city, western West Bengal state, northeastern India. It lies just north of the Dhaleshwari River. As a major rail junction on the Grand Trunk Road, Bankura is an agricultural distribution centre. Rice and oilseed milling, cotton weaving, metalware manufacture, and railway workshops are the major industries. Constituted a municipality in 1869, Bankura has several colleges, including a medical school, affiliated with the University of Burdwan. Bankura lies on a densely populated alluvial plain. Rice, wheat, corn (maize), and sugarcane are the chief crops in the surrounding agricultural area. Mica, china clay, iron ore, lead, zinc, and wolframite (tungsten ore) deposits are worked in the locality. The area long remained a focus of Hindu culture based on the Mallabhum kingdom, with its capital at Bishnupur. Pop. (2001) 128,781.