Murshidabad University is the historical name of the state public university established at Berhampore in West Bengal through the Murshidabad University Act, 2018. The legislation was enacted on 1 October 2018 and provided for a university built around the land and academic legacy of Krishnath College, one of Murshidabad's oldest higher-education institutions. Krishnath College traces its origin to 1853, and the long-standing local demand for a full university eventually led the state government to upgrade the institution. The university began organizing its academic work under government orders in 2021; after receiving recognition under Section 2(f) of the University Grants Commission framework, regular postgraduate teaching developed in subjects drawn from the humanities, social sciences and sciences. Its location at Berhampore gives the university a central role in a district with a rich political, cultural and educational history but historically fewer university-level opportunities than Kolkata and other major centres. The institution's founding Act envisioned teaching, training and research in humanities, social and basic sciences, management studies and additional branches of learning, with an emphasis on extending higher education to the district. A major statutory change occurred in 2026, when West Bengal enacted an amendment renaming the institution Murshidabad Maharaja Krishnanath University, Berhampore, in recognition of the historic connection with Raja Krishnath and the college that carried his name. The original source name remains important for understanding the university's formation, while the amended name reflects its current legal identity. The university therefore combines a very young statutory history with a nineteenth-century institutional heritage. Its continuing development is centered on postgraduate education, research capacity, academic governance and expanding access for students from Murshidabad and neighboring areas. This layered history gives the institution an unusually direct connection between colonial-era college education, modern state legislation and contemporary postgraduate university development locally.