Zamindars of Natore
Legend has it that Raja (zamindar) Ramjivan Moitra was once travelling by boat searching for a suitable place to build his principal residence.
Unlike the autonomous or frontier chiefs, the hereditary status of the zamindar class was circumscribed by the Mughal emperors, and the heir depended to a certain extent on the pleasure of the sovereign.
Under the British Empire, the zamindars were to be subordinate to the crown and not act as hereditary lords, but at times family politics was at the heart of naming an heir.
Raja Darpanarain, the zamindar of Puthia, and Murshid Quli Khan had significant contributions behind Raghunandan's rise to prominence.
Raghunandan sided with Murshid Quli Khan in his entanglement with the Subahdar, the Prince Azim-us-Shan, the grandson of Emperor Aurangzeb and thus won the confidence of the nawab.
The sack of Muhammadpur, Raja Sitaram's capital, later enabled him to ultimately lay the foundation of the Dighapatia dynasty.
For his loyalty, he received large tracts of land in Rajshahi and Jessore as grants and later acquired zamindari in Bogra and Mymensingh.
The Puthia Raj family was created by the Mughal Emperors in the early seventeenth century is one of the oldest feudal estates of Bengal.
The temples have been built in terracotta in a variety of styles combining the typical Jor Bangla Architecture with other influences.
The corridors have a touch of Jaipur architecture and in the sanctuary, lies a very large black basalt Shiva Linga, one of the largest in the country.
During the fall of the Rajshahi Raj family, the clan gained considerable tracts of lands in their estates and functioned as vassal chiefs to the Maharajas of Dighapatia.
Other zamindars in Singra included British-Indian aristocrat and historian, Sir Jadunath Sarkar who received the Order of the Indian Empire in 1929 from King George V. Located beyond the Northern Frontiers of Natore, eminent aristocrats such as Nawab Bahadur Syed Nawab Ali Chowdhury, grandson of a Zamindar of Natore were credited with early development of the region.
Besides continued regional governance and economic development, the Zamindars of Natore started major works that were monumental for Bengal.
Excavation of Somapura Mahavihara, the 1985 UNESCO World Heritage Site was started by societies and institutions founded by the Zamindars.
The oldest multi-disciplinary research university, where Satyendranath Bose published his works defining the Bose–Einstein condensate with Albert Einstein, was also one such institute which survives till this day.
The East Bengal State Acquisition and Tenancy Act of 1950 was drafted on 31 March 1948 during the after the fall of the British Monarchy in India, and passed on 16 May 1951.
The Act of 1885 defined the rights and liabilities of the ryats (Peasants) in relation to their superior lords (Zamindars).
After the British left in 1947, the law abolished the Zamindari system in the region, after which the lands of the state were under the federal government.
