around 1605...They garnered the support of the locals, opened factories ..(warehouses) at both Bandar and Nizampatnam and started to trade....about 1630, their business was at it"s peak and they were said to have done 6 lakh rupees worth business annually...(not to be sneezed at.considering the times)..They mingled well with the locals and earned their friendship...At a point of time, they looked as if they would edge the english and the french out of the indian scene....till,the two rivals conniving among themselves and by playing political cards turned the tables on the dutch...
Bandar holds the dubious distinction of being the first place , the english had set foot in india...yes...In 1611 AD,Bandar was the place where the british built their first fort...or warehouses.(if u want to call it that way), where from they could later on start an empire.
On 31 st august of the year 1611, a Capt. Antony Heston,reached Bandar port ,sailing on a vessel called, The Globe....He was sent as a scout to locate likely places where the british could start their business...As he sailed along the coromondel coast,he observed that the dutch were strongly entrenched at all possible places...Bandar and Nizampatnam seemed to be the best places to establish shop...So, they obtained grants from Venkatarayalu.and opened their factories at both places... In fact, an english employee of East India Company, called Mat hold,visited Bandar and reported that it was a very fertile place,could harvest crops twice and thrice annually, and to cap it all a very cheap place to live in....More about the british fortunes later....
The Portuguese,though statistically first to arrive in..(Calicut and Vasco Da Gama) and last to leave India..(goa)..were never very serious players on the east coast...Once , they resorted to misadventure by looting certain arab ships and were firmly pushed back by the muslim rulers of golconda,who retaliated by seizing two portuguese ships at both Bandar and Pulicat near Nellore,...By 1665, they were completely wiped put from the east coast...
The french began their own innings during the middle of the seventeenth century, and gave the British a stiff competition...In 1669, they opened their offices at Machilipatnam, and what followed next was a series of one upmanship games among the all the three foreign powers...
In fact all of them had their colonies here.. Let me take you on a tour to the north and noreast side of bandar ,...This is where they stayed....While those earlier buildings have now gone to dust, some later ones still stand in state...the court buildings,the dutch graves, collector"s bungalow,noble college, and lady ampthill school.
This is one place, where you can see the influence of all the three foreign powers at one go…..just by looking at the names of colonies…..There is the ollandapalem for the dutch ofcource….,..english palem..you know what it denotes,and the and the paraas peta ….the pet colloquial names for french….yeah.Once upon a time all these people stayed here…..not a very strong presence ofcource,.but there must have been a good deal when the ships came in and unloaded their cargo and men.
There is this funny anecdote about paraaspeta..it is just a small area,named after the French.They must have had some of their settlements here..…Once , during the many squirmishes between the british and French, the british and the muslim, the british and the rajas (as many permutations and combinations as the hairs on my head)the French did get hold of Bandar,but alas,later had to give up,but they gave up in style...with a splendid show of defiance.
They retained the small patch of paraaspet,declared it as the territory of the republic of france,.,established a GENDARMERIE(police station) atop which the proud French flag flew and put a man in there to supervise the administration of the empire.it is said he always received his salary right on time every month, direct from PARIS…..So he sat there in glorious isolation and watched as the wily citizens of the british,intruded into his dominion and happily broke all the English laws.when THE SARADA ACT came in prohibiting child marriages, the enterprising parents took their off springs into paraas pet,performed the wedding and calmly returned.Sometimes the british police could not stand this any longer and chased the law breakers into the republic.Then,the gendarme,sat down and penned a strong letter of protest to the district collector at this blatant violation of his borders…
You can see many European constructions in this part of Bandar.They are not really of any architectural value,as they served mostly just as accommodation sans any frills,but they are large,cool , comfortable,set in spacious grounds and quite Spartan.
i wish i could provide some photos here...may be i will one day
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