"PATHURE GIRJA"(STONE CHURCH), CALCUTTA

 St. John's Church is the third oldest church in the city, next to the Armenian Church of the Holy Nazareth and the Old Mission Church. Construction started in 1784 and was completed in 1787 with Rs 30,000 raised through a public lottery.

The land for the St. John's Church was donated by the Maharaja Nabo Kishen Bahadur(Maharaja Nabakrishna Deb), the founder of the Shovabazar Raj Family. Maharaja Nabakrishna Deb was a close confidant and friend of Robert Clive.
The foundation stone was laid by Warren Hastings, the Governor General of India on 6 April 1784.
BUT WHY IS IT CALLED "PATHURE GIRJA"(STONE CHURCH)?
Well, the church is built with a combination of brick and stone. Stone was a rare material in the late 18th century Kolkata. The stones came from the medieval ruins of Gour and were shipped down the Hooghly River.
Gour, Maldah was the ancient capital of Bengal, subsequently it was also the seat of power of the Bengal Sultanate. The East India company robbed the stones from the ancient ruins and also demolished the grave/mausoleum of probably the most famous Sultan of Bengal, Alauddin Husain Shah and repurposed the stones of the mausoleum.
The minutes book in the church office tell in detail the story of how the ruins of Gaur were robbed to build St John's church. The floor is a rare hue of blue-grey marble, brought from Gaur. The floor also has stones from the mausoleum of Alauddin Husain Shah.
The painting in this post is by the local "Nil Saheb"(Indio tax collector) Henry Creighton saw the black stone tombs of Alauddin Husain Shah and Nasrat Shah in Gaur and made this painting.
“I imagine a number of stones sufficient for the pavement of the new church may be collected from the ruins of Gour. The stones there are of various sizes: many from a foot to two feet long, seven inches to fifteen broad and seldom less than six inches deep… I conceive that in the first place an order or permission from Government to take them (unpolished blue stones) would be proper.
Besides these stones there are among the ruins a few huge masses which appear to be of blue marble and have a fine polish. The most remarkable of these covered the tombs of some of the Kings of Gour, where they were removed about 15 years ago by a Major Adams employed in surveying who intended to send them to Calcutta...."
~~ Charles Grant, a director of the East India company, at Malda in his letter to the committee for building the church in Calcutta.
This was long before Lord Curzon had enacted the Protection of Ancient Monuments Act to safeguard India’s heritage. The Ancient Monuments Preservation Act, 1904 was passed on 18 March, 1904
WHERE WAS THE PATHURE GIRJA"(STONE CHURCH) BUILT?
After Siraj-ud-daula sacked the old Fort Willian in 1756. In that battle the original St Anne's Church was destroyed. When the British returned they did not have a church of their own. The two Churches that were there were the Armenian Church and the Portuguese Catholic Mission Church.
The British didnt mess around with the Armenians but kicked the Portuguese out of their church and made into their own. A Protestant Anglican Church set up by commandeering a Portuguese Catholic Church.
As things passed, the Mission Church had to be ultimately returned to the Portuguese, and a new Anglican Church was needed. The old burial ground complex which was sold to Maharaja Nabo Kishen Bahadur was sold back to Warren Hastings for Rs 10,000 by Maharaja Nabo Kishen Bahadur. Though official records of the Church and its foundation Plague states that the land was donated by Maharaja Nabo Kishen Bahadur.
The new Church was then built over the old burial ground complex. Curiously this St John's Church not only was built over graves of English Christians, but the floor is also built using stones from tombs/mausoleums of Muslims.


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