The district of Pabna forms the south-east corner of Rajshahi Division. The Bogra district bound it on the north, while the Padma river in the south separates it from the district of Faridpur and Kushtia. Yamuna river runs along its eastern border separating it from the districts of Mymensingh and Dhaka, and on the west it has a common boundary with district of Rajshahi.
The name probably came from Pundra or Pundrabardan.
In 1859-61 the district was one of the major areas involved in the Indigo Revolt, known as Pabna Disturbances. Beginning in the Yusuf Shahin 1873 the tenant farmers resisted excessive demands of increased rents of the Zamindar landlord class, led by the nouveaux riches Banerjee's and Dwijendranath Tagore, by forming an Agrarian League. This largely peaceful movement found the support of the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal George Campbell who antagonizes the absentee landlords. In The following year the district was one of the worst hit by famine. The peasants demands were finally partially met with the Rent Law Act of 1885.
