144 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S. XIII, 



Brahmin absolution from a suicidal penance. Another variant 

 of this tradition, about Sultan Alauddin Husain Shah, is current 

 in the district of Jessore. Babu Jogendra Nath Samaddar has 

 recorded this variant, in a Bengali monthly journal 'The 

 Bharati.' In the Jessore variant, the part played by the Brah- 

 min is ascribed to a local noble, named Raja Ram Chandra 

 Khan, of Benapol, the ruins of whose palace are still pointed 

 out by the local cultivators. 



Another account is prevalent in the Murshidabad district 

 (near Sekherdighi and Babargram) about Husain Shah's sojourn 

 at Chandpara which is more in consonance with sober historic 

 verity. According to this story Saiyad Ashraf, Saiyad Yusuf 

 and Saiyad Sharif (Husain Shah) came over to Hindusthan 

 from Tabriz in Persia, and in the course of their wanderings 

 visited EkanI Chandpara and put up there in the house of the 

 local Kazi. They went thence to Gaur to seek service under 

 the Sultan of Bengal, but being disappointed in their quest 

 returned again to Chandpara. Here at the request of the Kazi, 

 Saiyad Sharif married one of his daughters and through the in- 

 fluence of his father-in-law managed to secure one of the minor 

 appointments in Gaur. Thence by sheer ability he rose to the 

 position of Wazir or Prime Minister, and popular outbreak 

 against the tyrannous Abyssinian Muzaffar Shah II brought 

 him to the throne. It was then that he assumed the title of 

 Sultan 'Alauddin Husain Shah. It may be mentioned in this 

 connection that the historian Stewart speaks of Husain Shah 

 being in a lowly situation in his early days, and also states that 

 he was raised to dignity by the Kazi of Chandpur, who gave 

 him his daughter in marriage. 



During my stay in the Jungipur subdivision of the Mur- 

 shidabad district I succeeded in discovering a number of Arabic 

 inscriptions which, along with the architectural remains already 

 known, connect the early days of Sultan 'Alauddin Husain Shah 

 more closely with the northern part of the Murshidabad district 

 than any other part of Bengal. 



There is a ruined masjid in EkanI Chandpara, the erec- 

 tion of which is ascribed by the local people to Sultan 'Alauddin 

 tlusain Shah. No inscription has been found here. But there 

 is a big mosque in a neighbouring village called Kherul or 

 ivherur, which, according to the inscription on it, was erected 

 oy a Pathan noble named RifVt Khan in a.h. 900 =M9*- 95 

 rf' /h^etwo monuments were inspected by the late Dr. 

 iheodor Bloch in 1905. There is another Arabic inscription at 

 Kherur, which has not been properlv deciphered, dated 917 or 

 tfiSA.H. ihe big tank called Shekerdighi, at a distance of 

 about four or five miles from Kherur, is said to have been 

 excavated under the orders of 'Alauddin Husain Shah. An 

 «£ • ^"Pfcon found close by records that this event took 

 place m the month of Rabi-ul-awwal of the year 921 a.h. = 1515- 



