India's largest city and one of its major ports. It is located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, which was once the main channel of the Ganges River, about 96 miles upstream from the head of the Bay of Bengal. It was documented in rent-roll of Mughal emperor Akbar in the 16th century. The English East India Company founded a trading post here in the 17th century, which grew up on the sites of three local villages, Sutanati, Kalikata, and Gobindapore. It was taken by Siraj-ud-daula, Nawab of Bengal in 1756. There were notable riots between Muslims and Hindus in the late 1940s.