10 History of Cooch Behdr, [Jan. 



immediately with what booty they could procure. This, however, seems 

 improbable, and I shall have occasion to show, that within the walls of 

 Komota there are probable traces of the Moslems having begun very 

 considerable works, which have been broken off unfinished ; it is there- 

 fore probable that Nilambor was destroyed by Hoseyn Shah in person, 

 and he begun to reign about forty years before the usurpation of Sher 

 Shah, or about the year 1496 of our era. The conquests therefore of 

 Ismael G'azi must be confined to the vicinity of Ghoraghat, and per- 

 haps he did no more than retain these small portions of the conquests 

 made by the sultan Hoseyn, where he founded the city named after 

 Nasrat, the successor of that prince. 



The overthrow of Nilambor is looked upon by the natives as a most 

 unfortunate event. In the Yogini Tontro, it is told, that in the time of 

 Norok, a most holy person, Vosishtho Moni went to the temple of 

 Kamakhya and was refused admittance by the infidel guardian. As such 

 persons conscious of their worth are sometimes apt to be a great deal too 

 irascible, Vosishtho prayed that the temple might be deprived of all 

 dignity, which accordingly would have immediately happened, had not the 

 goddess of love (Kamakhya) made a complaint to Siva, who although 

 he could not entirely prevent the effects of the holy man's imprecation 

 (sang ponj ; yet postponed the completion until the destruction of 

 Komotapur, and he ordered, that this degradation should continue only 

 until the restoration of the Komoteswar, who, as I have said, is supposed 

 to be still alive, and his return is anxiously and eagerly expected by the 

 people of Kamrup, as some of the events which are prophecied to pre- 

 cede the restoration, have already come to pass. On that happy occasion 

 the goddess of delight will be restored to full glory, and the four nations 

 of usurpers who now share Kamrup, will be extirpated by mutual 

 slaughter. These nations are the Ploo ! or Bhoteas ; the Saumar or 

 Assamese ; the Kuvach or Koch, who govern Vihar ; and the Yovew or 

 barbarians of the west, who, according to the authority of the Yogini 

 Tontro, are descendants of Haihoyo and Talojonggho, two Khoyotri- 

 yos, who on account of cowardice were degraded and prohibited from 

 eating pure food, and from following the doctrine of the Vedas. 



Two brothers named Chondon and Modon, after the overthrow of 

 Nilambor, established a short government of eight years at a place 

 called Norolovas, which now is under the government of the Deb raja, 

 and is about thirty miles north from Komotapur. This power was not 

 only transient, but seems to have extended to no great distance, and the 

 parts of Kamrup that were not retained by the Moslems, seem to have 

 fallen again into anarchy under the chiefs of the rude tribes, which I 



