Burdwan District…. A Rice Land

Gate Way of Burdwan

Several times I visited Burdwan. This is well known district in West Bengal of India. This district is the large producer of rice in Bengal.  Rice is the main food of Bengalis.  Most of the Bengalis like rice for three time as their food.  Asansol, Durgapur, Burnpur, Kulti, Katwa are the subdivisions under this district. Burdwan is situated on the bank of the river Damodar.

Burdwan district is an advance district in Bengal in both ways agriculturally & industrially. Asansol is famous for coal mine, Durgapur is also known as industrial place; here has various important industries and in Burdwan has many rice mills which produce huge quantity of rice for the country.

Before Mughal age, Burdwan was under the ruling of Khetri Kings. They were commanding this large district.  After independence of India, Burdwan was become as an important economic zone by agriculturally and natural resources especially coal.

The history of Burdwan is very old from 5000 BC and belonging to late Stone Age. There is different opinion about the name of this district. One of them is; there was a colony called Bardhamana at the time of the progress of Aryans. Thus the name of this district Bardhaman or Burdwan. It means, growth & prosperity.
At the close of 3rd century AD, first Varman dynasty and thereafter Gupta dynasty came to power one after another and took the charge of this area. There after Pala dynasty & Sena dynasty were took the charge of the Bengal at about AD 1130.

The year 1606 was the important year of that time. That year Qutubuddin Khan Koka who was the brother of Jahangir, the Mughal Emperor, was appointed as the Governor of Bengal. At that time Sher Afghan was the jaigirdar of Burdwan.  The wife of Sher Afgan, Meherunessa was very beautiful woman. A big battle was taken place in Burdwan between Qutubuddin & Sher Afgan and both of them were killed in that battle. Thereafter, Jahangir associated to Meherunessa.

In 1622, Shah Jahan agitated against his father Jahangir. Thereafter he captured Bengal through Orissa. Thereafter he appointed Bairam Beg as Jaigirdar of Bengal.  And in 1628 he appointed Quasim Khan as the Subedar of Bengal after his throne to Delhi’s chair of Mughal Emperor.

In 1740, Maratha army was entered into Bengal through Nagpur under the leadership of  Bhaskar Pandit and captured Bengal temporarily. In 1746, subedar Alivardi defeated  Maratha army again captured Bengal.
In 1740, Chitra Sen was awarded as Raja by Mughal Emperor and there after his cousin’s son Tilakchand was also awarded as Raja by the Mughal Emperor. During his time so many temples were built.

In 1857, the British Raj was established in Bengal. Since then they tried to concurred all the province of India and bring to them under one umbrella i.e. Queen Victoria rules. In this program, they first defeated to Bahadur Sha Jafar, the last Emperor of Mughal dynasty.

In Bengal, they first of gave the pressure to all Rajas, Zamindars by demanding huge revenues for British Government.

In 1905, the British Government was declared the division of Bengal. Like other Bengali people, the people of Burdwan were also protested against this decision of British Government. The people of Bardwan were also participated in India’s freedom movements.

There are so many visible places at Burdwan district like Bijoy Toron, Protestant Church, Hawa Mahal, RajBadi, etc.There are so many train facilities from Howrah Station via cord and main line. Approximate two and half hours will take to reach at Burdwan.  By bus also we can go there. There are some beautiful hotels to stay; centering Burdwan, we can visit all visible places.