Colonial records represented nineteenth-century Bihar as a distinct entity consisting of a range of differences. Although differentiated in terms of agricultural practices, cultural features, and labor relations, and attached to the Bengal Presidency until 1912 when, together with Orissa, it was disengaged from Bengal before finally emerging as a separate province in 1936, the colonial administration treated Bihar nonetheless as a well-defined region. Of course, because it had been a province (subā) in the Mughal empire (deriving its name from the existence of a number of Buddhist monasteries, vihāras, in the area), Bihar's separate identity pre-dated British rule.