132 On the Antiquities of Bdgerhdt. [No. 2, 



the conversion of many a Hindu to the Mahomeclan faith. Himself a 

 renegade from the religion of his Hindu forefathers, he acquired a 

 high reputation for sanctity, and maintained it hy a strict observance 

 of the ordinances of his adopted religion. 



According to tradition he was sent for to Delhi, and for some reason 

 or other, there beheaded by order of the emperor. He is said to have 

 once heard from a Brahmin of high caste and great influence, one 

 Naranarayana Ray a, that " smelling was half eating," whereupon he 

 caused some cooked meat to be brought to his presence. The Brahman 

 by his side perceived the smell, and immediately covered his nose with 

 his cloth ; but it was too late, the wily Mahomedan urged that by his 

 own shewing he had " half eaten," and must therefore cease to be of the 

 orthodox creed. He was accordingly outcasted, and his descendants to 

 this day are known as Piralis or Pir Ally Brahmans. Puerile as the 

 story is, it is worthy of note that all the Piralis of Bengal trace their 

 original seat to Jessore, and no Pirali is to be met with in the eastern 

 or the northern districts. One of the ancestors of the present Tagore 

 family of Calcutta first associated with Naranarayana, and he and his 

 descendants have ever since been called Piralis. Such Kayasthas as 

 associated with these degraded and proscribed Brahmans, were sub- 

 jected to the same penalty, and are to this day known by the name of 

 the wicked Pir. Their number, however, is very limited, and they are 

 met with in no other district except in Jessore. 



Three miles to the south-west of this tomb, there is a magnificent 

 mosque, commonly known by the name of Sdtgumbaz, or the mosque 

 of 60 domes. It is an open arcaded structure, formed of massive walls 

 six feet thick, and having on the top 77 small domes supported on 

 sixty pillars. The ground plan is an oblong of 144 feet by 96, 

 divided into seven aisles by six rows of pillars. The foundation and 

 the domes are of brick ; while of the pillars some are of brick, and 

 others of stone. Like all other Mahomeclan mosques in India, the 

 Sdtgumbaz has its front to the east, thereby enabling the faithful to pray 

 with their faces towards the K'aba at Mecca. The number of archways 

 on this side is 11, of which the second and the tenth are closed with 

 masonry, the same arrangement obtains on the opposite wall, the 

 Media's pulpit being placed by the side of the central archway. On the 

 north and the south facades there are 14 arches, 7 on_each side, the 



