I 1 2 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [April, 



gunje, to Mandalg'hat, near the junction of the Rupnarain and 

 the Damudar with the Hugh river, a little above Diamond Har- 

 bour. 



The present district of Hugli therefore consists of portions of 

 the old Sirkars of Sharifabad, Sulaimanabad, and Satganw. The 

 name of Sharifabad is scarcely ever used now-a-days, but reminds 

 us of Sharif i Makkah, the father of Sultan Husain Shah ; and Su- 

 laimanabad was early changed by the people to the shorter form 

 ' Salimabad,' by which name it is still known at the present day. Its 

 principal Parganah, Haw el i i Sulaimanabad, is now merely called 

 Haweli, and commenced a little S. E. of Bardwan, extending south- 

 wards, to both sides of the Damiidar. A small portion of it belongs 

 now to the Hugli district. There is no doubt that the original 

 name ' Sulaimanabad' refers to Sulaiman,* the second last Afghan 

 king of Bengal. 



Sultan 'Alauddin Husain Shah,f whom I mentioned just now, ruled 

 over Bengal from 1498 to 1521 A. D. He is even now-a-days re- 

 membered by the people ; and numerous legends and stories, cur- 

 rent in the villages of Bengal, refer to the times of Husain Shah the 

 Good. Even the geography of the country re-echoes his name. The 

 Parganah of Husainabad in the Gaur District, the Masjid Husain- 

 Shahi in G'horag'hat, Husain Sliahi in Sirkar Bazuha (Mymensing), 

 the parganahs of Husainpur and Husain Ujyal in the Sirkars of Sha- 

 rifabad and Sulaimanabad remind us of his name. In the south of 

 Bardwan especially, and in the north of the present district of Hugli, 

 Husain Shah plays a prominent part in the legends of the pea- 



* Ho died A. H. 980, or A. D. 1572 (Akbarnamah, Badaoni, Tabaqat). The 

 Riazussaldtin, which Prinsep and Thomas follow, has'JSl. 



f In some histories, as the Tabaqat i Ai<bari, and oven in Elphinstone, 

 Husain Shah is called 'Alauddin, or 'Alauddin II. His full name is Sultan 

 'Alauddin Abul Muzaffar Husain Shah, son of Sayyid Ashraf Sharif i Makkah; 

 but when kings have several names, the last name is the real name, and should 

 be used when a historian finds the whole name too long. The author of the 

 Riydz even took some trouble to verify his name by referring to old inscrip- 

 tions in Gaur. Lest a doubt should remain, I may cite the Arabic inscription 

 OH the old mosque of Clieran, near Saran, which Mr. E. Tiery of Chaprah sent 

 me some time ago. The inscription is of interest, as it shews the N. W. bound- 

 ary of the kingdom of Bengal in tho beginning of Husain Shah's reign. 



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