Bijay Chand Mahtab

Maharajadhiraja Bahadur Sir Bijay Chand Mahtab, GCIE, KCSI, IOM (Bengali: মহারাজাধিরাজা বাহাদুর স্যার বিজয়চাঁদ মহতাব; 19 October 1881 – 29 August 1941) was the ruler of Burdwan Estate, Bengal in British India (present-day West Bengal, India) from 1887 till his death in 1941. Mahtab's predecessor, Maharaja Aftab Chand Mahtab (ruled : 1879–85) died without heirs, and his widow adopted Bijoy Chand Mahtab, son of Khatri Ban Bihari Kapur, a relative of Mahtab Chand Bahadur, a past ruler of Burdwan Estate from 1832 to 1879. At the time of adoption, in 1887, he was only six years old, therefore, the Court of Wards along with the Diwani-i-Raj, Ban Bihari Kapoor, (the natural father of Bijaychand), ruled the estate up to 1902. In 1893, the title of 'Raja' was bestowed on Ban Bihari Kapoor. The government permitted the Raj in 1897 to maintain an armed force of 600 people and 41 cannons. In 1899, Bijay Chand Mahtab passed the entrance examination of Calcutta University, and was the first in the Raj family to obtain a formal educational qualification.