1867.] On the Antiquities of B/igerhdt. 127 



four hundred years ago ; for I find that about that time one Khan 

 Jahan alias Khanja Ally, a chief of great piety and liberality, who was 

 ' rusticated from the court of Delhi, was sent to this place to hold the 

 post of a tehsildar. Many fine buildings and stately mosques were 

 erected under his auspices, and the place was in every respect greatly 

 improved. What was its name then, I cannot now ascertain ; the in- 

 scriptions that I have examined to find it out, being altogether silent 

 on the subject. Its present name is but of yesterday. It was given 

 to it long after its glories bad passed away, and its bistory forgotten. 

 A deserted village on the outskirts of the Sunderbunds, its humble 

 inhabitants needed but the aid of a poor bi-weekly fair to supply their 

 wants ; that faiivwas, and is still, held on a raised spot on the river- 

 bank where once . stood the pleasure ground of Khan Jahan. The 

 illiterate dealers and pedlars who frequented it to sell their goods 

 called it the f garden fair,' Bdger licit, and the name was adopted by 

 Government when, in May, 1863, it was made the head quarters of a 

 magisterial sub-division. 



From the few traces still visible I believe the garden must have, 

 at one time, included an area of about 200 biggahs. On one 

 side of it there was, until recently, a dirty putrifying tank over- 

 grown with jungle, which in olden times must have been a plea- 

 sant sheet of water ; and on the other a mound, probably the debris 

 of what once was a summer house. Traces of metalled footpaths 

 are met with at different places, as also the remains of a high 

 road, 30 feet broad, made of well-burnt bricks placed on edge, which, 

 it is said, formerly extended from this place to Chittagong. 



Three miles to the west of the garden, there is a large tank, over 

 a hundred biggahs square, noted for its sweet water and a number of 

 tame crocodiles. I had no opportunity to ascertain its size, but 

 judging from the impression its sight produced on me and from memory, 

 I believe it is fully as large, as the Pala Diggi near Murshidabad, 

 and nearly as large as the Mahipal Diggi in Dinagepur. Babu Guru 

 Churn Doss, Deputy Magistrate of Jangipur, in a letter published 

 in the Society's Proceedings for October 1862, says that "it must be 

 in size equal to, if not larger than, that in the Dilkosh Baug of the 

 Raja of Burdwan." But as the tank under notice has silted up and 

 its water has receded much from the original banks, it is not easy 



