HistoryEdit

The present Kushinagar is identified withKushawati( in pre-Buddha period ) andKushinara (in Buddha period). Kushinara was the capital of Mallas which was one of thesixteen mahajanpads of the 6th Century B.C. Since then, it remained an integral part of the erstwhile empires of Maurya, Shunga,Kushana, Gupta and Harsha dynasties.

In medieval period, Kushinagar had passed under the suzerainty of Kultury Kings. Kushinara continued to be a living city till the 12th Century A.D. and was thereafter lost into oblivion. Padrauna is believed to be ruled over by a Rajput adventurer, Madan Singh in the 15th century A.D.

However, modern Kushinagar came into prominence in the 19th Century with archeological excavations carried out byAlexander Cunningham, the firstArcheological Surveyor of India and later followed by C.L. Carlleyle who exposed the main stupa and also discovered a 6.10 meters long statue of reclining Buddha, in 1876 A.D. Chandra Swami, a Burmeses Monk, came to India in 1903 and made "Mahaparinirvana Temple" into a living shrine.

After independence, Kushinagar remained the part of district Deoria. On 13 May 1994, it came into being as a new district of Uttar Pradesh.^[