Tatta Town
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Tatta Town
Thato ; known among the inhabitants as Nagar Thato
Head-quarters of the taluka of the same name in Karachi District, Sind, Bombay, situated in 24° 45' N. and 67° 58' E., about 7 miles west of the right bank of the Indus, and about 50 miles east of Karachi. Population (1901), 10,783. The town is built on a slight eminence in an alluvial valley at the foot of the Makli hills. It would appear to have been at one time surrounded by the waters of the Indus ; and to this day, after the subsidence of the annual inundation, numerous stagnant pools are left. A bad form of fever prevails at particular seasons of the year. It was mainly from this cause, com- bined with the unwholesome water of the place, that the British troops stationed here in 1839 suffered serious mortality. Tatta is most easily and speedily reached from Karachi by the North-Western Railway as far as Jungshahi, whence a metalled road, 13 miles long, leads directly to the town. The municipality, established in 1854, had an income during the decade ending 1901 averaging about Rs. 24,000. In 1903-4 the income was Rs. 30,600. The town is the head-quarters of an Assistant Collector, and contains a middle school and a dispensary. Other modern buildings are the Steele Hall and a library.
Tatta has played a very important part in the history of Sind, and was one of the Samma capitals. When Akbar annexed Sind, Tatta was under the rule of Mirza Jani Beg, who was allowed to retain it as a Jagir. In 1739 it was ceded to Nadir Shah of Persia, and was subsequently acquired by the Kalhoras, from whom it passed to the Talpur Mirs. The population of Talta fell off very much during The eighteenth century. Alexander Hamilton, who visited the place in 1699, calls it a large and rich city, about 3 miles long and 3/2 broad. He states that 80,000 persons had, a short time previous to his visit, died of the plague, and that one-half of the city was in consequence uninhabited. It is also related by Pottinger that, when Nadir Shah entered Tatta at the head of his army in 1742, there were 40,000 weavers, 20,000 other artisans, and 60,000 dealers of various kinds. In 1837 Captain J. Wood (of the Indian Navy), who had good oppor- tunities of judging in this respect, estimated the entire population at not more than 10,000. The present trade of Tatta consists mostly of silk and cotton manufactures and grain. Lungis (scarves or shawls), a thick, rich, and variegated fabric of cotton and silk, are still made, but not to the same extent as formerly. Coarse cotton fabrics, both plain and coloured, are also woven to some extent, but they have been largely superseded by the cheaper Manchester and Bombay goods. In 1758 a factory was established at Tatta by the East India Company, but it was withdrawn in 1775. Again, in 1799, another commercial mission was attempted, but this, like the former, terminated unsatis- factorily. In 1837 the total silk and cotton manufactures of Tatta were valued at Rs. 4,14,000, and the imports of British goods at Rs. 30,000. At present, the entire value of the local import trade, comprising upwards of twenty-five different articles, averages between 4 and 5 lakhs, the largest items being cotton cloth, rice, and sugar. The exports are also considerable, consisting of rice, ghl., grass, vege- tables, fresh fruit, and wool. As regards the transit trade, a portion of the grain received from the Sujawal, Jati, and Shahbandar talukas finds its way through this town to Karachi and the neighbouring hill country. The bulk of the road trafiic of Central and Lower Sind passes through Tatta.
Among the ancient remains of Tatta may be mentioned the Jama Masjid and fort. The site is undoubtedly of great antiquity, and it has by some been supposed to be the Patala of the ancients. Outram assigns the foundation of the present town to the year 1445, but other writers state that it was not founded before 1522. The general opinion is that the former date is the more correct, and that the town owes its rise to a prince of the Samma dynasty, Jam Nizam-ud-din (commonly called Jam Ninda), whose tomb is to this day pointed out among others on the Makli hills. In 1555 Tatta is said by Postans to have been pillaged and burnt by Portuguese mercenaries, and in 1592 it was again destroyed during the invasion of Sind by Akbar. The Jama Masjid, by far the finest building in Tatta, is supposed to have been commenced in 1644 by order of the Mughal emperor. Shah Jahan, as a memorial of his regard for the inhabitants, he having been permitted to pay his devotions in the former chief mosque during his flight from his father Jahangir. The building is rectangular in shape, 315 feet long by 190 feet wide, and covers a space of 6,316 square yards. The interior is beautifully painted in encaustic, the delicacy and harmony of the colouring being remarkable ; there are also some very elegant specimens of perforated stonework in different parts of the mosque. It is said to have cost 9 lakhs ; but it would, in all probability, have long since fallen into decay, had not the inhabitants of Tatta, by sub- scriptions raised among themselves, assisted by a money grant from the British Government, put the building into substantial repair. On the southern outskirts of the town stands the Dabgar Masjid, the oldest mosque in Tatta, built in 1509. It contains remains of very good tile-work. The fort of Tatta was commenced about 1699, during the reign of Aurangzeb, by Nawab Hafiz-ullah, but it was never completed. The foundation has now been almost entirely removed to provide material for building purposes.
