268 Abdul Wali —-Antiquity and Traditions of Skahzddpur. [No. 3, 
promiscuously buried remains of the martyrs. Despite its reclaimed 
marshes and dried-up swamps, we can reasonably picture a time, when 
the place was of an alluvial formation, fit for a petty trading colony. 
The Tsan-pu or Brahmaputra, the Indus and the Satlej, may be said 
to start from the same water-parting in the highlands of Central 
Asia. After receiving several tributaries from the confines of the 
Chinese Empire, and twisting round the lofty eastern Himalayan range, 
the Brahmaputra rolls down the Assam Valley. As the Indus with 
its feeder, the Satlej, and the Brahmaputra, convey to India the drainage 
from the northern slopes of the Himalayas, so the Ganges, with its 
tributary, the Jamuna, collects the rainfall from the southern or Indian 
slopes of the mountain-wall and pours it down upon the plains of 
Bengal. 1 2 * 
It is a well-known fact that this part of Bengal is annually, during 
the rainy season, inundated, and the wide stretches of country around 
look like a vast ocean as the name of the river Harasagar indicates.® 
In a remote period, we find that the whole ancient geography of 
India is obscured by changes in the courses of the rivers. Within 
historic times, many decayed or ruined cities attest' the alteration in 
river beds. It is not, therefore, improbable that Arab coasting vessels 
came as far as the Gangetic Delta, and that Bengal was colonized in the 
first or second century of the Hijri Era by the Arabs. They, as also 
their predecessors, might have “ followed the courses of the river.” 8 In 
647 A.D only fifteen years or so after the death of the Prophet, Khalif 
‘Othman sent a sea-expedition to Thana and Broach on the Bombay 
coast. Other raids towards Sindh occurred in 662 and 664. An Arab 
ship being seized, Muhammad b. Qasim in 711 A.D. advanced into Sindh 
to claim damages, and settled himself in the Indus Valley. 4 * * * 
1 Vide Hunter’s “ Indian Empire,” Ch. I. 
8 The Padma as well as the other rivers, in this part of Bengal, have under¬ 
gone, during the life time of man, great changes. The Padma that flows in the 
Pabna District is subject to constant alluvian and deluvian. 
Dr. Hunter in the Statistical Account of Rangpur District, p. 162 says :— 
Dr. Buchanan Hamilton wrote in 1809 that “ since the survey was made by Major 
Rennel (about 30 years ago) the rivers of the District (Rangpur) have undergone 
such changes that, I find the utmost difficulty in tracing them. ” 
2 Indian Empire, p. 42. 
4 Indian Empire, p. 311. 
The general information with respect to the trade of the Arabians with India is 
confirmed and illustrated by the Relation of a Voyage from the Persian Gulf to¬ 
wards the East, written by the Arabian merchant in 851 A.D., and explained by the 
Commentary of another Arabian, who had likewise visited the Eastern part of Asia. 
This voyage together with the observations of Alu-zaid-al-Hasan of Siraf, was 
