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Cawnpore

City, 1801–1947

Kānpurکان پورکانپورकानपुर

Today Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. Same place, renamed.

Key facts

Historical name
Cawnpore
Type
City
Coordinates
26.4725° N, 80.3311° E(seed dataset)
Governance
Directly administered
Record confidence
High confidence
Identifiers
Q66568

Directly administered by the Governor-General of India, and therefore part of British India in the statutory sense of the Interpretation Act 1889, s.18.

Location

Pin placed at the coordinates recorded for this place. Colonial-era boundaries are not drawn.

Description

Great Ganges-side industrial and military station, described in the Imperial Gazetteer as head-quarters of the district of the same name and the third largest city of the United Provinces.

Historical notes

Site of the 1857 siege of the British entrenchment and of the Satichaura Ghat and Bibighar killings, which made 'Cawnpore' a byword in British accounts of the Mutiny. Later the leather and cotton-mill capital of northern India; now spelled Kanpur.

Administrative history

Administrative parenthood changed over time. Each row states the years it is recorded for, and the source it comes from.

Administrative units this place is recorded under, by year
YearsRelationUnitConfidence
from 1901Part ofUnited Provinces of Agra and OudhProvince · Directly administeredSnapshot from the 1901 census and the Imperial Gazetteer of India (1908-31). End of the relationship not established; recorded as open rather than inferred.High confidencesource
from 1901Part ofCawnporeDistrict · Directly administeredSnapshot from the 1901 census and the Imperial Gazetteer of India (1908-31). End of the relationship not established; recorded as open rather than inferred.High confidencesource

Recorded names

Every documented spelling and transliteration held for this place. The historical name is canonical; modern names redirect to it.

Name variants recorded for this place
NameScriptTypeYears
CawnporeLatinHistorical English
CawnpoorLatinAlternative spelling
CawnporeLatinAlternative spelling
Cawnpore CityLatinAlternative spelling
KanpurLatinModern English
KānpurOther scriptAlternative spelling
KatampurLatinAlternative spelling
Leather City of IndiaLatinAlternative spelling
Manchester of the EastLatinAlternative spelling
کان پورArabicIndigenous
کانپورArabicIndigenous
कानपुरDevanagariIndigenous

Records and references

Imperial Gazetteer of India
Imperial Gazetteer of India (1908-31), Vol. IX (9), p. 315

Sources

  1. Encyclopedia· generalCC BY-SA

    Wikipedia: Kanpur, Wikimedia Foundation

    Wikipedia contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0

    Retrieved 2026-08-29

  2. Database· identityCC0

    Wikidata (Q66568), Wikimedia Foundation

    Wikidata, CC0 1.0

    Retrieved 2026-08-29

  3. Gazetteer· administrativeLicence unverified

    Imperial Gazetteer of India (1908–31), DSAL entry: Cawnpore City, University of Chicago / Digital South Asia Library

    Digital South Asia Library, University of Chicago — the 1908–31 text is public domain, but DSAL's digital presentation states no licence; link-out only

    Retrieved 2026-08-29

Sources tagged “Licence unverified” are linked to rather than reproduced. Scans and images are only displayed inline where the licence is confirmed permissive.