Famous Personalities of Bihar: Names and Districts

Bihar has given the country its first President, one of the architects of the movement against the Emergency, the sage who wrote the first Indian manual of statecraft and the shehnai that played at the Red Fort on the first Independence Day. For BPSC, BSSC, Bihar Police and SSC papers the chapter is a matching exercise: a name has to be placed with a district, a field and one achievement, because that is the only form in which the question comes. The names below are grouped in the order a student can revise them, from the ancient teachers to the writers, singers and players of our own time.

Ancient and medieval names

Vardhamana Mahavira, the twenty-fourth Tirthankara of Jainism, was born at Kundagrama near Vaishali and attained nirvana at Pavapuri in the present Nalanda district. Chanakya, also called Kautilya, was the teacher who guided Chandragupta Maurya and served as his minister at Pataliputra; his Arthashastra is the earliest Indian treatise on statecraft and economy. Aryabhata, born in 476 CE and the author of the Aryabhatiya, worked at Kusumapura, which is identified with Pataliputra; India's first satellite carries his name. Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Guru of the Sikhs, was born at Patna in 1666, and Takht Sri Harimandir Ji Patna Sahib stands at his birthplace. Vidyapati, the Maithili poet of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries known as Maithil Kavi Kokil, belonged to Bisapi in the present Madhubani district and wrote the songs that Maithili still sings.

The freedom struggle

Statesmen after independence

Dr Rajendra Prasad, born on 3 December 1884 at Ziradei in Siwan district, was elected President of the Constituent Assembly in December 1946 and became the first President of India in January 1950; he is the only person to have been elected to the office twice, and he received the Bharat Ratna in 1962. Sri Krishna Sinha, called Bihar Kesari, headed the government of the province from 1946 and was the first Chief Minister of Bihar until 1961; the abolition of zamindari and the Deo temple-entry movement are associated with him. Anugrah Narayan Sinha was his deputy and finance minister. Jagjivan Ram, born on 5 April 1908 at Chandwa near Arrah, was the first Labour Minister of the country in the interim government, held the defence and agriculture portfolios later and served as Deputy Prime Minister from 1977 to 1979. Karpoori Thakur, born on 24 January 1924 at Pitaunjhia in Samastipur district, now called Karpoori Gram, was known as Jannayak, served as Chief Minister of Bihar and was conferred the Bharat Ratna in 2024. Rabri Devi became the first woman Chief Minister of Bihar in 1997.

Writers of Hindi, Maithili and Bhojpuri

Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, born on 23 September 1908 at Simaria in Begusarai district, is remembered as Rashtrakavi for Kurukshetra and Rashmirathi, received the Padma Bhushan in 1959 and won the Jnanpith Award for Urvashi in 1972. Phanishwar Nath Renu of Aurahi Hingna in Araria district wrote Maila Anchal, the novel that began the regional school of Hindi fiction, and the story that became the film Teesri Kasam; he returned his Padma Shri during the Emergency. Baba Nagarjun, whose name was Vaidyanath Mishra, belonged to Satlakha in Madhubani district, wrote in Hindi and Maithili and won the Sahitya Akademi Award for his Maithili poetry. Devaki Nandan Khatri of Muzaffarpur wrote Chandrakanta, the romance that drew a generation into reading Hindi. Bhikhari Thakur of Kutubpur in Saran district, the folk poet who created Bidesia, is called the Shakespeare of Bhojpuri.

Music, art, science and sport

Ustad Bismillah Khan, born on 21 March 1916 at Dumraon in Buxar district, made the shehnai a concert instrument, played it from the Red Fort on 15 August 1947 and was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 2001. Sharda Sinha, the Maithili and Bhojpuri singer whose Chhath songs are heard in every Bihar household, was honoured with the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan. The Madhubani or Mithila painting of the Darbhanga and Madhubani belt has carried Padma honours to artists such as Jagdamba Devi, Sita Devi, Mahasundari Devi and Baua Devi. In science the best known name is Vashishtha Narayan Singh of Basantpur in Bhojpur district, the mathematician who taught at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. In sport Shreyasi Singh of Jamui won the double trap gold medal at the Commonwealth Games of 2018. On the screen Bihar is represented by Shatrughan Sinha and Manoj Bajpayee, who was born at Belwa in West Champaran and has received the Padma Shri.