Bangla Itihash The Pirates of the Bay of Bengal (মগ / মাঘ দস্যু - Magh Pirates) : Bengali literature has often used the term Mog pirates while referring to stories from the past. They were referred to as violent and cunning pirates who kidnapped and murdered young children and sold them off as slaves. Here, the Mogs or Maghas was the term used by Bengalis to describe Arakanese or Rakhine people of the Arakan( comprising of the Arakan region in present day Myanmar). Mohan Ghosh wrote in his book ‘Magh Raiders of Bengal’ that, “In 8th century under the Hindu revivalist leader, Sankaracharijya, Buddhists in India were persecuted in large-scale. In Magadah, old Bihar of India, Buddhists were so ruthlessly oppressed by chauvinist Hindus and rival Mahayana sect of Buddhists that large numbers of Hinayana Buddhists had been compelled to flee eastward who ultimately found shelter in Arakan under the Chandra kings.” These Buddhist immigrants assumed the name Magh as they have migrated from Magadah. The term Magh suggests that the word is derived from Maghada, the country where the Buddha lived. That country is mentioned in the Arakanese Chronicles as the original residing place of the ancestors of the Arakanese kings who were the relatives of the Buddha. The Arakan kingdom(aka: Mrauk U kingdom) was a protectorate of the Bengal sultanate untill 1539 after which it quickly expanded militarily with the support of the Portuguese and Dutch slave-traders, and became a notorious centre of piracy and slave trades. The navy of the kingdom of Arakan or rather Magh sailors along with the Portuguese had plundered along the coast of Chittagong; as well as in the rivers of Bengal; and captured many Bengalis and sold them in the slave markets that were run by the Dutch East India Company, VOC in Batavia. Hence, for these scandalous activities in the past, the Arakanese were called Magh pirates by the people of Bengal. A hefty Mog population can still be found in the Chittagong division of Bangladesh as Chittagong was once a part of the Greater Arakanese kingdom, which also included present day Tripura. Gradually with time, the Magh kingdom lost a series of battles - against the Mughal Empire and the British East India company until it was finally fell to the invasion of the Burmese Empire in the 18th century.