Dinajpur District - দিনাজপুর জেলা | Rangpur Protidin

Archives for দিনাজপুর জেলা

Dinajpur district (Bengali: দিনাজপুর জেলা) is a district in the Rangpur Division of northern Bangladesh. Dinajpur is the largest among northern Districts.

History

Dinajpur was once a part of the ancient state of Pundravardhana. Devkot which rotated as the capital of Lakhnauti was located 11 miles south of Dinajpur town.

An ancient engraved stone, believed to be from the Gupta era, was recovered from the bank of a pond near Sura Masjid in the Ghoraghat Upazila in Dinajpur in 8 October.

British Colonial Period

The British administrative control in Dinajpur was established in 1786. In 1765 the British got the Dewani of Bengal and in 1772 an English District Collector and Chief of Revenue was appointed in Dinajpur. The area was then notorious for lawlessness. Mr Marriott was Collector in l786. Next to him Mr Red Fern and Mr Vansittart were Collectors for short periods. The next Collector Mr Hatch started to exercise judicial powers too. The District Magistrate’s area at that time extended to Malda, Bagura and Dinajpur. In the last decade of the 18th century indigo plantation started in the district.

The district Dinajpur in British times included a greater portion of Bagura. Malda and parts of Rajshahi, Rangpur and Purnea. At the time of Revenue Survey in 1857 – 61 the total area of the district was 4586 Sq miles. Between 1795 and l800, large tracts of land were transferred to Purnea, Rangpur and Rajshahi for administrative convenience and better enforcement of law and order. In 1833 again some estates were transferred to Bagura and Malda. In 1864-65, 1868 and 1870 further transfer of territory from Dinajpur to Malda and Bagura took place. Finally in l897-98 the whole of Thana Mahadevpur was made over to Rajshahi. At that time, except Thakurgaon Sub division, the rest of Dinajpur district remained under the direct supervision of the Collector.

At first, after its formation in 1856, the Dinajpur Municipality used to be run by a town committee presided over by the Deputy Magistrate. This was among the first 40 municipalities in Bengal at that time. Later in 1868, the ‘District Town Act’ commissioned a Chairman of the municipality who replaced the Deputy Magistrate and given a similar rank as a District Magistrate. Mr. Patterson was appointed the first Chairman of Dinajpur Municipality in 1869.

Geography

Dinajpur is bounded by Thakurgaon and Panchagarh districts in the north, Gaibandha and Joypurhat districts in the south, Nilphamari and Rangpur districts in the east, and the state of West Bengal, India in the west. The total area of the district is 3,437.98 km2.[1] The main rivers of the district are the Dhepa, the Punarbhaba, and the Atrai rivers.