Purbasthali is a village in the

Purba Bardhaman district Purba Bardhaman district is in the Indian state of West Bengal. Its headquarters is in Bardhaman. It was formed on 7 April 2017 after the division of the previous Bardhaman district. Great revolutionary Rash Behari Bose was born in village Suba ...

of West Bengal, India. It is located 120 km north from

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

. Also known as Chupi Char, it lies on the banks of a large oxbow lake created by the

Ganges river The Ganges ( ; in India: Ganga, ; in Bangladesh: Padma, ). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international which goes through India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China." is a trans-boundary rive ...

and is only 8 km from the town of

Nabadwip Nabadwip (), also spelt Navadwip, historically known as Nadia, is a heritage city in Nadia district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is regarded as a holy place by Hindus, and is the birthplace of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Located on the wes ...

. The 2–3 km long lake attracts migrants and water birds. The Purbasthali area has a fairly high level of arsenic in the ground water.

Geography

Location

Purbasthali lies close on the Tropic of Cancer. Purbasthali is a large block with a number of villages adjoining a large oxbow lake, created by the river Ganga, on its Western bank, in Purba Bardhaman district of West Bengal. It is 120 km north from Calcutta. On the Eastern bank of the river lies the town of Nabadwip. The entire Gangetic Isle complex of Purbasthali extends between the geographical coordinates from 88° 19' 45" to 88° 22' E longitude and 23° 26' to 23° 26'45" N latitude.

Police station

Purbasthali police station has jurisdiction over parts of

Purbasthali I Purbasthali I is a Community development block in India, community development block that forms an administrative division in Kalna subdivision of Purba Bardhaman district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of West Bengal. Geogra ...

and Purbasthali II CD Blocks. The area covered is 180.3 km².

Physiography

Purbasthali is located on the agriculturally rich alluvial plains between the

Bhagirathi The Bhāgīrathī (Pron: /ˌbʌgɪˈɹɑːθɪ/) is a turbulent Himalayan river in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, and one of the two headstreams of the Ganges, the major river of Northern India and the holy river of Hinduism. In the Hindu f ...

, Ajay and Damodar rivers. Temperatures in this region varies from 17-18 °C in winter to 30-32 °C in summer.

The Oxbow Lake

The oxbow lake of Purbasthali has an area of in the post monsoon winter months. Beyond the lake the river fed eco-system also forms a cluster of larger and smaller islands comprising Purbasthali Gangetic Isle Complex.

Demographics

As per the 2011 Census of India, Purbasthali had a total population of 4,207 of which 2,128 (51%) were males and 2,079 (49%) were females. Population below 6 years was 379. The total number of literates in Purbasthali was 3,215 (83.99% of the population over 6 years).

Transport

Purbasthali railway station is on the Bandel-Katwa Branch Line of Eastern Railway.

Notable people

Upendranath Brahmachari Rai Bahadur Sir Upendranath Brahmachari ; 19 December 1873 – 6 February 1946) was a prominent Indian physician and scientist. In 1922, he synthesised urea-stibamine (carbostibamide) and demonstrated its effectiveness in treating kala-azar ( ...

(1873–1941), medical scientist, hailed from Purbasthali. * Krishnanath Nyayapanchanan (1833–1911) Sanskrit scholar, authority in Nyaya, Mimangsa and other branches of Indian philosophy * Baneswar Sarkar won the national award for weaving in 1998. *

Krishnadasa Kaviraja Krishnadasa (born 1496, died 1588), known by the honorific '' Kaviraja'' (; ), was the author of the ''Chaitanya Charitamrita'', a biography on the life of the mystic and saint Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486–1533), who is considered by the Gaudi ...

, writer. *Batukeshawar Dutta-was an Indian Bengali revolutionary and independence fighter in the early 1900s. He and Bhagat Singh set off bombs in the Central Legislative Assembly in New Delhi on 8 April 1929. After they were arrested, tried and imprisoned for life, they went on a hunger strike against the abusive treatment of Indian political prisoners, for whom they eventually secured some rights. He was a member of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association * Monoranjan Nath, politician * Pradip Kumar Saha, politician

References

Survey Report on Oxbow Lake of Purbasthali, 1998 by Institute of Environmental Studies and Wetland Management. {{Purba Bardhaman District Villages in Purba Bardhaman district Tourist attractions in Purba Bardhaman district Lakes of West Bengal