Aurangabad Patherchatta Stonecutting Craft Bihar

Aurangabad district is known for the patherchatta (stone-cutting) craft tradition centred in villages near Deo town, where Vishwakarma caste stonecutters carve granite and sandstone into deity idols, decorative panels, architectural elements, and grinding querns using iron chisels passed through apprenticeship. The Sun temple at Deo — an 8th century Pala-period shrine built of grey granite — is a major pilgrimage destination for Chhath Puja where lakhs of devotees congregate to offer arghya to the rising sun, making Aurangabad's Deo one of Bihar's three principal Chhath sites alongside Patna and Gaya. Aurangabad also grows substantial wheat, arhar, and chana on its plateau margin soils with canal irrigation from the Son river system.