1838.] History of Cooch Behdr. 3 



at Runggopur, from whence its name, signifying the abode of pleasure., 

 is derived. No traces of any buildings by Bhoggodatto or his family 

 remain in this district, nor is it probable that any remain in Assam, as 

 the princes of the eastern parts of Kamrup continue even to this day, 

 to dwell in huts ; nor is there any reason to suppose, that his accommo- 

 dation was superior ; while his power, and probably the thickness of his 

 forest, rendered fortifications towards the west unnecessary. 



In the great war Bhoggodatto fell by the hands of Orjun, brother 

 of Yudhishther, but according to the Ayeen Akhery twenty-three 

 princes of the same family continued to govern after his death. The 

 authority of this work is, however, diminished by its supposing that these 

 princes governed the whole of Bengal, which seems entirely without 

 foundation. It is, however, very likely, and is said indeed to be mentioned 

 in the Purans, that for some time the descendants of Bhoggodatto 

 retained the government of Kamrup. I cannot indeed adopt the chrono- 

 logy, which places Yudhishther about 3200 years before the birth of 

 Christ ; on the contrary I am persuaded that this prince lived consider- 

 ably after the time of Alexander, for in every part of India there 

 remain traces of the family of Yudhishther, or of the princes who 

 were his contemporaries, of many dynasties that have governed since his 

 time, but all these later dynasties, so far as I have learned, may be 

 ascertained to be of a comparatively late period ; and making every pos- 

 sible allowance for the reigns of the families of Yudhishther and of 

 the dynasties that have succeeded, we shall not be able to place the 

 former much beyond the time of Augustus. I am happy to acknowledge 

 that I have derived this manner of reasoning on the subjects from a con- 

 versation with my worthy friend Major Mackenzie of Madras, who 

 has formed more accurate notions on Indian History than any person 

 whose opinions I know, — notions founded on a careful investigation of the 

 remains of antiquity, and not on the fictions of Indian poets, who in the 

 extravagance of invention exceed even the fertile genius of Greece. 



In the part of the Yogini Tontro which I have procured, and which 

 is considered as the highest authority concerning every thing to Kam- 

 rup, the pandit of the mission says that there is no mention of Bhoggo- 

 datto, but that the god Sib prophecies that after the infidel Norok, 

 and at the commencement of the era of Saka, that is about the end of 

 the 1st century of our era, there would be Sudro kings of Kamrup. 

 The first raja mentioned is Dwyeswor, in whose time the worship of 

 Kameswori or Kamakhya, the knowledge of which had hitherto been 

 confined to the learned, would be published even to the vulgar, and this 

 would happen at the very beginning of the era of Saka, or in the year of 

 b 2 



