a city in north India that is one of the country's oldest and most holy cities. or Prayag Raj City (pop., 2001 prelim.: metro. area, 1,049,579), northern India, on the Ganges and Yamuna rivers. An ancient holy city sacred to Hindu pilgrims, it is the site of the Pillar of Ashoka (erected 240 BC). Under Muslim rule 1194-1801, it was then ceded to the British. The Mughal emperor Akbar built a fort there in the late 16th century. It was the scene of a serious outbreak in the 1857 Indian Mutiny. As the home of the Nehru family, it was later a centre of the Indian independence movement. It is the site of the Jmi Masjid (Great Mosque) and Allahabad University