Europeans have known since time immemorial that somewhere in the east there is a country where the River Ganges flows. Ptolemy’s world map gives testimony to that. Many more, even older references, may be mentioned in that regard. Before the advent of Jesus Christ, some Europeans wrote first-hand accounts of that land. The Greek and Roman empires met the destiny that every empire meets eventually. Subsequently, Europe plunged into a chaotic phase that led to the free downfall of that society. When Europe regained itself once again and started its journey into what we call ‘modern times', at that time, unfriendly empires emerged between Europe and the land of the Ganges. For various reasons, the land of the Ganges has been something that has attracted the world towards it since time immemorial. Modern Europeans circumvented the African continent from west to east, just before the end of the fifteenth century and reached India. However, they could not reach the true ‘land of the Ganges’ until they reached the Bengal Basin. The British got the chance to start ruling a significant portion of the ‘land of the Ganges’ before they placed themselves at the helm of the affairs of the whole country, i.e., India. Ultimately, in that land, they came to know about some ancient literature that started writing a new chapter in history. The Europeans started unearthing an almost forgotten civilization. Whatever progress could be made was due to the progress in the scientific and technological fields. Like many other things, their efforts came to an abrupt end around the middle of the 20th century. From the ancient texts, it could be found that there was mention of a land called ‘Banga’ in the eastern part of India in the most distant past, in the existence of that land. Although some logical, analysis-based explanations have been put forward for the advent of the word ‘Bangla’, with respect to the word ‘Banga’, not much progress could be made. No reason-based or tangib

The capital city of Bangladesh, situated in the eastern part of the geographical entity known as the Bengal Basin, is Dhaka. The word Dhaka, when used as a place name, is a noun, and it is a unique application of that word. That word has not been used anywhere else to name a place. Apart from having its use as a proper noun, the word ‘Dhaka’ finds its place in Bengali language dictionaries as an adjective, and that is the predominant use of that word. Many experts have put forward a number of explanations regarding the evolution of that place name. All those explanations are derived ones, i.e., none of those explanations can relate that name to that place in a directly meaningful manner. With the intervention of his ‘Wisp’ in his cerebral journey, Naru, the main character of this series of books, stumbled upon the idea that, deep in the past, there could have existed an island-mountain at the centre of the place that is currently known as ‘Bengal Basin’. The most famous island-mountain in history is known as 'Atlantis', as described by Greek philosopher Plato. The geological and geographical settings of the Bengal Basin can almost seamlessly fit into the description of Atlantis. The place-name ‘Dhaka’, may be explained satisfactorily and without the application of the idea of being derived, when the concept of a drowned island-mountain is introduced in that geography. In that situation, ‘sonar Bangla’, ‘the golden Bengal’, the other iconic phrase of Bengal, becomes a reflection of reality rather than a metaphor. Naru undertook a cerebral journey to find the validity of this idea in the available facts from various lines of study.

Naru embarked on a life-long cerebral journey to find acceptable explanations for a few unanswered questions that arose in his mind during his school days. Those previously unexplained issues were critical to understanding the history, geography, and concept of the Bengal region, popularly known as ‘Bangla’. In his journey through life, he was able to find a previously unheard of but logically sustainable explanation of the word ‘Banga’ and one more closely associated word, ‘Bangal’. That explanation was in consonance with the present understanding of the process of geological evolution of the Bengal Basin. It was also capable of aligning itself with the accepted concept of the geological evolution of that basin. However, something even more startling occurred to Naru’s mind. As his logic-based journey to arrive at an acceptable and verifiable explanation of the word ‘Banga’ was approaching its end, the information gathered by him, in conjunction with some logical deductions, took him to the gateway that led to a new horizon. Naru started to realise the presence of something that lacked supporting physical evidence. All writers of Indian history, and thus all writers of Bengal’s history too, had to introduce a new batch of migrants into the scenario and assign that group a very high level of excellence and attainment. That has been the demand for a logical construct to explain everything at hand in relation to prehistoric as well as ancient India. Strong indications exist that a superior civilization existed in that geography. No model could be framed that could explain the mysterious past of that land, even remotely. Nobody dared to trade on that path. It is almost impossible to defend any such model. Rakhaldas Bandopadhyay attributed the 'self-inflicted downfall’ of that group to keeping logical consistency with the perceivable course of history. In recorded history, humankind has seen the downfall of a civilisation in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. Whenever an unexplainable gap appears in history, it becomes handy to attribute that dark area to a self-inflicted downfall, as such examples are available at hand. In the case of India, something extraordinary has happened. The entire imagined civilisation has disappeared without leaving any trace. No archaeological evidence has been found with regard to that postulated civilisation. In all the other cases where civilisational or societal downfall has happened, remnants of the existence of such people have been found. In one of his essays about the origin of the Bengali people, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay commented that the origin of the people who were very significant in number within Bengal, i.e., those who were much larger in number than the higher classes, was shrouded in mystery. Something irritated Naru when he thought that a materialistic person like Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay went on to comment that "no history has been written for Bengal." As it is evident from the writings of the experts, there is an "obscurity factor" involved with the past of the geography and history of the Bengal Basin. There is the undeniable presence of a spectre as far as the evolution of Bengali society is concerned. Naru wanted to see whether he could open a line of approach to the spectre associated with the Bengal Basin that was ever-present and allured all the travellers of history. Naru embarked on a new journey where an analysis of the different aspects of the life of the old inhabitants of Bengal became necessary to lift the shroud around the spectre associated with that basin. Ultimately, Naru was able to find a clue through which he thought that he would be able to continue his journey to the deep past of the Bengal Basin. This book provides a description of that clue and an account of the process of finding that all-important clue.

Naru embarked on a lifelong cerebral journey to find answers to a few questions that had appeared in his mind very early in his life. It was only in his mid-forties that he got the chance to start organising the thoughts and experiences that he had gathered thus far. A little before that time, he came into contact with the 'Wisp'. That chance encounter had a big impact on the progress of his search. Without being present in tangible format in his world, 'Wisp' guided Naru's quest in an enigmatic way for a long time. Naru crossed one hurdle after another to arrive at his own explanations of the concepts of Bangla, the origin of the term 'Bangal', the naming of 'Banga', etc. He thought that his journey was over and that he had been able to achieve what he intended to. That's when he felt the presence of a spectre in the past of the Bengal Basin. His search convinced him that all the travellers in history who dealt with the Bengal Basin felt its presence. Like all the previous travellers, he also lost his way to reach that phase of Bengal's history that precedes the presence of the spectre. There was a void. He called the simulated form of his 'Wisp' that he had successfully created in his mind to make up the emptiness that the absence of the 'Wisp' caused. The direction from the 'Wisp' was not sufficient to breach the barrier posed by the void. He took the virtual 'Wisp' to the place where they first met a long time ago. This time he tried to use the 'Wisp' as an instrument of his journey instead of an enigmatic direction giver. He achieved success in his effort. 'Wisp' broke the barrier posed by the void and took Naru to the other side of that barrier. The new light that illuminated the distant horizon of the history of the Bengal Basin had the capability to solve a great number of mysteries that are associated with that basin.

Naru was shown by destiny that the process of peopling India had happened along ancient elevated highway systems of India. Adivasis came first then a different group followed them to get settled in the highlands. In Bengal the members of this new group later became known as 'Ghoti'.

This unusual study combines two books in one: the 1794 autobiographical travel narrative of an Indian, Dean Mahomet, recalling his years as camp-follower, servant, and subaltern officer in the East India Company's army (1769 to 1784); and Michael H. Fisher's portrayal of Mahomet's sojourn as an insider/outsider in India, Ireland, and England. Emigrating to Britain and living there for over half a century, Mahomet started what was probably the first Indian restaurant in England and then enjoyed a distinguished career as a practitioner of "oriental" medicine, i.e., therapeutic massage and herbal steam bath, in London and the seaside resort of Brighton. This is a fascinating account of life in late eighteenth-century India—the first book written in English by an Indian—framed by a mini-biography of a remarkably versatile entrepreneur. Travels presents an Indian's view of the British conquest of India and conveys the vital role taken by Indians in the colonial process, especially as they negotiated relations with Britons both in the colonial periphery and the imperial metropole. Connoisseurs of unusual travel narratives, historians of England, Ireland, and British India, as well as literary scholars of autobiography and colonial discourse will find much in this book. But it also offers an engaging biography of a resourceful, multidimensional individual.

Preface INTRODUCTION HISTORY OF MICROBIOLOGY EVOLUTION OF MICROORGANISM CLASSIFICATION OF MICROORGANISM NOMENCLATURE AND BERGEY'S MANUAL BACTERIA VIRUSES BACTERIAL VIRUSES PLANT VIRUSES THE ANIMAL VIRUSES ARCHAEA MYCOPLASMA PHYTOPLASMA GENERAL ACCOUNT OF CYANOBACTERIA GRAM -ve BACTERIA GRAM +ve BACTERIA EUKARYOTA APPENDIX-1 Prokaryotes Notable for their Environmental Significance APPENDIX-2 Medically Important Chemoorganotrophs APPENDIX-3 Terms Used to Describe Microorganisms According to Their Metabolic Capabilities QUESTIONS Short & Essay Type Questions; Multiple Choice Questions INDEX.