200 J. Wise —On the Barah Bhiigas of Eastern Bengal. [No. 3, 
Another legend connected with Chandradip is, that in former days a 
holy ascetic by name Chandra Sekhar Chakravarti, was in the habit of 
travelling about with his servant Danuj Mardan DA One night the 
goddess Bhagavati appeared to him in a vision, and told him that in the 
river near his boat were several images which he must secure. The 
following morning he made his servant dive for them, and each time he 
brought up a stone image. Unfortunately, he did not try a third time or 
he would have found Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity. The two images 
he found in the river Sonda, and they are still shown by the Chandradip 
family. 
Chandra Sekhar then predicted to hi3 servant that the sea would soon 
become dry land, and that he would be the Baja of it. He also told him 
to call it Chandradip after the name of his master. 
The history of the Chandradip family as given by themselves is as 
follows : 
It is currently believed that the sons of the five Kayasths who 
accompanied the five Brahmans from Kanauj in the reign of Balia 1 Sen, 
settled in Bakla-Chandradip, a parganali which included the whole of 
the modern zil’ah of Baqirganj with the exception of Mahall Salimabad. 
The first of the Chandradip family was Danuj Mardan De. He is styled 
by the Ghataks as Baja, and he was the first Samaj-pati or president, of the 
Bangaja Kayasths. He lived, according to the pedigree, in the fourteenth 
century. The Ghataks enumerate seventeen Bajas of Chandradip up to the 
present day, while they name twenty-three generations since the immigra¬ 
tion of the Kayasths from Kanauj. 
It is not improbable that the founder of this family is the same person 
as the Bai of Sunargaon, by name Dhanuj Bai, who met the Emperor Balban 
on his march against Sultan Mughis uddin in the year 1280. It is not 
likely that the Muhammadan usurper would have allowed a Hindu to re¬ 
main in independence at his capital Sunargaon. If the principality of 
Chandradip extended to the river Megna, the agreement made with the 
Emperor that he would guard against the escape of Tugliril to the west, 
becomes intelligible.* 
The chief event, however, of his rule was the organization of the Ban¬ 
gaja Kayasths. He appointed certain Brahmans, whose descendants still 
reside at Edilpore (’A'dilpur), to be Ghataks or Kul-Acharjas of the Ka¬ 
yasths, and he directed that all marriages should be arranged by them, and 
that they should be responsible that the Kulin Kayasths only intermarried 
with families of equal rank. He also appointed a Swarna-mata, or master 
of the ceremonies, who fixed the precedence of each member of the Sabha, 
or assembly, and who pointed out the proper seat each individual was to 
* History of India, Sir H, Elliot, Yol. Ill, p. 116. 
