Balasore

The Europeans at Balasore
During the 17th century Balasore in the southern periphery of Bengal was one of the most important trading-places of the entire region. The town is situated about 15km west of the shore of the Indian Ocean and is connected by the river Burhabalang with the sea. It's importance particularly rose after the expulsion of the Portuguese from Hugli and before the foundation of Calcutta, as the English resident in town, Walter Clawell, points out in 1676:
"Ballasore begun to be a noted place when the Portuguez were beaten out of Angelin [i.e. Hugli] by the Moores, about the yeare 1636, at which time the trade begun to decay at Pipli, and to have a diminution in other places of these ports; and the Barr opening and the river appearing better then it was imagined, the English and the Danes indeavoured to settle Factoryes here"
The Portuguese as well as the Dutch VOC (1625), the English and the Danish East India Companies (1636) and the French (1674) established factories here. Mainly textiles, salt, saltpetre or rice were exported, whereas silver, cowries, lead and copper were the most important import-commodities. However, trade decreased during the 18th century due to the increasing competition from Calcutta and other trading-settlements within the heart of Bengal. The Danish trade at Balasore was already disrupted during the decades of the Thirty-Years-War, again by the end of the 17th century and was finally abandoned dur-ing the Napoleonic Wars. When British troops entered the Scandinavian factory in 1808 nothing of importance was left:
"In the factory itself there is no property whatever with the exception of a few broken chairs and couches. Within its precincts there are four workshops con-taining some old cables, working utensils, several maunds of salt and rice. … No papers or records have been found in the factory."
In spite of this discontinuity we witness a significant continuity of place-names, for in-stance the former Danish settlement still bears the significant name Dinamardinga. We likewise find place-names like Farasidinga and Olandia.

Balasore: Dinamardinga

The Cemetery of Dinamardinga
From a recently published book on the history of Balasore as well as from talks with local people we came to know that a cemetery within the former Danish settlement Di-namardinga is preserved. Even if we did not find Danish graves from the 18th century as we had primarily hoped, we discovered a small, but well-renovated burial-ground with British graves surrounded by a metal fence. This cemetery yields an excellent example of the burial-ground of a minor European settlement in its classicistical shape with tum-bas, pavilions, pyramids and columns. Even if the British officially purchased the Dan-ish factory-ground only in 1845, they have already used this cemetery since 1808 as the inscriptions reveal, that means, immediately after the Danish factory had been captured by EIC-troops during the Napoleonic Wars. Only one tombstone (maybe shifted from another place) from the 18th century is left - that of 17-year-old Isabella Kelsall who died "the 28 Day of Aprill in the year of our Lord 1751" - twelve years before the Danes recaptured their factory after having been absent from Balasore for around eighty years. It remains unclear, if this cemetery likewise has been the Danish burial-ground. - At least two Danes were buried at Balasore, namely the Danish resident Carl Adolph Heyberg, who died on August, 1st, 1797 and his successor Kofoed who served at Balasore for only four month until his unexpected death. Maybe some of the tombstones without inscriptions are of Danish origin.
Statistics:
number of monuments: 22
oldest inscription: 1751/1808
youngest inscription: 1879
number of monuments with inscription: 9
male: 5 (age 31, 32, 68, 82, N.N.)
female: 4 (17, 25, 26, N.N.)

The lonely monuments of Olandia
Behind today's Girl's Highschool within the former Dutch settlement we discovered two impressive pyramids from the 17th-century within an entirely neglected garden, one belonging to Michiellians Burggraaf van Sevenhuisen who died in 1696. Shape and huge dimensions are quite unique for 17th-century Dutch monuments in India.