BANKURA, a town and district of British India, within the Burdwan division of Bengal. Pop. (1931) 31,703. The district has an area of 2,625sq.m., and in 1931 its population was 1,I11,72I. Bankura forms a connecting link between the delta of the Ganges on the east and the plateau of Chota Nagpur on the west. Two hills, Susinia and Biharinath, which are outliers of the plateau, rise to a height of 1,442 and 1,469ft. above sea-level. Along its eastern boundary adjoining Burdwan district the country is flat and alluvial. To the west, however, the surface gradually rises into long undulating tracts; rice lands and swamps give way to jungle or forest trees. The Raniganj coal field extends to a narrow strip along the river Damodar, and coal is worked in a few mines. Laterite, which is used for road metalling and railway ballast, is quarried extensively. Shell-lac is produced and silk and tussur are woven. A branch of the Bengal-Nagpur rail way passes through the district, and a light railway, the Bankura Damodar river railway, runs from Bankura town through Indas to Rainagar. The district is exposed to drought and also to destructive floods. It suffered in the famines of 1866, and 1896-97, and famine had again to be declared in 1915-16. The subdivisional town of Vishnupur (pop. 19,696) was formerly the capital of a small principality under the Rajas of Vishnupur. The temples in the town, which are memorials of their power and piety, represent the most complete set of specimens of the Bengali style of temple architecture.