600 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [December, 1910. 



is dated 1638. l The name of Chinsura, called Chuchura by the 

 inhabitants, is derived from that of a weed called Chirchira or 

 Chichira (Achyranthes aspera) with which the place abounded. 

 In fact, the place is called " Chichira, an Hollandish settlement 

 and town" in the Seir Mutaqherin. 2 There is also a local 

 tradition of the name being derived from Chau-chura or four 

 pinnacles at the four corners of the town. But the latter must 

 be a mythical derivation from the name of the place, as from 

 the existence of the pinnacles, if there were any, it must be 

 presumed that the place had a name before the pinnacles were 

 constructed. 



In 1676 the French under Monsieur Deslandes settled at 

 Chandernagore, and in that year the Danes also settled at 

 Serampur which was called Frederiksnagar, and there is no 

 tradition even that these places were of any importance before 

 the Europeans came to settle in them. 



These towns, which are the principal towns in the district 

 of Hughli, had no habitation or name before the 16th century 

 of the Christian era, and this fact is confirmed by the Chandi, 

 which was written by Mukundaram Chakravarti, otherwise called 

 Kavikankan, in Saka 1499 corresponding to 1577 A.D. This 

 work describes two voyages made by Dhanapati Sadagar and 

 his son Srimanta Sadagar from Bur d wan to Ceylon. Though 

 the poet mentions the names of towns and villages situated on 

 both banks of the river Ganges, as Saptagrdma, Halisahar, 

 Triveni, Garifa (Gouripur), Gondalpara, M&hes, Nimai-Tirtha's 

 Ghat (in Baidyabati), Calcutta and other places, yet he does 

 not name at all Hughli, Chinsura, Chandernagore, Serampur and 

 other famous places on the right bank of the river Hughli. It 

 is, therefore, abundantly clear that these places in the latter half 

 of the sixteenth century did not exist at all, or even if some 

 of them did exist, they had not risen into importance, but 

 were merely insignificant villages which did not even attract 

 the attention of the poet. 



The town of Hughli rose into importance after the Portu- 

 guese fort, the remnant of which may still be seen in the two 

 low broken walls jutting into the river just opposite the gate of 

 the present jail, had been besieged and blown up by the Moguls 

 during the reign of the Emperor Shah Jehan and the town was 

 declared to be the royal port in 1632 in the place of Satgaon, 

 which had begun to decline as an emporium of commerce on 

 account of the diversion of the course of the Ganges which 

 formerly flowed through the Saraswati. The diversion of the 

 river was to the east in a direct line through the present bed of 

 the Hughli, whereas the old course down the Saraswati was in a 



bee 



p. 225. 



902) 



