POPULATION
93
of Bengal; more recently Gopbhum appears to have been the seat of
a Sadgop dynasty with head-quarters at Amrargarh, where the long
lines of fortification which enclosed the town are still visible.
Burdwan is first mentioned in Muhammadan histories in 1574, in
which year, after Daud Khan's defeat and death at Rajmahal, his family
was captured in the town of Burdwan by Akbar's troops. About ten
years later the District formed the scene of several engagements between
Daud's son Kuttu and the imperial forces. In 1624 prince Khurram,
afterwards the emperor Shah Jahan, captured the fort and town of
Burdwan. Soon afterwards Abu Rai, a Kapur Khattri, migrated to
Bengal from the Punjab and founded the BURDWiN RAJ. The year
x696 was marked by the rebellion of Subha Singh, zaminddr of Chitra
and Barda, who, with the help of the Afghans, slew the Raja of Burdwan
and overran a great part of the province. In the beginning of the
eighteenth century the Marathas made their appearance at Katwa, and
for the next fifty years the District suffered severely at their hands, the
inhabitants frequently leaving their villages and seeking a refuge in the
swamps. In 1760 the District of Burdwan, together with Midnapore
and Chittagong, was ceded to the East India Company by Mir Kasim
Khan on the deposition of Mir Jafar Khan from the governorship of
Bengal. At that time it comprised the present Districts of Burdwan,
Bankura, Hooghly, and a third of Birbhum. In 1805 the Bishnupur
zamindcdri (Bankura) was included in the jungle Mahals, and in 1819
Hooghly was also separated from it. Numerous minor transfers took
place until the year 1885, when the District assumed its present
proportions.
Some interesting tombs are found in Burdwan town, and groups of
Siva lingam temples at Burdwan and Kalna. In the Garh jungle
near Senpahari in the Kaksa thdna are the ruins of a fort said to have
been built by Raja Chitra Sen ; and near Barakar at the foot of the
Kalyaneswari hill are temples whose building is attributed to an ancestor
of the Raja of Panchet. The temples at Begunia near Barakar also
deserve mention.
The population of the present District area decreased from 1,486,400
in 1872 to 1,394,220 in 1881, and to 1,391,880 In 1891, but rose again
to 1,532,475 in 19or. The District for many years
suffered from a malarial fever of a very virulent type Population.
to which it gave its name. The real ` Burdwan fever,' which often
proved fatal within one or two days, appears to have died out, though
the District is still subject to fevers of a remittent type, the waterlogged
tract along the bank of the Bhagirathi being particularly unhealthy.
Cholera is seldom absent and is markedly endemic in the Kalna thana,
but there have been no outbreaks of special violence in recent years.
The mortality due to this cause in 1902 was 1•87 per i,ooo. Leprosy
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