BEHAR SUBDIVISION.
227
Sentence continued from p. 225.]
43,726; from two to five hundred, 21,680; from five hundred to a thousand, 8769 from one to two thousand, 2662 from two to three thousand, 388; from three to five thousand, 105 from five to ten thousand, 46 from ten to fifteen thousand, 15 from fifteen to twenty thousand, 4 from twenty to fifty thousand, 6 upwards of fifty thousand inhabitants, 6. The capital town of the Province, Patna C iTV, contains a population of 170,654. There are in all 73 towns with upwards of five thousand inhabitants, containing a total urban inhabitants,
population of 1,217,380, leaving a balance of 21,909,724 representing the rural population.
—
History In ancient times, Behar comprised the dominions of the Kings of Magadha, who were at one time the lords paramount of India, and whose court is traditionally represented as one of the most brilliant in the East. This kingdom flourished from the 4th century before the Christian era to the 5th century after it. The Magadha monarchs encouraged arts and learning, constructed roads, and sent their fleets across the Bay of Bengal to colonize Java, Bali, and other islands in the Indian Archipelago. The kingdom is supposed to have attained its greatest grandeur in the time of Seleukos Nikator, one of the immediate successors of Alexander the Great, who invaded Magadha and appointed Megasthenes to represent him at the court at Palibothra, which is supposed to have been on the site of the present city of Patna. .
But ancient Behar
is
chiefly interesting as having been, six centuries
before the Christian era, the cradle of Buddhism. to Ceylon, China, Tartary,
It
sent
and Tibet, and the Province
Numerous
its
missionaries
is still
regarded
and sculptures of great antiquity and interest found throughout the Province show how firmly the religion of Gautama had established itself in this part of India. These Buddhist antiquities will be referred to in the separate articles on the Behar Districts (see particularly articles on Gaya In the beginning of the 13th District and town, and Buddh Gaya). century, Behar came into the hands of the Muhammadans, and from that time it formed one of the three subahs, or Provinces, under the Nawab of Bengal The East India Company acquired it with the diwdiii in 1765, when the Province was united with Bengal [For further information regarding the geography and statistics of Behar Province, see the authorities cited at the end of the articles on the Behar Districts mentioned in the foregoing table, p. 226.] Behar. Sub-division of Patna District, Bengal, lying between 24° 57' 30" and 25° 25' 45" N. lat., and between 85° 11' 45' and 85° 46' 30" E. long. area, 793 square miles; number of towns and villages, 2451 number of houses, 117,199, of which 101,927 were occupied; populaas sacred
by
all
Buddhist nations.
buildings
—
tion (1881) 628,767, namely, 551,467
Hindus, 77,292 Muhammadans,
