Vol. V, No. 7.] Notes on Gaur and other old Places. 201 
[N.S.] 
Nidiah ; hence 599 H. has been taken as an approximate date. 
He and his Amirs adorned the city with mosques, colleges and 
monasteries ; while Sultan Ghiyasu-d-din ’Iwaz built Jami and 
other mosques, the fortress of Basan-kot and an embankment 
from the city to Diw-kot on one side,and to Lakhan-or on the 
other, about ten days’ journey. Mention is also made of the 
gates of the city which was therefore fortified.!_ Barni speaks of a 
great bazar within the city more than a kos long, and near it a 
palace of the old chiefs.* None of these old works have been 
traced. It is just possible that the high solid bank, running from 
near the civil station west to Sonatoli on the river, might be a 
part of the city walls. This has been hitherto identified with 
the pul (embankment) of Ghiyagu-d-din; but its size—30 
to 40 ft. high, and 100 to 150 ft. at the base—is more in favour 
of its being a wall. The early Musalman city was a continuation 
of the Hindu city and, therefore, would have lain in the north- 
ern part. 
"The fort of Basan-kot with the city of Lakhanawati was 
Boys captured in 624 H. (1227 A.D.) by the 
aria eldest son of Sultan I-yal-timish during 
the absence of Ghiyagu-d-din ; and after the death of I-yal-timish | 
in 633 H. (1236 A.D.) a battle took place for its possession be- 
tween the feudatory of Lakhanawati Tughril-i-Tughan Khan and 
the feudatory of Lakhan-or Aor Khan, within the environs of the 
city. The fort was therefore close to the city. Though said to 
have been founded by ’Iwaz, the name looks suspiciously Hindu, 
cf. Devi-kot, Bardhan-kct, Mangal-kot, Patica-kot ; and it is not 
clear why a devout Musalman like Ghiyasu-d-din would give a 
Hindu name to his own fort. I suspect that the place was 
Hindu, and had a fort on it, which was repaired or rebuilt by 
this Malik. Could it be the modern Ballala-bayi ? . 
The loss of all the early works, Hindu or Musalman, is very 
disappointing. It must be said, however, that the northern 
rt of the city has not yet been excavated or even well 
explored. The disappearance of these old remains 1s primarily 
due to two causes, the vandalism of men in utilising them as 
quarries, and riparian changes making the new channels cut 
westwards and sweep away or bury under silt the standing 
The first half of the fourteenth ones period a aed 
7 : ; sion and much civil war in bengal ; 
pn eaha ces pet aud the few facts recorded by Barni and 
Ibn Batitah do not often agree with these deducible from coins. 
brief résumé may therefore help readers. According to coins, 
Shamsu-d-din Firoz Shah ruled from 702 to 722 H.® (1302— 
1 Tabakat-i-Nagiri; cf. my article, J.A.S.B., 1908, April. 
2 Barni, Elliot, iii, . 119, 120. ne 
8 For coins of 702 Tr J.B.AS., ii., 193, and of 722 H., zbid., and 
