1870.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society . 113 



santry. In Mayapur, which, lies west of Chinsurah, in the Parganah 

 of Bairah about 7 miles from the right bank of the Damudar, a 

 Masjid and a tank still exist which were completed by Husain Shah; 

 and about 12 miles N. E. of Mayapur, there is a village Shah 

 Husainptir, which was called so to perpetuate his memory. 



The above mentioned five Sirkars, which formed Western Bengal, 

 present many points of interest for the historian. Of their local 

 history we know, at present, next to nothing. Little, too little, has 

 hitherto been collected, though the field is fair, yielding, like every 

 other branch of enquiry into the p ast ages of this country, a rich 

 and immediate harvest. A mere glance even at our Trigonometri- 

 cal maps calls to our minds the names of Bengal kings and gran- 

 dees, and of Muhammadan warrior-saints who fell for the cause of the 

 Prophet. Let us only take the district of Hi'igli. There is Mahanat'h 

 and Panduah, on the E. I. Railway, where the Pan dub Rajah suc- 

 cumbed to a nephew of Jalaluddin Firuz Shah, emperor of Dihli ; and 

 opposite to it, Niratallah Gr'hatal ( JUL$£), west of Calcutta, the seat of 

 the Rajahs of Bardah, who were continually at war with the Rajahs 

 of Bardwan. Near to it, we have Ohandarkona, the most westerly 

 point of the Htigli district, where up-country Rajputs of the Chau- 

 han clan founded a colony.* In the North Western part of the dis- 

 trict, in the Parganah of Jahanabad, we have Madaran, once the 

 capital of a Sirkar, but now so decayed, that it is not to be found in 

 Rennel, nor on our Trigonometrical maps, whilst its site was even a 

 mystery to Stewart, the historian of Bengal. Close to Madaran, 

 again, we have Grog'hat, an old seat of powerful Brahmins, and fur- 

 ther eastwards, Mayapur, about 7 miles from the right bank of the 



4 Thus says the Prophet (may God's blessing rest upon him !) : He who 

 builds a mosque for God, shall have a house like it built for him by God in 

 Paradise.' 



' This is the Jami' Masjid (erected) by the great and benevolent Sultan 

 'Alauddunya wa-ldin Abul-Muzaffar Husain Shah, the king, son of Sayyid 

 Ashraf, a descendant of Husain. May God perpetuate his reign ! A. H. 909. 

 (= A. D. 1503-4). 



* Mr. Beames edition of Elliot's Glossary I, p. 67, note. Bir Bhan, zamfn- 

 dar of Chandarkona, held under Shahjahan a command of Five Hundred. Pa- 

 dishdhndmah I, b, p. 322. 



