Sylhet
District headquarters, 1765–1947
সিলেটসিলেট শহর
Today Sylhet, Sylhet Division, Bangladesh. Same place, same name.
Key facts
- Historical name
- Sylhet
- Type
- District headquarters
- Coordinates
- 24.9000° N, 91.8667° E(seed dataset)
- Governance
- Directly administered
- Record confidence
- High confidence
- Identifiers
- Q466221
Directly administered by the Governor-General of India, and therefore part of British India in the statutory sense of the Interpretation Act 1889, s.18.
Location
Pin placed at the coordinates recorded for this place. Colonial-era boundaries are not drawn.
Description
District on the Surma in the Surma Valley, described in the Imperial Gazetteer as a district on the south-west frontier of Eastern Bengal and Assam of 5,388 square miles.
Historical notes
Bengali-speaking district transferred from Bengal to Assam in 1874, a grievance that led to the 1947 Sylhet referendum, in which most of the district voted to join East Pakistan.
Administrative history
Administrative parenthood changed over time. Each row states the years it is recorded for, and the source it comes from.
| Years | Relation | Unit | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| from 1901 | Part of | AssamChief Commissioner's Province · Directly administeredSnapshot from the 1901 census and the Imperial Gazetteer of India (1908-31). End of the relationship not established; recorded as open rather than inferred. | High confidencesource |
| from 1901 | Part of | SylhetDistrict · Directly administeredSnapshot from the 1901 census and the Imperial Gazetteer of India (1908-31). End of the relationship not established; recorded as open rather than inferred. | High confidencesource |
Recorded names
Every documented spelling and transliteration held for this place. The historical name is canonical; modern names redirect to it.
| Name | Script | Type | Years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sylhet | Latin | Historical English | — |
| Srihatta nagara | Latin | Alternative spelling | — |
| Sylhet Mahanagar | Latin | Alternative spelling | — |
| Sylhet town | Latin | Alternative spelling | — |
| The city of Srihatta | Latin | Alternative spelling | — |
| সিলেট | Bengali | Indigenous | — |
| সিলেট শহর | Bengali | Indigenous | — |
Records and references
- Imperial Gazetteer of India
- Imperial Gazetteer of India (1908-31), Vol. XXIII (23), p. 189
- Census of India
- Census of India, 1901, Vol. IV (4): Assam
Sources
- Gazetteer· administrativeLicence unverified
Digital South Asia Library, University of Chicago — the 1908–31 text is public domain, but DSAL's digital presentation states no licence; link-out only
Retrieved 2026-08-29
- Archive· descriptionPublic domain
Internet Archive scan: in.gov.ignca.30986, Internet Archive
Scanned volume of a pre-1929 publication (Imperial Gazetteer of India 1908–31 / Census of India 1901); public domain. Digitisation courtesy of the Internet Archive.
Retrieved 2026-08-29
- Encyclopedia· generalCC BY-SA
Wikipedia: Sylhet, Wikimedia Foundation
Wikipedia contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0
Retrieved 2026-08-29
- Database· identityCC0
Wikidata (Q466221), Wikimedia Foundation
Wikidata, CC0 1.0
Retrieved 2026-08-29
Sources tagged “Licence unverified” are linked to rather than reproduced. Scans and images are only displayed inline where the licence is confirmed permissive.