Bengal District Gazetteers Purnea 1911

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.