Banka is one of the thirty-eight districts of the state of

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. The district headquarters of Banka is situated in Banka town. The district was established on 21 February 1991.

History

Banka is the homeland of the revolutionary Satish Prasad Jha, one of seven martyrs who hoisted the flag of India at the Secretariat building near Patna on 11 August 1942. Jha was born in Kharhara near Dhakamod. Bhubaneswar Mishra, a noted regional revolutionary from village Faga has contributed a lot in the freedom movement. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing many cruel British forces. Banka has been an attractive destination for veteran socialists. Madhu Limaye represented the Banka Lok Sabha constituency twice.

George Fernandes George Mathew Fernandes (3 June 1930 – 29 January 2019) was an Indian trade unionist, statesman, and journalist, who served as the 22nd Defence Minister of India from 1998 until 2004. He was a member of Lok Sabha for over 30 years, starting f ...

and

Raj Narain Raj Narain (23 November 1917 – 31 December 1986) was an Indian freedom fighter and politician. He won in a famous electoral malpractice case against the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, which led to her disqualification and imposition of E ...

also contested the parliamentary election in this constituency. There were also a number of veteran leaders of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

: Vindhyavasini Devi, MLA (1957–1967); Shakuntala Devi, ex MP; ex- chief minister of Bihar Chandrashekhar Singh, Chaturbhuj Singh Ex. MLA; ex-

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

MP Kamakhya Prasad Singh, ex-MP Manorama Singh; and ex-MLA Jai Prakash Mishra. Digvijay Singh (14 November 1955 – 24 June 2010) was an independent who represented Banka in the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-p ...

, the lower house of the Indian Parliament. Banka played a vital role in the freedom of India. Banka became a district on 21 February 1991. Digvijay Singh served as a Member of the Parliament of India five times – three times in the Lok Sabha (1998, 1999, and 2009) and two times in the Rajya Sabha (1990 and 2004). He served as Union Minister of State during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government (1999–2004) and the

Chandra Shekhar Chandra Shekhar ( 17 April 1927 – 9 August 2015) was an Indian politician who served as the 8th Prime Minister of India, between 10 November 1990 and 21 June 1991. He headed a minority government of a breakaway faction of the Janata Dal with ...

government (1990–1991). He was also a successful sports administrator, having served as president of the National Rifle Association of India since 1999. He was one of the three (George Fernandes, Digvijay Singh, and

Nitish Kumar Nitish Kumar (born 1 March 1951) is an Indian politician, who is serving as Chief Minister of Bihar since 22 February 2015, having previous held the office from 2005 to 2014 and for a short period in 2000. The leader of the Janata Dal (Unit ...

) founding members of the Samta Party. Now, Gridhari Yadav is the member of parliament from this constituency.

Geography

The district, part of Bhagalpur division, has its headquarters in Banka town. Banka district occupies an area of , comparatively equivalent to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

's Akimiski Island. Chanan is the main river of Banka. Barua is the second main river near Dubaa village in Banka.

Politics

Banka is represented in the

Parliament of India The Parliament of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha (House of the ...

by Giridhari Yadav who won by a margin of 2,00,532 votes.

Economy

Banka is gradually becoming a

religious tourism Religious tourism, spiritual tourism, sacred tourism, or faith tourism, is a type of tourism with two main subtypes: pilgrimage, meaning travel for religious or spiritual purposes, and the viewing of religious monuments and artefacts, a branch of ...

hotspot for

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

and

Jainism Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle bein ...

. Old

Mandar Parvat Mandar Parvat, also known as Mandar Hill is a small mountain situated in Banka district under Bhagalpur division of state of Bihar. It is about 700 ft high and approximately 45 km south of Bhagalpur city of Bounsi, a place located on t ...

(also known as Mandarachal Parvat in Puran) is home to many religious attractions. A Jain temple at the summit, in close proximity to a Vishnu temple, is a sign of religious tolerance. Every year in January, Bounsi Mela is organised, which depicts the village life of the Mandar region. A

Ratha-Yatra Ratha Yatra (), or Chariot festival, is any public procession in a chariot. The term particularly refers to the annual Ratha Yatra in Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal and other East Indian states, particularly the Odia festival that involve a ...

procession of Lord Madhusudanah occurs every year on the same day as the Ratha-Yatra procession in

Puri Puri () is a coastal city and a municipality in the state of Odisha in eastern India. It is the district headquarters of Puri district and is situated on the Bay of Bengal, south of the state capital of Bhubaneswar. It is also known as '' ...

. Fourteenth-century

Vaishnava Vaishnavism ( sa, वैष्णवसम्प्रदायः, Vaiṣṇavasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu denominations along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. It is also called Vishnuism since it considers Vishnu as the ...

saint

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (; born Vishvambhar Mishra) was a 15th-century Indian saint who is considered to be the combined avatar of Radha and Krishna by his disciples and various scriptures. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's mode of worshipping Krish ...

started this Ratha-Yatra during his visit to Mandar. Banka is a largely agrarian economy and is considered the "rice bowl" of Bihar. The main crops are rice, wheat, corn, and lentils. The Amarpur belt produces sugar cane and is home to gur sugar mills. An issue for many smaller village industries in Bihar is the lack of branding for products. High-quality, locally produced goods, even in large volumes, contribute to lower earnings for business owners because of a lack of awareness of more profitable business practices. Banka is strategically located near the source of raw materials for heavy industries. Its proximity to

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . I ...

(bordering Deoghar, Dumka, and

Godda Godda is a Silk City with a municipal Council in the Godda subdivision of the Godda district in the Indian state of Jharkhand. It is the headquarter of the Godda district. History As a consequence of the Santhal rebellion of 1845-55 the dist ...

) and the River Chandan makes it a very strong contender for coal-based power plant investment and other heavy industry. There is a 4000 MW thermal power plant is planned in Kakwara village. Abhijeet Group has planned to built a 1320 MW thermal power plant at Baunsi. Ericsson Power Ltd has planned to set up a 1320 MW thermal power plant at Prabhawati Nagar. Dalmia Power has planned to set up a 1320 MW coal-based thermal power project in Dona village. In 2006, the Indian government named Banka one of the country's 250 most backward districts (out of a total of 640). It is one of the 38 districts in Bihar currently receiving funds from the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGF).

Education

Banka district has one Government college, PBS College. Other colleges and universities include DNS College, Pt Tarni Jha Women College, and Shyama Charan Vidyapeeth.

Subdivisions and blocks

The district comprises only one subsdivision, Banka, which is further divided into eleven blocks: Banka, Amarpur, Shambhuganj, Belhar, Fullidumar, Katoria, Chandan, Baunsi, Barahat, Dhoraiya, and Rajoun.

Transport

A railway line connects the existing Bhagalpur with Jasidih and Rampurhat, which is well-connected to Howrah. Banka is also connected to

Patna Patna ( ), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...

, the capital of Bihar, by a dedicated Express train.

Demographics

According to the

2011 Indian census The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Information ...

, Banka district has a population of 2,034,763, This gives it a ranking of 228th in India (out of a total of 640). The district has a population density of . Its population growth rate from 2001-2011 was 26.14%. Banka has a

sex ratio The sex ratio (or gender ratio) is usually defined as the ratio of males to females in a population. As explained by Fisher's principle, for evolutionary reasons this is typically about 1:1 in species which reproduce sexually. Many species d ...

of 907

females Female (symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females ...

for every 1000 males, and a

literacy rate Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...

of 60.12%. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes made up 12.18% and 4.44% of the population respectively. In the

2001 Indian census The 2001 Census of India was the 14th in a series of censuses held in India every decade since 1871. The population of India was counted as 1,028,737,436 consisting of 532,223,090 males and 496,514,346 females. Total population increased by 182, ...

, it had a population of 1,608,773. There were 1,489,352

Hindus Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

and 100,051

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

(8.85%).

Languages

At the time of the

, 8.32% of the population in the district spoke

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

, 4.20% Santali, and 4.03%

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Maithili on the census.2011 Census of India, Population By Mother Tongue
/ref> Languages used in the district include Maithili, an Indo-Aryan language written in the Tirhuta Script and spoken by at least 725,000 people in the Banka.

Famous people

* Shahid Mahendra Gop * Giridhari Yadav

Culture

A temple dedicated to the Hindu goddess

Durga Durga ( sa, दुर्गा, ) is a major Hindu goddess, worshipped as a principal aspect of the mother goddess Mahadevi. She is associated with protection, strength, motherhood, destruction, and wars. Durga's legend centres around c ...

is located in Banka. Every year during

Durga Puja Durga Puja ( bn, দুর্গা পূজা), also known as Durgotsava or Sharodotsava, is an annual Hindu festival originating in the Indian subcontinent which reveres and pays homage to the Hindu goddess Durga and is also celebrated ...

, devotees from many parts of India visit this temple. Two temples-Narshimha (one of the incarnations of

Vishnu Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism. Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" withi ...

and the other one of goddess Kali) Temple and Digamber Jain Tirthanakar-are located at the top of a mountain known as Mandar Parbat, which is about tall and made of a single piece of stone. The management of the Narshimha temple is under a trust. Another temple, Avantika Nath, is located at the bottom of Mandar Parbat. The Avantika Nath Temple Trust, founded by the late Babu Biro Singh of the village of Sabalpur, maintains the temple. A temple of Lord Shiva is in Jethore hill near Chanan River. The literal meaning of Jethore is "jyesth" meaning elder Gaur means brother of Deoghar temple. Maa Kali Mandir in Kamalpur village is another temple. A

Mahalakshmi Lakshmi (; , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism. She is the goddess of wealth, fortune, power, beauty, fertility and prosperity, and associated with '' Maya'' ("Illusion"). Al ...

temple is located in front of Paapharni Pond. Recently, Lakshminarayan Temple was built in the centre of Paapharni through the contributions of locals. It is managed by a trust headed by Fateh Bahadur Singh of erstwhile Sabalpur state. east of Rajoun village Mahada is situated, which has goddesses Durga Mandir and Kali Mandir, and god Shiva Mandir. The district is known for its rich tribal culture and its handicrafts and handlooms. The homemade

Khadi Khadi (, ), derived from khaddar, is a hand-spun and woven natural fibre cloth promoted by Mahatma Gandhi as ''swadeshi'' (self-sufficiency) for the freedom struggle of the Indian subcontinent, and the term is used throughout India, Pakistan ...

and silk of the area are popular. Most of the raw silk cocoon is produced in Katoria; in fact, major part of the raw materials required for silk industry in Bhagalpur is supplied from Katoria.

Tourism

Mandargiri Digambar Jain Siddha Kshetra is located at the top of a mountain known as Mandar Parbat, which is about tall and made of a single piece of stone. This place is related to the three Kalyanka-Tup (penance), Keval Gyan (omniscience), &

Moksha ''Moksha'' (; sa, मोक्ष, '), also called ''vimoksha'', ''vimukti'' and ''mukti'', is a term in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism for various forms of emancipation, enlightenment, liberation, and release. In its soteriologic ...

of Bhagawan Vasupujya. It means that this is the place where Vasupujya Swami accepted penance, achieved the supernatural knowledge and finally got salvation. Moolnayak of this temple is a coral-colored idol of Lord Vasupujya in Padmasana posture. A 5 feet tall statue of Vasupoojya is also present here. The temple also has a

Dharamshala Dharamshala (; also spelled Dharamsala) is the winter capital of Himachal Pradesh, India. It serves as administrative headquarters of the Kangra district after being relocated from Kangra, a city located away from Dharamshala, in 1855. The ...

equipped with modern facilities.http://jinaagamsaar.com/tirthall.php#mandar

Flora and fauna

The district has some forested area under Banka, Bounsi Katoriya forest ranges. The wood of Banka range lies on the hill slopes, those in the other two ranges lie in the undulating land. Among the prominent variety of trees in forested areas are the Sal which is usually found associated with Abuns, Asan, Kendu and Mahua. Tasar worms are reared on Asan trees. Some other trees are Bahera, Kadam, Amaltas. Among the specials of the Acacia are Babul, Sirish, and Sain Babul. Among the fruit trees, those of Mango and Jackfruit are common. Plantains, date plants, Plums, and Blackberry are some of the other important fruit trees. Monkeys are common in the district, particularly the Hanuman, as well as Jackal, Deer, Lion, Bear, Leopards, and Elephants. Among the latter are Barsingha and Sambar. Wild geese, Duck, Leel, and Quail are some of the game birds inhabiting the district. Peacocks, Parrots, Hawks, and Doves are other birds found in Katoriya/Chandan forest. Sparrows, Crows and Vultures are also common. Several kinds of fish, such as Rohu, Katla, Boari, Tengra, Bachwa, Jhinga, and Pothi, are found.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Banka District Districts of Bihar Bhagalpur division