, the Chinese pilgrim to India, stayed at Kannauj for 3 months in 636 AD. From here he journeyed a distance of about 26 km and reached the city of Nafotipokulo which stood on the eastern bank of Ganga. The city was about 5 km in circumference and had a Deva Temple, several Buddhist monasteries and Stupas. Some fighting during 1857sepoy mutiny took place in this area. Following the mutiny, the civil administration was re-established in the district which was named district Unnao, with headquarters at Unnao. The size of the district was however small until 1869, when it assumed its present form. The same year the town of Unnao was constituted a Municipality. Unnao District is known as "The Land Of Pen and Sword".
Unnao district is divided into 6 tehsils: Unnao, Hasanganj, Safipur, Purwa, Bighapur, and Bangarmau. There are 16 development blocks: Ganj Moradabad, Bangarmau, Fatehpur Chaurasi, Safipur, Miyanganj, Auras, Hasanganj, Nawabganj, Purwa, Asoha, Hilauli, Bighapur, Sumerpur, Bichia, Sikandarpur Sirausi, and Sikandarpur Karan. The current elected representative from Unnao to the Lok Sabha, in the Parliament of India, is Shakshi Maharaj. The district had 6 Vidhan Sabha seats, namely Unnao, Purwa, Bhagwantnagar, Mohan, Safipur and Bangarmau. However, after delimitation in 2008, areas under Harha were merged with other Vidhan Sabha seats. Thus, the district now has only 6 Vidhan Sabha seats. Other prominent Qasba of Unnao include Karowan B.K., Safipur, Neotani, Asiwan, Bangarmau, Mohaan, Magarwara, Shuklaganj, Purwa Maurawan, and Baksar. The district magistrate is Ravindra Kumar. The Unnao Lok Sabha Constituency had the largest number of registered voters for the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, post de-limitation, with about 1.9 million voters, making it India's largest parliamentary seat. Member of Legislative Council—Kanpur Graduate Seat---Arun Pathak .
Demographics
According to the 2011 census Unnao district has a population of 3,108,367, roughly equal to the nation of Mongolia or the US state of Iowa. This gives it a ranking of 112th in India. The district has a population density of . Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 15.19%. Unnao has a sex ratio of 901 females for every 1,000 males, and a literacy rate of 68.29%.
Languages
At the time of the 2011 Census of India, 97.72% of the population in the district spoke Hindi and 2.25% Urdu as their first language. Languages spoken here include Awadhi, a vernacular in the Hindi continuum spoken by over 38 million people, mainly in the Awadh region.
Education
The district follows the usual 10+2+3 pattern of education, as elsewhere in India. Some notable schools and institutions of the district are :
In October 2013, Archaeological Survey of India took up the excavation near Daundia Khera village in Unnao district amid reports of over 1000 tonnes of gold deposits buried beneath the ruins of an old fort, which belonged to Ram Baksh Singh, a revolutionary of 1857. The preliminary investigation of ASI and GSI also confirmed a non-magnetic anomalous zone occurring at 5–20 m depth indicative of possible non-conducting, metallic contents and/or some alloys.
