MURSHIDABAD. 23 and the sea, at a spot which was also the most central in his wide dominions. And Nurshid Kuli Khan, by birth a Brahman, by education a courtier, was one of the most able administrators that ever served the Mughal Empire in time of peace. Only second to the Nawab in establishing the importance of Murshidabad, was the Jain banker, Mánik Chánd Jagat Seth, by whose predominating influence as a financier the residence of the Governor became also the centre of the revenue collections for the three Provinces of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa. The dynasty founded by Murshid Kuli Khán did not continue in the direct line beyond two generations, but when Ali Vardí Khan won the throne by conquest in 1740, he found Murshidabad to be mos conveniently situated for maintaining his hold upon the rebellious Province of Orissa, and subsequently for keeping the plundering Marathá horsemen behind the frontier of the Bhagirathi river. During these troublous times, the city itself never suffered either from domestic or foreign war. Each successive prince, after the Eastern fashion, built for himself one or more new palaces; and the great family of Jagat Seth preserved their position as State bankers from generation to generation. On entering Murshidabád after the victory of Plassey, Colonel Çlive wrote :- This city is as extensive, populous, and rich as the city of London, with this difference, that there are individuals in the first possessing infinitely greater property than in the last city. ... The inhabitants, if inclined to destroy the Europeans, might have done so with sticks and stones.' Even after the conquest of Bengal by the British, Murshidabad remained for some time the seat of administration. Plassey was fought in 1759, just beyond the present southern limits of Murshidabad District; but that battle was not regarded at the time as interfering with Muhammadan independence beyond the substitution of a subservient Nawab for the savage Siráj-ud-daula. The only apparent result was that the commercial Chief of the Factory at Kasimbázár was superseded by a Political Resident to the Darbár, who took up his quarters nearer the city, at Motijhíl,—the Pearl Lake,' -in the palace of a former Nawab. In 1765, the East India Company received the grant of the diwání or financial administration of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa from the Mughal Emperor, Shah Alam, as the prize of the victory at Baxár; and in the following year Lord Clive, as Governor of Bengal, presided in person at the Punyá or annual settlement of the revenues. But even on this occcasion, the young Nawab sat on the masnad, with the Governor on his right hand. The entire work of administration still remained, without serious check or supervision, in the hands of the Muhammadan officials; and Jagat Seth continued to be the State banker. The first great reform was effected in 1772 by Warren Hastings, who removed the Supreme Civil and Criminal Courts from
