1876.] H. Beveridge— Were the Sundarbans inhabited in ancient times ? 71 



^ The arts pertaining to weapons and munitions of war spread now over 

 a wide field. In the line on which they were started by the introduction of 

 gunpowder they have made great advances in the hands of different nations 

 of Europe. With no essential change, of the kind which took place when 

 gunpowder artillery came into use, the minute improvements in execution, 

 and careful attention to accuracy, in modern times, and particularly in the 

 present century, have made changes nearly as important. Great as the 

 difference between the old and the new war engines, in the days when they 

 worked together, as great probably are the differences of another kind be- 

 tween Babar's firingi field-pieces at Panipat and the Armstrongs of the 

 present day. 



Were the Sundarbans inhabited in ancient times ?—By H. Beveeidge 



B. C. S. 



This is a question which has excited a great deal of attention. The 

 Bengali mind as being prone to the marvellous and to the exaltation of the 

 past at the expense of the present, has answered the question in the affirma- 

 tive and maintained the view that there were formerly large cities in the 

 Sundarbans. Some Bengalis also have suggested that the present desolate 

 condition of the Sundarbans is due to subsidence of the last, and that this 

 may have been contemporaneous with the formation of the submarine hol- 

 low known as the " Swatch of no ground". It seems to me, however, to be 

 very doubtful indeed that the Sundarbans were ever largely peopled, and 

 still more so that their inhabitants lived in cities or were otherwise civiliz- 

 ed. As regards the eastern half of the Sundarbans, namely, that which lies 

 in the districts of Bakirganj and Noakhali and includes Sondip and the 

 other islands in the estuary of the Megna, it seems to me that the fact of 

 so much salt having been manufactured there in old times militates against 

 the view of extensive cultivation ; for the salt could not have been made 

 without a great expenditure of fuel, which of course implies the existence 

 of large tracts of jungle. Du Jarric speaks of Sondip as being able to 

 supply the whole of Bengal with salt, and it seems evident that in old times 

 salt was reckoned as the most valuable production of this part of the coun- 

 trv. How inimical this must have been to a widespread cultivation of the 

 neighbouring tracts may be judged of from the fact that in modern times 

 the salt manufacture by Government was a great obstacle to the clearing 

 and colonization of the churs and islands, as the Government officers insis- 

 ted on the jungles being maintained for salt -manufacture. The zamindars 

 also of Dakhin Shahbazpur obtained, as I have elsewhere stated, a large 

 reduction of their land revenue on account of part of their lands being 

 taken up for the use of the salt works. 



