diff --git a/contrib/dataimporthandler/CHANGES.txt b/contrib/dataimporthandler/CHANGES.txt
index 0c0a540cc4e..d0ee8e71bfa 100644
--- a/contrib/dataimporthandler/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/contrib/dataimporthandler/CHANGES.txt
@@ -73,6 +73,9 @@ Bug Fixes
 10. SOLR-888: DateFormatTransformer cannot convert non-string type
               (Amit Nithian via shalin)
 
+11. SOLR-841: DataImportHandler should throw exception if a field does not have column attribute
+              (Michael Henson, shalin)
+
 Documentation
 ----------------------
 
diff --git a/contrib/dataimporthandler/src/main/java/org/apache/solr/handler/dataimport/DataConfig.java b/contrib/dataimporthandler/src/main/java/org/apache/solr/handler/dataimport/DataConfig.java
index c8a92fe08c3..92767b11f0f 100644
--- a/contrib/dataimporthandler/src/main/java/org/apache/solr/handler/dataimport/DataConfig.java
+++ b/contrib/dataimporthandler/src/main/java/org/apache/solr/handler/dataimport/DataConfig.java
@@ -205,6 +205,9 @@ public class DataConfig {
     public Field(Element e) {
       this.name = getStringAttribute(e, DataImporter.NAME, null);
       this.column = getStringAttribute(e, DataImporter.COLUMN, null);
+      if (column == null) {
+        throw new DataImportHandlerException(DataImportHandlerException.SEVERE, "Field must have a column attribute");
+      }
       this.boost = Float.parseFloat(getStringAttribute(e, "boost", "1.0f"));
       allAttributes.putAll(getAllAttributes(e));
     }