Bihar

Bihar lies in the middle Ganga plain, bounded by Nepal to the north and the Chhotanagpur plateau to the south. The capital is Patna. The land is flat, fertile and flood-prone: the Ganga, Gandak, Kosi and Sone cross it, and the Kosi’s shifting course has historically moved entire settlements.

Agriculture supports most of the population and depends heavily on the monsoon. Rice, wheat, maize and pulses are the main crops; Muzaffarpur’s litchis and Makhana, grown in the wetlands of Darbhanga and Madhubani, are notable exports. The state has among the highest population densities in India and among the lowest per-capita incomes, and out-migration for work to Delhi, Punjab, Gujarat and Maharashtra is a structural feature of its economy.

Bihar is where several of India’s oldest institutions stood. Nalanda, near Rajgir, was a monastic university that ran for centuries before its destruction around the twelfth century; Bodh Gaya is the site of the Buddha’s enlightenment; Vaishali was the capital of the Licchavi republic. The state is also the birthplace of the modern Indian movement against caste discrimination, and caste arithmetic dominates its elections more visibly than in any other state.