Bettiah is the 142nd largest Hindi speaking city of India with a total population of 1,32,209. Bettiah is a city in the West Champaran district of Bihar and the highest employment in West Champaran district is in Agriculture, Retail Trade, Food Products manufacture, and other household industries. The district has 82% of the workforce employed in the Agricultural Sector, 15% in the Industrial Sector and the remaining 3% are Household workers. The major sources of irrigation in the district are canals and Tubewells/wells. The major crops produced are Rice, Sugarcane, Wheat. Also horticultural crops like Mango, Litchi, Guava, Potato, Onion, Cauliflower etc. are also produced. Back in 1244 A.D., Gangeshwar Dev, a Brahmin of Jaitharia clan settled at Jaithar in Champaran. One of his descendants, Agar Sen acquired large territory in the reign of Emperor Jehangir and was bestowed the title of Raja by Emperor Shah Jahan. In 1659, he was succeeded by his son Raja Guj Singh, who built the palace of the family at Bettiah. He died in 1694 A.D. The palace stands today but serves as marketplace due to the neglect of authorities. In 1765, when the East India Company acquired the Diwani, Bettiah Raj held the largest territory under its jurisdiction. It consisted of all of Champaran except for a small portion held by the Ram Nagar Raj (also held by Bhumihar family). A section of Dhrupad singers of Dilli Gharana (Delhi Gharana) from Mughal emperor Shah Jahans court had migrated to Bettiah under the patronage of Bettiah Raj and thus was sown the seed of Bettiah Gharana.
