504 The Mausoleum of the Nuwabs Ali-Verdi Khan, fyc. [No. 6. 



The Mausoleum, of the Nuwabs Ali-Verdi Khan and Sooraj ood-Dow- 

 lah y at Khooshbagh) near Moorshedabad. By Capt. F. P. Layard, 

 \9th Regiment Bengal Native Infantry. 



On the right bank of the river Bhaguruttee, at a distance of about 

 two miles below the city of Moorshedabad, surrounded by a low 

 brick wall, and embedded in fine old trees and garden shrubs, stands 

 the mausoleum of two men famous in the annals of the history of 

 Bengal ; one as much for his virtues and soldier-like qualities, as the 

 other for his vices and the meanness of his nature. 



These men were the Nuwab Ali-Verdi Khan Mohabut Jung, and 

 his grand-nephew, Mirza Mahmud, who, on succeeding to the musnud 

 of Bengal, assumed the title of Chiragee-ood-Dowlah,* or, as he is 

 more generally called by Europeans, Sooraj-ood-Dowlah. 



The enclosure called Khooshbagh, containing the mausoleum with 

 other buildings and out-offices attached, cover a space of nearly nine- 

 teen beegahs of land. From a statement made by the grand-daughter 

 of Lootf-oon-Nissa Begum, the wife of Sooraj-ood-Dowlah, to Mr. 

 J. E. Harrington, the Collector of Moorshedabad in January, 1791, 

 it appears that an assignment of Sicca Rupees 305 per month was 

 originally fixed by the Nuwab Ali-Verdi Khan on the collections of 

 Bundardeh and Nawabgunge, in the Khas Talooks near Moorsheda- 

 bad for the care and attendant expenses of the burial ground. 



It would thus appear, that Khooshbagh was used as a cemetery pre- 

 viously to the death of Ali Verdi Khan, and its first establishment 

 may no doubt be fixed, from the time of the decease of the good 

 Nuwab's mother, who lies buried within a small elevated enclosed 

 platform, in the centre of the outer quadrangle or garden, (vide Plan 

 No. 1). This quadrangle may probably have constituted the entire 

 space originally occupied by the cemetery, the grounds having been 

 subsequently increased by Sooraj-ood-Dowlah on the death of his 

 grand-uncle in 1756. 



The grounds attached to the mausoleum, now consist of three 

 separate enclosures, surrounded by walls varying in height from six to 

 * Orme, Vol. II., page 48. 



