Patna

Patna, a native state of the Central Provinces, with a capital of the same name, having an area of 2,400 square miles. A city in the presidency of Bengal, stands (in a district of the same name) on the left bank of the Ganges about 140 miles east of Benares. Its ancient name was Pataliputra, and it was called Palibothra by Megasthenes, the Greek historian, who visited it in the 4th century before Christ. After the massacre by Mir Kassim in 1763, it was annexed by the British East India Company. A Government granary was established in 1786. Patna, which is the seventh city of Hindustan, is of great commercial importance. Salt, rice, cotton, oil-seeds and spices are exported, and the Indian Government has several opium factories in the place. The chief buildings are the mosque of Sher Shah, the shrine of Shah Arzani, Patna College, and a Mohammedan college. In 1857 a mutiny broke out at Dinapur, a military station in the environs.