Saharanpur

Saharanpur lies in the northern Doab, where forests and marshes once surrounded the rivers flowing down from the hills. Local tradition connects its name with the Sufi saint Shah Haroon Chishti, whose tomb stands in an old quarter of the town. Under Akbar, Saharanpur became part of Delhi province, and Raja Sah Ranveer Singh laid out a walled settlement with a fort and a Jain temple.

In the eighteenth century Rohilla and Maratha leaders contested the region. The Rohilla chief Najib-ud-Daula took up residence at Saharanpur in 1754, while later rulers added quarters and fortifications. After the defeat of his grandson Ghulam Qadir in 1788, the town came under Maratha administration. The East India Company gained supremacy after the Second Anglo-Maratha War in 1803; an uprising led by Kunja Singh against Company rule was suppressed in 1824.