UJJAIN or Ujjaiyini, a town in the Native State of Gwalior, the dominions of the maharaja Sindia, in Malwa, situated on the right bank of the river Sipra, in lat. 23° 11' 10" N., and long. 75° 51' 45" E. Ujjain was in ancient times the capital of Malwa, was one of the seven sacred cities of the Hindus, and the spot which. marked the first meridian of Hindu geographers. It is stated to have been the seat of the viceroyalty of the famous .Asoka during the reign of his father • at Pataliputra (circ. B.C. 263), but it is best known in history as the capital of Vikramaditya. The neighbourhood of the city was, in 1658, the scene of the decisive battle between Aurangzeb and his brother Dara. The ruins of the ancient city are situated about a. nide to the northward. It is also called Visala and Pashpakarandini. It is the ancient .A.vanti, a city noted in versos 28 and 31 of the Meghaduta. Hindu geographers make it their first meridian, and calculate their longitude from it. But the present city was preceded by an older one, now in ruins. Hunter supposed it had been overwhelmed by a shower of earth, Malcohn suggested it had been destroyed by a flood, but in the tradition of the people it was overturned by an earthquake.
The surface of the hill (of the old city), where it has not been ploughed and picked, is strewed with fragments of stone, just as would be expected in a place which had once been covered with houses ; the broken pieces of trap being parts of walls of which the larger pieces have been taken away as materials for other buildings.
The ruins furnish so large a quantity of antiques, that the natives call the place Roza-ka-Sadabirta, and it is in truth a never-failing charity for the industrious poor. In the idle days of the rains the digging begins. The principal things found are glass, stone, and wooden beads, small jewels of little value, seals, (agate and cornelian), and a few women's ornaments ; copper zoins are numer ous ; next in number are the debased silver Gujerati ones. Pure silver rupees seem scarce, and gold mohurs are either secreted and melted when found, or they but rarely reward the searcher. The pilgrims carry away with them as relics what has been dug out of the Junagarh, and merchants mix with the real antiques every old bead or piece of copper which has an ancient look, and pass them off as genuine on the unsuspicious natives.
There are caves in the neighbouring hilla known as Raja I3hirtrra hermitage, and a well near known as that of Bibi Mako.—Dr. Buist in Trans. of the Bomb. Geog. Soc. pp. 139-767 ; Jour. of the Asint. Soc. of Bev.; Williams' Story of Ica/a, p. 1 I 6 ; Captain 1Varren ; Imp. Gaz.