Abstract:
RAJSHAHI is ’a district in' the south-west of the"Rajshahi
division. It li^s between ttie twenty-fonrfh and twenty-fifth
parallels of north latitude, while its limits east and west lie
between the eighty-eighth and eighty-ninth degrees of east
longitude. Its area is 2,618 -square miles, and it contains a
population, according -to. census of .1911,* of 1,480,587
persons. The headquarters are at Rampur Boalia, a town
on the northern bank of tbe. Ganges, which in'This portion
of its course is Imown as the Padma. The .postal and telegraphic
designation of the town is, however, not Rampur
Boalia but Rajshahi, and it^as not infrequently referred to by
the inhabitants as Rajshijhk The correct transliteration
according to Bengali spelling is Rajsahi.
The name Rajshahi is commolily believed to mean the royal
territory, and it is a .popular, but mistaken, idear that the
district was given this designation because it is tire home of
many Rajas. The origin of the name is doubtful,, but one
plausible hypothesis is that it dates back to the beginning
of the "fifteenth century. when this ‘part of the
country was ruled over by Raja Khans .or Ganesh, the Hindu
chief of Bhaturia (i.e., the country on both sides of the river
Atrai in Dinajpur and Rajshahi). .The Raja, having ousted
the Muhammadan Governor of Gaur, became king o f Bengal,
and, according to Professor Blochmann, was consequently
known as a Rasjhah i.e., a ,Hindu Raja who ascended a
Musalman throne, while his territory acquired the name of
Rajshahi.
