Prayagraj
INDIA
Alternative Titles: Allahabad, Ilāhābād, Prayag
Prayagraj, also called Prayag, formerly Allahabad or Ilāhābād, city, southern Uttar Pradesh state, northern India. It is situated at the confluence of the Ganges (Ganga) and Yamuna (Jumna) rivers, about 65 miles (100 km) west-northwest of Varanasi (Benares).
Prayagraj stands on the site of ancient Prayag, a holy city that was comparable in fame to Varanasi and Haridwar. Prayag’s importance in the ancient Buddhist period of Indian history is attested by the inscriptions on a pillar attributed to the 3rd-century-BCE Mauryan emperor Ashoka. The pillar—which is believed to have been erected in a nearby locality and moved to Prayagraj in Mughal times—still stands inside the gateway to the old Prayagraj fort, which is situated strategically at the confluence of the two rivers. The site’s religious importance to Hinduism persists. Each year a festival takes place at the rivers’ confluence, and every 12th year a much larger festival, Kumbh Mela, is attended by millions of devotees.
The present city of Prayagraj was founded in 1583 by the Mughal emperor Akbar, who named it Allahabad (Ilāhābād, “City of God”). It became a provincial capital during the Mughal Empire, and from 1599 to 1604 it was the headquarters of the rebellious prince Salim (later the emperor Jahangir). Outside the Prayagraj fort is the tomb built for Jahangir’s rebellious son, Khusru. With the Mughal decline, Prayagraj changed hands many times before being ceded to the British in 1801. The city was the scene of a great massacre of Indians by the British in mid-1857, during the Indian Mutiny (1857–58) against British rule. From 1904 to 1949 the city was the capital of the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh). It was a centre of the Indian independence movement against British rule and was the home of the Nehru family, whose estate, Anand Bhawan, is now a museum.
Prayagraj has long been primarily an administrative and educational centre. It has a modest industrial base and is a marketplace for agricultural products. Tourism has grown in importance in the region, visitors being drawn to the many historic and religious sites located within and near the city. The administrative and professional sector and a military cantonment (base) are located north of the city proper. Prayagraj is a major road and rail hub and is served by a nearby airport. The University of Allahabad (1887) has a number of affiliated colleges, and there is an aviation training centre. The city has several museums. Prayagraj has a Government House dating from the British period, Anglican and Roman Catholic cathedrals, and the Jāmiʿ Masjid, or Great Mosque.
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In 2018 the government of Uttar Pradesh decided to change the name of the city from Allahabad to Prayagraj. The name change generated significant controversy among many residents of the city and faced challenges as it awaited official approval from the union government, which it received at the end of the year.
The surrounding area lies entirely on the Indo-Gangtic Plain. Rice, barley, wheat, and gram (chickpeas) are among the region’s chief crops. The ancient sites of Pratisthanpur (Hindu) and Kaushambi (Buddhist) are near the city. Pop. (2001) 975,393; (2011) 1,112,544.
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Treaties of Banaras
BRITISH-INDIAN HISTORY
Treaties of Banaras, (1773 and 1775), two agreements regulating relations between the British government of Bengal and the ruler of the Muslim state of Oudh (Ayodhya). The defense of Oudh had been guaranteed in 1765 on the condition that the state’s ruler, Shujāʿ al-Dawlah, pay the cost of the necessary troops. The First Treaty of Banaras (1773) was the result of the Mughal emperor Shah ʿĀlam’s cession of Allahabad and Kora to the warlike Marathas as the price of their support. Warren Hastings, the British governor, ceded Allahabad and Kora to Shujāʿ and promised to support him against the menacing Afghan Rohillas in return for cash payments. This move, designed to strengthen Oudh as a buffer state between Bengal and the Marathas, led to the Rohilla War of 1774, which later became a major factor in Hastings’s impeachment (1788–95).
The Second Treaty of Banaras (1775) is otherwise known as the Treaty of Faizabad. It was forced on the new vizier of Oudh by the company’s governing council after the death of Shujāʿ. The vizier had to pay a larger subsidy for the use of British troops and cede Banaras (now Varanasi) to the East India Company. This treaty led to a revolt by the raja Chaith Singh of Banaras in 1781.
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Yamuna River
RIVER, INDIA
Alternative Title: Jumna River
Yamuna River, also called Jumna, major river of northern India, primarily in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh states. It is one of the country’s most-sacred rivers.
The Yamuna rises on the slopes of the Bandarpunch massif in the Great Himalayas near Yamnotri (Jamnotri) in western Uttarakhand. It flows in a southerly direction swiftly through the Himalayan foothills and, exiting Uttarakhand, onto the Indo-Gangetic Plain, along the border between Uttar Pradesh and Haryana state to the west. The Eastern and Western Yamuna canals are fed from the river at that point.
The Yamuna then passes Delhi, where it feeds the Agra Canal. South of Delhi, and now wholly within Uttar Pradesh, it turns southeastward near Mathura and passes Agra, Firozabad, and Etawah. Below Etawah it receives a number of southern tributaries, the largest of which are the Chambal, the Sindh, the Betwa, and the Ken. Near Allahabad, after a course of about 855 miles (1,376 km), the Yamuna joins the Ganges (Ganga) River. The confluence of the two rivers is an especially sacred place to Hindus and is the site of annual festivals, as well as the Kumbh Mela, which is held every 12 years and is attended by millions of devotees.
Traffic on the Yamuna is light. Above Agra it shrinks to a small stream in summer, partly because of the amount of water removed by the canals for irrigation and domestic consumption. The river, however, has become one of the most-polluted in India, because so much of its course is through extremely densely populated areas where vast quantities of sewage have been discharged directly into it. In the early 1990s the national government, with financial assistance from Japan, began implementing the Yamuna Action Plan, a multiphase project that has been partly successful at reducing the river’s pollution levels.
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Indo-Gangetic Plain
PLAIN, ASIA
Alternative Titles: Gangetic Plain, North Indian Plain
Indo-Gangetic Plain, also called North Indian Plain, extensive north-central section of the Indian subcontinent, stretching westward from (and including) the combined delta of the Brahmaputra River valley and the Ganges (Ganga) River to the Indus River valley. The region contains the subcontinent’s richest and most densely populated areas. The greater part of the plain is made up of alluvial soil, deposited by the three main rivers and their tributaries. The eastern part of the plain has light rains or drought in the winter, but in summer rainfall is so heavy that vast areas become swamps or shallow lakes. The plain becomes progressively drier toward the west where it incorporates the Thar (Great Indian) Desert.
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India: The Indo-Gangetic Plain
The second great structural component of India, the Indo-Gangetic Plain (also called the North Indian Plain), lies between…
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