The Travels of a Hindoo in Various Parts of Bengal and Upper India [2 Volumes]

Bholanauth Chunder, The Travels of a Hindoo in Various Parts of Bengal and Upper India, London: N Trubner & Co., 1869, 2 Volumes

Volume 1: pp. xxv, 439 + folding map as frontispiece. It has two chapters narrating A Trip to Hooghly covering Chitpore, Nadia, Satgaon, Cutwa, Murshidabad, Berhampore, Gour, Rajmahal, Monghyr, Patna, Dinapore, Mirzapore. And 6 chapters covering A Tour to the North-West relating to Burdwan, Santhal region, Jain temples of Parasnath, Sasseram, and 1 chapter each on Benares, Allahabad, and Agra.

Volume 2: pp. viii, 409 + pp. 103 publisher’s catalogue at the end. It covers Fatehpur Sikri, Mathura, Brindabun, Hathras, Aligarh, and Delhi.

Original green cloth board with decorative gilt design on the front board and gilt text at the spine (each)
8.3 x 5.8 in (20.8 x 14.5 cm) (each)

The book has an Introduction by J Talboys Wheeler.

Bholanauth Chunder was a member of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and belonged to the generation of Young Bengal and his collection of accounts of three travels undertaken between 1845 and 1860 is remarkable for its lucid narrative marked by an excellent command of English, lyrical prose, and complete understanding over the language. It reads like a book by a highly sophisticated Englishman but for the accounts relating to Hindu customs and places of pilgrimage. Especially remarkable is the account of his visit to Brindabun in the 1860s [possibly the only English account of the place by a Hindu in Victorian times]. He also saw the countryside by road from Kolkata (Calcutta) to Benares and on to Delhi in the immediate aftermath of the Mutiny. Chunder was an opinionated man, belonging to the mercantile class and with no patience for the usual run of Brahmin priests. In language, visual narrative, and dedicated views he is far superior to his contemporary Lutfullah Khan, who had published his travel narrative of central and western India just before the Mutiny in the English language.

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