The first specific notice of the city of Gaur, from actual knowledge, is contained in the Persian history called Tabaqat-i-Nasiri, which has been partially translated in Elliot's History of India. The author visited Lakhnaoti in 1243, but the only particular regard ing the city that he mentions is that Ghiyasuddin 'Iwaz, the fourth Mohammedan ruler of Lakhnaoti gtiltainT Analpeqvdiog. tktlais, coin in his own name), besides founding mosques, etc., carried embanked roads across the low Country e. and w. of the city for a space of ten days' journey. These works in part still exist. " Radiating n., s., and e. of the city, . . . embankments are to be traced running through the suburbs, and extending in certain directions for 30 or 40 m." (Ravenshaw, p. 3). The extent of ground over which the remains of Ganr are spread is astonishing; and a large part of it would appear to be still, as well described a cen tury ago, covered with dense wood or with rank jungle of grass and reeds, though in later years cultivation has somewhat extended over the site. What may be called the site of Gaur proper is a space of an oblong form, extending from xi. to s. 7 m., with a breadth varying from 1-.1 to 2 miles. This area is washed on one of its long sides (the western) by a stream called the Bhagirathi, which undoubtedly occupies a former bed of the Ganges (not to be confounded with the Bhagirathi further s., con tributing to form the Hoogly, on which Calcutta stands). Roughly,parallel to the east ern side, but at a distance varying from 2 to 6 in., runs the river Mahananda, whilst extensive swamps and sheets.of water are interposed between this river and the city. The extensive area of which we speak has been defended on n., w., and s. by a rampart and ditch, whilst on the e. side there is a double embankment of great size, with two ditches of immense width, and in some parts three. It is not quite clear from the description in what degree these latter works are respectively for defense or protection from floods; but the latter must have been the main purpose. The Ain i-Akbari (c. 1590) alludes to the fact that " if the earthen embankment broke, the town was under water." The position of the city, midway between two rivers of deltaic •character, is low, and any rise in those rivers would raise the level of the marshes. Still the mass of these banks, as much as 200 ft. thick at the base, and 40 ft. in height, is greater than any present exposure to flood seems sufficient to explain. It has sometimes been supposed that the Ganges, since the foundation of Gaur, has flowed to the east ward, where is now the bed of the Maliananda. If this were so, the massive acter of the embankment would be more intelligible. It would appear, however, that the positive testimony to this circumstance, which was at one time supposed to exist, depended on a mistaken reading of the passage referred to above, of the Tabaciat-i-Nasiri. These great embankments have been originally faced throughout with masonry, whilst the crest shows numerous traces of edifices, but the whole of the earthworks are now overgrown with dense jungle. The Ganges now flows at a distance varying between 5 and 12 m. to the w. of the inclosed area of the city, -but there seems to be no doubt that in the earlier centuries of its occupation the great river washed its western wall, where now the Bhagirathi flows.- On this side, near the southern end, stood the citadel or royal fortress, stretching for a mile along the river bank, and marked out by the remains of a huge rampart of irregular trace, 180 ft. wide at the base, and faced with masonry, with numerous circular bastions. Shapeless masses of ruin fill the interior. The palace itself forms a rectangular inner inclosure of 2,100 ft. by'750, girt by a splendid brick wall, 18 ft. thick at bottom, 8i ft. thick at top, and 42 ft. in height.
To the northward the western embankment is prolonged far beyond the northern limit of the city, and about 3 m. n. of the latter we encounter a vast line of earth work stretching from the prolongation just mentioned, in an irregular curve eastward and then south-eastward to the vicinity of the .N.lahananda river, in all for more than 6 miles. This also was probably intended chiefly as a defense against inundation of the suburbs. A huge excrescence protruding from the line, and overgrown with forest trees, incloses an area of nearly a square mile, which tradition points out as the palace of one of the Sena kings. Still n. of this, and extending to the banks of the Kalindri river, some 3 in. fnrthcr, are found traces of ancient Hindu buildings. Turning again to the southern of Gaur, for 6 or 7 in. to the s. of the city, there Seems to have extended, still under the protection of a western embankment, a continu ous chain of suburbs. In the northern portion, at least, of these, "prostrate domes, mingled with carved lintels and innumerable bricks, are seen lying in confusion on all sides, and show how dense has been the population." Thus from n. to s. the whole extent of ground bearing indications of urban occupancy is hardly less than 20 miles We may, however, feel Confident that, as in the case of Delhi, these traces com prehend a space within which the royal city occupied various localities in various ages. Traditions, collected by Dr. Francis Buchanan, placed the residence of the older Sena kings on the site at the extreme n. near the Kalindri. The southern part of the for tified area of Gaur, with the citadel and palace, was evidently, as we shall see from the dates of the buildings, the seat of the later kings who immediately preceded the absorption of Bengal into the Moglinl empire in the latter half of the 16th century. The exact site occupied by Mohammed Bakhtiyar Khilji and his successors does not seem to have been determined. Throughout the interior length of Gaur run embanked roads, whilst the whole area is thickly dotted with excavated tanks of all sizes, up to the great Sager Dighi (or " Ocean Tank"), a rectangular sheet of water measuring little short of a mile by half a mile. This vast work is probably to be referred to the Hindu age. The former existence of six ghauts of masonry can be traced on its banks, which are densely wooded to the water's edge. Numerous excavated channels also run in every direction, the eartb from which appears to have served to raise the inhabited surface. The remaining buildings of importance are scattered at wide intervals over.
the area, but the soilsis throughout covered with fragments of brick, etc., in a manner which leaves no doubt of the former density of population. But Gaur has repeatedly been a quarry of building material. The old Lakhnaoti was robbed to build the inedi wval capital of Pandua, and the later Gaur probably to build Rajinahl, whilst in more recent times their brick and stone were transported as merchanclize to Malda, Moorshed abad, Hoogly, Rungpore, and even (as regards. the more valuable kinds of stone) to Calcutta. In the revenue returns of Bengal, at the time of its transfer to the Company, there was an entry of an annual levy of 8,000 rupees, "as Gaur brick royalty," from landholders in the neighborhood of Gaur who had the exclusive right of dismantling its remains. The bricks of Gaur, Rennell says, are of extraordinary solidity of texture and sharpness of edge. The facilities which the site affords for water carriage during the rainy season greatly aided this systematic spoliation. That no Hindu buildings remain from the earlier cities is probably to be accounted for by this process of destruc tion. [Eneye. 9th ed.]