कटिहार katihār
‘Mound’ [Saifganj] City/District, Bihar (Bih)
The first faujdar (a Moghul military commander with legal and fiscal powers) of Purnea/Purnia was Saif Khan who was appointed in the early 18thC. He established a market town here which was called Saifganj [Hin/Urd: ganj, ‘marketplace’, ‘bazaar’, ‘market town’].
The name Katihar comes from a small village on the north-east called Dighi-Katihar [Ben: dighi, ‘large, deep tank or pond’; Skt: kaṭāha, ‘hill’, ‘mound (of earth)’].
There is a suggestion that a tank was dug out for the troops in a battle fought here in 1860 between troops of the Nawabs of Purnea and Murshidabad.
For related place names see Indian Place names and Bihar place names.
