The District of Bákarganj. Its history and statistics

Preface

. This work is the result of nearly five years' experience in Bdkarganj, and of subsequent researches in the India Office and the Library of the British Museum. My primary object has been to write a book which would be useful and interesting to the officers of Government and the inhabitants of the district, and therefore there is much in it which can have no attraction for the general reader. It is pleasing to think that so many district histories are now in print, and that we are beginning to have for Bengal some such statistical account as the industry and patriotism of Sir John Sinclair caused to be prepared for Scotland. Among older works we have the accounts of Rangpiir, Dinagepiir, and Burneah, by Francis Buchanan ; that of Cuttack, by Mr Stirling ; and the excellent description of Dacca, by Dr Taylor.1 Among the more recent we 1 This work was published by Government in 1839, and is now out of print. It is much to be desired that Government would correct and reprint it.

PREFACE.

. VIII have the reports on the districts of the Dacca Division, Mr Brown's report on Tipperah, Colonel GastrelTs reports on Jessore, Faridpiir, and Bakarganj ; Mr Hunter's description of Birbhum in his " Rural Annals," and the same author and Mr Toynbee's books on Orissa, Mr Glazier's account of Rangpiir, and, above all, Mr West land's admirable report on Jessore. The reports on the Dacca districts owe their origin, I believe, to the fore thought and public spirit of Mr Buckland, but more than three-fourths of the work was executed by com petition-civilians ; and I am proud to think that four of the other books I have mentioned have been Avritten by members of the same class. In other parts of India this new class of civilians has not been idle, and I have been told on good authority that one of the best district histories is the account of Gkazipur, by Mr Oldham, B.C.S. It will perhaps be thought that I have written too much about such an obscure district as Bdkarganj, but my owfl consciousness is that I ought to have written a great deal more, and that I have often been very meagre in my treatment of important subjects.

The truth is, no one man can write an exhaustive district-history, and still less can a foreigner adequately depict a district of Bengal. What I have chiefly laboured have been the descriptions of the parganas and the official his tory of the district. I did this not because they were the most important, but because they were less likely to

PREFACE.

. IX be done by others. My idea always has been that the proper person to write the history of a district is one who is a native of it, who has lived all his life in it, and who has abundance of leisure to collect information. It is only a Bengali who can treat satisfactorily of the pro ductions of his country, or of its social condition — its castes, leading families, peculiarities of language, customs, &c. I have not attempted to go minutely into these matters, but my hope is that I have done enough to stimulate discussion, and that I may serve to ring the fuller writer in., I have said very little about the mode of cultivating rice or other agricultural methods, both because I do not think that there are any which are peculiar to the district, and the ordinary practices have been repeatedly described already, and because I have observed that such parts of a book are always the first to become out of date.

In the chapter entitled 'J General Remarks" I have indulged in the luxury of making some observations of wider scope than were admissible in the earlier part of the book. Perhaps some may think that these observa tions are out of place in a district-history, but I hope they have some connection with it, since they presented themselves to me while writing this book. , I do not think that there is anything singular or novel in the observations. Indeed, I should be the first to allow that they had no value whatever if I thought that they expressed nobody's opinions but my own. The only X

PREFACE.

. value, or at least the only practical value of opinions about India, or perhaps about any subject, is that they are shared by numbers of people, and are such as naturally suggest themselves to fair and reasonable persons who are conversant with the subject - matter. With regard to the question of the gradual abandonment of India, which is mooted by me in a note to the General Remarks, I am glad to be able to fortify myself with the following remarks by my late father at the conclusion of his " History of India : " — " To the attempts made to christianise India, it has been objected that the inevitable result of their success would be to destroy the British rule. The inhabitants made aware of their natural rights, and become capable of self-government, would throw off our yoke and declare their independence.

Unquestionably they would. But what then ? Is it meant that, for the purpose of per petuating our empire in the East, we must endeavour to keep our subjects there in a state of semi-barbarism, and discountenance all endeavours to raise them to our level in respect of intelligence, religion, and general civilisation ? The time has been when such selfish and heartless policy -would have been looked upon with favour, but a better spirit now prevails; and the determination, as announced in the Queen's proclamation, and cordially acquiesced in by all classes of society, is to do justice to India, and more than compensate her for all the wealth she has bestowed upon us by furnishing her with the means of

PREFACE.

. XI rising above her present degraded state, and attaining to the highest form of European civilisation. Should the effect be to enable her to dispense with our tutelage, we shall have the satisfaction of feeling that we ourselves have been the willing instruments of her emancipation, while she, even in severing the political ties by which she is now bound to us, will not forget how much she shall then owe to us for the enlightened and generous policy which gradually prepared her for freedom. Should the day ever come that India, in consequence of the development of her resources by British capital, and the enlightenment of her people by British philanthropy, shall again take rank among the nations as an independent state, then it will not be too much to say that the extinction of our Indian Empire by such peaceful means sheds more lustre on the British name than all the other events recorded in its history."

In the above passage my father speaks of christianising India.1 I should have preferred the word " civilise," unless, indeed, the term christianise be used in a different sense than it is at present. I have not the slightest expectation that the inhabitants of India v/ill ever become Christians in the ordinary sense of that 1 Much of my father's history was written against time and in failing health, but the vigour of his mind becomes apparent whenever a suitable subject for discussion presents itself. Few pieces of writing, for example, can be more vigorous than his reflections on the administration and trial of Warren Hastings. See also his remarks on the Permanent Settlement and the annexation of Oude.

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. XII word, nor do I suppose that any well-informed person believes that missionary efforts are making progress in India. The plan of my book is first to give an account of the land. Thus I begin with the physical features, and then go on to a description of the parganas, the Sundarbans, and the Government estates. After that I notice the various kinds of tenures, and I have endeavoured to give some information about the numerous under-tenures of the district. The chapter on antiquities and early history has been placed third in the book, in order to lead up to the constitution of the parganas and the financial history of the district. In Part II. I have described the people and the natural productions, &c. ; and in Part III. I have given a his tory of the administration, and chapters on detached points, such as the town of Barisdl, the jail, &c. The question of the correct spelling of the proper names is one I have taken some trouble with, but I am aware that I have omitted the accents in many places, and that also the spelling is often wrong.

It is not in every case easy to know the etymology of a proper name, and in the absence of this knowledge we are very apt to make mistakes in spelling. A considerable part of the book is taken up with the Appendices, and I trust that whatever judgment be passed on the rest of the work, it will be found

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. XIII that the Appendices contain something of value. I regret that I have been obliged to print the letters of Messrs Douglas and Massie from the imperfect copies in the Barisdl office, and that there are therefore some passages in them which are probably incorrect. The reports of the Collectors at the time of making the Permanent Settlement are the most important documents in the history of each of the districts of Bengal, but it appears that very few of them have yet been printed. They are fast mouldering away in our record rooms, and I hope that before it is too late Government will publish a volume containing all the correspondence about the Bermanent Settlement of each district. Since writing the note about early travellers in Bengal (Appendix, p. 444) I have seen the first volume of Ramusio's "Collection of Travels" (Venice, 1550), and I am almost convinced that the lost city of Bengala is neither more nor less than the famous city of Gour, in the Maldaha district.

One of the most valuable accounts of early India appears to be the narrative of Edward Barbessa or Barbosa, who was a native of Lisbon, and finished his book in 1516. He afterwards sailed with Magellan on his voyage round the world, and was killed at the island of Zebu in 1521 (Biogra phie Universelle). Barbessa gives a description of the city of Bengala (p. 330), and it appears from it that it was a Mahomedan town — at least the king of it was a Mahomedan, and he appears to have resided in it. The

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. XIV narratives of Varthema, and of the anonymous author of the " Summary of the People of the East," &c, appended to Barbessa's account, also describe the king as being a Mahomedan, and this fact appears to me to render it almost certain that Bengala is Gour, as the latter was the only great Mahomedan city in Bengal. ♦J If Bengala had been a Hindu city, and governed by a Hindu king, we could understand its disappearance; but if there had been any large Mahomedan city in Bengal except Gour, it would certainly have been mentioned by the Mahomedan historians. The anonymous author above referred to says that the king of Tripura was tri butary to the king of Bengala, and that Bengala was a port two days' journey from the mouth of the Ganges. This was written in the beginning of the sixteenth century, when Gour must have been much nearer the sea than it now is.

What the origin of the name Gour is I do not know, but I believe that, like Bengala, it was a name given to the country as well as to the town. We find it in other places than in Maldaha ; for example, some years ago there was a village called Gournadi — i.e., the river of Gour — in the northern part of Bdkarganj*1 1 Dr Wise has referred me to a passage in Ortelius which says that Appian considered Bengala to be the emporium of Barakoura mentioned by Ptolemy, and that Gastaldi thought Barakoura was Bacala. (See the " Thesaurus Geographicus," under " Baracura.") Perhaps this name Bara koura is the origin of Le Blanc's remark about Batacouta. Appian is properly Apianus, and this again is the Latin appellation of Peter Bienewitz (both apis and biene signifying a bee), who was professor of mathematics at Ingol stadt in 1520, and published a cosmography. If Gour be thought too far

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. XV There is an interesting remark made by Barbessa which bears on the question of the conversion of the Hindus of Eastern Bengal to Mahomedanism discussed by me at p. 247. He says that the king of Bengala being a Mahomedan, many of his Hindu subjects are every day becoming Mahomedans in order to get favour with the king and his governors. The anonymous author of the summary tells us that the kings of Ben gala had been Mahomedans for three hundred years, and this statement nearly corresponds with the date of Bakhtyar Khilji's conquest of Bengal (1203). / The statement in my Appendix that Varthema was the first traveller in Bengal is incorrect, as Nicolo de Conti pre ceded him by nearly a hundred years, Conti was a Venetian, and his travels are printed in the first volume of Ramusio. In conclusion, I wish to say that the Indian Govern ment is in no way responsible for any of the opinions expressed in my book, and that these must not be regarded as having any official value whatever.

I trust, however, that I have not said anything rashly, or which is other than a fair expression of opinion, and I do not think that I have said anything which could give just cause of offence to any one. inland for Bengala, then Hugli, which was early a Mahomedan town, may be the place meant. (See the dictionary of Bruzen de La Martiniere (1730), under the word " Bengale.") This writer says, " Dans le grand nombre de voyages de lTndoustan que j'ai lus je n'en ai jamais trouv6 ou il soit parle de Bengale comme d'une ville dont on ait dit quelques particularites capables d'en certifier la position ni meme l'existence. PREFA CE. XVI I have to express my obligations to the report on Bdkarganj by Mr Sutherland, to Mr Westland's Jessore, to Colonel Gastrell's report, and to the disquisition of Professor Blochmann on the geography and history of Bengal.

I have also been assisted by the Bengali account of Bdkarganj by Naba Kanth Chattanji, which is a very good little manual, though I am sorry that the author has not acknowledged how much he has borrowed from Mr Sutherland. Finally, I have to declare how much assistance I have derived from the native officials of Bdkarganj, and especially from the Collec torate Peshkar, Babu Koilas Chandra Ganguli. The map prefixed to the work is a reduction from the Revenue Survey map, and I have made some alterations in it in order to bring it more into accordance with the existing state of the country, and also to exhibit the names mentioned in the book. I am indebted to the Indian Government for permission to make use of the Revenue Survey map. H. BEVERIDGE. London, 23d March 1876. CONTENTS.

Land Tenures — 1. Tenures-in-Chief 2. Under-Tenures 190 192 209 3. Lakhiraj, or Rent-free Tenures

Part II. Chapter Viil

The People of BIkarganj — 1. General Remarks . . . . . .211 2. Mahomedans ...... 246 3. Hindus ....... 257 4. Buddhists . . . . . . .259 5. Christians ....... 260 6. Others :...... 268 7. Results of the Census ..... 268

General Remarks ... . . 372

Appendix

A. I. Four Settlement Reports from the Collector of the Dacca District, dated 6th April, 5th and 26th May 1790, and 31st July 1792 ...... 397 II. Letter from Mr Massie, 24th March 1801 421 III. Bakarganj in 1801, being a Letter from Mr Wintle, dated 7th January 1802 ...... CONTENTS. XX

APPENDIX.

B. PA0F7 Extract from Mr Pellew's Article on the Physical Characteristics of Bakarganj ..... 432

APPENDIX.

C. I. Prices ....... 435 II. India Office Records ..... 436 III. Famines of 1770 and 1787 - . . . . 441 IV. Establishment of Civil Courts at BAkarganj . 442 V. Character of the People .... 443 VI. Dacoits ....... 444 VII. Early Travellers in Bengal .... 444 VIII. Francis Fernandez ..... 446

APPENDIX.

D. Two Bakarganj Cases ...... 447

APPENDIX.

E. The Language of the District .... 450

APPENDIX.

F. Note to page 75 . . . . . 451 Note to page 142 .... 451 lNDEX • THE DISTRICT OF BAKARGANJ.