Bengal Subah

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Bengal Subah or Subah-i-Bangalah was one of the subahs (provinces) of the Mughal Empire from 1574 to 1757. On 25 September 1574 Munim Khan, the commander of the Mughal army occupied Tanda, the capital of the last Afghan ruler of Bengal Daud Khan Karrani.^[1] It ushered in the Mughal rule in Bengal.^[2] In 1713 Murshid Quli Khan became the naib nazim (deputy subahdar) of Bengal. In 1717, he became its subahdar or nazim (governor)^[3] and Bengal became completely independent of imperial control. Subsequent to the defeat of the last independent nazim Siraj ud-Daulah in the Battle of Plassey on 23 June 1757 and his death on 2 July 1757, Bengal was brought under the control of the British East India Company. The successors of Siraj ud-Daulah were merely puppets of the East India Company.

Administrative divisions

In the revenue settlement by Todar Mal in 1582, Bengal Subah was divided into 24 sarkars (districts), which included 19 sarkars of Bengal proper and 5 sarkars of Orissa. In 1607, during the reign of Jahangir Orissa became a separate Subah. These 19 sarkars were further divided into 682 parganas.^[4] In 1658, subsequent to the revenue settlement by Shah Shuja, 15 new sarkars and 361 new parganas were added. In 1722, Murshid Quli Khan divided the whole Subah into 13 chakalahs, which were further divided into 1660 parganas.

Initially the capital of the Subah was Tanda. On 9 November 1595, the foundations of a new capital were laid at Rajmahal by Man Singh I who renamed it Akbarnagar.^[5] In 1610 the capital was shifted from Rajmahal to Dhaka^[6] and it was renamed Jahangirnagar. In 1639, Shah Shuja again shifted the capital to Rajmahal. In 1660, Muazzam Khan (Mir Jumla) again shifted the capital to Dhaka. In 1703, Murshid Quli Khan, then diwan (chief revenue officer) of Bengal shifted his office from Dhaka to Maqsudabad and later renamed it Murshidabad.

The sarkars (districts) and the parganas (tehsils) of Bengal Subah were:^[4]

List of Mughal Subahdars of Bengal (1574 - 1727)

See also

• Bengal Presidency

References