94 
J. Wise —Notes on Sunargaon, Eastern Bengal. [No. 1, 
one. On the north-west of Sunargaon, however, the dry bed of a river, 
which at one time must have been three or four miles broad, is still distinct. 
The Minakhali river, which now-a-days connects the Megna and Brahma¬ 
putra, was probably the course that the former took at some early date on 
its way to join the Lakliya opposite Narayanganj. This supposition is 
supported by the fact that when Islam Khan built forts to prevent the Mag 
marauders from passing up the rivers, the site of one was Hajiganj ; of a 
second, “ Triveni,” the confluence of three streams, (which could only be 
the Megna, Brahmaputra, and Lakhya) ; and of a third, Munshiganj ; that 
this was the course of the Brahmaputra in former days seems certain. The 
old bed of the Brahmaputra still exists at Munshiganj, and on its banks 
is held the time-honoured fair of the Baruni, or Yaruni, in the month of 
Ivartik. The spot where this religious festival is held in honour of “ the 
god of water,” is where the Brahmaputra and the Burhiganga meet. The 
Burliiganga, or Dhaka Biver, was the old bed of the Granges, when it flowed 
through the great swamps still existing between Nator and Ja’farganj. 
Old Sunargaon would in this case be favourably situated, being protected 
from the incursions of the hated Muhammadans by the Ganges and Brahma¬ 
putra on the west, and from the inroads of the savage hill tribes by the 
Megna on the east. 
In Bennell’s maps, published in 17S5, the main stream of the Brahma¬ 
putra joins the Megna at Bhairab Bazar, as a small branch does at the 
present day. Seventy years ago, this was, I understand, the route followed in 
the hot season by all boats going to and from Asam and Calcutta, and it is 
not two generations since the Balesar k’hal, which runs through Sunargaon, 
was navigable all the year round. 
Although it is impossible to fix the date of any of these changes, yet 
there is every probability that in the days when Sunargaon was a royal 
city, its walls were washed by one or other of these great rivers. A visit 
to the jungle of Sunargaon, intersected as it is by trenches of stagnant 
water and obstructed by raised mounds, suggests the idea that formerly 
the abodes of the people were elevated above the highest tides, and that 
the city was traversed by numerous canals and natural creeks. No situa 
tion could have been better adapted for a conquered people, whose safety 
lay in the rivers by which they were surrounded and in the boats which 
they possessed. 
The site of the ancient Sunargaon is covered by dense vegetation, 
through which a few winding footpaths pass. The inhabitants are few. 
The children are all sickly and suffering from spleen disease. The men are 
generally puny, and so apathetic, that they have not the energy to cut 
down the jungle, in the midst of which their houses are buried. In the 
rains all locomotion is by boat. The stagnant holes and swamps of the 
