1916.] A note on the Terai Forests 



269 



Having attained the plains, the trade routes bent round 

 towards the best marts. The western route, for instance, in- 

 clined south-eastwards at one period to Vaisali, and afterwards 

 to Vaisali's rival and conqueror, Patna, only 27 miles distant. 

 The eastern route at one period ended at Mahastan on the old 

 Karatoya, due south of its exit from the hills, and then was 

 deflected south-westwards co Gaur, and later to Murshidabad. 

 These marts were far from the Terai, 1 too far to prevent the 

 growing up of towns there, if only the climate would permit it. 

 The climate did. Flourishing on the conditions brought about 

 by the opening up of the land about the western route rose 

 Semraon, and similarly on the eastern route rose Kamartipur. 

 Large places such as these could only exist in the midst of wide 

 fields ; and we may safely assert that over the centuries of 

 their existence the forests of the Terai must have been very 

 much interrupted about their longitudes. 



When Mohamed Bakht-i-yar Khilji had conquered Bengal 

 and established himself at Gaur, the richness of the hill-trade 

 aroused his cupidity,— most especially was the trade large in 

 ponies, — and he determined on that marauding expedition 

 against Burdhan-kot (Bhut-tang-kot or Bhut-boundary fort), 

 which was his undoing. In 1216, in the spring apparently! 

 he set out, was defeated by men in bamboo armour 2 * and a 

 swollen river completed the disaster. Minhaj-ud-Dowla the 

 historian of forty years later, recorded from more than one source 

 what he could learn of this great defeat ; but he mixed into 

 the story the geography of the western trade-route, whereas it 

 was up the eastern that the expedition went. Some Kuch 

 chief, called by Minhaj the Rai of Kamrud, with a bone to 

 pick of his own, proposed to join in it if only it couid be delayed, 

 which suggests that there was already being felt by the Kuches 

 in the hills, the Thibetan pressure from behind the Himalaya 

 before which they were ousted ultimately so thoroughly that 

 Bhutan invaded Kuch Behar in 1772. 



In the year after this expedition took place, and up to 

 the year 1226, the Muhammadans were occupied in reducing 

 the kingdom of Tirhut on the other route. Only in 1352 did 

 they penetrate so far as to destroy Semraon, which by that 

 time and in spite of the grandiloquent account of its overthrow 

 must have lost much of its importance. Only about 1500 was 

 Bettiah made an outpost fort against the hill kingdoms. 



Gaur was at this date or shortly afterwards a city of 

 1,200,000 inhabitants. Yet petty Rajput chiefs ruled the 

 marches so near to it as northern Purneah, and were not 



* The earlier markets were north of the Ganges ; but the last south 

 of it — an interesting fact which historians must take account of. 



2 This type of Bamboo armour may be seen in the Indian Museum, 

 the Thibetans still using it. 



