James Princep and Kolkata - Love@Silence

This is a picture of Princep Ghat on the banks of the river Ganga in Kolkata. Situated near the Vidyasagar Setu, it is one of the restored heritage buildings in Kolkata.Ghat in Bengali/Hindi would mean a jetty for small ships and boats.Sir James Princep was a renowned researcher, and was a real prodigy in his field. He served as the secretary of 'The Asiatic Society' from 1832-1838. He did prolonged, tenacious research on meteorology, chemistry, Indian scriptures, numismatics, archaeology, mineral resources etc. His greatest achievement in life has been to decipher the doctrines of Emperor Ashoka, from the inscriptions in rocks and boulders. He was also the acting Asst. Master of the mint at Calcutta. This rare genius passed away on 22nd April, 1840 at a mere age of 41. He had probably been the victim of excessive mental tormentation and overstrain.After his death, the Calcuttans collected fund and built the 'Princep Ghat' in 1843 on the south of Chandpal Ghat to commemorate their beloved man. The Viceroy Lord Attenborough aboarded the ship from Princep Ghat in 1844 before abandoning this country. Before this, Chandpal Ghat was used by the British to aboard on ships. However, all the princes and the royal emissaries who came to Calcutta after Lord Attenborough, used the Princep Ghat and not Chandpal Ghat.The Workshop captures the interior of the building.What can be seen on the background is the Vidyasagar Setu a.k.a "The second Hooghly bridge", on which I will provide details in my next post.During the construction of this bridge, the Princep Ghat sufferred some damage. The Kolkata Port trust and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation joined hands for the restoration of this heritage building, and this was how it looks before restoration.