BURDWAN, a town of British India, in Bengal, which gives its name to a district and to a division. Pop. The town includes numerous villages scattered over an area of 9sq.m., and is mainly rural in character. The principal objects of interest are the Burdwan Raj palace and gardens; and several interesting ancient tombs; at Nawab Hat, some 2m. distant, is a group of 1o8 Siva lingam temples built in 1788. The place was formerly very unhealthy and suffered after 1862 from a virulent type of fever called "Burdwan fever," but its health improved after the establishment of water works, in 1884.
The town is the headquarters of the Maharajadhiraj Bahadur of Burdwan, who ranks first in wealth and importance among the Zamindars of Bengal. The raj was founded in 1657 by Abu Rai Kapur, who migrated to Burdwan from the Punjab. One of the most distinguished of his descendants was Maharaja Mahtab Chand, whose loyalty to the government was rewarded with the grant of a coat of arms in i868 and the right to a personal salute of 13 guns in 1877. The present head of the house is Sir Bijay Chand Mahtab Maharajadhiraj Bahadur of Burdwan, G.C.I.E., K.C.S.I., I.O.M. (b. 1881), who was installed in 19o3 and five years later was made a member of the Indian Order of Merit in recognition of the courage with which he risked his life to save that of Sir Andrew Fraser, the lieutenant governor of Bengal, on the occasion of an attempt to assassinate him made by a Bengali. He was a member of the Bengal Executive Council from 1919 to 1924, and was one of the representatives of India at the Imperial Conference in 1926.
The District of Burdwan lies along the right bank of the river Bhagirathi or Hooghly. It has an area of 2,7o5sq.m. and a popula tion of 1,575,699. The east is a low-lying alluvial plain, subject to inundation from the river Damodar. The west of the district comprising the Asansol subdivision, consists of rolling uplands with a dry lateritic soil. The former tract is entirely agricultural, the latter largely industrial. It contains the greater part of the Raniganj coal-field, with an output of more than four million tons, and the Bengal Iron company and the Indian Iron and Steel company ironworks. The subdivisional town of Asansol (pop. 31,286) is an important railway junction and the centre of the Raniganj coal-field. Raniganj (pop. 16,373), which contains large pottery works, was the headquarters of the subdivision till 1906.
The Division of Burdwan comprises the six districts of Burd wan, Birbhum, Bankura, Midnapore, Hooghly and Howrah, with a total area of 13,854sq.m., and a population in 1931 of 8,647,189.