BALLIA: History and Origin

History of Ballia District as an administrative unitbegins with the
year 1879. Asaf-ud-Daula, thenawab vizier of Awadh, made a formal
cession ofthe sovereignty of the province of Benaras (Varanasi) to the
East India Company in 1775. The tract remained in hispossession till
1794, when Raja Mahip Narayan Singh surrendered its control to the
Governor General.In 1818 the Pargana of Doaba, which had been apart of
Bihia in district Shahabad of Bihar, was transferred to the revenue
sub-division of Ghazipur which shortly afterwards was separated from
Benaras (Varanasi) and became an independent district. Itthen
comprised the wholeof Ballia also.
Further, the history of Ballia District states that in 1832 a
redistribution of territory was made and Pargana Sikandarpur and
Bhadaon were assigned to Azamgarh. Again in 1837 portions of Kopachit
and Kharid wereassigned to the same district. For some time nofurther
changes took place and the Ballia tehsil, comprising Ballia, Doaba and
Kharid Parganas, formed a subdivisions of Ghazipur.On 1st of November,
1879, a new district that is Ballia District was created by adding to
the old sub-division the Parganas of Lakhnesar and Kopachit from the
Rasra tehsil and those ofBhadaon and Sikandarpur from tehsil Nagra of
Azamgarh. These Parganas constituted a new tehsil with headquarters at
Rasra.
On 10th April, 1882 a third tehsil, Bansdih, wasformed out of
Pargana Kharid and 225 villages of Sikandarpur, and it was named as
Sikandarpur East. At the same time 212 villages ofKopachit were
transferred to Ballia and made into the new Pargana of Kopachit East.
The last important change took place on 9thMarch, 1892, when 168
villages of Garha Pargana, together with Saraikota of Muhammadabad,
were included in the Ballia tehsil. In the same year the boundary of
Garha was extended so as to include the large village of Narainpur and
two others. On 9th June, 1892 Diara Khawaspur village was transferred
from Bhojpur in Bihar to Ballia. In 1931, 39 villages of Pargana
Balliawere transferred from Ballia to Bhojpur District of Bihar, when
10 villages were also transferred from district Bhojpur to Ballia.
History of Ballia District states that a further change took place in
1970, when31 villages were added to tehsil Bansdih from district Saran
of Bihar and 14 villages were transferred from tehsil Bansdih to Saran
District.