126 On the Antiquities of Bdgerlidt. \J^o. 2, 



On the Antiquities of Bdgerhdt. — By Baku Gourdass Bysack, Deputy 

 Magistrate and Depmty Collector, Manbhoom. 

 [Received 29th March, 1867, Read 1st May, 1867.] 



The Delta of the Ganges offers few localities of interest to the an- 

 tiquarian. An alluvial plain, intersected by a number of mighty 

 and ever-shifting rivers, there is not a spot on it, which can arrest the 

 attention of the traveller by ever so poor a display of the remains of 

 human art of a former age ; no hoary temple of the ancient Hindu 

 rajas, — no majestic palace buried under the dust and vegetation of 

 centuries, — no baronial castle where the Aryan held revelry, when the 

 Moslem had not yet set his feet on this land, — rewards the search of the 

 inquirer. Nothing meets his eyes that proclaims of ancient civiliza- 

 tion, and well may he question if ever any scion of the solar or the 

 lunar race dwelt amid the people of Bengal. Even history does not 

 afford many names of places in lower Bengal of truly ancient times. 

 Sagar Island, it is true, was known some two thousand years ago, but 

 not as a royal city or a flourishing port, but only as the abode of a 

 hermit. Nuddea was the capital of the Sena Rajas when Bakktiar 

 Khiliji invaded this country, but the Bhagirathi has since so often 

 shifted her course, and so completely washed away every vestige of the 

 lofty halls and the proud battlements which owned the descendants of 

 Adis'ura for their lords, that it is impossible now to determine its 

 exact locale. Of other places in the Delta, the history is equally un- 

 certain and unsatisfactory. 



But if we know not enough and have no relic of ancient Hindu 

 cities in the Gangetic Delta, there are not wanting in it nooks and 

 corners which, without pretending to any time-honored antiquity, 

 may afford materials not altogether uninteresting. The little town of 

 Bagerhat is one of them ; and to a few remains of its former greatness 

 I wish to draw the attention of the readers of the Journal, in the 

 following pages. 



The town of Bagerhat is situated on the bank of the Bhairab, a 

 sluggish stream, 50 miles, as the crow flies, to the south east of Jessore. 

 According to the Revenue Survey maps, the latitude of the place is 

 22° 40' 10" N., longitude 89° 49' 50" E. When it was first founded, 

 it is impossible now to tell, but it was a place of some note more than 



