Jagat Seth family

The house was established by a Jain Bania named Hiranand Shah from Nagaur, Rajasthan, In 1713, Manikchand helped Prince Farrukhsiyar financially to become the Mughal Emperor. In award, Farrukhsiyar conferred the title of Jagat Seth on Manik Chand, This indicates the favour the family had gained at the Mughal court. Roben Orme, the official historian of the British East India Company described Jagat Seth as the greatest banker and money changer known in the world at that time. The historian Ghulam Hussain Khan believed that "their wealth was such that there is no mentioning it without seeming to exaggerate and to deal in extravagant fables". During the Maratha invasions of Bengal, the Bargi Maratha mercenaries plundered the mansion of the Jagat Seth, taking away 25 million rupees as booty. Conspiracy against Siraj ud-Daulah Siraj ud-Daulah, the new Nawab of Bengal, alienated figures important to the interest of his state- including the Jagat Seth Mehtab Chand. The Nawab demanded a lavish tribute of 30 million rupees from the banker. Jagat Seth Mehtab Chand refused, and a result, Siraj ud-Daulah hit him. The Jagat Seth and other wealthy bankers funded the British for the conspiracy. ==Decline==

After the Battle of Plassey, Mir Qasim became the new Nawab. He organised the killing of several members of the family including Jagat Seth Mehtab Chand and his cousin Swarup Chand, in 1763, and threw their bodies off the ramparts of Munger Fort. Kushal Chand was only 18 years old when he became the Seth. He lacked his father Mehtab Chand's political shrewdness and was a spendthrift. Thus the fortunes of the Jagat Seths began declining. Govindchand, the next Seth, died in 1864, succeeded by Gopal Chand and Gulab Chand respectively. By then, the fortunes of the family had declined by a considerable amount. ==Museum==

The house of the Jagat Seths in Mahimapur locality of Murshidabad city of West Bengal state, complete with a secret tunnel as well as an underground chamber, where illegal trade plans were hatched, has been converted into museum. House of Jagat Seth Museum was established in 1980. It is privately managed. It contains personal possessions of the Jagat Seth family including coins of the bygone era, muslin and other extravagant clothes, Banarasi sarees embroidered with gold and silver threads. According to the Archaeological Survey of India the house, temple and ruins associated with the memory of Jagat Seth's house at Mahimapur are State Protected Monuments (Item no S-WB-94). ==See also==