Bengal District Gazetteers Murshidbad 1914

Abstract

Murshidabad is the north-western district of the Presidency General Division or Commissionership, and lies between 23° 43'- and “rE0s°BIP‘ 24° 52' north latitude and 87° 49' and 88° 44' east longitude. I t has an area of 2,143 square miles and contains, according to the census of 1911, a population of 1,372,S74 persons. It is so called after Murshidabad, a town on the left bank of the Bhagirathi, which was the last of the Muhammadan capitals of Bengal. The headquarters, however, are not at Murshidabad, but at Berhampore, six miles further down. the river. Iu shape the district resembles an isosceles triangle with its Boundapex pointing to the north-west. It is bounded along its whole aiie8, eastern frontier, from the extreme north to the south-eastern extremity, by the Padma or main channel of the Ganges, which separates it from the districts of Maida and Rajshahi. On the south it is bounded by the district of Burdwan and Nadia, the river Jalangi on the south-east forming the boundary between it and Nadia for a considerable distance. To the west lie the districts of Blrbhum and the Sonthal Parganas.