Monuments Around Santiniketan

From the Introduction: "Birbhum, sandwichedbetween two important and prosperous districts of Burdwan and Murshidabad, was never a popular destination mainly for its limited connectivity. It consisted ofthick forests infested by wild elephants and other animals, arid laterite and rocky land and the fertile alluvial riverine plains in the east. The rivers Ajay, Mayurakshi, Kopai and other minor channels sustained ancient Stone Age settlements. Archaeological remains of dwellings and religious structures, inscriptions and artistic remains from historical periods point to the antiquity of the land though no clear and continuous history can be formulated, especially for the earlier period. Birbhum was a part of the ancient Rarh region, latermore specifically Uttara Rarh; the dividing line between North (Uttara) and South (Dakshina) Rarh was the river Ajay. Several villages of Birbhum findmention in early inscriptions, but not any town till the 13th century indicating late urbanization. In ad 1260, Minhaj-ud Din Siraj in his Tabakat-I Nasiri described the kingdom of Lakhnauti (Lakshmanavati) which lay on the banks of the river Ganga. The eastern part was called Raal (Rarh). Lakhnaur being the principal town of that region, has been identified with Nagor near Suri, which later developed into a fortified city called Rajnagar. Pilgrims, however, flocked to Bakreswar, Tarapith and Kankalitala, Kendubilva and Nannur placesassociated with the great devotee poets, Jayadev and Chandidas."