Banaras Hindu University
University in Uttar Pradesh, India
Banaras Hindu University () (BHU), formerly Benares Hindu University, is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 1916. It is ranked amongst the most prestigious universities of the country. The university incorporated the Central Hindu College, which had been founded by theosophist and future Indian Home Rule leader Annie Besant in 1898. By December 1911, Annie Besant and the Theosophists had relinquished day-to-day control of the Central Hindu College to Madan Mohan Malaviya and others, who emphasised a more orthodox Hindu education, preserving traditional practices such as the hereditary caste system, in contrast to Besant's Theosophical vision. Five years later Malaviya established the university with the support of the maharaja of Darbhanga Rameshwar Singh, the maharaja of Benares Prabhu Narayan Singh, and the lawyer Sunder Lal.
With over 30,000 students, and 18,000 residing on campus, BHU is the largest residential university in Asia. The university is one of the eight public institutions declared as an Institute of Eminence by the Government of India. It is also one of the 12 institutions from India in BRICS Universities League, a consortium of leading research universities from BRICS countries. The university's main campus spread over 1,370 acres (5.5 km2), was built on land donated by Prabhu Narayan Singh, the hereditary ruler of Benares State. The south campus, spread over 2,700 acres (11 km2) is built on land donated later by Aditya Narayan Singh in Sunderpur, hosts the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (Agriculture Science Centre) and is located in Barkachha in Mirzapur district, about 60 km (37 mi) from Varanasi.
The public source identifies “Banaras Hindu University” as university in Uttar Pradesh, India. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Banaras, Hindu and University.
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Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q806116. VIAF identifies the subject as 133687233. The Library of Congress control number is n80049724. Authority coordinates are 25.268, 82.991. 3 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1916, 1898 and 1911.
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This entry incorporates text from “Banaras Hindu University” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.