Biratnagar

The name Biratnagar means King Virata's city, after the ruler of the Matsya kingdom in whose court the Pandavas of the Mahabharata spent their year of concealment, though that kingdom is usually placed at Viratnagar in present-day Rajasthan. For most of its recorded history, though, this was thinly populated country: the Terai was forested, malarial and used chiefly for timber and seasonal cultivation, and the towns of eastern Nepal lay in the hills above it.

Industry made the modern city. In 1936 the Biratnagar Jute Mills opened, the first large factory in Nepal, drawing workers from the hills and from Bihar and turning a small settlement into a working town of mills, godowns and rail sidings connected to the Indian network at Jogbani. In March 1947 a strike at the mills, in which the Koirala brothers were prominent, spread into a political movement against the Rana regime, and Biratnagar's part in the events that led to the fall of the Ranas in 1951 is central to the city's sense of itself. Four of Nepal's prime ministers came from the Koirala family of this city, and Man Mohan Adhikari, the first communist prime minister, and Sushila Karki, the first woman to hold the office, were also born here.

Malaria control and resettlement schemes from the 1950s opened the Terai to migration from the hills, and the city grew quickly. The East–West Highway, built from the 1960s, tied it into the national road network, and jute was joined by sugar, textiles, rice mills, plastics and light manufacturing. Political change kept touching it: the Madhes movements of 2007 and after, the federal constitution of 2015, and the designation of the city as the seat of the provincial government of what is now Koshi Province.

Biratnagar sits on a cultural border as well as a political one. Maithili and Bhojpuri speakers of the plains, Rajbanshi and Tharu communities, Muslim traders and Marwari business families live alongside Nepali-speaking migrants from the eastern hills — Rai, Limbu, Newar, Tamang, Brahmin and Chhetri — and the mix is audible in the streets, where several languages are used in the same shop.

Its festival calendar shows both influences. Dashain and Tihar are kept as across Nepal, but Chhath, the four-day festival of the sun celebrated at ponds and riverbanks with fasting and offerings, is the one that fills the city's water places and is followed here as devotedly as in Bihar. Holi brings colour to the streets in March, Eid is marked in the Muslim quarters, and the Kirat communities keep Ubhauli and Udhauli.

The city's identity is political and industrial rather than monumental. Residents will point to the jute mill and the 1947 strike, to the Koirala family home, and to the argument that Nepali democracy began here rather than in Kathmandu. Manners are those of the plains: formal, hospitable, a little more conservative than in the capital, with women's dress and behaviour subject to more expectation. Cricket is followed as much as football, another sign of how close Bihar is.

About 245,000 people live in Biratnagar Metropolitan City, with many more in the built-up area spreading towards Jogbani and along the road to Itahari. It is the provincial capital of Koshi Province and the commercial capital of eastern Nepal: customs and trade with India, wholesale markets, transport, hospitals, colleges and government offices provide most of the formal work.

The industrial base has shifted since the days of the jute mills. Sugar, rice and oil mills, textiles, plastics, steel rolling and food processing operate in the belt towards the border, and a great deal of commerce is informal, moving small goods across the frontier. Remittances from the Gulf, Malaysia and India support many households, as they do across the Terai.

Days are shaped by the heat. Markets and offices start early, the middle of the day is slow from April to September, and the streets fill again in the evening when families walk out for snacks and shopping. The city's persistent problems are air and dust pollution, waterlogging and drainage in the monsoon, an unreliable power and water supply in the hot months, and the periodic strikes that shut the border and the highway. Its advantages are cheap land, a working airport and a position on Nepal's busiest trade corridor with India.

Biratnagar eats the food of the eastern Terai, which is closer to Bihar and Mithila than to the Kathmandu valley. Rice is the staple, with daal, seasonal vegetables, pickles and often fish: the Koshi and its channels supply river fish cooked in mustard-heavy curries, and dried fish is a regular ingredient. Mutton and buffalo appear in curries and fried as sukuti, the dried spiced meat of the hills, and tandoori dishes are common in restaurants.

Maithili home cooking has its own dishes. Dhuska, a deep-fried cake of ground rice, litti stuffed with spiced roasted gram flour, bari, fried gram-flour dumplings in a spicy gravy, and tarua, deep-fried marinated vegetables, are found in local kitchens and at festivals. The Newar and hill communities bring momo, chatamari and sukuti; the city's Muslim quarters contribute biryani and kebabs.

Sweets are a serious business. Mishthan bhandar counters sell rasbari in syrup, jeri, laddu, peda and khurma, and the eastern plains are known for milk-based sweets that arrive in trays in the early evening. Sel roti, the ring-shaped rice doughnut, is made in quantity at Tihar. Street food runs to chatpate, pani puri, samosa and fried snacks, and drinks are chiya boiled with milk and sugar, lassi, sugarcane juice and, in the hot months, sharbat and plain cold water from earthen pots.