Kolkata
কলকাতা
kohl-KAH-tah
Capital of West Bengal and former British Indian capital; called Calcutta until 2001.
Meaning & usage
Kolkata is the capital of West Bengal and was the capital of British India until 1911. Officially renamed in 2001 from the colonial "Calcutta" to the Bengali "Kolkata", it is the cultural capital of Bengali India — home of the Bengal Renaissance, Rabindranath Tagore, Satyajit Ray, the College Street book bazaar, and the Durga Puja that turns the city into an open-air gallery every autumn.
In a sentence
Every October Kolkata transforms for Durga Puja.
Common spelling variants
- Calcutta
- Kalikata
Kolkata is the canonical English spelling used in MG Mini puzzles.