544 Notes upon a Tour through the Rdjmahal Hills. [No. /. 



No. 9. 

 Shah Morad* (New unpublished.) A. H. 1 199 ? 



Obv. Area. "The Kalimah." Margin, &c. 



Rev. Area — kL» — tyVkL.il (sj^yJ jz [ &. 8y *j «>ijx> 



Notes upon a Tour through the Rdjmahal Hills, by Captain Walter 

 S. Sherwill, Revenue Surveyor. 



The extensive and hitherto unexplored tract of hilly country, extend- 

 ing from the banks of the Ganges at Sikrigalli, in Latitude 26° 10' 

 North, and 87° 50' East Longitude, to the boundary of the district of 

 Birabhiim, a "distance of seventy miles, and known as the Rajmahal 

 Hills, forms the most north-easterly shoulder or portion of the Vindhya 

 Mountains ; which range, extending from near the mouths of the 

 Nerbudda and Taptee rivers in Candeish in Longitude 73° 30' and 

 Latitude 21°, and after having travelled eight hundred and fifty miles 

 in an east, north-east direction, or quite across India to Sikrigalli, 

 here turns to the south, passes through the districts of Birabhum, 

 Bardwan, Midnapur and Cuttack and eventually merges into the Ghats 

 or Mountains running parallel to the Coromandel Coast. 



Although every European proceeding up the Ganges passes imme- 

 diately under these hills, and although they are only two miles removed 

 from the banks of the river, the hills and their contained valleys are 

 not only unexplored, but it is not even generally known that the hills 

 are inhabited ; the general received opinion being that the Rajmahal 

 Hills are an uninhabited jungle ; that such is not the case I hope to 

 show, having penetrated into almost every valley and climbed all the 

 principal hills, during the progress of the survey under my charge. 



The Hills are inhabited by two distinct races, the Mountaineers or a 

 race living on the summits of the hills and who are, with rare excep- 

 tions, never found residing in the valleys ; and the Sonthals who re- 

 side in the valleys. Both these races have distinct languages, neither 

 * Shah Morad was the father of Seyd Emir Haidar, see p. 443, Fraehn. 



