Hetampur, Bihar

Ancient grand Lord Shiva temple and adjoining sacred pond

This Temple is also known as Prachin Somnath Temple and it has been referred in the Hindu religious book called Mahashivapuran as the village's temple name was Himkarpur Somnath Mandir. Important festive occasions associated with Somnath Temple are the village fairs (Mela) arranged during Mahashivratri and Shravan Shivratri. Villagers from far flung areas in district come to attend these village fairs. Major attractions of a visit is pilgrimage and view of Lord (ancient natural Shivlinga). Also a point of attraction are the drama played by local village young men during Mahashivratri. The entire design of the temple is based on Baidyanath Temple. It is less crowded and more spacious, so it is far more enjoyable.The view of the sacred pond is just incredible.

Kali Temple

There is a temple of Ma Kali adjoining the Prachin Somnath Temple.This Hindu temple was built as the Zamindars of this village were Parmar (Ujjain) rajputs and their kuladevi or Kuladevata(Family deity) is Ma Kaalratri.It is also a beautiful temple adjoining the sacred pond with its beautiful small garden.

Huge orchards

This village also used to be famous for the big Mango orchards around it. The saying goes that the orchards used to be so dense that even sunlight could not penetrate through it and that was the reason for naming one of the orchards as Anharibagh (the orchard which is ever dark).In 1858 the british army had placed canons in this dense orchard against Kunwar singh. This place was discovered by ASI as Gargaj. Sadly the case is not the same now, as the village remains a stark contrast of its old glory. Due to Naxalism during 1977 to 1990 the dense orchard was cut by the local people.Now some new orchards are grown again by the villagers.This is a good sign.

Hetampur Ahra

Another important point of this village is huge man-made barrage and adjoining artificial lake to store rain water to be utilized for irrigation purpose. It is called Hetampur Ahra in local lingo. Hetampur Ahra is almost 2.5-km-long barrage starting in east from Anharibagh to the western periphery of the village. It is a man-made marvel of old time villagers. Apart from having a vast rainwater catchment area in the south, Ahra is also fed water from two irrigation canals of Son River in east and west. There are number of parallel smaller irrigation channels originating from Ahra directs towards North direction which cover 75% of Cultivable lands of Hetampur and its smaller Tolas. History of the district show that Hetampur never had drought till the 1990s even during worst monsoon failure years due to Ahra. However, as on date maintenance of Ahra is the biggest victim of irresponsible and partisan caste politics of the villagers. As regards to local and district administration, Hetampur is a village which was never in the focus despite the huge potential and remarkable demography.

Ancient Zamindari lineage

Hetampur used to be a Zamindari village in erstwhile Princely state of Jagdishpur with its roots with ancient Holy and Princely town of Ujjain till abolition of Zamindari system in India. After the death of 1857 hero Babu Kunwar Singh on 26 th April 1858 his younger brother Amar Singh fought against British army and won Bihiya,Hetampur and Dalip pur,Even after the death of Babu Amar Singh, It Remained the Zamindari of Powerful Parmar Rajputs & close Relatives of Jagdishpur Royal Family till 1947.

Association with Indian Freedom Struggle

Hetampur was a center of 1857 first war of independence.According to Dr.Sarvadeo Tiwari Rakesh(poet) Hari Singh was a great followers of Kunwar Singh of Jagdishpur,while the Rajput zamindars of Dumraon were against Kunwar Singh because they ruled under Maharaja of Dumraon not under Jagdishpur.Hetampur had lot of pre-independence highly educated and acclaimed personalities who devoted their precious lives for the cause of nation. Pandit Gopichand Mishra a scholar of vedas and Srimadbhagwat visited Burma,Siamdesh-Thailand,Singapore etc. during 1890 to 1905.He had a Bhagwat katha party including his younger brother Ramchandra Mishra and some brahmins of Kataibojh.Later Brijnandan Mishra (poet) and Kishori Mishra were associated with congress movement.Brijnandan Mishra was awarded with Tamra Patra by Indira Gandhi govt in 1973. One of the prominent freedom fighters belonging to this village was Late Narsingh Deo Singh (1914–2005). He was involved with Freedom Struggle during his school days at Uday Pratap College (Kshtriya College), Varanasi. He left his Graduation mid-way to join the freedom struggle and went to jail fighting Britishers during Quit India movement to spend 8 months in Hazaribagh Central Jail along with Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee. However, his jail term was cut short because of untimely death of his wife due to illness. By virtue of his association with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Sri ND Singh also courted arrest against the GoI decision of banning RSS in 1949 and spent 10 months in Bankipur Central Jail. He was an authority of Mathematics, English, Hindi and Sanskrit Literature. After earning his Masters and B.Ed, Sri Singh became an educationist. He had a vision of getting education to the poor and helpless of this nation and spent his entire life for same. He selflessly spread the light of knowledge through his various assignments as Senior Teacher/ Asst Head Master & Head Master in Brahmapur High School (Bihar), Bihiya High School (Bihar), Marwari Sanatan Vidyalaya, Raniganj (West Bengal) and Hindu Hindi Vidyalaya, Andal (West Bengal). He is still remembered and hugely regarded across the towns and districts where he worked.Another freedom fighter was Late Shree Jagdeo Choubey jee.

Population

Hetampur is a large village located in Jagdishpur of Bhojpur district, Bihar with total 1214 families residing. The Hetampur village has population of 7575 of which 3962 are males while 3613 are females as per Population Census 2011.

In Hetampur village population of children with age 0–6 is 1314 which makes up 17.35% of total population of village. Average Sex Ratio of Hetampur village is 912 which is lower than Bihar state average of 918. Child Sex Ratio for the Hetampur as per census is 874, lower than Bihar average of 935.

Hetampur village has lower literacy rate compared to Bihar. In 2011, literacy rate of Hetampur village was 61.12% compared to 61.80% of Bihar. In Hetampur Male literacy stands at 73.87% while female literacy rate was 47.27%.

As per constitution of India and Panchyati Raaj Act, Hetampur village is administrated by Sarpanch (Head of Village) who is elected representative of village.

Caste Factor

Schedule Caste (SC) constitutes 14.26% of total population in Hetampur village. The village Hetampur currently doesn't have any Schedule Tribe (ST) population.

Work Profile

In Hetampur village out of total population, 3274 were engaged in work activities. 35.86% of workers describe their work as Main Work (Employment or Earning more than 6 Months) while 64.14% were involved in Marginal activity providing livelihood for less than 6 months. Of 3274 workers engaged in Main Work, 365 were cultivators (owner or co-owner) while 344 were Agricultural labourer.

Flora & Fauna

Educational Institutes

Area is in desperate need of improvement in the area of Educational facilities. Most of the good schools are located far from the village but few schools are providing bus pickup service to students from village now.

Language

Common dialect is Bhojpuri language. Hindi and English are also used.

Villages near Hetampur

Village Streets & Bylanes

Of late streets have been paved with bricks and drainage system also has been made. However, both do not have any lasting impact on the quality of life in village due to lack of maintenance and unawareness of villagers.

Buildings

Water

Electricity

Communication Towers

There are two Ground Based Towers providing connectivity to most of the major TSPs.

Banking

Markets

Hospital

The village has a non-functional Government Health Centre. It has negligible medical facility, not to talk of a hospital and if any injury case happens they either go to local doctors like Kesoji,Mahendra doctor or they go to Shahpur or bihya.

Oil pipeline

The village is just 5.2 km away from Jagdishpur-Haldia pipeline of GAIL and this region will also be benefitted from it in near future.

Railways

Nearest railway station are behea, Banahi and Arrah which is well connected with Major Railway Stations of North and Eastern Railways.

Roadways

Airways

Nearest Airport is Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Airport, Phulwari Sharif, Patna which is nearly 90 km away from Hetampur

Postal Address

Post Office: HETAMPUR, District: Bhojpur, Bihar, Pin Code: 802158 India