Book excerpt: Francis Bradley Bradley-Birt (1874-1963), a member of the Indian Civil Service and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in London, wrote several books on British India and Persia. The Romance of an Eastern Capital is a history of the city of Dacca, present-day Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Located on the Buriganga River, Dacca was, successively, under Buddhist, Hindu, Mughal, and British rule. This book traces the rise and fall of Mughal power, rivalry between the British and French for political and commercial influence in the city, the rising power of the British East India Company in the 18th century, and the history of the Dacca under British rule, which officially began in 1793. Originally part of the province of Bengal in British India, Dacca became the capital of the new state of Eastern Bengal and Assam after the partition of Bengal in 1905. In his preface, Bradley-Birt wrote that "the much-discussed Partition of Bengal" had brought Eastern Bengal "prominently before the general public, both in India and at home, and it is hoped that the story of its Capital, which the following pages attempt to relate in popular form, will be of special interest at the present time."