18 Asutosli Gupta. — Jiuiiis and Antiquities of Rampal. [No. 1, 



There is the following legend about the death of the faqir and the 

 fate of Ballal Sen. There lived a Muhanimadan family in Kanai Chang, 

 a village south of 'Abdull&hpur and not far from Rampal. The master 

 of the house had no children. One day a faqir came and begged alms 

 of him, but he refused alms, saying, " I will give no alms, when Allah 

 has not given me the boon (child) for which I am praying so long." The 

 faqir predicted that he would beget a child and asked him to sacrifice a 

 bull to the altar of Allah when his desire was fulfilled. He then went 

 away without any alms. In course of time the man had a son born to 

 him, but the Hindus would not allow him to sacrifice a bull. He there- 

 fore repaired to the lonely jungle, south of Kanai Chang, and secretly 

 sacrificed a bull. Taking as much meat of the bull as he and the 

 members of his family would be able to consume, he buried the re- 

 mainder under the ground and returned home. A kite, however, snatch- 

 ed a morsel of the flesh from him, and another kite trying to snatch it 

 the morsel fell down in front of Raja Ballal Sen's palace. On enquiry 

 the king learned the whole story and ordered the child, to comme- 

 morate whose birth the bull was sacrificed, to be brought before him 

 and killed the next day. The Muhammadan learned the king's decree 

 and at night escaped with his wife and child and as much property 

 as he could carry. He fled to Arabia and, meeting Hazrat Adam, a 

 faqir, at Mecca, told him all that had happened. Learning that there was 

 a country iu which there was no religious toleration, and people were 

 not at liberty to practise their own religious rites, Hazrat Adam came 

 to Rampal with six or seven thousand followers. Ba-A'dam is only 

 another name for Hazrat Adam. He began to sacrifice bulls and cows 

 on the spot where the mosque dedicated to him now stands. Raja 

 Ballal Sen sent his ultimatum, asking him either to leave the country 

 or fight with him. The faqir chose the latter alternative, and a protracted 

 warfare took place between his followers and the king's army. The 

 battles were indecisive for many days, and the loss of men on both sides 

 was heavy. At last the faqir's followers were reduced to only one 

 hundred men. One day Raja Ballal Sen's men, while going to the mar- 

 ket, saw the faqir alone reading Narnaj (saying his prayers). The king 

 marched to kill the faqir at this juncture, but as he was dillidont of 

 success, he constructed, before leaving his palace, a large agnikunda or 

 funeral pyre (literally ' a pit of fire '), which still exists in the form of a 

 large pit, and asked the women of his household to kill themselves by 

 throwing themselves into the fire, if he was vanquished and killed. He 

 bah, two miles from Kampal. It is described in page 76 of Blochmann's Contributions 

 to the Geography and History of Bengal, (Jonr. A. S. B., vol. XLI1, p. 284.) 

 [See the note at the end of this article. Ed.] 



