186 C. J. O'Donnell — Note on Malta silt an, Bagura. 



scales. On her head there are also, what seem to be, large scales instead of 

 hair. She is half reclining on her left side, but on what no one can say, 

 as it is much defaced and partly broken or perhaps only chipped. On her 

 right shoulder is a large right hand clenched, placed back downwards with 

 the fingers turned up. At first, this seems part of a larger figure from 

 which it was broken, but I found on a piece of limestone which seemed to 

 have been at one time the threshold of a temple, a relief, much worn, 

 which was precisely the same as the larger one. The relief was three to four 

 inches long and the other about two feet square. I cannot pretend to explain 

 these forms, but it is quite possible that they are connected with the old 

 Hindu times, and may be some reference in stone to the allegory to the name 

 of the land of the fish applied to this country. 



All the Muhammadan buildings, some of which by appearance 

 and repute are modern, are entirely made of brick, except where stones, 

 evidently taken from some older building, are used. I noticed a few small 

 blocks of granite lying about. At present, the shrine is approached from 

 the Rangpur road on the west by a steep flight of stairs. These are 

 evidently of comparatively modern erection, the former approach being 

 from the north by a winding path, like those seen on Buddhist topes, which, 

 after passing nearly once round the mound leads to a spot midway between 

 the tomb of Shah Sultan and a small mosque built some two hundred 

 years ago, and where a large linga, some three feet and a half wide, still 

 lies half buried in the ground. The door entering into the tomb is sup- 

 ported on two uprights of stone, on each of which a word or two in De- 

 vanagari is still to be seen, though they are in parts so worn as to be unin- 

 telligible. I was told by one of the fakirs who live on the mound that 

 about twenty years ago an English gentleman carried away to Rangpur a 

 large square block of stone, on all four sides of which there were inscriptions — 

 he could not say in what character — and figures like the woman-fish above 

 mentioned. This shrine is supported by the largest pirpal holding in the 

 district, measuring as it does some 650 acres. It was granted by a sanad 

 given by an Emperor of Dihli. This has been lost, but it is known that the 

 grant was recognized and confirmed in the year 1076, Hijrah, A. D. 1066, by 

 afarmdn of the governor of Dhaka. In 1S36, proceedings were instituted by 

 Government for resumption of this tenure, but they were abandoned in 1S11 

 on proof of the great age of the grant. There are besides other sources of 

 revenue. A fair is held at Mahasthan about the middle of April, the 

 profits of which (about £60) are made over to the shrine. The mutawallis 

 of the dargah are of the family of the Chaudhari zamindars of Bihar and 

 Paikar. 



