Giridih is headquarters of the
Giridih district of
Jharkhand
Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . ...
state, India. The city of Giridih is known for its industrial and health sectors, as well as its scenic beauty. Giridih houses the
Giridih Coalfield
Giridih Coalfield is located in Giridih district in the Indian state of Jharkhand.
History
Coal mining activities were initiated in Giridih by private owners in 1857, making it the earliest coal mine in Bihar/Jharkhand. East Indian Railway star ...
which is one of the oldest coalfields to be worked in India. Giridih is one of the six Data Processing Centres of
Data Processing Division (DPD) of
National Sample Survey Office (NSSO). Before 1972, Giridih was part of
Hazaribagh district.
Etymology
The literal meaning of ''Giridih'' is the ''land of hills and hillocks'' – ''giri'', a
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of North India, northern, Central India, centr ...
word, means ''hills'' and ''dih'', another word of the local Khortha
dialect
The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety of a language that ...
, means ''land of''.
History
Giridih district was a part of
Kharagdiha estate until the late 18th century. During the British Raj Giridih became a part of Jungle Terry. After Kol Uprising in 1831, the parganas of Ramgarh, Kharagdiha, Kendi and Kunda became parts of the South-West Frontier Agency before being renamed to Hazaribag, which became the administrative headquarters. The
Kharagdiha Rajas were settled as Rajas of Raj Dhanwar in 1809, and the Kharagdiha gadis were separately settled as zamindari estates. Some of the notable Kharagdiha Zamindari Estates were
Koderma, Gadi
Palganj,
Ledo Gadi, Gande Gadi,
Ghoranji Gadi and