Where to Stay in Gopālganj, State of Bihar

What is Gopālganj known for?

Gopālganj is known for the crop and for the mills that take it, with Sasamusa, Sidhwalia and Hathwa the industrial names alongside the town itself. Politics is the other association. This is the home district of Lalu Prasad, leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal and a former Chief Minister of Bihar and Railway Minister, which keeps the place in the national conversation more than its size would.

What are the main landmarks in Gopālganj?

Temples carry this district. The Durga temple at Thawe, raised by the Raja of Hathwa Raj, is the one people travel for, and a second Durga temple stands at Nechua Jalalpur. Rambriksh Dham and the Belwanwa Hanuman temple draw their own worshippers, the Singhasani temple sits at Didhwa Dubauli, and there is a Buddhist temple in the district as well.

What is the history of Gopālganj?

The Vedic account has the Videha branch of the Aryans moving east from the Sarasvati towards the Sadanira, the river now called the Gandak, and settling the country that took the Videha name, with one branch stopping in Saran. In the age of the mahajanapadas the region formed part of the Kosala confederation, then passed to Magadha and to the Maurya, Kanva and Gupta empires in turn. Chero kings held it long afterwards, until Muslim rulers took the country in the thirteenth century.

Saltpetre brought Europeans. The Dutch came first for that trade and the British followed, taking control after the battle of Buxar in 1765, and Hathwa Raj remained the local seat through both. Gopālganj was separated from Saran as a district of its own on 2 October 1972.

Where is Gopālganj?

Gopālganj occupies flat, fertile ground on the western bank of the Gandak River, which runs south past the town and floods often enough to shape the farming year. Gopalganj district is the last in northern Bihar before Uttar Pradesh, meeting Kushinagar across the boundary, with West Champaran to the north, East Champaran and Muzaffarpur east, and Siwan and Saran to the south. Canals off the Gandak do the irrigating.

Barauli, Mirganj, Bhore, Katiya and Vijayipur are the other towns on it.

What is the climate of Gopālganj?

The year here is the north Indian one, subtropical and governed by the monsoon, with a long hot season before the rains and a cool, dry stretch after them. The Gandak River decides how wet Gopālganj gets. Flooding is a recurring fact of the district rather than an exception, and the canal network drawn off the river is what carries the water to the cane and the rice when the rains fall short.

How do you get to Gopālganj?

Roads do most of the work. Gopālganj sits on the routes between Saran and the Champaran districts, and the crossing into Uttar Pradesh at Kushinagar is close enough that traffic runs both ways daily. Hathwa is the second subdivision and the other node on the district network.

Buses reach Siwan and Muzaffarpur from the town.