Bardhaman

Bardhaman, officially Bardhaman Sadar and also known as Burdwan, is a city and municipality on the northern bank of the Damodar river in West Bengal, India, and the headquarters of Purba Bardhaman district, which it became under British rule. The article ties the name to Vardhamana, or Mahavira, the 24th Tirthankara of Jainism, and says the city owes its historical importance to the Maharajas of Burdwan, whose Bardhaman Raj was founded in 1657 by Sangam Rai. The East Indian Railway from Howrah opened in 1855, and the Municipality of Burdwan came into being in 1865. The average elevation is given as 40 metres, the climate is tropical savanna (Köppen Aw), and the 2011 census counted 347,016 people in the Bardhaman urban agglomeration. The economy is traditionally agricultural, which earned it the names Rice Bowl of West Bengal and Granary of Bengal.