Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/720

 _ The catas- trophe of 1871. 680 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. [ Chap. painted on the clouds,—the Navaratna, with nine spires, and the Sapta-ratna with seven spires, displayed great architectural beauty, and _ the Dolmancha with its mazy staircase and lofty cupola rose to a greater height than the Ochterlony monu- ment of Calcutta. There were besides palaces ‘in which the utmost sculptural skill available at the time in India was employed. All this gave to the town a look of wealth and grandeur which it would have been vain for Raja Krisha Chandra to attempt to approach in his new town, though Civanivasa in its own way was certainly a beautiful place. Rajanagara was unfortunately situated on the dreaded stream of the Kirttinaga—‘ the destroyer of fame’; this name had been earned by the river, which was a branch of the Padma, by destroying a rich town founded by Chand Ray and Kedar Ray —two chiefs of Bengal, in the 16th century. But a second time—in the middle of the 1gth century the stream showed again one of its furious moods and by destroying Rajanagara caused a loss to Bengal, which for the Hindus can not be repair- ed. This beautiful city is now in the bed of the river. It was situated six miles away from the river, when suddenly in the year 1871 A.D. there was a cataclysm. Itis said that people suddenly felt the roots of grass and plants snap beneath their feet, and a crack was created, which gaping wide open like the jaws of death made the whole plain, cover- ed by a number of villages and city of Rajanagara, slowly fall down into the river bed with acrash ; this catastrophe took a whole year for being complete. The desolation began in august 1871 and was complete about the same time in 1872. 117০ spires