[2012/2]
Verklaring der plaat
‘View of the ruins of the Dutch Factory in the W. suburbs of Patna City (Bihar) showing the great revetments on the River Ganges. 17 November 1824’, By Charles D'Oyly, pen and ink. British Library, London.
The City of Patna, capital of the State of Bihar in Eastern India,
was the centre of the European opium trade in the eighteenth century. Located on the banks of the river Ganges at the point of intersection with several other rivers, somewhere halfway between Delhi and Kolkata, it has been an important trading city for many centuries. The European colonizers long remained ignorant of the ancient history of Indian cities. Only at the end of the eighteenth century did Europeans develop a more objective view of their surroundings. Knowledge of the local society was furthered by the Asiatic Society of Bengal, which was founded in 1784.
Charles D'Oyly (1781-1845), who was appointed opium agent in Patna in 1821, was an amateur artist and poet who tried to bring the reality of India into view. He made many sketches of the city of Patna and its surroundings. This particular drawing is part of a collection of eighty sketches made in the vicinity of Patna between 1823 and 1825. D'Oyly, who was employed by the East India Company from 1797, had begun drawing around 1808, as the student of the then renowned painter George Chinnery. Later, D'Oyly started a lithographic press for local artists and an artists' society in Bihar, the United Patna and Gaya Society, also known as the Behar School of Athens.
When D'Oyly made this drawing, the Dutch factory had been abandoned for decades. With the defeat of the French in the Seven Years' War and the Independence of the United States in 1783, the road was open for a new approach in colonial policy. British forces brought large parts of the Indian subcontinent under control. Lord Cornwallis, Governor General since 1786, rationalized colonial policy and continued firmly the monopolization of various trade goods. In this endeavour, he was supported by the directors of the East India Company and the Pitt administration. One of the first measures Cornwallis took was to monopolize the Opium Trade. As a result, the French, Danish and Dutch factories were all forced to close, leaving the buildings to crumble.
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