1873.] H. Blochmann —Geography and History of Bengal. 
213 
author of the Riyazussalatin, who lived in the neighbourhood of Maldah 
and Panduah, says nothing about it. # 
About 850 A. H. (A D. 1410), during the reign of Nagiruddin Mah¬ 
mud Shah, the capital was transferred to Gaur. Thus Lak’hnauti is hence¬ 
forth again called in history. The transfer, though it may have been connected 
with the restoration of an old dynasty, was unfortunate. Gaur lies in the 
middle between the Ganges and the Mahananda, thus occupying, as is the 
case in all Deltaic lands, the lowest site ; and east of it lies the Kallak Saja 
marsh, called in the Ain Cliuttid-pattid , into which the drainage of the 
town opened. Every increase in the waters of the Ganges caused the marsh, 
which is connected with it, to rise, and “ if the [earthen] embankment broke, 
the town was under water,”f and the drainage was driven hack into the 
town. Hence the removal of the capital, a short time afterwards, to 
Tan dali, J and the ultimate desertion of the town as a fever centre for itaj- 
maliall. 
The meagre information supplied by the Tabaqafc i Nizami and Firish- 
tah throws no further light on the geography of Bengal, hut leaves the 
impression that during the reigns of the independent kings (A. H. 739 to 
944, or A. D., 1338 to 1538) the extent of Muhammadan Bengal was the 
same as what we find it in A. D. 1582, the year in which Todar Mall pre¬ 
pared his rent-roll of Bengal, a copy of which Ahul Eazl has given in the 
Ain. 
The coins and inscriptions of the above period yield a few particulars. 
We have the seven Bengal mint towns given by Thomas,§ to which I can 
* Mr. Thomas compares with Ekdalah the name of ‘ Jugdula/ a village east of 
Hazrat Panduah, towards the Purnabhaba. The Indian Atlas Sheet No. 119 also 
mentions a village Jagdal due north of Maldaha, near the Mahananda, in Lat. 
25° 17' 30", and a ‘ Jugdul’ and a ‘ JugdaT will be found south-east of Gaur, Long. 
88° 28', Lat. 24° 42. Even in other parts the name is common ; for Jagdal is the Bangali 
‘ Jogoddul/ ‘ a leaf of the world/ the world being the lotus, and each town a petal of it. 
Another Ekdalah will be found on the same sheet, south-east of Bogra (Bagura), 
Long. 89° 40' 30", Lat. 24° 35'45", and a third is in Rajshahi, a little south-west of 
Nator. The name seems to be the Bangali ‘having one wing/ and Dodala 
‘ having two wings/ occurs likewise as a name of villages. 
f Ain i Akbari. 
J Eennell marks ‘ Taralx’ near the Pagla River (a branch of the Ganges and 
perhaps the old bed of the river), south-west of the fort of Gaur. “ Tanda standeth 
from the river Ganges a league, because in times past the river flowing over the 
bankes, in time of raine did drowne the countrey and many villages, and so they do 
remaine. And the old way the river Ganges was wont to run, romaineth drie, which 
is the occasion that the citie doeth stand so farre from the water." Ralph Fitch. 
The losses of Akbar’s Bengal army in Gaur will be found in my Ain translation, 
p 370. 
§ Lak’hnauti, Firuzabad (Panduah), Satgaon, Shahr i Nau (?), Ghiyaspur, 
Sunnargaon, and Mu’azzamabad. Chronicles, p. 151. 
