DACCA, diileka, or DHAKA. The capital of the division and the district of the same name in Bengal, British India (Map: India, F 4). It is situated on the left bank of the Burhi Ganga, which connects the Brahmaputra with the Ganges, about 150 miles northeast of Calcutta. The surrounding country is low and overflown during the rainy season. Many of the old tear pies and other public buildings are in ruins and ' give to the city an appearance of decay. Since 1S70, however, it has recovered some of its an cient prosperity, and there are now a number of modern public buildings and educational in stitutions, including a college, modern water works owned by the and gas. Prior to the nineteenth century Dacca was a flourishing city of great commercial importance, famous for its muslins, which in the phraseology of the East were characterized as 'flowing water,' 'woven air,' and 'evening dew.' In those days
Dacca was filled with magnificent temples and palaces, and its population was estimated at 200,000. The change in the river system of that part of India proved very detrimental to the commerce of the city by depriving it of its facilities for inland navigation, while the inva sion of British manufactures almost completely ruined the native textile industry. With the construction of the Daeca-Maimansingh Railway line the trade of Dacca has revived and there is again a demand frr the native textile products. Besides textiles Dacca also prodnees fine silver and gold plate, filigree work, and steel orna ments. There is a considerable trade in ele phants. During the seventeenth century Dacca the capital of Bengal. Population, in 1891, 82,321; in 1901, 90,700.