History of Prayagraj

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A procession of Akharas march over the Ganges River during the Kumbh Mela at Prayagraj in 2001.

Hindu scriptures for it is situated at the confluence, known as Triveni Sangam, of the holy rivers. As per Rigveda the Sarasvati River (now dried up but believed to be flowing under the river Ganges) was part of the three river confluence in ancient times. It is one of four sites of the Kumbh Mela, an important mass Hindu pilgrimage
.

History

Archaeological Findings

Excavations have revealed Iron Age of Northern Black Polished Ware in present-day Prayagraj. Archaeological sites in India, such as Kosambi and Jhusi near Prayagraj in present-day Uttar Pradesh show iron implements in the period 1800–1200 BC.[3] When this area in the North Western part of India was first settled, Prayag was part of the territory of the Kuru tribe, although most of Doab was not settled and consisted of dense forests at that time.

Ancient Times

The

Kushana empire in the 1st century AD. According to Rajtarangini of Kalhana, in 780 CE, Prayag was also an important part of the kingdom of Karkota king of Kashmir, Jayapida.[4]
Jayapida constructed a monument at Prayag, which existed at Kalhana's time.

In his memoirs on India,

Harshavardhana
's reign (A.D. 607–647), writes that he visited Prayaga in A.D. 643.

Muslim rule

Allahabad Fort built by Akbar in 1575

In contrast to the account of Xuanzang, the Muslim historians mention the tree to be located at the confluence of the rivers. The historian Dr. D. B. Dubey states that it appears that between this period, the sandy plain was washed away by the Ganga, to an extent that the temple and tree seen by the Chinese traveller too was washed away, with the river later changing its course to the east and the confluence shifting to the place where Akbar laid the foundations of his fort.[5]

As the majority of the houses would have been mud-walled, a flood could easily destroy them. Sir Alexander Cunningham, founder of the Archaeological Survey of India, concluded as much in his reports published in 1875 on the Archaeological Survey of India, supporting that assumption: "I infer that during the long period that intervened between the time of Hiuen Tsang and that of Akbar, the two rivers gradually carried away the whole of the sandy plain. Long before this time, the old city had, no doubt, been deserted, for we know that the fort of Allahabad was founded on its site."[6] However, present day Cambridge archaeologist Dilip Kumar Chakrabarti disagrees. He argues that there is no way modern Prayag is ancient, but that the city site of Jhusi located opposite of the confluence was the ancient settlement of Prayag.[7]

The early 19th century historian

`Abd al-Qadir Bada'uni and Nizamuddin Ahmad mention that Akbar laid the foundations of an Imperial City at Prayag which he called Ilahabas.[8]

Mughal Rule

Akbar's fort was built between 1574 and 1583. The Akbarnama states that, "For a long time [Akbar's] desire was to found a great city in the town of Prayag, where the rivers Ganges and Jamna join, which is regarded by the people of India with great reverence and which is a place of pilgrimage for ascetics of that country, and to build a choice fort there." He had been impressed with its strategic position, as it sat on the confluence of Ganga and Yamuna, with the fort allowing for any movement along both. Other writers also attribute it to the facilitate the collection of pilgrimage tax from those visiting Triveni Sangam, though this appears unlikely as he had already abolished it in 1563.[9]

It is said that Akbar was so impressed by its strategic site after visiting it in 1575 that he ordered that a fort be constructed and renamed it Illahabas or Abode of God by 1584, later changed to Allahabad under

Akshayavat tree. The name, however, predates him, with Ilahabas and Ilahabad mentioned on coins minted in the city since Akbar's rule, the latter name became predominant after the emperor's death. It has also been thought to not have been named after Allah but ilaha (the gods). Shaligram Shrivastv claimed in Prayag Pradip that the name was deliberately given by Akbar to be construed as both Hindu ("ilaha") and Muslim ("Allah").[11]

Subah of Illahabas

In 1580, Akbar reorganized his empire into 12 divisions, per

Abu'l Fazl was sent to deal with him but the prince had him assassinated. Akbar then reconciled with him and Salim returned to Allahabad, where he spent his time drinking and taking opium before returning to the royal court in 1604.[14]

After

Prince Khurram's rebellion.[16] After capturing Jaunpur, Prince Khurram ordered the siege of Allahabad. The siege was however lifted by Abdulla Khan after Parwez and Mahabat Khan came to assist the garrison.[17]

A unique artefact associated with Jahangir's reign found in Allahabad is a

large jade terrapin, now in the British Museum's collection.[18] In 1630–31, a man named Abdal near dense forests of Allahabad rebelled, constructed a fort and used to plunder passersby. The subedar Qulij Khan Turani consequently attacked him, arrested 1,000 rebels while their ladies committed jauhar. The place was renamed Islamabad and the temple constructed by the rebel was converted into a mosque.[19]

During the Mughal war of succession, the commandant of the fort of Allahabad who had joined Shah Shuja made an agreement with Aurangzeb's officers and surrendered it to Khan Dauran on 12 January 1659.[20] In 1720, the Sayyid brothers negotiated the surrender of the rebellious governor Girdhar Bahadur, under the condition of him being made the governor of Awadh, being able to appoint all civil and military officers in the province and being given 30 lakh rupees from Bengal's treasury.[21]

Nawabs of Awadh

The

Benares and Chunar
in his name. The territories of Allahabad and Kora were given to the emperor after the treaty was signed in 1765.

Shah Alam spent six years in the Allahabad fort and after the capture of Delhi in 1771 by the Marathas, left for his capital in under their protection.[22] He was escorted to Delhi by Mahadaji Shinde and left Allahabad in May 1771. During their short stay, Marathas constructed two temples in the city, one of them being the famous Alopi Devi Mandir. After reaching Delhi in January 1772 and realising the Maratha intent of territorial encroachment, however, Shah Alam ordered his general Najaf Khan to drive them out. In retaliation, Tukoji Rao Holkar and Visaji Krushna Biniwale attacked Delhi and defeated Mughal forces in 1772. The Marathas were granted an imperial sanad for Kora and Allahabad. They turned their attention to Oudh to gain these two territories. Shuja was however, unwilling to give them up and made appeals to the English and the Marathas did not fare well at the Battle of Ramghat.[23] In August and September 1773, Warren Hastings met Shuja and concluded a treaty, under which Kora and Allahabad were ceded to the Nawab for a payment of 50 lakh rupees.[24]

Saadat Ali Khan II after being made the Nawab by John Shore, entered into a treaty with the Company and gave the fort to the British in 1798.[25] Lord Wellesley after threatening to annex the entire Awadh, concluded a treaty with Saadat on abolishing the independent Awadhi army, imposing a larger subsidiary force and annexing Rohilkhand, Gorakhpur and the Doab in 1801.[26]

British rule

In 1765, the combined forces of the

Governor General Warren Hastings
later took Allahabad from Shah Alam and gave it to Awadh, alleging that he had placed himself in the power of the Marathas.

In 1801 the Nawab of Awadh ceded the city to the

British East India Company. Gradually the other parts of Doab and adjoining regions to its west (including the Delhi and Ajmer-Merwara regions) were won by the British. These northwestern areas were made into a new province called the North-Western Provinces, with its capital at Agra. Allahabad was located in this province.[27]

Acquired in 1801, Allahabad asides from its importance as a pilgrimage center, it was a stepping stone to the agrarian track upcountry and the

zamindars and those who owned rent-free lands.[28]

In 1834, Allahabad became the seat of the Government of Agra Province and a High Court was established. A year later both were relocated to Agra.

In 1857, Allahabad was active in the

Punjab
, and transferred the capital of the North-Western Provinces to Allahabad, where it remained for the next twenty years.

In 1877 the two provinces of Agra and Awadh were merged to form a new state which was called the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. Allahabad was the capital of this new state till the 1920s.

Independence movement and other political movements.

During the Mutiny of 1857, Allahabad had only a small garrison of European troops. Taking advantage of this, the rebels brought Allahabad under their control. Maulvi Liaquat Ali, one of the prominent leaders of the rebellion, was a native of the village of Mahgaon near Allahabad.

Mohandas K. Gandhi attends a Congress Working Committee meeting at Anand Bhavan. Vallabhbhai Patel is to his left, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit
to his right. January 1940.

After the Mutiny was quelled, the British established the High Court, the Police Headquarters and the Public Service Commission in the city. This transformed Allahabad into an administrative center, a status that it enjoys to this day.

The fourth and eighth session of the

Darbhanga Castle, Allahabad.[29][30]
At the turn of the century, Allahabad also became a nodal point for the revolutionaries.

In 1931, at

Narayan Dutt Tiwari, went to jail. The first Prime Minister of India
, Jawaharlal Nehru, as well as several Union ministers such as Mangla Prasad, Muzaffar Hasan, K. N. Katju, and Lal Bahadur Shastri, were natives of Allahabad.

The first seeds of the idea of

Muslim
state for the Muslim majority regions of India.

After independence, areas from the adjoining region of

Allahabad district. From 16 October 2018 it is officially renamed as Prayagraj.[31][2]

Historical and archaeological sites

Prayagraj has many sites of interest to tourists and archaeologists. Forty-eight kilometres to the southwest, on the banks of the Yamuna River, are the ruins of Kaushambi, which was the capital of the

Khusrobagh
; it has three mausoleums, including that of Jahangir's first wife, Shah Begum.

Prayagraj is the birthplace of

Vishwanath Pratap Singh and Chandra Shekhar
were also associated with Prayagraj. Thus, Prayagraj has the distinction of being the home of several prime ministers in India's post-independence history.

Education

Bengali and Gujarati scholars spent their lives here, propagated their works in Hindi and enriched the literature. In the 19th century, Allahabad University earned the epithet of 'Oxford of the East'. The founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness A. C. Bhakti Vedanta Swami Prabhupada
attained sainthood in this place.

Literary past

Many famous writers of Hindi and Urdu literature have a connection with the city. Notable amongst them are

Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala', Subhadra Kumari Chauhan, Upendra Nath 'Ashk' and Harivansh Rai Bachchan. This is the literary Hindi heartland. The culture of Prayagraj is based on Hindi literature. Maithili Sharan Gupt
was also associated with this literary Hindi soil in many ways.

The famous English author and

The Pioneer
as an assistant editor and overseas correspondent.

Another landmark of the literary past of Prayagraj was the publishing firm Kitabistan, owned by the Rehman brothers, Kaleemur Rehman and Obaidur Rehman. They published thousands of books, including those by Nehru. They became the first publishers from India to open a branch in London in 1936.

Sanskrit scholars like

Persian
scholars included Dr. Abdul Sattar Siddiqui and his colleague Muhammad Naeemur Rehman who was known for his well organized personal library of tens of thousands of books, which was open to all.

A noteworthy poet is

Republic of India in 1969 and 1982 respectively. Akbar Allahabadi
is one of the most well-read poets of modern Urdu Literature. Other poets from Allahabad include Nooh Narwi, Tegh Allahabadi, Raaz Allahabadi, Firaq Gorakhpuri, and Asghar Gondvi. Professor A. K. Mehrotra, former head of English department at the University of Allahabad, has been nominated for the post of professor of poetry which was earlier held by poets like Matthew Arnold and W. H. Auden.

Short story writers Azam Kuraivi, Ibn-e-Safi, and Adil Rasheed are all from Prayagraj. Critics like Dr. Aijaz Husain, Dr. Aqeel Rizwi and Hakeem Asrar Kuraivi also hail from Prayagraj. Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, who edits Shabkhoon, is known all over the Urdu world as a pioneer in Post Modernist literature. Rajendra Yadav, Mamta and Ravindra Kalia, Kamaleshwar, Namwar Singh, Doodhnath Singh and many other new age literary writers and critics began their literary careers in Prayagraj. The city is also home to many young and upcoming literary figures. It has also been one of the biggest centres of publication of Hindi literature; examples are Lok Bharti, Rajkamal and Neelabh.

Dr. Rajesh Verma is working on a book about eco-feminism, which will be the first major work on environment-related issues to be published in Prayagraj. Prayagraj has also produced a great lyricist,

Virag Mishra, who recently won the Stardust Award
for Standout Performance by a lyricist, for "Zinda Hoon Main".

See also

Bibliography

References

  1. ^ "Officially, after 5 centuries, it is Kumbh in Prayagraj". The Times of India. 16 January 2019. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
  2. ^
    ISSN 0971-751X
    . Retrieved 24 July 2023.
  3. ^ The origins of Iron Working in India: New evidence from the Central Ganga plain and the Eastern Vindhyas by Rakesh Tewari (Director, U.P. State Archaeological Department)
  4. ^ Culture and Political History of Kashmir, Volume 1 By P. N. K. Bamzai
  5. ^ D. B. Dubey (2001). Prayāga, the Site of Kumbha Melā: In Temporal and Traditional Space. Aryan Books International. p. 57.
  6. ^ Ujagir Singh (1958). Allahabad: a study in urban geography. Banaras Hindu University. p. 32.
  7. ISBN 9788178240169
    .
  8. ^ Ujagir Singh (1958). Allahabad: a study in urban geography. Banaras Hindu University. pp. 31–32.
  9. ^
    ISBN 978-0-19-533894-2
    .
  10. ^ University of Allahabad Studies. University of Allahabad. 1962. p. 8.
  11. ISBN 978-0-19-533894-2
    .
  12. ^ Surendra Nath Sinha (1974). Subah of Allahabad under the great Mughals, 1580-1707. Jamia Millia Islamia. pp. 25, 83–84.
  13. ISBN 9780141001432
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  14. ISBN 9780521566032
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  15. ^ Surendra Nath Sinha (1974). Subah of Allahabad under the great Mughals, 1580-1707. Jamia Millia Islamia. pp. 41–42.
  16. ^ S. Inayat Ali Zaidi (1975). "The Political Role of Kachawaha Nobles during Jahangir's Reign". The Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 36. Indian History Congress: 186.
  17. ^ Ashirbadi Lal Srivastava (1964). The History of India, 1000 A.D.-1707 A.D. Shiva Lal Agarwala. p. 587.
  18. ^ British Museum Highlights Archived 18 October 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  19. ^ Surendra Nath Sinha (1974). Subah of Allahabad under the great Mughals, 1580-1707. Jamia Millia Islamia. p. 52.
  20. ^ Abdul Karim (1995). History of Bengal: The Reigns of Shah Jahan and Aurangzib. Institute of Bangladesh Studies, University of Rajshahi. p. 305.
  21. Orient Longman
    . p. 20.
  22. Orient Longman
    . pp. 60–61.
  23. ISBN 9788171545780
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  24. ISBN 978-0-230-32885-3
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  27. ^ "North Western Provinces". Archived from the original on 1 December 2018. Retrieved 10 April 2011.
  28. ISBN 978-1-13449-429-3
    . Retrieved 3 August 2012.
  29. ^ The Congress – First Twenty Years; Page 38 and 39
  30. ^ How India Wrought for Freedom: The story of the National Congress Told from the Official records (1915) by Anne Besant.
  31. ^ Seth, Maulshree (17 October 2018). "Allahabad officially named 'Prayagraj', Allahabad University, HC likely to undergo name change". The Indian Express.
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