Koch Bihar
| Cooch Behar State Bengali: কোচবিহার Kocbihār |
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| Type of subdivision of (the) Former Country | ||||||
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| History | ||||||
| • | Established | 1586 | ||||
| • | Independence of India | 1949 | ||||
| Area | ||||||
| • | 1901 | 3,385 km2(1,307 sq mi) | ||||
| Today part of | West Bengal, India | |||||
 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. |
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Cooch Behar, also known as Koch Bihar, was a princely state ruled by Rajbanshi clans during the British Raj. The state was placed under the Bengal States Agency, part of the Eastern States Agency of the Bengal Presidency. It is located south of the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, in present-day West Bengal.
Cooch Behar State was formed when the Kamata Kingdom under the Koch dynasty split following the death of Nara Narayan in 1586. The eastern portion, Koch Hajo, was soon absorbed by Ahom. The western portion, Koch Bihar, although nominally independent became a vassal state in turn of the Mughal Empire, of Bhutan, the British East India Company, and of the British Raj. It acceded to and merged with India in 1949 and became a part of West Bengal. The district, Cooch Behar District, is named after this erstwhile kingdom.
The Kamata kingdom split at a time when the Mughals under Akbar were aggressively expanding their empire. The state soon became a dependency of the Mughal empire, and steadily lost territory to the empire.
Lakshmi Narayan (1587–1621), Nara Narayan's son, was the first ruler of the Koch Bihar portion of the Kamata kingdom. He was an ineffectual ruler. After losing much territory to the Mughal commander Ali Kuli Khan, he accepted Mughal sovereignty and assistance in defending against his neighbours. The next Mughal emperor, Jahangir, again attacked Bihar and captured territory including Tripura and Manipur. Lakshmi Narayan went to Delhi and won guarantees for the much-reduced state. On his return, he established his capital at the Atharokotha village.
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