Pratapgarh District

Pratapgarh district is one of the districts of Uttar Pradesh state of India, and Pratapgarh town is the district headquarters. Pratapgarh district is a part of Allahabad division. Pratapgarh district, lies between 25° 34' and 26° 11' latitudes while between 81° 19' and 82° 27' longitudes. Pratapgarh is primarily an agrarian district, and is a leading producer of aonla fruit[citation needed]. Pratapgarh is on the Allahabad-Faizabad main road at a distance of 39 km from Sultanpur and 61 km from Allahabad. It is one of the older districts of Uttar Pradesh, that came into existence in the year 1858. It is at a height of 137 m from sea level.

History

The district that forms a part of Faizabad Division is named after its headquarters town Bela Pratabgarh, commonly known as Pratapgarh. Soel Uddin is Pratap man, a raja of the locality who flourished in the 17th century, fixed his headquarters at Rampur near old town of Aror. There he built a garh (fort) and called it Pratabgarh after his own name (1617). Subsequently the locality around the fort came to be known as Pratapgarh Soel Uddin. When the district was constituted in 1858 its headquarters was established at Bela which came to be known as Bela Pratapgarh, the name Bela presumably being derived from the temple of Bela Bhawani on the bank of river Sai. Bhayaharan Nath Dham, katra gulab singh & Haudeshwar Nath dham (Shivaji Temple) is one of the famous temples in Pratapgarh. Near Kunda Tahseel is a second temple in Agni village famous as Durga Bhavani. Although the city is too old, but it is too behind in the field of education, technology, sport and science. There is not a single university and there is a stadium to play for children, there is not a single mall in the whole city. And five English medium schools are opened in recent years. The city is well known for its literacy and well mannered people.

Archaeological finds

Several human skeletons along some animal bones and a number of a small stones implements, belonging probably to the Neolithic, have been unearthed in Archaeological exploration at Sarai Nahar in Kunda Tehsil. It is the only site in the entire valley of the Ganges which has yielded human skeleton of such an early age as also the Stone Age implements. On the left bank of river Sai there stand a ruined "Kot" representing a Buddhist Stupa.