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boat followed us behind pulled by the tow-rope. Our pedestrian excursion this morning afforded us the opportunity of inquiring into the means and circumstances of many a rustic family. The condition of our peasantry is best known by a visit to their domiciles. From increased cultivation and from increased export of produce, the statesman may conclude the agriculturist to be thriving. But he still dwells in a ragged hut, and still lives upon the coarsest rice. He still sleeps upon a pallet of straw; and a few earthen pots, one or two brass utensils, and some scanty rags, filled with the dirt of a twelvemonth, constitute all his furniture and clothing. He still works out his existence like the beast that he drives in the field, and is a stranger to the civilization and enlightenment which have followed in the train of British rule.

Near Mirzapore was to have been dug a canal from that place to Rajmahal, proposed by the Military Board some twenty years ago. The village is still situated 'on a beautiful arm of the river, and presents some of the most enchanting rural scenery that one has to see in India.' By nine o'clock, a little wind sprung up, and the boat flew onwards like a merry falcon on the pinions of the breeze. Before noon we cleared many a winding and shifting of the river, and came in sight of the far-famed, the classic, and the holy town of Nuddea.

Throughout Bengal, Nuddea is celebrated as the great seat of Hindoo learning and orthodoxy-the most sacred place of Hindoo retreat. The Choitunya Bhagbut states:-'No place is equal to Nuddea in earth,

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because Choitunya was there incarnated. No one can tell the wealth of Nuddea. If people read, in Nuddea they find the ras of learning, and the number of students is innumerable.' Indeed, the past of Nuddea raises very high expectations-but the present of it disappoints a man in the extreme. It is not found to be that hoary old town, with venerable ruins and vestiges, a crowd of temples and buildings of all epochs, a thick and ancient population, time-honoured toles and colleges in every street, and numbers of learned Turkolunkas and Nyaruttuns, which one has reason to expect from its antiquity extending at the least over a period of six to seven hundred years. Nothing of the kind meets the eye, but a rural town of small size, with a little nucleus of habitations, and a community of Brahmins, rather busy in seeking for bread than in acquiring a profitless learning. The caprices and changes of the river have not left a trace of old Nuddea. It is now partly chur land, and partly the bed of the stream that flows to the north of the town. The Ganges formerly held a westerly course, and old Nuddea was on the same side with Krishnagur. Fifty years ago it was swept away by the river, and the 'handsome Mahomedan College,' that, in 1805, says Lord Valentia, 'was for three hours in sight, and bore from us at every point of the compass during the time,' has been washed away and ingulfed in the stream.

Modern Nuddea, or Nabadweep, however, is situated in a delightful spot. The Bhagiruttee and Jellingy here meet together their sister streams, and flow with

an united volume of waters through a tract of the highest rural beauty. The town is now surrounded by bleak, desolate sand-banks; but, during the rains, it floats as a beautiful green islet on the bosom of an expansive sheet of water.

The earliest tradition relating to Nuddea states that two hermits of Billogram and Dhattigram retired here, when it was covered by a dense mass of jungles, to prosecute their studies in the recesses of its solitude. They attracted a number of learned men to the spot, whose fervent zeal in the pursuit of learning so pleased the goddess Seraswatee that she deigned to pay a visit to her votaries.

From other mouths we heard the following account of the circumstances that first led to the occupation and rise of Nuddea. A Hindoo monarch of the name of Kasinauth, having set out upon a party of pleasure, happened to come down the river as far as Nuddea. It was then overgrown by jungle, and scarcely known to any individual. But the Rajah was so much charmed with the romantic spot, that he at once resolved upon making it the capital of his kingdom. His resolution was no sooner taken than orders were given to clear the jungles, and to erect a palace for his abode. Rajah Kasinauth removed hither with his court, and brought over with him three families of Brahmins, and nine husbandmen to people his newly-founded capital.

Ridiculous!-to found a capital and people it only with a dozen of men. Besides, no Rajah under the name of Kasinauth is mentioned in history. The

The Rajah Luchmunya.

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nomenclature followed in those days was different from that in vogue now. Hindoo parents now name their sons and daughters after their favourite gods. The name of Kasinauth is plainly a modern coinage.

No reliable information can be obtained as to the time and circumstances of the origin of Nuddea. The earliest authentic fact on record about it is, that, in the twelfth century, it was the capital of Luchmunya, the last of the Sena Rajahs of Bengal. This prince was very learned, and enjoyed the throne for eighty years -the longest that any monarch is known to have reigned. He was in his mother's womb when his father died. The crown was therefore placed on the womb, and the officers of state, all girding themselves and standing in a circle round the mother, made their obeisance. On the approach of the pains in due course of time, the Ranee assembled the astrologers and Brahmins to consult on the most auspicious moment for the birth of the child. They unanimously declared that it would be unfortunate for the prince to be born immediately; the stars would be favourable two hours hence, when his birth would destine him to a reign for eighty years. The intrepid lady resolved on this to postpone her accouchement, and gave orders to her attendants to keep her suspended by the feet till the particular hour specified by the astrologers. She was then taken down; the prince was born, but the mother died of the sufferings to which she had subjected herself. The child was immediately placed on the throne, and the commencement of his reign dated from that instant.

Luchmunya is stated to have been the 'Rajah of Rajahs of Hind'-'the Caliph of India.' But Brahmin learning and Brahmin idolatry, Brahmin courtiers and Brahmin astrologers, had superinduced that paralytic helplessness and lethargy, under which the last Hindoo monarchs yielded, one by one, to the first violent shock from without, and the ill-cemented parts of the great Hindoo empire fell to pieces, and were dissolved. There was Bukhtyar Khiligy in Behar, the capital of which had been taken by him only with a detachment of two hundred men, casting his eyes next upon Bengal. But, instead of catching the bull by its horns, the foretold dominion of the Toork in the Shastras was a foregone conclusion to its Rajah of the inevitable subjugation of his kingdom. Far from preparing to oppose in defence of their country and religion, the nobles and chief inhabitants of Nuddea sent away their property and families to a safe distance from the reach of the enemy. The old and imbecile monarch took no measures to avoid the danger, but waited in the infallible certainty of its Occurrence. He was seated at dinner when the enemy surprised him, and, making his escape from the palace by a private door, got on board a small boat, and dropped down the river with the utmost expedition to reach Juggernauth, and there give up his soul to the god. Only seventeen soldiers worked this revolution in the destiny of some forty millions of people, and in the fate of the largest and richest province of the peninsula. The conquest seems to have been made merely by giving a slap on the face of the king, and then taking pos

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