53* Notes on the History of the District of Hughli or 



the Ancient Rada. 



By Nundolal Dey. 



CHAPTER I. 



General History of the District of Hughli. 



The town of Hughli, the former headquarters from which 

 the district has derived its name, has got no history beyond the 

 Portuguese settlement in 1537. In fact, it is supposed to have 

 been founded by the Portuguese. It was called by them Porto 

 Piqueno l or the Little Port, evidently by way of contradistinc- 

 tion to the Royal Port of Satgaon. According to Faria de 

 Souza, the English translation of whose History of the Portu- 

 guese was published in 1695, the name of the town was Golin. 

 Hughes and Parker in their Letters, dated December 1620, state 

 the name of the place to be Goliyr or Gollin.* But De Laet 

 whose India Vera was published in 1631, calls it Ugeli, and the 

 native historians of the 16th century mention it by the name of 

 11 Hugh." 8 According to some the name of Hughli is derived 

 from hogld reeds or the elephant grass (Typha elephantina) with 

 which the place was overgrown, and that Golin is a corruption of 

 Hugh. But it is quite possible that Porto Piqueno was also 

 called Golin or Gola by the Portuguese on account of the gran- 

 aries (or golds) it contained for the sale of grains, and by the 

 natives it was called Hugh on account of the hogld jungle with 

 which the place was covered. Hence, it is quite clear that 

 before the Portuguese settlement it had not a distinguished 

 name, but the homely one of Hughli on account of its physical 

 features. 



Chinsura, the present headquarters of the district, has 

 likewise got no history beyond the Dutch settlement, which 

 according to Tieffenthaler took place in 1625 4 and according to 

 Mr. Walter Hamilton in 1656, * though it appears that the 

 first sanad granted to the Dutch by the Emperor Shah Jehan 



1 De Laet : Topography of the Mogul Empire, p. 63, by Sir Roper 

 Leth bridge. 



* Stewart's History of Bengal, p. 274. note. 

 8 Topography of the MoguJ Empire, p. 63. 



* Tieffenthaler savs, " when the Dutch settled at Chinsura in 1625, 

 they were followed by the Armenians." According to Orme, however, 

 the Dutch settled in Bengal in 1625 (History of Hindooatan, vol. ii, Bk« 

 vi, p. 8). Mr. W. Hamilton says that the Dutch in 1625 were permit- 

 ted to build factory at the town of Hughli (East India Gazetteer). 



* East India Gazetteer, voce Chinsura. 



