The Maratha Ditch was a 3-mile long deep entrenchment constructed by the English

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

around Fort William in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

. It was built to protect the surrounding villages and forts from the ruthless Maratha

Bargi Bargis were a light cavalry mercenary group of Maratha Empire's who indulged in large scale plundering of the countryside of western part of Bengal for about ten years (1741–1751) during the Maratha invasions of Bengal. Maratha invasions too ...

raiders. The ditch marked the outer limits of

city in the nineteenth century.

History

During the

Maratha invasions of Bengal The Maratha invasions of Bengal (1741-1751), also known as the Maratha expeditions in Bengal, refers to the frequent invasions by the Maratha forces in the Bengal Subah (Bengal, Bihar, parts of modern Orissa), after their successful campaign i ...

, the mercenaries employed by the Marathas of Nagpur called

s devastated the countryside thoroughly, causing huge economic losses for

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

. In 1742, the president of the

petitioned the ''nawab''

Alivardi Khan Alivardi Khan (1671 – 9 April 1756) was the Nawab of Bengal from 1740 to 1756. He toppled the Nasiri dynasty of Nawabs by defeating Sarfaraz Khan in 1740 and assumed power himself. During much of his reign Alivardi encountered frequent Mar ...

to create an entrenchment intented to circle the landward sides of

. This request was immediately granted by

, and in 1743 the Indians and Europeans co-operated to excavate a 3-mile long ditch north of Fort William, which came to be known as the Maratha Ditch. However, the threat of Maratha invasions ceased before the ditch could be completed and it was left unfinished. Subsequently it marked the outer limits of

during the 19th century. After that, it became more or less useless as a defensive work, since the deteriorated ditch could only make the movement of troops and artillery significantly difficult. The ditch was partly paved in 1799 for the Circular Road of Calcutta and was completely filled in 1893 for construction of the Harrison Road. Today, a road in North

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

by the name of Maratha Ditch Lane marks where the entrenchment once stood.

References

{{coord missing, West Bengal Buildings and structures in Kolkata