New gazetteers in Bihar to contain info about socio-cultural traditions, land, heritage sites

Gazetteer is an official document about the districts and states with the most authentic information. It not only contains the history of the land and landscape of the district or the state

The department of revenue and land reforms which has been working to come up with Gazetteers of all 38 districts in Bihar, plans to incorporate local socio-cultural traditions and architectural specialities in them. The Gazetteers will also include information regarding heritage sites, monuments, temples and shrines in each district and their architecture.

A cover of the Bihar Gazetteer published in 1960. (Sourced)

The land reforms department is also preparing to make the digital editions of the Gazetteers available for the first time.

“Its (Gazetteer) was prepared for the first time in 1881 by the British rulers in our country. In the Gazetteers published by the British, we find every detail of the land, it’s location and landscape along with the information of local social life. But things have changed much since then, and life and society in those areas too have changed a lot. Things need to be reviewed and revised to make the Gazetteer more topical and relevant,” Vivek Kumar Singh, additional principal secretary of the department of revenue and land reforms, said.

Gazetteer is an official document about the districts and states with the most authentic information. It not only contains the history of the land and landscape of the district or the state, but also has the details of its socio-cultural life.

“Also there is a need to document local socio-cultural trends and traditions along with land and locations,” he said. Many of these local traditions are fast disappearing because of growing urbanisation and might be lost permanently in the coming years, he added.

“What we can do now is to get these documented and preserved for the next generation. We are consulting experts on these subjects for the documentation work,” he said.

The official said that the forthcoming Gazetteer is expected to turn into a reference book for a wide variety of topics. “If you need information regarding a monument or temple in any district or its architecture, you may consult the Gazetteer,” he said.