[1] See Dr E. Schafhautl's article on Musical Instruments, section 4
of _Bericht der Beurtheilungscommission bei der Allg. deutschen
Industrie-Ausstellung_, 1854 (Munich, 1855), pp. 169-170; also
Friedr. Zamminer, _Die Musik und die Musikinstrumente in ihrer
Beziehung zu den Gesetzen der Akustik_ (Giessen, 1855), p. 313.
[2] V.C. Mahillon, _Elements d'acoustique musicale et instrumentale_
(Bruxelles, 1874), p. 153.
[3] The bombardon is used in the military bands of Austria, but in
those of Germany it has been superseded by a bass tuba differing
slightly in form and construction from the bombardons and bass tubas
used in England, France, Belgium and Austria.
BOMBAY CITY, the capital of Bombay Presidency, and the chief seaport of
western India, situated in 18 deg. 55' N. and 72 deg. 54' E. The city
stands on an island of the same name, which forms one of a group now
connected by causeways with the mainland. The area is 22 sq. m.; and the
population of the town and island (1901) 776,006 (estimate in 1906,
977,822). Bombay is the second most populous city in the Indian empire,
having fallen behind Calcutta at the census of 1901. Its position on the
side of India nearest to Europe, its advantages as a port and a railway
centre, and its monopoly of the cotton industry, are counteracted by the
fact that the region which it serves cannot vie with the valley of the
Ganges in point of fertility and has no great waterway like the Ganges
or Brahmaputra. Nevertheless Bombay pushes Calcutta hard for supremacy
in point of population and commercial prosperity.
The Bombay Island, or, as it ought to be more correctly called, the
Bombay Peninsula, stands out from a coast ennobled by lofty hills, and
its harbour is studded by rocky islands and precipices, whose peaks rise
to a great height. The approach from the sea discloses one of the
finest panoramas in the world,--the only European analogy being the Bay
of Naples. The island consists of a plain about 11 m. long by 3 broad,
flanked by two parallel lines of low hills. A neck of land stretching
towards the south-west forms the harbour on its eastern side, sheltering
it from the force of the open sea, and enclosing an expanse of water
from 5 to 7 m. wide. At the south-west of the island, Back Bay, a
shallow basin rather more than 2 m. in breadth, runs inland for about 3
m. between the extreme points of the two ranges of hills. On a slightly
raised strip of land between the head of Back Bay and the harbour is
situated the fort, the nucleus of the city of Bombay. From this point
the land slopes westward towards the central plain, a low-lying tract,
which before the construction of the embankment known as the Hornby
Vellard, used at high tide to be submerged by the sea. The town itself
consists of well-built and unusually handsome native bazaars, and of
spacious streets devoted to European commerce. In the native bazaar the
houses rise three or four storeys in height, with elaborately carved
pillars and front work. Some of the European hotels and commercial
buildings are on the American scale, and have no rival in any other city
of India. The Taj Mahal hotel, which was built by the Tata family in
1904, is the most palatial and modern hotel in India. The private houses
of the European residents lie apart alike from the native and from the
mercantile quarters of the town. As a rule, each is built in a large
garden or compound; and although the style of architecture is less
imposing than that of the stately residences in Calcutta, it is well
suited to the climate, and has a beauty and comfort of its own. The
favourite suburb is Malabar hill, a high ridge running out into the sea,
and terraced to the top by handsome houses, which command one of the
finest views, of its kind, in the world. Of recent years wealthy natives
have been competing with Europeans for the possession of this desirable
quarter. To the right of this ridge, looking towards the sea, runs
another suburb known as Breach Candy, built close upon the beach and
within the refreshing sound of the waves. To the left of Malabar hill
lies Back Bay, with a promontory on its farther shore, which marks the
site of the old Bombay Fort; its walls are demolished, and the area is
chiefly devoted to mercantile buildings. Farther round the island,
beyond the fort, is Mazagon Bay, commanding the harbour, and the centre
of maritime activity. The defences of the port, remodelled and armed
with the latest guns, consist of batteries on the islands in the
harbour, in addition to which there are three large batteries on the
mainland. There is also a torpedo-boat detachment stationed in the
harbour.
No city in the world has a finer water-front than Bombay. The great line
of public offices along the esplanade and facing Back Bay, which are in
the Gothic style mixed with Saracenic, are not individually
distinguished for architectural merit, but they have a cumulative effect
of great dignity. The other most notable buildings in the city are the
Victoria terminus of the Great Indian Peninsula railway and the Taj
Mahal hotel. Towards the northern end of Malabar hill lie the Parsee
Towers of Silence, where the Parsees expose their dead till the flesh is
devoured by vultures, and then cast the bones into a well where they
crumble into dust. The foundation-stone of a museum was laid by the
prince of Wales in 1905.
_Local Government._--The port of Bombay (including docks and warehouses)
is managed by a port trust, the members of which are nominated by the
government from among the commercial community. The municipal government
of the city was framed by an act of the Bombay legislative council
passed in 1888. The governing body consists of a municipal corporation
and a town council. The corporation is composed of 72 members, of whom
16 are nominated by the government. Of the remainder, 36 are elected by
the ratepayers, 16 by the justices of the peace, 2 by the senate of the
university, and 2 by the chamber of commerce. The council, which forms
the standing committee of the corporation, consists of 12 members, of
whom 4 are nominated by the government and the rest elected by the
corporation. The members of the corporation include Europeans, Hindus,
Mahommedans and Parsees. The Bombay University was constituted in 1857
as an examining body, on the model of the university of London. The
chief educational institutions in Bombay City are the government
Elphinstone College, two missionary colleges (Wilson and St Xavier), the
Grant medical college, the government law school, the Sir Jamsetjee
Jeejeebhoy school of art, and the Victoria Jubilee technical institute.
_Docks._--The dockyard, originally built in 1736, has a sea-face of
nearly 700 yds. and an area of about 200 acres. There are five graving
docks, three of which together make one large dock 648 ft. long, while
the other two make a single dock 582 ft. long. There are also four
building slips opposite the Apollo Bandar (landing-place) on the
south-east side of the enclosure. The dockyard is lighted by
electricity, so that work can be carried on by night as well as day.
Bombay is the only important place near the sea in India where the rise
of the tide is sufficient to permit docks on the largest scale. The
highest spring tides here reach 17 ft., but the average is 14 ft.
Prince's dock, of which the foundation-stone was laid by the prince of
Wales in 1875, was opened in 1879, and is 1460 ft. long by 1000 ft.
broad, with a water area of 30 acres; while the Victoria dock, which was
completed and opened in 1887-1888, has a water area of 25 acres. South
of the Victoria dock, the foundation-stone of the Alexandra dock, the
largest in India, was laid by the prince of Wales in 1905.
_Cotton Mills._--The milling industry is, next to the docks, the chief
feature of Bombay's commercial success. The staple manufacture is
cotton-spinning, but in addition to this there are flour mills and
workshops to supply local needs. The number of factories increased from
fifty-three in 1881 to eighty-three in 1890, and that decade saw the
influx of a great industrial population from the surrounding districts;
but the decade 1891-1901 witnessed at least a temporary set-back owing
to the ravages caused by plague and the effects of over-production. In
addition to the actual mortality it inflicted, the plague caused an
exodus of the population from the island, disorganized the labour at the
docks and in the mills, and swallowed up large sums which were spent by
the municipality on plague operations and sanitary improvements. After
1901, however, both population and trade began to revive again. In 1901
there were 131,796 persons employed in the cotton industry.
_Population._--Owing to its central position between East and West and
to the diversity of races in India, no city in the world can show a
greater variety of type than Bombay. The Mahratta race is the dominant
element next to the European rulers, but in addition to them are a great
and influential section of Parsee merchants, Arab traders from the Gulf,
Afghans and Sikhs from northern India, Bengalis, Rajputs, Chinese,
Japanese, Malays, negroes, Tibetans, Sinhalese and Siamese. Bombay is
the great port and meeting-place of the Eastern world. Out of the large
sections of its population, Hindu, Mahommedan, Parsee, Jain and
Christian, the Parsees are one of the smallest and yet the most
influential. They number only some 46,000 all told, but most of the
great business houses are owned by Parsee millionaires and most of the
large charities are founded by them.
_History._--The name of the island and city of Bombay is derived from
Mumba (a form of Parvati), the goddess of the Kolis, a race of
husbandmen and fishermen who were the earliest known inhabitants, having
occupied the island probably about the beginning of the Christian era.
Bombay originally consisted of seven islands (the _Heptanesia_ of
Ptolemy) and formed an outlying portion of the dominions of successive
dynasties dominant in western India: Satavahanas, Mauryas, Chalukyas and
Rashtrakutas. In the Maurya and Chalukya period (450-750) the city of
Puri on Elephanta Island was the principal place in Bombay harbour. The
first town built on Bombay Island was Mahikavati (Mahim), founded by
King Bhima, probably a member of the house of the Yadavas of Deogiri, as
a result of Ala-ud-din Khilji's raid into the Deccan in 1294. It
remained under Hindu rule until 1348, when it was captured by a
Mahommedan force from Gujarat; and the islands remained part of the
province (later kingdom) of Gujarat till 1534, when they were ceded by
Sultan Bahadur to the Portuguese.
The island did not prosper under Portuguese rule. By the system known as
_aforamento_ the lands were gradually parcelled out into a number of
fiefs granted, under the crown of Portugal, to individuals or to
religious corporations in return for military service or equivalent
quit-rents. The northern districts were divided among the Franciscans
and Jesuits, who built a number of churches, some of which still
survive. The intolerance of their rule did not favour the growth of the
settlement, which in 1661, when it was transferred to the British, had a
population of only 10,000. The English had, however, long recognized its
value as a naval base, and it was for this reason that they fought the
battle of Swally (1614-1615), attempted to capture the place in 1626,
and that the Surat Council urged the purchase of Bombay from the
Portuguese. In 1654 the directors of the Company drew Cromwell's
attention to this suggestion, laying stress on the excellence of its
harbour and its safety from attack by land. It finally became the
property of the British in 1661 as part of the dowry of the infanta
Catherine of Portugal on her marriage to Charles II., but was not
actually occupied by the British until 1665, when they experienced much
difficulty in overcoming the opposition of the Portuguese, and
especially of the religious orders, to the cession. In 1668 it was
transferred by the crown to the East India Company, who placed it under
the factory of Surat.
The real foundation of the modern city dates from this time, and was the
work of Gerald Aungier (or Angier), brother of Francis Aungier, 3rd Lord
Aungier of Longford and 1st earl of Longford in Ireland (d. 1700), who
succeeded Sir George Oxenden as president of Surat in 1669 and died in
1677. At this time Bombay was threatened by the Mahrattas from inland,
by the Malabar pirates and the Dutch from the sea, and was cut off from
the mainland by the Portuguese, who still occupied the island of
Salsette and had established a customs-barrier in the channel between
Bombay and the shore. In spite of the niggardly policy of the court of
directors, who refused to incur the expense of employing skilled
engineers, Aungier succeeded in fortifying the town and shore; he also
raised a force of militia and regulars, the latter mainly Germans (as
more trustworthy than the riffraff collected in London by the Company's
crimps). In 1672 Aungier transferred his headquarters to Bombay, and
after frightening off an imposing Dutch fleet, which in 1670 attempted
to surprise the island, set to work to organize the settlement anew. To
this task he brought a mind singularly enlightened and a sincere belief
in the best traditions of English liberty. In its fiscal policy, in its
religious intolerance, and in its cruel and contemptuous treatment of
the natives, Portuguese rule had been alike oppressive. Aungier altered
all this. With the consent of "a general assembly of the chief
representatives of the people" he commuted the burdensome land tax for a
fixed money payment; he protected all castes in the celebration of their
religious ceremonies; and he forbade any compulsion of natives to carry
burdens against their will. The result was that the population of Bombay
increased rapidly; a special quarter was set apart for the banya, or
capitalist, class of Hindus; while Parsees and Armenians flocked to a
city where they were secure of freedom alike for their trade and their
religion. Within eight years the population had grown from 10,000 to
60,000. The immediate result of this concentration of people in a spot
so unwholesome was the prevalence of disease, produced by the appalling
sanitary conditions. This, too, Aungier set himself to remedy. In 1675
he initiated the works for draining the foul tidal swamps; and, failing
the consent of the Company to the erection of a regular hospital, he
turned the law court into an infirmary. He also set up three courts of
justice: a tribunal for petty causes under a factor with native
assessors, a court of appeal under the deputy governor and members of
council, and a court-martial. A regular police force was also
established and a gaol built in the Bazaar.[1]
During this period, however, the position of Bombay was sufficiently
precarious. The Malabar pirates, though the city itself was too strong
for them, were a constant menace to its trade; and it required all the
genius of Aungier to maintain the settlement, isolated as it was between
the rival powers of the Mahrattas and the Mogul empire. After his death,
on the 30th of June 1677, its situation became even more precarious.
Even under Aungier the Siddi admirals of the Moguls had asserted their
right to use Bombay harbour as winter quarters for their fleet, though
they had failed to secure it as a base against the Mahrattas. Under his
weak successor (Rolt, 1677-1682), the English waters, the value of which
had now been proved, became the battle-ground between the rival navies,
and for some years Bombay lay at the mercy of both. The Company's rule,
moreover, was exposed to another danger. The niggardly policy of the
board of directors, more intent on peaceful dividends than on warlike
rule, could not but be galling to soldiers of fortune. A mutiny at
Bombay in 1674 had only been suppressed by the execution of the
ringleader; and in 1683 a more formidable movement took place under
Richard Keigwin, a naval officer who had been appointed governor of St
Helena in reward for the part played by him in the capture of the island
from the Dutch in 1673. Keigwin, elected governor of Bombay by popular
vote, issued a proclamation in the king's name, citing the "intolerable
extortions, oppressions and exactions" of the Company, and declaring his
government under the immediate authority of the crown. He ruled with
moderation, reformed the system of taxation, obtained notable
concessions from the Mahrattas, and increased the trade of the port by
the admission of "interlopers." But he failed to extend the rebellion
beyond Bombay; and when a letter arrived, under the royal sign manual,
ordering him to surrender the fort to Sir John Child, appointed admiral
and captain-general of the Company's forces, he obeyed.[2]
Meanwhile the Company had decided to consider Bombay as "an independent
settlement, and the seat of the power and trade of the English in the
East Indies." But a variety of causes set back the development of the
city, notably the prevalence of plague and cholera due to the silting up
of the creeks that divided its component islands; and it was not till
after the amalgamation of the old and new companies in 1708 that the
governor's seat was transferred from Surat to Bombay. In 1718 the city
wall was completed; settlers began to stream in, especially from
distracted Gujarat; and a series of wise administrative reforms
increased this tendency until in 1744 the population, which in 1718 had
sunk to 16,000, had risen to 70,000. Meanwhile the Mahratta conquest of
Bassein and Salsette (1737-1739) had put a stop to the hostility of the
Portuguese, and a treaty of alliance with the Siddis (1733) had secured
a base of supplies on the mainland. The French wars of 1744-1748 and
1756-1763 led to a further strengthening of the fortifications; and the
influx of settlers from the mainland made the questions of supplies and
of the protection of trade from piracy more pressing. The former was in
part settled by the acquisition of Bankot (1755) as a result of an
alliance with the peshwa, the latter by the successful expedition under
Watson and Clive against Vijayadrug (1756). During this period, too, the
importance of Bombay as a naval base, long since recognized, was
increased by the building of a dock (1750), a second being added in
1762. The year 1770 saw the beginning of the cotton trade with China,
the result of a famine in that country, the Chinese government having
issued an edict commanding more land to be used for growing grain. This,
too, was a period of searching reforms in the administration and the
planning and building of the city; the result being a further immense
growth of its population, which in 1780 was 113,000. This was still
further increased by the famine of 1803, which drove large numbers of
people from Konkan and the Deccan to seek employment in Bombay. A great
fire broke out in the fort in the same year and caused enormous loss;
but it enabled the government to open wider thoroughfares in the more
congested parts, and greatly stimulated the tendency of the natives to
build their houses and shops outside the walls of the fort in what are
now some of the busiest parts of the city.
The British victory over the Mahrattas and the annexation of the Deccan
opened a new period of unrestricted development for Bombay. At this
time, too (1819), its fortunes were vigorously fostered by Mountstuart
Elphinstone, and in 1838 the population had risen to 236,000. But in the
next fifty years it more than doubled itself, the figures for 1891 being
821,000. This great leap was due to the influence of railways, of which
the first line was completed in 1853, the opening of the Suez Canal, and
the foundation of cotton factories. In 1866-1867 the tide of prosperity
was interrupted by a financial crisis, due to the fall in the price of
cotton on the termination of the American war. Bombay, however, soon
recovered herself, and in 1891 was more prosperous than ever before; but
during the ensuing decade great havoc was played by plague (q.v.) with
both her population and her trade. In addition to a decline of 6% in the
population, the exports also declined by 7%, whereas Calcutta's exports
rose during the same period by 38%.
See S.M. Edwardes, _The Rise of Bombay_ (1902); James Douglas, _Bombay
and Western India_ (1893); G.W. Forrest, _Cities of India_ (1903); Sir
William Hunter, _History of British India_ (London, 1900); _Imp.
Gazetteer of India_ (Oxford, 1908), s.v. "Bombay City."