Bowbazar
|
Bowbazar বৌবাজার |
|
|---|---|
| Neighbourhood in Kolkata (Calcutta) | |
 |
|
| Country |
 India
|
| State | West Bengal |
| City | Kolkata |
| Ward | |
| Metro Station | Central |
| Elevation | 36 ft (11 m) |
| Time zone | IST (UTC+5:30) |
| PIN | 700,012 |
| Area code(s) | +91 33 |
Bowbazar (also spelt Boubazar) is a neighbourhood and police station in central Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta), in the Indian state of West Bengal. The neighbourhood has been at the forefront of Kolkata’s changing society.
On Lt. Col. Mark Wood’s map of 1784, the portion of the eastward road from Lal Bazar to what was known for a long time as Circular Road - which ran along the filled-in Mahratta Ditch and is now Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Road - was shown as Boytaconnah Street, which received its name from the Baithakkana, or "resting place", where merchants formed and dispersed their caravans, sheltered by an old banyan tree (called a peepul tree in Cotton), at the road's eastern extremity, beyond which, to the northeast, were salt lakes and marshes. Job Charnock is said to have chosen the site of Kolkata for a city, in consequence of the pleasure he found in sitting and smoking under the shade of a large tree. Posterity loved to connect his name with the Baithakkhana tree, which is shown in Aaron Upjohn’s map of 1794, on land subsequently appropriated by Sealdah station. However, the tree is not on Wood’s map.
Later, Lal Bazar and Boytaconnah Streets were called "Avenue to the Eastward", which stretched from former Dalhousie Square to Sealdah. Subsequently, that road was named Bow Bazar Street. Bow Bazar is commonly said to be a corruption of Bahu Bazar or "Bride’s Bazar". One source says that a bazar is said to have been part of the share of a daughter-in-law of Biswanath Matilal, but some historians have failed to trace or identify that person. This particular market is said to have been located at No. 84A, near the present crossing with Nirmal Chandra Street. There were several (also bahu in Bengali) markets along its course, among them Baithakkhana Bazar at Nos. 155–58, where many (also bahu in Bengali) items were sold.
Bow Bazar Street has been renamed Bepin Behari Ganguly Street (named for Bipin Behari Ganguli (1887 – 1954), revolutionary leader, who spent about 24 years in British Indian jails, later joining the Congress movement). However, the locality continues to be called Bow Bazar. In keeping with the neighbourhood's earliest name, a road stretching from B. B. Ganguly Street to Mahatma Gandhi Road is called Baithakkhana Road, as well as the market along the road at the southern (Bow Bazar / B. B. Ganguly) end being called Baithakkhana Bazar.
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