American Mission grounds at Gowhatty

1860

General view of the mission buildings from a road, with two figures standing on the left photographed by Oscar Jean Baptiste Mallitte in the 1860s. Branches of the American Baptist Mission and of the Roman Catholic Mission were located in the town in the late nineteenth century. Guwahati, once known as Pragjyotishpura (the Eastern City of Light), is capital of the state of Assam and is at the centre of the most important tea growing area of India. The town is situated on the edge of the Shillong Plateau at the point where it reaches the River Brahmaputra and is the gateway to the whole north eastern part of India.