Allahabad remained a big trade centre for centuries

LYING NEXT to the famous Mankameshwar temple at Saraswati Ghat are the remains of a jetty. This spot clearly gives the evidence that during ancient times the city was the centre of trade through waterways.

LYING NEXT to the famous Mankameshwar temple at Saraswati Ghat are the remains of a jetty. This spot clearly gives the evidence that during ancient times the city was the centre of trade through waterways.

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At present it is lying in a neglected condition and most of the time it goes unnoticed by the passers-by. However, the stone structure still stands to tell the tale.

Author Vishwambharnath Pandey, in his book 'Allahabad retrospect and prospect', describes about the river-based trade in Allahabad.

In his book, Pandey mentions about the writings of the Chinese traveller Fa-Hien, who wrote that north and west sides of the Patalpuri temple were covered with 15 rows of shops. Thousands of customers from various parts of the country used to visit the city in search of various commodities like woollen and textiles, utensils of gold, silver, copper and bronze, precious stones, handicraft work in ivory, sandalwood, marble and silver, jewellery, spices, fruits and delicacies.

The import and export was done through both roadways and waterways to Patliputra and Kannauj. Indeed, Allahabad was a great distributing centre from where goods worth millions passed to places like Kaushambi and Varanasi.

Al-Beruni, who visited the country along with the invading army of Mohd Ghazni in 1030 AD, wrote that over 20,000 people were employed in the boat industry and produced almost 10,000 to 12,000 boats per year.

According to Al-Beruni, stone carving was another industry, which employed about 30,000 people. The industry used to get orders from as far as Vishakhapatnam. Stones and other materials were brought from the quarries of Deoria, Paratappur and Rajapur for the construction of the Allahabad Fort in the 16th century. Some of the firms engaged expert stone-cutters and sculptors from Jaipur and other places.

Magasthenes too has mentioned Allahabad as one of the most important river-based trade centres in northern India.

The evidence of William Davies before the Select Committee of the House of Lords proved that Allahabad maintained its commercial importance till the end of the 18th century. On April 14, 1813, the third and the final day of his evidence, William Davies referred to Allahabad, amongst many towns, as the largest centre of export of castor, mustard and linseeds.

He informed the committee that in a single year, 1397 tonnes of oilseeds were exported to England from Allahabad centre alone. But, the beginning of the 19th century witnessed total collapse of these industries in Allahabad.

Describing the trading conditions of Allahabad of the same period, the author of Gazetteer writes that the advent of railway led to decline in large river-based traffic in food grains and oilseeds. By 1881, the reduction in the volume was quite noticeable and at one wharf, where 2500 to 3000 boats used to pass in a year earlier, the total fell to 50-60. Oilseeds were still brought from Rajapur in Banda to the city by river and stone was imported from Partappur quarries, which was loaded on trains. Grains and oilseeds were brought to the city through railways and then transported to Kanpur, Calcutta, Mumbai and other places. According to Pandey, owing to the competition of roads and railways and also on account of fall in water volume (due to canals), the traffic through waterways decreased considerably.

The once extensive river-based trade in the city has now become a thing of the past.