144 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [April, 1910. 



gupta records his suzerainty over the frontier kings of Sama- 

 tata, Davaka, Kamarupa and Nepala (Fleet, Corpus Inscrip. 

 Ind. 9 Vol. Ill, page 14). Mr. Vincent Smith assigns Davaka to 

 the area now covered by the present Rajshahi Division, but he 

 appears to have overlooked the fact that until 100 years ago 

 the Brahmaputra ran through Mymensingh and that there was 

 no physical obstacle between what is now Pabna and Bogra, 

 and the present district of Dacca. Davaka would therefore 

 seem to be the land lying between the Brahmaputra — from the 

 point where it turns the Garo Hills, down to the old junction of 

 the Meghna with the Ganges, north of the island of Dakhln 



and the Ganges from Gaur to the same junction (vide 

 RennelTsmapNo. IX, from which Mr. Vincent Smith's map fac- 

 ing page 270 of his Early History of India should be corrected). 

 If, too, Mr. Vincent Smith's identification of the famous Vikra- 

 maditya of Ujjain with Chandragupta II be correct, the district 

 of Vikrampur, immediately to the south of Dacca, probably 

 owes its name to this king, who records on the iron pillar 

 of Dihll that he warred in the Vanga countries [op. cit., 

 2nd Ed., p. 275). Mr. Vincent Smith's map also seems to 

 need correction as regards the situation of Vanga, the boun- 

 dary of which has long been the Karatoya on the west, Ganges 

 on the south, the Meghna on the east, and the Khasi Hills 

 on the north (vide Cunningham, Archaeological Report XV, page 

 145). In fact Vanga may be practically regarded as an alter- 

 native name for Davaka. 



In this connexion, I take the opportunity to place on per- 

 manent record the two earliest mosque inscriptions that occur 

 in Dacca town. The first is that found on a small slab of 

 stone above the door of a mosque at Narayandia, the north- 

 eastern suburb of Dacca. The mosque is a very small one and 

 of modern appearance, but from its position at the extreme 

 south-east point of the raised land on which the main city of 

 Dacca stands, the stone may possibly be in its original posi- 

 tion. Just to the south runs the khal, which passes through 

 Dacca and marks the former channel of the Burfganga when 

 this river ran into the Lakhya instead of the Dhaleswari, 

 while beyond the khal lies the char (island) now occupied by 

 the mahallas of Islampur, Patuatuli, Bangla Bazar, Farash- 

 ganj, Sutrapur, Ikrampur, Shah Ujijalnagar and Ruknpur ? 

 on which the town of Bangala, visited by Vertomannus in 

 1503, seems to have been situated. (Taylor, Topography and 

 Statistics of Dacca, p. 92.) 



