BELOW -5 PAINTING OF BOMBAY BY LACHLAN

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View from Sion Fort

SHOWING THE BREACHES WHICH WERE FILLED LATER TO FORM PRESENT DAY BOMBAY-MUMBAI

These were the great breach, known as Breach Candy,

between the island of Bombay (the Malabar Hill)

and the island of Worli, t

The breach between Worli and Mahim,

and the one between Mahim and Parel.

Macquarie University

Lachlan and Elizabeth Macquarie Archive ...

Macquarie University

Lachlan and Elizabeth Macquarie Archive ...

Macquarie University

Lachlan and Elizabeth Macquarie Archive ...

Macquarie University

Lachlan and Elizabeth Macquarie Archive ...

Macquarie University

Lachlan and Elizabeth Mac

MMMMM mm

WALES, James (1747-1795)
View of the Breach Causeway

[Breach Causeway]

Used with permission from the Peter Anker Collection held in the Kulturhistorisk Museum at the University of Oslo, Norway.

Plate 5: View of the Breach Causeway.

The Breach Causeway at Mahalaxmi provides a picture of rural tranquillity set beside a flat sandy beach and a circle of calm water amidst the necklace of tidal islands that formed Bombay in the late C18th. The reclamation of the tidal flats would consolidate the area into unified whole in the C19th, but at the time of Wales' rendering of the scene there is a sense of idyllic simplicity.

In the immediate foreground, on the left of the picture, a massive Indian banyan tree rises to frame the picture and provides a commanding reference point. At the right edge of the picture there is a procession of small Indian and English figures moving along the road. In the foreground are three examples of local methods of transportation: a palanquin, a 'Bengal chair', and a myanna (or small litter suspended from a bamboo pole). The palanquin is being carried towards a long causeway at the centre of the picture. Among the dwellings, adjoining the village well and small sandy beach, Indian figures can be seen moving about their daily tasks. A man on horseback is riding towards the causeway.

Two canopied carriages, one of which is horsedrawn, can be seen moving along the roadway embankment. One is heading along Parel Road towards the ancient Mahalakshmi temple, a Hindu and Parsi shrine well known to the inhabitants of the Bombay islands, but not shown in Wales' landscape. The other carriage drawn by two bullocks and is approaching the village to the right of the picture. A small boat in a circle of calm water provides an offset focus to the centre of the image, while beyond, under a pale blue sky, the north-eastern horizon is punctured by the outline of the distant mountains.

This causeway or vellard, north of Cumballa Hill, was commenced in 1782 and completed in 1784 and became known as the Hornby's Vellard. It was one of the first major engineering projects aimed at transforming the original seven islands of Bombay into a single island with a deep natural harbour. The project was started by William Hornby (d.1803) during his governorship of Bombay from 1771-1784. The initiative was carried out against the wishes of the Directors of the Honourable East India Company (HEIC), but to great acclaim by the local inhabitants as it transformed the geography of the islands by opening up the marshy areas of Mahalaxmi and Kamathipura for habitation.

The primary purpose of the causeway was to block the Worli creek and prevent the low-lying areas of Bombay from being flooded by the sea. The causeway formed a crucial connection between north and south Bombay, thereby consolidating the central portion of the island thereby uniting the land north between Mahim and West Parel with the area south of Worli which was normally flooded at high tide.

The word vellard appears to be a local corruption of the Portuguese word vallado meaning 'barrier' or 'embankment'. All the Bombay islands were finally linked by 1838.

Macquarie Connection:
Lachlan Macquarie was familiar with the Breach area and in his journal on the 15 May 1790 he noted that:

"I spent this day very agreeably in a Party given by Mr. Page on the Breach water on board of a jung-Gaur, in which we dined and had

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WALES, James (1747-1795)
View from Belmont

[Belmont1]

Used with permission from the Peter Anker Collection held in the Kulturhistorisk Museum at the University of Oslo, Norway.

Plate 7: View from Belmont, 1791-1792.

[Mazagaon, Bombay, to the east]

James Wales prepared three views from Belmont or Mazagoan Hill. This Plate and its associated views are dominated by numerous spindley coconut trees in the foreground and middle distance, reaffirming Bombay's local reputation as the 'Isle of Palms'. The view in Plate 7 is looking eastward towards distant mountains on the mainland. Below the hill can be seen an assortment of buildings and warehouses and paddy fields. In the foreground a figure is halfway up the trunk of a coconut palm collecting coconuts, while below another man is carrying a cluster of harvested coconuts that are suspended from his shoulder on a pole. The island in the middle distance is probably Butcher's Island, behind which, obscured from sight, lay the island of Elephanta.

The view shows "Belmont toward the beach of the Harbour, including part of the village of Mazagon, the islands of Carranjar, Elephanta and Butcher, bounded by the hills". At this time Mazagaon was an outlying suburb of Bombay, and a fashionable place to live in the late 18th century. The crowded Fort area encouraged the British - and more affluent Indians such as the Wadias - to build bungalows and plantation houses here in a location where they could enjoy the fresh, cooler air and a higher vista over the landscape.

WALES, James (1747-1795)
View from Belmont

[Belmont2]

Used with permission from the Peter Anker Collection held in the Kulturhistorisk Museum at the University of Oslo, Norway.

Plate 8: View from Belmont, 1791-1792.

[Mazagaon, Bombay, to the south]

In the distance can be seen the flagstaff at Bombay Fort. The dockyard and Harbour are barely discernible, though ships can be seen moored in the Harbour. The view shows the islands of Bombay, part of the village of Mazagaon, and the Mahratta mountains in the background. The top of Belvidere House and Cross Island are on the left, to the right is Fort George, and across the water lay Chaul and Kanheri.

Source:
Twelve Views of Bombay and its Vicinity. London: R. Cribb, 1800.

Unfortunately, the related Plate 9. View from Belmont, 1791-1792. [Mazagaon, Bombay, to the north] is NOT held in the University of Oslo. Kulturhistorisk Museum. Peter Anker Collection.

Back to Gallery: India

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WALES, James (1747-1795)
View of the Breach from Love Grove

[Love Grove]

Used with permission from the Peter Anker Collection held in the Kulturhistorisk Museum at the University of Oslo, Norway.

Plate 6: View of the Breach from Love Grove.

The island of Worli was connected to the main island of Bombay in 1784, with the completion of the Hornby Vellard. Prior to this, Worli is known to have contained a mosque, the Haji Ali dargah, on a rock in the sea, connected at low-tide to the island by a natural causeway. There was also a fort and a fishing village to the north, close to the island of Mahim. This view shows the perspective from Love Grove Hill on the southern extremity of Worli looking towards the pinnacled Hindu temple at Mahalaksmi. This area became known as the Byculla Flats.

There is a romantic Muslim legend attached to Love Grove, on the right of the view. It concerns two drowned lovers, who today are commemorated in Hadji Ali's mosque.

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WALES, James (1747-1795)
View from Malabar Hill

Used with permission from the Peter Anker Collection held in the Kulturhistorisk Museum at the University of Oslo, Norway.

Plate 3: View from Malabar Hill

[Bombay: part of panorama with Plate 4].

This image forms the left hand side of a two-part panorama. The foreground is dominated by the rocky outcrop at the top of Malabar Hill. In the middle distance can seen the outline of Bombay Fort and the associated town. The islands of Karanja and Elephanta are pictured in the distance, with the Mahratta Mountains in the background.

The sweep of the shoreline of Back Bay and the tidal flats are just visible, though there is no indication of the European burial ground at Sonapur or the recently completed Belassis Road that linked Malabar Hill to Bombay. The buildings in the foreground may include 'Randall Lodge', the country residence of Major-General John Bellasis (1744-1808) HEIC, Commander of the Forces and Colonel of Artillery at Bombay. It was located on the promontory leading to Malabar Point.

What is intriguing about this version is that the thick vegetation overhanging the rock on the left, and the palm leaves on the right, do not appear in the completed two-plate version held in the British Library, or elsewhere. These are embellishments or adornments added by the colourist of this individual Plate, possibly Peter Anker.

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View of the Breach causeway. Part of Bombay island, with the Parel road beyond the...

James Wales (1747-1795) was a noted Scottish portrait painter and draughtsman. He was a contemporary of Lachlan Macquarie in Bombay in the last decade of the C18th.

In the period between Wales' arrival in Bombay in July 1791 and his tragic death in November 1795 he executed a number of important and evocative views of the settlement and its environs.

This selection of images has been made available (with permission) from the Peter Anker Collection held in the Kulturhistorisk Museum at the University of Oslo, Norway. They were originally published posthumously in 1800 in the work Twelve Views of the Island of Bombay and Its Vicinity: taken in the years 1791 and 1792. They provide a unique perspective on the landscape and daily life of Bombay in the last decade of the C18th.

View from Malabar Hill	View of Breach from Love Grove.
View of Breach Causeway	View From Belmont.
View From Belmont.	View from Sion Fort.
View from Sion Fort.	View from Island of Elephanta.
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