RAJMAHAL, a town in the Santal Parganas district of Bengal, situated in lat. 25° 2' 51" N., and long. 87° 52' 51" E., on the right bank of the Ganges. The town gives its name to a subdivision of the Santal Parganas ; area, 1343 square miles, and population, 332,194 ; also to the Rajmalial IliIls. Alan Singh, Akbar's Rajput general, after his return from the conquest of Orissa in 1592, selected Rajmahal (formerly Agmahal) as the capital of Bengal, on account of its central position with respect to that province and to Behar, and from its commanding the Ganges and the pa.ss of Teliagarhi, through which the railway now runs ; but its position has lately been changed. In 1860, when the loop-line of the railway was opened to this town, an arm of the Ganges ran immediately under the station, forming a navig able channel for steamers and boats of all sizes. In 1863-64, the river abandoned that channel, leaving an alluvial bank in its place. Rajmahal is now three miles distant from the main stream of the Ganges, and can only be approached by large boats during the rains. The Rajmahal people are known as Afale. They are to the east of the Oraon, but are entirely different from their neigh bours the Santa]. They are better looking than the Santa]. The skin is dark, face broad, eye small, and lips thicker than those of the men of the plains. Their language abounds in terms common
to the Tamil and Telugu, and contains so many Dravidian roots of primary iniportance, though it also contains a large admixture of roots and forms belonging to the Kol dialects, that Dr. Caldwell considers it had originally belonged to the Dra vidian family of languages. A brief vocabulary of the words of the tribe inhabiting the Rajmahal Hills in Central India, is contained in vol. v. of the Asiatic Researches, and Mr. Hodgson's more com plete collections prove the idiom of this tribe to be in the main Dravidian. Test words show an identity of language among the Rajmahali on the east and the Maria Gond in the remote jungles down to the Godavery, and the Gond who live along the Satpura as far west as Nimar and Malwa. It was the Male race amongst whom Alr. C:eveland so successfully laboured, to impart to them settled habits. They are quiet cultivators, and formed the bulk of the corps known a,s the Bhagulpur Hill Rangers. Ghat wal estates ard par ticularly numerous in the Bhagulpur and Birbhum districts adjoining the Rajrnahal Hills on either side. Such estates pay no revenue, but are held on the condition of guarding the passes against hill robbers, murderers, and cattle-lifters.—Geo. Soc. Journ., 1861 ; Dalton, Beng.