A PROBE INTO THE CALCUTTA EARTHQUAKE OF 1737

Some doubts have expressed in the recent literature about the occurren ce of earthquake that occurred simultaneously with a cyclonic storm du ring September/October 1737 near Calcutta. In this article an attempt has been made to probe into the historical documents with a logical an alysis. Our study reveals that an earthquake did occur undoubtedly nea r Calcutta in 1737. However, the death toll reported in the catalogue of significant earthquakes by the US Department of Commerce needs to b e corrected. It was also found that the Encyclopedia Brittanica has mi ssed to make entry of the earthquake, in addition to making inadverten tly a wrong entry of the date of occurence of the cyclonic storm. This study has led to the conclusion that an earthquake did occur near Cal cutta during the passage of a sever e cyclonic storm on the Bengal coa st of the night of 11 October 1737 as per the Gregorian equivalent cal endar, or on 30 September 1737 as per the then existing Julian calenda r. The death toll due to the combined disaster could have been about 3 000.