1853.] Ancient City of Kansonapuri. 281 



The ancient City of Kansonapuri now called Eungamutty. — By 

 Capt. F. P. Lataed. 



Twelve miles South of Moorshedabad, on the right bank of the 

 river Bhaghirutti, rise the high red* cliffs of Rungamutty, on which 

 at present stands an extensive village peopled by many busy families 

 employed in the neighbouring silk Filatures. 



About six or seven years ago the river, in its ever changing course, 

 commenced impinging on the Eungamutty cliff, which at length 

 became undermined and fell in large masses, exposing many ancient 

 foundations of walls, deep wells long filled up with the earth of ages, 

 and, as usual in exhumed eastern cities, innumerable fragments of 

 pottery. These remains, together with the traces of numerous old 

 tanks and mounds, scattered over the low plain, lying between the 

 high ground of Eungamutty and the village of Growkurn, about four 

 miles distant, had long impressed me with the idea that some old 

 forgotten city had once occupied this spot. 



My suppositions were confirmed on perusing Major "Wilford's 

 able Essay on the Gangetic Provinces, contained in the IX. vol. of 

 the Eesearches of the Bengal Asiatic Society. He there states, 

 according to information furnished by Lieut. Hoare, that by tradi- 

 tion, the king of Lanca, (representing either Ceylon or Java) invaded 

 the country of Bengal with a powerful fleet, and sailed up the Grangesf 

 as far as Eungamutty, then called Cosumapuri, a considerable place 

 where the Maharaja of Bengal often resided, and that the invaders 

 plundered the country and destroyed the city. 



If my informants are correct, Lieut. Hoare must have given the 

 name under a misapprehension of sound, as I was careful to have 

 the name written before me in the native character, which distinctly 

 read Kansonapuri or Kurn-sona-ka-ghur, the city of the golden ear. 

 The tradition relating to the visit of the king of Lanca was also 

 given to me, but with a different version. 



The city of Kansonapuri is said to have been built many hundreds 



* Composed according to Capt. Sherwill of red and yellow ferruginous tough 

 clay, embedding nodules of pisiform iron ore and black mica (decomposing). 



f Evident traces exist of the Bhaghirutti having, at this spot, been formerly the 

 main bed of the Ganges, before it changed its course towards Bauleah and 

 Pubna. 



