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This book is supplied by Messrs. Smith, ELDER & Co. to Booksellers on terms which will not admit of their allowing a discount from the advertised price. THE BOMANCE OP AN EASTEEN CAPITAL . -i , ;>:'-' I FrontUpii i THE LALBAGH FORT AT DACCA. e 278. THE ROMANCE OF AN EASTERN CAPITAL BY F. B. BRADLEY-BIRT B.A., I.C.S. LATE SCHOLAR OF BRASENOSE COLLEGE, OXFORD FELLOW OF THE ROYAL GEOGEAPHICAL SOCIETY CORRESPONDING FELLOW OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL SOCD3TY OF LISBON AUTHOR OF ' * CHOTA NAGPORE : A LITTLE-KNOWN PROVINCE OF THE EMPIRE ' AND ' THE STORY OF AN INDIAN UPLAND WITH THIRTY ILLUSTRATIONS AND A MAP LONDON SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE 1906 [All rights reserved] *3> i3 PEEFACE Eastern Bengal, lying outside the beaten track of the tourist and making no insistent claim to §5 notice, has long failed to attract the attention it •h deserves. The much-discussed question of the Partition of Bengal, however, has recently brought = it prominently before the general public, both in India and at home, and it is hoped that the story of its Capital, which the following pages attempt to relate in popular form, will be of special interest at the present time. The task of setting forth something of its history in a manner calculated to appeal to the general reader has not been without difficulty. Of the record of its earlier years, during Buddhist and Hindu supremacy, little that is authoritative has survived ; while so fast did events move, and so rapid were the changes that occurred in later days, that Mussulman ~°m annals are apt to degenerate into a confusing a] p*\ medley of unfamiliar names, or a bare recital of 3i Vi THE ROMANCE OF AN EASTERN CAPITAL the doings of Kings and Governors. Such authorities as these, moreover, are often hard to reconcile with one another, adding to the difficulty of the writer who strives for accuracy. It would have been out of place in a work of this kind to enter at length into controversial points, but, while much has been necessarily omitted, the aim throughout has been to give a connected readable account of the old Mussulman city in the heart of Eastern Bengal, which now, after the lapse of two hundred years, has once more attained the dignity of a Capital. To Moulvi Sayid Aulad Hasan, who has done much to revive interest in old Dacca, my thanks are due for kindly reading the proofs and for many valuable suggestions. To him I owe the portraits of the Viceroy Shaista Khan, of Guru Nanak, and of the Emperor Farrukh Siyar and his consort. A list of some of the more important authorities consulted is given at the end of the book. Simla : June 25th, 1906. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. A LAND OF RIVER AND PLAIN 1 II. THE KINGDOM OP VIKRAMPUR 23 HI. SONARGAON 48 IT. THE RISE OP DACCA 87 V. SHAISTA KHAN 125 VI. THE LAST DAYS OP DACCA AS CAPITAL OP BENGAL 174 VII. THE DECLINE OP THE MOGHUL POWER. .191 VIII. DACCA UNDER BRITISH RULE 219 IX. THE DACCA OF TO-DAY 260 X. THE EIGHTH DAY OP THE MOON IN CHAIT . 289 XI. A MEETING-PLACE OP EAST AND WEST . .305 XII. ON THE LAKHIYA 318 LIST OP AUTHORITIES 341 INDEX 343 ILLUSTRATIONS THE LALBAGH FORT AT DACCA Frontispiece IN THE KINGDOM OF VIKRAMPUR . • • I L To' face page ON THE BURIGANGA THE DHAKESWARI TEMPLE OF TO-DAY ... 30 A FERRY-BOAT ON THE DULLASERY AN EARTHENWARE VESSEL USED AS A BOAT 50 ON THE BRAHMAPUTRA CROSSING THE MEGNA NEAR SONARGAON . AT ANCHOR FOR THE NIGHT NEAR SONARGAON 62 A CARGO BOAT LADEN WITH JUTE LEAVING SONARGAON 82 ON THE BRAHMAPUTRA NEAR THE TOMB OF THE FIVE PIRS SHAISTA KHAN, VICEROY OF BENGAL . 126 THE MAUSOLEUM OF PERI BIBI, DAUGHTER OF SHAISTA KHAN 172 THE EMPEROR FARRUKH SIYAR 194 THE WIFE OF THE EMPEROR FARRUKH SIYAR . 196 DINNER-TIME IN THE DACCA JAIL ... 246 PRISONERS AT WORK IN THE DACCA JAIL . THE LINE OF ELEPHANTS AT THE JAMASTAMI FESTIVAL IN DACCA 262 X THE ROMANCE OF AN EASTERN CAPITAL THE SATGUMBAZ MOSQUE ) - To face page 268 THE BARA KATRA J GURU NANAK, THE POUNDER OP THE SIKH RELIGION „ 272 THE WASHING AWAY OP SINS IN THE BRAHMA- PUTRA DURING THE NANGALBANDH MELA . „ 292 ONE OP THE SACRED GHATS ON THE BRAHMA- \ PUTRA DURING THE NANGALBANDH MELA . 300 PILGRIMS BATHING IN THE SACRED RIVER j DURING THE NANGALBANDH MELA . / LANDING JUTE AT NARAINGUNJ NARAINGUNJ A FISHING-BOAT ON THE LAKHIYA HOMEWARD-BOUND AT EVENING ON THE LAKHrTA (3 VIEWS) „ 338 MAP OF EASTERN BENGAL AND ASSAM At end THE ROMANCE OF AN EASTERN CAPITAL CHAPTER I A LAND OF RIVER AND PLAIN Flat like a map, Eastern Bengal lies spread out vast and limitless, a land of river and plain. The plough of the gods, runs the legend, wielded in swift anger, had in days gone by torn down this way from the Himalayas to the sea, furrowing hill and valley, mountain and plain, to one immense dead level. From the foot of the rocky tree-clad Rajmahal Hills on the west to the banks of the mighty Brahmaputra on the east, from the snow-clad ranges of Sikhim and Nepal on the north to the shores of the Bay of Bengal on the south, it is one great wide-sweeping plain, low- lying and fertile, drained by some of the mightiest rivers of the East as they forge their impetuous way through many and ever-changing channels B 2 THE EOMANCE OF AN EASTERN CAPITAL to the sea. Watered abundantly by nature in generous mood, the trim rice-fields stretch mile on mile, locked close in the embrace of countless streams and rivulets, luxuriant in every exquisite shade of green, like emeralds set in a silver sheen. In the very heart of this land of river and plain the successive races that have dominated it have built their capital. Time and again, as empires rose and fell, its site has changed. At the whim of kings and conquerors, eager to perpetuate their fame, new cities have arisen with startling rapidity, often but to be deserted in their turn well nigh before the last stones have crowned the minarets and pinnacles of their mosques and palaces. Yet, variable as its site has been, the chief city of Eastern Bengal for over two thousand years has never been far removed from the junction of the great rivers where Megna and Ganges, Brahma- putra and Ishamutti meet at the head of the delta, a hundred miles from the sea. Here, in the days of legend and myth, Vikramadit founded the first capital of which the fame remains. Here to-day, scarce twenty miles away, still stands the time-worn city of Dacca—the once imperial capital of all Bengal, which, so long fallen from its early greatness, now again assumes the proud position of a capital—the capital of the newly formed Province of Eastern Bengal and Assam. A LAND OF LIVER AND PLAIN 3 In all India, with its varied interests and its wonderful diversity of character, no province of similar importance has met with less notice and appreciation than Eastern Bengal. Though close within reach of Calcutta, in which, early and late, so much of the interest of the British Empire in India has centred, it yet remains apart, unknown and unappreciated, its vast expanse of river and plain unexplored save by those whom duty takes this way. Even the average official, caught by the glamour of Behar, avoids the eastern districts, and the makers of books have left it for the most part severely alone. Until it sprang into prominence recently in English politics, the very name of East- ern Bengal conjured up in the average English- man's mind nothing but vague visions of a land of jungle and swamp, and the meeting-place of many rivers. Dacca alone, with the fame of its muslins, was familiar to English ears. The globe-trotter, absorbed in the great spectacular panorama of the beaten track, has passed it by. Treading with unvarying monotony and a strange absence of originality a certain set itinerary, he has gone home, primed with scant knowledge of the real India, to rhapsodise over the great wonders of the East that have been described again and yet again until one well nigh wearies on paper of the beauties of the Taj, the magnificence of Delhi B 2 4 THE ROMANCE OF AN EASTERN CAPITAL and the memories of Lucknow. Scarce one has turned aside to explore this new field so near at hand. Calcutta seems to have fixed itself as the eastern limit of the tourist's travels in Bengal, and the great Province that lies beyond, making no dramatic bid for the notice of the passer-by, still remains but a name—its story untold and its charm unknown. Yet it is there, a charm unique among all the wonders of the East. From the dry, sun-baked land of the beaten track, one turns gratefully to rest the eye upon the fair luxuriance of this well- nourished land. Small wonder that ancient chroniclers, revelling in picturesque description, called it ' a land of emerald and silver,' ' a garden fit for kings.' Even in official documents it is styled ' Jannat-ul-bilad,' the Paradise of Countries. Its perennial freshness knows but the lightest touch of autumn. Its wealth of green, in every wonderful shade, from the deepest of olives to the tender green of the earliest rice, covers the earth like a carpet lovingly spread by the gods.

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