Chapra

Chapra (also written Chhapra) is the headquarters of Saran district in Bihar, located on the Gangetic plains near the confluence of the Ghaghara and the Ganges. Its riverside position made it a natural market for produce from the floodplains and for traffic moving between Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh. The town’s recorded economic prominence grew sharply in the eighteenth century, when Dutch, French, Portuguese and British interests established saltpetre refineries and expanded river trade; saltpetre (potassium nitrate) was crucial for gunpowder and a major export. In the nineteenth century Chapra was constituted a municipality in 1864 and developed as an administrative centre around the district headquarters. uring British-era reorganization, Saran was placed under Patna Division in 1829, separated from Champaran in 1866, and later moved into Tirhut Division in 1908, with Chapra continuing as its seat. After independence, district bifurcations created Siwan and Gopalganj, leaving today’s Saran district centred on Chapra. Modern Chapra remains a transport and trading hub—linked by road and by the important Chhapra Junction railway—serving an agricultural hinterland and small processing industries. The city also became known for education and public life, producing writers, administrators, and freedom-movement workers, while temples such as Ambika Bhavani remain local landmarks.