Hijili Village
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Hijili Village
Name of an old village in Midnapore District, Bengal, situated at the mouth of the Rasulpur river. The site has long since been washed away. Hijili was formerly the centre of an extensive salt manufacture, and the Muhammadans had a fort here. A mosque was built by Masnad Ali Shah, who held the neighbour- ing district from 1505 to 1546, and whose tomb is still visited by pilgrims. In 1687, after the skirmish at Hooghly, Job Charnock occupied Hijili on behalf of the East India Company and was besieged there for four months by a strong Mughal force. Eventually the Muhammadans raised the siege, whereupon Charnock evacuated the place and shortly afterwards laid the foundation of Calcutta.
The name of Hijili was also given to a littoral tract of 1,014 square miles, extending along the right bank of the Hooghly river from the confluence of the Rupnarayan to that of the Subarnarekha, and lying between 21° 47' and 21° 53' N. and 87° 53' and 87° 59' E. ; it contained among others the two large parganas of Tamluk and Mahishadal, and, under Muhammadan rule, constituted a separate administration. In 1836 it was included in Midnapore District, with the exception of a small tract in the south which was added to the adjoining District of Balasore. Salt manufacture was discontinued about forty years ago owing to the competition of cheaper Liver- pool salt.
[For an account of the siege of Hijili, see C. R. Wilson, Early A?inals of the English in Bengal (1895), pp. 103-ri.]
