Khajuraha

Khajuraha खजुराहा کھجورہ
village
Khajuraha Location in Bihar, India Khajuraha Khajuraha (India)
Coordinates: 25.41°N 86.42°E / 25.41; 86.42
Country	India
State	Bihar
District	Saharsa district
Named for	Khajuraha
Talukas	Khajuraha
Government
• Type	India
• Body	Saharsa
Languages
• Official	Maithili, Hindi English
Time zone	UTC+5:30 (IST)
PIN	852217
Telephone code	06475
ISO 3166 code	IN-BR
Nearest city	SAHARSA
Lok Sabha constituency	Madhepura
Vidhan Sabha constituency	Sonbarsha Raj
Civic agency	Saharsa
Climate	Normal (Köppen)
Website	[[1] www.facebook.com/khajuraha/]]
phone

Khajuraha is an ancient northern Indian village situated in the Saharsa district of Bihar. It is the one of the largest panchayats, both by area and population, of the state. The origin of the name Khajuraha is unknown. Khajuraha is part of the Sonvarsha Block of the Saharsa district. Some of the neighbouring places include Chandi Sthan (2 km south), Biratpur, Lagma, and Golma. Saint Pritamnath (Babajee) lived in this village.

Geography

Khajuraha and its surrounding areas are a flat alluvial plain forming part of the Kosi river basin. This makes the land very fertile.

Flooding was a major reason for the poor connectivity of the area, as bridges tend to get washed away. Newer roads are more stable, and there has been less flooding in the last few decades.

Agriculture

Khajuraha and its surrounding areas are basically dependent on agriculture. Agriculture remained prime occupation for villagers since a long time. Total economy of this village is either dependent on agriculture or service class occupations. The farmers in the village mostly cultivate Dhaan (paddy crop), Makai (Maize/Corn), Gahum (Wheat) and Moong (a type of lentil) in their farms. Since the climate of this region is most suitable for Dhaan (the paddy crop), a good crop brings happiness to many farmers in the village. Though, people do try to grow wheat crops, only few farmers get good yields. Most of the farmers have moderate harvest and hence it is not as popular as harvesting of Dhaan. Instead, maize is the second best crop for the farmers of this village. The timing of Dhaan harvesting is especially notable as the villagers are happy in general for several reasons. The reaping of the crop starts somewhere around mid November and is usually followed by some of the most important Hindu festivals namely Durga Puja and Diwali. Six days after Diwali brings another festival called Chhath which is one of major festivals of Bihar. In between, Diwali and Chhath is another festival that is known as Bhardootiya (Bhai Dooj) in which brothers go to see their sisters. So before the onset of the harvesting the festive mood is already set and green fields that start showing the golden shades of ripe Dhaan crop are extremely pleasant to watch. Now for nearly two months it is the time of farmers to remain cheerful. The fresh crop of Dhaan reaches every home. Whether you are owner of the land, or the farmer or just the harvester, the Dhaan is bound to come to every household. It can be cooked straight or flattened to make Chura (flaked rice) which makes an amazing food when combined with fresh Sakkar (Jaggery) and "Dahi" (Curd). It has been observed that farmers tried to opt for different crops also like sunflower, banana farming but could not get much success. Villagers grow potato, brinjal, Parwal, onions and other vegetables. But those productions are only limited for their own consumption and does not have any commercial values for farmers. Similarly, fruits like mango, banana, coconut, litchi, guava, papaya are grown in Khajuraha, but mostly consumed by villagers only. In past, Khajuraha was famous in cultivating sugarcane and Jute. But we all know that Jute industry was heavily effected after partition and that effected Jute cultivation in Khajuraha also. Similar story was observed for Sugar production in Bihar.

Art and culture

Ram Navmi, Holi, and Durga Puja are the main festival of Khajuraha. There is famous HANUMAAN STHAN in this village. There was an ancient Peepal tree situated there and every family of this village were big follwers of that tree and it was believed that Lord Hanumaan is presenet there. Later Villagers made Hanumaan temple near to Tree in 1992. There is one Shiva Temple available at same place. Ram Navmi is also celebrated every year at same place.

Chandi Sthan

Oldest temple of Bihar Maa Chandika Bhawani Temple is situated just 1km south from Khajuraha. It is said that Chandi maa temple was created in dwapara era and it was the capital of ‘King Birat’ therefore its surrounding village is called as Biratpur. It is said that the five Pandavas with their wife Draupadi spent the period of agyaatvaas here. There are some conflict between Birtapur of this place and Biratnagar of Nepal regarding Pandavas spending their time during agyaatvaas

It is one of the important and viewable places in 51 Shakti peeth because head of Maa Sati is available in this temple. Chandi sthan is archaeological site as villagers surroundings this village found bronze plate so many times in past. Chandi Sthan is also famous for MANAGAL MELA (loca fair on every tuesday) and durga puja fair. People from surroundings village Biratpur, Khajuraha, Jalseema, Nanoiti, Atalkha, Sahsaul, Golma etc pay visit to Chandi Sthan mostly on Tuesday. You can find huge rush of devotee on Tuesday and mostly during Navratri. It is said that there used to be huge fights among different villagers in past about 1st preference of BALI (Sacrifice of goat) specially during Navratri. Later it was agreed among villagers and particular day have been fixed for different village. It is also proud moment for all Khajuraha people that Khajuraha was given 1st priority day during Navratri.

Society, religion and safety

The village population consists of Maithil Brahmins mostly. Brahmins, by definition of the social classification in ancient India, are the highest ranked. The Brahmins are traditionally supposed to have teaching as their profession. After independence this population of Maithil Brahmins have been involved in all profession like Administration, Engineers, Doctors, farming, business, serving the military and para-military forces to name a few. Apart from Brahmins, Rajputs, Kalwar (Baniya) and Sonar (Goldsmith) also live in Brahmins tola. Many others belonging to the other castes also reside but in other tola called as Baghial. Bagail is mostly dominated by Yadav caste. There is a small percentage of Muslims as well who mostly live in the Miyaaantoli area of the village. These Muslims of the village rely predominantly on growing vegetables for their livelihood (often referred as Kujras).

The entire village is so well located that this area has never been affected by the flood of Koshi river. Even in the worst flood of 1984 the main village was safe and the water entered in the outskirts of this village. The entire village is one piece of land in the Govt gazette and all disputes pertaining to the share of land among the families are resolved amicably within the village community.

Sports

Football was famous and most liked game during 90's but current generation are preferring to play Cricket. Cricket tournament is being held every year at Khajuraha field where almost all the surrounding villages participate.

Other Popular games are :

1. Kabaddi

2. Volleyball

3. Pitto (local game)

4. Seven stone Pitto (local game)

Education

Colleges

There is no any college situated particularly in Khajuraha. Nearby colleges are in Biratpur and Sonbarsha. But Students from Khajuraha village prefer to go other cities for higher educations.

High Schools

1. Senior secondary school (+2), Khajuraha

2. Chandi High School, Biratpur

Schools

1. Middle School, Khajuraha

2. Kanya Middle Schhol, Khajuraha

3 Primari School, Khajuraha

4 Middle school, Baghail

External links

• https://www.facebook.com/khajuraha/