Hastinapura

Hastinapur हस्तिनापुर
A temple in Hastinapur
Hastinapur Location in Uttar Pradesh, India
Coordinates: 29°10′N 78°01′E / 29.17°N 78.02°E / 29.17; 78.02Coordinates: 29°10′N 78°01′E / 29.17°N 78.02°E / 29.17; 78.02
Country	India
State	Uttar Pradesh
District	Meerut
Elevation	202 m (663 ft)
Population (2001)
• Total	21,248
Languages
• Official	Hindi
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)
PIN	250404

Hastinapur is a town and a nagar panchayat in Meerut district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Hastinapuram (Sanskrit) Hastin (elephant) + puram (city) is a city named after the elephants. History of this place begins from the period of Mahabharata. It is also said that this place is named after the King Hastin. After few generations Kuru born and so called Kuru dynasty came into existence. It is also described as Gajpur, Nagpur, Asandivat, Brahmasthal, Shanti Nagar and Kunjarpur in ancient texts.

Located on the right bank of an old bed of the Ganga, known in literature and tradition as the capital of the Kauravas of the Mahabharata fame. Hastinapur was the capital of the Kuru Kingdom. All incidents in the epic Mahabharata have taken place in the city of Hastinapur. The birth of the Mahabharata villains, the 100 Kauravas, happened here, by their mother, Queen Gandhari, wife of King Dhritarashtra. On the bank of the Budhi Ganga, two places known as Draupadi Ghat and Karna Ghat remind one of the Mahabharata personages.

The first reference to Hastinapur in Puranas comes as the capital of Emperor Bharata. Samrat Samprati, the grandson of the emperor Asoka the Great, of the Mauryan Empire, built many temples here during his empire. The ancient temple and stupas are not present today. Excavation at Hastinapur was carried out in the early 1950s by B.B. Lal, Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India. Although the main aim of this excavation, mentioned by Lal himself, was to find out the stratigraphic position of Painted Grey Ware with reference to other known ceramic industries of the early historical period, Lal also ended up making correlations between the text of the Mahabharata 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 Aryans in upper Ganges basin areas. Though pre-history of Hastinapur is not clear as full scale excavation could not be undertaken in inhabited area. In the medieval era, Hastinapur was attacked by Mughal ruler Babur when invading Hindustan. During British India, Hastinapur was ruled by the Gujjar Raja Nain Singh Nagar. He built many Hindu temples in and around Hastinapura.