North India · Uttar Pradesh
Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh
About Saharanpur
- Inland
Where it is
Saharanpur is a city in the far north-west of Uttar Pradesh, near the borders of Haryana and Uttarakhand, on the plains south of the Shivalik hills, about 61 km south-west of Dehradun.
History
Local tradition holds that the Delhi sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq named the place Shah-Haroonpur in the 14th century after a Sufi saint, Shah Haroon Chishti. It became a Mughal administrative centre and came under British rule in 1803, and in the 19th century its botanical garden, one of the oldest in India, helped introduce Chinese tea plants to the Himalayan foothills.
People
Hindi and Urdu are the main languages, with the Khari Boli dialect spoken in the countryside. Many craftsmen carve furniture, boxes and screens in the city's woodwork workshops, and the Shakumbhari Devi fair draws pilgrims each year.
Known for
- Hand-carved sheesham woodwork
- The historic Company Bagh botanical garden
- Shakumbhari Devi Temple
- Darul Uloom Deoband, in the same district
- Mango orchards
Did you know?
Saharanpur's hand-carved woodwork, much of it in sheesham, holds a Geographical Indication tag and has earned it the name Wood Carving City.
We haven't written a guide for this place yet — you can still plan a trip here.