GORAKHPUR, a city, district and division of the United Provinces of British India. The city is situated on the left bank of the river Rapti. Pop. (1931) 59,369. It is believed to have been founded about A.D. 1400. It is the civil headquarters of the district and an important depot for recruits coming from Nepal to join the Gurkha regiments of the Indian army. It is also the headquarters of the Bengal and North-western railway, with its workshops and a large settlement of European employees. The town itself is little better than a collection of adjacent village sites, sometimes separated by cultivated land, and most of the inhabitants are agriculturists.
The DISTRICT OF GORAKHPUR has an area of 4,534 sq.m. It lies immediately south of the lower Himalayan slopes, but itself forms a portion of the great alluvial plain. Only a few sandhills break the monotony of its level surface, which is, however, inter sected by numerous rivers (Gogra, Gandak, Rapti and others) studded with lakes and marshes. In the north and centre dense forests abound, and the district is not subject to very intense heat, from which it is secured by its vicinity to the hills and the moisture of its soil.
Gautama Buddha was born, and died near the boundaries of the district ; and near Kasia are remains which were long (but prob ably erroneously) believed to mark his burial-place. From the beginning of the 6th century the country was the scene of a con tinuous struggle between the Bhars and their Rajput antagonists, the Rathors.
Towards the end of the i6th century the Mohammedans occupied Gorakhpur town, but they interfered very little with the district, and allowed it to be controlled by the local rajas. In the middle of the i8th century a formidable foe, the Ban jaras from the west, so weakened the power of the rajas that they could not resist the fiscal exactions of the Oudh of ficials, who plundered the country to a great extent. The district formed part of the territory ceded by Oudh to the British under the treaty of I 8o 1. The popula tion in 1931 was 3,567,561.
The Division comprises the three dis tricts of Gorakhpur, Basti and Azamgarh, and has an area of 9,565 sq.m. The popu lation in 1931 was 7,217,162, giving an average density of 754 persons per sq.m., the highest for any large tract in India.