The Early History of Bengal

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This book originally published in 1925, deals with the Mauryan Period. It is but a preliminary part of a venture which had in view a History of Bengal from the early age, i.e. from the establishment of the Mauryan Empire, the earliest event in the history of Bengal to which an approximate date can be assigned, up to the first Muslim invasion. Presidency of Bengal at that time when this book was being written, covered most of North India including United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, the Panjab and the NWFP as also Bihar and Orissa. However, due to unexpected death of the author, project could not be completed.

F.J. Monahan was a distinguished member of the Indian Civil Service. In 1885 he went to Calcutta as Assistant Magistrate. From there he was sent to Cuttack. After short periods in Dacca and Burdwan districts as Magistrate-Collector, in 1892 he was transferred to Sibsagar and finally to Jalpaiguri as Commissioner seventeen years later. In 1898 he was chosen as Chief Secretary until the creation of the new Province of Eastern Bengal and Assam, when he was appointed Commissioner of the Assam Valley. In 1914 he was transferred to Calcutta as Presidency Commissioner.

IT has seemed to the author of the following pages desirable that works on the history of India as a whole should be supplemented by others dealing with smaller and more homogeneous units, and he has set himself the task of presenting what is known of the history of Bengal from the establishment of the Maurya empire down to the first Muhammadan invasion. The term Bengal, as is well known, has borne different meanings at different times. Until very recently, the British official expression, ' Presidency of Bengal ', covered most of Northern India, including what are now the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, the Panjab, and the North-West Frontier Province, while the ' Lower Provinces of Bengal' included the present Bengal province, with Bihar and Orissa, under one provincial government. The existing province of Bengal comprises what, under British rule, has been known as ' Bengal Proper ', and corresponds roughly (excluding the districts of Sylhet and Cachar now included in Assam, and some smaller areas) with the country in which the Bengali language is spoken. It is with the early history of this province that the author proposes to deal.

As the author, my friend Mr. Francis John Monahan, died before the completion of the work of which the present volume is a part, I have been asked to say a word of explanation, by way of introduction. In 1885, the author, a distinguished member of the Indian Civil Service, went to Calcutta as Assistant Magistrate, and was sent from thence to Cuttack. Two years later he was transferred to Rajmehal, as Sub-Divisional Officer, and worked there under the late Mr. Robert Carstairs, whose long connexion with the Sonthal Parganas began about the same time. After short periods in the Dacca and Burdwan districts, in which he gained his earliest experience of the work of a Magistrate-collector, Mr. Monahan was in 1892 transferred to Sibsagar in Assam, and then commenced the long connexion with the Eastern Province which terminated with his transfer to Jalpaiguri as Commissioner seventeen years later. In Assam he held the post of Deputy Commissioner of Sibsagar for nearly three years, when he succeeded Sir Edward Gait as Director of Land Records. Early in 1898 Sir Henry Cotton, then Chief Commissioner of Assam, chose him as his Chief Secretary—a post which, with short periods spent on furlough, he held until the creation of the new province of Eastern Bengal and Assam. On the completion of the new administrative arrangements, he was appointed Commissioner of the Assam Valley- a post which he held for three years. After a short rest in Europe he returned to India as Commissioner of the Rajshahi division in Northern Bengal, and early in 1914 he was transferred to Calcutta as Presidency Commissioner. In 1917, and again in 1918, he represented the Bengal Government on the Imperial Council, and during the last few months of his service he held the appointment of Member of the Board of Revenue.

**Contents and Sample Pages**