District atlas · West Bengal

Birbhum

Birbhum in West Bengal. Explore its public directory, history, places, personalities and election references.

बीरभूम जिला

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Directory snapshot · 8 October 2026

StateWest Bengal

Assembly constituenciesNot mapped

Parliamentary intersectionsNot mapped

District websitebirbhum.gov.in ↗

THE DISTRICT EDITORIAL

Discover Birbhum, West Bengal

Local stories, places and livelihoods, with the original sources close at hand.

Birbhum district (Bengali pronunciation: [biːrbʰuːm]) is an administrative unit in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the northernmost district of Burdwan division—one of the five administrative divisions of West Bengal. The district headquarters is in Suri. Other important cities are Rampurhat, Bolpur and Sainthia. Jamtara, Dumka and Pakur districts of the state of Jharkhand lie at the western border of this district; the border in other directions is covered by the districts of Bardhaman of Purba Bardhaman, Paschim Bardhaman and Murshidabad of West Bengal.

Community reference · excerpt shortened from Wikipedia contributors, revision 1377102687. Text licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpt remains under that licence. Structured reference: Wikidata (CC0).

History & identity

The story of Birbhum

=== Prehistory === The area now known as Birbhum was inhabited from pre-historic times. Some of the archaeological sites related to Pandu Rajar Dhibi of Chalcolithic remains are located in Birbhum. Stone age implements have been found at several places in the district. According to the old Jain book Acaranga Sutra, the last (24th) great Tirthankara Mahavira had wandered through this land, referred to as the "pathless country of Ladha in Vajjabhumi and Subbhabhumi (probably Suhma)" in the fifth century BCE. According to some historians, the spread of Jainism and Buddhism in the Rarh region was part of the process...

Community reference · excerpt shortened from Wikipedia contributors, revision 1377102687. Text licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpt remains under that licence. Structured reference: Wikidata (CC0).

Read the district history

Agriculture & crops

Birbhum

Official source

Paddy and a varied farming landscape

Birbhum’s agriculture department identifies paddy as its major crop, alongside oilseeds, wheat, pulses and vegetables. Its account distinguishes alluvial areas from undulating red and laterite terrain, showing how soil, rainfall and irrigation shape cultivation across the district.

Notable people

Birbhum

Official source

Tagore and the university at Bolpur

Birbhum’s official Bolpur account identifies Visva-Bharati as the university established by Rabindranath Tagore and connects Bolpur with Shantiniketan. This documented association places education and literary history within the district’s cultural landscape, complementing its rural and religious heritage.

Temples, faith & heritage

Birbhum

Official source

Tarapith beside the Dwarka

The district tourism directory locates Tarapith near the Dwarka River and includes it among Birbhum’s visitor destinations. This temple setting introduces another strand of local religious heritage, alongside the educational and literary associations documented for the Bolpur area.

Birbhum: food, crops, crafts & local products

District products · ODOP reference

Santiniketan Leather goods
Kantha

These products appear against this district in the linked One District One Product catalogue. They are documented product associations, rather than a current industrial census or a complete list of local businesses.

District name in source: Birbhum
Source date: 2025-08-19

Places to discover in Birbhum

4 public place references

Explore every place reference →

Bakreswar

Bakreshwar is a village in Dubrajpur CD Block in Suri Sadar subdivision of Birbhum district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Bakreshwar Thermal Power Station of West Bengal Power Development Corporation Limited and Bakreswar Thermal Powe...

Read the full record →Wikipedia contributors ↗ · CC BY-SA 4.0 · rev. 1374757847

Ballabhpur Wildlife Sanctuary

Ballabhpur Wildlife Sanctuary (popular as Deer Park) was established in 1977. This wooded area is located near Bolpur Santiniketan in Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum District in the Indian state of West Bengal.

Read the full record →Wikipedia contributors ↗ · CC BY-SA 4.0 · rev. 1362696970

Northern Evangelical Lutheran Church

Northern Evangelical Lutheran Church, Suri (NELC) is a heritage church in Birbhum district in the Indian state of West Bengal. This is a Northern Evangelical Lutheran Church situated at Lalkuthipara, Suri.

Read the full record →Wikipedia contributors ↗ · CC BY-SA 4.0 · rev. 1279066281

Santiniketan

Santiniketan (IPA: [ʃantiniketɔn]) is a neighbourhood of Bolpur town in the Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum district in West Bengal, India, approximately 152 km north of Kolkata. It was established by Debendranath Tagore, and later expanded b...

Read the full record →Wikipedia contributors ↗ · CC BY-SA 4.0 · rev. 1375664168

Temples, sacred places & heritage in Birbhum

Discover public place records whose names identify a temple, shrine, monastery or another place of worship. The linked record keeps its source and attribution.

Northern Evangelical Lutheran Church ↗

Wikipedia contributors ↗ · CC BY-SA 4.0 · rev. 1279066281

People connected with Birbhum

9 public personality references

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District associations follow the linked public references; a connection does not necessarily mean birthplace or current residence.

Abdus Sattar

Abdus Sattar (1 March 1906 – 5 October 1985) was a Bangladeshi statesman. A leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), he served as the president of Bangladesh from 1981 to 1982,...

Wikipedia contributors ↗ · CC BY-SA 4.0 · rev. 1373932151

Amartya Sen

Amartya Kumar Sen (Bengali: [ˈɔmortːo ˈʃen]; born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist and philosopher. Sen has taught and worked in England and the United States since 1972. In 1998, he...

Wikipedia contributors ↗ · CC BY-SA 4.0 · rev. 1376638725

Bamakhepa

Bamakhyapa (Bengali: বামাখ্যাপা, romanized: Bamakhæpa, lit. 'mad Bama'; 1837–1911), born Bamacharan Chattopadhyay, was an Indian Hindu saint who resided in Tarapith and whose shrine is also located in the vicinity of the...

Wikipedia contributors ↗ · CC BY-SA 4.0 · rev. 1375818383

Bazle Ahmed

Bazle Ahmad was an Indian politician and trade unionist, belonging to the Socialist Unity Centre of India. By the mid-1960, he served as president of the UTUC (Lenin Sarani)-affiliated Sahebganj Loop Rail...

Wikipedia contributors ↗ · CC BY-SA 4.0 · rev. 1366339108

Bhuban Badyakar

Bhuban Badyakar (born c. 1971) is an Indian singer and street vendor from Kuraljuri village in the Birbhum district of West Bengal, India. He rose to national and international prominence in 2022...

Wikipedia contributors ↗ · CC BY-SA 4.0 · rev. 1341222371

Ekram Ali

Ekram Ali (Bengali: একরাম আলি; born 1 July 1950) is an Indian Bengali poet and critic.

Wikipedia contributors ↗ · CC BY-SA 4.0 · rev. 1372269911

Sahana Bajpaie

Sahana Bajpaie (born 6 February) is an Indian singer-songwriter and a contemporary Rabindra Sangeet vocalist in Bengali. Born in Jalpaiguri and brought up in Santiniketan, Sahana started singing by the age of...

Wikipedia contributors ↗ · CC BY-SA 4.0 · rev. 1369054735

Shamsuddin Ahammad

Shamsuddin Ahammad was an Indian politician belonging to the Revolutionary Socialist Party (India). He served as a member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly.

Wikipedia contributors ↗ · CC BY-SA 4.0 · rev. 1359594781

Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay, Name in kannada -ತಾರಶಂಕರ ಬಂಡೋಪಾಧ್ಯಯ

Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay (23 July 1898 – 14 September 1971) was an Indian novelist who wrote in the Bengali language. He wrote 65 novels, 53-story-books, 12 plays, 4 essay-books, 4 autobiographies, 2 travel...

Wikipedia contributors ↗ · CC BY-SA 4.0 · rev. 1372265240

Birbhum: official travel, agriculture & local information

These topic links were collected from the official district website’s navigation. Visit the original page for its complete information and current travel conditions.