Monuments in Kasim Bazar comprise a few buildings constructed during the time of the British rule. It is an old town in the district of Murshidabad in West Bengal state. Kasim Bazar is also known as Cossimbazar. It is located along the Bhagirathi River in Murshidabad while at one time it was under the municipality of Berhampore in West Bengal.
Even if the history of Kasim Bazar cannot be deciphered back before the seventeenth century, however, the city was of immense importance much before the establishment of the district of Murshidabad. Starting from the establishment of factories by the first European traders and subsequent to the destruction of Satgaon due to the silting up of the mouth of River Saraswati, Kasim Bazar gained a position, as the grand trading centre in Bengal, until it was challenged by the foundation of the city of Kolkata.
This decayed town on an island site about eight kilometers from Murshidabad was once the main trading centre of the entire area. Its name is derived from its legendary founder, Kasim Khan. It was an early centre of English influence. An English agent was appointed as early as 1658. By 1700 it was the leading commercial agency in Bengal. Job Charnock, founder of Kolkata, was Chief here in the year 1681, when the town was alleged to have been so full of lofty buildings that the Sun rays never penetrated to reach the streets. Its importance was due to its proximity to the Muslim capital at Murshidabad, but local climatic changes in the earlier parts of the nineteenth century gave rise to alterations in cultivation patterns and a change in the course of the river.
Few buildings of any consequence now survive in Kasim Bazar. A fragment of the fortifications of the original factory can be seen. The ruins of buildings and huge mounds give a hint to the glorious past of the town. The Maharaja`s Palace, occupied by the family of Kantu Babu, the diwan on Warren Hastings; is a fine building of carved stone, modelled on the palace of Chait Singh at Varanasi. The Old Dutch Cemetery lies down river and contains a few early tombs.
