1870.] Proceedings of tlie Asiatic Society. 117 



mine. The diamonds that were found there were small. Grant, 

 in his masterly essay on Bengal finances, says that Madaran 

 ceased to exist as Sirkar after the settlement of Ja'far 'Ali 

 Murshid Quli Khan ; but he says nothing regarding the geo- 

 graphical position of the town of Madaran. From a hint in the 

 Akbarnamah, I was led to believe that Madaran must lie in Jahana- 

 bad ; but the Trigonometrical maps gave again no such name. I had, 

 indeed, given up all hopes of discovering the site of the place, when 

 I accidently met with Munshi Mubinuddin Ahmad, a native of 

 Madaran. I read out to him the names of several villages in the 

 Parganah of Jahanabad as given in the Trig. Map of the Hugli 

 District, and on coming to the name of Bhitargarh, he said, 

 1 This is Madaran.' 



Bhitargarh lies due west of Chichirah (Chinsurah*), in the Par- 

 ganah of Jahanabad (which forms the N. E. corner of the Hugli 

 District) about seven miles west of the town of Jahanabad on the 

 Darkissar river, and about half a mile east of the road which leads 

 from Bardwan, over Kirpai in Chanderkona, to Mednipiir. The 

 Munshi told me the following story which he had heard from his 

 father, and which, he assures me, is generally known round 

 about Bhitargarh. I shall entitle it 



The headless Rider of Madaran. 



In days of old, Isma'il Grhazi, a general (sipahsdldr) of Husain 

 Shah of Gaur, was sent to fight the infidels of Orisa. On account 

 of his military successes, he had received the title of Ganj i Zashkar, 

 or ' treasure of the army.' After gaining a signal victory, Isma'il 

 returned from Katak to Bengal, and halted at a small place called 

 Madaran, S. W. of Bardwan. He was pleased with the surrounding 

 country, and stayed there for some time. One night, while saying 

 his prayers in the open air, he was disturbed by a noise above his 

 head. He looked up, and saw a long line of Devs passing east- 



* A corruption of j/^*- In many MSS. of the Akbarnamah, and also in the 

 best MS. I have seen (a copy belonging; to the Government of India, Delhi 

 MSS.), we find Jahdnd-dbdd for Jahdndbdd. As the name occurs in the Akbar- 

 namah, it has, of course, no reference to Shahjahan. It does not occur iu the 

 List of the Parganah s of Bengal given in the Am ; it displaced the name of 

 HaweU i Maddran, when the Sirkar of Madaran was swept away by Ja'far 'Ali. 



