Shahabad

Shahabad, a district of British India, in the Patna division of Bengal, with an area of 4373 sq. m. About three-fourths of the area to the north is an alluvial flat, planted with mangoes, bamboos and other trees; while the southern portion is occupied by the Kaimur hills, a branch of the great Vindhyan range, and is a densely wooded tract. The chief rivers are the Ganges and the Sone, which unite in the north-eastern corner of Shahabad. In the southern portion large game abounds. The annual rainfall averages 43 in. In 1901 the population was 1,962,696, showing a decrease of 4.7% in the decade. The chief crops are rice, millets, wheat, pulses, oilseeds, poppy and sugarcane. Shahabad is protected against drought by a system of canals from the Sone, some of which are navigable. The district is traversed by the East Indian railway near the Ganges, and by a branch from Mogul Serai to Gaya, which crosses the Sone at Dehri-on-Sone, where are the workshops of the canal. The administrative headquarters are at Arrah. Among other historic sites, it includes the hill-fort of Rohtas, the tomb of Shere Shah at Sasseram and the battlefield of Buxar.

See Shahabad District Gazetteer (Calcutta, 1906).