Chatra district is district one of the twenty-four districts of

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in East India, 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 ...

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

, India. The district was formed after separation from

Hazaribagh district Hazaribagh district is one of the oldest districts of Jharkhand state, India and the district headquarter located in Hazaribagh town. It is located in the north east part of North Chotanagpur Division. The boundary of this district consists of dis ...

in 1991. Chatra is the administrative headquarters of this district. The district covers an area of 3718 km².

History

Ancient period

In ancient period, the area covered by the present district and adjoining areas were ruled by a number of states, which were collectively known as the ''Atavika'' (forest) states. These states accepted the suzerainty of the

Maurya empire The Maurya Empire was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in South Asia with its power base in Magadha. Founded by Chandragupta Maurya around c. 320 BCE, it existed in loose-knit fashion until 185 BCE. The primary source ...

during

Ashoka Ashoka, also known as Asoka or Aśoka ( ; , ; – 232 BCE), and popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was List of Mauryan emperors, Emperor of Magadha from until #Death, his death in 232 BCE, and the third ruler from the Mauryan dynast ...

's reign ( BCE). Samudragupta, while marching through the present-day Chotanagpur region, directed the first attack against the kingdom of Dakshina Kosala in the Mahanadi valley.

Medieval period

During

Muhammad bin Tughluq Muhammad bin Tughluq (; ; 1290 – 20 March 1351), or Muhammad II, also named Jauna Khan as Crown Prince, further known by his epithets, The Eccentric Prince, or The Mad Sultan, was the eighteenth Sultan of Delhi. He reigned from 4 February 1 ...

's reign, the territory which comprises the present district came in contact with the

Delhi sultanate The Delhi Sultanate or the Sultanate of Delhi was a Medieval India, late medieval empire primarily based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for more than three centuries.

. Later, it became a part of the Bihar Subah of the

Mughal empire The Mughal Empire was an Early modern period, early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to ...

. Daud Khan, the Mughal

Subahdar Subahdar, also known as Nazim, was one of the designations of a governor of a Subah (province) during the Khalji dynasty of Bengal, Mamluk dynasty, Khalji dynasty, Tughlaq dynasty, and the Mughal era who was alternately designated as Sahib- ...

of Bihar, during the reign of Aurangzeb occupied Kothi near Pokhri Fort on 5 May 1660, without much opposition, and then he moved towards the fort of Kunda which had a very strong fortification as it was situated on a hilltop. This fort was finally occupied by him and was completely destroyed on the 2 June 1660. Later, Kunda Fort was under the possession of the Raja of Ramgarh. In 1734, Aliwardi Khan advanced towards Kunda after defeating the rebel Zamindars of Tikari (Gaya). He mounted an attack on Chatra Fort and demolished it.

British rule

The British East India Company came in contact with this region for the first time in 1769. Raja Rammohan Roy, worked as a ''serestadar'' at Chatra from 1805–06 and stayed both at Chatra and Ramgarh while in office. The most important battle fought between the insurgents and the British in Chotanagpur during the rebellion of 1857 was the "Battle of Chatra". This decisive battle was fought on 2 October 1857, near ''Phansi Talab''. It lasted for an hour in which the mutineers were completely defeated. 56 European soldiers and officers were killed whereas 150 revolutionaries were killed and 77 were buried in a pit. Subedar Mangal Pandey and Nadir Ali Khan were sentenced and hanged to death on the 4 October 1857 on this very spot. The European and Sikh soldiers were buried in a well along with their arms and ammunitions. An inscriptive plaque which is still extant states:

"56 men of Her Majesty's 53rd Regiment of foot and a party of Sikhs were killed at Chatra on October 2nd 1857 in action against mutineers of the Ramgarh Battalion. Lieutenant J. C. C. Daunt of the 70th Bengal Native Infantry and sergeant D. Dynon of the 53rd regiment were awarded
Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious decoration of the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British decorations system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British ...
for conspicuous gallantry in the battle, in which the mutineers were completely defeated and lost all their four guns and ammunitions.

At the same time, another inscription on the bank of the Phansi Talab immortalises the two revolutionary subedars, namely, Mangal Pandey and Nadir Ali Khan.

Independence movement

The independence movement in this district gathered momentum in 1921. One of the most significant events of the Quit India Movement in 1942, was the escape of Jai Prakash Narayan along with six other from The Hazaribagh Central Jail on 9 November 1942 (the night of festival of

Diwali Diwali (), also called Deepavali (IAST: ''Dīpāvalī'') or Deepawali (IAST: ''Dīpāwalī''), is the Hindu festival of lights, with variations celebrated in other Indian religions such as Jainism and Sikhism. It symbolises the spiritual v ...

). Jai Prakash Narayan came to Tatra (a village in this district )where he was at the home of panchkodi dubey, and then proceeded towards

Sherghati Sherghati is a town in the Gaya district in Bihar (formally Magadha), India. The Morhar River surrounds it. A meteorite that came from Mars fell here on 25 August 1865; it is now kept in a London museum, and is known as the Shergotty meteori ...

en route to

Varanasi Varanasi (, also Benares, Banaras ) or Kashi, is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world.* * * * The city has a syncretic tradition of I ...

. The notable participants in the independence movement from this district include Chotanagpur Kesri, Babu Ram Narayan Singh, and Babu Shaligram Singh.

Post-independence

The district is currently a part of the

Red Corridor Red corridor designates the districts of India which has the presence and influence of Naxalites. As of March 2025, the corridor encompasses 18 districts across seven states, predominantly in Central and East India. History The Naxalite� ...

Administration

The territory covered by the present district was earlier known as Chatra sub-division of

Blocks/Mandals

Chatra district consists of 12 Blocks. The following are the list of the Blocks in Chatra district:

Demographics

According to the 2011 census Chatra district has a

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 1,042,886, roughly equal to the nation of

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

or the US state of

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

. This gives it a ranking of 434rd in India (out of a total of

640 Year 640 ( DCXL) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 640 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming y ...

). The district has a population density of . Its

population growth rate Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 8.2 billion in 2025. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 70 million annu ...

over the decade 2001-2011 was 28.98%. Chatra has a

sex ratio A sex ratio is 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. However, many species deviate from an even sex ratio, ei ...

of 951

females An organism's sex is female (symbol: ♀) if it produces the ovum (egg cell), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete (sperm cell) during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females and male ...

for every 1000 males, and a

literacy rate Literacy is the ability to read and write, while illiteracy refers to an inability to read and write. Some researchers suggest that the study of "literacy" as a concept can be divided into two periods: the period before 1950, when literacy was ...

of 60.18%. 6.04% of the population lives in urban areas. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 32.65% and 4.37% of the population respectively. Hindus make up 86.6% of the population while Muslims make up 11.19%. Christianity makes up 0.63%, while other religions make up 1.58% of the population. At the time of the 2011 Census of India, 39.71% of the population in the district spoke Khortha, 39.21%

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

, 12.47%

Magahi Magahi (), also known as Magadhi (), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal states of eastern India, and in the Terai region of Nepal. Magadhi Prakrit was the ancestor of Magahi, from which the latter's name de ...

, 5.47%

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

and 1.72% Kurukh as their first language.

Economy

In 2006, the Indian government named Chatra one of the country's 250 most backward districts (out of a total of

). It is one of the 21 districts in Jharkhand currently receiving funds from the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGF).

Politics

Chatra has two assembly constituencies: Chatra and Simaria. Both are part of

Chatra Lok Sabha Constituency Chatra Lok Sabha constituency is one of the 14 Lok Sabha (parliamentary) constituencies in Jharkhand state in eastern India. It covers the entire Chatra and Latehar districts and part of Palamu district. Vidhan Sabha segments Presently, Chatra ...

The MP from Chatra is Kalicharan Singh from the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

Tourism

The district of Chatra, gateway of

has a number of picnic spots and fountains, waterfalls and flora and fauna. Some of the tourist spots of Chatra include: * Bhadrakali temple:- It is at Itkhori, 35 km on the East of Chatra and 16 km west of

Chauparan Chauparan is a census town in the Chauparan CD block in the Barhi subdivision of the Hazaribagh district in the Indian state of Jharkhand. Geography Location Chauparan is located at . It has an average elevation of . Area overview Hazari ...

connected with

Grand Trunk Road Grand Trunk Road (formerly known as Uttarapath, Sadak-e-Azam, Shah Rah-e-Azam, Badshahi Sadak, and Long Walk) is one of Asia's oldest and longest major roads. For at least 2,500 years it has linked Central Asia to the Indian subcontinent. It r ...

. Along with the temple situated on the bank of river Mahanad (Mahane) surrounded by hill and forest, there is a water reservoir. * Kunda Cave:- The ruins of old Kunda palace are still found at a distance of about three-four miles from the present Kunda Village. The place might have been created either towards the end of 17th or beginning of the 18th century AD. * Tamasin:- Word tamasin is a

sandhi Sandhi ( ; , ) is any of a wide variety of sound changes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries. Examples include fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of one sound depending on nearby sounds or the grammatical function o ...

of 'tam+asin' which means 'darkness prevails '. This area has mixed forest having high trees making the area dark even in the daylight. Tamasin has a waterfall. Besides these there are a number of waterfalls in Chatra. Maa Kauleswary Temple: - Maa Kauleswary Mandir is situated near Hunterganj block in Kedli kalan village. It is approx 10 km from Hunterganj and the temple is situated on the hill which has 650 feet height. A Budha temple is also situated on Kuleswary hill and every year thousands of visitor are coming to visit the temples and natural environment of this area also.

References

External links

Official district website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chatra District Districts of Jharkhand 1991 establishments in Bihar