Price: £0.00
The first Europeans to come to Pondicherry were probably the Danes, who arrived as early as 1653. Old French documents speak about ‘the Danish house' built with bricks. In 1673, François Martin, who is considered the founder of Pondicherry , arrived. He paid Raja Ram, the ruler of Senji (Gingee) to be allowed to build a fort in Pondicherry . But events in Europe influenced the happenings in the colonies. In 1688 the Nine-Year War started. England , Spain , Brandenburg and the Dutch Republic had allied themselves against France . In September 1693 the Dutch conquered Pondicherry , took François Martin prisoner and sent him back to France . Pondicherry would remain in their possession for five and a half years. During that period, the Dutch enlarged the territory under their control by purchasing a few villages from Raja Ram and planned a new town, based on a grid pattern. However, following the Peace Treaty of Rijswijk between the warring parties in 1699, Pondicherry was returned to the French and François Martin came back. The Dutch had developed a unique trading system. They would purchase cloth in India , sell it in Indonesia , and from there bring spices back to Holland . The Dutch must have been very active for half of the new town was built when they left. The northern part was occupied by weavers, who constituted about 3/4th of the town's inhabitants. They planned the city in such a way that each street was built for a specific caste or profession. The map shows streets for weavers, merchants, farmers, artisans and Brahmins. There is even a reference to a street for ‘hoeren' who were located nearby the Brahmin quarter. Very likely these were the devadasis, dancing girls dedicated to the service of a deity and generally to temple prostitution, hence the abusive name of ‘hoer' (whore) given to them in the maps. Very likely the Dutch surrendered the plans they had made of the city to the French for the first French town plan is a copy of the Dutch plan. Even the division of the city into ‘the white town' and ‘the black town' is a creation of the Dutch, who wanted the white people to stay on the seashore and the Indians to the west of the canal. The French simply continued this policy. In the beginning of the 18th century, for example, they asked all the Muslims to move to the roads leading to Cuddalore. And that is probably the reason why in that area of the town you find three diagonal streets instead of the grid pattern. The outer ramparts around the town were built c.1724 (Source: Origins of the Urban Development of Pondicherry According To Seventeenth Century Dutch Plans, by Jean Deloche).
ANTIQUE MAPS (1354)
.