Ballia is a city with a municipal board in the Indian

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

. The eastern boundary of the city lies at the junction of two major rivers, the

Ganges The Ganges ( ; in India: Ganga, ; in Bangladesh: Padma, ). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international which goes through India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China." is a trans-boundary rive ...

and the Ghaghara. The city is situated east of

Varanasi Varanasi (, also Benares, Banaras ) or Kashi, is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world.* * * * The city has a syncretic tradition of I ...

and about 380 km from the state capital

Lucknow Lucknow () is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the largest city of the List of state and union territory capitals in India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is the administrative headquarters of the epon ...

. It is home to a protected area, the Jai Prakash Narayan bird sanctuary. Ballia is around from

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

Etymology

The name ''Ballia'' is an ancligised spelling of Hindi ''Baliyā'' (

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; in script: , , ) is an Indic script used in the Indian subcontinent. It is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental systems: alphabets, writing system), based on the ancient ''Brāhmī script, Brā ...

: बलिया). According to Paul Whalley, the name is derived from the personal name ''

Bali Bali (English:; Balinese language, Balinese: ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller o ...

'' along with the suffix
-ā
'. The "y" in the name is a glide inserted between the vowels to make it easier to pronounce; the resulting similarity to the diminutive suffix
-iyā
' is only coincidental. According to locals, the name Ballia was derived from the name of the sage

Valmiki Valmiki (; , ) was a legendary poet who is celebrated as the traditional author of the epic ''Ramayana'', based on the attribution in the text itself. He is revered as ''Ādi Kavi'', the first poet, author of ''Ramayana'', the first epic poe ...

, the author of

Ramayana The ''Ramayana'' (; ), also known as ''Valmiki Ramayana'', as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text (also described as a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic) from ancient India, one of the two important epics ...

. Valmiki resided here at one point, and the place was commemorated by a shrine (although it has long since been washed away). Another belief about the origin of the name is that it refers to the

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is usually defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural ...

y quality of the soil, locally known as "Ballua" (''balu'' meaning sand).

Geography

Ballia district is the easternmost part of the

state and borders on

State. It comprises an irregularly shaped tract extending westward from the confluence of the

Ganga The Ganges ( ; in India: Ganga, ; in Bangladesh: Padma, ). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international which goes through India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China." is a trans-boundary riv ...

and the Ghaghra, the former separating it from Bihar in the south and the latter from Deoria and Bihar in the north and east respectively. The boundary between Ballia and Bihar is determined by the deep streams of these two rivers. It is bounded on the west by Mau, on the north by Deoria, on the north-east and south-east by Bihar and on the south-west by

Ghazipur Ghazipur, is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Ghazipur city is the administrative headquarters of the Ghazipur district, one of the four districts that form the Varanasi division of Uttar Pradesh. It is located on the Ganges (Ganga) ...

. The district lies between the parallels of 25º33' and 26º11' North latitudes and 83º38' and 84º39' East longitudes. Ballia is among the least forest covered districts in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Climate

Demographics

In 1901, Ballia had a population of 15,278. According to the 2001 Indian census, Ballia had a population of 102,226. Males constituted 54% of the population and females 46%. Ballia had an average literacy rate of 65%, which was higher than the national average of 59.5%, with 58% of the males and 42% of females being literate. 11% of the population was under six years of age. As of 2011 Indian Census, Ballia had a total population of 104,424, of which 55,459 were males and 48,965 were females with a sex ratio of 883 females per 1000 males. The population within the age group of 0 to 6 years was 11,623. The total number of literates in Ballia was 77,331, which constituted 74.1% of the population with male literacy of 78.0% and female literacy of 69.5%. The effective literacy rate of 7+ population of Ballia was 83.3%, of which male literacy rate was 88.0% and female literacy rate was 78.0%. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes population was 8,703 and 3,942 respectively. Ballia had 15772 households in 2011.

Religion

Hinduism is major religion in Ballia city, with 92,299

Hindus Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

(88.39%), followed by 10,851

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

(10.39%) and 1.22% following other religions, includes

Sikhs Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Sikh'' ...

(0.23%),

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

(0.13%), Buddhists (0.04%), Jains (0.01%) and not stated (0.81%).

Culture/Cityscape

Dadri Mela (fair)

Dadri mela is the second largest cattle fair of India, which is held from Ballia, near NH 31 and from the

bus station A bus station, bus depot, or bus interchange is a structure where city buses or intercity buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. A bus station is larger than a bus stop, which is usually simply a place on the roadside, where buses can st ...

of Ballia city. The fair starts with people taking a holy dip in the river

on the full moon of

Kartik Poornima Kartika Purnima (), also known as Kartika Pournami, is a Hinduism, Hindu, Sikhism, Sikh, and Jain cultural festival that is celebrated on ''purnima'' (full moon day), the 15th day of the lunar month Kārtika (month), Kartika. It falls on No ...

(October–November). This fair is held annually in the honour of Dardar Muni, the disciple of Maharishi

Bhrigu Bhrigu (, ) is a rishi in Hindu tradition. He is one of the seven great sages, the Saptarshis, and one of the many Prajapatis (the facilitators of creation) created by Brahma. He was the first compiler of predictive astrology and also the aut ...

. This one-month-long fair is organised in two phases. The first phase starts ten days before the onset of Kartik Poornima, during which traders bring some excellent breeds of cattle from across India for sale/purchase. On or after Kartik Poornima, various cultural programs are organised and one can find here a large number of makeshift shops of various items during the next

fortnight A fortnight is a unit of time equal to 14 days (two weeks). The word derives from the Old English term , meaning "" (or "fourteen days", since the Anglo-Saxons counted by nights). Astronomy and tides In astronomy, a ''lunar fortnight'' is hal ...

Transportation

Ballia railway station caters to many trains daily including Special Vande Bharat Express and 2 Rajdhani Expresses. Train connectivity to major cities of India like

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

as well as to

Kanpur Kanpur (Hindustani language, Hindustani: ), originally named Kanhapur and formerly anglicized as Cawnpore, is the second largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Uttar Pradesh after Lucknow. It was the primary ...

Aligarh Aligarh (; formerly known as Koil) is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. It is the administrative headquarters of Aligarh district and lies northwest of state capital Lucknow and approximately southeast of the capital, New Delhi. ...

Agra Agra ( ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is the ...

Bareilly Bareilly () is a city in Bareilly district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is among the largest metropolises in Western Uttar Pradesh and is the centre of the Bareilly division as well as the historical region of Rohilkhand. The city ...

and

Allahabad Prayagraj (, ; ISO 15919, ISO: ), formerly and colloquially known as Allahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi, Varanasi (Benar ...

via many trains is available. Ballia is well connected to the state capital

and the cities of

Gorakhpur Gorakhpur is a city in the List of state and union territory capitals in India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, along the banks of the West Rapti River, Rapti river in the Purvanchal , Purvanchal region. It is situated 272 kilometres east of ...

and

by road. The state bus corporation UPSRTC is the primary road transport media.

Education

Universities and colleges

The Jananayak Chandrashekhar University, Ballia is a

state university A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is State ownership, owned by the state or receives significant funding from a government. Whether a national university is considered public varies from o ...

established in 2016 by

Government of Uttar Pradesh The Government of Uttar Pradesh (International Organization for Standardization, ISO: ''Uttara Pradēśa Sarakāra''; often abbreviated as GoUP) is the subnational government of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh with the governor as its appoin ...

in Ballia,

. It is an affiliating University and university began its first season in 2016–17 with 122 colleges of Ballia. These 122 colleges of

Ballia District Ballia district is one of the districts of Uttar Pradesh, India. Ballia district is a part of Azamgarh division situated in the east of Uttar Pradesh. The main economic activity is agriculture. City is the district headquarters and commercial ...

were formerly affiliated to Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith, Varanasi. For the academic year 2016–17 exams were conducted by Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith, Varanasi but students were awarded a degree of Jananayak Chandrashekhar University, Ballia.

Schools

* Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Ballia * Kendriya Vidyalaya, Ballia

Notable people

References

External links

Official Website of the Ballia district
{{Authority control Cities and towns in Ballia district Cities in Uttar Pradesh