Aligarh

Aligarh (अलीगढ़) is a city and District in Uttar Pradesh. Aligarh has been renamed as Harigarh in 2022.

Variants

Harigarh - Some historians are of the view that its original name is Harigarh and its name was changed as Aligarh during Mughal Empire.
Ramgarh was named by the Jat ruler in 1757.
Koil (कोल)/(कोइल) AS, p.237)
Asi (आसी) अलीगढ़ का पुराना नाम (AS, p.72)
Aligarh अलीगढ़ (AS, p.43)
Urdu: علی گڑھ

Location

The city is located about 90 miles south-east of New Delhi. It is the administrative headquarters of Aligarh District, and has a population of half a million. It is mostly known as a university town where the famous Aligarh Muslim University is located.

Tahsils in Aligarh district

History

Ram Sarup Joon^[1] writes that ....Samudra Gupta conquered the whole of Punjab and a major part of India. The clans defeated by him included

Malaya who ruled Malva named after their gotra.
Arjunayana who ruled Mewat and Jaipur;
Yaudheya whose rule included Bikaner and Bahawalpur;
Madrak whose capital was Sialkot;
Abir who ruled Badaun, and the Betwa Basin now called Ahirwara;
Vir Arjun clan who ruled Narisinghpur;
Sankanika who territory was present Gwalior;
Karaskar rule extended into present Mathura, Aligarh (there are 80 villages of these Jats in this area at present) and Kharparika.

Its earliest name was Kol. Till the advent of 18th century Aligarh was known as Kol.

After the British occupation of Aligarh in September 1803, the present Aligarh district was formed in 1804 ^[2].

Akbar and Jahangir visited Kol on hunting expeditions. Jahangir clearly mentions the forest of Kol, where he killed wolves. From the study of the place-names of the district, it appears that the district was once fairly well covered by forest, thickets and grooves. The early history of the district, indeed down to the 12th century AD is obscure^[2].

Kol or Koil, was the earliest name of the city and Aligarh was the name of the fort nearby^[3]. Kol covered not only the city but the entire district, though its geographical limits kept changing from time to time. The historians consider the origin of the name of Kol as obscure. In some ancient texts, Kol has been referred to in the sense of a tribe or Caste, name of a place or mountain and name of a sage or demon. According to Jat historian Dharmpal Singh Dudee, Kol (कोल) is a gotra of Jats and these people are descendants of Kapil rishi. ^[4]

During the times of Ibrahim Lodhi, when Muhammad, son of Umar was the governor of Kol, he built a fort and named the city after his own name as Muhammadgarh in 1524-25; and Sabit khan who was the governor of this region during the time of Farrukh Siyar and Muhammad Shah, rebuilt the fort and named the town after his own name Sabitgarh. After the occupation of Kol by the Jats in 1755, it was re-named Ramgarh and finally, when a Shia commander, Mirza Najaf Khan, captures Kol, he gave it its present name of Aligarh. Aligarh Fort (also called Aligarh Qila), as it stands today, was built by French engineers under the control of French officers Benoît de Boigne and Perron ^[2].

Jat villages in Aligarh district

Some important Jat villages in Aligarh are: 1. Gauraula, 2. Gharbara, 3. Usrah, 4. Malab, 5. Jikarpur, 6. Jattari, 7. Syarol, 8. Hamidpur, 9. Manchad, 10. Khaida Sattu, 11. Ghangoli, 12. Sapera, 13. Bhareri, 14. Pisawa,

See complete list here - List of Jat Villages in Aligarh

अलीगढ़

विजयेन्द्र कुमार माथुर^[5] ने लेख किया है ...अलीगढ़ (AS, p.43) प्राचीन नाम कोइल या कोल भी कहलाता है। अलीगढ़ शहर, उत्तरी भारत के उत्तर-मध्य उत्तर प्रदेश राज्य में है। यह दिल्ली के दक्षिण-पूर्व में स्थित है। इसके पास ही अलीगढ़ नाम का एक क़िला है। कोल नाम की तहसील अब भी अलीगढ़ ज़िले में है। अलीगढ़ नाम 'नजफ़ खाँ' का दिया हुआ है। 1717 ई. में 'साबित खाँ' ने इसका नाम 'साबितगढ़' और 1757 में जाटों ने रामगढ़ रखा था। उत्तर मुग़ल काल में यहाँ सिंधिया का कब्ज़ा था। उसके फ़्रांसीसी सेनापति पेरन का क़िला आज भी खण्डहरों के रूप में नगर से तीन मील दूर है। इसे 1802 ई. में लॉर्ड लेक ने जीता था। यह क़िला पहले रामगढ़ कहलाता था

कोल

विजयेन्द्र कुमार माथुर^[6] ने लेख किया है ...कोल (AS, p.237) अलीगढ़, उत्तर प्रदेश के स्थान पर बसा हुआ एक प्राचीन नगर था। कोल नाम की तहसील अब भी अलीगढ़ ज़िले में है। संभवत: यह नगर वराह (कोल) भगवान की उपासना का केन्द्र था, जैसा कि यहाँ के बाराही के प्राचीन मंदिर से भी प्रमाणित होता है। एक किवदंती यह भी है कि इस स्थान पर बलराम ने कोल नामक राक्षस को मारा था। अलीगढ़ का प्राचीन नाम 'कोइल' भी बताया जाता है।

राजा महेन्द्र प्रताप सिंह विश्व विद्यालय अलीगढ़ की आधार शिला रखी

दिनांक 14 सितम्बर 2021 दिन मंगलवार को माननीय प्रधानमंत्री श्री नरेन्द्र मोदी जी भारत सरकार ने माननीय मुख्य मंत्री उत्तर प्रदेश सरकार श्री योगी जी की उपस्थिति में राजा महेन्द्र प्रताप सिंह विश्व विद्यालय अलीगढ़ की आधार शिला रखी। प्रस्तावित लागत 100 करोड़ तथा निमार्ण अवधि लगभग 2 वर्ष निश्चित किया गया है ।