184 C. J. O'Donnell — Note on MaMsthdn, Bagura. [No. 2, 



called ' Barind'. The locality of the greatest fame within it is Mahasthan, 

 and the river of the greatest sanctity, the Karatoya. At the same time 

 there are evident traces, as I shall afterwards mention, that a considerable 

 city existed near Mahasthan, whilst tradition is even stronger on the 

 point. At that time who were its rulers, it is impossible to say. All round 

 it, however, there are shrines, holy wells and embankments connected with 

 the name of Bhima, one of the Pandava brothers. The legend runs that at 

 the end of their great contest with the Kauravas, they went into the forests 

 of Kamrup to perform the penitential ceremony, called bcmabds, for a year, 

 at the end of which time Bhima settled in the country of the King Virata, 

 who ruled in Matsya Desha, or the Land of the Fish, which included much 

 of the present Bogra District, and was so called from the fact that Virata 

 was said to be the offspring of his mother's amour with a fish. Bhima is 

 said to have made a large fortified town south of Mahasthan, which is 

 marked by great earthworks altogether about eight miles long, and still in 

 places as much as twenty feet high. The whole country between them 

 and Mahasthan is in places covered with old bricks. Inside the earthworks 

 the bricks are fewer, but outside and east from Mahasthan they are very 

 numerous. I am led to think that the enclosure was, like the ring forts of 

 Italy, a place of temporary refugenot only for the people of the neighbouring 

 town, but of the country round in times of danger. On one side it was 

 protected by the great river Karatoya, and on the other by a deep and 

 wide ditch for some four miles long, which still exists and is used for boat- 

 traffic in the rains. These earthworks are called by the people Bliima- 

 jangal. After Bhima a dynasty of Asuras is said to have reigned in 

 the surrounding country, and to have made the shrine at Mahasthan one 

 of its most holy places. In Brahmani literature the word ' Asura' is used 

 very much as we use pagan, and was certainly applied to the Buddhists. 

 Dr. Buchanan explains it as meaning ' a worshipper of S'iva' as opposed to a 

 worshipper of Krishna. The other explanation is now preferred, particularly 

 as it is known that the earlier Pala Rajas, many of the remains of whose times 

 are found in this district, were Buddhists. The history of this cbynasty 

 belongs properly to Dinajpur, but it may be mentioned in connection with 

 Mahasthan that there is a legend that on a certain occasion twelve persons 

 of very high distinction and mostly named Pala, came from the west, to 

 perform a religious ceremony in the Karatoya river, but arriving too 

 late, settled down on its banks till the next occurrence of the holy season, 

 the Narayani, which depends on certain conjunctions of the planets, and 

 was then twelve years distant. They are said to have built numerous 

 palaces and temples, dug tanks, and performed other pious acts. They are 

 said to have been of the Bhuinhar or Bhaman zamindar tribe, which is, 

 at the present day, represented by the Rajas of Banaras and Bhettia. 



