Surat

Surat
[[Image:|250px| ]]
Presidency: Bombay (Presidency)
Coordinates:	21.195293°N 72.819771°E
Altitude:	13 m (43 ft)
Present Day Details
Place Name:	Surat
State/Province:	Gujarat
Country:	India
Transport links
Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway Tapti Valley Railway

FibiWiki Maps
See our interactive map of this location showing places of interest during the British period
[xxxxx Surat]

Surat is a port city on the Gulf of Cambay. It was first used by the British East India Company in 1608. In 1615 it was the location of the second British factory and settlement in India and the seat of the Western Presidency until the Company's headquarters was transferred to Bombay in 1687. It was the headquarters of Surat District in Bombay Presidency during the British period. See Bombay Districts.

Cemeteries

• Dutch Cemetery
• English Cemetery dates from 1600s - for detail and some tomb images see The English cemetery at Surat : pre-colonial cultural encounters in western India. Durham University

Railways

Surat was originally the southern terminus of the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway until that line was extended to Bombay. A broad gauge branch ran eastwards along the Tapti valley to connect with the Great Indian Peninsula Railway at Amalner in Khandesh.

External links

• Surat City Imperial Gazetteer
• Surat from From the Gulf of Cambay on down the Malabar Coast, c.1700s-1850s: ports (with forts) from Prof Fran Pritchett’s Indian Routes (Columbia University)
• Images from a 16th century book by Italian adventure traveller Ludovico De Varthema. De Varthema toured India extensively from 1502 to 1508. The book was first published in Rome in 1510 www.bbc.co.uk. Includes images of the Kingdom of Cambay
• First English factory in India in Ruins timesofindia.com

Historical books online

• The travels of Pietro della Valle in India : from the old English translation of 1664, edited by Edward Grey (late Bengal Civil Service) 1892 Archive.org Volume I, Volume II. Pietro della Valle arrived in India 10 February 1623 at Surat, embarking from Goa 16 November 1624.
• A geographical description of the four parts of the world taken from the notes & workes of the famous Monsieur Sanson, geographer to the french king, and other eminent travellers and authors. To which are added the commodities, coyns, weights, and measures of the chief places of traffick in the world, compared with those of England, (or London) as to the trade thereof. Also, a treatise of travel, and another of traffick, wherein the matter of trade is briefly handled: the whole illustrated with variety of useful and delightful mapps and figures by Richard Blome 1670 Archive.org
  • India page 49. “His atlas is full of information that merchants needed to conduct business overseas, with sections on each part of the world. The section on ‘India or the East Indies’ gives details of goods available at important trading centres such as Surat, the East India Company’s first base in India. Other information vital to traders is explained, for instance on coins, weights and measures. Unfortunately the text may be difficult to read at times. Also available in the Gale subscription database "The Making of the Modern World: The Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature 1450-1850", see Subscription websites, for suggested access, as possibly the text may be clearer.
• A new account of East-India and Persia : : in eight letters being nine years travels, begun 1672 and finished 1681 by John Fryer 1698 London. Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek. Includes Surat.
• ‪ A Voyage to Suratt: In the Year, 1689‬ by John Ovington. Chaplain to his Majesty. 1696 Google Books

A Voyage To Surat In The Year 1689 by John Ovington, edited by H G Rawlinson, with commentary, 1929 is available to download as a pdf from Osmania University Digital Library [OUDL]. Restricted download hours may possibly apply. This book is also available on the Digital Library of India as a pdf download, Archive.org mirror version.

• An account of the trade in India: containing rules for good government in trade, price courants, and tables: with descriptions of Fort St. George, Acheen, Malacca, Condore, Canton, Anjengo, Muskat, Gombroon, Surat, Goa, Carwar, Telichery, Panola, Calicut, the Cape of Good-Hope, and St. Helena... To which is added, An Account of the Management of the Dutch in their Affairs in India by Charles Lockyer 1711 Archive.org. Contents
• "Origin of the English Establishment, and of the Company's Trade, at Broach and at Surat" page 317 Historical fragments of the Mogul empire, of the Morattoes, and of the English concerns in Indostan from the year MDCLIX; origin of the company's trade at Broach and Surat, and a general idea of the government and people of Indostan; to which is prefixed an account of the life and writings of the author by Robert Orme 1805 Google Books. First published 1782
• British Beginnings in Western India 1579-1657 : An account of the early days of the British factory at Surat by H G Rawlinson MA (1920) archive.org
• "Surat" page 458 Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Inquire into the Sanitary State of the Army in India : with Abstract of Evidence, and of Reports Received from Indian Military Stations 1864 Archive.org