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Meerut is a historic city in western Uttar Pradesh, India, about 80 km north-east of Delhi, famous as the place where the Indian Rebellion of 1857 began, remembered at the Augarnath Temple and the Shaheed Smarak, and for St. John's Church and the Jain temples of nearby Hastinapur. It is also known as India's sports city for its cricket bats and sports goods.
The city grew around one of the largest British cantonments in India, and its colonial landmarks still stand: the 1822 garrison church, the Ghanta Ghar clock tower gate and the grand Mustafa Castle. Older layers survive too, from the Shahi Jama Masjid, said to date to 1019, to the Basilica of Our Lady of Graces built by Begum Samru at Sardhana.
North-east of the city lies Hastinapur, the capital of the Kuru kingdom in the Mahabharata and a holy place for Jains, with the Bada Mandir, Jambudweep and the tall Kailash Parvat temple. Visit between October and March, and use the fast RRTS trains to reach Meerut from Delhi.
The Augarnath Temple in Meerut, also called Kali Paltan Mandir, is a Shiva temple beside the army barracks, founded after a Shivalinga was found here in 1844. Its well is where the sepoys who fired the first shots of the 1857 rebellion met, and a memorial honours those rebels.
Shaheed Smarak in Meerut is the martyrs' memorial to the 1857 rebellion, standing on Delhi Road in a compound that also holds the Government Freedom Struggle Museum, opened in 1997. Its displays of stamps, pictures, postcards and coins tell the story of the uprising that began in this city.
St. John's Church in Meerut, built from 1819 to 1822 for the British garrison, is the oldest garrison church in North India. Its classical interior keeps a huge old pipe organ, wooden pews and stained glass, and its cemetery holds the graves of soldiers and officers from colonial times.
Ghanta Ghar in Meerut is the brick clock tower completed in 1914 as a gateway between the market and Meerut City railway station. Its clock came from Germany via the Allahabad High Court, and after Subhas Chandra Bose held a meeting here in the 1930s it was renamed Subhash Chandra Dwar.
The Karna Temple in Hastinapur, near Meerut, is a Shiva temple standing near the Pandeshwar temple on an old ravine along the bank of the Ganges. Its Shivling is believed to have been installed by Karna, the Mahabharata hero, and nearby Karna Ghat on the Budhi Ganga also bears his name.
Mustafa Castle in Meerut is a grand mansion completed in 1900 by Nawab Mohammad Ishak Khan in memory of his father, the Urdu poet Nawab Mustafa Khan Shefta, a friend of Mirza Ghalib. Its design blends British bungalow, Rajasthani and Lucknow styles, and it remains privately owned.
The Basilica of Our Lady of Graces in Sardhana, 19 km north-west of Meerut, is the largest church in North India, built in the early 19th century by Begum Samru, the Catholic ruler of Sardhana. Dedicated in 1822 to the Virgin Mary, it was made a minor basilica by Pope John XXIII.
Hastinapur, a town north-east of Meerut on the old bank of the Ganges, is described as the capital of the Kuru kingdom in the Mahabharata. Excavations since the 1950s have found settlement layers going back to around 1500 BCE, and today the town is best known for its many Jain temples.
The Digamber Jain Bada Mandir in Hastinapur, near Meerut, is the oldest Jain temple in the town, built in 1801 and dedicated to Shantinatha, the 16th Tirthankara, believed to have been born here. Its 40-acre complex has many later shrines, a tall manastambha pillar and a museum.
Jambudweep in Hastinapur, near Meerut, is a Jain temple complex founded in 1972 by the nun Gyanmati, centred on a 250-foot marble model of the Jain universe completed in 1985. A 101-foot Mount Sumeru rises in the middle, and visitors can climb it or take a boat around the model.
Kailash Parvat Rachna in Hastinapur, near Meerut, is a 131-foot temple built as a replica of sacred Mount Kailash and dedicated to Rishabhanatha, the first Jain Tirthankara. Consecrated in 2006, it is run by the Bada Mandir committee and is one of the town's most striking landmarks.
Hastinapur Wildlife Sanctuary protects 2,073 square kilometres of Ganges riverbanks, wetlands and grasslands near Meerut, created in 1986. It is home to Ganges river dolphins, swamp deer, otters, released gharials and more than 100 bird species, including sarus cranes and painted storks.
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Log in to add photosPhoto: Shaheed_Smarak_Meerut.jpg: Siddhartha Ghai derivative work: Hic et nunc, Wikimedia Commons, CC0
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Photo: AK Gandhi, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: AK Gandhi, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
