Bihar in the Age of the Great Mughal Akbar (1556-1605) (An Old And Rare Book)

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This thesis has a story for itself to unfold. The subject originally assigned to me for investigation about more than two decades back by Dr. K. K. Dutta, formerly Professor and Head of the Department of History, Patna University, in due consultation with Prof. S. H. Askari, a scholar of great eminence in Medieval Indian History, who was also then in this very University, related to a study in the Political History of Bihar in the Age of the Great Mughals (A. D. 1526-1707). The title of the thesis, registered in the Patna University for a Ph.D. degree, was "Bihar in the Age of the Great Mughals (A. D. 1526-1707)." The period of the subject for investigation thus covered full one century and eight decades. I started trudging the virgin soil patiently, studiously and carefully in the midst of my official preoccupations which fortunately for me proved to be a career of full-time research as a member of Bihar Education Service in K. P. Jayaswal Research Institute, Patna. My efforts did not go in vain and they yielded forth a bumper harvest of overwhelmingly copious materials, so much so that they defied to be compressed within the bounds of one thesis to the amazement of all of us interested in the project. It was resolved, in due consultation with the said two scholars, to cut down its scope in point of time. Accordingly, the period of the subject for the thesis on the Political History of Bihär now covered the span of time from A. D. 1576 to 1707. The year A. D. 1576 constitutes the real dividing line between the final eclipse of the Afghans as a power in the eastern province of Bihär, nay Bangal and Orissä as well, and the establishment of Mughal authority here on a secure basis to withstand all the subsequent stresses and storms that came in from time to time until the death of Aurangzeb in A. D. 1707.

Bihär in the time of Akbar, according to Abul Fazl, was bounded on the east by the sabah of Bengal, on the west by the sabahs of Allahabad Awadh, on the north and south respectively by the Himalayas and the Vindhya range of hills. This boundary corresponds with tolerable accuracy to the present territorial limits of the State, so far as east and west are concerned; but it hardly defines the northern and southern limits. While on the north the demarcation of the boundary of Bihär had remained indistinct because it disappears in the hills of Nepal, on the south it included the present Choță-Nagpur plateau togetherilla Nepal of land known as Pachet which is now included in Bengal.

TOPOGRAPHY, VEGETATION, FAUNA AND FLORA ETC.

The chief riversta of subah Bihar are the Ganges and the Sone.

(1) The Ganges in its 200 miles long course from the west to the east cuts the State of Bihar into two halves, north and south.

(2) The Sone comes from the south. Its source and those of the Johilab and Narmada bubble up from a bush of reeds (bamboos) near Garha. The Narmada flows towards the Deccan; but the Sone and the Johila, flowing into Bihar, unite with the Ganges. The Sone water is pleasant to taste; it is wholesome and cool. Flowing in a northerly direction, it fell into the Ganges near Maner in the time of Akbar. This position remained the same till the 18th century when Renell drew up his Bengal Atlas in A. D. 1781. But now the junction of the two rivers has moved up ten miles and is situated at Koilwar (Railway station).

(3) The Gandak flows from the north and unites with the Ganges near Hajipür. Its water is polluted. It causes swelling of the throat, (goitre) which gradually increases, especially in the young children, to the size of a cocoanut. For forty kos in the river are found small pieces of black stone called säligram which the Hindūs worship.