233 
1873.] H. Blochmann— Geography and History of Bengal. 
River, as thanah and saltgolah; but the names Irabu, Maoa (perhaps a 
mere repetition of the Maua given above), Santatoly, Orieton, are unknown 
to me. 
Blaev’s map (PL IY) and the Chart of the empire of the Grand Mogul by 
1ST. Sausson (A. I). 1652) give opposite Chatigam (Chittagong) a town, called 
Bengala or Bengola. Purchas (a compiler who never came to India) says 
in his 4 Pilgrims,’ 44 Gouro, the seat Royall, and Bengala are faire Cities. Of 
this, the Gulfe, sometimes called Gangetieus , now beareth name Golfo di 
Bengala .” Pennell, in his 4 Memoir,’ mentions the town as being given 44 in 
some ancient maps and books of travels ; but no traces of such a place 
exist.” But he says that it is placed near the eastern branch of the 
Ganges, and that it may have been carried away by the river (Ganges ?), 
Lately also, a writer in Mookerjea’s Journal (Dec. 1872), Mr. H. J. Rainey, 
published an imaginative account of the submersion of this now lost city, 
which in his opinion had given name to the kingdom of Bengal. But the 
town is nowhere mentioned by Muhammadan historians, nor by Ibn 
Batutah, Caesar Frederick, and Ralph Fitch who were in Chatgaon, nor by De 
Barros and Van den Broucke. The probability, therefore, is that no such town 
ever existed, and that the name was put on Blaev’s map from Purchas’s 
statement; or else the name 4 Bengola’ is a mere corruption of what 
we call a £ Bungalow’ (&JLGj ? hangalah ), or a 4 Flagstaff Bungalow,’ of 
which we find several marked on District maps of Chittagong along the 
Ivaranphulf River, as early as on Pennell’s chart. However, this mysterious 
town is not to be identified with the place 4 Dianga’ given by Van den 
Broucke half way between Chittagong and Rammoe (Ramu, or Rambu*), 
because Dianga is the Dak’hindanga or the Brahmandanga, both on the 
Sangu River, south of Chatgaon, where saltgolahs still exist.f 
Regarding the State of Codavascam, which the old maps place east and 
north-east of Chatgaon, vide Wilford’s Essay, As. Researches, Yol. XIY, 
p. 450. 
The province of Chatgaon was no secure possession, and seems to have 
been alternately in the hands of the kings of Bengal, the Rajahs of Tiparah, 
and the kings of Arakan. In 750 A. H. (A. D. 1350), about which year 
Ibn Batutah was in Chatgaon,J it belonged to king Fakhruddin of 
Sunnargaon. That year falls within the reign of the Arakanese king 
Meng-di, who is said to have reigned from A. D, 1279 to 1385, or 106 
years,§ when the king of Thu-ra-tan (Bengal), called Nga-pu-klieng, courted 
* The most south-easterly point to whieh the Mughuls advanced. 
f The word ‘ danga,’ which occurs so often in geographical names in Bengal, 
signifies ‘ highland’. 
J Called in Lee’s translation Regarding Fakhruddin vide below. 
§ Vide Sir A. P. Phayre’s History of Arakan, Journal, A. S. Bengal, for 1814, p. 
45. Thu-ra-tan Sir Arthur Phayro identifies with Sunnargaon. 
30 
ii it 
