Where to Stay in Shāhjānpur, Uttar Pradesh

What is Shāhjānpur known for?

Two claims carry Shāhjānpur's name beyond the district. Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqulla Khan were both born here, and on 9 August 1925 they joined Chandrashekhar Azad and Rajendra Lahiri in a robbery of government funds near Kakori railway station. Sarod players make the other claim.

The Shahjahanpur gharana produced them from Enayat Ali through Pandit Radhika Mohan Moitra and Pandit Buddhadev Das Gupta to Amjad Ali Khan, and the film actor Rajpal Yadav comes from the same town.

What are the main landmarks in Shāhjānpur?

Two colleges and a railway station anchor Shāhjānpur's named points. Gandhi Faiz-E-Aam College and Swami Shukdevanand Post Graduate College both teach in the built-up core, while Shahjahanpur railway station sits on the Lucknow-Moradabad line and puts the town on the run between Lucknow and Delhi. The founding grant predates them.

Shah Jahan gave Diler Khan 17 villages and permission to raise a fort in 1647, on ground the Garra still passes on its way to the Ganges.

What is the history of Shāhjānpur?

The town starts with a soldier's family. Darya Khan served in the army of the Mughal emperor Jahangir and had come originally from Kandahar, in what is now Afghanistan; his sons Diler Khan and Bahadur Khan both held rank under Shah Jahan. The reward followed a campaign.

Pleased with Diler Khan's service, and with the rebellious Katheria Rajputs put down, Shah Jahan granted him 17 villages and permission to build a fort in 1647. Bahadur Khan then settled the ground with Afghans he had brought back from one of his own campaigns. Administration outlasted the Mughals.

Shāhjānpur became the headquarters of Shahjahanpur District, and the courts, offices and revenue work of a wide stretch of Western Uttar Pradesh have run from it since, with Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, setting the policy the district carries out. Rebellion came back in the twentieth century. Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqulla Khan, two Indian freedom fighters born in the town, joined Chandrashekhar Azad and Rajendra Lahiri in the robbery of government funds near Kakori railway station on 9 August 1925.

Roshan Singh and Prem Krishna Khanna came from the same circle. Sound carried the name a different way: the Shahjahanpur gharana turned out sarod players over generations, Enayat Ali and Ustad Murad Ali Khan among the earliest of them.

Where is Shāhjānpur?

Two rivers come together at Shāhjānpur. The Garra, a tributary of the Ganges, is the named one, and the town stands on its bank about 194 metres above sea level on the plain of Western Uttar Pradesh. Bareilly lies one way, Lucknow the other.

Roughly 11 square kilometres of that plain is built up, and Shahjahanpur District carries on past the edge of it.

What is the climate of Shāhjānpur?

The subtropical belt sets the year here. Shāhjānpur stands north of the equator inside it, so the hottest weeks land in the middle of the calendar and the mild ones at either end, which is the reverse of the pattern south of the line. Height offers no relief.

The town sits about 194 metres above sea level, on flat ground where two rivers join, and the Garra, a tributary of the Ganges, is the one the record names.

How do you get to Shāhjānpur?

Two national roads and one railway do the work. National Highway 30 runs Shāhjānpur into Bareilly one way and Lucknow the other, while the spur of National Highway 731 breaks off east for Jaunpur. Rail is the simpler arrival.

Shahjahanpur railway station lies on the Lucknow-Moradabad line of Indian Railways, and several of the through trains between Lucknow and Delhi stop there, which makes the platform the usual first ground for anyone arriving from outside Uttar Pradesh.