Goalpara, along with Cooch Behar, and the later colonial districts of Dinajpur, Rangpur and Jalpaiguri, was part of the medieval Koch kingdom which at its height in the sixteenth century encompassed large parts of western Assam and northern Bengal. The fragmentation of the Koch kingdom was followed by about two centuries of Mughal rule. The Mughals failed to establish effective control, particularly over the eastern portions of the annexed territory but the western portion, including Goalpara, remained at least under nominal Mughal rule until its occupation by the East India company in 1765 (Barman 1994: 2). As in several other parts of India, in this region too, the decline of the Mughal state in the last decades of the eighteenth century and the fragmentation of its eastern acquisitions were accompanied by the emergence of several petty principalities.1