The Genesis - Mukherjee's of Uttarpara

 Uttarpara in the north had borders with Chakbali and in the south Ballygram (now known as Bally).

 At one point there was a small pristine waterway called Mannar Jol running between Bhadrakali and Uttarpara and that merged with Saraswati River. In 1904 when GT Road was extended Mannar Jol was land filled. The entire area around Uttarpara  used to be known as Saptagram (7 villages) and used to be the biggest port in Bengal & one of the most modernized in India.

  In 1843, when Howrah and Hoogly were separated and were each recognized as separate districts, Bally went under Howrah jurisdiction and Uttarpara under Hoogly. Once Uttarpara Municipal Corporation was set up in 1852, a request was made in 1856 with the British government to bring Bally under Hoogly. After much pursuit from Raja Joykrishna Mukherjee, Bally was brought under Uttarpara Municipality on 4th November 1865. Subsequently, Kutrong and Uttarpara Municipality were merged in 1964 and the jurisdiction of Uttarpara Kutrong Municipality was extended until Konnagar (Hind Motor Factory) in the north and Bally in south and running along Ganga-Bhagirathi in the east. Bally, which is now a bustling township and provided the doorway to 2 pillars of Hinduism - Dakshineshwar Temple & Ramkrishna Mission Belur, was on the pathway of the Ganges. We learnt this from the survey map of Major James Rennel. Rennel was an English geographer, historian and a pioneer of oceanography. He produced some of the first accurate maps of Bengal. He has been called the Father of Oceanography. In 1830, he was one of the founders of the Royal Geographical Society in London. Rennel's map beyond doubt establishes that river Saraswati travelled through Bally and was a major trade route for French, Danish, Dutch and Portuguese traders in the 16th and 17th century. The Portuguese set up their first trading base in India in 1540 in Hoogly.    

 Saptagram was rechristened as Hoogly District much later. Major trade with the Dutch and Portuguese were in rice, oil & copper. Betargram was the anchor point of all these ships and the traders set up temporary houses with thatched roofs which they burnt before they left. Ralph Fitch in his notes refers to Saptagram as one of the most advanced trading ports in the world. Fitch also goes on to mention that this was also one of the most dangerous ports as it was the epicenter of the merciless & violent Portuguese pirates. Both Akbar and Shah Jahan fought the Portuguese pirates several times between 1585 and 1632. Shah Jahan finally defeated the Portuguese in 1632, and with the drying up of Saraswati, the trades with Portuguese also declined. We blame the British for looting Bengal, but did you know who really financially sponsored and set up a state of the art trading port and town for the East India Company? It was Shah Jahan's son, Suja. This port triggered the start of trading with the Dutch in 1635. Under the "auspice" of Murshidkuli Khan the Dutch were given a permanent trading base at Cinsurah. Similarly, the French were allocated Chandannagar, the Danish were given Sreerampur, Rishra handed over to the Greeks and Konnagar to the Armenians. As the Saraswati dried over time, the riverbed was transformed into what we call Bally (sand) today.

The entire belt of Hoogly was originally owned by Raja Devdutt Roy. The most successful ruler was Uday Roy. We learnt this from the personal memoirs of Governor General William Hedges (1652). He writes, "Woody Roy, A Zamindar that owns all the country on that side of the water almost as far as over Hugly". Emperor Jahangir bestowed the title of "Majumdar" to Uday Roy and gifted him Bhaktiyarpur (Hoogly) district. Subsequently, Shah Jahan gifted Uday Roy's son Raghav Roy, Saptagram and 21 additional districts. This entire massive estate was thereafter divided between Raghav Roy's 2 sons - Rameshwar Roy (2/3) & Basudev Roy (1/3). Basudev Roy ruled from Seoraphuli & Bally. Basudev Roy's descendent Manohar Chandra Roy built one of the oldest Ram Mandirs in Bengal in 1752 at Sripur. 

Ratneshwar Roychoudhury (1670-1720) the GGGG grandson of Lakshmikanta Roychoudhury (Sabarna Roychoudhury) used to live in Halisahar. Ratneshwar Roychgoudhury moved from Halisahar to Barrackpore around 1695. However the British East India Company set up the Barracks/Cantonment around the same time that compelled Ratneshwar Roychoudhury to move due to the lack of privacy & increasing population. He reached out to Manohar Chandra Roy and proposed a land exchange. He proposed swapping land between East and West side of the Ganges. Thus Ratneshwar inherited the entire land from Manohar Roy on the western banks of the Ganges in exchange of the land that belonged to the Roychoudhury's in the eastern banks. Ratneshwar Roychoudhury wanted to align himself around  the same belt/line as Varanasi

Sabarna Roychoudhury (the erstwhile owners of Kolikata- Gobindopur-Shutanuti) initially resided in  place called "Chanak" in North 24 Parganas district. Chanak was later rechristened as Barrackpore. When Sabarna Roychoudhury shifted his base to Hoogly, it was called Chakbali and the entire region was uninhabitable. As far as eyes could see, it was a deep forested area inhabited by a few fishermen and some of the most notorious robbers like Ratan Dakait. Lakshmikanta Roychoudhury, through his perseverance developed the entire region, brought the best minds and families across the country, donated land to them, and slowly made it habitable. The biggest efforts for this development can be attributed to Sabarna Roychoudhury's descendent, Gangaram Roychoudhury (Kamdev Brahmachari), the great grandson of Ratneshwar Roychoudhury (great grandson of Sabarna Roychoudhury). Ratneshwar Roychoudhury was a benevolent and farsighted ruler. He realized that in order to build a city he would require a diverse group of migrants. He created small townships and invited migrants to settle in these towns by their professions. He brought the Brahmins to Uttarpara and the earliest settlers were Mukherjee, Banerjee & Chatterjee. He even gave free land to and build houses to accommodate  tribal (people backward tribes and castes). He envisioned a self contained landmass where people from all castes and communities can live together in harmony and prosperity. 

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[Saborno Roychoudhury lineage - Kamdev Brahmachari>Lakshmikanra Gangopadhyay (Sabarno Roychoudury)>Ramroy>Jagadish Roychoudhury>Ratneshwar >Ramjibon> Madhusudan>Gangaram>Ramhari ]If you wish to know who Sabarno Roychoudhury was please click on this link :  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabarna_Roy_Choudhury#:~:text=Sabarna%20Roy%20Choudhury%20was%20a,to%20the%20East%20India%20Company.

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Fast forward to the future, it is this outback no man's land that will be home to the greatest minds India ever produced. 

-          Raja Rammohan Roy – Radhanagar

-          Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar – Hoogly

-          Ramkrishna Paramanhsha – Kamarpukur

-          Mahendralal Sarkar – Arandi village

-          Akshay Chandra Sarkar – Chinsurah

-          Bhudev Mukherjee – Hoogly

-          Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee – Balagar

-          Girish Chandra – Haripal

-          Acharya Rajendranath Sil – Bahirgarh

-          Acharya Krishna Chandra Bhattacharya – Srerampore

-          Sarat Chandra Chatterjee – Debanandapur

-          K.D Ghosh, father of Sri Aurobindo – Konnagar

-          Amarendranath Chatterjee – Uttarpara

It was eventually through marital ties with the family of Sabarna Roy Choudhury that the Mukherjees inherited most of Hoogly district and Sagardeep (Sundarbans). Gangaram Roychoudhury married his only daughter to the only son of Prankrishna Chatterjee, Ramnidhi Chatterjee in 1737. It was because of this marital tie that Gangaram gifted a large portion of Hoogly to Ramnidhi & his daughter thus establishing the footprint of Chatterjee's in Uttarpara - the famous Chatterjee House. Shibani's marriage with Nandogopal Mukherjee brought the Mukherjees from Khamargachi to Uttarpara. Nandogopal's house built on 50 bigha (30 acres) land sometime around mid 1700s in Khamargachi still exists today. 

Chatterjee House in Uttarpara

It is in this very Chatterjee house (the first inhabitants on Uttarpara) that Amarendranath Chatterjee and Nanibala Devi were born and a house that sheltered Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Sri Aurobindo, Masterda Surya Sen, Binoy-Badal-Dinesh, Kshudiram, Rashbehari Bose, Bankim Channdra Chatterjee, Lokenath Bal etc. Ramnidhi had 7 sons and 2 daughters. The younger of the 2, Shibani, was the wife of Nandagopal Mukherjee.

 The Mukherjees of Uttarpara, while originally from Kannauj (UP), trace their origin in Bengal in Nadia District. In the 17th century, Gopiraman Mukherjee left Phulia overnight with his family and settled on the western side of Bhagirathi river (Ganges) in a town called Kahamrgachi. Maharaja Krishnachandra Roy wanted to marry his son to Gopiraman's only daughter & Gopiraman wasn't keen in the proposal as, in that period, it was prohibited for Kulin Brahmins to marry outside their caste. Fearing the Maharaja's wrath, Gopiraman left bag and baggage plus all his estate. Nandagopal (1753-1794) was the eldest son of Harekrishna Mukherjee, the grandson of Gopiraman and husband to Shibani Chatterjee. Jagamohan Mukherjee, the father of Raja Joykrishna Mukherjee, was the son of Gopiraman and Shibani. The rest is history and all available in my blog, " The Untold Truth: What The Liberals Don't Want You To Know".

Through historical archives Debasish Mukherjee, my cousin, our family historian and author of 4 books that now are now displayed at the Royal British Library, has been able to trace our lineage until 850-875 AD - 

>Arka (2006) 

>Kaushik(me)

>Shyamal Kumar 

>Jogeshchandra 

>#RajaBhupendranathMukherjee 

>#RajaPearyMohanMukherjee - Founded Calcutta Zoo, Indian Association of Cultivation of Science, Indian Horticultural Society

>#BabuJoykrishnaMukherjee - Every historian/archeologist knows who Rakhal Das Banerjee was.The gentleman who discovered the Modenjo-daro ruins.His name has been conspicuously removed from our history books. Rakhaldas Banerjee was the husband of the daugther of Raja Bijoy Krishna Mukherjee. Bijoy Krishna Mukherjee was the younger brother of Joykrishna Mukherjee. Joykrishna Mukherjee  was the co founder of Indian National Congress along with WC Bonerjee and AO Hume. He founded Calcutta University and was the principal sponsor of the Widow Remarriage Act. He built 59 schools in 1 year including fully funding India's first women's college - Bethune College. 

>Nandogopal

>Harekrishna

>Gouricharan

>Gopiraman - earliest discovered house built in 17th Century discovered last week. Will be visiting on 22nd May to donate money,food and clothing to the family of my ancestors.The descendants of this family today can't afford a square meal. Barely able to meet both ends meet

>GangadhaThakur- Late Pranab Mukherjee, our Ex President was the descendant of Radhakanta Thakur, the brother of Gangadhar Thakur

>NilkanthaThakur

>RagavendraThakur

>Ramacharya

>GanganandaBhattacharya

>ManoharPandit

>Lakxmidhar Haldar

>Aniruddha Ojha - Banamali Ojha was Aniruddha Ojha's elder brother. Krittivas Ojha ,the author of Krittivasi Ramayan in the 13th Century, was the son of Banamali Ojha. Tulsidas was inspired by Krittivas Ojha and clearly attributed his inspiration to Krittivas in Ram Charit Manas

>Garbheshwar

>Nrishingha - Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (the father of Bharatiya Jana Sangh) is the descendant of his brother Ram 

>Shiyo

>Udbhad

>Aahit - Maa Sharada (wife of Ramakrishna Paramanhsa) was the descendent of his brother Mahadev

>Utshaha - First Kulin Brahmin of the family

>Kolahol

>Madhabacharya

>Guhak

>Bhandhavacharya

>Kwakusthya - Kwakut in Sanskrit means the hump of an Ox. Question - According to Shiva Purana Who lives in the hump of an Ox? 

>Bikram

>Aabor

>Medhatithi(Jr)

>Srinibash

>Sirgarbho

>Sriharsha

>Medhathithi (850-875 AD)

Other noteworthy members of the family included 

1) NC Chatterjee - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirmal_Chandra_Chatterjee. NC Chatterjee hosted Veer Savarkar at Calcutta Townhall on 17th February 1939

2) Somnath Chatterjee - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somnath_Chatterjee

3) Victor Banerjee - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Banerjee

4) UN Brahmachari - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upendranath_Brahmachari

5) Nityananda Mahaprabhu - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nityananda

6) Amarendranath Chatterjee - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarendranath_Chatterjee

7) Nanibala Devi - India's 1st women State prisoner and aunt of Amarendranath Chatterjee

https://amritmahotsav.nic.in/unsung-heroes-detail.htm?4461