Ujjain

Town in Madhya Pradesh state, central India, on the Shipra River; population (1991) 367,200. It is one of the seven sacred Hindu cities, and every 12th year is visited by pilgrims for Kumbh Mela, a triennial bathing festival it shares with three other towns. It was once a centre for trade with Egypt and Mesopotamia, but has declined in importance. There are numerous Muslim and Hindu palaces and monuments, and a university founded in 1957.

It was the capital of the Avanti kingdom (6th–4th centuries BC) and in the 2nd–4th centuries AD was a centre of Sanskrit learning; Sanskrit geographers placed their first meridian of longitude through Ujjain.