śrī śrī guru-gaurāṅgau jayataḥ
25th Caitra, Saturday—1334
[April 7, 1928]
Irrefutable Evidence
for Prācīna Navadvīpa
Śrī Māyāpura
It was some 37–38 years ago today that Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was in the position of Senior Deputy Collector in Kṛṣṇa-nagara. At that time, in the collectory, in the Queen Colonial Settlement Papers, he found mention of the name of Śrī Māyāpura and became interested in locating the place referred to. In 1873, his associate, the Sub-deputy Collector, Hemacandra Mitra Mahāśaya, while in the position of public surveyor, personally surveyed this Śrī Māyāpura, Ballāla-dīghī, and other places. The indications of this location that he found in various documents, including the survey records of Rennell Saheb [Major James Rennell] from 1773, he shared with Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura.
One Good Friday holiday, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura took 8–10 people with him, including Navadvīpa town resident Mahendra Babu Deputy, Ramsevak Chattopadhyay Bhakti-bhṛṅga, Hema Babu Sub-deputy, Dvārika Babu District Engineer, Śrīyukta Napharacandra Pāla Chaudhurī Jamidār, Kṛṣṇa-nagara resident Śrīyukta Lālabihārī Datta, who was the collectory broker, and others, and arrived in Śrī Māyāpura from Svarūpa-gañja. Referring to maps and various documents and inquiring from many local elders and hearing their verbal accounts, the team were able to determine that the place where the yugala-mūrti deities of Śrī Śrī Gaura-Viṣṇupriyā have been established and are being worshipped is Śrī Śrī Mahāprabhu’s birthplace. The aged Śrīyukta Lālabihārī Datta Mahāśaya of Kṛṣṇa-nagara is still dedicatedly serving there as collectory broker. If you just ask him, you will come to know all the particulars of these events. When this land was being mapped and surveyed in the presence of Dvārika Bābu, Hema Bābu, Naphara Bābu, and others, it was Lālabihārī Bābu who planted the survey markers in the earth with his own hands and saw the base of that very ancient, very massive neem tree with his own eyes. Despite seeing and hearing all this, still somehow it is as if people’s eyes will not open, like they are colorblind to the facts. Is this the age of Kali or what?
Below, two more indisputable pieces of evidence have been translated from English and provided here. Any intelligent person will be able to understand from reading these where Prācīna Navadvīpa Śrī Māyāpura is.
The first excerpt is from an article titled “Bhagīrathīra Upakūle”, which appeared in a periodical, The Calcutta Review, in 1846, sixth volume, page 442:
“The ruins of the palaces in ancient Nadīyā were all swept away by the river. Ancient Navadvīpa was on the same side of the Gaṅgā as Kṛṣṇa-nagara, which is why the District of Kṛṣṇa-nagara was called the District of Nadīyā. Later, because the town of Nadīyā came to be on the other side of the river, the government has made known its intentions to include this town in the District of Barddhaman. In 1840, a gentleman from Kṛṣṇa-nagara, excavated fish bones from 8 hastas [1 hasta = 18 inches] beneath the ground in Nadīyā.
“The famous palace of Ballāla Sena was situated on the northern tip of Nadīyā, in the village of Ballāladīghī. There were many temples there before, but the river has decimated them.”
The second reference is excerpted from page 205 of Sir William Hunter’s “Rājñīya Bhārata:
“The ancient Hindu capital of Nadīyā was situated some 65 miles north of Calcutta at the confluence of two rivers. * * * It was from here that the last Hindu king of Bengal abdicated his throne and fled upon the arrival of the Muslims. In the 15th century, an incarnation of God appeared in this place and became dedicated to reforming Hindu religion, thereby emulating the kind of efforts made by [Martin] Luther of the West. Since the earliest periods of history, knowledge of Sanskrit was taught at this place. Serious students devoted to philosophical truth studied here from their childhoods till their deaths.
“I felt blessed to set foot in India’s ancient Oxford. From the veranda of a temple, a large-bodied, friendly devotee chanting the names of Hari on a rosary greeted me. I wanted to know where the birthplace of the founder of his religious sect was. He said that the Bhagīrathī had, from the very beginning, split the sacred town in two and encircled it, so the remainder of the original ancient town had become situated on the other side. Where the river had changed course, it had deposited sediments over top of everything that had been there before.”
The Race of Logic
Many of us are yuktivādīs, rationalists. We praise only rationality. If someone can explain something with rationale, then we can understand; otherwise, we don’t want to understand. Often even the scriptures concede defeat to our logic. We think that the authors of scripture adopted our logic to compose scripture, therefore if scripture aligns with our logic, then only is it deemed worthy of its status as scripture. We often use this rationale to say, “Bhagavān has created this world for our enjoyment. He has given us five knowledge-acquiring senses—eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin—to enjoy this world. Liquor, meat, and women have been created for the express purpose of our enjoyment; if that is not the case, then why did Bhagavān create them? Therefore, however long you have left, enjoy as much as you can; better you have a laugh, because you don’t have more than a few days here.”
What stunning logic! One kind of person hears this and cannot control their laughter upon seeing how the logician’s intellect is racing to such conclusions, but another kind of person considers this good rationale and praises the logician’s reasoning. This reasoning of the logician is just like a one-eyed deer. One day a one-eyed deer was grazing a lush, grassy tract next to a river. The deer decided there was no chance of any danger coming from the river, so he kept his blind eye towards the river. But the direction he thought was safe, with no chance of danger, was the very direction from which danger came and claimed his life. If we had intelligence, we would think, “Bhagavān has given us two eyes. Why should we look only at one side of things?” On one hand Bhagavān has created the ingredients for fleeting happiness, and on the other, He has also created countless miseries as well. He is showing us that for whatever enjoyment we glean, we will have to suffer four times the misery. So be careful. Do not become so enamoured with enjoyable objects and die an untimely death like an insect in flames. There is as much sorrow or more as there is laughter here. You will laugh for two days and then have to cry for two months. If you are intelligent, you will consider both sides before you act. There is no actual happiness in indulgence. Just take a look at the whole world for once. Who in all of history has been able to become happy from indulgence? As long as we do not enjoy a particular object, we think there is so much bliss in it, but we see that as soon as we enjoy it, a lack of bliss appears and catches hold of us. So why do we not understand, despite having seen and heard? This is why Bhagavān Gaurasundara has told us, “dvaite bhadrābhadra-jñāna saba manodharma | – In this world of dualities, all conception of good or bad is mental speculation.” A person attached to sense objects has his intelligence contracted, so his perception of good or bad is not accurate; it is rife with bhrama-pramāda, etc. The authors of scripture were not attached to indulging in the objects of the senses like us, therefore there is no flaw in their reasoning. It can be accepted without doubt.
Assembly at Poḍāmā-talā
(Submitted Letter)
From a correspondent’s letter printed in the regional news section of the 20th of Caitra issue of “Ānanda Bāzār” magazine we have come to know that a report of an assembly held in Prācīna Kuliyā, the present-day municipality of Navadvīpa town, at Poḍāmā-talā, under the chairmanship of Navadvīpa local Tārā Prasanna Bāgcī Bābu has been published. This letter has been submitted with the conviction that it needs to be published in Nadīya Prakāśa to refute the various topics discussed in that assembly.
The correspondent has written that Bāgcī Bābu is the zamindar of Navadvīpa. Is he the same Bāgcī Mahāśaya who sells bricks? If so, then by his reckoning, if the bricks are ready and they can be sold quickly, then the town of Prācīna Kuliyā can expand rapidly. Has the brick-and-mortar salesman mahāśaya agreed to be chairman of this kind of assembly because he is afraid there is going to be some sort of setback in Kuliyā’s expansion? No one has any respect for his antics of portraying the pinnacle of striving to serve his own birthplace when he is actually suppressing the truth. If he was really concerned with serving his homeland, we would not be seeing him trying to incite people to cut down the glory of Prācīna Navadvīpa.
[If the intentions were noble] the chairman in Calcutta’s Albert Hall would not have invited the King of Kashimbazar to the assembly and a certain proposal would not have been brought to nine local residents (who are trying to destroy the ancient history of Prācīna Kuliyā) to obstruct the truth in a scheme to increase the glory of the place where they were all born. Who are each of these nine? If we could know their names, we could understand a bit more. Are they all men or women? Are they householders or renunciates? How much lust, anger, greed, delusion, arrogance, and enmity do they have? What specific selfish motive or conspiratorial spirit has driven each of them to have the courage to campaign against the truth? This letter has three paragraphs. What I have to say about them is: who exactly is preaching that Navadvīpa town is called “Phuliyā”? If someone is doing that, then really they have tried to create a misconception among all Hindus. If it is a printing error that keeps replacing “Ku” with “Phu”, then it means there are those trying to replace the unmistaken conceptions of others with their personal erroneous conceptions. In that case, is their assembly, which is geared towards harsh refutation of people’s sound conceptions, not subject to lust, anger, etc.? Don’t they know that this sort of harsh refutation can be jeopardized by harsher and the harshest of all refutations? If an unjustified attempt is made in perpetuity in opposition of the truth, it simply serves to reinforce the truth, and then even millions and millions of people with their nefarious motives for abolishing that truth will not have the capacity to do so. If some creature calls an assembly to protest the fact that the sun rises during the day, then every single person who has seen the sun rise will know that creature to be a day-blind dvija [an owl]. [Note the pun here, as “twiceborn” can refer to birds, teeth, and brahmins as they are all “born twice” one way or another.] What is the paternity of such a misconception, and what reasons are compelling them to attempt to pawn off this sort of misconception as real in the world? I am protesting this project of theirs.
In the second paragraph, the reason the attendees of Bāgcī Bābu’s assembly in Poḍāmā-talā were expressing their displeasure was because they want to broadcast Śrī Māyāpura as being ‘Miñāpura’, which was coined by Prācīna Kuliyā resident Mṛta-kānti Candra Rādḥi! Prior to the aforementioned attorney who came up with this name, no one ever referred to Śrī Māyāpura by it. The uneducated Muslims say “Āma” instead of Rāma and “kelā” instead of kalā. Uneducated Hindus then imitate them and ruin words in this way. People used to call Śrī Māyāpura “Māyāpura”, “Mayāpura”, and some would even call it “Meyāpura”, etc., and this Rāḍhi Bābu called it “Miñāpura”, referring to his own place of birth, Prācīna Kuliyā, as “Prācīna Navadvīpa”, thus making profuse efforts to imitate an uneducated bunch in maintaining that the ancient Śrī Māyāpura really was called Miñāpura. Though his language, which is detested by anyone with any proper character and conduct, may be appropriate for his own community, for some unknown reason, Śrīyukta Kuladā Prasāda Mallika, a patron of people who make a living from public speaking, has repopularized such a text, which is brimming with ignoble standards of conduct. There needs to be a commission engaged to determine why Mallika Mahāśaya participated in such a detestable enterprise. The dharma-śāstras will never reward those who inwardly and outwardly strive to pose obstacles to the glorious efforts to rekindle the previous dignity of Prācīna Nadīyā. No simplehearted person who loves their nation can appreciate the conduct of those whose fire of enmity is preoccupied with finding fuel to incinerate the restoration of Prācīna Nadīyā and the reawakening of its memory. Those whose nature it is in their racist lives to besmirch others are antagonists of the welfare of their country and are selfish. Those who are maligning the effulgence of their motherland for the sake of glorifying themselves are not people we can ever refer to as those who genuinely love their country. Self-centered people will try to inflate the glory of their own children, their own dynasties, or their villages by critiquing and blaspheming others; but instead of achieving their desired result, they simply invite further corruption of their souls. The disservice invoked by the members of Bāgcī Bābu’s assembly with the aim of inciting more sectarian debate has injured the dignity of everyone in general who appreciates truth. The Ghoṣa Bābus who adhere to the Gaura-nāgarī doctrine, the editor mahāśaya of Buḍo Śiva-talā’s Nāgarī-patrikā, and many others will surely refer to the design of this second proposal as ‘non-simple’ instead of ‘simple’.
No less audacious than any of this is the fact that the scholars who published the book Kāyastha Kaustubha in 1252 Baṅgābda tried to change the established name of Māyāpura and popularize that. The proprietors of earlier presses did not have the capacity to change the name of Māyāpura village as recorded by Hunter Saheb in the Christian year of 1874 in the Statistical Account of the 24 Parganas. Even now, no man of letters has the capacity to dislocate the Śrī Māyāpura written about in Śrī Bhakti-ratnākara from Śrī Māyāpura. Should any literary adept attempt a cunning corruption of that by his literary prowess and Vaiṣṇava-antagonizing Buddhist conceptions, all such cunning schemes will quickly be uncovered for the eyes of the world to see clearly. The overseers of the Śrī Dhāma Pracāriṇī Sabhā and the Gauḍīya Maṭha pure devotees of all four āśramas are making efforts to eradicate the conspiracy and defamation launched by those enamoured with gold, women, and prestige. It is beyond the scope of materialistic scholars and servants of the soul’s six enemies to find words that could trump that supreme truth. The right to broadcast the satya-vastu [object of truth] as being devoid of bhakti can only be mistaken as the path to auspiciousness by an uninformed community and people who have ulterior motives and are driven by deceit. But how much right do they have to make these sorts of baseless statements? It has become the duty of civilized society to quickly call an assembly of protest at Albert Hall on this topic and check their ulterior motives from reaching fruition. IN other words, it is imperative to demonstrate the futility of all these assemblies and committees they are forming. It is imperative to establish that such selfish motives that demand suppressing the truth are not universal. No one can praise these people of devious motivies and their efforts to subdue the truth by forming various assemblies in Albert Hall and other places. Ananda Bazar’s connection with the Ghosh group in Bagbazar is not going to be completely severed, but the general public does not expect Ananda Bazar to lack impartiality to the extent that it will not broadcast truth and only report the words of some antagonists of truth.
Niḥ Śrī Rāma-gopāla Caṭṭopādhyāya
Jamshedpur
Biddha Nāma
“Adulterated Name”
Just as there has been an outbreak of cholera, smallpox, plague, and other deadly diseases nowadays all throughout the country, there has been much pomp and show of calling out to Bhagavān. We see today that even those who never let Bhagavān’s name into their mouths even by mistake have become sādhus. There is a proverb that says, “‘What good is father for?’ I say, until I fall and hurt my backside.” There is a story about a bābājī I have heard. There was a bābājī who had previously been a bailiff for a certain zamindar. This bailiff was charged with murdering someone in some altercation related to the zamindar. The court issued a warrant for the bailiff’s arrest, so the bailiff sir saw no alternative then and decked himself out as a big bābājī and left his home in the middle of the night. What excessive show of chanting japa! Eyes half-closed, but still worried the police were going to recognize him and catch him. He toured many holy places like this for a few years and earned quite a name for himself as an influential bābājī. Then, long after the case was reconciled, he showed up in Navadvīpa. The bābājī was then no longer fearing for his life, but that bābājī became a great terror to the pure devotees because he was preaching nāmāparādha and had begun invoking his own ruin, but moreover, was doing the same for many innocent people unacquainted with tattva.
Whether a person fears for his life or is compelled by some other motivation, if he does not offend Bhagavān and by some fortune becomes sincerely engaged in worshipping Svayaṁ Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa even once, then even though prema does appear to be attainable at first through ignorant execution of sādhana-bhakti, Kṛṣṇa become enamoured by such a person’s lack of deceit and grants him the nectar of His feet, whereby He thus causes that person to forget all his desires for sense gratification. Kṛṣṇa has mercy on him and enables him to obtain the association of pure devotees. By the power of the association of pure devotees, the lust, or propensity for sense enjoyment, in his heart is dispelled. Upon relinquishing that lust, he desires to become the servant of Kṛṣṇa. But if there is deceitfulness, the jīva can never obtain the mercy of Kṛṣṇa. A most fearful fate awaits those who call out wholeheartedly to Madhusūdana only when they are in trouble, but no longer think of Bhagavān when they are freed from their predicaments, or at other times, and do not recognize the error of harboring enmity toward Bhagavān and His very dear devotees.
Some days ago, a letter refuting the errors that have crept into the dating of Śrī Caitanyābda by and among the lesser informed was published in Nadīyā Prakāśa. The letter demonstrated the errors in the calculations of a person from Borobazar named Śrīla Satyānanda Gosvāmī and errors in the Gupta Press pañjikā [almanac]. Because of this, Sarutia’s Śrī Rādhā-kiśora Siṁha enacted a tāṇḍava-nṛtya [destructive dance] of vehement anger toward Svarūpa-gañja’s Śrī Kuñjabihārī Dāsa Adhikārī on behalf of the aforementioned Gosvāmī.
Nadīya Prakāśa’s readers may know that the son of Śrī Haṭṭa Sarutia’s Magana Lāla Siṁha, Rādhā-kiśora Siṁha, has recently taken veśa and seeks to garner acclaim as a bābājī. He has a rather lengthy previous history. He resorted to utter delusion and approached a certain adhikarī-mahāśaya in Svarūpa-gañja and launched a futile debate with him, insisting that he was wrong to find fault in the Gosvāmī’s calculations. Even though Siṁha made it clear that he is completely unacquainted with this topic, he would not relent in expressing his animosity.
Unable to tolerate this renunciate Siṁha’s remonstrances, the adhikārī mahāśaya has conveyed to us that he fears he is going to be targeted and harmed in various ways. Needless to say, since the renunciate resident of Sarutia Śrī Haṭṭa is constantly wandering about in a deluded state, he has enacted another drama of that sort by whatever instruction he has obtained under the name of Śrīyukta Navīna-kṛṣṇa Pāla Mahāśaya! We want to mention to Vairāgī-jī that the Śrī Kuñjabihārī Dāsādhikārī who wrote that letter was someone else with the same name. Perhaps if he had read The Comedy of Errors, he would not have been the fool.
What is so surprising that Vairāgī-jī should mistake one person for another? He can mistake Gaurāṅga Siṁha for ‘Mahāprabhu’. He can read Mṛta-kānti Candra Rāḍhi’s ignoble book and mistake Miñāpura for Śrī Māyāpura. He can identify himself by the name of Pāla Mahāśaya who is a member of his own group in Śrī Haṭṭa. All of this provides ample proof of his folly.
Vairāgī-jī’s mistaking the aforementioned adhikārī-mahāśaya to be a certain teacher who wrote that letter anddemonstrating anger toward an innocent man has proven as futile an endeavour as King Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s embrace of Bhīma. Vairāgī-jī is supremely adept at delivering a reenactment of Vidyāsāgara Mahāśaya’s deluded follies.
From Vairāgī-jī’s sobs we found out that he will conduct his abuse through the employees of Choṭa Pāla Saheb. As he speaks, Vairāgī-jī is revealing his patron, the landlord of Kākāḍera Māṭha, and is busy proving himself to be the landlord’s employee in the garb of a mendicant. Seeing all these endeavours of his, we gather that the standards of his renunciation have been compromised.
Instead of explaining to the world how or why any enemy of theirs injured them, where they perpetrated such atrocity, or why they did so, they are trying to shirk responsibility for their actions and place the blame on others and, guided by the sinister designs of corrupt mentors, are trying to turn “no” into “yes”. But their contrivances were caught by dharma’s hands. Because they are trying to prop up a boss’s material development, they will not be able to reveal the futility of their party’s words, so they resort to a variety of contrivances. Even Prācīna Kuliyā’s Ṣaṣṭhī Dāsa Gosvāmījī has given them an earful of the fact that they have become embroiled in a thousand delusions.
Sense gratification is called vilāsa. Refraining from that is called virāga. So why do vairāgīs not relinquish their servitude to mundane enjoyment, to form, taste, scent, and touch? Because of their hopes for sense gratification? The Gaura-nāgarī sampradāya is also guilty of this flaw. They perceive the master, Prabhu Gaura, to be the servant, Dāsa Gaura, and bring form, taste, scent, and touch onto the mundane platform.
Local
There has been such a dire shortage of water in the areas surrounding Prācīna Navadvīpa Śrīdhāma Māyāpura that the situation is simply indescribable. The very worthy manager mahodayas of Śrī Caitanya Maṭha have at present been compelled by great compassion and, enduring numerous personal inconveniences, made the maṭha’s tubewell available for the use of the villagers suffering of thirst. People come as far as one and a half or two miles, starting at 4:00 in the morning till 10:00 at night to fetch water. Despite providing water to the villagers incessantly, the well is not running dry. Is the government really not going to pay attention to this crisis? We keep hearing that the government is spending lakhs and lakhs of taka to alleviate the citizens’ water shortage. Is this how they will be so wisely spending all that money? Will there be no efforts made to alleviate the shortage where it is happening? Our only request is that the administration quickly draw their attention to this issue.
One of the members of Bengal’s Governance Council, Nadīyā’s Mahārājā Śrīyukta Kṣaunīśa Candra Rāya Bāhādura is now a bit healthier than before. Our sole prayer at the feet of Bhagavān in this regard is that Mahārāja Bāhādura fully regain his health and strive to facilitate the widespread preaching of Nadīya Prakāśa Śrī Śrīman Mahāprabhu’s universal religion of love throughout the land; may Nadīyā’s Mahārāja safeguard the dignity of Nadīyā and earn his Vaiṣṇavī prestige.
The correspondents in Navadvīpa town are submitting a variety of mostly false reports to Basumati, Ananda Bazar, and other newspapers as aids and associates of Vairāgī Vrajamohana. We request the respectable editors of these newspapers to not give such unreliable reports space in their papers. Without proper verification of the facts, the pages of their renowned papers will be stained with disrepute and they will become the laughingstock of the public. We will gradually be revealing the nature of these correspondents and what kind of mutual connection they have with Virāgī Vraja-mohana.
Nānā Kathā
This past 1st of April, in the night, in Kāśī, at Daśāśvamedha-ghāṭa, Paṇḍita Madana-mohana Mālavya-jī, amid an assembly of distinguished listeners, delivered a speech regarding the existence of Śrī Bhagavān. The topic of Paṇḍitajī’s speech is not a bad one, but in Śrī Kāśī-dhāma, one of the seven mokṣa-granting cities, where Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s nondifferent manifestation, Vaiṣṇava-rāja Śambhu, is singing Kṛṣṇa’s glories day and night— where the savior of the fallen, the pure waters risen from the feet of Viṣṇu, Gaṅgā Devī, seeks to immerse Vaiṣṇava-rāja Viśvanātha and, with great delight, desiring to please Viṣṇu and the Vaiṣṇavas, is chattering day and night about Kṛṣṇa, thus flowing down from the north to touch Śrī Bhagavān Bindu Mādhava’s lotus feet—where Svayaṁ Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, the savior of Kali-yuga and founder of the saṅkīrtana movement, refuted the māyāvāda explanations of the then famous māyāvādī sannyāsī Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī, who was the guru of thousands and thousands of māyāvādī sannyāsīs, and made him and his disciples made with love of Kṛṣṇa—where the eternal truth, the everlasting person, Śrī Bhagavān Gaurasundara, imparted Sanātana-śikṣā, which is comprised of sambandha, abhidheya, and prayojana-tattvas, to the sanātana [eternal] jīvas on the pretext of speaking to Śrīmat Sanātana Gosvāmī Prabhu—where, one day, in Kāśī-dhāma, by the grace of Gaurasundara, faith in Bhagavān was witnessed to have been natural for all inhabitants of that dhāma—now in that same Kāśī-dhāma it seems that its residents are doubtful of Bhagavān’s very existence. That is why Paṇḍitajī, who is devoted to his dharma, has delivered a speech about Bhagavān’s existence. This does not say much for present-day residents of Kāśī. But in any case, Paṇḍitajī’s religious efforts are very praiseworthy.
Śrī Sanātana Gauḍīya Maṭha has been established for several years now in Kāśī-dhāma as a branch of the main maṭha of the Śrī Śrī Viśva-Vaiṣṇava Rāja-sabhā, Śrī Caitanya Mātha, for the purpose of preaching Śrī Sanātana-śikṣā there. Daily worship of Śrī Śrīman Mahāprabhu and Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa in śrī vigraha form is going on in the śrī maṭha. The brahmacārīs living there in the maṭha are going door to door preaching the message of śrī bhāgavata-kathā. As a result of their enthusiastic preaching, many people who are thirsty for truth are obtaining the opportunity to hear the pure message of bhakti.
We have been particularly delighted to hear that Śrīyukta Viśvanātha Siṁ Mahodaya has brought a proposal to the Benares Municipal Board advising that the municipality acquire all the houses and plots along Śrī Śrī Viśvanātha Mandīra’s very narrow gully, from the Ḍhuṇḍirāja Gaṇeśa temple up to the Sarasvatī Phāṭaka gate. The local religious community will bear the expense. Siṁjī Mahāśaya will be responsible for giving the municipality that money. The aim is to establish the deities of the various gods there in large temple pavilions, demolish the homes there and clean the whole foul-smelling area, make the Viśvanātha gully 16 feet wide, build 20-foot permanent pavilions with pillars for the various temples, not move the deities anywhere else, so that the pilgrims do not have any difficulty having darśana of the deities. Our only prayer is that Siṁjī’s noble initiative proves victorious.
We hear that the workers of the Barne, Jessop, and Martin Company have joined the Liliuh workers and created a fullblown strike. Administration has still not been able to present any resolution. The Howrah–Amta rail is also closed. Deliberation regarding Bamangachi is ongoing.
This past 31st of March, the emperor’s [George VI] third son, Prince Henry, has received three high-ranking titles on the occasion of his twenty-eighth birthday, becoming the Duke of Gloucester, Earl of Ulster, and Baron Culloden. Having received these titles, he will be eligible for a seat in the House of Lords assembly. He will be referred to in general as the Duke of Gloucester.
In response to the appeal City College student Śrīyukta Herambanātha Mukhopādhyāya submitted to the syndicate along with Śrīyukta Śaraccandra Bose’s character certificate, the university registrar has written that because of all the complaints City College’s principal has lodged against him, according to the rules of the syndicate, he is not to be given permission to take the examination.
A white-bodied, 18-year-old youth by the name of Lesley Hex suddenly fell off the dock in Khidirpur while working the ship Meghna and drowned. On Monday, his corpse was found and sent to the coroner’s office for examination.
Amarnath, the manager of the Ray Bahadur Benarasi Dasa Kuldeep Oil Mill, has been arrested for stealing 1 lakh 25 thousand taka.
Mr. Albert Parcel and Mr. Holsworth, labour union representatives in parliament, have returned to England from India and expressed their sympathies for India’s labourers. “Sadly,” they have said, “Indian workers do not earn enough for two meals a day. What is sadder than that? While they do not have enough food, their living situation is even worse. They cannot provide proper education for their sons and daughters. It is as if they are in God’s kingdom a cursed group of souls.”
Kulīna-brāhmaṇa Nanī-gopāla Mukhopādhyāya Mahāśaya and Soleman Khan Mahāśaya are two renowned thieves of Calcutta. They are responsible for almost all the theft that goes on in the northern part of Calcutta. For some reason, a dispute broke out between these two thief friends. In the course of this row, the thief known as Soleman Khan told police that they were going to kill a prostitute who works on Mohanbagan Street and make off with her 25 thousand taka. This past Saturday night, at around 10:00 pm, the two thief friends were out on their mission when they saw one of their police friends! When friends see each other after a long time, what do they leave out? On account of their friendship, the two thief friends told their police friend all of each other’s “accomplishments” and the police friend promptly brought them both to jail! Another six people were arrested. The two thieves did not harm the prostitute at all. Many stolen items have been recoverd. Investigation is ongoing.
In France, two international con men have been caught. They introduced themselves as representatives of four large factories seeking to strengthen economical ties between France and Germany. Their many fraudulent activities are being uncovered.
In Agartala, in the city, last 30th of March, in the night, a fire broke out and burnt several houses made of tin and straw. Almost 10 thousand taka in damages have been incurred and two female animals have died.
A renowned Chinese war veteran, Wu Pei Phu [?] has apparently taken up residence in a monastery in Tibet. Why this sudden renunciation?
In Madras, in the city of Trivindam, a gang of counterfeiters has been arrested. A detective went undercover, took a job with the counterfeiters, and interacted with them for a long time before he was able to participate in one of their plots. That day the counterfeiters were dividing the fake notes. The undercover officer knew the time was right and gave a signal, at which the police came and arrested the gang. Though the leader of the gang tried to flee, he was ultimately caught.
The maulvi who had antagonized the performance of kīrtana the other day in Guptipara village in Hooghly District has been arrested and brought to the court of Chunchura’s Head Subdivisional Officer. The case is ongoing.
Again, on April 2, a strike has commenced at Daulatpur College. Reports are that the college administration has apparently banned three boarders from the mess, but not shown them any formal complaint to warrant the ban and have refused to relocate the Namasudra mess from the center of the college courtyard.
Tripura’s Mahārāja Māṇikya Bāhādura has gone for rest in Gañjām District, to a place called Gopāla-pura, which is near the ocean. When Mahārāja Bāhādura returns from there, the revenue and expense budgets will be discussed. It has been proposed that significant cutbacks be made on expenditures.
Last Monday, a known thief named Tinkori Das had lifted a golden necklace from the neck of a five-year-old girl named Rekhā on Baithak Khana Road and was making his getaway. Several people saw him and started chasing him, so he swallowed the necklace. Later, he was arrested and brought to the Mucipara police station. He has since been kept at the hospital to test and see if the necklace is in his stomach or not.
Last Monday, Barristesr Mr. Maniyār departed this world. Last Tuesday, condolences for him were expressed at the Calcutta High Court. Advocate General Sir Brajendra Lal Mitra said that Mr. Maniyār was one of the greatest experts in criminal law.
The Afghan royal couple will journey to Paris on the way of the Afghanistan this upcoming Thursday. Reports are that from there, they will first go to Russia and then Persia.
Calcutta High Court Judge Mr. Graham will be on holiday from the 19th of April till the 13th of September. Mr. R.I. Jyack ICS has been appointed judge for this period. He was previously working in the Assam region.
A man by the name of Bijoy Kayal of Sandeshkhali village in Basirhat Subdivision has brutally assaulted his wife, Saudāminī Dāsī, maiming her face with a knife, slicing her nose, front portion of her gums and teeth, chin, and a significant portion of her cheeks clean off. The wife’s offense was that she had not been able to tolerate the scoldings she had been receiving from the various women in her in-law’s home and would, from time to time, go back to her father’s home. Bijoy Kayal would also beat her for this. On the day of the incident, he became extremely enraged and committed this cruel crime. The people of the home did not inform the police and sent Saudāminī to the hospital. From there, word was sent to the police. Investigation is ongoing.
Recently, as a result of conflict in a home on Cornwallis Street, a sixteen-year-old girl dowsed her clothes in kerosene and set herself on fire. Word is that she died in hospital.
An accountant at the Sir S.B. Billimoria Company in Calcutta by the name of Mr. Sapuraji Idalaji Salihar, who is a Persian gentleman, swam for twenty-four hours in the Wellesley Square Lake, from 7:30 in the morning on Sunday till the same time Monday morning. After rubbing his limbs for a short while and recovering thus, he went back to work as usual at the office. When his hands and feet were becoming weary as he swam, a doctor gave him just a little brandy or other such stimulating substance. Salihar’s vow was to swim around the lake a hundred times, but he could not do more than 90 rounds.
Near Khushtia’s Majampur gate, an ox’s back leg got stuck between two rail tracks. The carriage driver and several passengers tried without success to free the leg. In the meantime, a light engine from the direction of Goyalanda came upon the ox and smashed it to pieces. Apparently even though everyone present was shouting and the gateman was waving his red flag, the engine did not slow. The word is that there will soon be court case in this regard.
—Bāṁ Kaḥ