C o sa R i v ì r .
ftruited by putting one vaft ftone upon the other. Some have
a modern finifhing o f an ornament of copper exadtly like a
Greek trident. Each pagoda has in the center a chamber twelve
i feet fquare, with a lamp hanging over the obfcene deity, the
Ling bam. Mr .Hodges, i. tab. XXII. gives a view of thefe
pyramids. Multitudes of pilgrims are feen here in their way
ffom the neareft part o f the Ganges, carrying its facred waters
in large flalks holding near five quarts» fufpended on a bamboo
over the ihoulders, one before, the other behind. It is
carried quite acrofs the peninfula to the weftern fide o f India,
and fold to devotees at a great price. Sonnerat, i. p. 357.
tab. Ixxii. gives the figure of a Panduram Faquir, carrying fome
in this manner even as far as the Pagoda Ramnijeram, on the
weft end of Adam's, bridge, oppofite to Ceylon.
B e l o w Mongbeir, in the diftriif of Boglepoor, is a lofty.pyramidal
rock feated in the Ganges. On the fummit is a fmall
hermitage, occupied by a Hindoo Faquir, who judiciouflv felect-
ed this fpot for the fake of the cool breezes, and the beauty of
the profpedl. On the rock is alfo a fmall pagoda, and rude
fculpture of feveral deities, fo that it is held in great veneration
by the inhabitants of the neighboring country. Mr. Hodges,
vol. ii. tab. VIII. gives a plate of this eremitical retreat.
A b o u t eighty miles below Mongbeir, reckoning by the windings
of the ftream, the Ganges receives the Cofa, a large river
which rifes in the country of the Grand Lama, in about Lat.
30” 20', near to the borders of Thibet, pafles through two or
three chains of the Emodus, and gains the level country near
Amerpoor.
2 F r o m
F r o m the mouth of the Cofa the Ganges takes a more fouth-
erp direction towards the fea. Mauldah is a neat city on the
northern fide, feated on a fmall river, which is fooo fwallowed
up ip the greater. By the addition of the title o f Englijh Bazar,
it feems to have been a great market for the Bengallian Englifh.
T h e vaft province of Bengal begins at the mouth of the Cofa,
and is near a fquare, four hundred miles in breadth, little more
than a fourth lefs than the kingdom of France, and at prefent
governed by a company o f Briti/h merchants, who iffue out their
fdvereign mandates from a mean hall in Leadenhall Street. I
ought in its place to have mentioned the province o f Babar,
which is now within our government of Bengal. It begins at
the jundtion of the Gogra with the Ganges, extends far on each
fide of the banks of the Ganges, and joins the province of Bengal
about the mouth of the Cofa-
T h i s province of Bengal contains eleven millions o f people,
and brings in a revenue of £ . 2,540,000, a clear revenue of
f . 1,670,000. Ahulfazel, ii, 20, grips a moft incredible antiquity
to the Rajahs of this country: the firft twenty-four lived to
patriarchal ages; their ages taking in a period of 2,418 years.
Bugrut, who leads the van, reigned two hundred and eighteen
years. At length it was conquered by the Mahometan invaders.
We ihall pafs over a long interval to the death of AliverdyCairn,
in 1756; his nephew, a youthful prince, fucceeded, apd wiihed
to drive the Englifh, who were the invaders o f his privileges,
out of the country; he took Calcutta, and ftifled in the black-
hole a multitude of his late mafters. He was driven out from
his refumption of Calcutta, was decifively beaten in 1757, at
pia£ ey>
285
M auldah,
O f the Province
of B eng
a l .