Notes on the History and Antiquities of Chaul and Bassein

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About the Book

First published in 1876, this book traces the history and antiquities of two of the earliest European settlements in India - Chaul and Bassein which after having attained the heights of luxury and power, had at the time of writing this book declined to the position of a 'City of the Dead'. Chaul was an ancient city on the mainland of North Konkan and Bassein was an island 29 miles from Bombay. The history of Chaul and Bassein is connected with the origin and growth of the area which was later known as Greater Bombay.

About the Author

Jose Gerson da Cunha was a Goan physician who specialized in obstetrics and also achieved international renown as an orientalist, historian, linguist and numismatist. Writing in English instead of Portuguese, which most Goans did in those days, gained him greater recognition amongst English readers.

Preface

"AN important historical work," says a writer, "is its own best introduction." This cannot be the case, however, with unpretending little sketches of two of the earliest European settlements in India, which, having culminated to the eminence of luxury and power, have now dwindled down to the condition of "the City of the Dead," and are almost forgotten, as if overwhelmed, like another Herculaneum or Pompeii, by an inundation of lava, though in reality attesting the influence of that subtle element of gradual deterioration through political vicissitudes which pervades all nations.

The history of such places requires some words of introduction ; and the Preface being that part of a work which is by conventional licence set apart to include all explanations relative to its purpose and method, I trust I may be allowed the privilege, and not be considered as laying myself open to a charge of egotism if I enter into personal details to describe the steps by which this work has attained its present form.

Two years have elapsed since I had the honour of reading before the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society a communication entitled "Notes on the History and Antiquities of Bassein!' The favourable reception accorded to it by the members of that learned body, and the demands, inadequately supplied, that arose for copies among outsiders, -a result that far surpassed the naturally sanguine expectations of a young author in the outset of his literary career,-encouraged me to prepare a second edition with considerable additions. In the interval between the reading of those " Notes" and sending the new edition to the press, a companion paper on " the History and Antiquities of Chard" was read by me before the said Society, which, being reprinted from the last volume of its Journal, now precedes that of Bassein.

**Contents and Sample Pages**