Ujjain
Overview
India
India , 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 with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, on the eastern bank of the Kshipra River (Hindi: क्षिप्रा), today part of the state
States and territories of India
India 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.-List of states and territories:...
of Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city....
. It is the administrative
Public administration
Public Administration houses the implementation of government policy and an academic discipline that studies this implementation and that prepares civil servants for this work. As a "field of inquiry with a diverse scope" its "fundamental goal.....
centre of Ujjain District
Ujjain District
Ujjain District is a district of Madhya Pradesh state in central India. The historic city of Ujjain is the district headquarters.The district has an area of 6,091 km², and a population of 1,709,885 , a 24% increase from its 1991 population of 1,386,465...
and Ujjain Division
Ujjain Division
Ujjain Division is an administrative geographical unit of Madhya Pradesh state of India. Ujjain is the administrative headquarters of the division. Currently , the division consists of districts of Dewas, Mandsaur, Neemuch, Ratlam, Shajapur, and Ujjain....
.
In ancient times the city was called Ujjayini. As mentioned in the Mahabharata
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....
epic, Ujjayini was the capital of the Avanti Kingdom
Avanti Kingdom
The former Avanti kingdom was one among the many kingdoms ruled by the Yadava kings in the central and western India. Ujjayani was its capital along the river Kshipra, a tributary of river Charmanuati, which itself is a tributary of river Ganges. The Ujjayani of the past is currently known as...
, and has been the Prime Meridian
Prime Meridian
The Prime Meridian is the meridian at which the longitude is defined to be 0°.The Prime Meridian and its opposite the 180th meridian , which the International Date Line generally follows, form a great circle that divides the Earth into the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.An international...
for Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
geographers since the 4th century BCE.
