Gobindapur was one of the three villages which were merged to form the city of Kolkata

Kolkata

Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...

 (formerly Calcutta) in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. The other two villages were Kalikata and Sutanuti

Sutanuti

Sutanuti was one of the three villages which were merged to form the city of Kolkata in India. The other two villages were Gobindapur and Kalikata. Job Charnock, an administrator with the British East India Company is traditionally credited with the honour of founding the city...

. Job Charnock

Job Charnock

Job Charnock was a servant and administrator of the English East India Company, traditionally regarded as the founder of the city of Calcutta.-Early life and career:...

, an administrator with the British East India Company

British East India Company

The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...

 is traditionally credited with the honour of founding the city.While Kalikata and Sutanuti lost their identity as the city grew, Gobindapur was demolished to make room for the construction of new Fort William

Fort William, India

Fort William is a fort built in Calcutta on the Eastern banks of the River Hooghly, the major distributary of the River Ganges, during the early years of the Bengal Presidency of British India. It was named after King William III of England...

.

The foundations

When the Portuguese first started to frequent Bengal, around the year 1530, the two great centres of trade were Chittagong

Chittagong

Chittagong ) is a city in southeastern Bangladesh and the capital of an eponymous district and division. Built on the banks of the Karnaphuli River, the city is home to Bangladesh's busiest seaport and has a population of over 4.5 million, making it the second largest city in the country.A trading...

, which the Portuguese called Porto Grande or Great Haven, in the east and Satgaon

Saptagram

Saptagram was a major port, the chief city and sometimes capital of southern Bengal, in ancient and medieval times, the location presently being in the Hooghly district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is about 4 km from Bandel, a major rail junction. By the early twentieth century, the...

, which the Portuguese called Porto Piqueno or Little Haven in the west. Tolly’s Nallah or Adi Ganga was then the outlet to the sea and ocean-going ships came up to around where Garden Reach presently is, then the anchoring place for ships. Only country boats operated further up the river.Possibly the Saraswati river was another watery life line. It started drying up from the middle of the sixteenth century. The Portuguese built a new port at Hugli

Hugli-Chuchura

Hugli-Chuchura is a city in the state of West Bengal, India. It lies on the Hooghly River, 35 km north of Kolkata . It is located in the district of Hugli and is home to the district headquarters. Chuchura houses the Commissioner of the Burdwan Range...

 in 1580.

Towards the end of the sixteenth century, the Indian merchant-princes of Port Piqueno were forced to seek another market for their trade. Most of them settled down in Hugli but four families of Basaks and one of Sheths, determined to profit by the growing prosperity of Betor

Betor

Betor was a major trading centre, the location being around present Shibpur in Howrah district in the Indian state of West Bengal....

, founded the village of Gobindapur, on the east bank of the river.Gobindaji was the family deity of the Sheths and Basaks, and so they named the village Gobindapur.

There is another story regarding the foundation and naming of the village. Gobinda Chandra Dutta Chaudhuri,who belonged to the Zamindar family of Dutta Chaudhuri of Andul(a village which is presently located in Howrah dist.) was returning by boat from a pilgrimage. He dreamt of goddess Kali asking him to dig the barren land on the bank. He did so and discovered enormous qualities of wealth hidden underground. He stayed back and founded Gobindapur. It was named after him.

In 1596, the place is mentioned as a district of the Sirkar (or government) of Satgaon, in the book Ain-e-Akbari by Abul Fazal

Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak

Shaikh Abu al-Fazl ibn Mubarak also known as Abu'l-Fazl, Abu'l Fadl and Abu'l-Fadl 'Allami was the vizier of the great Mughal emperor Akbar, and author of the Akbarnama, the official history of Akbar's reign in three volumes, and a Persian translation of the Bible...

, the prime minister of Akbar. As traders, the Portuguese were succeeded by the Dutch and finally the British.

The British arrive

Job Charnock favoured Sutanuti as a settlement because of the security of the location. It was protected by the river on the west and by impassable marshes on the south and the east. Only the north-east had to be guarded.

The three villages were part of the khas mahal or imperial jagir (an estate belonging to the Mughal emperor

Mughal Empire

The Mughal Empire ,‎ or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...

 himself), whose zemindari

Zamindar

A Zamindar or zemindar , was an aristocrat, typically hereditary, who held enormous tracts of land and ruled over and taxed the bhikaaris who lived on batavaslam. Over time, they took princely and royal titles such as Maharaja , Raja , Nawab , and Mirza , Chowdhury , among others...

 rights were held by the Sabarna Roy Choudhury

Sabarna Roy Choudhury

Sabarna Ray Chaudhury family were the Zamindar of the Kolkata area, prior to the arrival of the British. On November 10, 1698, they transferred, by lease, their rights over the three villages – Sutanuti, Kalikata and Gobindapur - to the East India Company...

 family of Barisha

Barisha

Barisha is a residential locality of Kolkata , West Bengal, India. Historically, it one of the oldest boroughs in Kolkata. It was the abode of the great Sabarna Roy Choudhury family. Barisha is known today for being the home of the Indian Cricket idol Sourav Ganguly...

. On 10 November 1698, Job Charnock’s successor and son-in-law, Charles Eyere, acquired the land holding rights for the three villages from the Sabarna Roychoudhuris. The company paid regular rent to the Mughals for these villages till 1757.Within a short period Kolkata grew considerably.

New Fort William

Siraj ud-Daulah

Siraj ud-Daulah

Mîrzâ Muhammad Sirâj-ud-Daulah , more commonly known as Siraj ud-Daulah , was the last independent Nawab of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. The end of his reign marks the start of British East India Company rule over Bengal and later almost all of South Asia...

, the Nawab of Bengal, was alarmed by the growing prosperity and enhanced fortifications of Kolkata. In 1756, he decided to attack Kolkata and captured it. Gobindapur was fired by the English themselves. The English evacuees set up temporary quarters at Falta, some 40 miles downstream. What followed was a series of skirmishes finally leading to the Battle of Plassey

Battle of Plassey

The Battle of Plassey , 23 June 1757, was a decisive British East India Company victory over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies, establishing Company rule in South Asia which expanded over much of the Indies for the next hundred years...

 on 23 June 1757 and the establishment of British power in Bengal.

One of the first things that the British embarked upon on their return to Kolkata was the construction of new Fort William. It commenced in 1758 and completed in 1773. The site chosen was in the heart of ‘populous flourishing’ village of Gobindapur. A portion of the ‘restitution money’ was spent in compensating the inhabitants who were given lands in other parts of the town notably in Taltala

Taltala

Taltala is a neighbourhood in central Kolkata, earlier known as Calcutta, in the Indian state of West Bengal. One of the old neighbourhoods of the metropolis, it has a police stationand is an assembly constituency.-History:According to H. E. A. Cotton Taltala was chiefly peopled by Bihari Muslim...

, Kumortuli

Kumortuli

Kumortuli is a traditionally potters’ quarter in northern Kolkata , the capital of the east Indian state of West Bengal. By virtue of their artistic productions these potters have moved from obscurity to prominence...

 and Shobhabazar

Shobhabazar

Shobhabazar is a neighbourhood in north Kolkata, earlier known as Calcutta, in the Indian state of West Bengal.-History:...

.