h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

'Khurja'; is derived from the 'Urdu' word 'KHARIJA' meaning 'CANCELLED'.

It is a small town in the BULANDSHAHAR(meaning the GREAT/HIGH CITY) Distt. of the Uttar Pradesh state in India.

It's history dated back around 1600 A.D. when Tamur'the Lame' a Muslim Invader attacked some northern parts of India. After the gruesome battles his soldiers fought(who were mostly craftsmen like potters and carpenters, and were forcibly recruited in the forces), a lot of them were severly injured and were unable to continue with the voyage along with their army, so a small chunk of that army stopped and established in this town (which actually was not a town at that time)which was a marshy area with swamps all around the place.
So for some time they stayed hidden but after some time when there was nothing left to eat with them they started to wander around the neighbouring villages.
Most of these left-over soldiers were potters and since the craft they knew was not of the traditional indian style, it caught quite popularity and they adapted it as a trade.
Now the town was starting to flourish with different kinds of people and business coming in as all the things are inter-related. So that town turned into quite a folurished place.
Since most of the town was in a swampy area there was a rare scope of farming and agricultural possibilities. So the tax on this area was waived off and thus the town was named 'KHARIJA' as the taxes on this land were CANCELLED.
One thing which remained successful in being carried over the ages in this town was the pottery work(it is still famous and strikingly amazing) which evolved into many forms with the passing time. The most famous form of this ceramic work is known as the BLUE POTTERY.
KHURJA had witnessed some really great events of the Indian History, from the EAST INDIA Co.'s reign to the Indian Revolt and Feedom untill this modern days. This town raised to the highest standards of all of the things a town could be and after that it also had seen its fall due to the lack of the education and self-pride of the locales and these days this has remained to just another small town of India, where most of the people aren't even aware of the glorious past of this town.
One can still see the remains of the shiny past of this town which have died sue to the ignorance.