Coordinates: 27.337°N 79.

064°E

Grand Trunk Road

The Grand Trunk Road formerly known as Uttarapath, Sarak-
e-Azam, Badshahi Sarak, Sarak-e-Sher Shah is one of Asia's
Grand Trunk Road
oldest and longest major roads. For at least 2,500 years,[3] it has Uttarapath, Sadak-e-Azam,
linked Central Asia to the Indian subcontinent. It runs roughly Badshahi Sadak[a]
2,400 km (1,491 mi)[2] from Teknaf, Bangladesh on the border Route information
with Myanmar[4][5] west to Kabul, Afghanistan, passing through
Length 2,400 km[2] (1,500 mi)
Chittagong and Dhaka in Bangladesh, Kolkata, Allahabad, Delhi,
and Amritsar in India, and Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Peshawar in Status Currently functional
Pakistan.[6][1] Existed before 322 BCE–
present
Chandragupta Maurya of the Mauryan Empire in ancient India,
built his highway along this ancient route called Uttarapatha in the History Mahajanapadas,
3rd century BCE,[7] extending it from the mouth of the Ganges to Maurya, Sur, Mughal
the north-western frontier of the Empire. Further improvements to and British Empires
this road were made under Ashoka. It was rebuilt many times
Time period before c. 322 BCE-
under Sher Shah Suri, the Mughals and the British along a partly
present
similar route.[8] The old route was re-aligned by Suri to
Sonargaon and Rohtas.[7][9] The Afghan end of the road was Cultural History of the Indian
rebuilt under Mahmud Shah Durrani.[10][7] The road was significance subcontinent and
considerably rebuilt in the British period between 1833 and South Asian history
1860.[11] Major junctions

The road coincides with current N1, Feni,(Chittagong to Dhaka), East end Teknaf, Bangladesh
N4 & N405 (Dhaka to Sirajganj), N507 (Sirajganj to Natore) and West end Kabul, I Gazani in
N6 (Natore to Rajshai towards Purnea in India) in Bangladesh; Afghanistan
NH 12 (Purnea to Bakkhali ), NH 27 (Purnea to Patna), NH 19
(Kolkata to Agra), NH 44 (Agra to Jalandhar via New Delhi, Location
Sonipat, Panipat, Ambala and Ludhiana) and NH 3 (Jalandhar to Major cities Cox's Bazar,
Attari, Amritsar in India towards Lahore in Pakistan) via Wagah; Chittagong, Feni,
N-5 (Lahore, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Lalamusa, Jhelum, Rawalpindi, Comilla, Narayanganj,
Peshawar and Khyber Pass towards Jalalabad in Afghanistan) in Dhaka, Rajshahi,
Pakistan and AH1 (Torkham-Jalalabad to Kabul) to Gazani in
Howrah, Lahore,
Afghanistan.
Gujranwala,
Over the centuries, the road acted as one of the major trade routes Rawalpindi,
in the region and facilitated both travel and postal communication. Peshawar, Jalalabad,
The Grand Trunk Road is still used for transportation in present- Kabul, Kolkata,
day Indian subcontinent, where parts of the road have been Durgapur, Purnea,
widened and included in the national highway system.[12] Patna, Varanasi,
Allahabad, Kanpur,
Agra, Mathura,
Contents Aligarh, Delhi,
Sonipat, Panipat,
History Karnal, Kurukshetra,
Ancient times
 Mauryan Empire Ambala, Ludhiana,
Sur and Mughal Empires Jalandhar, Amritsar
British Empire
Republic of India
Gallery
See also
Ancient roads
Modern roads in Asia
References and notes
External links

History

Ancient times In India, GT Road coincides with NH

19 and NH 44 of National Highways
The Buddhist literature and Indian epics such as Mahabharata in India.
provide the existence of Grand Trunk road even before the
Mauryan empire and was called Uttarpatha or the "Northern road".
The road connected the eastern region of India with Central Asia and Ancient Greece.[13]

Mauryan Empire

The precursor of the modern Grand Trunk road was built by the emperor Chandragupta Maurya and was
based on the highway running from Susa to Sardis.[14] During the time of the Mauryan Empire in the 3rd
century BCE, overland trade between India and several parts of Western Asia and Bactria world went
through the cities of the north-west, primarily Takshashila and Purushapura modern-day Peshawar (in
present-day in Pakistan). Takshashila was well connected by roads with other parts of the Mauryan Empire.
The Mauryas had maintained this very ancient highway from Takshashila to Patliputra (present-day Patna
in India). Chandragupta Maurya had a whole army of officials overseeing the maintenance of this road as
told by the Greek diplomat Megasthenes who spent fifteen years at the Mauryan court. Constructed in eight
stages, this road is said to have connected the cities of Purushapura, Takshashila, Hastinapura, Kanyakubja,
Prayag, Patliputra and Tamralipta, a distance of around 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi).[10]

The route of Chandragupta was built over the ancient "Uttarapatha" or the Northern Road, which had been
mentioned by Pāṇini. The emperor Ashoka had it recorded in his edict about having trees planted, wells
built at every half kos and many "nimisdhayas", which is often translated as rest-houses along the route.
The emperor Kanishka is also known to have controlled the Uttarapatha.[7]

Sur and Mughal Empires

Sher Shah Suri, the medieval ruler of the Sur Empire, took to rebuilding Chandragupta's Royal Road in the
16th century. The old route was further rerouted at Sonargaon and Rohtas and its breadth increased. Fruit
trees and shade trees were planted. At every 2 kos, a sarai was built, the number of kos minars and baolis
increased. Gardens were also built alongside some sections of the highway. Those who stopped at the sarai
were provided food for free. His son Islam Shah Suri constructed an additional sarai in-between every sarai
originally built by Sher Shah Suri on the road toward Bengal. More sarais were built under the Mughals.
Jahangir under his reign issued a decree that all sarais be built of burnt brick and stone. Broad-leaved trees
were planted in the stretch between Lahore and Agra and he built bridges over all water bodies that were
situated on the path of the highways.[7][8] The route was referred to as "Sadak-e-Azam" by Suri, and
"Badshahi Sadak" during Mughals.[15]

British Empire

In the 1830s the East India Company started a program of metalled

road construction, for both commercial and administrative
purposes. The road, now named the Grand Trunk Road, from
Calcutta, through Delhi, to Kabul, Afghanistan was rebuilt at a
cost of £1000/mile. A Public Works Department along with a
training institute (the erstwhile Thomason College of Civil
Engineering) which is now known as the Indian Institute of
Technology Roorkee was founded, to train and employ local
A scene from the Ambala
surveyors, engineers, and overseers, to perform the work, and in
cantonment during the British India.
future maintain it and other roads.[16][17]

The road is mentioned in a number of literary works including

those of Foster and Rudyard Kipling. Kipling described the road as: "Look! Look again! and chumars,
bankers and tinkers, barbers and bunnias, pilgrims – and potters – all the world going and coming. It is to
me as a river from which I am withdrawn like a log after a flood. And truly the Grand Trunk Road is a
wonderful spectacle. It runs straight, bearing without crowding India's traffic for fifteen hundred miles –
such a river of life as nowhere else exists in the world."[18]

Republic of India

The ensemble of historic sites along the road in India was submitted to the tentative list of UNESCO World
Heritage Sites in 2015, under the title "Sites along the Uttarapath, Badshahi Sadak, Sadak-e-Azam, Grand
Trunk Road".[1]

Psephologists sometimes refer to the area around the GT Road as the "GT Road belt" within the context of
elections. For example, during the elections in Haryana the area on either side of the GT Road from
Ambala to Sonipat, which has 28 legislative assembly constituencies where there is no dominance of one
caste or community, is referred to as the "GT road belt of Haryana".[19][20]

Gallery
Mughal era Kos Grand Trunk Road GT Road near Barhi, Grand Trunk Road
Minar along GT road in Uttarpradesh, India towards Burdwan
at Sonipat, India India from Hooghly.

GT Road in Lahore, GT Road above the Original GT Road Newly realigned GT

Pakistan. River Jhelum, passing through Road passing by the
Pakistan. Margalla Hills to westernmost point of
Kala Chitta Range, Margalla Hills to
Pakistan. Kala Chitta Range,
Pakistan.

Kabul–Jalalabad Mountain pass on

Road, Afghanistan, the Kabul–Jalalabad
is westernmost Road, Afghanistan.
stretch of the GT
Road.

See also

Ancient roads
Silk route – ancient Sino-Indo-European route
 Via Maris (International Trunk Road) –
modern name of main ancient international
route between Egypt and Mesopotamia

Modern roads in Asia

AH1, or Asian Highway 1 – the longest
route of the Asian Highway Network,
running from Japan to Turkey
Asian Highway Network (AH) aka the
Great Asian Highway - project to improve
the highway systems in Asia
Afghanistan
Highway 1 (Afghanistan) – 2,200 km
(1,400 mi) circular road network inside
Afghanistan
Pakistan
National Highways of Pakistan, all
government highways
Motorways of Pakistan – network of major
expressways
India
National highways in India – network of
government-managed highways
Expressways in India – the highest class of
roads in the Indian road network
Golden Quadrilateral – highway network
connecting major centres of northern,
western, southern and eastern India
National Highways Development Project –
a project to upgrade and widen major
highways in India
National Highways Authority of India

References and notes

1. Centre, UNESCO World Heritage. "Sites along the Uttarapath, Badshahi Sadak, Sadak-e-
Azam, Grand Trunk Road" (https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/6056/). UNESCO World
Heritage Centre. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
2. The Atlantic: "India's Grand Trunk Road" (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/199
9/11/indias-grand-trunk-road/377875/)
3. UNESCO, Caravanserais along the Grand Trunk Road in Pakistan (https://en.unesco.org/sil
kroad/knowledge-bank/caravanserais-along-grand-trunk-road-pakistan)
4. Steel, Tim (1 January 2015). "A road to empires" (http://www.dhakatribune.com/heritage/201
4/dec/31/road-empires). Dhaka Tribune. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
5. Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey (15 September 2015). "Cuisine along G T Road" (http://timesofindi
a.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Cuisine-along-G-T-Road/articleshow/48969618.cms). The
Times of India. Calcutta. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
6. Khanna, Parag. "How to Redraw the World Map" (https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2
014/07/03/where-do-borders-need-to-be-redrawn/permeable-lines-on-the-grand-trunk-road).
The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0362-4331).
Retrieved 19 July 2016.
7. Vadime Elisseeff, p. 159-162, The Silk Roads: Highways of Culture and Commerce (https://b
ooks.google.com/books?id=zRPbecWnkoIC&pg=PA161&dq=sher+shah+suri+maurya+roht
as&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi0v6muqcPiAhUNX30KHdI5Ae8Q6AEIOTAD#v=onepage
&q=sher%20shah%20suri%20maurya%20rohtas&f=false)
8. Romila Thapar, p. 236, Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300 (https://books.google.com/b
ooks?id=-5irrXX0apQC&pg=PA236&dq=sher+shah+royal+highway+taxila&hl=en&sa=X&v
ed=0ahUKEwj0oZPtr8jiAhWPbisKHUbJDQkQ6AEIMjAC#v=onepage&q=sher%20shah%2
0royal%20highway%20taxila&f=false)
 9. Farooqui Salma Ahmed, p. 234, A Comprehensive History of Medieval India: From Twelfth
to the Mid-Eighteenth Century (https://books.google.com/books?id=sxhAtCflwOMC&pg=PA2
34&dq=sher+shah+highway+peshawar+sonargaon&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjlrczu4cX
iAhXXfysKHRqLCncQ6AEIPTAE#v=onepage&q=sher%20shah%20highway%20peshawa
r%20sonargaon&f=false)
10. K. M. Sarkar (1927). The Grand Trunk Road in the Punjab: 1849-1886 (https://books.google.
com/books?id=qFdJbRywbKwC&pg=PA2). Atlantic Publishers & Distri. pp. 2–.
GGKEY:GQWKH1K79D6.
11. David Arnold (historian); Science, technology, and medicine in colonial India (New Cambr
hist India v.III.5) Cambridge University Press, 2000, 234 pages p. 106 (https://books.google.c
om/books?id=3gk5j2u5AnUC&pg=PA106)
12. Singh, Raghubir (1995). The Grand Trunk Road: A Passage Through India (https://archive.or
g/details/grandtrunkroadpa00sing) (First ed.). Aperture Books.
13. Sanjeev, Sanyal (15 November 2012). Land of the Seven Rivers: A Brief History of India's
Geography (https://books.google.com/books?id=Uv_iDQAAQBAJ). Penguin Random
House India Private Limited. pp. 72–73, 103. ISBN 9788184756715.
14. Benjamin Walker, p. 69, Hindu World: An Encyclopedic Survey of Hinduism. In Two
Volumes. Volume II M-Z (https://books.google.co.in/books?id=8J2RDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT69&
dq=chandragupta+grand+trunk+road&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjOop-Rn8PiAhUPWysK
HZxdCggQ6AEIRDAF#v=onepage&q=chandragupta%20grand%20trunk%20road&f=false)
15. Anu Kapur, p. 84, Mapping Place Names of India (https://books.google.com/books?id=ApCK
DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT84&dq=sadak+e+azam+sher+shah&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjOw-
6Vr8PiAhXZfSsKHS8CBIgQ6AEILTAB#v=onepage&q=sadak%20e%20azam%20sher%20
shah&f=false)
16. St. John, Ian (2011). The Making of the Raj: India under the East India Company (https://boo
ks.google.com/books?id=RKoNdrBULtQC&q=indian+roads+grand+trunk+road+east+india+
company&pg=PA83). ABC-CLIO. pp. 83–84. ISBN 9780313097362. Retrieved 15 May
2018.
17. Gupta, Das (2011). Science and Modern India: An Institutional History, c.1784-1947: Project
of History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization, Volume XV, Part 4 (http
s://books.google.com/books?id=Pks7BAAAQBAJ&q=indian+roads+grand+trunk+road+east
+india+company&pg=PA455). Pearson Education India. pp. 454–456.
ISBN 9788131753750.
18. A description of the road by Kipling, found both in his letters and in the novel Kim (http://ww
w.firstworldwar.com/poetsandprose/texts/Rudyard%20Kipling%20-%20Kim.txt).
19. BJP on a strong footing in northern districts (https://www.hindustantimes.com/chandigarh/bjp
-on-a-strong-footing-in-northern-districts/story-IyOgq3jDxR12VL2SYsaT3I.html), Hindustan
Times, 30 March 2016.
20. Haryana assembly elections: BJP counts on strategy (https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cit
y/chandigarh/haryana-assembly-elections-bjp-counts-on-strategy/articleshow/71461872.cm
s), Times of India, 6 October 2019.
a. The road was known as Uttarapatha during the Mauryan period (4th – 2nd Century BCE),
Sadak-e-Azam or Shah Rah-e-Azam (The Great Road) during Suri period (1540-1556 CE),
as Badshahi Sadak (King's Road) during Mughal period and as Grand Trunk Road or Long
Walk during the British period.[1]

External links
Farooque, Abdul Khair Muhammad (1977), Roads and Communications in Mughal India.
Delhi: Idarah-i Adabiyat-i Delli.
 Weller, Anthony (1997), Days and Nights on the Grand Trunk Road: Calcutta to Khyber.
Marlowe & Company.
Kipling, Rudyard (1901), Kim. Considered one of Kipling's finest works, it is set mostly along
the Grand Trunk Road. Free e-texts are available, for instance here (http://www.gutenberg.ne
t/etext/2226).
Usha Masson Luther; Moonis Raza (1990). Historical routes of north west Indian
Subcontinent, Lahore to Delhi, 1550s–1850s A.D. Sagar Publications.
Arden, Harvey (May 1990). "Along the Grand Trunk Road". National Geographic. 177 (5):
118–38.
Mozammel, Md Muktadir Arif (2012). "Grand Trunk Road" (http://en.banglapedia.org/index.p
hp?title=Grand_Trunk_Road). In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia:
National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
Tayler, Jeffrey (November 1999). "India's Grand Trunk Road" (https://www.theatlantic.com/m
agazine/archive/1999/11/indias-grand-trunk-road/377875/). The Atlantic Monthly. 284 (5):
42–48.
National Highway Authority of India (https://web.archive.org/web/20160611061444/http://ww
w.nhai.org/)
National Highway Authority of Pakistan (http://www.nha.gov.pk/)
NPR: Along the Grand Trunk Road (https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12
6395475)

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