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 a

BENGAL. two

27s

want of capital. The Governis keeping them in its own arrangements can be made for transferring them

blast furnaces, but failed through

ment has recently purchased the works, and hands provisionally, until

a private company. The output when the furnaces are working order is estimated at 80 tons of pig-iron per diem. 300 to 350 tons of cast-iron are produced monthly, worth about Six hundred workmen are employed casting railway sleepers. to

in full

From 2 5 00.

Iron-

smelting in a very rough manner has been carried on from time immemorial by many aboriginal tribes, especially in the western Districts of

These rude people work individually on a small

Bengal.

aggregate produce of their miniature furnaces formerly supplied the whole iron required

is

for

scale,

but the

considerable.

They

weapons and other

purposes in Bengal. History

.

—The

integral part

history of so large a Province as Bengal forms

of the general history of India.

The northern

Behar, ranked as a powerful kingdom in Sanskrit times, and town, Patna,

is

identified as the Palibothra of the Greeks.

its

an

part,

chief

The Delta

beyond the ancient Sanskrit polity, and was governed by a number of local kings belonging to a pre-Aryan stock. The Chinese travellers. Fa Hian in the 5th century, and Hwen or southern part of Bengal lay

Thsang

in the 7th century, found the Buddhist religion prevailing throughout Bengal, but already in a fierce struggle with Hinduism

—

ended about the 9th or loth century in the general establishment of the latter faith. Until the end of the 12th century, struggle which

Hindu

princes ruled over the lower valley of the Ganges, in petty

principalities.

lead the

first

In 1199,

Musalman

Muhammad

Bakhtiyar Khilji was appointed to

The Muhammadan connew power speedily spread

invasion into Bengal.

quest of Behar dates from 1200, and the

southwards into the Delta.

From about

ruled by governors appointed by the

this date until 1336,

Bengal was

Muhammadan Emperors in the north.

From 1336 to 1539, its Musalman governors asserted a precarious independence, and arrogated the position of sovereigns on their own

From 1539 to 1576, Bengal passed under the rule of the Pathan or Afghan dynasty, which commonly bears the name of Sher Shah. On the overthrow of this house by the powerful arms of Akbar, Bengal was incorporated into the Mughal Empire, and administered by governors appointed by the Delhi Emperor, until the treaties of 1765, which placed Bengal, Behar, and Orissa under the administration of the Down to 1854, Bengal remained under the East India Company. account.

Governor-General of India as Governor, his place being supplied, during his absence in other parts of India, by a Deputy-Governor appointed

from among the members of his council. By the statute 16 and 17 Viet, cap. 95, the Governorship of Bengal was separated from the GovernorGeneralship of India, and Bengal was erected into a Lieutenant-