Jehanabad Arwal Lentil Masoor Farming Central Bihar

Jehanabad and Arwal districts in central Bihar's Ganga plain grow masoor lentil (Lens culinaris) and arhar pigeon pea as the primary rabi and kharif pulse crops on medium-textured alluvial soil under mixed rainfed and tubewell irrigation in the Phalgu river basin. The Phalgu river at Gaya-Jehanabad border is a sacred river linked to Brahma's curse that made its water flow underground, leaving a sand-bed river that still draws thousands of pilgrims for pitrupaksha shraddh. Jehanabad district is historically associated with the Naxalite movement in Bihar, and land reform struggles of the 1980s-90s in its villages shaped national debates on agrarian class conflict and the rights of landless Musahar and Dalit agricultural labourers.