186 
[No. 3, 
Notes on the Rang pur Dialect. — Rg G. A. Grierson, C. S., Rangpur. 
Rangpur is and always has been a border country. With the Koch 
State and the Bhutan Dvars on the north, the wild tribes of Asam on the 
east, the advancing tide of Aryan civilization, and subsequent Muhamma¬ 
dan conquest pressing on from the west, and, worst of all, the hated Van- 
gala from the south, it is but natural that these conflicting elements should 
have left deep traces of storm and turmoil on the inmost life of the people. 
The district itself long formed a part of the Kraun'cha or Koch Bihar 
kingdom, and being particularly exposed to invasion from all sides, it is 
covered with sites of battle-fields, and abounds in legends relating to nation¬ 
al heroes. The people themselves have a legend that they are descended 
from a remnant of the Kshatriyas who escaped the destroying axe of 
Parasu Rama, and it is possible that a few of such families may have settled 
on this debatable ground, and have found a new home and a new Gan- 
ga on the banks of the Brahmaputra. They say that the Kraun'cha 
Himalaya takes its name from those recreant (Krulcta) warriors who 
abandoned their father’s faith, pure in its Vedic simplicity, for the dread 
gods of the dwellers of the mountains ; and they point to their caste names 
and their strange religion in confirmation of the theory. Be that as it 
may, it is certain that Rangpur contained Hindu colonists at a very early 
period of Indian History. The name of one of its rivers—the Karatoya—is 
even mentioned in the Mahabliarata, and the Lohitya, a portion of the 
Brahmaputra, which borders the extreme east of the district, is also alluded 
to ( Bhishma Rarvan , 376). 
As usual, little attempt seems to have been made to proselytize the 
aboriginal inhabitants. The Hindu, while probably the most receptive, is 
the least missionary religion in the world. The wild savages were allowed 
to retain their demon worship, their “ Hudum Deo”, and their rites of 
almost Tantrik obscenity, and were formed into a caste of Rasas with their 
own customs (flesh-eating, widow marriage, polygamy, and even j^olyan- 
dry), their own gods and their own language. In process of time, other and 
even lower castes were formed, CJianddlas and Bhumi-malis for instance, 
and the Dasas taking up the name of their former Rdja-putra masters, 
called themselves, or were called by their humbler brethren, Rdja-vamsyas. 
Such is the story of the Rajbamsi caste, which now includes within its 
bond sixty per cent, of the Hindus of Rangpur. 
In such a legendary history it is of course impossible to fix dates, or 
even to assign eras for these changes. The earliest king whose name I 
have found mentioned in local songs is Manik Chandra, a baniya by caste. 
Of course he is stated to have lived in the 8atya Yuga } which gives no era 
