A Brief History : Established on 21st January, 1942, H.D. Jain College, Ara was the first institution of higher learning ever set up in the economically and academically backward region of Shahabad in fact, the first college between Patna and Varanasi. 'It owes its foundation to the Late Babu Harprasad Das Jain, a rich landlord and philanthropist of the town. He himself had little formal education but was a great lover of learning and firmly believed that progress and learning walked arm in arm. He executed a trust deed and donated all his property to charities in 1918. He founded Sri Adinath Trust and set apart sixty thousand rupees for setting up a college at Ara in 1919. Needless to say he was inspired to do so owing to his indomitable love of learning and innate philanthropy. He had the support and co operation of his close friends Sri Suparshwadas Gupta, an educationist and retired magistrate, Sri Chakreshwar Kumar Jain, Sri Nirmal Kumar Jain and Babu Awadh Bihari Sharan, a legal luminary of the town.
