Sannyasi and Fakir Raiders in Bengal

Contents: Original title. Preface. Introduction. 1. Sannyasis and Fakirs. 2. Their places of pilgrimage. 3. Conditions in Bengal. 4. The earliest incursions, 1760-1769. 5. The raids increase, 1770-1772. 6. Widespread incursions and military operations, 1772-1774. 7. Warren Hastings\' measures. 8. Fakir raiders reappear, 1775-1780. 9. Sannyasis in Cooch Behar. 10. Fakirs in Northern and Eastern Bengal 1781-1792. 11. The Fakir leaders. 12. Their final suppression, 1793-1800. 13. Resident Sannyasis. Appendix: A poem on Majnu. Index.

From the Preface: "This volume traces the activities of the bands of Sannyasis and Fakirs who infested many parts of Bengal in the latter part of the eighteenth century. They were a feature of those unsettled times and their suppression was part of the task imposed on the British in evolving an orderly administration. This narrative has been compiled as a contribution towards the social and local history of rural Bengal and as giving a picture of a state of affairs which has happily long passed away. It is based for the most part on the documents preserved in the Bengal Historical Record Room, and the events have been mostly described in the words of the records themselves."