BIRBHUM

This article appears in Volume V03, Page 958 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: BER-BLA

BIRBHUM , a

district

DISTRICT

of British India in the B,urdwan division of Bengal, situated in the Gangetic plain and partly on the hills, being bounded on the

south

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

by the river Ajai. The administrative headquarters are at Suri, which is the only town in the

district

DISTRICT

. The area comprises 1752 sq. m. The eastern portion of the district is the

ordinary

ORDINARY (med. Lat. ordinarius, Fr. ordinaire)

alluvial plain of the Gangetic

delta

DELTA (from the shape of the Gr. letter A, delta, originally used of the mouth of the Nile)

; the western part consists of undulating beds of laterite resting on a

rock

basis, and covered with small scrub jungle. The Ajai, Bakheswar and Mor or Maurakshi, are the principal rivers of the district, but they are merely hill streams and only navigable in the rains. In 1901 the population was 902,280, showing an increase of 13% in the decade. The principal industry is the spinning and weaving of silk, chiefly from tussur or jungle silk-worms. There are also several lac factories. The loop-line of the

East

EAST
EAST, ALFRED (1849- )

Indian railway runs through the district, with a junction at Nalhati for Murshidabad.
History.Birbhum in the early part of the 13th century was a Hindu state, with its

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

at Rajnagar or Nagar. In the course of the century it was conquered by the Pathans and formed part of the Pathan kingdom of Bengal. At the beginning of the 18th century it appears as a kind of military fief held under the nawab of Murshidabad by one Asadullah Pathan, whose family had probably been its chieftains since the fall of the Pathan dynasty of Bengal in 1600. It passed into British possession in 1765, but the

East

EAST
EAST, ALFRED (1849- )

India Company did not assume its direct government until 1787, when that course became necessary. In the

interval

INTERVAL

it had been a prey to armed bands from the highlands of Chota Nagpur, with whom the raja was unable to cope, and who practically brought the trade of the Company in the district to a standstill. The two border principalities of Birbhum and Bankura were accordingly united into a district under a British collector, being, however, separated again in 1793. By 1789, after
considerable trouble, the marauders were driven back into their mountains, and since that time (except during the

Santal

SANTAL (or SONTHAL) PARGANAS, THE

rising of 1855) the district has been one of the most peaceful and prosperous in India.
See Imperial Gazetteer of India (

Oxford

, 1908), vol. viii. s.v.

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