GOUR or Gaur, called also Lakhnauti, thc ancient capital of Bengal, and its territory, sup posed to be the Gangia Regia of Ptolemy. It stood on the left bank of the Ganges, on a atone embank ment about 25 miles below Rajmahal. It was the capital of Bengal 730 years before Christ, and wa: repaired and beautified by Akbar, who gave it the name of Jannatabad, which name is still borne by a part of the cirear in which it was situated According to Ferishta's account, the unwholesome ness of its air about the middle of the sixteenth century occasioned it to be deserted soon after. and the seat of government was removed tc Tonclah or Tanrah, a few miles higher up the river then to Rajmahal. Three causes, however, viz the removal of the capital, the desertion of it old bed by the Ganges, and the unwholesomenest of the region, all contributed to turn Gour intc a wilderness. No part of the site of ancient Gem is nearer to the present bank of the Ganges that four miles and a half ; and some parts of it which were originally- washed by that river, are now 1.`4
miles from it. Taking the extent of the ruins ol Gour at the most rea.sonable calculation, it was not less than 15 miles in length (extending along the old bank of the Ganges), and from two to three in breadth. The first rulers who have been identified. were the family of Bhupala. Abul Faz1, however. enumerates three dynasties as prior to this family. The first of the Vaidya rajas was Suk Sen, A.D. 1063. Its last Hindu king was Lakshmanau. He had been placed on the throne in infancy, and during his long reign had been a just and liberal ruler. In A.D. 1203 Bengal was overrun by Baklitiar, a general of Muhammad Gori, and the last Hindu king escaped to Orissa. Gour is also by rnany supposed to have been founded by one of the physician dynasty of Bengal, not long before the Mahomedan invasion, though Dow and Rennell state that it was the capital of Bengal, 730 years before Christ.—Tr. of Hind. p. 04 ; Rennell's Memoir, p. ; Prinsep's Antiquities.