Rajnagar Village
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Rajnagar Village
(or Nagar). Village m the head-quarters sub- division of Birbhum District, Bengal, situated m 23 57' N. and 87 19' E. Population (1901), 3,845. Rajnagar was the capital of the Hindu princes of Blrbhum prior to the conquest of Bengal by the Muhammadans in 1203. In 1244 it was plundered by the Oriyas The site is now covered with crumbling houses, mouldering mosques, and weed-choked tanks ; the ancestral palace of its Rajas has fallen into ruins. North of the town and buried in dense jungle are the remains of an ancient mud fort, said to have been built in the eighteenth century as a defence against the Marathas. The famous Nagar wall or entrenchment, extending in an irregular and broken line around the town for a distance of 32 miles, is now rapidly decaying.
The ghats or gateways have long ceased to be capable of defence, and many parts of the wall have been washed almost level with the ground by the annual rains. The place is locally famous for its mangoes. [Archaeological Survey Reports, vol. vni, pp. 146-7.]
