Back जी.टी. रोड Bihari গ্র্যান্ড ট্রাঙ্ক রোড Bengali/Bangla Grand Trunk Road German Grand Trunk Road Spanish Grand Trunk Road Basque جاده گرند ترانک Persian Grand Trunk Road French הדרך הראשית הגדולה HE ग्रैंड ट्रंक रोड Hindi Grand Trunk Road ID
| Grand Trunk Road | |
|---|---|
| Uttarapath, Sadak-e-Azam, Shah Rah-e-Azam, Badshahi Sadak, Long Walk[a] | |
| Route information | |
| Length | 3,655 km[2] (2,271 mi) |
| Status | Currently functional |
| Existed | before 322 BCE–present |
| History | Mauryan, Sur, Mughal and British Empires |
| Time period | 16th century–present |
| Cultural significance | History of the Indian subcontinent and South Asian history |
| Known for | Trading |
| Major junctions | |
| East end | Teknaf, Bangladesh |
| West end | Kabul, Afghanistan |
| Location | |
| Major cities | Cox's Bazar, Chittagong, Feni, Dhaka, Rajshahi, Kolkata, Varanasi, Kanpur, Agra, Aligarh, Delhi, Sonipat, Panipat, Karnal, Ambala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Prayagraj Lahore, Gujranwala, Jhelum, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Jalalabad, Kabul |
The Grand Trunk Road (formerly known as Uttarapath, Sadak-e-Azam, Shah Rah-e-Azam, Badshahi Sadak, and Long Walk)[1] is one of Asia's oldest and longest major roads. For at least 2,500 years[3] it has linked Central Asia to the Indian subcontinent. It runs roughly 3,655 km (2,271 mi)[2] from Teknaf, Bangladesh on the border with Myanmar[4][5] west to Kabul, Afghanistan, passing through Chittagong and Dhaka in Bangladesh, Kolkata, Kanpur, Agra, Aligarh, Delhi, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Prayagraj in India, and Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Peshawar in Pakistan.[6][1]
The highway was built along an ancient route called Uttarapatha in the 3rd century BCE,[7] extending it from the mouth of the Ganges to the north-western frontier of India. Further improvements to this road were made under Ashoka.[citation needed] The old route was re-aligned by Sher Shah Suri to Sonargaon and Rohtas.[7][8] The Afghan end of the road was rebuilt under Mahmud Shah Durrani.[9][7] The road was considerably rebuilt in the British period between 1833 and 1860.[10]
Over the centuries, the road acted as one of the major trade routes in the region and facilitated both travel and postal communication. The Grand Trunk Road is still used for transportation in the present-day Indian subcontinent, where parts of the road have been widened and included in the national highway system.[11]
The road coincides with the current N1, Feni (Chittagong to Dhaka), N4 & N405 (Dhaka to Sirajganj), N507 (Sirajganj to Natore) and N6 (Natore to Rajshahi towards Purnea in India; NH 12 (Purnea to Bakkhali), NH 27 (Purnea to Patna), NH 19 (Kolkata to Agra), NH 44 (Agra to Jalandhar via New Delhi, Panipat, Karnal, Ambala and Ludhiana) and NH 3 (Jalandhar to Attari, Amritsar in India towards Lahore in Pakistan) via Wagah; N-5 (Lahore, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Lalamusa, Kharian, Jhelum, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Khyber Pass towards Jalalabad in Afghanistan) in Pakistan and AH1 (Torkham-Jalalabad to Kabul) to Ghazni in Afghanistan.
- ^ a b c "Sites along the Uttarapath, Badshahi Sadak, Sadak-e-Azam, Grand Trunk Road". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 17 January 2018. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
- ^ a b Tayler, Jeffrey (November 1999). "The Atlantic: "India's Grand Trunk Road"". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 7 September 2020. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
- ^ UNESCO, Caravanserais along the Grand Trunk Road in Pakistan Archived 31 May 2019 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Steel, Tim (1 January 2015). "A road to empires". Dhaka Tribune. Archived from the original on 11 February 2016. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
- ^ Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey (15 September 2015). "Cuisine along G T Road". The Times of India. Calcutta. Archived from the original on 5 January 2017. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
- ^ Khanna, Parag. "How to Redraw the World Map". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 19 August 2016. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
- ^ a b c Vadime Elisseeff, p. 159-162, The Silk Roads: Highways of Culture and Commerce
- ^ Farooqui Salma Ahmed, p. 234, A Comprehensive History of Medieval India: From Twelfth to the Mid-Eighteenth Century
- ^ K. M. Sarkar (1927). The Grand Trunk Road in the Punjab: 1849-1886. Atlantic Publishers & Distri. pp. 2–. GGKEY:GQWKH1K79D6.
- ^ 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
- ^ Singh, Raghubir (1995). The Grand Trunk Road: A Passage Through India (First ed.). Aperture Books. ISBN 9780893816445.
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