A View in the Jungle Terry - William Hodges

Jungle Terry or Jungleterry, from hi, जंगल तराई ''jangal tarāi'', meaning 'jungle lowland', was a term applied in the 18th century to an area bordering Bengal and Bihar that included large tracts of

Bhagalpur Bhagalpur is a city in the Indian state of Bihar, situated on the southern banks of the river Ganges. It is the 2nd largest city of Bihar by population and also the headquarters of Bhagalpur district and Bhagalpur division. Known as the Si ...

and Monghyr districts, as well as the Santal Parganas district. Although named as such, rather than an official district the Jungle Terry was a vague border area. The district named

Jungle Mahals Jungle Mahals, ( jungle estates) was a district formed by British possessions and some independent chiefdoms lying between Birbhum, Bankura, Midnapore and the hilly country of Chota Nagpur in what is now the Indian state of West Bengal.O’Malle ...

would be established later in 1805.Bengal District Gazetteers Bankura
O’Malley, L.S.S., ICS, 1908, Barcode(99999990038739), Language english, pp. 21-41, 1995 reprint, Government of West Bengal fro
Digital Library of India

Geography

The Jungle Terry was located in the present-day

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n states of

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...

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 ...

and

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . I ...

. It was an ill-defined thickly forested region inhabited by tribal groups such as the Bhumij, the

Santhal Santhal may refer to : Places and jurisdictions * Santhal Pargana division, in Jharkhand state, (north)eastern India * Santhal State, former petty princely state in Mahi Kantha, Gujarat, western India People * Santhal people (part of the Tea ...

and the Munda people.

William Hodges William Hodges RA (28 October 1744 – 6 March 1797) was an English painter. He was a member of James Cook's second voyage to the Pacific Ocean and is best known for the sketches and paintings of locations he visited on that voyage, incl ...

mentions that the Jungle Terry was located to the west of Bauglepore (Bhagalpur). The area included the

Rajmahal Hills The Rajmahal Hills are located in the Santhal Pargana division of Jharkhand, India. They were located on the northern margin of the Gondwana supercontinent, and its hills are today inhabited by the Sauria Paharia people whilst its valleys are d ...

; towns that were close to the area according to James Browne included, besides Bauglepoor or Boglypour (

), Curruckpoor ( Haveli Kharagpur), Colgong (

Kahalgaon Kahalgaon (formerly known as Colgong during British rule) is a town and a municipality in Bhagalpur district in the state of Bihar, India. It is located close to the Vikramashila, that was once a famous centre of Buddhist learning across the wo ...

), Birboom (

Birbhum Birbhum district () is an administrative unit in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the northernmost district of Burdwan division—one of the five administrative divisions of West Bengal. The district headquarters is in Suri. Other impo ...

), Curruckdea (

Kharagdiha Kharagdiha is a village in the Jamua CD block in the Khori Mahua subdivision of the Giridih district in the Indian state of Jharkhand. It had been known as Curruckdea or Curruckdeah during the British Raj. Geography Location Kharagdiha is locat ...

) and Guidore (

Gidhaur Gidhaur (also known as Patsanda) is a small town in the Jamui District of Bihar. In the early-modern period, it was the centre of the Gidhaur chieftaincy. History Raja Bir Bikram Shah who belonged to Chandel Rajput Dynasty founded this princel ...

). Map number two of

James Rennell Major James Rennell, (3 December 1742 – 29 March 1830) was an English geographer, historian and a pioneer of oceanography. Rennell produced some of the first accurate maps of Bengal at one inch to five miles as well as accurate outlines of Ind ...

's 1779 ''Bengal Atlas'' has the title "Jungleterry District",Henry Yule, A. C. Burnell, ''Hobson-Jobson: The Definitive Glossary of British India'', Oxford University Press. p. 291 but the name 'Jungle Terry' itself does not show on the map.

Bishop Reginald Heber Reginald Heber (21 April 1783 – 3 April 1826) was an English Anglican bishop, man of letters and hymn-writer. After 16 years as a country parson, he served as Bishop of Calcutta until his death at the age of 42. The son of a rich lando ...

comments that the "Jungleterry" district is very fertile and that theft, murder and highway robberies are a rare occurrence in it.''Bishop Heber in Northern India: Selections from Heber's Journal'', p. 110

References

External links

Bengal District Gazetteers Bankura
O’Malley, L.S.S., 1908, Barcode(6010010076000), Language English, Geography,Travels And Description fro
Digital Library of India

The Jungleterry District mapThe Jungle and the Aroma of Meats: An Ecological Theme in Hindu MedicineForest Tenures in the Jungle Mahals of South West Bengal
{{coord, 25, 00, N, 86, 30, E, display=title, region:IN_type:dist Bengal Presidency History of Bihar History of Jharkhand Districts of British India

Geography

See also

References

External links