Rarh region
Encyclopedia
Rarh region of West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...

 is the region that lies between the Western plateau and high lands
Western plateau and high lands
The Western plateau and highlands is the eastern border of the Chota Nagpur Plateau. It is historically called Vajjabhumi or Bajrabhumi. Bajra means hard. Probably it refers to the hard nature of the red laterite solid found here....

 (bordering Chhotanagpur plateau) and the Ganges Delta
Ganges Delta
The Ganges Delta is a river delta in the South Asia region of Bengal, consisting of Bangladesh and the state of West Bengal, India. It is the world's largest delta, and empties into the Bay of Bengal...

. Parts of the districts Murshidabad
Murshidabad district
Murshidabad district is a district of West Bengal in eastern India. Situated on the left bank of the river Ganges, the district is very fertile. Covering an area of 5,341 km² and having a population 5.863m it is a densely populated district and the ninth most populous in India...

, Birbhum
Birbhum district
Birbhum district is an administrative unit in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the northernmost district of Burdwan division—one of the three administrative divisions of West Bengal. The district headquarters is located at Suri...

, Bankura
Bankura District
Bankura district is one of the seven districts of Burdwan Division in the Indian state of West Bengal. The district has been described as the “connecting link between the plains of Bengal on the east and Chota Nagpur plateau on the west.” The areas to the east and north-east are low lying alluvial...

, Bardhaman
Bardhaman District
'Bardhaman district is a district in West Bengal. The headquarter of the district is Bardhaman, though it houses other important industrial towns like Durgapur and Asansol...

, Hooghly
Hooghly District
Hooghly district is one of the districts of the state of West Bengal in India. It can alternatively be spelt Hoogli or Hugli. The district is named after the Hooghly River.The headquarters of the district are at Chinsura...

, Howrah, Medinipur and Nadia
Nadia District
Nadia district is a district of the state of West Bengal, in the north east of India. It borders with Bangladesh to the east, North 24 Parganas and Hooghly districts to the south, Bardhaman district to the west, and Murshidabad district to the north....

 constitutes this region.

Eastern Rarh: Western Mushidabad, northern part of Birbhum, eastern Burdwan,the whole of Hooghly, the whole of Howrah, eastern Midnapur, the Indas Police Station of Bankura district.

Western Rarh: Santhal Pargana, most part of Birbum, western Burdwan, Bankura district, Kasmar, Peterwad, Gola, Jeredi, Ramgarh of Hazaribag(now Giridih) district, Silli, Sonahatu, Bundu and the Tamar Police Station of Ranchi district, Singhbhum district, Jhargram Subdivision and Sadar North and Sadar South Subdivision of Midnapur district.'

The region is about 50 to 100 m above the sea level
Sea level
Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...

.

History of the name

The word Rarh originated in the ancient Austric language and means 'a land of red soil'. The Chinese called it 'Lati', the Greek called it 'Ganga Ridi', the Aryans called it 'Rattha.'
The west coast of Bhagirathi was called Radha/ Rarha/ Ladha/ Lara . The western side of Rarh is sometimes separated into Vajjabhumi
Vajjabhumi
Vajjabhumi was a part of Rarh in ancient times. It is located in what is now Birbhum district in the Indian state of West Bengal. The more rugged western part of the district was known as Vajjabhumi, the country of the thunderbolt....

 (Bajrabhumi) which is the eastern fringe of the Chhotanagpur plateau, to demarcate from the eastern part of Rarh which is called Sumhabhumi or Subbhabhumi
Subbhabhumi
Subbhabhumi was a part of Rarh in ancient times. It is located in what is now Birbhum district in the Indian state of West Bengal. The more fertile eastern part of the district, consisting of alluvial plains, was known as Subbhabhumi....

. The oldest Jain book of codes Acaranga Sutra
Acaranga Sutra
The Acaranga Sutra is the first of the eleven Angas, part of the agamas which were compiled based on the teachings of Lord Mahavira.The Acaranga Sutra discusses the conduct of a Jain monk...

 and Buddhist Jataka
Jataka
The Jātakas refer to a voluminous body of literature native to India concerning the previous births of the Buddha....

 mentions about these regions. According to Acharanga Sutra Mahavira travelled in the pathless country of 'Ladha' in Vajjabhumi and Subbhabhumi at a time (5th Century BC) when the country was lawless and the people were harsh at Mahavir. Alexander the great was supposed to have been discouraged to come to eastern India due to the power of the "Gangaridai
Gangaridai
Gangaridai was an ancient state found around 300 BC where the Bengal region lies today . It was described by the Greek traveller Megasthenes in his work Indica...

" or "Ganga Rarh"s who were probably the people of Rarh. According to Bengali historian Dr. Atul Sur, Pleeny and Ptolemy
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...

 also mention about "Ganga Rarh"s. Gangaridai has been spelled differently by different Greek/Roman accounts: Gangaridae, Gandaridai, Gangaritai, Gangaridum. However the stem of the term Gangaridai is Ganga which has been interpreted by different historians as: Ganga-Hrd (land with Ganges in its heart),Ganga-Rashtra(state of the Ganges), Gandaridai (land of the Gonds). The Bhubaneswar inscription of Bhavadeva Bhatta records that "Radha was a waterless, dry and woody region".

Rakhaldas Bandyopadhyay
Rakhaldas Bandyopadhyay
Rakhaldas Bandyopadhyay , also known as R. D. Banerji, was an Indian historian and a native Indian pioneer in the fields of Indian archaeology, epigraphy and palaeography. He was the Manindra Chandra Nandy Professor of Ancient Indian History and Culture at the Banaras Hindu University from 1928-30...

, the famous Bengali historian says: "During Chandragupta Maurya
Chandragupta Maurya
Chandragupta Maurya , was the founder of the Maurya Empire. Chandragupta succeeded in conquering most of the Indian subcontinent. Chandragupta is considered the first unifier of India and its first genuine emperor...

's rule Gangaridai
Gangaridai
Gangaridai was an ancient state found around 300 BC where the Bengal region lies today . It was described by the Greek traveller Megasthenes in his work Indica...

 was independent like the Andhra kingdom and Gangaridai was joined with Kalinga(ancient Orissa)." It is interesting that the description of the armed forces of Gangaridae and Calingae during the reign of Chandragupta Maurya as given by Megasthenes are identical (both possessed army of 60,000 foot-soldiers, 1,000 horsemen and 700 elephants).

A statement in Digvijayaprakasha locates to Radha the north of River Damodar and to the south of Gauda. Tabaqat-i-nasiri also suggests that the Radha region lay to the west of the Ganges. Dipavangsha and Mahavangsha state that Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

 was colonised by Vijaya Simha who hailed from Simhapura in 'Lala' (Rarh).

Geology

This region is believed to be created from the soil from the Deccan plateau. Red coloured laterite
Laterite
Laterites are soil types rich in iron and aluminium, formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are rusty-red because of iron oxides. They develop by intensive and long-lasting weathering of the underlying parent rock...

 soil is predominant. The silts of the soil are coarse. The soil is not much suitable for agriculture as the alkalinity is high and organic material is comparatively less.

Ancient History

Rarh is the oldest part of ancient Gondwanaland which was formed 300 million years ago. Some of the hills of Rarh today are from those ancient times. Human beings originated at a few points on this planet and the origin of humankind in Rarh is very ancient. The forest dwellers of Rarh clad in leaves, bark and animal skins lived by hunting. After they learnt to tend animals and agriculture. Along the rivers various groups of people progressed and mingled later in the delta areas and advanced human civilization.

Rivers

The ancient snowcovored mountain peaks of Rarh gave birth to numerous rivers. These rivers, fed by melting snow flowed to the east and south east towards the ocean.
The most notable rivers are Damodar
Damodar River
Damodar River originates near Chandwa village, Palamau district, on the Chota Nagpur Plateau in the Jharkhand state in eastern India, and flows eastward for about 592 km through the states of Jharkhand and West Bengal to the estaury of the River Hooghly...

, Ajay
Ajay River
The Ajay River is a major river in Jharkhand and West Bengal. The word “Ajay” means “not conquered”.-Geography:The Ajay River originates on a small hill about 300 metres high, south west of Munger in Bihar. It then flows through Jharkhand and enters West Bengal at Simjuri, near Chittaranjan...

, Mayurakshi
Mayurakshi River
Mayurakshi River is a major river in West Bengal, India, with a long history of devastating floods.It has its source on Trikut hill, about 16 km from Deoghar in Jharkhand state. It flows through Jharkhand and then through the districts of Birbhum and Murshidabad in West Bengal before flowing...

, Dwarakeswar
Dwarakeswar River
Dwarakeswar River is a major river in the western part of West Bengal.-Course:It originates from Tilboni hill in Purulia district and enters Bankura district near Chhatna. It cuts across the district flowing past the district head quarters and enters the south-eastern tip of Bardhaman District...

, Shilai
Shilabati River
The Shilabati River originates in the terrain of the Chhota Nagpur Plateau in the Purulia district of the state of West Bengal in eastern India. It flows in an almost southeasterly direction through the districts of Bankura and West Midnapore. The Shilabati joins the Dwarakeswar near Ghatal and...

 and Kasai
Kangsabati River
Kangsabati River rises from the Chota Nagpur plateau in the state of Jharkhand, India and passes through the districts of Purulia, Bankura and Paschim Medinipur in West Bengal before draining in the Hooghly River.-Course:After rising near Jhalda in the Chota Nagpur plateau in Purulia district,...

. All the river originates from Chota Nagpur Plateau and flows towards east or south-east finally to meet River Hooghly
River Hooghly
The Hooghly River or the Bhāgirathi-Hooghly, is an approximately long distributary of the Ganges River in West Bengal, India. It splits from the Ganges as a canal in Murshidabad District at the Farakka Barrage...

. The river Subarnarekha
Subarnarekha River
Subarnarekha River flows through the Indian states of Jharkhand, West Bengal and Orissa.-Etymology:As per tradition, gold was mined near the origin of the river at a village named Piska near Ranchi. This is why it was named Subarnarekha, meaning ‘streak of gold’. Legend has it that traces of...

 flows through some parts of the region and ends at the Bay of Bengal
Bay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal , the largest bay in the world, forms the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. It resembles a triangle in shape, and is bordered mostly by the Eastern Coast of India, southern coast of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to the west and Burma and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the...

. In the past, some of the rivers were notorious for causing flood. With the construction of several dams, the floods have been somewhat controlled.

Outstanding Personalities of Rarh

Rarh presented human society the first philosopher Maharishi Kapil who was born near Jahlda. Maharishi Patanjali who systematized yoga was born in Patun village in Burdwan. Kashiram Das from Siddhi village in Burdwan made the Mahabharata
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....

 in lucid language accessible to the people and Krittivas Ojha did the same with the Ramayana
Ramayana
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon , considered to be itihāsa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India and Nepal, the other being the Mahabharata...

. Others were born in Rarh or were by lineage from Rarh such as: Lochandas Thakur, Vrindavandas Thakur, Govindadas Thakur, Dvaja Chandidas, Chandidas
Chandidas
Chandidas refers to medieval poet of Bengal. Over 1250 poems related to the love of Radha and Krishna in Bengali with the bhanita of Chandidas are found with three different sobriquets along with his name, , Dvija and Dina as well as without any sobriquet also...

, Baru Chandidas, Ghanaram Chakravorty, Kavikankan Mukundaram Chakravorty, Bharatchandra Ray
Bharatchandra Ray
Bharatchandra Ray was an 18th century Bengali and Sanskrit poet and song composer. He is mostly known for his poetic work, Annadamangal or Annapurnamangal. He is often referred to simply as Bharatchandra.-Early years:...

, Premendra Mitra
Premendra Mitra
Premendra Mitra was a renowned Bengali poet, novelist, short story writer and film director. He was also an author of Bangla science fiction and thrillers.-Life:...

, Sharatchandra, Tarashankar Bandopadhyay
Tarashankar Bandopadhyay
Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay was one of the leading Bengali novelists. He wrote 65 novels, 53 story-books, 12 plays, 4 essay-books, 4 autobiographies and 2 travel stories...

, the poet Jaydev, Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature...

, Michael Madhusudan Dutta, Kazi Nazzrul Islam, Satyen Dutta, Rajshekar Basu, Shubhankar Das, Kashana, Jayanta Panigrahi, Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, Satyendranath Bose, Rashbehari Bose, Prafulla Chandra Roy
Prafulla Chandra Roy
Prafulla Chandra Ray was a Indian academician, a chemist and entrepreneur. He was the founder of Bengal Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals, India's first pharmaceutical company...

, Subhash Chandra Bose
Subhash Chandra Bose
Subhas Chandra Bose known by name Netaji was an Indian revolutionary who led an Indian national political and military force against Britain and the Western powers during World War II. Bose was one of the most prominent leaders in the Indian independence movement and is a legendary figure in...

, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda , born Narendranath Dutta , was the chief disciple of the 19th century mystic Ramakrishna Paramahansa and the founder of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission...

, Shri Aurobindo, Raja Rammohan Roy, Ramprasad Sen
Ramprasad Sen
' was a Shakta poet of eighteenth century Bengal. His bhakti poems, known as Ramprasadi, are still popular in Bengal—they are usually addressed to the Hindu goddess Kali and written in Bengali...

, Keshab Chandra Sen, Akshay Kumar Datta
Akshay Kumar Datta
Akshay Kumar Datta was born in Chupi in Bardhaman. Son of Pitamber Dutta, he was one of the initiators of the Bengal Renaissance. After studying in the Oriental Seminary under the special care of Hardman Jeffroy, he had to give up studies because of the death of his father and go job-seeking...

, Devendranath Tagore, Dwarakanath Tagore, Thakur Shri Nityananda, Abanindranath Tagore
Abanindranath Tagore
Abanindranath Tagore was the principal artist of the Bengal school and the first major exponent of swadeshi values in Indian art. He was also a noted writer, particularly for children...

, Gaganendranath Tagore
Gaganendranath Tagore
See Tagore for disambiguationGaganendranath Tagore was an Indian painter and cartoonist of the Bengal school. He belongs to the Tagore family and was born at Jorasanko.-Early life:Gaganendranath Tagore was born in Calcutta...

, Thakur Krshnadas Kaviraj, Yamini Ray, Ramkinkar Baij
Ramkinkar Baij
Ramkinkar Baij was an Indian Santhal sculptor, known as the Pioneer of Modern Indian Sculpture. He was one of the first Indian Adivasi artists to understand the language of modern Western art and use it in his sculptures...

, Kalidasa
Kalidasa
Kālidāsa was a renowned Classical Sanskrit writer, widely regarded as the greatest poet and dramatist in the Sanskrit language...

and others.
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