My posting dated April 06, 2005 in the British Raj List;

Question: Can anyone give me a general idea of the current value of one thousand sicca rupees in about 1820?

I would attempt an answer as follows:

I remember to have read that the price of gold in India in the early 19th century, and also during a long period before that, was Rs 21 for a tola. Tola is the traditional Indian measure for gold and is equal to 11.66 grams. Thus, around 1820, the price of gold would be Rs 18 per 10 g. The same today is around Rs 6,100. By the Rule of three, Rs 1,000 of 1820 would be equal to current Rs.338,889.

Severndroog Castle, Shooters Hill, Greenwich

Dear Listers,

I believe the members of this List would be interested in reading the following exchange of emails between your humble servant and Trustees of the Severndroog Castle Building Preservation Trust, Shooters Hill, Greenwich.

No. 1:

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Dear Anji,

Thanks for your mail.

I became aware of Severndroog Castle because of its mention in the book by John Biddulph, the digitalized version of which I chanced upon at <
http://www.gutenberg.net/1/1/3/9/11399/11399.txt>;. I believe you have gone through it since it was mentioned by me in the India-L List where you found my email address. Chapter XI of the book deals with the Suvarnadurg affair.



In the British eye, Kanhoji Angre and his successors had the reputation of being pirates as they were a threat to the Bombay and Surat based British trade. The Indian view is as follows. When Shivaji was creating his independent Maratha rule, free from the Muslim emperors of Delhi, he felt the need to guard and patrol his sea-coast on the Arabian Sea. He encouraged the Angre family to build a navy. It soon became a recognizable force in those waters. Being opposed to the British interests, the Angres earned the reputation of being pirates. The power of the Angres later disintegrated in the middle of the 18th century as a result of the rivalry between them and the Poona-based Peshwas. Present-day historians are critical of the Peshwa for thus indirectly helping the British. A lot of material on this is available in the print form and also on the Internet. Kanhoji Angre is a hero to the present day Indians. The HQ of the Indian Western Naval Command in Bombay (Mumbai)!
is named after him and so is a capital ship.



The website <http://www.indiansaga.info/architecture/marine2.html>; has the following to say about the Angres:



< Between Vijaydurg and the Sidhi Janjira lie four other forts: Kanakdurga and Suvarnadurg, both translatable as Golden Fort, the former a shore fort and the latter a very picturesque island fort only 20 miles from Sidhi territory, with the smaller Gopalgad or Aanjanwel and Bankot-Himmatgad in between. Gopalgad, once an embarkation point for Mecca, is now very dilapidated, and Bankot suffered, too, in the British occupation of 1790, when it was renamed Fort Victoria. Suvarnadurg was the home base of the renowned Kanhoji Angria who, like his father before him, served the Marathas. He had been born there and had grown up among the Koli sailors, learning their lore, learning their seamanship, but he was made second-in-command of the Maratha navy for his success in a land engagement.

Suvarnadurg was attacked by the Sidhis; Kanhoji, captured during a sortie, later managed to escape and successfully took command of the fort's defence. He rose to full command of the Maratha navy in 1698 after the death of Shivaji and patrolled the coast so effectively that the run between Goa and Bombay became a veritable gauntlet for other shipping. In coastal waters, the smaller Maratha vessels had some advantage over the East Indiamen: they could slip into shallow creeks to avoid the Britishers' heavy guns and if ever the larger vessels were becalmed, the galbats and ghurabs could be rowed out under cover of darkness towards the stern of the enemy, thus avoiding any danger of a broadside, and discharge their own prow or broadside three- or nine-pounders at close range.

Once the British guns were out of action, more ghurabs could come up with boarding parties. In this way Kanhoji took the Otter, the Robert and the Success and blew up several other ships, quite enough for the British in Bombay to deem him not just a nuisance but a pirate, and to stir forth to bring him down. They found it hard enough, failing, even acting with their Portuguese trading rivals, either to capture Vijaydurg or to blockade it. The Dutch fared no better, and Kanhoji's son continued to harry the Europeans until the 1750s, when dissension among the Marathas destroyed their independent strength.

In 1756 the Angria fleet was wrecked at Vijaydurg by British fire and the Maratha Peshwa entered into an alliance. Devgad; Sindhudurga, the fort built by Shivaji where his statue stands, and re-named Fort Augustus by the British; Terekhol; Fort Aguada in Goa, now a spectacular Taj hotel; and Sadashivgad in time all these fighting forts were neutralised, and today the village fishing fleets jostle in and out of their palm-grown ports, intent only on capturing the sea's bounty or to visit their neighbours up and down the coast. >



I have seen the contents of the two sites about the Severndroog Castle that you mentioned. If you permit, I may make some comments about their contents. a) While the Castle will continue to be called Severndroog, because that is the name its creators gave to it, its connection with the original Suvarnadurg (Golden Fort) needs to be somewhere brought out. It will make Severndroog more meaningful to a visitor. I am quite sure that an average visitor thinks that the name has something to do with the river Severn. The confusion created when rendering a foreign-sounding word is all too common. b) A narrative from the Indian perspective of the events of the battle for Suvarnadurg and about the Angres should be included in it at some place to ensure historical accuracy. c) Your timeline in contains the following factually incorrect observation: <1755:> In the!
early days, before the geographical picture became clear, the entire western coast of India was called Malabar. In actuality, the coastline from a little to the north of Bombay to Goa is called the Konkan coastline. Malabar, which is another name for Kerala, is the extreme southern extent of the coastline. Suvarnadurg thus properly falls in Konkan and not Malabar.



As to photos of Suvarnadurg, I could locate three good ones at the site http://www.wildphotos.com. They are commercially available and I suppose you can get them from the persons who run the site. I got them by typing the name as 'Suvarndurg', without the 'a', in their Search box.



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No 2: From Dr Barry Gray, Chairman of the Trust, Dt February 05, 2005. Reproduced with his permission.



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Dear Arvind,
Thank you for your very interesting piece and reference concerning Severndroog Castle. I am the chairman of the Severndroog Castle Building Preservation Trust and can report that the castle is still very much an architectural feature of this part of London. We now, thanks to you, know more of its fascinating history and how to spell its name correctly in Marathi! the castle was built as a Gothic style tower in 1784 by Lady James, widow of Capt. James, commodore of the East India Company. The castle is now owned by the local council who have allowed it to fall into a state of neglect. It is fair condition externally, but the interior is mainly in poor condition. The castle is situated in old bluebell woods high on Shooters Hill, about 400 feet above sea level. Our Trust is dedicated to raising funds to acquire, restore and manage the castle as a community owned educational resource. In 2004 the castle featured in the BBC Television series "Restoration". We are in competition !
with property developers who want to turn the castle into offices. So far the local council have been patient with us in allowing us time to raise the necessary funds. Not out of the goodness of the hearts I suspect, but because a decision to sell to developers would be very unpopular with local voters and an election is approaching! The castle is a much loved local feature. We have two websites
www.severndroogcastle.org.uk and www.20six.co.uk/severndroog I attach some pictures of Severndroog Castle. I hope the files are not too large. Regards, Dr Barry Gray

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No. 3: From Dr Barry Gray, Chairman of the Trust, Dt February 06, 2005.

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Dear Arvind,
Thank you very much for your e mail and your interest. We would be delighted if you circulated our e mail, and indeed any of our resources to interested Listers. You may like to know that April 2005 marks the 250th anniversary of the conflict at Suvarnadurg. We are planning to hold a commemoration weekend on April 2nd to 3rd at Severndroog Castle, called "Severndroog 250" We are contacting London and UK Indian groups at present to help us plan this event. We would very much appreciate it if interested Listers could contribute to the commemoration, or indeed join us for that weekend if they happen to be able to get to London. They will be most welcome. I can be contacted through the websites or my e mail address.
With Kind Regards,
Barry Gray

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Dr Barry Gray's email address is allgray@btinternet.com


Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, February 07, 2005