Azim ush-Shan on the imperial throne receives the investiture of Khizr ca

Azimabad ( hi, अज़ीमाबाद, ur, ) was the name of modern-day

Patna Patna ( ), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...

during the eighteenth century, prior to the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was him ...

. Today, Patna is the capital of

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...

, a state in North India. In ancient times, Patna was known as

Pataliputra Pataliputra (IAST: ), adjacent to modern-day Patna, was a city in ancient India, originally built by Magadha ruler Ajatashatru in 490 BCE as a small fort () near the Ganges river.. Udayin laid the foundation of the city of Pataliputra at t ...

. This was the capital of the Maurya and

Gupta Empire The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire which existed from the early 4th century CE to late 6th century CE. At its zenith, from approximately 319 to 467 CE, it covered much of the Indian subcontinent. This period is considered as the Gold ...

Medieval India Medieval India refers to a long period of Post-classical history of the Indian subcontinent between the "ancient period" and "modern period". It is usually regarded as running approximately from the breakup of the Gupta Empire in the 6th cen ...

marked Pataliputra's invasion of

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically r ...

Bakhtiyar Khilji Ikhtiyār al-Dīn Muḥammad Bakhtiyār Khaljī, (Pashto :اختيار الدين محمد بختيار غلزۍ, fa, اختیارالدین محمد بختیار خلجی, bn, ইখতিয়ারউদ্দীন মুহম্মদ � ...

and other

rulers. This event is arguably seen by modern historians and scholars as a milestone in the

decline of Buddhism in India Buddhism, which originated in India, gradually dwindled and was replaced by approximately the 12th century. According to Lars Fogelin, this was "not a singular event, with a singular cause; it was a centuries-long process." The decline of Budd ...

. Long before Pataliputra was conquered, however, most of the ancient city was abandoned in the seventh century of the

Common Era Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...

but revived more than 800 years later during the rule of

emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother ( ...

Sher Shah Suri Sher Shah Suri ( ps, شیرشاه سوری) (1472, or 1486 – 22 May 1545), born Farīd Khān ( ps, فرید خان) , was the founder of the Sur Empire in India, with its capital in Sasaram in modern-day Bihar. He standardized the silver coin ...

. Sher Shah Suri had moved his capital from Bihar Sharif to

. Not long after Sher Shah Suri's death in 1545, Patna and

fell to the

Mughals The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

. The name

continued to be used, however. In 1703, Prince

Azim-us-Shan Azim-ush-Shan ( fa, ; 15 December 1664 – 18 March 1712) was the second son of Mughal emperor Shah Alam I, by his second wife, Amrita Bai, Princess of Kishangarh. He was the grandson of Emperor Aurangzeb, during whose reign, he was the ''su ...

, the grandson of

Mughal Emperor The Mughal emperors ( fa, , Pādishāhān) were the supreme heads of state of the Mughal Empire on the Indian subcontinent, mainly corresponding to the modern countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The Mughal rulers styled ...

Aurangzeb Muhi al-Din Muhammad (; – 3 March 1707), commonly known as ( fa, , lit=Ornament of the Throne) and by his regnal title Alamgir ( fa, , translit=ʿĀlamgīr, lit=Conqueror of the World), was the sixth emperor of the Mughal Empire, ruling ...

came as the

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

of Pataliputra. Azim-us-Shan, renamed

as Azimabad, in 1704.

Khan Zaman Khan Ali Asghar Ali Asghar (died ca 1155 AH/1743 AD) was one of the prominent Emir and nobleman during the Mughal empire. He was entitled 'Khan Zaman Khan Bahadur' by Emperor Farrukhsiyar. He remained in many important posts during the successive rules of Bahad ...

ibn

Qazi Ghulam Mustafa Qazi Ghulam Mustafa (died c. 1123 AH / 1711 AD) was one of the prominent noblemen during the Mughal empire. He was entitled 'Kar Talab Khan' by Bahadur Shah I. He was Emir and belonged to Ferozepur Jhirka.Tarikh Mohammadi by Mirza Mohammad bi ...

was later on appointed as Naib

Subahdar Subahdar, also known as Nazim or in English as a "Subah", was one of the designations of a governor of a Subah (province) during the Khalji dynasty of Bengal, Mamluk dynasty (Delhi), Khalji dynasty, Tughlaq dynasty, Mughal era ( of India who ...

Farrukhsiyar Farrukhsiyar or Farrukh Siyar () (20 August 16839 April 1719) was the tenth emperor of the Mughal Empire from 1713 to 1719. He rose to the throne after assassinating his uncle, Emperor Jahandar Shah. Reportedly a handsome man who was easily ...

at Azimabad. The last custodian of Pargenah Haweli Azimabad, was

Nawab Haji Syed Ahmad Ali Khan Bahadur of Doolighat Nawab Haji Syed Ahmad Ali Khan Bahadur (died 1786 AD) was the first Nawab of Doolighat who wrote under the nom de plume of 'Qayamat'. He is remembered for the establishment of Azadari in Azimabad with the foundation of Imambaras at Doolighat an ...

, who received it as a jagir, from the then emperor

Alamgir II Aziz-ud-Din Muhammad (6 June 1699 – 29 November 1759), better known as Alamgir II, was the fifteenth Mughal Emperor of India, who reigned from 3 June 1754 to 29 November 1759. He was the son of Jahandar Shah. Born Aziz-ud-Din, the second ...

Eventually, the name ''Azimabad'' fell out of use, and was replaced by ''Patna'', the name Sher Shah Suri opted to call this ancient

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

. Patna is the most common way of referring to Bihar's capital city from colonial period onward. Nevertheless, there is a New Azimabad Colony inside Patna today named after Patna that is primarily inhabited by

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

who were inspired by Patna's Mughal name. Similarly,

is understood as part of the modern city Patna, not the whole city itself. Thus, to some extent, while the name "Patna" has replaced and to some extent engulfed Azimabad and

, the legacy of these former names during the ancient and early modern exists and will continue to persist for the foreseeable future.

References

{{Patna Division topics History of Patna 1704 establishments in Asia

See also

References