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
