Riyaz al-salatin 9.3

9.3

And Jafar Khan, seeing and hearing of it, used to connive. At present, Purniah is a large city, and the rivers Kusi and Saura pass through it. Its soil is low and full of water. In the rainy season the floods rush down from the mountains of the Murang, and the fields and wastes are inundated. Much of the cultivation is consigned to destruction by the floods. Paddy, wheat, pulse and mustard-seed and other food-grains and all kinds of corn grow in abundance. And oil and turmeric and saltpetre, both of water and fire, and pepper, and large cardamom and cassia-leaf and very large trees of ebony, are produced well there. And the flowers of jasmine and bela and the red-rose and other flowers that grow there possess exquisite scents. The mountains of the Murang are six days' journey to the north of Purniah. The Murangi wood, which is called Bahaduri, is obtained from those mountains. From the top of the mountains, the road towards Nepal and Kashmir is very close, but it is very undulating. Half the mahals of Purniah pertain to the annexes of the province of Behar; but Purniah itself is within Bengal. It is a cold country and the climate of that tract is insalubrious and incongenial. Tumours of the throat in men and women generally, as well as in wild beasts and birds, are common in that country. Masonry buildings are few, excepting the Fort, the Lai Bagh, and some others. Formerly, Sarnah was more populous than Purniah.