Recently according to media reports, the Uttar Pradesh Cabinet has approved the proposal for renaming the city of Allahabad to Prayagraj. This comes after CM Yogi stated yesterday that the name of the city would be restored to its earlier name, Prayagraj. In light of this event its important to look at some facts or information that we know about history of Prayagraj. We will look into most popular know historical, religious & other facts with their relevant sources given in the last.
1. Prayag which translates “place of offering”. It comes from the Sangam (holy confluence of rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati).
2. The city was originally known as Prayaga (place of the confluences) – a name that is still often used. Excavations have revealed Iron Age of Northern Black Polished Ware in present-day Allahabad. That it is an ancient town is also illustrated by references in the Vedas (the most ancient of Hindu sacred texts) to Prayaga.
3. It is mentioned in the Vedas as the place where Brahma (creator of the world) attended a sacrificial ritual.
4. The Puranas, another important group of religious texts, record that Yayati left Prayaga and conquered the region of Sapta Sindhu. His five sons Yadu, Druhyu, Puru, Anu and Turvashas became the main tribes of the Rigveda.
5. Archaeological sites in India, such as Kosambi and Jhusi near Allahabad in present-day Uttar Pradesh show iron implements in the period 1800–1200 BC.
6. When the Aryans first settled in the North Western part of India, Prayag was part of their territory, (of the Kuru tribe), although, it was not settled and most of Doab consisted of dense forests at that time.
7. The Vatsas or, Vamsas are called to be a branch of the Kurus. The Kurus ruled the Doab and Kurukshetra area from Hastinapur (near present-day Delhi). In the Later Vedic period, when Hastinapur was destroyed by floods, the Kuru King Nichakshu transferred his entire capital with its citizens to a place next to Prayag, which he named as Kaushambi (identified with the village Kosam, 56 km away from Allahabad).
8. Udayana was the ruler of Vatsa in the 6th century BCE, the time of Buddha.
9. Prayaga became the centre of the post Vedic culture and the emergence of modern Hinduism, as we know it today. In the coming centuries, Kaushambi also became an important seat of Buddhism.
10. During the Ramayana epic era, Prayaga was made up of a few rishi’s huts at the confluence of the sacred rivers, and much of the countryside was continuous jungle.
11. The Doab region, including Prayaga, was controlled by several empires and dynasties in the ages to come. It became a part of the Mauryan and Gupta empires of the east and the Kushan empire of the west before becoming part of the Kannauj empire.
12. 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.
13. In his memoirs on India, Huien Tsang, the Chinese Buddhist monk and chronicler who travelled through India during Harshavardhana’s reign (A.D. 607–647), writes that he visited Prayaga in A.D. 643.
14. Akbarnama mentions that the Mughal emperor Akbar founded a great city in Prayag. `Abd al-Qadir Bada’uni and Nizamuddin Ahmad mention that Akbar laid the foundations of an Imperial City at Prayag which he called Ilahabas.
15. Akbar was so impressed by its strategic site after visiting it in 1575 that he ordered that a fort be constructed and renamed it Ilahabas or “Abode of God” by 1584, later changed to Allahabad under Shah Jahan.
Source:
1. https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/yogi-adityanath-takes-allahabad-to-prayagraj-after-443-years-a-recap-of-history-1368216-2018-10-15
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Allahabad
3. http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/tewari/tewari.pdf
4. http://www.dailynews.lk/2007/12/05/fea06.asp
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