Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/200

 BASRA— BASSEIN.

190

Basra.

—Village on the Bidyadhan

Sundarbans, Bengal, and

river, in

on

the Twenty-four Pargands,

Calcutta and South20 miles from Calcutta, and 8 from Port Canning. Lat. 22° 22' N., long. 88° 37' E. Important depot of the timber trade of the Sundarbans, and the scene of a weekly market {hat), at which rice

Eastern Railway

and

a

station



was here that the celebrated fakir, and rode through the while the place was yet in the heart of the

stores of all kinds are sold.

Mubarak Ghazi, who overawed jungles on a tiger, settled forest.

that

‘

In the altars

to

the

It

the wild beasts

Revenue Surveyor’s report of the District, it is Mubarak Ghazf are common in every village

stated in the

and wood-cutters never

vicinity of the jungles adjoining the Sundarbans,

Mubarak Ghazi’s protection against wild beasts. A number of fakirs, who call themselves descendants of Mubarak Ghazi, gain their livelihood by the offerings made on these The custom is for the fakir to go altars by wood-cutters and boatmen. to the spot where the wood is to be cut, and remain there three days without food, during which time Mubarak Ghazi appears to him in a dream, marking out the precincts within which wood can be cut, by enter the jungle without invoking

lopping branches from the

trees.

Prayers and offerings are then made,

go beyond the boundary marked made, and one or two It is strange enough that these woodrupees are given to the fakir. cutters are very seldom carried off by the tigers which everywhere infest the jungles they go in without fear, the hatchet required to hew the timber being their only weapon and means of defence.’ Basrur {Abu-sanir oi I bn Batuta, Bracelor, Bdsilor). Town in the Kundapur taluk. South Kanara District, Madras Presidency. Lat. 13°

and the wood-cutters warned not

When

out.

the boat

to

offerings are again

is filled,



—

40' N., long 75° 10' E. ; population (1881) 1570; houses, 326. Now almost deserted, but once a large walled town with a fort and temple, and mentioned as an important trading place by all the Arabian

geographers. preservation.

Bassein.

The

and

walls

water-gates

still

remain

in

good

See B.vrk.vlur.

— Sub-division

of

Thana

District,

Bombay

Presidency.

towns and 90 villages, and 10,934 occupied houses; population (1881) 68,967, namely, Hindus, 51,918; This Sub-division, which Muhammadans, 2292; ‘others,’ 14,757.

Area,

221 square miles,

with 2

is formed of a portion of the mainland which was once known as the island of Bassein, but is now no longer so, the narrow creek which divided the island from The present Sub-division is 14 miles the mainland having silted up. in breadth and about 17 in length, with the exception of two small hills,

lies in

and

the west of the District,

territory'

about 200 a rich

feet high,

soil,

on the island portion



the surface here

yielding crops of rice, plantain, sugar-cane,

the mainland portion are the

Tungar and Kaman

hills,

is flat,

and pan.

with

On

both over 2000