| How far the
Sadgop power extended to the east can be surmised from the local prevalence of the members
of the modern caste, the Aguris. The line of Marches which lies south of Katwa to the west
of the Bhagirathi is still held by this caste who occupy the old deltaic soil between this
line and the present boundary ofGopbhum in which the Sadgops are still the most prominent
caste. The Aguris, by their own admission, are the product of unions between the Khetris
of the house of Burdwan and the Sadgops of the Gopbhum dynasty, and the caste arose within
the last two hundred years. This recent
formation of the Aguri caste indicates that the Sadgop kingdom of Gopbhum existed in
however curtailed a state till almost modern times, first as subject to the Mughals, and
then under the shadow of the house of Burdwan itself. Its south -western extremity, now
pargana Salimpur, was apparently held by two Sadgop kinglings, probably mere cadets of the
house of Gopbhum, one stationed at Bharatpur on the Damodar, and the other at Kankeswar or
Kaksa. The latter was attacked and overthrown, and his lands taken by a Bokhariot partisan
named Sayad Bokhari, whose descendant Sayads still hold the Kaksa lands in aimma to this
day.
The remains of the tiny forts at Bharatpur and Kaksa are
still to be seen, and old Hindu images carved in black basalt
are frequently found in the neighboring tanks. Mangalkot on the Ajay, which is rich in
Hindu remains, similar to those found at Kaksa, may also have been an outpost of the
Sadgop kingdom.It can however only be said for certain that the dynasty held the present
Gopbhum and Salimpur parganas, and it is here only that any remains of them are found; nor
does tradition assign to it any wider domain. The prevalence of the Aguris, who
undoubtedly sprang from it, in such numbers to the east of Gopbhum indicates that its
extent may have been wider, but in any case its undoubted seat was on the high pasture
lands and at the edge of the forest of Gopbhum. |
