EDITORIAL

It is both pleasure and privilege for me to present the Volume -8 of Karatoya, Journal of History, University of North Bengal. Writing history or 'Itihasa' is an extremely difficult work where both subjective and objective perspectives are active simultaneously. Historical research as a constant reaction between the historian and facts has today changed its dimension in interpreting facts. In fact, history no longer restricts itself to build a bridge between the past and the present but has taken a contemporary attitude. The historian seems to be now like a light house on the bridge whose main aim is to train the present by sighting the past to the contemporary society and to guide to a happier and richer future. History today is interdisciplinary sharing knowledge with its sister disciplines like political science, geography, sociology, anthropology and others. Karatoya , the Journal of History , Volume -8 has undertaken this difficult task of preserving the 'ltihasa' in forms of research articles in the various arena of history. lt has adopted an interdiscipljnary outlook and maintaining the importance of period and time has arranged the articles in sequence of time.

I extend my thanks to the contributors for their research articles. A number of new arenas have. been explored by the contributors and researchers. The volume consists of articles of the aspiring researchers of the department. Karatoya has always provided a platform for the budding scholars to publish their research and interpretation in different arena of history.

I express my deep gratitude to Prof. Bijoy Kumar Sarkar, Head, Department of History for providing me the opportunity to edit the journal. I express my thanks to Dr. Sudash Lama, the associate editor of the journal for his support. Special thanks to my colleagues Prof.Anita Bagchi as well as Dr. Sankar Kumar Das and Sri. Varun Roy. I extend my thanks to Chanchal Manda!, Tushar Kanti Barman, Monoranjan Sarkar and Madhusudan Pal, the research scholars of the department, for their assistance in computer works. I am indebted to all those who have directly and indirectly helped me in publishing this journal . Lastly, l extend my gratitude to the official and staffs of the University of North Bengal Press for their untiring effort and cooperation in printing this volume.

Dr. Dahlia Bhattacharya
Editor-in-Chief

ARTICLES