Tribute to a mother
A top stockbroker and cotton king of the 1800s, Premchand Roychand, paid Rs 2 lakh for the iconic Rajabai Tower on the condition that it be named after his mother ………Hemen Kapadia
A top stockbroker and cotton king of the 1800s, Premchand Roychand, paid Rs 2 lakh for the iconic Rajabai Tower on the condition that it be named after his mother ………Hemen Kapadia
Among the many historical landmarks around the BSE, one that stands taller than the others is the imposing and majestic Rajabai Tower. It is located in the beautiful Fort campus of the University of Mumbai, which houses the administrative division and a library with many original manuscripts – a larger, more active campus is located at Kalina, Santacruz (E).
The Rajabai Tower is a clock tower inspired by the Big Ben. It has been designed by an English architect, George Wilbur Scott. Standing at a height of 280 feet (85 metres), this tower was the tallest structure in the city in those days, late 1800s and early 1900s.
This iconic landmark is in existence due to the munificence of Mr Premchand Roychand (a top stockbroker and cotton king of the 1800s), who bore the entire construction cost of Rs 2 lakh (which was nothing short of a fortune in the 1860s) on the single condition that it be named after his mother. Hence, the name Rajabai Tower.
Mr Premchand’s mother was visually impaired and since she was a follower of Jainism, she would need to eat her dinner before sunset and the logic was that, the bells tolling in the evening would play an important part in helping her identify the time without being dependant on anybody.
Construction of the tower began on March 1, 1869, and was finally completed in November 1878. The structure is a visual treat and it not only has some of the best stained glass windows in the city but is actually a potpourri of Gothic and Venetian styles of architecture. The stone used for construction is a peculiar buff-coloured stone known as the Kurla stone which was locally sourced as the name suggests. Kurla, which was originally a Koli settlement, traces its origin to the word Kurli, a local name for crabs found commonly in marshes before these marshes became a habitat for people. It was spelt as Coorla in the colonial days.
The tower’s ground floor has two side rooms which are fairly large while the tower forms a spiral staircase vestibule – a lobby, entrance hall or passage between entrance and the interior of a building – and a carriage porch (a roofed structure over a driveway to a building, meant for protection from weather people entering or leaving a vehicle). The tower above the aforesaid porch has a square form up to the gallery at the top of the first level which is 68 feet above the ground.
This square segment transforms into an octagonal shape while the height from this gallery to the top of the tower is 118 feet. The third and last stage to the top of the finial – an architectural device, typically carved in stone and employed decoratively to emphasise the apex at the end of a building – is 94 feet.
During the colonial rule, the Rajabai Tower played tunes like God Save the King, Home Sweet Home, Rule Britannia and A Handel Symphony – composed by George Frederick Handel (1685-1759), a German-English composer famous for operas and concertos – out of a grand total of 16 tunes which changed four times a day.
Currently, the clock chimes every 15 minutes while public access to the tower has been closed – which is sad considering the panoramic view of the BSE, City Civil Court, Oval Maidan and High Court the tower offers – for safety purposes due to the fact that it became a suicide point for people.
Next Week – The third part of a close look at some of the historical landmarks near the BSE.