1917.] Traditions about Sultan Alauddin Husain Shah. U7 



by dropping into the tank a piece of beef tied to an arrow. 

 It is said that when leaving her abode on account of this defile- 

 ment the presiding Genius of this spring of life advised the Raja 

 to abandon the place, and the brave defenders thereupon left 

 the fortress to its fate and took their departure through a secret 

 underground passage; stripped of its supernatural trappings, 

 the plain fact is likely to be that on the only source of water 

 supply becoming polluted through some reason or other, the 

 inmates of the fortress were obliged to make a hurried exit. 

 The story of the underground passage does not appear to be a 

 mere fabrication as there are still some persons alive who saw 

 near the spot a cavity or opening which was obviously the 

 entrance to a tunnel connecting the stronghold with some 



place outside. __ . , 



Though tanks with the name of Jivat Kundu are by no 

 means confined to this part of the country and although a simi- 

 lar legend is to be met with in the case of other tanks at Fandua- 

 and Mangalkote. the fact that » the great Khan Muqarrab 

 Khan," most likely a Pathan nobleman connected with 

 Hossein Shah's Court, had enough interest in the locality to 

 build a mosque near Suti or Mangalpur, would seem to point to 

 the fact that the place was probably an outpost of the kingdom, 

 and the defeat of the Hindu Chief and the demolition of the 

 fortress was not perhaps a mere mythical affair It may oe 

 stated here that Jangipur was long associated with the Fathans 

 of Bengal. The oldest inscription in the sub-diyision . dis- 

 coverd by me at Balighata, records the erection of a mosque 

 in 847 a.h. by Ulagh Sarafraz Khan, apparently a digmtan in 

 the Pathan court" as he is styled ' Khan of Majlis. (Vide 

 Appendix X). Another fragment of a Hossein Shahi inscnp. 

 tion has also been found at Baliaghata beanng date -l-l a.h. 

 EW-al-awal ( = 1515 a.d.). (Vide Appendix V). In i conclu- 

 sion I may mention that there is a noticeable P?!^ nt *«® ?L *^ft| 

 banshi population in some of the principal villages near o d 

 Mangalpur. There is nothing however in .^' n ^ n .^ ic ™ 

 customs or in their circumstances and socal status to ^indicate 

 that they had once been the members of a powerful ruling clan. 



A DDEND UM . 



Besides the four Hossein Shah in^iption men oi ed 

 above there is an inscription in Murshidabad C.tv set on t 

 top of the Sadar gate of the palace which refers *o Sul tan a« 

 ruddin Shah, King of Gaur (a son of Sultan Hosse , S iah) and 

 is dated 936 a.h/ I also came across several °thei in-cnp Uons 

 in the northern part of the district which belong to a much la 



1 This inscription I am informed is now to be found in 

 Khan's Imambara. 



