1893.] 
281 
E. A. Gait — The Koch Kings of Kdrnarupa. 
invaded the country in 1337 A. D. He sent “ 100,000 horsemen well 
“ equipped to Assam ; but the whole army perished in that land of 
“ witchcraft, and no trace of it was left. He sent a second army to 
“ avenge the former disaster, but when they came to Bengal, they 
“ would go no further, and the plan had to be given up. * 
In the reign of Barbate, some time about 1460 A. D., Isma’il 
Ghazi, the celebrated Pir, is said to have defeated Kamesvara, king of 
Kamarupa. The story is told at length in a manuscript found by the 
late Mr. Damant in the possession of a fakir in charge of Isma’il 
Ghazi’s tomb at Kunta Duar, Rangpur, but no reference is made to the 
subject in any Assam Chronicle or tradition.]- 
The records of these earlier Muhammadan invasions are very scanty, 
and very few traces of them now remain, beyond a few ruined to i ti fi ca- 
tions ( such perhaps as the Baidargarh already referred to ), a few occa- 
sional finds of coins and the names of places indicating a previous 
Musalman occupation.]; 
Before proceeding further, it is necessary to give some account of 
the Baro Bhuiyas. It is generally admitted 
Baro Bhuiyas. that they were foreigners, but accounts differ 
as to the circumstances under which they came to Bengal & Assam. 
Buchanan’s version is that twelve “ persons of very hierh distinction, 
and mostly named Pala, came from the west and settled atMahasthan. 
He was of opinion that they belonged to the Bhungiya tribe. Cunning- 
ham on the other hand thinks that they were Brahmans and that 
the name Bhuiya is a corruption of Bhumiliara, a term applied to them 
as indication of the fact that they had taken to cultivation as a means 
of livelihood. He says that they still call themselves Babhan, and 
claim to be Brahmans, but that their enemies say that they are the de- 
scendants of men of low caste whom Jarasandha raised to the priest- 
hood. He mentions that they form a large part of the population of 
Magadha, the chief representative of the clan being the Raja of Tekari, 
and from this he surmises that the Pala Rajas “must have been of 
“ this caste, as they would appear to have been descendants of some of 
“the Baro Bhuihar Palas, while in their inscriptions they are silent as 
“ to their ancestry. ” 
* Alamgirnamah, p. 731. 
t J A. S. B. 1874, p. 216. 
J 30 silver coins were recently discovered near Gauliati by a cooly working on 
tbe Assam-Bengal Railway. They bore dates from 1310 to 1399 A. D. Most of 
them were coins issued by the independent Sultans of Bengal. Mahmud Shah II, 
Gbiyasu’d-din Bahadur Shah, Ilyas Shah, &c. A previous find of 33 coins at Gau- 
lidtl in 1880 formed the subject of an article by Dr. Hoernle in the J. A. S. B. of 
1881, p. 53. 
