Murshidabad The Land of The Nawabs

Stretching from the snow-capped Himalayas in the north to the Bay of Bengal in the south, and surrounded by three international frontiers, West Bengal, one of India’s Eastern States, is known for its natural and architectural heritage.

- Diptarka Ghosh

In recent times, the state has seen exponential growth in the number of domestic and international tourists, and tourism has emerged as one of the principal drivers of the state’s economy. One such prominent tourist destination in the state that is renowned for its rich history is the city of Murshidabad, located on the eastern banks of River Bhagirathi approximately 210.4 km north (via NH12) from the state capital Kolkata. From 1704 (when Nawab Murshid Quli Khan moved the regional capital to Muksudabad from Dacca) to 1757 (when the infamous Battle of Plassey robbed the Nawabs of their powers), Murshidabad served as the administrative seat of the Nawabs, who ruled over the Mughal Empire’s wealthiest province (consisting of the present-day Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha), and accounted for about 50% of the empire’s GDP. Such was the beauty of the settlement, that Robert Clive on entering Murshidabad after the Battle of Plassey commented, “The city of Murshidabad is as extensive, populous, and rich as the city of London, with this difference, that there are individuals in the first possessing infinitely greater property than in the last city. The inhabitants, if inclined to destroy the Europeans might have done so with sticks and stones.”