This is plate 1 from Charles Ramus Forrest's 'A Picturesque tour along the rivers Ganges and Jumna, in India'. Forrest was an East India Company official who made excursions along the rivers, producing drawings "attentively copied from nature, and in many instances coloured on the spot, ... while the magic effects of the scenes represented were still impressed on [his] mental vision".

In December 1807, he set out from Calcutta with a diplomatic force. The first day's march took them to Barrackpore, which is 16 miles north of Calcutta, "and most beautifully situated on the left bank of the river Hooghly, the principal navigable branch of the Ganges, and on which Calcutta is seated". A short distance below Barrackpore, Forrest came upon some "very beautiful and picturesquely situated pagodas" built of brick and covered with white stucco, "backed by a luxuriant growth of every variety of the palm tribe, united with the pliant bamboo, from the dark contrasting masses of which they relieve admirably". This view is taken from the opposite bank of the river, "enlivened by the quickly gliding boats, of every varied size and model".