House of Tekari Raj

Tekari Raj was a zamindari in South Bihar, the Tekari family belonging to the Bhumihar Brahmin community it controlled 2,046 villages big 7,500 km2 area.

In the Mughal period, Tekari was a rich estate, protected by Bhumihar Brahmins as part of the Mughal Empire.

The emblem of the Kingdom of Tekari was a pigeon attacking over an eagle sat on the perch of a tree. Pundits said "this jungle of tetris (a kind of tree) is the place where the fort should be made," and declared it very lucky.

"The zamindari of Tekari owed its origin to an imperial grant made about the time when the Mughal empire first began to decay." The mansions of the Maharaja of Tekari dominated the Patna riverfront in 1811-12.Maharajas of Tekari like Maharaja Mitrajit Singh were renowned for their scholarship and for their works of poetry and history.

Maharaja Hit Narayan Singh of Tekari was said to have been "a man of a religious turn of mind...who became an ascetic and left his vast property in the hands of his wife" shortly after inheriting a lion's share of the estate in the 1840s.

During the Indian Rebellion of 1857, suspicions were entertained by the East India Company's officers in Bihar about the Rani of Tekari, who had sympathy for the movement. The Commissioner of Patna favoured demolishing the Fort of Tekari and removing the Rani to Patna. The Lieutenant Governor of Bengal did not approve of these measures but guns and ammunition found at Tekari were seized.