io. Some Traditions about Sultan Alauddin Husain 



Shah and Notes on some Arabic Inscriptions 

 from Murshidabad. 



By G. D. Sarkar, M.A. 

 Communicated by R. D. Banerji, M.A. 



[With Plates I— VI] 



Many traditions are current in different parts of Bengal 

 about Sultan Alauddin Husain Shah who drove out the de- 

 praved Abyssinian usurpers from the throne of Bengal, and 

 restored peace and prosperity to the province in the latter 

 part of the fifteenth century a.d. Husain Shah, son of 

 Saiyad Ashraf , is said to have been a cowherd of a Brahmin 

 before he rose to greatness. His master, who was pious and 

 learned, is said to have foretold his future greatness from an 

 incident connected with a cobra. It is said that once the cow- 

 herd was sleeping in the sun, and a great cobra was screening 

 his face with its expanded hood. A similar story is told of the 

 Empress Nurjahan, immediately after her birth, when Gbiya 

 Beg was travelling from Persia to India. According to the 

 traditions still current among peasants in the northern part of 

 the Murshidabad district of Bengal, the earlier part of Husain 

 Shah's life seems to have been spent in the village called Chand- 

 para or EkanI Ohandpara which lies close to Sagardighi and 

 Manigram , ! places claiming considerable antiquity. In this place 

 he is said to have served as a cowherd. His Brahmin master 

 advised him to leave the village for Gaur, where he ultimately 

 succeeded in caininc the throne. After his accession tradition 



says, the Brahmin went to Gaur and obtained an audience. 

 He went with a cowherd's goad and a tethering rope, which 

 had been left behind, as tokens of remembrance The Emperor 

 granted to his old master his native village Chandpara, in per- 

 petuity for the nominal revenue of one anna. Thence Chand- 

 para is known as Yakani Chandpara in revenue papers. 



The Brahmin of these traditions plays a role similar to that 

 of Gangu, a Delhi Brahmin whose name is honourably associated 

 with the founder of the Bahmani dynasty, Sultan Hasan Gangu 

 Bahmani. According to the tradition current at Chandpara 

 Suitan Hussain is said to have deprived his former employer ot 

 his caste at the instigation of his principal Begum. Chaitanya, 

 the celebrated Vaishnava reformer, is said to have granted the 



1 Manigram is also called Munigram by local people. Accord ing to 

 the local tradition the name is supposed to have been Jerii^ ^m JJ 

 association with the hermitage of Garga, a sage who according to ur. rven 

 flourished in the 44th year before the Christian era. 



