Bikrampur

Bikrampur was an ancient centre of power and learning in eastern Bengal, set amid the waterways south of the Brahmaputra. It served the Chandra and Sena rulers, and is associated with the Buddhist teacher Atisha. Rivers and low-lying land linked its settlements with the wider delta, where changing channels could alter the position of towns and estates.

Under the Mughals, Bikrampur formed a pargana of the Sonargaon sarkar. Its landholders Chand Rai and Kedar Rai belonged to the powerful chiefs who contested imperial expansion in eastern Bengal. In the early seventeenth century the Mughal governor Man Singh campaigned against Kedar Rai, who was killed during the struggle. The incorporation of Bikrampur brought an old political centre into the expanding administrative order of Mughal Bengal.