Historical Geography of Ancient India c8.487

c8.487

Sunderban.—A grant is said to have been discovered in the Sunderban (Bengal), which is now lost. The forest region of Sunderban was formerly included in the kingdom of Samaṭaṭa or Bāgḍi (Vyāghrataṭī). The Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang saw many Hindu, Buddhist and Jain temples at Samaṭaṭa in the 7th century A.D. but no trace of them has yet been found. Some decorated bricks, fragments of stone sculptures, coins of Huviṣka and Skandagupta, an image of Sūrya and a Navagraha slab have been discovered there (Introducing India, Pt. I, p. 84).