Haridwar (; ; formerly Mayapuri) is a city and municipal corporation in the Haridwar district of Uttarakhand, India. With a population of 228,832 according to 2011 census, it is the second-largest city in the state and the largest in the district. Haridwar is located at the south western part of the state.
The city is situated on the right bank of the Ganges river, at the foothills of the Shivalik ranges. Haridwar lies in a doab region where people speak Khari Boli, which is a dialect of Hindi. The other districts of doab region lie in Western Uttar Pradesh. Haridwar is regarded as a holy place for Hindus, hosting important religious events and serving as a gateway to several prominent places of worship. The word 'Haridwar' means the gateway to the Lord Hari. The most significant of the events here is the Kumbha Mela, which is celebrated every 12 years in Haridwar. During the Haridwar Kumbh Mela, millions of Hindu pilgrims, devotees, and tourists congregate in Haridwar to perform ritualistic bathing on the banks of the Ganges to wash away their sins to attain moksha.
According to Puranic legend, Haridwar, along with Ujjain, Nashik, and Prayag, is one of four sites where drops of amrita, the elixir of immortality, accidentally spilled over from a kumbha (pitcher) while being carried by the celestial bird deity Garuda just after the Samudra Manthana, or the churning of the ocean of milk. Brahma Kund, the spot where the amrita fell, is believed to be located at Har ki Pauri (literally, "footsteps of the Lord") and is considered to be the most sacred ghat of Haridwar.
Haridwar is also the primary centre of the Kanwar pilgrimage, in which millions of participants gather sacred water from the Ganges and carry it across hundreds of miles to dispense as offerings in Shiva shrines.
Haridwar is additionally a passage for the Chota Char Dham (the four principal pilgrim destinations in Uttarakhand: Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath, and Badrinath).
The city has industrial development in addition to its religious significance, including the State Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand (SIDCUL) industrial estate and the nearby township of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) and its affiliated ancillaries.
Etymology
The modern name of the town has two spellings: Haridwar and Hardwar. Each of these names has its own connotation.
In Sanskrit, the liturgical language of Hinduism, Hari means Vishnu, while dvāra means "gateway". So, Haridwar translates to "The Gateway to Vishnu". It earns this name because it is typically the place where pilgrims start their journey to visit a prominent temple of Vishnu: Badrinath Temple.
Similarly, Hara could also mean "Shiva".About Haridwar sahajaharidwar. Hence, Hardwar could stand for "Gateway to Shiva". Hardwar is also a typical place for pilgrims to start their journey in order to reach Mount Kailash, Kedarnath, the northernmost Jyotirlinga and one of the sites of the smaller Char Dham pilgrimage circuit – all important places for worship for Hindus.
According to legend, it was in Haridwar that goddess Ganga descended when Shiva released the mighty river from the locks of his hair. The River Ganga, after flowing for from its source at Gaumukh at the edge of the Gangotri Glacier, enters the Gangetic Plain for the first time at Haridwar, which gave the city its ancient name, Gangadwára.
In the annotations to her poetical illustration Hurdwar, a Place of Hindoo Pilgrimage, Letitia Elizabeth Landon provides information on this name derivation, and also the story of the supposed origin of the 'River Ganges'. The accompanying plate is engraved from a painting by Samuel Prout. In sacred writings, it has been differently specified as "Kapilasthan", "Gangadwar" and "Mayapuri". History
In the scriptures, Haridwar has been variously mentioned as Kapilasthana, GangadvāraPlaces of peace and power sacred sites. and Mayapuri. It is also an entry point to the Char Dham (the four main centres of pilgrimage in Uttarakhand viz, Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, and Yamunotri).
In the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata, where sage Dhaumya tells Yudhishthira about the tirthas of India, Gangadvāra, i.e., Haridwar and Kankhal, have been referred to,Historical, Cultural and Social Perspectives Chapter 3, The Cultural Dimension of Ecology, Baidyanath Saraswati, 1998, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. . ignca.nic.in. Vanaparva (The Book of the Forest) is third Parva, book of Mahabharata. the text also mentions that Sage Agastya did penance (an act showing sorrow or regret for sin) here, with the help of his wife, Lopamudra (the princess of Vidharba).Lopamudra The Mahabharata, translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli (1883 -1896), Book 3: Vana Parva: Tirthayatra Parva: Section XCVII.
Sage Kapila is said to have an ashram here, giving it its ancient name, Kapila or Kapilasthana.
The legendary king, Bhagiratha, the great-grandson of the Suryavamsha King Sagara (an ancestor of Rama), is said to have brought the river Ganges down from heaven, through years of penance in Satya Yuga, for the salvation of 60,000 of his ancestors from the curse of the Sage Kapila. This is a tradition continued by thousands of devout Hindus, who bring the ashes of their departed family members, in hope of their salvation. Vishnu is said to have left his footprint on the stone that is set in the upper wall of Har Ki Pauri, where the Ganges touches it at all times.
Haridwar came under the rule of the Maurya Empire (322–185 BCE), and later under the Kushan Empire (c. 1st–3rd centuries). Archaeological findings have proved that terra cotta culture dating between 1700 BCE and 1200 BCE existed in this region.Haridwar History Haridwar Official website. The first modern era written evidence of Haridwar is found in the accounts of a Chinese traveller, Huan Tsang, who visited India in 629 CE.Kumbh Mela Channel 4. during the reign of King Harshavardhana (590–647) records Haridwar as 'Mo-yu-lo', the remains of which still exist at Mayapur, a little to the south of the modern town. Among the ruins are a fort and three temples, decorated with broken stone sculptures,Digital Library The Imperial Gazetteer of India, Oxford, 1908, Vol.13, p.51. he also mentions the presence of a temple, north of Mo-yu-lo called 'Gangadvara', Gateway of the Ganges.
Haridwar came under the rule of the Delhi Sultanate in 1206.
The city also fell to the Central Asian conqueror Timur Lang (1336–1405) on 13 January 1399.History The Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 2, p. 570.
During his visit to Haridwar, first Sikh Guru, Guru Nanak (1469–1539) bathed at 'Kushawart Ghat', wherein the famous, 'watering the crops' episode took place,Life Of Guru Nanak: Chapter IV The Sikh Religion, Volume 1, by Max Arthur Macauliffe (1842–1913), Oxford University Press (1909). page 50-52. his visit is today commemorated by a gurudwara (Gurudwara Nanakwara), according to two Sikh Janamsakhis, this visit took place on the Baisakhi day in 1504 CE, he later also visited Kankhal en route to Kotdwara in Garhwal.Janasakhi Janamsakhis of Miharban and Mani Singh, Janamsakhi Tradition, Dr. Kirpal Singh, 2004, Punjabi University, Patiala. . www.globalsikhstudies.net. Pandas of the Haridwar have been known to keep genealogy records of most of the Hindu population. Known as Vahis, these records are updated on each visit to the city, and are a repository of vast family trees of the family in North India.
In the 16th century, the city came under the rule of the Mughals. Ain-e-Akbari, written by Abul Fazal in the 16th century during the reign of Mughal Emperor Akbar, refers to it as Maya (Mayapur), known as Hardwar on the Ganges", as seven sacred cities of Hindus. It further mentions it is eighteen kos (each approx. 2 km) in length, and large numbers of pilgrims assemble on the 10th of Chaitra.Sacred Places of Pilgrimage Ain-e-Akbari, Vol. III, p. 306. It also mentions that during his travels and also while at home, Mughal Emperor, Akbar drank water from the Ganges river, which he called 'the water of immortality'. Special people were stationed at Sorun and later Haridwar to dispatch water, in sealed jars, to wherever he was stationed.Hardwar Ain-e-Akbari, by Abul Fazl 'Allami, Volume I, A´I´N 22. The A´bda´r Kha´nah. P 55. Translated from the original Persian, by Heinrich Blochmann and Colonel Henry Sullivan Jarrett, Asiatic Society of Bengal. Calcutta, 1873–1907. "His Majesty calls this source of life "the water of immortality," and has committed the care of this department to proper persons... Both at home and on travels, he drinks Ganges water."
During the Mughal period, Haridwar had a mint for Akbar's copper coinage at Haridwar. It is said that Raja Man Singh of Amber, laid that foundation of the present-day city of Haridwar and also renovated the ghats at Har Ki Pauri. After his death, his ashes are also said to have been immersed at Brahma Kund. Thomas Coryat, an English traveller, who visited the city in the reign of Emperor Jahangir (1596–1627) mentions it as 'Haridwara', the capital of Shiva.
During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Haridwar was under the control of the Garhwal Kingdom, serving as a strategic and economic gateway to the Himalayan pilgrimage routes. Following the Gurkha invasion of Garhwal in 1803–1804 and the subsequent Anglo‑Nepalese War, the region was ceded to the British East India Company under the Treaty of Sugauli (1815). Haridwar was then annexed into British India and incorporated into the Saharanpur District, permanently ending its political association with the Garhwal rulers.
One of the two major dams on the river Ganges, the Bhimgoda, is situated here. Built in the 1840s, it diverts the waters of the Ganges to the Upper Ganges Canal, which irrigated the surrounding lands. Though this caused severe deterioration to the Ganges water flow, and is a major cause for the decay of the Ganges as an inland waterway, which till the 18th century was used heavily by the ships of the East India Company, and a town as high up as Tehri, was considered a port city The headworks of the Ganges Canal system is located in Haridwar. The Upper Ganges Canal was opened in 1854 after the work began in April 1842,Upper Ganges Canal The Imperial Gazetteer of India, 1909, v. 12, p. 138. prompted by the famine of 1837–38. The unique feature of the canal is the half-kilometre-long aqueduct over the Solani river at Roorkee, which raises the canal above the original river.
'Haridwar Union Municipality' was constituted in 1868, which included the then villages of Mayapur, Jwalapur and Kankhal. Haridwar was first connected with railways, via Laksar, through branch line in 1886, when the Awadh and Rohilakhand Railway line was extended through Roorkee to Saharanpur, this was later extended to Dehradun in 1900.Trade and Communications The Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 21, p. 375.
In 1901, it had a population of 25,597 and was a part of the Roorkee tehsil, in Saharanpur district of the United Province,Roorkee Town The Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 21, p. 324. and remained so till the creation of Uttar Pradesh in 1947.History The Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 13, p. 53.