1835.] Ruins at Chdrdwdr in Assam. 191 



Ra'machandra was, according 1 to the volume I consulted, the twenty- 

 fourth sovereign of a kingdom which embraced part of ancient 

 Kamrup, and made the eleventh of a third dynasty of its kings. 

 Shuba'hu the thirteenth sovereign, and ninth and last of the second 

 dynasty, was vanquished by Vikrama'ditya, and was succeeded by 

 JiiARi, a pious Chhatrf from Dabera in the Dakhan, who overcame 

 Kamrup, and on ascending the throne, assumed the title of Dhar- 

 ma-pa'l,. He was the progenitor of Ra'machandra, who began to reign 

 A. S. 1160, (A. D. 1238-9.) and is the first prince the date of whose 

 accession is commemorated in the volume. Ra'machandra is stated to 

 have wedded with a daughter of the Kiat Raja, who ruled a coun- 

 try on the south bank of the Brahmaputra, and whose subjects followed 

 the occupation of fishermen ; some remains of his capital are to be 

 seen, it is affirmed, on the Bakani Chapri, an extensive island 

 supposed to have been separated from the main land, or thrown up 

 by the river. The princess, his daughter, was known among the peo- 

 ple by the name of the Kamala Kunri', but in books she is styled 

 Chandra Prabha. She was walking one day during her husband's 

 absence on the bank of the Brahmaputra when the god, becoming 

 enamoured of her extraordinary beauty, fell a prey to sensual desires, 

 and effected his purpose by embracing the princess with his waves ; 

 but another account attributes her impregnation with greater show 

 of probability to a young brahman of the prince's household, and 

 declares the amour with the river god was a fabrication of the lady to 

 conceal the lapse of which she was guilty from her parent. Passing 

 over that part of the narrative which details the discovery of her 

 inconstancy, and the means to which Ra'machandra had recourse to 

 put a termination to her existence, all of which failed of success, we 

 come to the period when the princess, who had taken refuge at her 

 father's court, gave birth to a son who was called from his beauty 

 Shashank ; his head bore the impress of an ari-nsh, which marked his 

 parentage, and hence he acquired the surname A'rimastha, or A'ri- 

 math, i. e. having the head of an ari-fish. He passed his early 

 years with the father of his mother, and subsequently removed to the 

 north bank of the Brahmaputra, where he acquired territory ; he 

 made war upon Raja Phenua of Phenuagarh, in Kamrup, where 

 the remains of a small fort are still to be seen, and reduced that 

 prince to subjection ; and afterwards constructed a fort called Bad- 

 yagarh at Hathimora, in Kachan mahal, which is still in exist- 

 ence, and made it his residence. In the course of his wars A'rimath 

 extended his conquests to the kingdom of Ra'machandra, of whose re- 

 lationship to himself he was ignorant ; he laid siege to Pratappur, 



