Hastinapur (Hastinapura in
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
) is a town and a
nagar panchayatA nagar panchayat is a form of an urban body in India comparable to a municipality.An urban centre with more than 30,000 and less than 100,000 inhabitants is classified as a nagar panchayat.However, there are some exceptions...
in
Meerut districtMeerut district is one of the districts of Uttar Pradesh state of India, and Meerut town is the district headquarters. Meerut district is a part of Meerut division....
in the
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
n
stateIndia is a federal union of states comprising twenty-eight states and seven union territories. The states and territories are further subdivided into districts and so on.- States and territories :...
of
Uttar PradeshUttar Pradesh , [often referred to as U.P.] is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 190 million people,...
.
Hastinapura was the capital of the kingdom of the
KauravaThe term Kaurava is a Sanskrit term, that means a descendant of Kuru, a legendary king who is the ancestor of many of the characters of the Mahābhārata.The term is used in the Mahābhārata with two meanings:...
s, belonging to the
KuruThe Kuru kingdom was ruled by the Kuru clan of kings. The Pandavas and Kauravas were Kurus. Other than these Kurus of India, there was another kingdom called Uttara Kurus to the north of Himalayas. The Kuru kingdom of India lay between Saraswati River and river Ganga...
dynasty of kings.
King Hasti of Kuru Race founded the city of Hastinapur. The throne of this city was the prize over which the
Kurukshetra WarThe Kurukshetra War is the war between the Kauravas and Pandavas, which forms an essential component of the Hindu epic Mahābhārata...
of the epic
MahabharataThe Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the . The epic is part of the Hindu itihāsa , and forms an important part of Hindu mythology....
was fought between descendants of King Hasti. Many incidents in the epic Mahabharata took place in this city of Hastinapura.
Hastinapur (Hastinapura in
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
) is a town and a
nagar panchayatA nagar panchayat is a form of an urban body in India comparable to a municipality.An urban centre with more than 30,000 and less than 100,000 inhabitants is classified as a nagar panchayat.However, there are some exceptions...
in
Meerut districtMeerut district is one of the districts of Uttar Pradesh state of India, and Meerut town is the district headquarters. Meerut district is a part of Meerut division....
in the
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
n
stateIndia is a federal union of states comprising twenty-eight states and seven union territories. The states and territories are further subdivided into districts and so on.- States and territories :...
of
Uttar PradeshUttar Pradesh , [often referred to as U.P.] is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 190 million people,...
.
History
Hastinapura was the capital of the kingdom of the
KauravaThe term Kaurava is a Sanskrit term, that means a descendant of Kuru, a legendary king who is the ancestor of many of the characters of the Mahābhārata.The term is used in the Mahābhārata with two meanings:...
s, belonging to the
KuruThe Kuru kingdom was ruled by the Kuru clan of kings. The Pandavas and Kauravas were Kurus. Other than these Kurus of India, there was another kingdom called Uttara Kurus to the north of Himalayas. The Kuru kingdom of India lay between Saraswati River and river Ganga...
dynasty of kings.
Founding by Kuru King Hasti
King Hasti of Kuru Race founded the city of Hastinapur. The throne of this city was the prize over which the
Kurukshetra WarThe Kurukshetra War is the war between the Kauravas and Pandavas, which forms an essential component of the Hindu epic Mahābhārata...
of the epic
MahabharataThe Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the . The epic is part of the Hindu itihāsa , and forms an important part of Hindu mythology....
was fought between descendants of King Hasti. Many incidents in the epic Mahabharata took place in this city of Hastinapura. The first reference to Hastinapur in Hindu texts comes as the capital of Emperor Bharata.
Present-day location
In the present-day Hastinapura is a town in the
DoabA Doab is a term used in India and Pakistan for a "tongue" or tract of land lying between two confluent rivers.-The Doab, Uttar Pradesh, India:...
region of
Uttar PradeshUttar Pradesh , [often referred to as U.P.] is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 190 million people,...
, called
Hastinapur, 37 km from
MeerutMeerut is a metropolitan city and a municipal corporation in Meerut district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is an ancient city located north-east of New Delhi. It is a part of the National Capital Region of India. It is the 16th largest metropolitan area in India and the 25th largest...
and 110 km from
DelhiDelhi, known locally as Dilli , and also by the official name National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest metropolis by population in India...
. Geographical details: Situated at 29 degree 09'31.50 degree North & 77 degree 59'19.46" East. Hastinapur is 120 KM North-East of Delhi on Delhi-Meerut-Bijnore Highway. You need to take a turn to Bijnore highway (NH-119) from Meerut from where Hastinapur is approx 38 KM away. Road is good & clean (average speed is 50 KM/hour) & green with trees and agricultural farms both sides.Population is approx. 30,000. Regular buses are available from 6 AM to 9 PM from Meerut which is the nearest Railway station (42 km). Nearest Airport: New Delhi. (120 km)
Brief history
Historical Details:
Literal Meaning: Hastinapura = Hastin (
elephantElephants are large land mammals in two genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta. Three species of elephant are living today: the African Bush Elephant, the African Forest Elephant and the Asian Elephant...
) + pura (city) = city named after the elephants.
History of this place begins Jain religion. Three gods of Jain religion names: Shanthinath, Khunthunath & Arahnath were born here and become 5th, 6th, 7th Chakravarti kings. It is also described as Gajpur, Hastinapur, Nagpur, Asandivat, Brahmasthal, Shanti Nagar and Kunjarpur etc. in Shashtras.
Grandson of Samrat Ashok, king
SampratiSamrat Samprati was an emperor of Maurya dynasty who reigned from c.224-215 BCE. He was the son of Ashoka's blind son, Kunala. He succeeded his cousin, Dasharatha as emperor of the Mauryan Empire and ruled almost the entire present-day Indian subcontinent....
has built many temples here during his empire. The ancient temple and the stupas are not present today since this city has survived through many periods of conquest like the
MughalThe Mughal Empire was an Islamic and Persianate imperial power of the Indian subcontinent which began in 1526, invaded and ruled most of Hindustan by the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and ended in the mid-19th century...
Invasion which destroyed and devastated most of the
HinduA Hindu is an adherent of Hinduism, a set of religious, philosophical and cultural systems that originated in the Indian subcontinent. The vast body of Hindu scriptures, divided into Śruti and Smriti , lay the foundation of Hindu beliefs which primarily include dhárma, kárma, ahimsa and saṃsāra...
religious places. Hastinapur city was located on the earlier course of the
Ganges RiverThe Ganges is one of the major rivers of the Indian subcontinent, flowing east through the Gangetic Plain of northern India into Bangladesh. The river rises in the western Himalayas in the Uttarakhand state of India, and drains into the Sunderbans delta in the Bay of Bengal...
. Hastinapur was once washed away when the river changed its course but was resettled in nearby area. This occurred in the fourth generation of Emperor
JanmejayJanmejay was a legendary Hindu King of the Pandava Dynasty, Great Grandson of Arjun, Abhimanyu's grandson, Son of King Parikshit of the Mahābhārata fame. Known as the historical figure who did a nag yagya and killed all snakes to seek revenge of his father's death due to a snake bite...
.
Excavation at Hastinapur was carried out in early 1950s, by B.B. Lal, of the
Archaeological Survey of IndiaThe Archaeological Survey of India is a department of the Government of India, attached to the Ministry of Culture . It is responsible for archaeological studies and the preservation of archaeological heritage of the country by various acts of the Indian Parliament...
. Although the main aim of this excavation, mentioned by Lal himself, "was to find out the stratigraphic position of the Painted Grey Ware with reference to other known ceramic industries of the early historical period"
1, Lal could not resist attempting a correlation between
MahabharataThe Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the . The epic is part of the Hindu itihāsa , and forms an important part of Hindu mythology....
, the text, and the material remains that he uncovered at Hastinapur. This exercise led him to historicize some of the traditions mentioned in the text, as well as link the appearance of the Painted Grey Ware with the arrival of the
Indo-AryansIndo-Aryan is an ethno-linguistic term referring to the wide collection of peoples united as native speakers of the Indo-Aryan branch of the family of Indo-European languages. Today, there are over one billion native speakers of Indo-Aryan languages, most of them native to South Asia, where they...
in upper Ganga basin areas.
Demographics
India
censusA "census" is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population.In other words every 10 years...next one would be in 2010 The term is used mostly in connection with...
, Hastinapur had a population of 21,248. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Hastinapur has an average literacy rate of 62%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 67%, and female literacy is 57%. In Hastinapur, 15% of the population is under 6 years of age.