1874.] 
Westmacott —Site of Fort Ekdalah . 
245 
“ same dimensions, but is placed with its greatest length from east to west, 
“ and therefore is a Mahomedan work. Between these two tanks are the 
11 ruins of Borohata, which are very large heaps or mounds, that consist in 
“ a great measure of bricks. In many places, the foundations of walls may 
“ be traced, and even the dimensions of the chambers. All these chambers 
“ are of a small size, owing to which they may have resisted the attacks of 
“ time better than more spacious apartments. They are chiefly situated in 
“ the southern division of the town, called Kootee-baree.” (Kootee, ‘ a 
masonry building.’) 
“ In this part are some small tanks that have evidently been entirely 
“ lined with brick. In the centre of the ruins are indubitable traces of a 
“ small square fort, which has been surrounded by a double wall of brick, 
“ and an intermediate ditch. The ruin to the north of this fort is almost 
“ entirely without the trace of regular form, but the quantity of bricks 
“ which it contains is great. At its northern extremity is the monument 
“ of a Mahomedan Saint, Peer Bodol Diwan, which is built of brick.” 
The village of Ekdalah, or Ekdalo, is only half a mile from the 
north-west corner of the most westerly of the three tanks, and the ruined 
fort described by Doctor Buchanan about a mile and a half to the south-east 
of it. The two large Muhammadan tanks were, no doubt, surrounded by 
buildings, and I see nothing extraordinary in the whole fortified city taking 
its name from one of the villages included in its circumference. On the 
other hand, it may be that the name Ekdalah originally included a larger 
tract than the Mauza’, to which it is now confined. I do not know when I 
may be able to visit the site, but the mention of a Dargah leads me to hope 
r may find inscriptions I have no doubt this was the place of which Mr. 
Beily spoke to me, though four miles further east than he thought, nor have I 
any doubt as to its being the Ekdalah of Shams i Siraj and Ziya i Barani. The 
name Ekdalah, the distance from Panduah, the two great tanks whose length, 
running east and west, proves them Muhammadan, the remains of brick build¬ 
ings, the fort, the third tank called ‘ The Tank of the Fort,’ and the widespread 
inundations to the west of it, all seem to me to point to this conclusion. 
I can find no trace of the name A'zadpur, mentioned as another name 
of Ekdalah. 
Besides Ilyas Shah and his son Sikandar Shah, who successfully de¬ 
fended Ekdalah against the emperor Firuz Shah, Husain Shah seems to 
have made it his permanent residence, (footnote, Stewart’s Bengal, page 
HI), and every year made a pilgrimage on foot from Ekdalah to the shrine 
of the Saint Qutb at Panduah. The distance is about twenty-three miles. 
There is another Ekdalah, fifty miles east-south-east from Panduah, 
five miles south of the point where the districts of Dinajpur, Bogra, and 
Bajshahi touch one another, but I see no reason for thinking it the Ekda¬ 
lah of Muhammadan history. 
H II 
