2-979-716 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Nawab's Durbar and Reception of the English Resident at Morshedabad, 1857. 'Durbar is the Hindostanee word for the Court or Levee of a native Prince; it also implies the hall in which such ceremonials take place. It is a scene of semi- barbaric Oriental splendour, which has nothing exactly to equal it in European court life. Our Engraving represeats the Durbar held on the occasion of the reception of a British Resident, or Viceroy over the native Nawab; the scene being at Morshedabad, which was once the capital of the province of Bengal, until superseded by Calcutta. It is now the principal civil station of the district, and a place of considerable traffic. It is situated on both sides of the Bhagerattee or Cossimbazar river, the most sacred branch of the Ganges, about 120 miles above Calcutta. It is a large but meanly-built town, and contains about 160,000 inhabitants'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.