ALLAHABAD, a fortified town of Hindustan, and the principal place of the province of the same name, is situated in a dry and healthy soil, on a triangle, at the junction of the two mighty streams, the Ganges and the Jumna. It has been occasionally the residence of royalty, and contains some fine ruins; but notwithstanding its advantageous commercial position, the benefit derived from numerous visitors for devotional purposes, and the support afforded by the civil and military establishments, it is still a small city, with mean houses and narrow and irregular streets, confined to the banks of the Jumna. Its population is however gradually improving, both in character and amount. Hodges, the artist, who visited the place in 1782, describes all the dwellings without the fort as thatched huts. In 1803, the native
population was computed at 20,000; in 1834 it had increased Allahabad to 38,000, and a later return brings it up to 45,000. The fort, which is placed at the distance of a quarter of a mile, on a tongue of land washed by the Jumna and the Ganges, is lofty and extensive, and completely commands the navigation of the two rivers. It is strong both by nature and art, and has been a noble castle; but although it has gained in strength, it has lost in appearance, by some modern improvements which it has undergone, by which its lofty towers have been lowered into bastions and ravelins, and its high stone ramparts covered with turf parapets, and obscured by a green sloping glacis. It is still, however, according to Bishop Heber, a striking place, and its principal gate, surrounded by a dome, with a wide hall beneath, surrounded by arcades and galleries, and ornamented with rude, but glowing paintings, forms a fine entrance to a place of arms. The barracks are handsome and neat. On one side is a large range of buildings, which are in the oriental style, and contain some noble vaulted rooms, chiefly occupied as officers' quarters, and overlooking from a considerable height the rapid stream and craggy banks of the Jumna. The principal mosque is in good repair. This building, which is solid and stately, but without much ornament, is advantageously situated on the banks of Jumna, adjoining the city on one side, and an esplanade before the glacis of the fort on the other. It was at one time the residence of the general of the station, but has since been restored to its original destination. Among the finest buildings in the neighbourhood is the Serai of Prince Khoosro, the ill-fated son of the Emperor Jehangir. The structure is a noble quadrangle, with four fine Gothic gateways, surrounded within an embattled wall, by a range of cloisters for the accommodation of travellers. Adjoining the Serai is a garden planted with fine old mango trees, in which are three beautiful tombs raised over two princes and a princess of the imperial family. The houses of the civil and military servants of the company, are at some distance both from the fort and the town. These villas are surrounded by gardens: they are described as handsome and richly fitted-up buildings, and as giving a grand appearance to the neighbourhood.
Allahabad is one of the most noted resorts of Hindu pilgrimage, and such visits are now perfectly free, the government pilgrim-tax formerly levied having been abolished since 1840. The place owes its celebrity in this respect to the reputed confluence of three sacred rivers, the Ganges, the Jumna, and the Sereswati; but the third is by no means obvious to the sight, being lost in the sands of Sirhind, upwards of 400 miles to the north-west. The Hindus, however, assert that it joins the other two under ground, and that consequently the same religious merit is acquired by bathing at this sacred confluence as by bathing in all the three separate rivers. In former years instances frequently occurred of devotees drowning themselves in the sacred stream at the great annual meeting of Allahabad; this mode of self-immolation being regarded by Hindus as the most acceptable of all offerings. At the present time this meeting has assumed rather a festive than a gloomy character; and is described as a pretty scene, the platforms for the bathers being covered with canopies as booths in an English fair, and the women dressed in holiday clothes, and shining in coloured scarfs among the crowd. Allahabad was taken in the year 1765 by the British, from the Vizier of Oude, and assigned as the residence of Shah Alum, the titular emperor of Delhi. But the emperor having thrown himself into the hands of the Maharrattas, the place was resumed by the donors in 1771, and again transferred to the Nabob of Oude, by whom it was finally ceded to the British in 1801, in commutation of the subsidy which the vizier had agreed to pay for British protection. Distance from Calcutta 496 miles;
from Benares 75; from Lucknow 128; from Delhi 391. Lat. 25. 26. Long. 81. 55.
The district of Allahabad forms one of the provinces under the jurisdiction of the lieutenant-governorship of Agra; it has an area of 2901 square miles, and a population, composed chiefly of Hindus and Mahometans, amounting to 710,000. The history of the district is included in that of the city of Allahabad. (E. T.)