Burdwan (Zamindari)
The Bardhaman Raj (also known as Burdwan Raj) was a zamindari estate that flourished from about 1657 to 1956, first under the Mughals and then under the British in the province of Bengal in India. At the peak of its prosperity in the eighteenth century, the estate extended to around 5,000 square miles (13,000 km2) of territory and even up to the early twentieth century paid an annual revenue to the government in excess of ₹33 lakh (US$51,000).
The estate was established and owned continuously by the Kapoor family, which had its origins in the Punjab. Its earliest known ancestor, Sangam Rai, is said to have migrated to Bengal and settled at Bardhaman in the sixteenth century. Bardhaman was never an independent territory since the chiefs of the family held it basically as the revenue collectors or zamindars of the Mughal governors of Bengal. Later, in British times after Lord Cornwallis's Permanent Settlement of 1793, the zamindars changed their status from revenue collectors to owners of the land they collected revenue from. Although its owners were both rich and powerful, with the chiefs of the family holding the title of Maharaja, the Bardhaman estate was not defined as a "Princely State," with freedom to decide its future course of action at the time of Indian independence in 1947. (Cooch Behar was the only princely state in Bengal and Tripura was another on its border. There were several princely states in neighbouring Orissa, especially Mayurbhanj that had a presence in Kolkata.)
In spite of its official status in the context of national history, it had a local importance and was respected as one of the forward looking feudal houses, who endeavoured to bring about an improvement in the conditions of its subjects. They patronised many poets, who had contributed substantially to the literature of the day. They were also great patrons of music. It had an army of its own and when the declining Mughals ceded their territory to the British, they even fought with the British. Later, when they made up with the British, they were entitled to their own coat of arms. After independence, they donated their palace, with a huge library of valuable books, for the formation of the University of Burdwan.
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