UNAO, a town and district of British India, in the Lucknow division of the United Provinces. The town is 10 m. N.E. of Cawnpore, on the Oudh and Rohilkhand railway. Pop. (1901), 13,109.
The District of Unao has an area of 1792 sq. m. It consists of a flat alluvial plain, lying north of the Ganges. Rich and fertile tracts, studded with groves, alternate with stretches of waste land and plains of barren user, the whole being intersected by small streams, used for irrigation. The Ganges is the only navigable river in the district, while the Sai forms its north-eastern boundary. The temperature varies from about 75° to 103° in the hot season and from 46° to 79° in the cold season. The annual rainfall averages about 35 in. Pop. (1901), 976,639, showing an increase of 2.4% in the decade. The principal crops are barley, wheat, pulses, rice and millets, with some cotton, sugar-cane and poppy. The district is crossed by the main line of the Oudh & Rohilkhand railway.
During the Mutiny of 1857-58 Unao was the scene of several severe engagements between General Havelock's little army and the rebels on his march to relieve Lucknow. On the death of Raja Jasa Singh, one of the leading rebels, and the capture of his two sons, the family estates were confiscated, and the villages either restored to their former owners or given to other landholders for their loyalty.
See Unao District Gazetteer (Allahabad, 1903).