1875.] C. J. O'Donnell— Note on Maliasthdn, Bagura. 183 



ever ready to wage war against each other or to oppose the invasion of 

 Portuguese pirates and Mag freebooters. 



JYote on Mahasthan near Bagura (Bogrct), Eastern Bengal. — By C. J. 



O'Dojstneli,, C. S. 



Mahasthan Garh is the name of a place famous in the earliest 

 Hindu traditions of this part of India, and also of interest in later times 

 as a Muhammadan shrine of great sanctity. It is situated seven miles 

 north of the Civil Station of Bogra, in 24° 57' north latitude and 89° 25' 

 east longitude, and consists of a great mound of earth intermixed with old 

 bricks. This is the Hindu Mahasthan, which, literally translated, means 

 the "great place." Branching out from it north and west are two great 

 ramparts, which are continued round to form a quadrangular enclosure, the 

 later Musalman Fort or Garh. Dr. Buchanan, in his account of the 

 Dinajpur District, says, "the tradition belonging to this District, which is 

 referred to the earliest period by the Hindus, is that it was under the 

 government of Paras'urama, a very powerful monarch who had subject to 

 him twenty-two princes, and who lived at Mahasthan Garh in Bajshahi. 

 The Brahman s, whom I have consulted, consider this personage as the same 

 with the sixth incarnation of the god Vishnu, who appeared an immense 

 number of years ago, and on this account I have placed this tradition first ; 

 but the common belief of the countiy is that Paras'urama of Mahasthan 

 was destroyed by a Muhammadan saint named Shah Sultan Hazrat Auliya. 

 This does not appear remarkable to the Brahmans, as they consider that 

 Paras'urama is still on earth and that he now resides in the western parts 

 of India." They make no remark on the contradiction necessary in referring 

 at once to the earliest Hindu tradition and the Musalman conquest of 

 Eastern Bengal. The only other source from which I have been able to 

 obtain any information about Mahasthan is a selection of popular legends 

 called ' Laghu Bharata,' put together by a Deputy Collector of this District 

 in very high-flown Sanskrit, together with some theories of his own. The 

 value of the work may be judged from one of the latter, in which he 

 seeks to prove that, after the Pandava war, Sisunag, of the family of the 

 kings of Magadha, was an independent sovereign of Mecca in Arabia. With 

 regard to Mahasthan he seems more correct. He identifies it with 

 Barendra, the capital of the country of the Barendra Hindus. In favour of 

 this view the only arguments are strong, though simple. The whole country 

 between the Ganges, the Mahananda, Kamrup, and the Karatoj'a, was 

 undoubtedly the old Barendra Desha. To the present day, much of it is 



