1868.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 271 



present day. Their condition was a little better than that of 

 slaves. In a copper plate inscription found in lot No. 55 of Mr. 

 Hodge's Map, near Backergunj, Madhava Sena, evidently a brother to 

 Kesava Sena of the Senarajas of Bengal, made a grant of some villages, 

 Bagule (Bogla, according Persian writers) &c, to a Brahman. With 

 the villages, the king conferred on the recipient the right of punishing 

 and employing the Chandabhanda, a tribe that inhabited the place. 

 This tribe, I believe, gave the name to the uncultivated portion of the 

 Delta, which they then occupied. 



It is generally supposed that Portuguese piracy and Mug incursions 

 in the 16th century devastated the whole country. Bernier (1655) 

 speaking of Portuguese oppression, says — " They made women slaves, 

 great and small, with strange cruelty, and burnt all they could not 

 carry away. And hence it is that there are seen in the mouths of the 

 Granges so many fine cities quite deserted." 



The remains of these fine cities are found in lots Nos. 116, 211, 165, 

 and 146. Mr. Swinhoe has published a figure of the ruins lately dis- 

 covered in lot 116. The temple is of the Buddhist type of architecture. 

 In lot No. 146, there are brick ruins with terracotta ornaments. Most 

 of the remains are on the banks of the Cobartak. Colonel G-astrell, in 

 his " Geographical and Statistical Report of the Districts of Jessore 

 Furreedpore and Backergunge," speaking of old ruins, states — "But 

 all inquiry failed ; nothing could be found save the ruins already 

 mentioned on the banks of the Cobartak river. The mud-forts entered 

 on Bunnell's Map on the banks of the Babanabad or G-oolaceepa river 

 do not exist now-a-days." 



To the oppression of the Portuguese pirates we must not wholly 

 attribute the desolation of the Sundarban. It may only be true regarding 

 the eastern portion. We know from history that several partial deluges 

 occurred in Bengal. Two are recorded in Siyar-ul-Mutakhkharin in 

 connection with Sirkar Hogla. The first and more furious of the two, 

 happened in the 29th year of the reign of Akbur (1585). Two hundred 

 thousand of the inhabitants are said to have been drowned. Another 

 is said to have occurred in the reign of Muhammad Shah (1737). 



Such occasional deluges, accompanied by cyclones, by breaking 

 up the embankments, may have destroyed some parts of Lower 

 Bengal ; the incursions of the Mugs may have done the same for 



