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from Wikipedia Allahabad:
Allahabad (Hindi: इलाहाबाद; Urdu: الہ آباد Ilāhābād) is the English name of a city in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
The name is derived from the one given to the city by the Mughal Emperor Akbar in 1583. The name in Indian languages or in India generally is Allāhbād; Lah illahaillalāh being Arabic for "(a) god" (in this context from Din-i-Ilahi, the religion founded by Akbar), and "-ābād" is Persian for "to construct or to create"(opposite of "barbad", or "to destroy"). The ancient name of the city is Prayāga (Sanskrit for "place of sacrifice", Prayāg in modern Hindi) and is believed to be the spot where Brahma offered his first sacrifice after creating the world. It is one of four sites of the Kumbh Mela, the others being Haridwar, Ujjain and Nasik. It has a position of importance in the Hindu religion and mythology since it is situated at the confluence of the holy rivers Ganga and Yamuna, and Hindu belief says that the invisible Sarasvati River joins here also. Because solar events in Allahabad occur 5 hours and 27.4 minutes ahead of Greenwich, the city is very close to the reference point for IST or Indian Standard Time which is + 5 hours and 30 minutes ahead of Greenwich. Allahabad is -2.6 minutes behind IST and Varanasi is +2 minutes ahead of IST. Actual IST longitude is between these two cities. |
