​KUCH BEHAR, orCooch Behar, a native state of India, in Bengal, consisting of a submontane tract, not far fromDarjeeling, entirely surrounded by British territory. Area,1307 sq. m. Pop. (1901), 566,974; estimated revenue, £140,000.The state forms a level plain of triangular shape, intersectedby numerous rivers. The greater portion is fertile and wellcultivated, but tracts of jungle are to be seen in the north-eastcorner, which abuts upon Assam. The soil is uniform in characterthroughout, consisting of a light, friable loam, varying indepth from 6 in. to 3 ft., superimposed upon a deep bed of sand.The whole is detritus, washed down by torrents from the neighbouringHimalayas. The rivers all pass through the state fromnorth to south, to join the main stream of the Brahmaputra.Some half-dozen are navigable for small trading boats throughoutthe year, and are nowhere fordable; and there are about twentyminor streams which become navigable only during the rainyseason. The streams have a tendency to cut new channels forthemselves after every annual flood, and they communicatewith one another by cross-country watercourses. Rice isgrown on three-fourths of the cultivated area. Jute and tobaccoare also largely grown for export. The only special industriesare the weaving of a strong silk obtained from worms fed on thecastor-oil plant, and of a coarse jute cloth used for screensand bedding. The external trade is chiefly in the hands ofMarwari immigrants from Rajputana. Among other improvementsa railway has been constructed, with the assistance of aloan from the British government. The earthquake of the12th of June 1897 caused damage to public buildings, roads, &c.,in the state to the estimated amount of £100,000.

The Koch or Rajbansi, from which the name of the stateis derived, are a widely spread tribe, evidently of aboriginaldescent, found throughout all northern Bengal, from Purneadistrict to the Assam valley. They are akin to the Indo-Chineseraces of the north-east frontier; but they have now becomelargely hinduized, especially in their own home, where theappellation “Koch” has come to be used as a term of reproach.Their total number in all India was returned in 1901 as nearly2⁠1/2⁠ millions.

As in the case of many other small native states, the royalfamily of Kuch Behar lays claim to a divine origin in order toconceal an impure aboriginal descent. The greatest monarchof the dynasty was Nar Narayan, the son of Visu Singh, whobegan to reign about 1550. He conquered the whole of Kamrup,built temples in Assam, of which ruins still exist bearing inscriptionswith his name, and extended his power southwards overwhat is now part of the British districts of Rangpur and Purnea.His son, Lakshmi Narayan, who succeeded him in Kuch Behar,became tributary to the Mogul Empire. In 1772 a competitorfor the throne, having been driven out of the country by hisrivals, applied for assistance to Warren Hastings. A detachmentof sepoys was accordingly marched into the state; theBhutias, whose interference had led to this intervention, wereexpelled, and forced to sue for peace through the mediation ofthe lama of Tibet. By the treaty made on this occasion, April1773, the raja acknowledged subjection to the Company, andmade over to it one-half of his annual revenues. In 1863, on thedeath of the raja, leaving a son and heir only ten months old,a British commissioner was appointed to undertake the directmanagement of affairs during the minority of the prince, andmany important reforms were successfully introduced. Themaharaja Sir Nripendra Narayan, G.C.I.E., born in 1862, waseducated under British guardianship at Patna and Calcutta, andbecame hon. lieutenant-colonel of the 6th Bengal Cavalry. In1897–98 he served in the Tirah campaign on the staff of GeneralYeatman-Biggs, and received the distinction of a C.B. He waspresent at the Jubilee in 1887, the Diamond Jubilee of 1897,and King Edward’s Coronation in 1902, and became a well-knownfigure in London society. In 1878 he married a daughter ofKeshub Chunder Sen, the Brahmo leader. His eldest son waseducated in England.

The town of Kuch Behar is situated on the river Tursa, andhas a railway station. Pop. (1901), 10,458. It contains a collegeaffiliated to the Calcutta University.