ANUGANGAM, &C. 39 



Musulman travellers of Renaudot, and probably 

 much longer. It is now called Batu-Sabor, upon the 

 river Johore, which is as large as the Euphrates, ac- 

 cording to these two travellers ; who add, that the 

 town of Calabar, on the coast of Coromandel, and ten 

 days to the south of Madras, belonged to the Ma- 

 ha'ra'ja' of Zif/(^4/tf. The wars of this Maharaja', 

 with the King of Al-Comr, or countries near Cape 

 Comorin, are mentioned by the two Musulman tra- 

 vellers, in the ninth century : and, it seems, that, at 

 that time, the Ma'la'yan Empire was in its greatest 

 splendor. About two hundred years ago, the Ma- 

 ha'ra'ja' of Bengal sent a powerful fleet to the Mal- 

 divian islands. The Kino; was killed in the engao'e- 

 ment, and the Maha'ra ja"s fleet returned in triumph 

 to Bengal, according to Delaval's account. Tra- 

 dition says, that the King of Lanca, which implies, 

 either the country of the Maha'ra'ja', of Zapdge, or 

 Ceylon, but more probably the first, invaded the 

 country of Bengal, with a powerful fleet ; and sailed 

 up the^Ganges, as far as Rangamatty, then called Cu- 

 siimd'puri, and a considerable place, where the King, 

 or Maharaja', often resided. The invaders plun- 

 dered the country, and destroyed the city. This 

 happened long before the invasion of Bengal by the 

 Musulmans, and seems to coincide with the time of 

 the invasion of the Peninsula by the Maha'ra'ja' of 

 Zdp6ge. This information was procured, at my re- 

 quest, by the late Lieutenant Hoare, who was re- 

 markably fond of inquiries of that sort; and to whom 

 I am indebted for several curious historical anecdotes, 

 and other particulars, relating to the geography of 

 the Gangetic Provinces. It seems that there was 

 little intercourse, probably none, between India and 

 China in former times. The first notice we have of 

 such an intercourse, is, that an Emperor of China, 

 called VouTi, sent his General Tchan6-kia0, with a 

 retinue of a hundred men, to visit the western 

 countries, such as Khorassan and Meru-al-ndhar. 



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