Hajipur

Bihar, India: bridge

Hajipur, city, west-central Bihar state, northeastern India. It lies on the Gandak River just north of its confluence with the Ganges (Ganga) River. The city is in the North Bihar Plains, which are part of the Middle Ganges Plain. Patna, the state capital, lies nearby on the south bank of the Ganges.

Hajipur is situated on the land route from Vaishali (north), which was the capital of one of the states in northern India during the lifetime of the Buddha, to Nalanda (south), which was the seat of a celebrated Buddhist monastic university in the 5th–12th century. Engineering products, glass, and steel containers are manufactured in Hajipur. There are colleges affiliated with the University of Bihar at Muzaffarpur. The city is connected by road to Patna via the Mahatma Gandhi Bridge across the Ganges. Pop. (2001) 119,412; (2011) 147,688.