# Maharaja Nandakumar
Maharaja Nandakumar (মহারাজা নন্দকুমার; born c. 1705, died 5 August 1775) was a Hindu Brahmin official of Bengal who served the nawabs of Bengal chiefly as a revenue officer, held high office under the [East India Company](https://www.edgepedia.org/east-india-company) after Plassey, and was hanged for forgery in 1775, after accusing Governor-General Warren Hastings of corruption.[1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nand-Kumar) • [2](https://www.etvbharat.com/bn/!state/maharaja-nandakumar-gallows-filled-with-jungle-and-garbage-on-his-250th-death-anniversary-at-hastings-more-west-bengal-news-wbs25080402246)
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1705, in present-day Birbhum district, Bengal[1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nand-Kumar) • [2](https://www.etvbharat.com/bn/!state/maharaja-nandakumar-gallows-filled-with-jungle-and-garbage-on-his-250th-death-anniversary-at-hastings-more-west-bengal-news-wbs25080402246) |
| Died | 5 August 1775, Calcutta, hanged at Cooly Bazar near Fort William[1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nand-Kumar) • [3](https://www.ramauniversity.ac.in/online-study-material/law/ballb/iisemester/history/lecture-16.pdf) |
| Offices | Company collector of Burdwan, Nadia, and Hooghly, 1764[4](https://www.livelaw.in/columns/the-maharaja-who-cheerfully-took-a-palinquin-ride-to-his-hanging-the-trial-and-judicial-murder-of-maharaja-nanda-kumar-162393) • [2](https://www.etvbharat.com/bn/!state/maharaja-nandakumar-gallows-filled-with-jungle-and-garbage-on-his-250th-death-anniversary-at-hastings-more-west-bengal-news-wbs25080402246) |
| Defining act | Accused Warren Hastings of bribery in 1775; convicted of forgery soon after[1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nand-Kumar) • [6](https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/intertwined-lives-nandakumar-hastings-and-the-memory-trick-prnt/cid/2175281) |
| Trial | Supreme Court at Calcutta, bench headed by Chief Justice Sir Elijah Impey[7](https://www.booksci.cn/literature/148234283.htm) • [6](https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/intertwined-lives-nandakumar-hastings-and-the-memory-trick-prnt/cid/2175281) |
## Origins and family
Nandakumar was born around 1705 into a Bengali Brahmin family. Most sources place his birth in present-day Birbhum district: Britannica gives Birbhum district generally,[1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nand-Kumar) a Bengali report gives the town of Nalhati in Birbhum,[2](https://www.etvbharat.com/bn/!state/maharaja-nandakumar-gallows-filled-with-jungle-and-garbage-on-his-250th-death-anniversary-at-hastings-more-west-bengal-news-wbs25080402246) and one history article names Bhadrapur in Birbhum.[8](https://hindupost.in/history/maharaja-nandakumar-the-gallows-of-power/)
## Career under the nawabs
Nandakumar's first recorded post was amin (revenue officer) for the parganas (a group of villages forming a revenue district) of Hijli and Mahishadal under Nawab Alivardi Khan of Murshidabad, who gave him charge of revenue collection there.[9](https://spmrf.org/maharaja-nandakumar/) • [10](https://advocatetanmoy.com/portfolio/trial-and-execution-of-nandakumar/)
A Bengali account says he secretly helped the English against Siraj-ud-Daulah at Umichand's instigation, and that Siraj removed him from his post when he learned of it.[9](https://spmrf.org/maharaja-nandakumar/)
When [Mir Jafar](https://www.edgepedia.org/mir-jafar) was restored to the throne, [Nandakumar](https://www.edgepedia.org/nandakumar) became diwan of khalsa, described in one account as the highest ruler of all Bengal, and the title "Maharaja" followed.[9](https://spmrf.org/maharaja-nandakumar/)
## Career under the Company
In 1764 the Company appointed him Dewan, or collector of taxes, for Burdwan, Nadia, and Hughly, replacing [Warren Hastings](https://www.edgepedia.org/warren-hastings) in that charge.[4](https://www.livelaw.in/columns/the-maharaja-who-cheerfully-took-a-palinquin-ride-to-his-hanging-the-trial-and-judicial-murder-of-maharaja-nanda-kumar-162393) • [2](https://www.etvbharat.com/bn/!state/maharaja-nandakumar-gallows-filled-with-jungle-and-garbage-on-his-250th-death-anniversary-at-hastings-more-west-bengal-news-wbs25080402246) In the same year the titular Mughal emperor [Shah Alam II](https://www.edgepedia.org/shah-alam-ii) conferred on him the title "Maharaja".[5](https://blog.ipleaders.in/the-first-judicial-murder-in-colonial-india-raja-nand-kumar-case/) • [2](https://www.etvbharat.com/bn/!state/maharaja-nandakumar-gallows-filled-with-jungle-and-garbage-on-his-250th-death-anniversary-at-hastings-more-west-bengal-news-wbs25080402246) The Bengali research-foundation account frames the conferral differently, saying Mir Jafar petitioned Delhi and had the title granted.[9](https://spmrf.org/maharaja-nandakumar/) According to LiveLaw, in this period he was also known as the "Black Colonel" under the Company Bahadur, having shifted his allegiance from Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah after Plassey.[4](https://www.livelaw.in/columns/the-maharaja-who-cheerfully-took-a-palinquin-ride-to-his-hanging-the-trial-and-judicial-murder-of-maharaja-nanda-kumar-162393)
## The accusation against Hastings and the forgery trial
When Hastings returned to Bengal as governor-general in 1773, Nandakumar brought corruption charges against him.[2](https://www.etvbharat.com/bn/!state/maharaja-nandakumar-gallows-filled-with-jungle-and-garbage-on-his-250th-death-anniversary-at-hastings-more-west-bengal-news-wbs25080402246) Hastings's dislike of Nandakumar was well known to the people of Fort William.[11](https://bn.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=%E0%A6%A8%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A6%E0%A6%95%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0%2C_%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%B9%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%9C%E0%A6%BE)
In early 1775 Nandakumar accused Hastings, then governor-general, of accepting bribes.[1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nand-Kumar) Shortly afterwards he was prosecuted for forgery, a charge described as technically sound in law yet striking in its timing, and was condemned to death by a bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Elijah Impey, Hastings's close associate.[6](https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/intertwined-lives-nandakumar-hastings-and-the-memory-trick-prnt/cid/2175281) The court was newly established: the Regulating Act of 1773 had created the [Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William](https://www.edgepedia.org/supreme-court-of-judicature-at-fort-william) in 1774, with Impey as Chief Justice and Robert Chambers, John Hyde, and Stephen Caesar Lemaistre as puisne judges.[5](https://blog.ipleaders.in/the-first-judicial-murder-in-colonial-india-raja-nand-kumar-case/) • [7](https://www.booksci.cn/literature/148234283.htm) Nandakumar was convicted of forgery under a British statute never previously applied to Indians.[7](https://www.booksci.cn/literature/148234283.htm)
He was hanged on 5 August 1775 at 8:00 a.m. at Cooly Bazar near Fort William.[3](https://www.ramauniversity.ac.in/online-study-material/law/ballb/iisemester/history/lecture-16.pdf) • [12](https://www.ijraset.com/best-journal/first-judical-murder-of-india-raja-nand-kumar-case) A well was dug at the spot for the hanging because he had expressed a desire to die near Adi Ganga.[13](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/248-yr-old-hanging-site-of-nandakumar-in-a-shambles/articleshow/102439593.cms)
## Political influence
Nandakumar sat at the junction of two governments. Under the nawabs he rose from pargana-level revenue work to diwan of khalsa, the office described in one account as making him the highest ruler of all Bengal.[9](https://spmrf.org/maharaja-nandakumar/) Under the Company he held the revenue charge of three districts and ranked among the four top naibs after the grant of the diwani.[14](https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Nanda_Kumar%2C_Maharaja) • [4](https://www.livelaw.in/columns/the-maharaja-who-cheerfully-took-a-palinquin-ride-to-his-hanging-the-trial-and-judicial-murder-of-maharaja-nanda-kumar-162393) The affair's afterlife in Britain was long: Hastings's impeachment in Parliament during 1788 to 1795, led by [Edmund Burke](https://www.edgepedia.org/edmund-burke), never included the Nandakumar affair in its formal articles of charge, and when Impey was later impeached on charges of colluding in the death, the matter stalled.[6](https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/intertwined-lives-nandakumar-hastings-and-the-memory-trick-prnt/cid/2175281)
## Historians' assessment
Serious sources divide sharply on the trial.[4](https://www.livelaw.in/columns/the-maharaja-who-cheerfully-took-a-palinquin-ride-to-his-hanging-the-trial-and-judicial-murder-of-maharaja-nanda-kumar-162393) • [6](https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/intertwined-lives-nandakumar-hastings-and-the-memory-trick-prnt/cid/2175281) Against the view of the trial as fair, the Telegraph's analysis holds that the charge was technically valid but leveled at precisely the most convenient moment.[6](https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/intertwined-lives-nandakumar-hastings-and-the-memory-trick-prnt/cid/2175281) On the bribery allegation itself, the Telegraph judges it probably not entirely unfounded.[6](https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/intertwined-lives-nandakumar-hastings-and-the-memory-trick-prnt/cid/2175281)
## Legacy
In India his death was lifted into a moral emblem of a man who exposed corruption; plays, poems, and histories, such as Nikhil Nath Roy's popular Murshidabad Kahini (1897), retold it as an early parable of imperial double-dealing.[6](https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/intertwined-lives-nandakumar-hastings-and-the-memory-trick-prnt/cid/2175281) The hanging site itself has fared poorly: on the 250th anniversary of his death in 2025, the well at the site was reported overgrown with jungle and garbage.[2](https://www.etvbharat.com/bn/!state/maharaja-nandakumar-gallows-filled-with-jungle-and-garbage-on-his-250th-death-anniversary-at-hastings-more-west-bengal-news-wbs25080402246)
## References
1. [Nand Kumar | Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nand-Kumar)
2. [অবহেলায় ইতিহাস, মৃত্যুর 250 বছরে জঙ্গল-আবর্জনায় ভরা মহারাজা নন্দকুমারের ফাঁসির কূপ | ETV Bharat](https://www.etvbharat.com/bn/!state/maharaja-nandakumar-gallows-filled-with-jungle-and-garbage-on-his-250th-death-anniversary-at-hastings-more-west-bengal-news-wbs25080402246)
3. [Raja Nand Kumar case - lecture notes, Rama University](https://www.ramauniversity.ac.in/online-study-material/law/ballb/iisemester/history/lecture-16.pdf)
4. [The Maharaja Who Cheerfully Took A Palanquin Ride To His Hanging | LiveLaw](https://www.livelaw.in/columns/the-maharaja-who-cheerfully-took-a-palinquin-ride-to-his-hanging-the-trial-and-judicial-murder-of-maharaja-nanda-kumar-162393)
5. [The first judicial murder in colonial India: Raja Nand Kumar case | iPleaders](https://blog.ipleaders.in/the-first-judicial-murder-in-colonial-india-raja-nand-kumar-case/)
6. [Intertwined lives - Nandakumar, Hastings, and the memory trick | The Telegraph India](https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/intertwined-lives-nandakumar-hastings-and-the-memory-trick-prnt/cid/2175281)
7. [Colonial justice on trial: Maharaja Nandakumar, Warren Hastings, and the connection between judicial and executive power](https://www.booksci.cn/literature/148234283.htm)
8. [Maharaja Nandakumar: The Gallows of Power | HinduPost](https://hindupost.in/history/maharaja-nandakumar-the-gallows-of-power/)
9. [মহারাজা নন্দকুমার | Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation](https://spmrf.org/maharaja-nandakumar/)
10. [Trial and execution of Nandakumar | advocatetanmoy](https://advocatetanmoy.com/portfolio/trial-and-execution-of-nandakumar/)
11. [নন্দকুমার, মহারাজা - বাংলাপিডিয়া](https://bn.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=%E0%A6%A8%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A6%E0%A6%95%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0%2C_%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%B9%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%9C%E0%A6%BE)
12. [First Judicial Murder of India: Raja Nand Kumar Case | IJRASET](https://www.ijraset.com/best-journal/first-judical-murder-of-india-raja-nand-kumar-case)
13. [248-yr-old Hanging Site Of Nandakumar In A Shambles | Times of India](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/248-yr-old-hanging-site-of-nandakumar-in-a-shambles/articleshow/102439593.cms)
14. [Nanda Kumar, Maharaja - Banglapedia](https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Nanda_Kumar%2C_Maharaja)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › History and archaeology › Asian history › India and South Asia › Company rule (1757 to 1858) › Company administration and law*
*Initially written Sep 23, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license