page_title: Ghazipur
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Ghazipur / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Watercolour painting of a Mughal palace at Ghazipur, India. The image is from the Collection "Views by Seeta Ramx from Patna to Benares Vol. II", which was produced for Lord Moira
context_page_description: Ghazipur, is a town in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Ghazipur city is the administrative headquarters of the Ghazipur district, one of the four districts that form the Varanasi division of Uttar Pradesh.
  The city of Ghazipur also constitutes one of the seven distinct tehsils, or subdivisions, of the Ghazipur district.
  Ghazipur is well known for its opium factory, established by the British East India Company in 1820 and still the biggest legal opium factory in the world, producing the drug for the global pharmaceutical industry. Ghazipur lies close to the Uttar Pradesh-Bihar border, about 80 km east of Varanasi and 50 km from Buxar, the entry point to Bihar state.
context_section_description: As per the verbal and folk history. Ghazipur was covered with dense forest during the Vedic era and it was a place for ashrams of saints during that period. The place is related to the Ramayana period. Maharshi Jamadagni, the father of Maharshi Parashurama, is said to have resided here. The famous Gautama Maharishi and Chyavana were given teaching and sermon here in ancient period. Lord Buddha gave his first sermon in Sarnath, which is not far from here. Hsüan Tsang (629AD) has described name of this place in Chinese as Chen-Chu that stands for "lord of conflict or battle" as translation of Garjanpati, and its original name was Garzapur. However some sources state that the original name was Gadhipur in honour of Prince Gadhi (incarnation of Lord Indra).
  A 30 ft. high Ashoka Pillar is situated in Latiya, a village 30 km away from the ghazipur city near Zamania Tehsil is a symbol of Mauryan Empire. It was declared a monument of national importance and protected by the archeological survey of India. In the report of tours in that area of 1871–72 Sir Alexander Cunningham wrote, "The village receives its name from a stone lat, or monolith".
caption: A Mughal palace in Ghazipur, 1814–15