Rahr Bangla
| Rarh | |||||||||
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| Geographical region | |||||||||
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 Map showing the area of Rarh |
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 Rarh
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| Coordinates: 23°15′N 87°04′E / 23.25°N 87.07°ECoordinates: 23°15′N 87°04′E / 23.25°N 87.07°E | |||||||||
| Country |
 India |
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| Region | East India | ||||||||
| Government | |||||||||
| • Body | Government of West Bengal, Government of Jharkhand | ||||||||
| Languages | |||||||||
| • Official | Bengali and Hindi | ||||||||
| • Other languages | Angika, Odia, Ho, Kurukh, Magahi, Marwari, Mundari, Punjabi, Sadri and Santhali | ||||||||
| Time zone | IST (UTC+5:30) | ||||||||
| Vehicle registration | WB-11,WB-12,WB-14,WB-15,WB-16,WB-18,WB-29,WB-30,WB-31,WB-32,WB-WB-33,WB-34,WB-36,WB-37,WB-38,WB-39,WB-40,WB-41,WB-42,WB-44,WB-53,WB-54,WB-55,WB-56,WB-57,WB-WB-58,WB-67,WB-68 | ||||||||
| Major Cities | Asansol, Durgapur, Jamshedpur | ||||||||
| Civic agency | Government of West Bengal, Government of Jharkhand | ||||||||
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Rarh region (Bengali pronunciation: [raːɽ]) is a toponym for an area in the Indian subcontinent that lies between the Chota Nagpur Plateau on the West and the Ganges Delta on the East. Although the boundaries of the region have been defined differently according to various sources throughout history, it is mainly coextensive with the state of West Bengal, also comprising parts of the state of Jharkhand in India.
The Rarh region historically has been known by many different names and has hosted numerous settlements throughout history. One theory identifies it with the powerful Gangaridai nation mentioned in the ancient Greco-Roman accounts. An inscription of Vallalasena names it as the ancestral place of the Sena dynasty.
Rāḍha (Sanskrit) and Lāḍ[h]a (Prakrit) are the ancient names of the Rarh region. Other variations of the name that appear in the ancient Jain literature include Rarha, Lara, and Rara. The Sri Lankan Buddhist chronicles such as Dipavamsa and Mahavamsa state that the legendary Prince Vijaya came from a region called Lāla, which is identified with Rāḍha by several scholars.
In a 1972 thesis, the amateur researcher Amalendu Mitra traced the origin of the word Rarh to "lāṛ", the Santali word for snake. This theory was also endorsed by his mentor Panchanan Mandal. However, German Indologist Rahul Peter Das notes that this is highly unlikely: the Santali word "lāṛ" actually means string or fibre, and is sometimes used for "snake" or "twig". Das further points out that the word "lāṛ" may itself be an Indo-Aryan loanword in Santali.
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