1850.] or Chronicles of Tripurd. 551 



peaceable, sent troops to plunder the country, but they were repulsed. 

 The Raja one day absorbed in meditation, while walking on the banks 

 of the river Gumti and drinking the w T ater in which the image of 

 Vishnu had been washed, fell into the river and was drowned. 



Jashadhara Manik succeeded him, A.. D. 1591. Haseyn Shah king 

 of the Mugs, continued at war with him for twenty-one years, and the 

 Muhammadans by the direction of Jehangir, who wanted horses and 

 elephants, invaded Tripura ; the Moguls proved victorious headed by 

 the Nawab Fatteh Jang, the capital was taken and the Raja was sent a 

 prisoner to Delhi : he was allowed to go on pilgrimage to Benares, 

 Allahabad, Mathra, Brindaban, and was offered his throne again on 

 condition of paying tribute in horses and elephants, but he declined, 

 saying, his country was too much impoverished by the devastations of 

 the soldiers to allow of being taxed. He died at Brindaban of fever in 

 the seventy-second year of his age " while meditating on the excellency 

 of Vishnu/' his body was burnt with costly perfumes. 



In the meanwhile the Mogul troops were guilty of great atrocities 

 in Tripura, plundering the temples and robbing the inhabitants, they 

 even drained the tanks in search of treasure ; they continued this 

 course for two years and a half, until a dreadful plague caused them 

 to leave the country.* Kalyan Manik was raised by the nobles to the 

 throne, in the year 1625 ; he coined mohurs in Siva's name and his 

 own, he made a tour of his dominions distributing money and land to 

 the Brahmans whom he held in such reverence that he made them eat 

 before him, he was also kind to the poor and equitable to his subjects. 

 The emperor of Delhi finding he refused to pay tribute directed the 

 Nawab of Murshidabad to send an army against Tripura, the troops 

 carried with them a famous cannon made of leather, but they were 



* It is owing to similar conduct of the Musalmans as well as the effects of climate 

 that we have so few remains of antiquity in Bengal. No regard was paid to any- 

 thing Hindu. In Gaur which is said to have been the capital of Bengal 750 B. C. 

 almost every Hindu monument has disappeared long since, having been either de- 

 stroyed or used for Muhammadan purposes. The policy of the Muhammadans in 

 Bengal was like that of Edward the Third towards the Scotch, — the destruction of 

 every remnant of a people's nationality and ancient memorials ; the Muhammadans 

 made an effort, but a vain one, to extirpate the Bengali language by making the Per- 

 sian the only one recognised by Government and discountenancing every effort to 

 create a Bengali literature. 



4 b 2 



