Calcutta Canvas 1 - Prinsep Ghat. By Viral Parekh, Radiologist, Kolkata, INDIA.

 

Prinsep Ghat is a Ghat on river Hooghly in South-west of Kolkata, where you can see a monument named after James Prinsep. He used to work as Assay master in Calcutta mint and simultaneously took charge of Asiatic society of Bengal as Secretary.  He is best remembered for deciphering the Kharosthi and Brahmi scripts of ancient India. He expired in 1840.

 In 1841, citizens of Calcutta constructed monument on the bank of river Hooghly in his remembrance which stands tall even today. This monument was in bad shape and in the eighties and nineties was almost a haunted place. This monument was renovated in 2012. Quite a few films were shot there. Parineeta was one of them.

I have special affinity for this particular place, because from 1965 to 1990, I used to live in a street named after James Prinsep. The street was Prinsep Street but was wrongly spelt as Princep street. Around 3 decades back, Statesman newspaper had written a short article that the street should be spelt as Prinsep not as Princep, but no one paid any attention to this. This street still continues to be known as Princep street.

There is a street named after Prinsep in Bombay also, which is rightly spelt as Prinsep Street. Whenever I am in Bombay, I try to visit the place because there is a huge market of pens there and my fascination for pens draws me there.

Here are some photos of Prinsep monument and the adjacent ghat.