NotesCaféHistory of Uttar PradeshContents
UPPCS Mains
2026 Edition
General Studies Paper V · UP Special
Smart Notes

History of Uttar Pradesh

English Medium
4
Chapters
20
Topics
59
Figures & Maps
1
Table
What's Inside
  1. 01History and Civilisation of Uttar Pradesh
  2. 02Ancient Cities of Uttar Pradesh
  3. 03Uttar Pradesh in the Freedom Struggle
  4. 04Eminent Personalities of Uttar Pradesh
notes-cafe.com
The Nxt Gen Study OS
Based on NCERT, Standard Books references, Keywords from Syllabus and Previous Year question Papers
History of Uttar Pradesh
UPPCS Mains · Smart Notes

Disclaimer

This eBook has been prepared by NotesCafe solely for examination preparation and general educational guidance for UPPCS and other competitive examinations.

The content is based on the latest syllabus and previous year questions of UPPCS and other competitive examinations, and has been prepared with reference to standard textbooks, NCERT, government publications, official reports and other reliable public sources. Every effort has been made to keep the information accurate and up to date at the time of publication. Even so, errors, omissions or inaccuracies may remain. Facts, data, laws, schemes and policies may also change after publication.

  • The author, the publisher and NotesCafe shall not be responsible or liable for any loss, damage or inconvenience caused to any person acting, or refraining from acting, on the basis of any material in this eBook.
  • This eBook is a study aid. It is not a substitute for the official notification, the syllabus issued by the commission, or original sources. Readers should verify important facts from official sources such as commission notifications, the Gazette and government websites.
  • Answers and explanations of previous year questions are based on the author's understanding and the information available. If there is any difference, the official answer key released by the commission shall prevail.
  • NotesCafe does not guarantee selection, any specific marks or any result in any examination.
  • Names of examinations, commissions and organisations are used for reference only. NotesCafe is not affiliated with or endorsed by UPPSC, UPSC or any government body.
  • If you notice any error, please write to us at support@notes-cafe.com so that it can be corrected in the next edition.

Copyright & Licence

© 2026 NotesCafe. All rights reserved.

Author / Compiled byNotesCafe
EditionFirst Edition, October 2026
Websitenotes-cafe.com

This eBook is licensed to the purchaser for personal, non-commercial use only. No part of it may be reproduced, copied, stored, shared, forwarded, uploaded to any website, Telegram/WhatsApp group or cloud drive, resold or distributed in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopy, screenshot, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Removing the NotesCafe watermark or branding is also prohibited.

Unauthorised copying, sharing or sale is an infringement of copyright under the Copyright Act, 1957, and may also attract action under the Information Technology Act, 2000. NotesCafe reserves the right to take legal action and to suspend the account of any user found involved in piracy.

All disputes are subject to the jurisdiction of the courts at Lucknow only.

notes-cafe.com · The Nxt Gen Study OSLicensed to the purchaser for personal study. Copying, sharing or reselling is prohibited.Disclaimer
History of Uttar Pradesh
UPPCS Mains · Smart Notes

Contents

History of Uttar Pradesh · General Studies Paper V · UP Special
  1. 01History and Civilisation of Uttar Pradesh7 topics
    1. 1.1Sources of Ancient History of UP
    2. 1.2Prehistoric and Protohistoric UP (incl. Harappan and Pottery Cultures)
    3. 1.3Vedic Age, Mahajanapadas and Mauryan UP
    4. 1.4Post-Mauryan and Gupta UP (Kushana Mathura to Guptas)
    5. 1.5Early Medieval UP: Kannauj, Tripartite Struggle and Gahadavalas
    6. 1.6Sultanate and Mughal UP (Sharqi Jaunpur, Agra)
    7. 1.7Regional Powers: Nawabs of Awadh, Rohillas, Bundelas
  2. 02Ancient Cities of Uttar Pradesh3 topics
    1. 2.1Sacred Cities: Varanasi, Prayagraj, Ayodhya, Mathura
    2. 2.2Buddhist and Jain Centres: Sarnath, Kushinagar, Shravasti, Kaushambi, Sankisa
    3. 2.3Historic Capitals: Kannauj, Jaunpur, Agra, Lucknow
  3. 03Uttar Pradesh in the Freedom Struggle6 topics
    1. 3.1Resistance before 1857
    2. 3.2UP in the Revolt of 1857
    3. 3.3Early Nationalism and Congress in UP (1858–1918)
    4. 3.4Gandhian Phase: Kisan Sabhas, Non-Cooperation, Chauri Chaura
    5. 3.5Revolutionary Movement in UP (Kakori, HSRA)
    6. 3.6Civil Disobedience, Quit India and Independence
  4. 04Eminent Personalities of Uttar Pradesh4 topics
    1. 4.1Freedom Fighters and Revolutionaries
    2. 4.2National Leaders and Statesmen
    3. 4.3Social and Religious Reformers: the 19th-century Renaissance in UP
    4. 4.4Personalities of Literature, Music and Arts
notes-cafe.com · The Nxt Gen Study OSLicensed to the purchaser for personal study. Copying, sharing or reselling is prohibited.Contents
History of Uttar PradeshChapter 01 · Topic 1
Chapter 01

History and Civilisation of Uttar Pradesh

History of Uttar Pradesh · 7 topics
Topic 1

Sources of Ancient History of UP

Chapter Overview

Uttar Pradesh holds the longest continuous story of settled life in north India — from the Stone Age sites of the Belan and Son valleys and the Harappan outposts of the western Doab to the Mahajanapadas, the Mauryan and Gupta empires, Kannauj of the early medieval age, the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughals, and the regional powers of the eighteenth century.

The chapter first sets out the sources that reveal this past, then follows it in time: prehistory and protohistory, the Vedic–Mauryan age, the post-Mauryan and Gupta centuries, early medieval Kannauj, the Sultanate–Mughal period, and finally the Nawabs, Rohillas and Bundelas who ruled as Mughal power declined.

Topic Flow
  1. 1Sources of Ancient History of UP
  2. the sources first reveal
  3. 2Prehistoric and Protohistoric UP
  4. iron and villages grow into
  5. 3Vedic Age, Mahajanapadas and Mauryan UP
  6. after the Mauryan fall, rebuilt by
  7. 4Post-Mauryan and Gupta UP
  8. after the Guptas, power shifts to
  9. 5Early Medieval UP: Kannauj, Tripartite Struggle, Gahadavalas
  10. Turkish conquest opens
  11. 6Sultanate and Mughal UP (Sharqi Jaunpur, Agra)
  12. Mughal decline gives rise to
  13. 7Regional Powers: Nawabs of Awadh, Rohillas, Bundelas

UP’s ancient history runs from Stone Age tools in the Belan Valley (Prayagraj) to Harsha’s Kannauj in the 7th century CE. It is rebuilt from two kinds of evidence: literary texts composed in the Ganga–Yamuna doab and material remains from sites such as Hastinapur (Meerut), Kaushambi and Rajghat (Varanasi).

Texts, Pilgrims and Court Works

  1. Vedic and Puranic texts: later-Vedic texts place the cultural centre in the Ganga–Yamuna doab (Madhya Desha); the Puranas keep the genealogies (vamshavali) of the solar and lunar dynasties; e.g. Hastinapur and Kaushambi in later-Vedic texts; Suryavamshi line of Ayodhya.
  2. Buddhist and Jain texts: the Tripitaka and Jatakas describe towns, guilds and trade routes; the Jain Agamas and the Kalpasutra record the Tirthankaras born in UP; e.g. first sermon (Dharmachakra Pravartana) at Sarnath; 25 rainy seasons at Shravasti (19 at Jetavana, 6 at Pubbarama); Rishabhanatha and Ajitnath born at Ayodhya; Parshvanatha, Suparshvanatha, Chandraprabha and Shreyansanatha in the Varanasi area.
  3. Foreign accounts and court works: Greek and Chinese visitors give an outsider’s view with independent dates; court literature keeps royal lives and dynastic memory; e.g. Megasthenes’ Indica; Fa-Hien at Mathura and Sankisa in Chandragupta II’s reign; Hiuen Tsang at Harsha’s Kannauj Assembly (643 CE); Bana’s Harshacharita; Udayana of Kaushambi in Bhasa’s Svapnavasavadatta and Harsha’s Ratnavali.
Places of Uttar Pradesh recorded in the literary sources
Fig. 1.1 Places of Uttar Pradesh recorded in the literary sources

Excavations, Inscriptions and Coins

  1. Excavations and tools: dated layers at excavated sites trace UP’s past from Palaeolithic stone tools to the iron tools that helped clear the Ganga forests; e.g. rice at Koldihwa (Belan Valley); 135+ iron artefacts at Atranjikhera (Etah); Sinauli carts (2018).
  2. Inscriptions and coins: inscriptions of the time confirm rulers named in the texts; coins, from punch-marked silver to Gupta gold dinaras, show how far their rule reached; e.g. Ahraura minor rock edict (Mirzapur); Allahabad Prashasti by Harishena; Bilsad (Etah), earliest record of Kumaragupta I; Bhitari pillar (Ghazipur); coins of Achyuta at Ahichchhatra.
  3. Monuments and pottery: stupas, pillars and temples show royal patronage and building skill; pottery layers give relative dates to settlements; e.g. Sarnath Lion Capital; Dashavatara temple, Deogarh; Painted Grey Ware (c. 1200–500 BCE) at Hastinapur, followed by NBPW; at Atranjikhera, OCP and Black-and-Red Ware lie below the PGW.
Key archaeological sites and evidence of ancient Uttar Pradesh
Fig. 1.2 Key archaeological sites and evidence of ancient Uttar Pradesh
The two streams of evidence for ancient Uttar Pradesh
Fig. 1.3 The two streams of evidence for ancient Uttar Pradesh

Limits of the Sources

Neither kind of evidence is complete. Texts were written to praise or to preach, and material remains survive only in pieces, so each has to be checked against the other.

  1. Literary bias: religious and court texts praise founders and patrons, mix myth with history and give only loose dates; e.g. changing Puranic king-lists; the praise-poem tone of the Harshacharita.
  2. Archaeological gaps: digging destroys layers, wood and most metal decay, coins stay in use long after their issuer, and early diggers ignored stratigraphy; e.g. Piprahwa stupa first dug in 1898 by the landowner W. C. Peppé; its deeper levels were reached only in 1971–73 by K. M. Srivastava (ASI).

Present Status and State Initiatives

  1. Return of Piprahwa gems: gems from the 1898 Piprahwa relic find were withdrawn from a Sotheby’s auction and came back to India after 127 years; e.g. July 2025; Piprahwa (Siddharthnagar) is identified with ancient Kapilavastu.
  2. Continuing excavation: ASI and university teams keep adding dated layers to UP’s early timeline; e.g. Sinauli (Baghpat) carts found in 2018; fresh Rajghat excavations since 2014.

Read together, texts and remains give UP a dated ancient history; the next step is more planned excavation and firm protection of sites under Article 49 and SDG 11.

Based on NCERT, Standard Books references, Keywords from Syllabus and Previous Year question Papers

notes-cafe.com · The Nxt Gen Study OSLicensed to the purchaser for personal study. Copying, sharing or reselling is prohibited.Topic 1.1
History of Uttar PradeshChapter 01 · Topic 2
Topic 2

Prehistoric and Protohistoric UP (incl. Harappan and Pottery Cultures)

UP’s early past begins with Stone Age tools in the Belan Valley (Prayagraj) and the rock shelters of Mirzapur–Sonbhadra. It continues through Harappan sites of the western Doab, such as Alamgirpur (Meerut) and Sinauli (Baghpat), to the iron-using PGW–NBPW towns of the Ganga plain (c. 1200–200 BCE).

Two Prehistoric Zones of UP

  1. Vindhyan–Belan zone: south of the Ganga–Yamuna, quartzite hills, rock shelters and river terraces gave early humans shelter, water and stone for tools; e.g. Belan Valley (Prayagraj; the Belan joins the Tons, which flows into the Ganga), Mirzapur, Sonbhadra, Chandauli, Banda, Hamirpur, Lalitpur.
  2. Doab and Ganga plain: fertile alluvium and the Yamuna’s tributaries drew Chalcolithic, Harappan and later iron-using farmers to open-air villages; e.g. about 70 Chalcolithic sites on the Hindon and Krishni in the west; Sohgaura (Gorakhpur), Narhan, Imlidih Khurd, Khairadih and Jhusi in the east.

Stone Age Cultures of the Belan and Vindhyas

  1. Palaeolithic: food-gatherers used large quartzite core and flake tools and lived in caves and rock shelters south of the Ganga; e.g. bone Mother Goddess of Lohanda Nala (Belan Valley), India’s earliest sculpture; tools at Chakia (Chandauli) and in the Singrauli valley (Sonbhadra).
  2. Mesolithic: microliths, the bow and arrow, the first burials and year-round lakeside camps show a semi-settled foraging life; e.g. 14 burials and 8 pit hearths at Sarai Nahar Rai; 41 burials at Damdama; bone ornaments at Mahadaha (Pratapgarh); rock shelters at Morhana Pahar and Lekhahia (Mirzapur).
  3. Neolithic: polished stone tools, hand-made cord-impressed pottery, round huts and cattle pens show the move to farming villages; e.g. rice at Koldihwa and Mahagara; cattle pen at Mahagara; early pottery at Chopani Mando (Meja, Prayagraj).
Stone Age sites of the Vindhyan–Belan zone and the Ganga plain
Fig. 1.4 Stone Age sites of the Vindhyan–Belan zone and the Ganga plain

The Harappan Frontier and the Pottery Cultures

  1. Alamgirpur: this pottery-workshop site on the Hindon, a Yamuna tributary, is the easternmost site of the Harappan civilisation; e.g. dug by Y. D. Sharma (ASI), 1958–59; beads, terracotta cakes, cubical dice, humped-bull figurine.
  2. Late Harappan Doab sites: Late Harappan and Ochre Coloured Pottery sites show the civilisation spreading east and slowly fading in the upper Doab; e.g. Hulas (inscribed sealing) and Bargaon (OCP) in Saharanpur; Mandi gold hoard (Muzaffarnagar), 2000.
  3. Sinauli: warrior burials of c. 2000–1800 BCE at this Baghpat site link the Late Harappan, OCP and Copper Hoard cultures; e.g. over 100 burials found by D. V. Sharma (2005–06); 2018 ASI dig (S. K. Manjul): copper-sheathed coffins, antenna swords, helmet, three solid-wheel carts.
  4. Painted Grey Ware: fine wheel-made grey ware painted in black marks the iron-using later-Vedic villages of the upper Ganga–Yamuna doab, c. 1200–500 BCE; e.g. Hastinapur (B. B. Lal, 1950–52), where a flood layer between PGW and NBPW is linked to the Puranic flood under King Nichakshu; Atranjikhera (R. C. Gaur, 1962–68); Jakhera (Etah); Ahichchhatra; Kampil; sites spread from Lakhiyo Pir (Sindh) in the west to Shravasti in the east.
  5. NBPW and early cities: glossy Northern Black Polished Ware (c. 700–200 BCE) spread across the Ganga plain and dates the town layers of the second urbanisation; e.g. Kaushambi, Shravasti, Ayodhya, Jajmau (Kanpur), Rajghat (Varanasi), Mathura; the ware reached from Taxila to Wari-Bateshwar (Bangladesh).
Harappan and Late Harappan sites of western Uttar Pradesh
Fig. 1.5 Harappan and Late Harappan sites of western Uttar Pradesh
Painted Grey Ware, NBPW and early iron sites of Uttar Pradesh
Fig. 1.6 Painted Grey Ware, NBPW and early iron sites of Uttar Pradesh

What UP Adds to Indian Prehistory

  1. Firsts from UP: the Belan Valley, explored by G. R. Sharma of Allahabad University, gave India its first unbroken Palaeolithic-to-Neolithic sequence and early rice; the nearby Kaimur hills gave India’s first discovered rock paintings; e.g. Sohagi Ghat (Kaimur) paintings found by Archibald Carlleyle in 1867–68, twelve years before Altamira (Spain).
  2. Bridge to history: iron, farm surplus and the NBPW towns of the doab laid the base for the Mahajanapadas, eight of which lay in UP; e.g. Kuru, Panchala, Shurasena, Vatsa, Kashi, Kosala, Malla, Chedi; Shakya republic of Kapilavastu.

Debates over Sinauli and the Early Dates

Several big claims rest on a few digs and radiocarbon dates that scholars read in different ways, so they are still open.

  1. Chariot or cart: the excavator called the Sinauli vehicles chariots, but solid disc wheels and no horse remains point to ox-drawn carts; e.g. Asko Parpola reads them as ox-drawn carts.
  2. Early rice and iron dates: claims of rice in the 7th millennium BCE and iron by 1800 BCE rest on a few dates that some archaeologists question; e.g. Rakesh Tiwari’s iron dates (1996–2001) at Malhar (Chandauli), Raja Nala-ka-Tila (Sonbhadra) and Lahuradewa (Sant Kabir Nagar), doubted by Suraj Bhan; clay furnaces with iron slag at Malhar and nearby Phakkada Baba.

Present Status and State Initiatives

  1. National importance tag: the ASI declared the Sinauli burial site a protected site of national importance to guard it from encroachment; e.g. Sadikpur Sinauli, Baghpat, notified in 2020.
  2. Iconic site and museum: the Union Budget 2020–21 named Hastinapur among five iconic archaeological sites to be developed with on-site museums; e.g. Hastinapur (Meerut), with Rakhigarhi, Dholavira, Sivasagar and Adichanallur.

UP’s sites record every stage from Stone Age foragers to the first towns, so they need more dated excavation and firm protection under Article 49 and SDG 11.

Based on NCERT, Standard Books references, Keywords from Syllabus and Previous Year question Papers

notes-cafe.com · The Nxt Gen Study OSLicensed to the purchaser for personal study. Copying, sharing or reselling is prohibited.Topic 1.2

🔒 The rest of this book is locked

19 more pages — every chapter and topic — come in the full eBook. Your PDF carries your name and mobile number on every page.

Buy & download the full PDF
Preview · 5 of 24 pages freeBuy full PDF