Gorakhpur

Gorakhpur stands on the Rapti River, its name recalling the Nath ascetic Gorakhnath and the shrine dedicated to him. Rivers protected the old settlement to the south and west, while dense forests once lay to the north and east. Local tradition tells of a branch of the Satasi rulers moving near the shrine around 1400 after a family dispute.

By Akbar's reign Gorakhpur had grown into a substantial town and a Mughal garrison. The Ain-i-Akbari lists it as the capital of a sarkar in Awadh, with a brick fort on the Rapti and a mint issuing copper coins. In the seventeenth century merchants passed through on routes to the northern mountains. The town was later called Mu'azzamabad in honour of Prince Mu'azzam, the future Bahadur Shah I. In 1801 the Nawab of Awadh ceded Gorakhpur to the East India Company.