( lхxv. ) 5. THE BAG BAZAR MITRAS. We have now come to the period when the family first came in contact with the English. This took place in the year 1742. Nearly half a century ago the East India Company had purchased the villages of Sutanati, Govindpur and Calcutta, where they had built a fort, under the ramparts of which nestled the nucleus of a township, inhabited ohiefly by men having dealings with the traders who had come from beyond oceans and seas. A little further of was all jungle and marshy, lands. An ancestor of Behari Lal, named Uttara a Mitra, came from Bali, cleared the jungle and built himself a house at a place about a couple of miles from Fort William and which place is now called the Bagbazar of Calcutta. To distinguish it from the other Mitras of the country, this family received the special designation of Bankata Mitras of Bagbazar, or the Mitra family which cleared the jungle of Bagbazar. This Uttaram became a Lambardar or collector of revenue under the East India Company. Thus the family of Bhati Lal Mitra became intimately connected with the British when there , was not the least probability of their ever becoming the masters of India. Fifteen years after, Clive obtained his victory in the field of Plassey, opening a new epoch in the history of the world. Sutanati was given to Raja Nabokissen and Uttaram therefore gave up his Laimbardarship. He then began to trade in salt by 7
