Kishanganj district is one of the thirty-eight districts of Biharstate, India, and Kishanganj town is the administrative headquarters of this district. Kishanganj district is a part of Purnia division (Seemanchal).
History
Kishanganj district, which was previously part of Purnia district, is part of the Mithila region.[1]
Mithila first gained prominence after being settled by Indo-Aryan peoples who established the Mithila Kingdom (also called Kingdom of the Videhas) which was ruled by the Videhas, an Indo-Aryan tribe.[2]
During the late Vedic period (c. 1100–500 BCE), Kingdom of the Videhas became one of the major political and cultural centers of South Asia, along with Kuru and Pañcāla. The kings of the Kingdom of the Videhas were called Janakas.[3]
The Mithila Kingdom was later incorporated into the Vajjika League, which had its capital in the city of Vaishali, which is also in Mithila.[4]
Kishanganj was an old and important Sub-Division of Purnia district. After the long and hard struggle of around seventeen years by the people of Kishanganj including social workers, politicians, journalists, businessmen, farmers, etc., the Kishanganj district was carved out of Purnia district on 14 January 1990.[5]
On 30 January 2014, the foundation stone was laid down of the Kishanganj campus of Aligarh Muslim University by Sonia Gandhi.[13] The study centre started out by offering two courses.[14]
According to the 2011 census Kishanganj district has a population of 1,690,400,[16] roughly equal to the nation of Guinea-Bissau[17] or the US state of Idaho.[18] This gives it a ranking of 293rd in India (out of a total of 640).[16] The district has a population density of 898 inhabitants per square kilometre (2,330/sq mi) .[16] Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 30.44%.[16] Kishanganj has a sex ratio of 946 females for every 1,000 males,[16] and a literacy rate of 57.04%. 9.53% of the population lives in urban areas. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 6.69% and 3.80% of the population respectively.[16]
A vast majority of the people live in villages. Kishanganj is the only Muslim-majority district of Bihar, with Muslims forming about 68% of the population.[16] There are also Hindus of whom most are Surajpuris (Rajbanshi). There also are small pockets of Santals.[20][21] Most of the inhabitants of Kishanganj speak Surajpuri.[22]
^Michael Witzel (1989), Tracing the Vedic dialects in Dialectes dans les litteratures Indo-Aryennes ed. Caillat, Paris, pages 13, 17 116–124, 141–143
^Witzel, M. (1989). "Tracing the Vedic dialects". In Caillat, C. (ed.). Dialectes dans les litteratures Indo-Aryennes. Paris: Fondation Hugot. pp. 141–143.
^Hemchandra, R. (1972). Political History of Ancient India. Calcutta: University of Calcutta.
^History, Kishanganj District, retrieved 15 December 2021.
