East Midnapur
| Purba Medinipur district | |
|---|---|
| District of West Bengal | |
 Location of Purba Medinipur district in West Bengal |
|
| Country | India |
| State | West Bengal |
| Administrative division | Medinipur |
| Headquarters | Tamluk |
| Government | |
| • Lok Sabha constituencies | Kanthi (Contai), Tamluk, Ghatal (partly), Medinipur (partly) |
| • Assembly seats | Tamluk, Panskura Purba, Panskura Paschim, Moyna, Nandakumar, Mahishadal, Haldia, Nandigram, Chandipur, Patashpur, Kanthi Uttar, Bhagabanpur, Khejuri, Kanthi Dakshin, Ramnagar, Egra |
| Area | |
| • Total | 4,736 km2 (1,829 sq mi) |
| Population (2011) | |
| • Total | 5,094,238 |
| • Density | 1,100/km2 (2,800/sq mi) |
| Demographics | |
| • Literacy | 87.66 per cent |
| • Sex ratio | 936 |
| Major highways | NH 6, NH 41 |
| Website | Official website |
Purba Medinipur district (pron: purbɔ med̪iːniːpur) or East Midnapore district (pron: ˌmɪd̪naˈpur) is an administrative unit in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the southernmost district of Medinipur division – one of the three administrative divisions of West Bengal. The headquarters in Tamluk. It was formed on 1 January 2002 after the Partition of Midnapore into Purba Medinipur and Paschim Medinipur which lies at the northern and western border of it. The state of Odisha is at the southwest border; the Bay of Bengal lies in the south; the Hooghly river and South 24 Parganas district to the east; and Howrah district to the north-east.
Purba Medinipur is formed of the sub-divisions of Tamluk, Contai and Haldia of erstwhile Midnapore district. Another sub-division, Egra has been created out of the erstwhile Contai sub-division during the partition of Midnapore. In 2011, the state government has proposed to rename the district as Tamralipta district after the ancient port city of Tamralipta which used to lie near the modern district headquarters.
Purba Medinipur saw many political movements during the British Raj. A parallel government named the Tamralipta Jatiya Sarkar was formed during the Quit India Movement in Tamluk. In 2007, Purba Medinipur witnessed the Nandigram violence, an incident of police firing that killed 14 farmers.
Tamralipta, the port in ancient India, is believed by scholars to have been around modern-day Tamluk. It is mentioned in the writings of Ptolemy (150 AD), the Greco-Egyptian writer, Faxian (earlier referred to as Fa Hien) (405-11 AD), the Chinese Buddhist monk, who travelled to India on foot, and Xuanzang (earlier referred to as Hiuen Tsiang) (seventh century AD), the Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveller and translator. It was the main port used by Ashoka, the Mauryan emperor. With too much siltation the port lost its importance around 8th century A.D.
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