Basti is a city,

municipal board A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

and administrative headquarters of

Basti district Basti district is one of the districts of Uttar Pradesh state, India, and a part of Basti Division. Basti city is the district headquarters. The district is bordered by Sant Kabir Nagar to the east and Gonda to the west. To the south, the ...

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 district is part of

Basti division Basti division is one of the 18 administrative geographical units (i.e. division) of the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Basti city is the administrative headquarters of the division. Basti division consists of the following 3 dist ...

. It is situated 202 kilometres east of 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 ...

History

Basti was originally known as Vaishishthi. The origin of the name Vaishishthi is attributed to the fact that this area was the

ashram An ashram (, ) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery in Indian religions, not including Buddhism. Etymology The Sanskrit noun is a thematic nominal derivative from the root 'toil' (< Vashistha Vasishtha (, ) is one of the oldest and revered Vedic rishis or sages, and one of the Saptarishis (seven great Rishis). Vasishtha is credited as the chief author of Mandala 7 of the ''Rigveda''. Vasishtha and his family are mentioned in Rigv ...

in ancient period.

Rama Rama (; , , ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the seventh and one of the most popular avatars of Vishnu. In Rama-centric Hindu traditions, he is considered the Supreme Being. Also considered as the ideal man (''maryāda' ...

with his younger brother

Lakshmana Lakshmana (, ), also known as Laxmana, Lakhan, Saumitra, and Ramanuja, is the younger brother of Rama in the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. He is considered as an incarnation of Shesha, the lord of serpents. Lakshmana was married to Urmila, and i ...

had been here for some time with Rishi Vashistha. The tract comprising the present district was remote and much of it was covered with forest. But gradually the area became inhabitable, for want of recorded and reliable history it cannot, with any degree of certainty, be said how the district came to be known by its present name on account of the original habitation (Basti) having been selected by the Kalhans Raja Udai Raj Singh as a seat of his Raj, an event which probably occurred in the 16th century. In 1801, Basti became the Tehsil headquarters and in 1865 it was chosen as the headquarters of the newly established district. The region was under the rule of Kalhans dynasty based at modern Chaukhara. Maharaja Kesri Singh was the last ruler of Kalhans dynasty based at Chaukhara. In the freedom struggle of 1857, about 250 martyrs of

Amorha Amorha Khas is a gram panchayat in Basti district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. In the freedom struggle of 1857, about 250 martyrs of Amorha State were hanged by the British Government from peepal trees located at Chhawani. Geography A ...

state were hanged by the British Government from

peepal tree ''Ficus religiosa'' or sacred fig is a species of Ficus, fig native to the Indian subcontinent and Indochina that belongs to Moraceae, the fig or mulberry family. It is also known as the bodhi tree, bo tree, peepul tree, peepal tree, pipala tr ...

s located at

Chhawani Chhawani is a place near Amorha in Basti district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. it is also known as a place of freedom struggle of freedom fighter - State Amorha (also known as Amorha Khas). It was the main shelter for Indian fighters ...

Geography

The district lies between the parallels of 26° 23' and 27° 30' North and Latitude and 82° 17' and 83° 20' East longitude. Its maximum length from north to south is about 75 km. and breadth from east to west about 70 km. The district lies between newly created district Sant Kabir Nagar on the east and Gonda on the west. On the south, the Ghaghra river near Amorha Khas previously known as

Province or State of Raja Zalim Singh separates it from the Faizabad and newly created district named Ambedkar Nagar. While on the north, it is bounded by district Sidharth Nagar. Basti is basically between

Ayodhya Ayodhya () is a city situated on the banks of the Sarayu river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ayodhya district as well as the Ayodhya division of Uttar Pradesh, India. Ayodhya became th ...

and

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 ...

Demographics

As of 2011 Indian Census, Basti had a total population of 114,657, of which 60,095 were males and 54,562 were females. Population within the age group of 0 to 6 years was 13,349. The total number of literates in Basti was 84,389, which constituted 73.6% of the population with male literacy of 78.3% and female literacy of 68.5%. The effective literacy rate of 7+ population of Basti was 83.3%, of which male literacy rate was 88.6% and female literacy rate was 77.5%. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes population was 17,036 and 275 respectively. Basti had 17894 households in 2011.

Notable people

Obaid Siddiqi Obaid Siddiqi Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (7 January 1932 – 26 July 2013) was an Indian National Research Professor and the Founder-Director of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) National Center for Biological Science ...

, FRS (1932–2013), neurogeneticist, born in Basti

Education

The district has a medical college, Maharshi Vashishtha Autonomous State Medical College Basti, and an engineering college, Rajkiya Engineering College. Notable schools and institutions of the district are : * St. Basil's School (affiliated to

CISCE The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) is a non-governmental privately held national-level board of school education in India that conducts the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) Examination for Clas ...

)

References