In transcribing the following paragraphs from the Internet Archive online version of The Imperial Gazetteer’s entry on Cawnpoor, I have expanded the abbreviations for easier reading and added paragraphing and links. The title-page bears the date 1856, but internal evidence in various entrees makes clear that the text dates from 1851. This discussion of this city in British India has particular importance because it immediately precedes the events there during the 1857 Mutiny.— George P. Landow]
BANGALORE (Barujalura), a fortified town in Hindoostan, Mysore, 70 miles northeast of Seringapatam and 190 miles west of Madras, is situated at latitude 13˚ North and 77˚ 40 East. The city, which is built on a plateau 3000 feet above the sea, and much resorted to by Europeans, on account of its salubrious climate, the thermometer ranging between 82˚ and 57˚ Fahrenheit.
The cypress and vine grow luxuriantly; and apples, peaches, and strawberries are raised in the gardens. The houses are in general two stories high, well built of red earth, and roofed with tiles. The principal bazaar is spacious and handsome, ornamented with rows of cocoa-nut trees. Tippoo Saib’s palace, built of mud, in the Saracenic style, is an impressive structure, used occasionally by the rajah for public entertainments. The fortress, detached from the town, was of great extent and strength; but it is now in ruins, having been destroyed by Tippoo Sultan, when he found that it was not impregnable.
The cantonment is about 2 miles from the town; and contains a large barracks, numerous shops stocked with European manufactures, a public library and assembly-room, and a handsome race-stand. From its central position, Bangalore is of considerable importance, both politically and as a trading station. Its merchants carry on a traffic with every part of S. India; chiefly in sugar, salt, betel-nut, metals, spices, dye-stuffs, raw silk, and cotton wool. The silk goods manufactured here are of a particularly strong description. The cotton bought at the weekly markets is spun by poor women of all castes, except the Brahmin.
Bangalore was founded by Hyder Ali; in 1791, it was taken by Lord Cornwallis. Population 60,000. [I, 316]
Related material — Victorian and later material on this site
- The Glass House, Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens, Bangalore
- St Philomena's Church — also known as St Joseph's Cathedral (1930s)
- Queen Victoria (1906) by Thomas Brock
Bibliography
Blackie, Walker Graham. The Imperial Gazetteer: A General Dictionary of Geography, Physical, Political, Statistical and Descriptive. 4 vols. London: Blackie & Son, 1856. Internet Archive online version of a copy in the University of California Library. Web. 7 November 2018.
Last modified 824 November 2018