1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Arrah

ARRAH, a town of British India, headquarters of Shahabad district, in the Patna division of Bengal, situated on a navigable canal connecting the river Sone with the Ganges. It is a station on the East Indian railway, 368 m. from Calcutta. In 1901 the population was 40,170. Arrah is famous for an incident in the Mutiny, when a dozen Englishmen, with 50 Sikhs, defended an ordinary house against 2000 Sepoys and a multitude of armed insurgents, perhaps four times that number. A British regiment, despatched to their assistance from Dinapur, was disastrously repulsed; but they were ultimately relieved, after eight days’ continuous fighting, by a small force under Major (afterwards Sir Vincent) Eyre.