Kahalgaon

Vikramashila

Located 13 km from Kahalgaon in the village of Antichak, the ruins of Vikramshila are a popular tourist destination and one of the most important historic places near Kahalgaon.^[7] A famous centre of learning during the ninth century, Vikramashila was founded by the Pala king Dharmapala. Various religious and educational subjects were taught at the institution including theology, philosophy, metaphysics, logic, and Tantric Buddhism. The complex consists of a large ruined Buddhist temple at its centre, surrounded by 108 smaller temples. Vikramashila produced a number of religious scholars, who were often invited by foreign empires to spread Buddhist learning, culture and religion. One of these scholars, Atisa Dipankara, would go on to found the Kadam school of Tibetan Buddhism.

Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary

The Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary is located in Kahalgaon, along the banks of the Ganges river. The sanctuary consists of a 60-kilometer stretch of the river from Sultanganj to Kahalgaon. Officially notified as the Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary in 1991, it is maintained as a protected area for the endangered Gangetic dolphins in Asia. Once found in abundance, only a few hundred dolphins remain in the wild, of which roughly half are found in the sanctuary.

Archaeological Museum

An archaeological museum is located near the ruins of Vikramshila. The museum was established by the Union government in 2004.

Bateshwar Sthan

Bateshwar Sthan is situated on the banks of the Ganges river near Vikramshila. Named after the Vedic sage Vasishtha, it is an ancient temple dedicated to the Hindu deity Shiva. The temple sees a significant amount of tourist traffic during Shravana, the fifth month of the Hindu calendar.

Shivkumari

Shivkumari Hill is a double summit hill located east of the Kahalgaon railway station. It is the highest peak in the town of Kahalgaon, with a mosque located on the taller peak and a Shiva temple located on the shorter hill.

Medieval era

The university of Vikramashila served as one of the most important mahaviharas (centers of Buddhist learning) during the early medieval period in India, alongside Nalanda, Odantapuri and Somapura. The university was established by Dharmapala, who ruled the Pala Empire from 770–810 CE, in response to a perceived decline in the quality of scholarship at Nālandā.^{[citation needed]}

Kahalgaon also houses the mausoleum of Ghiyasuddin Mahmud Shah, the last independent sultan of the erstwhile Bengal Sultanate, who died in the area a few days after his army was defeated by Sher Shah.

Modern era

S.S.V. College, a local degree college affiliated with Bhagalpur University, was established in Kahalgaon in 1969.^[8]

In 1985, the state-owned National Thermal Power Corporation established the Kahalgaon Super Thermal Power Station (KSTPS), a large coal-fired power station situated on the banks of the Ganges river. The station has a total power capacity of 2,340 megawatts, produced by processing coal mined from the Rajmahal coalfield in Jharkhand. The water supply for the plant is provided by the nearby Ganges river.

The electricity produced by KSTPS is distributed to localities located in the Indian states of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, and Sikkim.

Languages

Hindi, English, and Angika, a local dialect of Maithili, were recorded as the most commonly spoken languages in the municipality in the 2011 census.

Religion

According to the 2011 census, 80.15% of the population are adherents of Hinduism, while 19.64% of the population are followers of Islam.^[12]