Memoirs of Gaur and Pandua

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AVING been employed by Government in the work of repairing the H ruins of Gaur and Pandua, I thought of publishing a book which would contain within a narrow compass all the desirable information on the subject of these ruins, and would be useful alike to the archaeologist, to distinguished visitors to these places, and to the public at large. In what is now offered to the public, 1 claim little originality, but being a resident of the district in which these ruins are, and having been on the spot on duty for many years, I have had peculiar facilities for collecting information about them, not only from the books and Government publications on the subject, but also from the local people with whom I have been familiar from childhood, and who have gladly supplied me with information which might have been difficult of access to others. My chief object in compiling this book is to. show, within as brief a space as possible, the history and the principal features of the ruins as they now stand, so as to afford to visitors an easy means of getting at the facts concerning them. The first draft of the book was composed about the time of the visit to Maldah, in February 1902, of His Excellency Lord Curzon, the Governor-General of India, to whom, while visiting the ruins of Gaur and Pandua, a hastily prepared type-written copy of the compilation was presented. His Excellency perused it on the spot with considerable interest. Thus encouraged, I revised the copy, and having made a few additions and alterations it was published in booklet form in 1912. It has since been further revised and expanded with the addition of illustrations, and is now being published through the kindness of the Local Government in a form which I trust will suit all the requirements of the public. It contains four chapters. The first is introductory; the second gives a brief account of the Kings of Gaur and Pandua, including facts and events of an interesting nature which occurred in their reigns; while the subject of the Ruins proper, as well as other places of interest, is dealt with in the last two chapters. My warmest thanks are due to the authors whose works have been consulted and freely quoted in this compilation, especially the Archaeological Survey Report, Volume XV, of Major-General Cunningham, and the Gaurer Itihas of my old friend, the late Babu Rajani Kanta Charkravarti, Pandit of the Maldah Zilla School. My heartfelt thanks are also due to the late Dr. D. B. Spooner, of the Archaeological Department, for his going through the manuscript copy of the book and correcting details on the spot while visiting the ancient monuments at Gaur and Pandua in November 1916. In the Appendices will be found a Bibliography of Gaur and Pandua, and Chronological Tables giving the names of the Kings of Delhi and Bengal.

Writing a Foreword for this chronicle of Gaur and Pandua as illustrated try the surviving buildings and inscriptions of these erstwhile capitals of Bengal it seems desirable in the first place to offer a brief narration of the somewhat checkered history of the book. The author who was then a ministerial officer of the Public Works Department received, as long ago as 1903, a reward of Rs 100 from the local Government for writing an account of the ruins for Lord Curzon When this Viceroy of India visited Mäldah in 1902 in connection with his scheme for the preservation of the ancient monuments of India, and Government also undertook to print a revised edition of the compilation. In the absence of proper sources of reference, the process of revision seems to have been a difficult one for the author and, though assisted by helpful criticisms from members of the Archaeological Department, it was not until 1925 that the book, greatly enlarged in size, and with many illustrations, was finally submitted for approval.

After such a lapse of time, even the original correspondence had been destroyed, and before any final decision about the book in its revised form could be arrived at, information was received by Government that the author had died on November 14th, 1926. Further discussions ensued as to the need for still more revision; and finally, at the end of 1928, I was requested to make any additional suggestions for the improvement of the manuscript and to see the book through the Press.

I utilised the opportunity of another visit to Mäldah early in 1929 to check the author's statements as far as possible in situ: but examination of the typed manuscript showed that much further revision of the book was necessary, particplarly in the direction of checking the correctness of the author's historical references, and in removing unnecessary repetitions. The work in fact has since then undergone at least three revisions, twice in typescript and once in galley proof, and most of the resulting book is in consequence very different from the form in which it was submitted to Government in 1925. The section on Pandua, as well as the last chapter of the book, has had to be re-modelled and expanded in both cases because fresh facts had come to light since the author's death, and because it seemed desirable to treat the subject in a more detailed fashion than the late Khan Sahib had done. Considerable changes had also to be made in the first two chapters, as it was impossible to accept without reservations either the author's conclusions regarding the location of Nadia and Ekdala (the former of which he identified with Gaur itself), or his summary of that period of Bengal history about 1415 A.D. which led to the establishment for a short time on the throne of Bengal of a Hindu dynasty belonging to the House of Räjä Käns. The original frame-work of the book has however been preserved intact, as, short of complete rewriting, it was impossible to make any alteration in this respect. The brief Bibliography supplied by the author has been considerably enlarged and another Topographical Bibliography of Inscriptions added.

The places mentioned have been twice revisited, and it is now hoped that the book in its final form will be found to be a thoroughly tustworthy topographical guide. historical and

11. An Autobiography was found as an appendix in the author's final draft and in view of the untimely death of the Khan Sahib the following extract may suitably be included in this introduction

"I was born in 1872 A.D. in the village of Arhidanga, a place about 16 miles north-west of the head-quarters of the district of Maldah, and am the son of the late Haii Turab Khân of Arhidanga. He was the first Muhammadan of the district who educated his sons in English. In my boyhood I was educated in the Vernacular languages in the village school and afterwards acquired English education in the Zilla School at Mäldah and in the Calcutta Madrasah. My training in the Engineering line was obtained in the Bihar School of Engineering at Bankipür and in the Sibpür College. I then served for 5 years as a manager of the Indian Muhammadan Trading Company at Bankipür.

"I entered the P.W.D. in 1899 and was put in charge of the special repairs to the old buildings at Gaur and Pandua. Since then I have been discharging these duties besides carrying out other Civil works of the Department. In recognition of my services, Government was pleased to confer upon me the title of "Khän Sahib in the year 1917.

"I belong to the ancient family of the Pathan rulers of Gaur and my ancestors came with King Firüz Shah from Delhi and settled at Gaur. When my forefathers were much harassed by the Governors of the Mughal Emperors and their number grew less and less, they selected a high land close to Bisan Kot at Charkhi and Batna for their safe asylum; but as the place became afterwards full of jungle and unhealthy, the family transferred their residence to the present village of Arhidanga. For the past 30 years my two brothers and I have been settled at English Bāzār, and my eldest borther, Khān Sahib Abul Azīz Khan, b.l., has served as Chairman of the English Bazar Municipality for several years. We belong to the Yūsuf-Zai branch of the Pathän tribe and Urdu is spoken in our family and neighbourhood. Our conversation is very similar to that current in Delhi. Certain rites in our marriage ceremonies are the same as those that used to be observed in the Royal family at Delhi.

"In addition to my work on the Ruins of Gaur and Pandua, the following books have been written by me for the use of Muhammadan youths, and these have large sales in the market. The books marked 1, 3 and 4 have all been approved by the Text Book Committee of Bihar and Orissa, and there is a large demand for the 'Prayer book for Muslims,' in foreign countries, viz., Trinidad, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Hongkong and Ceylon:-

1. Prayer book for Muslims (in English and Arabic).

2. Gulshan-i-Hind (a song book in Urdu and Persian).

3. An Urdu Primer.

4. A Bengali Primer."

III. A further point to which it seems desirable to allude in and by After to which the topographical problem presented by the tw ancient capitals of Gener and Pandus. Since the author's death, the use of craper photographs has resulted in the discovery that, at some very early stage of the history the town of Panhas was not less in area than even Gaur itself, as lines of fortifications miles along each face are clearly visible in the photographs, with a large inner citadel ituneschately to the southeast of the Adina Mosque. All the larger tanks within the Fortification run north and south so it is probable not only that the local tradition of Pandua being an extremely ancient city is perfectly correct but also that it wass froms the foot of this former Hindu capital that the materials for building Gaur and the Nudtool of buidings in stone at Pandua itself were obtained. It is too early yet to discuss the implications of the discovery of such a vast Hindu capital: but, as will now discuss the implicatin tepigraphical problem of the reasons for the establishment of the cities of Pandua and Gaur is essentially one arising from the changes in the course of the Ganges, and certain other rivers that still exist in this part of Bengal.

From the annexed maps it will be seen that four rivers have to be considered in this connection, three coming from the west and one from the north. These are (1) the Ganger: (2) the Kälindri, on which English Bäzär now stands, with the former site of Gaur a few miles to the south-west: (3) the Bhagirathi, now a mere rivulet running along the western face of Gaur, and (4) the Mahananda which now joins the Kälindri 4 miles north of English Bäzär, with the town of Old Mäldah at the junction, and Pandua 8 miles still further to the north.

There can be little doubt that both the present Kälindri and Bhagirathi represent former beds of the Ganges, the first-named when the Ganges flowed to the north and cast of the present site of Gaur, and the Bhagirathi a later bed, when the Ganges began to change its course to one further west and south. In still earlier times the Ganges probably flowed even further north, and as the name Muralīghät, a village 3 miles to the south-west of the Adina Mosque, may indicate the ancient city of Pandua was situated on its northern bank. From Pandua the Ganges then seems to have flowed across the southern portion of the present Rājshāhī Division, along what is now the southern bed of the Atrãi River, direct to Dacca and Suvarnagrăm (Sunargaon), keeping the old red alluvium of Northern and Eastern Bengal as its northern bank. The Mahananda then, as now, flowed along the western face of Pandua; so that this city was situated at the junction of the two rivers, and served not only as an entrepot for other Hindu settlements to the north and north-east, but also as a military base for the control of the territory north of the Ganges. Owing probably to floods in Northern Bengal bringing down the Mahananda a quantity of silt, the original bed of the Ganges became choked up, with the result that the Ganges first moved south into more or less the present bed of the Kälindri, the course of the Mahānandā being correspondingly lengthened and Pandua left some miles away from the Ganges. Still later, this was followed by a movement further west and south of the course of the Ganges, which resulted in the formation of the present site of Gaur as a char (island) of the Ganges, with the Ganges in

the present bed of the Bhagirathi, washing the western edge of the char From the former name of Lakhnauti, viz., Rämävati, the last named event must have been prior to the time of Räma Pala, i.e., 1100 A.D., but the discovery in 1893 by the late Mr. U.C. Batavyal, i.c.s., Magistrate of Maldah, of a copper-plate grant of land dating from the 32nd year of the Buddhist King Dharma Pala (circa 800 A.D.), which was found in Khalimpür-alias Kholi Alampür a village lying 6 miles east of the citadel of Muhammadan Gaur, on the opposite side of the great Chatia Bhatia marsh, indicates that settlement on the char began at least 300 years before the time of Räma Pala. Later possibly in early Muhammadan times the Ganges moved still further west to more or less its present course near Räjmahal, and as the present narrow Bhagirathi now looks more like an artificial canal than a river, it may be conjectured that the Kings of Gaur took steps, shortly after the last mentioned change in the course of the Ganges, to maintain the connection between the Kalindri to the north and the Ganges to the south, by excavating a canal for the purpose of convenient water transport from the western side of Gaur.

The changes in the main water courses particularly that of the Ganges must in any case have been most detrimental to the health of the inhabitants of the area involved, and, as the Khăn Sähib points out in his book, they fully account for the constant changes of capital that are so marked a feature of the entire period of Muslim rule in Bengal.

IV. I have, in conclusion, to express my best thanks to Shamsul-Ulama Dr. Hidayat Husain, Principal of the Calcutta Madrasha, for much assistance in the revision of both the manuscript and proofs: to Maulvi Maqbül Ahmad of the Arabic Department, Presidency College, for looking up many references: to Mr. M. O. Carter, 1.C.S., Stettlement Officer, Mäldah, for answering numerous queries and, in particular, plotting the perimeter walls of Pandua on the mauza map: and to Mr. N. K. Bhattasālī, Curator, Dacca Museum, not only criticising the first proof, but also for lending some block of coins as illustrations, from his 'Coins and Chronology of the Early Independent Sultans of Bengal.' To Messrs. Johnstone and Hoffmann, Government is indebted for permission to reproduce a selection of their photographs of Gaur and Pandua; and thanks are also due to the authorities of the Calcutta Historical Society for permission to utilise blocks that previously served to illustrate some notes on Mäldah, Gaur and Pandua by the Rev. W. K. Firminger in Bengal: Past and Present (Vol. VIII-1914-pp. 121-125). The three maps, plan of the Adīna Mosque, and reproduction of inscriptions are the careful work of the Survey of India.