Report of a Tour through the Bengal Provinces/Hasanpur Káko
Hasanpur Káko is a largish straggling village situated near a large lake into which a branch of the Jamna empties; the country about is flooded during the rains, and in November I had to wade through a long stretch of water to get to the place. The principal remains of interest here are a dargah and some statues.
The dargah is an unpretentious brick building in a state of decay, situated on a high raised mound on the banks of the tank or lake; there is an outer court-yard where numerous slabs of stone, rough and sculptured, lie about, these are evidently taken from some Hindu shrines. The outer court-yard gives admission through a large gateway to a crooked passage and thence into an inner court-yard, whence a third doorway gives entrance into the innermost court-yard in front of the dargah itself. Into this sacred court I was not permitted to enter. The second outer gateway is battlemented, and has a long inscription in Persian or Arabic in five compartments; the inscription is cut in brick and has suffered greatly from the weather. At one corner of the inner enclosure to which this gate gives admission is a tower similar to the towers in the Begampur masjid in Patna, and I infer the other corners, or at least one other corresponding corner, had a corresponding tower; the enclosure walls have, however, notwithstanding extensive repairs, become greatly dilapidated. In the inner court-yard is an inscription on a long trapezoidal piece of bluish-black stone; the inscription is in four compartments of three lines each, and one long line running the whole length; the stone on which the inscription exists has split down the middle longitudinally. When I saw it, it was thickly covered with a most tenacious coat of dirt consisting of indurated layers of milk, ghee, curds, and lamp-black, the offerings of pious pilgrims. I was allowed to clean it, but not without sundry warnings of the risk I ran of incurring the displeasure of the saint.
The dargah contains the tomb of a local saint who, tradition says, came from Delhi and settled down here for a long time. At last he determined to return to his native country, but did not intend to take his wife with him; he set out and walked a good distance till overtaken by night, when he slept, but in the morning he found himself back at his house. Again he set out, but only to find himself back at his house next morning. A third time he tried, with the same result. He then gave up the attempt, and settled down here permanently with his wife, the efficacy of whose prayers had worked the miracles. She is said to have been so saintly that the water used by her for her ablutions would cure any disease.
Outside the dargâh, and to its east on a mound under a bat tree, is a large collection of statues in various stages of mutilation; they are mostly of no very ancient date, to judge from the execution. Among the fragments are those of Ganeça, Lakshmi, several lingams, a badly executed slab representing the Nava-graha, Hara Gauri, &c. The village of Hasanpur Kâko is situated on a high mound.