( xxxii...) It is undeniable that the Mitter family of Baghbazar is one of the most ancient and aristocratio in Calcutta. The original seat of the family was-- at Bally, whence Sitaram, alias Uttaram, migrated to Baghbazar on the left bank of the Bhagirathi whea this quarter of the town was a boggy marsh-the haunt of wild beasts and venomous snakes. Sitaram cleared the jungle, drained the marsh, dug tanks and erected a house to live in, prior to the grant of Sutanuti to Maharaja Naba Kissen, the architect of the fortunes of the Shobabizar Raj family. At that time Sitaram Mitter was the Lambardar of Baghbazar, which he gave up and turned his attention to the salt business, which was the means of the present prosperity of the house. The real builder of the family 'ortunes was "Sadhu' Gokul whose speculations in salt aud other commodities were so uniformly successfull as to win a rich reward and place him in a position of great opulence. His great wealth, however, he invariably spent in those works of religious merit-of quiet beneficence and charity, which lent such a charm to the simple unostentatious life of our forefathers. Tradition says that it was the romantic advent of the God, Madan Mohun, which brought so much luck to the Mitter family. Maharaja Gopal Sing of Bishnupur found himselt in such straitened circumstances-by a freak of the fickle goddess Fortunethat he wanted money badly and knew not how to traine it. One version of the tradition says that God
