The Birth of Rarh

300 million years ago there was a great ocean without a name because there were no humans yet.

After a long time this very terrain, this nameless mountainous terrain, was given the name Ráŕh.

The word ráŕh originated in the ancient Austric language and means a land of red (laterite) soil.

Back then there was no Áryán land. There were no:

• plains of Bengal and the Deccan
• deserts of Rajasthan and Gujarat.

The northern part of the Arabian Sea did not exist either. Only its southern part existed. This linked the Deccan peninsula with Africa, the Andamans, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia.

They were linked by land that lay sometimes a little above the water level, sometimes a little below.

In that world uninhabited by human beings, the Ráŕh was older than any other land.

The snow-covered mountains of Ráŕh gave birth to numerous rivers.

These rivers, fed by melting snow, flowed some to the east and some to the southeast, towards the ocean.

Rainstorms and thunderbolts struck the mountains, and gradually the mountains diminished.

Their snowy crowns fell off their heads, their height decreased.

As the mountains became smaller and smaller through erosion, each river basin that lay between two mountains became higher.

The undulating red soil that we see today in the west of Ráŕh, the undulation that advances ahead of us till it mingles in the remote blue, the undulation that gives a hint of some lost address as it recedes behind us – that undulating land is our Ráŕh.

Miśt́i Ráŕher mát́i – Sonár Lauṋká, sonár svarga ceyeo jáni khánt́i. [Sweet is the soil of Ráŕh – Purer, I know, than golden Lanka(5) or golden heaven.]

The mountains were gradually eroding and were being transformed into sand and silt. This sand and silt, carried by the rivers of Ráŕh, formed eastern Ráŕh. This was lakhs and crores of years ago.

The Birth of the Himalayas

The Himalayas were born many crores of years after the birth of Ráŕh.

From the Himalayas issued a daughter, the River Gauṋgá [Ganges], and a son, the River Brahamaputra.(8)

The sand and silt their waters bore formed new soil; northern India and Báḿlá [Bengal] were formed.(9)

The bed of the sea that was to the east of Ráŕh rose higher and higher thanks to that sand and silt, and – after the formation of eastern Ráŕh – long after – many lakhs of years after – formed a vast plain (samatal).

That plain [to the east of eastern Ráŕh] is known as Samatat́a in the Sanskrit language and Bágŕi in the Bengali language.

Farther to the east, the sand and silt borne by the rivers of Ráŕh mingled with the sand and silt of the Brahmaputra and formed Vauṋga,(10) or D́abák.

The people of western Ráŕh migrated to eastern Ráŕh and set up habitation. This happened some lakhs of years ago.

If human beings appeared a million years ago, then those inhabitants of the western Ráŕh of a million years ago found eastern Ráŕh to have been in a ready condition for them even before their birth.

Even a portion of northern India arose before the origin of human beings.

Samatat and D́abák, however, originated a little after the appearance on earth of humans.

The people of western and eastern Ráŕh removed the forest cover and dwelt in Samatat-Vauṋga-D́abák.

This is a description of the genesis of Ráŕh and Báḿlá.(11)

Samatat is roughly:

1. Eastern Murshidabad
2. Nadia
3. Parganas
4. Kusthia
5. Jessore
6. Khulna, 7) western Faridpur and 8) western Bakhargunj.(12)

Eastern Ráŕh is roughly

1. Western Murshidabad, 2) the northern part of Birbhum, 3) eastern Burdwan, 4) the whole of Hooghly, 5) the whole of Howrah, 6) eastern Midnapur and 7) the Indás Police Station(13) of Bankura District.

Western Ráŕh is

1. Santhal Pargana
2. Most parts of Birbhum
3. western Burdwan, 4) Bankura District except for the Indás Police Station, 5) Purulia District, 6) Dhanbad District, 7) Kasmar, Peterwad, Gola, Jeredi, Ramgarh, etc., of Hazaribag (now Giridih) District, 8) Silli, Sonahatu, Bundu and the Tamar Police Station of Ranchi District, 9) Singhbhum District and 10) the Jhargram Subdivision and Sadar North and Sadar South Subdivisions of Midnapur District.