114 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [April, 



Damudar, where Muhammad an zealots broke the Maya Chandi Idol, 

 and where Husain Shah built a tomb for Maulana Sirajuddin. North 

 of Hugli again, lies the sacred Tribeni, with the shrine of Zafar Khan 

 i Ghazi, the * friend' of Shah f afi, the saint of Panduah, and the 

 Ghat of the last king of Orissa. Near Mangra (Mugra), on the E. I. 

 Railway, the station before Panduah, an old road {sarah) is still 

 pointed out* as the frontier of the Kingdom of the Gajpatis of Orissa. 

 Close to it lie eleven huts, called the village of Satganw, which 

 was the capital of Lower Bengal from the times of 'Izzuddin, its 

 first governor, in A. D. 1206, to 1567, when Daud's mother threw 

 herself there at the feet of Khan Jahan, Akbar's Lieutenant, who, a 

 few weeks before, had defeated and killed her son, the last King of 

 Bengal. There is Hugli itself, with its little Ban Jlas/id, or Forest 

 Mosque, where Hindus and Muhammadans, as elsewhere, offer up 

 small clay figures of horses, and get cured of diseases ; whilst the 

 ground on which the Mosque stands, pays rent to the Eoman Catho- 

 lic Church at Bandel, the first church built in Bengal (1599). Here 

 are also numerous battle-fields, still pointed out by the peasants. 

 The Akbarnamah, which contains so much regarding Bengal, though 

 the passages remain to be translated, mentions at least six battles 

 fought by Akbar's generals in the Hugli district. 



The whole district, in fact, is full of places of historical interest. 

 Numerous also are the legends which have gathered round them, 

 and I have often been surprised to hear villagers tell stories which, 

 when carefully examined, are found to throw a faint, though in 

 many cases unexpected light on the history of the empire of Dihli, 

 or of the kingdoms of Bengal and Orissa, or even on periods for 

 which we possess no historical records. It is time that something 

 should be done towards the collection of these stories, which are 

 the true Annals of Rural Bengal. It is almost useless to say any- 

 thing regarding the great value, especially in India, of legendary 

 information. " Whether the stories," says Mr. C. A. Elliott, in his 

 excellent work, entitled ' The Chronicles of Onao,' " are true 

 " or false, they are believed by the people ; they influence their 

 "actions, and form topics of conversation ; they give the clue to 

 " many a past and present quarrel, and without a knowledge of 



* Rev. Mr. Lon^. 



