Bongaigaon district General information
Bongaigaon is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. The district headquarters are located at Bongaigaon. The district occupies an area of 2510 km² and has a population of 906,315 (as of 2001).
History
Bongaigaon District was created curving out some areas of Goalpara and Kokrajhar District with its headqtr at Bongaigaon in 1989. It is sorrounded by 4 districts namely Barpeta(East), Goalpara(South-East), Kokrajhar( West), and dhubri(North-West).
The original Goalpara district was first created in 1822 A.D. by David Scott- an employee of East India Company, who was the first Commissioner of newly created North East Rangpur district Hd. Qr. at Rangpur town(now in Bangla Desh) and newly created Goalpara district was also tagged with North-East Rangpur district for administration. The erstwhile Bijni Kingdom's area which included the undivided Garo Hills district area also constituted the original Goalpara district area in 1822. In 1866 Garo Hills was separated from Goalpara district area and in the same year a new district named "Greater Koch Behar" was created and the residual portion of Goalpara district was withdrawn from Rangpur and tagged with Koch Behar. In 1874 a new province named Assam Valley Province was created by British Govt.(Successor of East India Company) and Goalpara district area was withdrawn from Koch Behar and tagged with Assam Province which continues till today unless petty political gambling disturbs. Now the original Goalpara district has given birth of four districts namely Goalpara, Dhubri, Kokrajhar, and Bongaigaon.
Bijni Kingdom was first establishment by Bijit Narayan alias Chandra Narayan in 1671 comprising the area of undivided Goalpara district.Chandra Narayan was the son of Parikshit Narayan who was the grandson of Yuvaraj Sukladhwaj alias Chilarai, the world hero(1510-1571 AD). He was the younger brother of Moharaj Naranarayan, the great emperor of Kamrup Rajya alias Kamata Empire alias Koch Empire of 16th century.The first capital of Bijni Kingdom was at modern Bijni town from 1671 to 1864 and thereafter shifted to Dumuria(now known as Dalan Bhanga) due to attack by Jhawlia Mech - a local chief under Bhutan Kingdom. The big and dreaded earthquake occured at 5 PM, on 12th June/1897 badly damaged the royal palaces of Dumuriya caused the shifting of the Capital temporarily to Jogighopa and thereafter permanently shifted to Deohati forest area now known as Abhayapuri named after Rani Abhayeswari in 1901, which continued upto 1956 when Govt. of India took over this Kingdom. At present Bongaigaon district is having three Civil Sub-Divisions, namely (1) Bongaigaon with Hd. Qr. at Bongaigaon (2) North Salmara with Hd. Qr. at Abhayapuri town and (3) Bijni with Hd. Qr. at Bijni town.90 % area of Bongaigaon district belonged to erstwhile Bijni Kingdom and 10% area from Sidli Kingdom, Raja Bhairabendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur and Raja Ajit Narayan Dev were the last kings of Bijni and Sidli Kingdoms respectively. Joy Narayan, Shiv Narayan, Bijoy Narayan, Mukunda Narayan, Haridev Narayan, Indra Narayan, Amrit Narayan,. Kumud Narayan and Rani Abhayeswari were the Kings and queen in between the founder king Chandra Narayan and the last king Bhairabendra Narayan of Bijni Kingdom.
Geography
Area of the Bongaigaon is 2510 sq KM.Its Longitude and Latitudes are 89o East to 90o96' East and 26o28' North to 26o54' North respectively.The total population is 9,06,315.Among it Male is 4,65,970 and Female is 4,40,345.
Tourist Place
* Cave Temple ( Jogighopa)
* Bagheswari Temple ( Bagheswari Hill, Bongaigaon Town)
* Bishnupur Shankardeva Shatra ( Bishnupur, Abhayapuri)
* Ganesh Mandir Ruins ( Khagrapar Hill, Abhayapuri )
* KakoiJana Reserved Forest ( For Golden Langur and Birds)
* Lalmati-Duramari Ganesh Mandir
* Rock-Cut Cave