The westernmost mouth of the Ganges and the reason Calcutta exists.
Description
The westernmost mouth of the Ganges and the reason Calcutta exists. Eighty miles of it separate the sand heads from the city, and the Bengal Pilot Service exists because ships die on every one of them. The James and Mary Sands shift with each monsoon and take vessels every season.
There is no bridge. Crossing means a boat, and everything the city does with the outside world it does across this water.
Notable Features
- The pilot takes the ship. A Company pilot boards from a brig at the sand heads and the master hands over without discussion.
- Bodies. Hindu funerary practice commits the dead to the river, and cholera keeps the practice busy. The water carries what it carries. This is Katherine’s first necrophobia exposure with no door in between.
- The fishing community lies downstream of the city.
- Boats at unusual hours near Baranagar are noted in Roy’s 1812 letter.
The Senses
- Smell. Silt, rot, woodsmoke off the banks, and a sweetness underneath that is not pleasant and not identifiable.
- Sound. Nothing much. That is the unsettling part. A river this size should make more noise than it does.
- Colour. Milky brown and completely opaque. You cannot see a hand’s depth into it.
Connections
- Calcutta 1814
- Baranagar upstream
- Garden Reach downstream
- Howrah opposite
- Scene: Scene 01 The Hooghly
Appearances
Relationships
- Part of Calcutta 1814 — The river the city is built on
- Adjacent to Baranagar — The temple stands on its bank upstream
- Adjacent to Mandir Mahakali — The ritual's channel