SELECTIONS

SELECTIONS FROM THE ASIATIC JOURNAL.

VOL. XIV, July to December, 1822.

SEVASAMMOODRA BRIDGE OVER THE CAUVERY.

The Island called Sevasammoodra is remarkable for the much admired falls of the Cauvery it was formerly a place of very great importance; the ruins of a town, a fortress, and a palace, and more particularly of two fine stone bridges over each branch of the river, are still to be traced there. According to traditionary accounts, some centuries have elapsed since the town was destroyed, and the bridges broken down; and although Sevasammoodra is considered a place of great sanctity, both by Hindus and Mussulmans, and is an object of attention to European travellers, no attempt was made to redeem it from the state of savage desolation into which it had fallen, until the grant of the Island by Government gave a spur to individual enterprise, which has been crowned with complete and most extraordinary success.

A bridge has been erected across the eastern branch of the river, a thousand feet in length, thirteen in breadth and twenty-three in height; it is supported on four hundred pillars of stone, which form a hundred and thirteen arches: many of the pillars, which are from eight to seventeen feet in length,* are let into the rock to the depth of five feet. Attempts were made to bring the stone pillars of the original bridge into use; but from the effect of fire, they were found to crumble to pieces in the hands of the workmen, and it became necessary to carry almost every block of stone from a considerable distance to the site of the bridge. The river has considerably enlarged its bed since the original bridge was built, which consisted of eighty-seven arches. The new bridge was commenced on the 1st March 1819, and completed on the 31st March 1821, within the short space of two years.

This really magnificent structure is the work of a single individual; it was planned by him, and built entirely at his own expense, not only without assistance, but in defiance of general opinion, which had pronounced the projector to be little better than a madman,

As this is in a great measure a work of charity, the author of it is disinclined to declare what it cost. It is within the knowledge of the writer that the “Wellesley Bridge," at Seringapatam, which is not more than two-thirds the length of the new bridge, with all the facilities afforded to the work, by its vicinity to the populous town of Seringapatam, and by the resources which were brought into play at the command of a despotic Government, cost the Mysore Treasury from seventy to eighty thousand pagodas.

From the water mark.

The bridge at Sevasammoodra is built in a jungle, at a distance from every populous place, and it was necessary to bring all the laborers employed in the work from Mysore, a distance of forty miles.

Not a single bridge has been built by the British Government over the river Cauvery, which runs for a distance of nearly two hundred miles through the centre of their Southern Provinces, and the only safe passage over it, at all seasons of the year, is by the bridges which lead from the Mysore dominions, over the Island of Seringapatam, into the Mysore dominions again.

A glance at the map will show how much trade and military movements would be benefited by the erection of a bridge forty or fifty miles to the south and east of Seringapatam. The direct route for commerce, and for troops, would then be from Hydrabad to Bellary, Bangalore, Malavelly, across the Cauvery to Sityal, either through the Cauveripooram or Guzzlehutty pass to Trichinopoly, Madura, Tinnevelly and Quilon, &c. It is computed that a distance of from forty to fifty miles at least, would be saved to troops marching from Quilon, Tinnevelly, upon Mangalore and Bellary, by taking this road. It would always be the shortest and most eligible road for troops moving from Trichinopoly to Seringapatam, the distance being less, and the Cauveripooram pass capable of being made much easier for the passage of guns, &c., than the Guzzlehutty; and it would secure a passage across the river at all seasons to troops destined from Trichinopoly to Bangalore and Bellary, without taking them much out of their direct route.

The name of this meritorious individual is Ramasawmy Moodelly. He was brought up by Colonel Wilks, and was employed under him for twenty-four years he is now an inhabitant of Mysore. The idea of the work originated with him when he visited the Island of Sevasammoodra with Colonel Wilks, in the year 1805.

ASSAY REPORT,

* These Rates of Exchange were established previous to the Assay which was made in the year 1819, and may have been since corrected.