RAJMAHAL  , a former

capital of Bengal, India, now a village in the district of the Santal Parganas, situated on the right bank of the Ganges, where that river makes a turn to the south . Pop . (1901) 2047 . It was chosen for his residence by Man Singh, Akbar's Rajput general in 1592, but the capital of the province was shortly afterwards transferred to Dacca . It contains many palaces and mosques, now in ruins and over-grown with jungle . It has a station on the loop line of the East Indian railway, but trade has declined since the Ganges abandoned its old bed; and Sahibganj has taken its place . Rajmahal has given its name to a range of hills, almost the only hills in xxn . 28Bengal proper, which here come down close to the bank of the Ganges . They cover a total area of 1366 sq. m., and their height never exceeds 2000 ft . They are inhabited by an aboriginal race, known as Paharias or "hill-men," of whom two tribes may be distinguished: the Male Sauria Paharias and the Mal Paharias; total pop . (1901) 73,000 . The former, if not the latter also, are closely akin to the larger tribe of Oraons .

Their

language, known as Malto, of the Dravidian family, was spoken by 60,777 persons in 19or . The Paharias have contributed an element to the administrative history of Bengal . Augustus Clevland, a civilian who died in 1784 and whose name is still honoured, was the first who succeeded in winning their confidence and recruiting among them a corps of hill-rangers . The methods that he adopted are the foundation of the " non-regulation " system, established in 1796; and the hills were exempted from the permanent settlement . The Santals, a different aboriginal race, have since immigrated in large numbers into the Daman-i-koh, or " skirts of the hills "; but the Paharias alone occupy the plateaux on the top, where they are permitted to practise the privilege of shifting cultivation, which renders scientific forestry impossible . The approach from the plains below to each plateau is guarded by a steep ladder of boulders . See E . W . Dalton, Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal (Calcutta, 1872) ; F . B . Bradley-Birt, The Story of an Indian Upland (1905) .