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The contributions to Calcuttan cooking from the exiles

posted on Monday, August 25, 2008 11:41 AM

Author: Sanjay Kumar, Brighton

The malarial swampland of Tollygunge in Calcutta has long been the destination of deposed rulers or their families. And so it was that after Tipu Sultan was slaughtered at the Battle of Seringapatam, the once self styled Tiger of Myosore’s two wives and twelve sons, their retinue of servants together his eldest brothers’ family came to Calcutta from South India in what is today the state of Karnataka in the early 19th century. They were interned in Tollygunge, then an ‘insalubrious’ marshland, and given handsome stipends with which these royals created fabulous buildings and gardens.

One of the most outstanding is to be found just behind the Shahi Masjid in Tollygunge stands a dilapidated red brick mansion, Nawabs Kothi, the home of Shahabzada Mohammed Maqbool Alam, the sixth generation descendant of Tipu’s only brother Prince Karim Shah.

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