This part of northern India comprises nearly 300 thousand square kilometers. It is divided into three geophysical zones: the Himalaya Mountains of Uttaranchal, the Gangetic plain and the plateaus and hills in southeastern Uttar Pradesh.
The Himalayas have two ranges here: the Great Himalayas and the Lesser Himalayas or Siwalik Range. The former reach above 7,800 meters at Nanda Devi. The Siwaliks stay below 4,000 meters in Uttaranchal.
The plain of the Ganga (or Ganges) River is tilted toward the southeast. The river is formed in the Great Himalayas from the Alaknanda and the Pindar. It flows southwest into Uttar Pradeh and then bends around to the southeast, exiting into Bihar. Its chief tributary, the Yamuna(4), originates in the Great Himalayas in northwest Uttaranchal, and parallels the Ganga, forming Uttar Pradesh's west border and then flowing through the state's southwest to join the mother river's right at Allahabad. The Yamuna receives the Charibal, Betwa and Ken on its right. Several left bank tributaries of the Ganga cross Uttar Pradesh: the Gomati(5) and the Ghaghara(6), with its feeds the Sarda and the Rapti. Another one, the Gandak, approximates the state's northeast border.
Southeastern Uttar Pradesh is crossed by the Kaimur Range, essentially the far eastern extension of the Vindhyas. Immediately south of it is the Son River, which heads east into Bihar on its way to the Ganga. Its right bank tributaries emerge from more high country. One of them is dammed to form the two states' largest body of water: the Govind Ballabh (or Ballash) Pant Sagar.
Nearly 190 million people live here (2007). Perhaps four in five of them speak Hindi-Urdu and one in five Bhojpuri.(7) Nearly 17 in 20 are Hindu and three in 20 Moslem.
There are seven cities with more than a million residents: Kanpur(8), Lakhnau(9), Agra, Mirat(10), Varanasi(11), Ghaziabad and Allahabad.
Locally are important places of what were the new religions of India, such as the place where the Buddha attained Nirvana, the death place of the Ajivika leader, Gosala and the claimed birthplace of the first head of the Jains.
northwest
northeast of Uttaranchal
southeast of Uttaranchal and northeast of Uttar Pradesh
east of Uttar Pradesh
southeast of Uttar Pradesh
south of Uttar Pradesh
southwest of Uttar Pradesh
(1) Its other official name, in transliteration, is Bharat.
(2) Uttar means northern in Hindi.
(3) Pradesh means state.
(4) Also called the Jumna.
(5) Also called the Gumti.
(6) Also called the Gogra.
(7) The Indian government considers Hindi and Urdu separate languages. They have distinct literary traditions using separate scripts, and are associated with different religions. The government considers Bhojpuri a form of Hindi. Bhojpuri does not have a historical literary tradition. Some group Bhojpuri with two other languages as Bihari. Some consider the Braj and Awadh dialects of Hindi as separate languages.
(8) Formerly spelled Cawnpore.
(9) Also spelled Lucknow.
(10) Also spelled Meerut.
(11) Also spelled Benares
(12) The first two are known as dialects of lower class people in plays otherwise in Sanskrit. Magadhi was the Buddha's language and gave rise to the scriptural language, Pali. Ardha-Magadhi (half-Magadhi) was the Jain scriptural language.