Pargana

A pargana (Hindi: परगना, parganā), also spelt 'pergunnah' during the time of the British Raj, is a former administrative unit of the Indian subcontinent, used primarily, but not exclusively, by the Muslim kingdoms.

Parganas were introduced by the Delhi Sultanate, and the word is of Persian origin. As a revenue unit, a pargana consists of several mouzas, which are the smallest revenue units, consisting of one or more villages and the surrounding countryside. Larger subdivisions of parganas were called tarafs (quarters, districts).

Under the reign of Sher Shah Suri, administration of parganas was strengthened by the addition of other officers, including a shiqdar (police chief), an amin or munsif (an arbitrator who assessed and collected revenue) and a karkun (record keeper).

Mughal era

In the 16th century the Mughal emperor Akbar organised the empire into subahs, which were further subdivided into sarkars, roughly the equivalent of districts, which were themselves organised into parganas. In the Mughal system, parganas served as the local administrative units of a sarkar. Individual parganas observed common customs regarding land rights and responsibilities, which were known as the pargana dastur, and each pargana had its own customs regarding rent, fees, wages, and weights and measures, known as the pargana nirikh.

24 Parganas

24 Parganas district (cabbiś pargaṇā jēlā) is a former district of the Indian state of West Bengal. The district was split into two districts — North 24 Parganas district and South 24 Parganas district, with effect from 1 March 1986.

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References

Coordinates: 22°N 88°E / 22°N 88°E / 22; 88

North 24 Parganas district

North 24 Parganas district (Pron: pɔrɡɔnɔs) is a district in southern West Bengal, of eastern India. North 24 Parganas extends in the [tropical zone] from latitude 22º11'6" north to 23º15'2" north and from longitude 88º20' east to 89º5' east. It is bordered to Nadia by north, to Bangladesh (Khulna Division) by north and east, to South 24 Parganas and Kolkata by south and to Kolkata, Howrah and Hoogly by west. Barasat is the district headquarters of North 24 Parganas.

North 24 Parganas is West Bengal's most populous district and (following the splitting of the Thane district of Maharashtra in 2014) the most populated district in the whole of India. It is also the tenth-largest district in the State by area.

History

Ancient History

According to Ptolemy's Treatise on geography, written in the 2nd Century A.D., the ancient land of Gangaridi was stretched between the rivers Bhagirathi-Hoogly (lower Ganges) and Padma-Meghna. The modern-day 24 Parganas was the southern and the south-eastern territory of that legendary kingdom.