Birbhum district (Bīrbhūm)
Birbhum district is an administrative unit in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the northernmost district of Burdwan division—one of the five administrative divisions of West Bengal. The district headquarters is in Suri. Other important cities are Bolpur, Rampurhat and Sainthia. Jamtara, Dumka and Pakur districts of the state of Jharkhand lie at the western border of this district; the border in other directions is covered by the districts of Bardhaman and Murshidabad of West Bengal.
Often called "the land of red soil", Birbhum is noted for its topography and its cultural heritage which is somewhat different from the other districts in West Bengal. The western part of Birbhum is a bushy region, a part of the Chota Nagpur Plateau. This region gradually merges with the fertile alluvial farmlands in the east.
This district saw many cultural and religious movements in history. The Visva Bharati University at Santiniketan, established by Rabindranath Tagore, is one of the places Birbhum is known for. Many festivals are celebrated in the district, including Poush Mela.
Birbhum is primarily an agricultural district with around 75% of the population being dependent on agriculture. Principal industries of the district include cotton and silk harvesting and weaving, rice and oilseed milling, lac harvesting, stone mining and metalware and pottery manufacture. Bakreshwar Thermal Power Station is the only heavy industry in the district.
The name Birbhum comes probably from the term 'land' ('bhumi') of the 'brave' ('bir') or Bir king'). Another theory says that the district bears the name of Bagdi king Bir Malla, who ruled in the area from 1501 to 1554 CE. Bir in the Santali language means forests; therefore, Birbhum could also mean a land of forests.
Often called "the land of red soil", Birbhum is noted for its topography and its cultural heritage which is somewhat different from the other districts in West Bengal. The western part of Birbhum is a bushy region, a part of the Chota Nagpur Plateau. This region gradually merges with the fertile alluvial farmlands in the east.
This district saw many cultural and religious movements in history. The Visva Bharati University at Santiniketan, established by Rabindranath Tagore, is one of the places Birbhum is known for. Many festivals are celebrated in the district, including Poush Mela.
Birbhum is primarily an agricultural district with around 75% of the population being dependent on agriculture. Principal industries of the district include cotton and silk harvesting and weaving, rice and oilseed milling, lac harvesting, stone mining and metalware and pottery manufacture. Bakreshwar Thermal Power Station is the only heavy industry in the district.
The name Birbhum comes probably from the term 'land' ('bhumi') of the 'brave' ('bir') or Bir king'). Another theory says that the district bears the name of Bagdi king Bir Malla, who ruled in the area from 1501 to 1554 CE. Bir in the Santali language means forests; therefore, Birbhum could also mean a land of forests.
Map - Birbhum district (Bīrbhūm)
Map
Country - India
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Modern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa no later than 55,000 years ago. Their long occupation, initially in varying forms of isolation as hunter-gatherers, has made the region highly diverse, second only to Africa in human genetic diversity. Settled life emerged on the subcontinent in the western margins of the Indus river basin 9,000 years ago, evolving gradually into the Indus Valley Civilisation of the third millennium BCE. By, an archaic form of Sanskrit, an Indo-European language, had diffused into India from the northwest. (a) (b) (c), "In Punjab, a dry region with grasslands watered by five rivers (hence ‘panch’ and ‘ab’) draining the western Himalayas, one prehistoric culture left no material remains, but some of its ritual texts were preserved orally over the millennia. The culture is called Aryan, and evidence in its texts indicates that it spread slowly south-east, following the course of the Yamuna and Ganga Rivers. Its elite called itself Arya (pure) and distinguished themselves sharply from others. Aryans led kin groups organized as nomadic horse-herding tribes. Their ritual texts are called Vedas, composed in Sanskrit. Vedic Sanskrit is recorded only in hymns that were part of Vedic rituals to Aryan gods. To be Aryan apparently meant to belong to the elite among pastoral tribes. Texts that record Aryan culture are not precisely datable, but they seem to begin around 1200 BCE with four collections of Vedic hymns (Rg, Sama, Yajur, and Artharva)."
Currency / Language
| ISO | Currency | Symbol | Significant figures |
|---|---|---|---|
| INR | Indian rupee | ₹ | 2 |
| ISO | Language |
|---|---|
| AS | Assamese language |
| BN | Bengali language |
| BH | Bihari languages |
| EN | English language |
| GU | Gujarati language |
| HI | Hindi |
| KN | Kannada language |
| ML | Malayalam language |
| MR | Marathi language |
| OR | Oriya language |
| PA | Panjabi language |
| TA | Tamil language |
| TE | Telugu language |
| UR | Urdu |