EAST CHAMPARAN, Bihar

Main Attraction: Kesariya Stupa

Historical importance of Bihar has been established again with the discovery of “biggest ever Buddhist Stupa “ at Kesaria in East Champaran district about 120 K.M. from Patna and 30 miles from Vaishali on Indo Nepal border. A team of Archaeological survey of India Officials discovered this Stupa in year 1998 after excavation. The ASI officials have declared that Bihar has the proud privilege of housing the tallest ever-excavated Stupa in the world.

The Conservation of Kesaria Stupa is a turning point in the history of conservation in India. Earlier, the ASI team did not realize that the excavated Stupa would be the tallest and largest Stupa in the world.

Rising to a height of 104 feet and much reduced than its original height, it is one foot taller than the famous Borobodur Stupa in Java, a world heritage monument.

The Kesaria Stupa was 123 feet tall before the 1934 earthquake in Bihar. In the halcyon days when Buddhism thrived in India , the Kesaria Stupa was 150 feet and Borobodur stupa 138 feet tall according to A.S.I. report. At present the height of Kesaria in reduced to 104 feet and Borobodur to 103 feet. The height of ‘Sanchi Stupa ‘ a world heritage monument is 77.50 feet, almost half of Kesaria stupa.

Brief History

The district’s original name ‘Champaran’ owes its origin to CHAMPA or CHAMPAK-ARANYA meaning thereby forest of magnolia(Champa tree). It is believed that in the time immemorial the district had long and dense track of forest having magnolia(Champa) trees and so the name Champaran.

The history of Purba Champaran is a part of the history of old Champaran district. During the pre-historic period Champaran constituted a part of the ancient Kingdom of Videha, the Videhas having been ordained to settle east of the Gandak river. Among the greatest of the Videha Kings was Janak, himself a scholar and author of the Upnishads, whose chief priest, Yajnavalkya, was the renowned codifier of the Hindu Law. After the decline of the Videha empire, Champaran formed part of the Vrijjian oligarchical republic with its capital at Vaishali. The Lichchavis were the most prominent of the clans which constituted the Vrijjian confederation.

Ajatasatru, the Magadh-emperor succeeded in subduing the Lichchavis and occupied their capital at Vaishali. He extended his sovereignty over the present district of Champaran which continued under the Mauryan rule for the next hundred years. After the Mauryas, the Sungas and the Kanvas ruled over Magadh and its territories. Archaeological evidences of the Sunga and Kanva periods have been found in Champaran.

The Kushans, who were migrant Turks, overran the entire northern India in the first century A.D. At that time Champaran probably formed part of the Kushan empire. The Kushans gave way to Bauphar Rajputs in the 3rd century A.D. Champaran later became a part of the Gupta empire but the excavations and investigations so far carried out have not thrown sufficient light on the cultural aspect of the district in that age. Alongwith Tirhut, Champaran was possibly annexed by Harsha during whose reign Hiuen Tsang, the famous Chinese pilgrim, visited India.

In the early medieval period, the Palas (750-1155 A.D.) were in the possession of the Eastern India, and the territory of Tirabhukti (which embraced Champaran) formed part of the Pala empire, as evidenced from an edict commemorating the grant of a village in Tirabhukti. Towards the end of the 10th century, Gangeya Deva of the Kalachuri dynasty conquered Champaran. He gave way to Vikramaditya, son of Emperor Someshwar I of the Chalukya dynasty, who was accompanied by adventurers from the Carnatic. One of the latter founded the Sena dynasty of Bengal. Another, Nanyadeva, founded the Carnatic dynasty of Mithila with its capital at Simraon on the Indo-Nepal border.

Medieval period

Muslim influence was first extended to Tirabhukti by Ghyas-uddin Iwaz, the Muslim Governor of Bengal, between 1211 and 1226. It was, however, not a complete conquest and he was only able to extract tribute from Narsinghdeva, the Simraon King. In about 1323 Ghyas-uddin Tughlak annexed Tirabhukti and placed it under Kameshwar Thakur, The founder of the Sugaon or Thakur dynasty and the Brahmin Rajpandit Kameshwar Thakur was installed because Harsingh Deva, the last Simraon King, had fled to Nepal. The Sugaon dynasty continued to hold Tirabhukti as a tributary province for about a century after the capture of Harsingh Deva. The most famous of the whole line was Raja Shiva Singh, the son of Kameshwar Thakur and a great patron of literature. Vidyapati, the renowned Maithil poet, was a courtier in his court. During the rule of Lakshminath Deva, Tirabhukti came under attack by Sultan Allauddin Hussain Shah of Bengal and Sikandar Lodi of Delhi. However, they concluded a treaty in 1499 according to which Tirabhukti was to be left to Sikandar Lodi. Subsequently Sikandar Lodi attacked Tirabhukti and made the prince a tributary chief. However, in contravention of the treaty concluded by his father, Nasrat Shah, son of Allauddin Shah, attacked Tirabhukti in 1530, annexed the territory, killed the Raja and put an end to the Thakur dynasty.

Nasrat Shah, appointed his son-in-law as Viceroy of Tirhut and thenceforward it was governed by Muslim Governors. In 1526, Babar defeated Sikandar Lodi but Champaran did not come in prominence until the last days of the Muslim rule.

In the last days of the Mughal empire, Champaran again suffered the ravages of contending armies. Prince Ali Gauhar (later known as Shah Alam) invaded Bihar in 1760 and Khadim Hussain, the Governor of Purnia, moved with his army to join him. Meanwhile, Nawab Sirajudaulla of Bengal had already been defeated and killed as a result of the joint conspiracy of Mir Jafar Khan and the British, in June 1757. Before Khadim Hussain could meet Shah Alam’s forces, captain Knox led a British force and defeated Khadim Hussain at Hajipur who then fled to Bettiah.

British period

In 1764, Champaran passed with the rest of Bengal into the hands of the East India Company, but military expeditions were necessary to curb the independent spirit of the chiefs of the district. In 1766, British forces under Robert Barker marched into Champaran, overcame the little resistance that was offered by the local chiefs and forced them to pay revenue which they had so long desisted from doing. However, the Raja of Bettiah did not pay revenues regularly, and revolted, only to be crushed. He fled to Bundel Khand and his estate was confiscated. But the British found it difficult to manage the estate in the face of strong popular resentment, and when an uprising was in offing, the estate was

restored to the Raja in 1771.

Meanwhile, important developments of far-reaching consequences were taking place in Nepal. A confrontation was going on between the Gurkhas, under their chief Prithvi Narayan, the Newar Raja of Nepal and the British forces. Ultimately in 1815 a treaty was concluded at Sugauli.

There was peace for 25 years following this treaty but trouble started again in 1840 when a section of the Gurkha troops entered the estate of the Raja of Ramnagar and put forward a claim to a part of his territory. On determined resistance, however, the Gurkha troops withdrew and evacuated the villages they had occupied. Later, the Nepalese proved faithful allies of the British in suppressing the National Movement of 1857.

The repression of the Wahabi movement at Patna gave further impetus to the seething discontent among tenants against the activities of the administration and the indigo-planters. The cultivators were compelled to grow indigo in spite of losses sustained on this account. Moreover, many kinds of illegal realisations were also made by the landlords. The administration always turned a blind eye to these oppressions.

The position of the British was precarious in Champaran during the early stages of the National Movement of 1857. At that time the 12th Irregular Cavalry, was stationed at Sugauli under the command of Major Holmes. He apparently panicked and proclaimed martial law on his own authority though this measure did not receive the whole-hearted support of higher authorities. The oppressive measures of Major Holmes and the execution of some sepoys fanned resentment and the members of the Cavalry revolted. The Major, his wife and other British residents were killed and the soldiers proceeded towards Siwan to join other forces who had risen against the British authority. The resurrection was, however, subdued by the Britishers. They appointed Honorary Magistrates from among the indigo-planters and also authorised them to raise local police. Some of the big estate-holders like the Raja of Bettiah also gave support to the British. Gurkha troops also proved a great asset to the British during this time.

The later history of the district is intimately connected with indigo plantation. Britain used to get supplies of indigo from her American Colonies but this ceased after the war of Independence in 1776 which led to their freedom. Britain had to fall back upon India for supplies of indigo. Many factories were set up by the Europeans in the indigoproducing areas of Bengal and Bihar. Bettiah and Ramnagar estates gave leases of land to them for cultivation of indigo on rather easy terms. The arrangements made for cultivation of indigo were mainly of two kinds, viz; (i) Zirat and (ii) Teenkathia.

On the face of it, there was nothing much wrong with either of the two systems. But in practice, the peasants suffered greatly. The wages paid to labourers were extremely low and entirely inadequate, though they were made to work very hard and were severely punished for alleged slackness on their part. Raj Kumar Shukla, an indigo cultivator of the district, had heard of Mahatma Gandhi and his non-co-operation movement in South Africa. He met Gandhiji and apprised him of the miserable plight of the indigo cultivators in the Champaran district and pursuaded him to visit the district. At about the same time, the Indian National Congress in its annual session held in December, 1916 at Lucknow passed a resolution urging upon the Government to appoint a committee comprising both of officials and non-officials to enquire into the agrarian trouble in this district.

Gandhiji’s visit to Champaran was stoutly opposed by the British rulers. An order asking him to leave was served upon him as soon as he arrived at Motihari. Gandhiji defied the order. Of the several prominent persons who rallied round him, mention may be made of Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Acharya Kripalani, Mahadeo Desai, C.F. Andrews, H.S. Pollock, Anugraha Narain Sinha, Brajkishore Prasad, Ram Navami Prasad and Dharnidhar Prasad, After considerable struggle, the Government relented and lifted the ban on Gandhiji’s stay. Champaran can rightly claim to be the first arena in the country where Gandhiji’s unique weapon of Satyagraha was put to test with great success. Specific instances of highhandedness on the part of planters were obtained through evidences recorded by Gandhiji and his team mates. Eventually, a committee of enquiry was appointed by the Government under the Chairmanship of Sir Frank Shy, of which Gandhiji was also a member. As a sequel to the recommendations made by this committee, the Champaran Agrarian Law (Bihar and Orissa Act I of 1918) was passed. In course of time, the development of synthetic dyes made the cultivation of indigo redundant and now it is hardly grown.

Gandhiji made an extensive tour of Bihar in 1920 on the eve of the launching of the non-cooperation movement which received full support in the district. Champaran sent a group of volunteers to demonstrate against the Simon Commission in 1929. In the same year, the 21st session of the Bihar Students’ Conference was held at Motihari. After the failure of the Round Table Conference in 1932 there was a popular assemblage at Motihari for taking the independence pledge. This gathering was lathi-charged and fired upon by the police. It is thus clear that the people of Champaran district took a very significant part in the national movement.