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OCTOBER, 1910.)
NOTES AND QUERIES.
287
Love arrests the maidens of Vraj. They are discouraged at heart. The rainy season seems very pleasant to me. Hari Vilâsh says :- "When will Hari meet me in the garden ? When shall I have his
company ? "
(To be continued.)
NOTES AND QUERIES. THE KHANJA ALI MOSQUE AT KHULNA. To the east of the Shat-Ghomote, there is a
IN ANCIENT times, the District of Khulna formed smaller tank called the Thakur Dighi or God's part of the old kingdom of Banga or Samatata, Tank, about half a mile in length, which is and subsequently of the Bägri division of Bengal supposed to be the deepest in the place. At the constituted by Ballal Sen. The earliest popular bottom of this tank is a large temple, the roof of traditions are, however, associated with the name which can be seen in March, but during the rest of Kbädja Ali, who came to the district four and a of the year the temple remains wholly submerged half centuries ago. He obtained a jagir from in the water. There are two huge crocodiles in one of the kings of Gaud and made extensive the Thakur Digbi, named respectively Dholā clearances in the Sundarbans, where he appears Pābār and Kala Pabär (i. e., White and Black). to have exercised all the rights of sovereignty They are very timid and gentle and quite harmtill his death in 1459 A. D. He covered the less. If any one calls them by name, they at country with numerous mosques and tombs, the once make for the ghāt in the hope of getting remains of some of which are still to be seen food. People generally give them hens, pigeons, at Bagerhāt and Masjidkur!
&c. This note contains an account of one of these Directly to the east of the Thakur Dighi is the situated in the Bāgerhät Sub-Division of the Pacha Dighi, about three-quarters of a mile in District. There is a Persian inscription on one length, the second largest tank in the place. of the walls, which states that Khānja Ali con- Both of the tanks are in the village of Kida Pada. cealed a vast quantity of wealth in the earth, The Chaumohana river joins the Thikur Dighi, covering about three or four bighas of land round
and thereby makes its water brackish, wbile the the mosque. The general belief is tbat be | waters of the other two are so pure and healthy adopted this device, in order to increase the that a scheme is on foot to connect those two by fertility of the land, and it is said that many
pipes for the benefit of the town of Bagerhat. local cultivators have become enriched by It is said that when Khānja Ali Sahib wished digging for money. The mosque is of a simple
to build his mosques and tombe in Bagerhat and style.
Masjidkur, he sent an order to a well-known To the east of the mosque is the Shat-Ghomote, faqir at Chittagong to send the stone and other & gigantic hall or fortified building with sixty materials required, as there was very good water doors. It was erected in the end of the thir. communication with Chittagong. The faqir teenth century, and stands to the south by the wrote to Khānji Ali Sāḥib, "Ek ratti bārāni tar Bagerhat Road.
Châtgan e borat." You are too petty to send an North of the road are Mogra and Chinterkhol order to Chittagong, as petty as a paddy.husker villages and the Hanli pargana, to the north of
and rice-grinder." The faqir meant thereby that which flows the Bhairab river. To the east lie
Khanja Ali was a man in very straightened cir. Kadipada village and part of the Hauli pargana.
cumstances. But when he found out that he was To the south are the Modhudia pargani, Khon.
a great jägirdar, he asked his pardon and acted tākāta Chak and the Chaumohari river. To
in accordance with his bidding. the west are Barrākpur and the Rangdia
All the ghägs of the dighis, mosques, the hall, pargana. This last stretches as far as the
and the tombs are built of stone with khilan, i.e., Bhairab rivea.
without mortar. Earthquakes have made no There is a large tank at Barrākpur to the
changes in them. south-west of the mosque called Gbork Dighi
GANAPATI RAY, (Horse Tank), more than a mile in length. Ita
Librarian, Bengal National College. water is pure and deep, and it abounds in large 166, BOW BAZAR STREET, fish.
| Calcutta, 27th December 1909. 1 1. G. of India, New Edition, Vol. xv, p. 287.
