Vol. VI, No. 11.] History of the District of Hughli. 613 



[N.8.] 



gold coins said to be of Asoka's time were discovered, when the 

 foundations of the present Mission buildings were excavated. 

 It seems very probable that both Mahnad and Pandua were 

 situated within the aforesaid circum valla tion of five miles as 

 parts of the same kingdom instead of being the capitals of two 

 independent countries as the tradition about Pandua would 

 make out. The fact that the Jainas of Calcutta take much interest 

 in this temple and have repaired it at a great cost, indicates 

 that at one time it was a Jaina temple. It is very likely that at 

 the time of the Mahomedan conquest the Brahminical religion 

 prevailed at Pandua and Mahnad, as the statues of Surya and 

 Vishnu discovered at Pandua * and the phallic images of Siva in 

 the Buddhist temple and other shrines at Mahnad indicate that 

 the Buddhist religion had to give way to the Brahminical faith. 



One of the most ancient places in the district of Hughli is 

 T . . Triveni, which is situated eight miles 



to the east of Mahnad and at a short 

 distance from the town of Hughli. Its ancient name was 

 Dakshina-Prayaga. Raghunandana while quoting the autho- 

 rity of the Mahabharat about it in his Prayaschittatatiwa 

 explains Dakshina-Prayaga to be the same as " Mukta-veni 

 celebrated as Triveni in the southern coi*ntry called Sapta- 

 grama." Triveni is called Mukta-veni in contradistinction to 

 Yukta-veni or Allahabad, where the three rivers— Ganga, Jamu- 

 n&, andSaraswati — unite and flow together, and at Triveni they 

 separate and flow in different directions. The Saraswati leaves 

 the Ganges at Triveni Ghat and, flowing southward, joins the 

 Ganges again at Sankrel. The Jam una flows to the east by 

 the side of Kanchrapara and ultimately falls into the lchamati 

 near Tibi, which is six miles from Go^ardanga. The eastern 

 portion of the river is known by the name of Bagerkh&l. In a 

 portion of its course it forms the boundary between the dis- 

 tricts of Nadia and the 24-Parganas. It was a navigable 

 river before, but its connection with the Hughli having silted up, 

 it has now ceased to be so. The name of Triveni is mentioned 

 in the Brihat-Dharma Puran.* Pliny, who flourished in the first 

 century of the Christian era, mentions it as a great commercial 

 centre. He says that ships assembling near the Godavari 

 sailed by a particular route to Triveni. These ships were 

 evidently bound for Satgaon down the Saraswati, which is 

 two miles from Triveni- Ptolemy, the celebrated geographer 

 who lived in the middle of the second century of the Christian 

 era, also notices Triveni. Triveni is also alluded to in the Pavana- 

 duta, composed in the 12th century A.D. 3 It is therefore evident 



1 Saptagrama, by Babu Rakhal Das Bandopadhyay 

 Ptriahat-PatrikA, vol. xv, p. 29. 



2 Brihat-Dharma Puran, Purva Kha 

 * Pavanaduta, v. 33. 



