On February 13, 1898, the Math was moved from Alambazar to Nilambar Mukherjee's garden-house on the west bank of the Ganga, in the village of Belur. This was necessary for two reasons: first, the old building at Alambazar had received an "awful shaking" from the great earthquake of June 12, 1897, and had been damaged; second, and more pressingly, there was the need to be near the newly-purchased plot. The garden-house to which the monks moved was about a furlong away.