Lot Essay
Gaur was an ancient Hindu capital of Bengal, adopted as a centre of Muslim rule in the region around 1200, and it flourished as the capital of an independent sultanate in the 15th Century, when most of the surviving monuments were built. The city was devasted by plague in 1575 and never recovered; much of the area of the former city is now under cultivation. Like most of Gaur's buildings, the Kotwali Gate was constructed substantially of brick. It is now very ruined, though parts of the flanking bastions survive; situated at the southern extremity of the site, it now functions as a checkpost on the modern border with Bangladesh. The Daniells visited Gaur in the autumn of 1791; it was their last major stop on their return to Calcutta. They may have had Samuel Davis with them: a drawing by Davis of the same gate appears to show Thomas sketching (see Archer, 1980, p.104, illustrated). Gaur was a rare subject with British artists, though Henry Creighton had made an extensive study of the ruins from 1786 onwards: his drawings (published as Ruins of Gour in 1817) include a view of the same gate. There is only one known Daniell oil painting of the site (see Shellim 1979, TD23; Bayly 1990, no.248). Oriental Scenery, vol.I, no.4, shows another gate of the city, the Dakhil Darwaza. The present watercolour served as the basis for an engraving in The Oriental Annual of 1835, and the accompanying text recalls the Daniells' visit:
'Nothing scarcely remains of the old city, except a few solemn ruins. One of the gateways is still a magnificent object; it is a noble piece of architecture and majestic even in decay. It originally formed one of the principal entrances into the town. The arch is upwards of fifty feet high, and the wall of immense thickness. The ravages of time are indeed fearfully visible upon it, but it nevertheless appears likely to stand for centuries. This neighbourhood swarms with vermin and reptiles of all kinds, and only two days before our arrival, a boa snake, two-and-twenty feet long, had been killed close by the old gateway' (The Oriental Annual, 1835, p.244).
'Nothing scarcely remains of the old city, except a few solemn ruins. One of the gateways is still a magnificent object; it is a noble piece of architecture and majestic even in decay. It originally formed one of the principal entrances into the town. The arch is upwards of fifty feet high, and the wall of immense thickness. The ravages of time are indeed fearfully visible upon it, but it nevertheless appears likely to stand for centuries. This neighbourhood swarms with vermin and reptiles of all kinds, and only two days before our arrival, a boa snake, two-and-twenty feet long, had been killed close by the old gateway' (The Oriental Annual, 1835, p.244).