Purnia

Purnia lies in the eastern Bihar plain, a country of rivers between the Kosi and the Mahananda. Under Mughal rule it gave its name to a sarkar, or administrative district, within the province of Bengal. The land was connected to both the Bihar plain and Bengal, and its governors held authority over an extensive frontier district.

In the eighteenth century Purnia passed from the government of the nawabs into the hands of the English East India Company. The Company acquired revenue rights in Bengal and Bihar in 1765, and established a district administration at Purnia in 1770. The same year brought the great Bengal famine, remembered for its severe toll across the wider region. European settlements and indigo cultivation later became features of the district’s economy.