1895.] 
9 
F. A. Shillingford —On the Kusi River. 
in or near the present bed of the Karatoya, a river of such size that it 
gained a reputation for holiness, as we learn from the Puranas , scarcely 
second to the Ganges. To this day, the natives who live on the banks 
of the Karatoya, say that their river is the old Brahmaputra. In M. 
Van den Brouck’s Map of Bengal, which dates from about 1660, the 
Karatoya is distinctly marked as a very great river, and as connected 
with the Brahmaputra.” The theory about the Karatoya being an old 
bed of the Brahmaputra could only apply to its lower reaches, and the 
evidence about its great sanctity, in ancient times, is not borne out by 
the present reputation of the latter river. The Kusi, or Kau^ika, is, 
on the other hand, invoked and worshipped by all Hindus, especially 
those of Central Bengal, to this day. 
In support of the theory advanced by Dr. Hunter, that the Kusi 
Dr Hunter’s Kusi of remo ^ e fdnes broke away eastward, in part, 
remote times marked along the present bed of the Parwan, or 
by areas of iron slag. Panar (this river has a variety of names in 
different parts of its course), through the marshes of South Dinaj- 
pur to join the Brahmaputra, we have the occurrence of large quantities 
of iron slag lying in patches, mostly along banks of rivers, all to the 
northward of this very ideal line the river is surmised to have taken, 
as far, at all events, as Tajpur Pargana. Hear Forbesgahj Station, of 
the A.-B. S. R., several miles of the line is ballasted with iron slag 
obtained from near the banks of the Parwan. Again ; from a point (43rd 
mile-post) a little north of where this river crosses the Ganges and 
Darjiling road, for about 50 miles north-ward, that road is metalled 
with iron slag found locally; and again, where the Dinajpur section of 
the A.-B. S. R. passes through Pargana Tajpur, we find the line 
ballasted with the same iron slag from Raiganj to Radhikapur. 
This iron slag abounds in many localities in the District, forming 
mounds in places, and being covered up with earth in others, but occur- 
ing only to the north of this ideal line. No indigenous iron ore being 
found in the District, it seems tolerably certain that it was brought 
down from the Nepal mountains along such rivers as were convenient 
for the purpose, and appearances indicate that, probably, there was a 
barrier beyond which the traffic did not extend, or else all traces of slag 
from these regions have been sw r ept away or covered up. It seems not 
unnatural to suppose that such a barrier was a large river into which 
flowed the streams which brought down the iron-stone, in addition to 
that carried down its own channel, and that the hill men, who were 
probably the smelters, confined their operations to the safer side of the 
river. Then, when the Kusi flowed here, it -would be in the palmy days 
of Gaur, whose demands for arms and ironware might have originated 
J. i. 2 
