Monghyr

Monghyr, or Munger, rises on the south bank of the Ganges in eastern Bihar, where a rocky ridge and the river guard the gap between the plains of Bihar and Bengal. Its fort, whose walls enclose the tomb of the saint Shah Mushk Nafa, who died in 1497, commands the water road below, and the town became known for the making of guns and swords.

The place changed hands often. Muhammad Tughlaq annexed it around 1330; from 1397 it was part of the Jaunpur sultanate until Sikandar Lodi overran Bihar; and in 1521 Nusrat Shah of Bengal annexed some of its forts. Sher Shah took the fort for himself, and after 1545 the Karrani sultans held it until Akbar's invasion of Bengal. In 1762 the Nawab of Bengal, Mir Qasim, moved his capital from Murshidabad to Munger. He brought his treasury and horses, reorganised his army under the Armenian commander Gurgin Khan, and set up an arsenal to cast cannon and make muskets. The Company's claim to trade free of inland duties drained his revenue and drove the two sides to war in 1763. After Mir Qasim's army was beaten elsewhere, the Company force reached Munger, and the garrison surrendered in October. The guns of the old arsenal gave Munger a gunsmith's trade that outlived his rule.