Kuraoli
Kuraoli is a town and a nagar panchayat (urban municipality) in Mainpuri district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Kuraoli was known for Rathore thakur state in 18th century, now it is known for its largest garlic and onion mandi in Uttar Pradesh. Name According to Paul Whalley, the name Kurāolī may be derived from koṭ, meaning "fort"; he reconstructed the hypothetical original name as *Koṭ-ā-vala, "having a fort", patterned after Sanskrit dantāvala ("tusked"). The name Kuraulī would be a further contracted version of the same name. Geography Kuraoli is located in the northern corner of Mainpuri district, about 22 km from the town of Mainpuri. The main road linking Mainpuri and Etah passes through here. History Kuraoli in the 18th century was in the kingdom of Rathore Thakur State ruled by King Laxman Singh, his three Queen's forts was built on 80 bigha of land, 100 metres east of the palace. Queen's Puja Place, was in North Direction about 100 m away, was a pucca pond of about 2 bigha, around the corners of the pond there were wells, As the pond has to be flooded all the time hence the wells do not show up. There is a 25 km long tunnel which leads to Mainpurik Maharaj Tej Singh's fort. There were three brothers, who were priests in the king's court, Once the king insulted the three and angered them. They cursed the king, destroying the king's empire. Those three priests rest in afterlife in different places. These location seems to be famous for melas today, and these places are these names Under Galanath Bridge Pipra Under Chandrapura Pipara Hanuman Temple Under The Papra After Holi, the mela is held at these three places. At the turn of the 20th century, Kuraoli was described as an "open and well-built", if small, town, with a number of fine houses belonging to prosperous merchants. The town was split into two separate parts by the Etah-Mainpuri road, which was then part of the Grand Trunk Road. Kuraoli proper, which included six hamlets, lay to the north of the road. To the south of the road was Sujrai, which was technically a separate settlement but was counted as part of the town. The main highway ran between the two distinct built-up areas at full width, without narrowing to a regular city street like in nearby towns like Bhongaon or Bewar. While highway itself served as the main marketplace for those towns, Kuraoli was different – the main marketplace was on a side street away from the highway, while the highway itself only had a couple of shops on it. Kuraoli's market, and the shops inside it, were owned by the raja of Sujrai. Kuraoli was described as only having risen to prominence rather recently at that point. It functioned as the main market centre for the surrounding countryside, and had a small net export of grain. At that point it had a post office, police station, and school teaching in the