Abstract:
The district of Purnea, which. forma the north-eastern portion 8 .
of the Bhagalpur Division, is situated between 25° 15' and backup.
26° 35' north latitude, and between 87 0 and 88° .32' east M°*r’
longitude. It extends over 4,994 square miles, and has a population
of 1,874,794 persons, as ascertained at the census of 1901
its area being nearly as great as that o f Norfolk, Suffolk and
Essex combined, while it has 400,000 more inhabitants than the
whole of Wales. The headquarters are at the town of Purnea,
the name of which was extended to the territory now included
in the district. Purnea is an English corruption of the vernacular
name Purania, and this or Puraniya is the designation of the
district in old records. Local tradition states that it is derived
from the word purlin, the local name for the lotus, which is said
to have grown thickly in the neighborhood of the town, when
the Kosi river flowed past it. Another derivation which has
been suggested is pura-aranya, meaning ‘.absolute forest’, for
tradition asserts that the district was once covered by dense
forest. The district forms part of the alluvial tract known as North
Bihar, but its eastern portion more properly belongs to Bengal.
It formed in fact, the northernmost Sarkdr of that Province under
Mughal rule, the river Kosi, which used to flow through the centre
of Purnea, being the boundary between it and the sub-province of
Bihar . The population in the east and west is, moreover, ethnically
and linguistically different. The Rajbansis, a characteristic caste
of Noftheiji Bengal, predominate east of the river Mahanadi,
while to the west they give place to the common castes of Bihar.
