A Passage to India by E.M. Forster

MOSQUE

Chapter 1

"Except for the Marabar Caves - and they are twenty miles off - the

city of Chandrapore presents nothing extraordinary. Edged rather

than washed by the river Ganges, it trails off for a couple of miles

along the bank, scarcely distinguishable from the rubbish it deposits

so freely. There are no bathing-steps on the river front, as the Ganges

happen not to be holy here; indeed there is no river front, and the

bazaars shut out the wide and shifting panorama of the stream. The

streets are mean, the temples ineffective, and though a few fine houses

exist they are hidden away in gardens or down alleys whose filth deters

all but the invited guest. Chandrapore was never large or beautiful,

but two hundred years ago it lay on the road between Upper India,

then imperial, and the sea, and the fine houses date from that period.