History

Lohardaga district came into existence after Ranchi was split into three districts namely Ranchi, Lohardaga and Gumla way back in 1983. The district is named after the town of Lohardaga, the administrative headquarters of the district. Lohardaga was given the position of a sub division in 1972 and a district in 1983. In Jain texts there is reference to Lord Mahavir’s visit to Lore-a-Yadaga, which means ‘river of tears’ in Mundari. ‘Ain-e-akbari’, the famous book on Akbar, also mentions a place called ‘Kismate Lohardaga’. The word Lohardaga may be made of two hindi words, Lohar meaning ‘ironmonger’, and Daga meaning center’, which makes the literal meaning of Lohardaga as ‘center of iron mining’. The district is situated in the south western part of Jharkhand State between 23°30′ and 23°40′ north latitudes and 84°40′ and 84°50′ east longitudes. The district covers an area of 1491 km² in the tribal belt of Chotanagpur plateau.