History of Sarkar Tirhut Under the East India Company (1765-1856)

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East India Company. It also deals with the administration at the sarkar level, incidentally referring to the higher and lower stages or administration which circuscribed the district administration. At the sarkar level, incidentally referring to the higher and lower stages of administration which circurecribed the district administration. It is thus a case study of the development of a district of the Bengal presidency which by provide a clue to the understanding of the general problems and plicies of the British in the eastern part of India.

Dr. Ramanand Jha born in 1940. He comes from a respective Brahimn family of Kahilpur, Laheria Sarai, Darbhanga, Distric of Bihar. He did his M.A. in 1964 from Bhiar University, Muzaffarpur. He was awarded Ph. D. degree in 1968 from Patna University." He joined as a lecturer in History in M. K. College, Laheria Sarai in 1970. He was reader and University Professor of History also there. He was prof in charge of the college from 1998 to 2000. He retired from service in 2000. He is well known social workar of his regine.

This book attempts at presenting the political, social and eco nomic history of Sarkar Tirhut under the East India Company. It also deals with the administration at the sarkar level, incidentally referring to the higher and lower stages of administration which circuscribed the district administration. It is thus a case study of the development of a district of the Bengal presidency which by provide a clue to the undestanding of the general problems and policies of the British in the eastern part of India.

The history of Sarkar Tirhut under the Company has not yet been studied in all its aspects. S.N. Singh's History of Tirhut in no doubt a pioneering work but is touches only the political and literary aspecte of the modern history of Tirhut. The book also suffers from a Civil servants' bias, written as it was by a Magistrate in the heyday of the British raj. Moreover, since Singh usually bases his arguments on hearsay evidence the scope of his book has become limited Mr. R.K. Choudhary and Dr. U. Thakur have maingly concentrated on the an cient and medieval periods of Mithila's hisotry. Their stray writings on the modern period are not based on government records: they have relied mostly on cultural tradition and literary evidences. Scholars like Parmesvara Jha, (Mithilatatva Vimarsa Maithili), Mukund Jha 'Bakshi' (Mithila-bhasamaya itihas in Maithili), Ras Behari Lal Das (Mithila Darpan in Hindi), Bihari Lal (An-A-Tirhut) and others have no doubt made valuable contributions but their works lack a historical approach to and scientific treatment of the subject concerned.

Even though Mithila has a rich cultural tradition the general histories like the Cambridge History of India, Vol. V, the Oxford History of India, the advanced History of India, etc., dismiss the history of modern Tirhut altogether.

Tirhut or Tirhuti was know as Tirabhukti in ancietn times; it was also known as mithila.' This ancient land, according to Brihad vishnupurana, was bounded on the north by the Himalayan tract, on the south by the Ganga, on the east by the river Kosi or Kaushiki and on the west by the river Narayani (modern Gandak). Chanda Jha, a famous peot of Mithila in the nineteenth century, corroborates it."

Under the east India company the northern frontier between the British territory and Nepal was marked by ditches and streams, besides masonry and wooden pillars created at irregular distances. According to W. W. Hunter the district of Tirhut in the nineteenth century was the most easterly part of the Patna division lying between 25° 28' and 26° 52' north latitude and between 84° 56' and 86° 46' east longitude and bounded on the north-east by the district of Bhagalpur, on the south east by Monghyr, on the south by the Ganga, on the south west by the district of Saran and on the north-west by Champaran."

As a result of the grant of diwani in 1765 Subah Bihar came under the east India Company. The region north of Ganga was divided into four sarkars: Saran, Champaran, Tirhut and Hajipur. Tirhut was 5,053 square miles, whereas Hajipur 2,835 square miles in area. These two sarkars were divided into 104 Parganas. According to an official letter of 1790, a large portion of the northern parts of Bhagalpur and Monghyr was under the jurisdiction of the Collector of Tirhut. William Copper, President and Member of the Board of Revenue, refers in 1793 to the reorganisation of the boundaries of Tirhut. It was recom mended that Pargana Kashmar which was situated to the west of Gandak should be transferred to Sarkar Saran. The Board approved of the suggestion on 16 November 1793 and ordered to shift this Pargana to Saran. In 1795 the following thirteen parganas of Monghyr and Bhagalpur districts were transferred to Tirhut, only to be retransferred to the original jurisdiction in 1837: Balia, Masjidpur, Badabhusari, Imadpur, Narsinghpur, Kurha, Gudhand, Kabhand, Naradigar, Chhai Pharkiya, Malki, Manlegopal and Naipur."

**Contents and Sample Pages**