6 
F. A. Shillingford —On the Kusi River. 
[No. 1, 
which begins to be uncertain in Dinajpur District will be completed 
Marks an ethnical by adopting the above course for the Kusi. 
frontier. On the left bank we shall have the Koch 
# 
peoples still found in such numbers in the Kissengunge Subdivision of 
Purneah District and in the North of Dinajpur, on the same side 
of the river would be the kingdoms of Kirat, Kichak, and Kamrup. 
The presence of a great river in the South of Dinajpur would also 
Probably formed a account for the success with which the Ruler 
barrier to Muham- or Hakim, as he was called, of that country 
madan conquest. resisted the arms of the Musalman sovereigns 
of Gaur. The ancient name of the Kusi and the one by which it is 
still known in Sanscrit books is Kau^ika. It is interesting to 
Probable direction observe that a river nymph of this name is 
of the Kusi, about known if not worshipped on the banks of 
A. D. 1600 . the Karatoya. The bed of the river about 
three or four centuries ago seems to be marked by the line which 
divides the parganas which down to the present day, preserve their 
agricultural records under the Bengali or Fasli or Bihar! eras. It is well 
known that these systems of computation of time are founded on the 
Musalman Calendar, and like it date from the Hijra or flight of Muham¬ 
mad from Mecca. These systems came generally in use into the present 
District of Purneah about A. D. 1600. If the supposition be correct 
that the Kusi formed the boundary between the tracts in which they 
were in use then, the course of that river passed East of the town of 
Purneah and through the Police division of Maniharl, before it fell into 
the Ganges.” 
In addition to the above supposed (though highly probable) courses 
of the Kusi indicated by Drs. Buchanan Hamil- 
Va-rious beds of the ^ on an( j ^ W. Hunter, we have the follow- 
Kusi. . . 
mg authentic channels of former Kusls 
known in history or in modern times, viz ., beginning from the east¬ 
ernmost. 
(1.) The Kali or KarI Kus! known in its upper reaches as the Kamla 
and in Nepal as the Kajli or Kajrl flowing 
about a mile to the west of the Civil Station 
of Purneah. The name Kali (black or dark) as applied to this river is 
from the curious fact that this is the only one of the abandoned chan¬ 
nels of the Kusi which carried dark limpid waters until 1889, when an 
inrush of muddy water came into it and gave rise to enquiries being 
made as to its cause, which has led up to the recent orders of Govern¬ 
ment to have the country surveyed. The clearness of its waters is 
conspicuous also in Nepal causing moss-like water weeds (Kajli) to grow 
The Kali Kusi. 
