EAP1104/10

Custodial history: The Mitra family, founded by Gocul Chendur Mitra, was one of the leading business families of 18th century Bengal. Gakul Chandra Mitra fled to Calcutta from Bally (Dist.-Howrah) with his father, Sitaram Mitra due to recurrent Maratha raids. He engaged himself into the thriving salt trade and from Europe and export Jute from Bengal shortly became a very successful businessman. He amazed huge wealth from the salt trade and emerged as one of the leading wealthy businessmen of his time. He was blessed with having the Madanmohan idol from the Malla Raja of Bishnupur, Raja Chaitanya Singh Dev who borrowed a huge sum of money from him and mortgaged the Madanmohan idol to him. His residence soon came to be known as Madanmohantala due to the presence of the revered idol. His huge earning from the thriving salt trade and the presence of Madanmohan idol at his Thakurbari (palace for god) gave him a huge social prestige. Along with Raja Nabakrishna Deb of Sovabazar he petitioned to Lord Clive to get ijara of Calcutta, its suburbs and 24 Parganas in return of a revenue of Rs 13,00000/- per annum. But Clive refused to grant them the ‘ijara’ due to the fear that they would exploit the subjects of the Company with their money and man power as both of them were very influential people of Kolkata. However, luck favoured Gocul Mitra as he won a lottery and got the entire land of Chandni Chowk. It is said that after he received the ‘Madanmohan’ idol his luck kept shining on to become one of the richest men of Calcutta. Gacul Cheundur Mitra was also a very socially active person. He was engaged in various Krishna festival- ‘Ras Lila’, ‘Dol Jatra’, ‘Jhulan Utsav’, ‘Annakut Festival’, ‘Ras Utsav’, etc. He died in 1808. Along with his death there was a slow decay in the momentum of the salt business and his successors failed to carry out the business tradition set up by Gocul Chendur Mitra. Some family members of 6th generation of Gokul Mitra were engaged in various forms of business during the period of the king George. After the independence slowly all this business were decayed. At present the 7th generation of Gocul Mitra are mostly engaged in various services . We have explored some important documents from this family. The most important one was the Will of Gocul Mitra which is one of the earliest wills of colonial Bengal. Another one is the Aron Upjojn’s Map of Calcutta and its Environs from an accurate survey taken in the years 1792 and 1793, one of the earliest maps of Calcutta. The importance of this map lies in the fact that it illustrates in details for the first time the build up area of the city as well as its immediate environs. We have also indentified a family history book written in 1937 by Sri Purnachandra Dey entitled Madanmohan-Thakur O Gocul Chendur Mitra (Lord Madanmohan and Gocul Chendur Mitra ).The book contains the detailed survey of the history of Mitra family.

Arrangement: Arranged by the custodian.

This collection contains the following 2 files:

• EAP1104/10/1: Will of Gocul Chendur Mitra [1 Jun 1870]
• EAP1104/10/2: মদনমোহন - ঠাকুর ও গোকুলচন্দ্র মিত্র [1937].