Eastern Bengal and Assam District Gazetteers Rangpur 1911

Abstract

T h e district of-Rangpur in the Rajshahi division of the Province of Eastern Bengal and Assam is situated between 25°3' and 26° 19' north latitude and 88° 44' and 89° 53' east longitude. It comprises an area, according to the latest survey, of 3,493 square miles and contains a population, as ascertained at the census of 1901, of 2,154,181 souls. The principal civil station, which is also the chief town, is Rangpur, on the Ghaghat, in 259 45' north and 89° 18' east longitude. ' . . The generally accepted derivation of the name Rangpur is ranga, pleasure; and pur, place; that is, the place of pleasure or the abode of bliss. It is supposed that Raja Bhagadatta, the mythological king of Kamrup, whose feats are recorded in the Mahabhdrata, possessed a country residence here on the banks of the Ghaghat. Pargana Pairaband, which lies seven miles south of Rangpur, is said to be named after Pairavati, a daughter of Bhagadatta. Included in the area of the town are portions of four Revenue Survey mauzds known as Khord Rangpur, Hat Kangpur, Bara Rangpur and Chhota Rangpur, which are purely rural villages. No traces of a royal country residence remain in any of these mamas or elsewhere in the town, nor are there any local traditions which indicate its existence in former times. On ‘^he contrary, the very name of Rangpur appfiars to Tiave been unknown until comparatively recent times. No mention of it can be found in the Mahabhdrata or any other work of Sanscrit literature. There is an uncorroborated statement in the Tarilch- Farishtah to the effect that Rangpur was founded is 1203 A.D. by tup Muhammadan general Bakhtyar Khilji. As will be shown in a later chapter this statement is not worthy of credit.