a district of Hindustan, in the province of Bengal, situated between the twenty-second and twenty-fourth degrees of north latitude; and on the west side of the Hooghly river. It is bounded on the north by Birboom and Ranjeshy, on the south by Midnapoor and Hooghly, on the east by the river Hooghly, and on the west by Midnapoor and Pachete. This district is about seventy-three miles long by forty-five broad, and is perhaps the best cultivated and most productive of any similar extent of territory in India; while it appears like a garden in a wilderness, being surrounded by the jungles of Midnapoor in Orissa, of Pachete, and of Birboom. Its products are grain, cotton, silk, sugar, and indigo, which it yields in great abundance, and of excellent quality. The chief towns are Burdwan, Bisunpoor, and Keerpay; and the principal rivers are the Hooghly and Dummoodah. The inhabitants are estimated at two millions, one sixteenth of whom are supposed to be Mahomedans. Gang robbery has been very prevalent here, as in all the lower districts of Bengal; but of late years it has been greatly repressed by the energy of the government.