MALDAH, a British district in the Lieutenant Governorship of Bengal, occupying an eastern projection of the Bhagulpur division. It lies between lat. 24° 29' 50" and 32' 30" N., and long. 87° 48' and 88° 33' 30" E. Three of its towns have been its capitals. Gaur is said to have been abandoned on the occurrence of a great pestilence. Its ruins, lying between the Mahan anda and the Ganges, are scattered over an area of more than 20 square miles. The foundation of this city is referred back to the remotest anti quity. It was the Hindu metropolis of Bengal before the Musalman conquest, and continued to be the capital of the Afghan invaders for at least three centuries, and its name distinguishes a class of languages and a tribe of Brahmans. Pandua or Perm, which lies about 20 miles north-east from Gaur beyond the Mahananda, superseded the latter city as the seat of government during the reigns of five successive Afghan monarchs, towards the close of the 14th century. Tandan
Tangra succeeded Pandua. As far back as 1686 the E. I. Company had a silk factory here. In 1770, English Bazar was fixed upon for a com mercial residency; the buildings of which, strongly fortified after the fashion of those days, exist to the present day.
The two staple manufactures of the Maldah district are silk and indigo. The weaving of silk is said to date back to the Hindu kingdom of Gaur, and the peculiar cloth known as Maldahi has been for generations a speciality of external com merce. The English had a factory at Maldah at least as early as 1686. The population comprise the aboriginal Kharwar, Dhangar, Koch, Pali, Rajbansi, Chain, and Bind ; also the Hindu Kai barta, Nagar, Teli, Goals, and Tiar, with a few Muhammadans.