BEHAR or BIHAR, a tract in British India, forming part of the province of Behar and Orissa. Behar, extending across the valley of the Ganges from the frontier of Nepal to the hills of Chota Nagpur, corresponds to the three administrative divisions of Patna, Tirhut, and Bhagalpur (excluding the Santal Parganas) with a total area of and pop. (1931) of The general aspect of the country is flat, except in the north of Champaran, where the Sumeswar and Dun hills abut upon the plain, in Shahabad, where the Kaimur hills rise in a rocky plateau, and in the districts of Gaya, Monghyr and Bhagalpur, where out liers of the Chota Nagpur plateau are found. A densely populated tract, it was formerly liable to famine ; but it is now well pro tected by railways and in some parts by canals.
Behar derives its name from the town of Behar, now a sub divisional headquarters in the Patna district, and the latter took its name from a great Buddhist Vihara or monastery established there in the 9th century A.D. Behar was the capital of Magadha (South Behar) under the Pala kings and continued to be the capital under Mohammedan governors until the i6th century, when the seat of government was transferred to Patna.