546 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [November, 1910. 1 



that the Teesta 's flood waters were divided between the old 

 Brahmaputra and the Meghna on the one hand, and the Jenai 

 and the Ganges below Goalundo on the other hand. The 

 correspondence of those years, which still exists, proves conclu- 

 sively that the ravages of the flood were particularly felt in the 

 Pergannahs (or fiscal divisions) of Rajnagar, Idilpur and 

 Srirampur. Now the Idilpur and Srirampur Pergannahs 

 form the area through which the Nayabhangani River worked its 

 way from the Meghna to the old Ganges or Padma; ^,nd the 

 evidence to prove that this change was due to the flood of 1787 

 is almost incontravertible. The old course of the Brahma- 

 putra and the Meghna (its continuation) was violently affected 

 by the flood. Mohanpur, which Rennell surveyed in 1764 on 

 the east bank of the Meghna, somewhat to the north of 

 Chandpur, was left in 1793, as old correspondence proves, on 

 the west bank of that river, which was swinging violently in its 

 course (it may be added, the river has now resumed its former 

 course). In 1787, the year of the great flood, a block of 10 square 

 miles of the Tipperah bank of the Meghna was reported as having 

 been washed away, while on the Faridpur or Western bank, 

 the correspondence of the period teems with references to the 

 diluvion and inundation of the Idilpur and Srirampur 



in 



was cutting so violently that the Collector of Dacca expressed 

 his fear, in a letter to the Board of Revenue, that the whole of 

 these pergannahs would be swept away. The correspondence 

 moreover actually locates the area, where the destruction was 

 most widespread ; and the mouzahs thus located form the very 

 spot where the Nayabhangani River was flowing, 7 years later 

 at the utmost, with its destructive stream, across the Isthmus of 

 Srirampur, connecting the Meghna with the Ganges at or near 

 Monerpour (now called Char Manpura). From the north of 

 Dacca to the south of the present district of Faridpur, the 

 damage caused by the flood can be traced distinctly and the 

 evidence to prove the formation of the Nayabhangani River 

 from the date of the flood is so strong, as to substantiate the 

 hypothesis that the Teesta River was directly responsible for 

 this remarkable change. 



Now the third pergannah in which the flood of 1787 was 

 so severely felt, viz., Rajnagar, an area untouched by the River 

 Meghna, lies mainly in the angle formed by Rennell' s Calliganga 

 River, at its meeting with the Ganges; and it \ 



opening up of this Calliganga River, that the Ganges had by 

 the year 1818 found for itself a new exit into the Meghna. 

 The new stream was called the Kirtinassa (the Destroyer of 

 Glories). That the consummation of this change required a 

 period of 30 years from the date that the Teesta and Brahma- 

 putra commenced sending the bulk of their water down the 

 Jenai River to meet the Ganges at Jaffierganj above Rajnagar, 



was 



