Shahabad district or Arrah district, headquartered at

Arrah Arrah (also transliterated as Ara) is a city and a municipal corporation in Bhojpur district (formerly known as Shahabad district) in the Indian state of Bihar. It is the headquarters of Bhojpur district, located near the confluence of the G ...

(now part of Bhojpur District, Bihar) was a Bhojpuri speaking district in western

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...

, India, making the western border of Bihar with

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

. In 1972, the district was split into two districts: Bhojpur and Rohtas.

Kaimur District Kaimur district is one of the 38 districts of Bihar, India. The district headquarters are at Bhabua. Before 1991, it was part of Rohtas District. Till 1764 the region (Kaimur district) was a part of Ghazipur District and was a part of Kamsaar Raj ...

was carved out from Rohtas in 1991 and

Buxar District Buxar district is one of the 38 districts of Bihar, India. Located in the southwestern part of the state, it is a primarily agricultural district. The district headquarters is at the town of Buxar. Etymology According to local traditions, t ...

from Bhojpur in 1992. Historically, the geographic area was the eastern part of the

Mahajanapada The Mahājanapadas ( sa, great realm, from ''maha'', "great", and ''janapada'' "foothold of a people") were sixteen kingdoms or oligarchic republics that existed in ancient India from the sixth to fourth centuries BCE during the second urba ...

Kingdom of Kashi Kingdom commonly refers to: * A monarchy ruled by a king or queen * Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy Kingdom may also refer to: Arts and media Television * ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...

, with the

Son River Son River ( hi, सोन नदी, also spelt Sone River) is a perennial river located in central India. It originates near Amarkantak Hill in Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi district of Chhattisgarh and finally merges with the Ganges River near Pa ...

separating it from Magadh. The districts in erstwhile Shahabad are as follows: * Bhojpur District headquartered at

Rohtas District Rohtas District is one of the thirty-eight districts of Bihar state, India. It came into existence when Shahabad District was bifurcated into Bhojpur & Rohtas in 1972. Administrative headquarter of the district is Sasaram. Rohtas district has th ...

headquartered at

Sasaram Sasaram ()sometimes also spelled as Sahasram, is an ancient historical city and a municipal corporation region in the Rohtas district of the Bihar state in eastern India, with a history that goes to thousands of years. During the prehistoric ag ...

headquartered at Bhabua *

headquartered at

Buxar Buxar is a nagar parishad city in the state of Bihar, India bordering Uttar Pradesh. It is the headquarters of the eponymous Buxar district, as well as the headquarters of the community development block of Buxar, which also contains the ce ...

All four above districts fall under the

Patna Division Patna Division is one of the nine administrative units of Bihar, a state in the east of India. Patna is the headquarters of the division. Established in 1829, it is one of the oldest divisions of the state. History of administrative districts i ...

along with Patna and Nalanda District.

Notable persons

Kamla Persad-Bissessar Kamla Persad-Bissessar ( ; born Kamla Susheila Persad, 22 April 1952), often referred to by her initials KPB, is a Trinidadian and Tobagonian lawyer, politician and educator who is the Leader of the Opposition of Trinidad and Tobago, politic ...

, Seventh Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago and first woman Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago (great-grandfather is from Shahabad) * Chacha Ramgoolam, First

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

and Chief Minister of Mauritius (father from Shahabad) *

Navin Ramgoolam Navinchandra Ramgoolam, GCSK, FRCP (born 14 July 1947) is a Mauritian politician who was former Prime Minister of Mauritius from 2005 to 2014 and leader of the Labour Party (Mauritius). He was Leader of the Opposition from 1991 to 1995. He ser ...

, Former

Prime Minister of Mauritius The prime minister of Mauritius (french: link=no, Premier Ministre de Maurice) is the head of government of Mauritius. He presides over the Cabinet of Ministers, which advises the president of the country and is collectively responsible to the ...

(grandfather from Shahabad) *

Anerood Jugnauth Sir Anerood Jugnauth, GCSK, PV, (29 March 1930 – 3 June 2021) was a Mauritian politician and barrister who served both as President and Prime Minister of Mauritius. He was Member of Parliament for Piton & Riviere Du Rempart. A central fi ...

, Former

(grandfather is from Shahabad) * Pravind Jugnauth, Present

(great-grandfather is from Shahabad) *

Sher Shah Suri Sher Shah Suri ( ps, شیرشاه سوری) (1472, or 1486 – 22 May 1545), born Farīd Khān ( ps, فرید خان) , was the founder of the Sur Empire in India, with its capital in Sasaram in modern-day Bihar. He standardized the silver coin ...

, Founder of Sur Dynasty who had built Grand Trunk Road *

Ustad Bismillah Khan Bismillah Khan (born Amaruddin Khan, 21 March 1916 – 21 August 2006), often referred to by the title ''Ustad'', was an Indian musician credited with popularizing the shehnai, a reeded woodwind instrument. While the shehnai had long held imp ...

, shehnai maestro and recipient of

Bharat Ratna The Bharat Ratna (; ''Jewel of India'') is the highest civilian award of the Republic of India. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conferred in recognition of "exceptional service/performance of the highest order", without distinctio ...

* Babu Jagjivan Ram, fourth Deputy PM and longest-serving union minister of India *

Meira Kumar Meira Kumar (born 31 March 1945) is an Indian politician and former diplomat. A member of the Indian National Congress, she was the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment from 2004 to 2009, the Minister of Water Resources for a brief per ...

, retd. Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer & first woman Lok Sabha Speaker. *

Ram Subhag Singh Ram Subhag Singh (7 July 1917 – 16 December 1980)''Data India'', Press Institute of India, 1981 was an Indian politician who was a member of the Indian National Congress. He served as a member of the 3rd and 4th Lok Sabha for Bikramganj and ...

Railway Minister A Ministry of Railways is a Cabinet department that exists or has existed in many Commonwealth states as well as others. It generally occurs in countries where railroad transportation is a particularly important part of the national infrastructure. ...

of India from 14 February 1969 to 4 November 1969 *

Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha of Shahabad (now Bhojpur), Bengal Presidency (1 February 1899 – 12 November 1986) was the 6th Chief Justice of India (1 October 1959 – 31 January 1964). He also served as the president of the Bharat Scouts and G ...

, sixth Chief Justice of India * Bisheshwar Prasad Singh, former Chief Justice of Bombay High Court * Anil Sinha, Indian Police Service (IPS) officer and current Director of CBI * Srimat Pandey, Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer 1984 batch. Former Principal Secretary of Rajasthan. *

Bindeshwari Dubey Bindeshwari Dubey (14 January 1921 – 20 January 1993) was a freedom fighter, trade unionist and politician who served as Chief Minister of Bihar between 12 March 1985 and 13 February 1988. Dubey was involved in the nationalisation of India ...

, 21st Chief Minister of Bihar & former Union Minister of India *

Anant Sharma Anant Prasad Sharma (25 December 1919 – October 1988) was an Indian Railway Union leader, politician who became Minister of State for Industry, and Union Minister of the government of India. He was also the Governor of the State of Punjab an ...

, former Union Minister, and Governor of Punjab and West Bengal state * Prashant Kishor, a political strategist who led the NDA to victory in the 2014 Elections *

Vinay Pathak Vinay Pathak (born 12 July 1968) is an Indian theater and film actor. He has starred in many films including '' Khosla Ka Ghosla,'' '' Bheja Fry,'' ''Island City'' and ''Johnny Gaddaar'' and had a supporting role in movies like ''Jism'', ''Ra ...

, Bollywood actor *

Mohd Zama Khan Mohd Zama Khan is an Indian politician from Kaimur Bihar. He is a member of Bihar Legislative Assembly. He won from Chainpur on a Bahujan Samaj Party ticket by the Margin of nearly 35,000 votes in 2020 Bihar Legislative Assembly election. Lat ...

, Member of Legislative Assembly from Chainpur Vidhan sabha and Minister of Minority Affairs in

Bihar Government The Government of Bihar, known locally as the State Government, is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of Bihar and its 9 divisions which consist of 38 districts . It consists of an executive, led by the Governor of Bihar, a jud ...

* Manoj Tiwari, Member of Parliament & one of the two Bhojpuri cinema superstar *

Vashishtha Narayan Singh Vashishtha Narayan Singh (2 April 1946 – 14 November 2019) was an Indian academic. He was a child prodigy and completed his PhD in 1969. He taught mathematics at various institutes in the 1960s and 1970s. Singh was diagnosed with schizophreni ...

, Indian mathematician and former

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

scientist * Veer Kunwar Singh, the Indian freedom fighter who fought the British at the age of 80 * Sardar Harihar Singh, Former Chief Minister of Bihar (From Chaungain) * Abdul Qaiyum Ansari; Freedom fighter, President of All India Momin conference through which he fought against Jinnah's two-nation theory, former cabinet minister of Bihar, member of parliament *Rajkumar Shahabadi, a film producer from Shahabad who produced

Bhojpuri cinema Bhojpuri cinema is an Indian film industry of Bhojpuri-language motion pictures. It is based in western Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh with major production centres in Lucknow and Patna. Bhojpuri cinema is a major part of Bihari cinema. The f ...

's first film, '' Ganga Maiyya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo''. Rajkumar Shahabadi, his son, is also a film producer and his granddaughter,

Sheena Shahabadi Sheena Shahabadi (born 10 April 1986 in Mumbai) is an Indian actress. Her first film role was starring in the film ''Teree Sang'' (2009). She is the daughter of Rajkumar Shahbadi and actress Sadhana Singh Sadhana Singh is an Indian film a ...

, is an actress.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shahabad District Former districts of Bihar