NADIYA. 131 attended by four or five thousand followers, and lasting twelve days, is held every January or February. But it is not only on account of the fame and sanctity of its ancient capital that the District of Nadiya is interesting ; it possesses historical attractions alike for natives and English. Here was the capital of Lakshman Sen, the last Hindu king of Bengal; and here was—for it no longer remains the battle-field of Plassey, where, in 1757, Clive defeated the Muhammadan Nawab. The waters of the Bhagirathi have swept away the actual scene of the battle, and only a solitary tree remains to mark the spot where Clive's famous Mango-Grove once stood. In 1860, Nadiyá District was the principal scene of the indigo riots which occasioned so much excitement throughout Lower Bengal. Soon after the first European planters established themselves in the District, a feeling of jealousy arose among the large native landholders, who found their influence suffering in consequence of the presence of the new-comers. They accordingly endeavoured to raise in the minds of the cultivators an ill-feeling against the planters, and against the strange crop. Constant quarrels followed, and the planters, failing to get redress from the courts, had recourse to fighting the native landholders with bands of club-men. They also began to purchase, or to obtain sub-tenures of the lands adjoining their factories, so that they might be as much as possible independent of unfriendly zamíndárs. The latter, however, took every occasion to create a feeling of dissatisfaction among the indigo cultivators, and not without success. Unfortunately, too, a number of circumstances combined to intensify the bitterness thus engendered. Crops had, for some years previous to 1860, been poor; prices were low; the ráyats were in a state of chronic indebtedness; and owing to an increase which had taken place in the value of other agricultural produce, the cultivators saw that it would have paid them better to grow oil-seeds and cereals than indigo. Collisions became common; and such was the excited state of the peasantry, that a spark was all that was required to set the indigo districts in a blaze. The crisis was brought about by sone ill-disposed persons starting a rumour that the Government had declared itself against indigo planting. The District was for a time at the mercy of the cultivators ; and those ráyats who had lands sown with indigo in terms of their contracts with the factories, were seized by the mob and beaten. The Bengal Government succeeded in quieting the disturbance, and a Commission was appointed to inquire into the relations between the planters and the cultivators. Indigo cultivation in Nadiya received at this time a blow from which it has never altogether recovered. Population.-Owing to numerous changes which have taken place in the area of the District jurisdiction, the results of early attempts made
