Mymensingh

Mymensingh lies on the old course of the Brahmaputra, amid the rivers and fertile plains of eastern Bengal. The great river was a route through the countryside, but its shifting channels also changed the land around it. In the 1780s more of its water began to flow through the Jamuna channel, diminishing the old course and affecting agriculture in the region.

The East India Company acquired the right to collect Bengal’s revenues in 1765. In 1787 it created a separate Mymensingh district and appointed a collector who also held judicial and magisterial powers. Earlier, zamindars had collected revenue and exercised local judicial authority where no qazi was present. The new district covered a very large area, and the early Company administration was chiefly concerned with assessing and collecting revenue.