Arghakhanchi Districtअर्घाखाँची जिल्ला

Arghakhanchi is a mid-hill district in the northwest of Lumbini Province, its 1,193 km² split between the Mahabharat Range, which covers roughly two-thirds of the territory, and a lower Siwalik (Churia) belt along the southern edge — elevations run from about 305 m to 2,575 m and around 40% of the land is forested. The Banganga river rises here before dropping onto the Kapilvastu plain. The 2021 census counted 177,086 people, down from 197,632 in 2011, a decline of 1.05% per year; the sex ratio of 83.67 males per 100 females is the third-lowest in Nepal, behind only neighbouring Pyuthan and Gulmi — together these districts form the deepest male labour out-migration belt in the country.

The population is dominated by hill Bahuns (28.8%), Magars (19.6%) and Chhetris (18.1%), with Nepali the first language of 96.5% of residents — unusually homogeneous for the province. The economy rests on terraced grain and mustard farming, livestock and remittances, with trade concentrated in the headquarters bazaar of Sandhikharka, about 300 km southwest of Kathmandu. The district's six local levels split evenly into three municipalities and three rural municipalities; Panini Rural Municipality takes its name from the ancient Sanskrit grammarian Pāṇini, whom local tradition links to the area.

The district was assembled from Argha and Khanchi, two of the small Chaubisi principalities absorbed into Nepal during the unification campaign in 1786, and was carved out of Gulmi as a separate district in 1961. Its best-known landmark is the Supa Deurali temple, a shrine to the goddess Supadevi set against a cliff on the Gorusinge–Sandhikharka road — one of western Nepal's busiest pilgrimage stops, open around the clock and thronged at Dashain — while the Argha Bhagwati temple and the old fort sites of Khanchikot preserve the seats of the two former kingdoms.