Story of these Villages of Past, Present and Future

It was explained in Purnea College Seminar that the most influential native power in the old district of Purnea had hailed from Saurya, presently a village in Katihar district of Bihar state. A famous history professor Dr. Ratneshwar Mishra gave a lecture recently on the archaeological sights of the old district of Purnea in our college campus and revealed this fact during his speech. Earlier most of us were given an impression that the oldest native feudal lord or zamindar had belonged to another place, namely Pasraha near Raniganj block in Purnea. It was further held in the same discourse that the ancestor of the owners rooted from these places were same, Samar Singh. If we analyse this topic from another angle the local old brahman families of the entire region talk about the cultural geography or territorial division of the old Purnea main land into two parts. The eastern part is named as the Nesra or Nasira pargana whereas the western part is known as the Dharampur pargana. In Mithila we generally find divisions on the bases of caste, creed, race et cetra like elsewhere throughout India. In addition we find territorial identifications such as 'Soitpura', 'Jogpura', Dharampur' and 'Nesra'. The last two territorial identities might be linked to the two separate zamindari parganas owned by the successors of Samar Singh. The Dharampur pargana came later under the administrative as well as cultural grip of the ruling families of Darbhanga and Banaili. Similarly the Nesra pargana after the end of the Saurya family rule came under the direct influence of new ruling families. It is believed in our families mostly confined at Durgaganj village near Kumhari block that the first name or Durga out of the full name of the village might be either Babu Durga Narayan Rai { as the elder brother out of the two brothers } or Durga Prasad Chaudhuri, the owner of the earstwhile Malduar estate. Both these men were close relatives, the former being the husband while the latter, brother of the daughters of Ramlochan Chaudhuri, Malduar's founder of the last pedigree. The Rais are related closely with the old ruling house of Saurya. It is hence little debated that whoever be the real founder of the village after the fall of power rooted from the old place to the new one, the cumulative effect of the village phyche was a boon for the future generations of citizens. This village at present times has a unique position. While most of the surrounding places have a deserted appearance this represents a role model for the entire district at the least. The only thing that it has yet to acquire is to produce a son or a daughter as a state minister.