Oudh State

The Oudh State or Kingdom of Oudh (Awadh State) was a princely state in the Awadh region during the British Raj until 1856. Oudh (IPA: /ˈaʊd/), the now obsolete but once official English-language name of the state, also written in British historical texts as 'Oude', derived from the name of Ayodhya.

The capital of Oudh State was in Faizabad, but the British Agents, officially known as 'residents', had their seat in Lucknow. The Nawab of Oudh, one of the richest princes, paid for and erected a splendid Residency in Lucknow as a part of a wider programme of civic improvements.

Oudh joined other Indian states in an upheaval against British rule in 1858 during one of the last series of actions in the Indian rebellion of 1857. In the course of this uprising a few detachments of the British Indian Army from the Bombay Presidency overcame the disunited collection of Indian states in a single rapid campaign. Even so, determined rebels continued to wage sporadic guerrilla clashes until the spring of 1859. This ill-fated rebellion is also historically known as the 'Oudh campaign'.