Literary places in Patna

A Passage to India

E. M. Forster

A young Englishwoman and an Indian doctor meet across the divide of the Raj, and a walk in the caves ends in an accusation that pulls the whole civil station apart. The invented city of Chandrapore is drawn from Bankipore, the British civil station beside Patna on the Ganges, where Forster stayed; the Marabar Caves are his version of the real Barabar Caves, the ancient rock-cut caves in the hills near Gaya that he visited. The final section moves west to the Hindu princely state of Mau, drawn from Dewas and Chhatarpur in Central India, where Forster served.

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