Hajipur

Hajipur (Hindi: हाजीपुर) is the headquarters of Vaishali district in the Indian state of Bihar. It produces bananas, and has a modern railway zonal office. Patna, the capital of Bihar is only 10 km from Hajipur. Mahatma Gandhi Setu, one of the longest bridges in the world, links it to Patna. The town is known by the name of Hajipur as it was founded by a King of Bengal named Haji Ilyas Shah who ruled between 1345 to 1358 A.D. Inside the fort built by this king in Hajipur there is a mosque called Jami Masjid, a plain building measuring 84.5 ft (25.8 m) long and 33.5 ft (10.2 m) broad. Hajipur is also of interest because a portion of Ananda's ashes were enshrined in the town. Ananda acted as the Buddha's personal attendant for twenty years and outlived him by several decades. Hajipur, earlier in British India was a small town in muzaffarpur district of bengal situated on the confluence of ganges and gandak. Hajipur figures conspicuously in the history of struggles between Akbar and his rebellious Afghan governors of bengal.

Hajipur(Vaishali)-find its origin way back in history from the mahabharata period. It is the place where democracy found its origin around 600BC. It is the place where Lord Mahavir took birth and Gautam Buddha delivered his last sermon and announced his Parinirvana. It is also renowned as the land of Ambapali (Amrapali), the great Indian courtesan. In the ancient time, Hajipur was known as Ukkacala.Hajipur is located at 25°41′N 85°13′E / 25.68°N 85.22°E / 25.68; 85.22[1]. It has an average elevation of 46 metres (150 ft). Hajipur is the district headquarter of Vaishali after its separation from Muzaffarpur on 12/10/1972. The district has 3 subdivisions, 16 blocks, 191 Gram Panchyat & 1638 villages and is surrounded by Muzaffarpur (East), Patna (South), Samastipur (East) and Saran (West). The Hajipur town being bounded by Narayani Gandak river in the west and holy Ganga in the south, has scope of further expansion in east and north direction only. Very Good network of rail, road and water transport exists in the town connecting it with other parts of district as well as state and country. Famous Mahatma Gandhi Setu (5575m long, Prestressed box culvert type RCC bridge) over river Ganga connects it with Patna, the state capital while another rail and road bridge over Gandak connects it with Sonepur, headquarter of a railway sub-division under ECR, . The plain terrain of town and its nearby places is famous for banana, Litchi and mango plantations. The region looks green with plants and trees growing in semi-tropical monsoon climate. However, months of May-June are extremely hot and December-January are very cold.