Bardhaman

Bardhaman stands on the north bank of the Damodar River in West Bengal, about 100 kilometres northwest of Kolkata. The Banka is the other principal stream in a level district averaging some 40 metres above the sea. The Grand Trunk Road crosses this productive agricultural country, where rice has long sustained the town's reputation as a regional granary. Epigraphic traces names the place by the sixth century, while archaeology shows human activity in the wider Radh region from a much earlier date.

The city's political prominence came from the Burdwan Raj, founded in 1657 by Sangam Rai, a Hindu Khatri from Kotli in Lahore. His descendants governed extensive estates and served the Mughal emperors before transferring their allegiance to the British. The rent roll of these maharajas made them leading noblemen of lower Bengal, and careful estate management increased their wealth. Their patronage left a lasting imprint on courts, temples and education, including institutions supported by the raj.

After Burdwan was ceded to the East India Company in 1760, Bardhaman also became a district headquarters under British rule. Trade in grain, oil, textiles and pottery connected the town with its rural hinterland, while the Grand Trunk Road carried people across the region. This network reinforced a position already built on fertile fields, aristocratic authority and cultural patronage.