#Sonepur, situated on the banks of river Sadanira (Gandak) and Ganga, is considered a place of great holiness and the Ganga snan or ceremonial bathing in the Ganga is held by the Hindus to be unusually efficacious. (1)
#Sonepur has a special significance owing to the temple of Hariharnath Mahadev and the site of the mythological battle between the crocodile and the elephant and the rescue of the latter by Hari (Lord Vishnu). People offer oblation to Lord Siva on #KartikPurnima here. (2)
The temple of Harihar Nath Mahadev, it is said, was built by Lord Rama when on his way to Janakpur to win Sita.
There is a reference of the temple of Harihar Nath during the Governorship of Raja Man Singh of Amer who is said to have done renovation work. (3)
The present temple was built by Raja Ram Narain, a noted figure of Bihar during the later Mughal period.
Later, expansion work of the temple was also done by Birla brothers. (4)
The legend is that #Sonepur was the place at which in pre-historic times, the fight ended between the lords of the forest and the water, Gaj and Grah - the elephant and the crocodile. (5)
There lived a crocodile of enormous size, and one day when a huge elephant came to bathe there, the crocodile caught him by the leg and tried to drag into deeper water. The elephant, beginning to weaken, prayed to Lord Hari, to help. His prayer was heard and he was saved. (6)
According to Hindu mythology, the crocodile had in former life been a Gandharva chief cursed by a sage named Dewala Muni. The elephant was, on the other hand, in the former existence, king Indradyumna, who was cursed by sage Agastya for "wilful disrespect" to him. (7)
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European traveller Marshall had mentioned that even the traders of the far-flung Tatar desh used to come to the #SonepurMela to deal in commerce.
Do you know the fair was not always held here at Sonepur? A thread 👇 (1)
The period of the inception of the Sonepur fair, also known as Harihar Kshetra Mela, is shrouded in obscurity. Some trace it back to the 4th century BC Mauryan period.
Previously the fair was held at Hajipur (Ramchaura) and only oblation was offered to the deity at Sonepur. (2)
There is a description of #SonepurFair by M. Wilson in his Memoir on Bihar, which was written in 1852. He has written that one could buy from the canvas-made-shop the commodities of Manchester, Buckingham, Delhi, Kanpur, Afghanistan and Kashmir, etc. (3)
The formal separation of Bihar from Bengal in April 1912 was a momentous event in the lives of the people of the state. The process had started on December 12, 1911 when King George V, at the Delhi Durbar, revealed the "top secret" decision regarding the separation of Bihar.
Before 1912, #Bihar, as a part of Greater Bengal, was ruled by a Lt Gov and his secretariat at Calcutta, which was also the seat of the provincial govt of Greater Bengal. For practical purposes, Bihar was ruled and managed by 3 divisional commissioners & district collectors. 2/n
Prior to 1912, Bihar had no state capital of its own. The administrative headquarters used to be at Bankipore, a suburb of Patna, which was inhabited by the British and Europeans starting the mid-18th century.
18वीं शताब्दी के उत्तरार्ध में इंग्लैण्ड में औद्योगिक क्रांति की शुरुआत हुई जिसके कारण उपनिवेशवादी दोहन अपने चरम पर पहुँच गया। अंग्रेजों को काम करने के लिए श्रमिकों की आवश्यकता पड़ी तो उन्होंने भारतियों को भारी मात्रा में मॉरिशस, फिजी, ट्रिनीडाड, आदि भेजना शुरू कर दिया।
जिस कागज पर अंगूठे का निशान लगवाकर हर वर्ष हज़ारों श्रमिक अन्य देशों को भेजे जाते थे, उसे श्रमिक और मालिक `गिरमिट' कहते थे. गिरमिट, `एग्रीमेंट' शब्द का अपभ्रंश है और इसी दस्तावेज के आधार पर श्रमिक गिरमिटिया कहलाते थे।
शुरू में 5 वर्ष का क़रार होता। महज 8 रुपये महीने की पग़ार पर काम करने का। बाद में ये क़रार बढ़ता हीं जाता, गिरमिटिया देश वापस नहीं आ पाता और अंत में परदेस की माटी पर हीं दम तोड़ देता।