[4] It is one of the Hindu pilgrimage centres of Sapta Puri famous for the Kumbh Mela (Simhastha) held there every 12 years.

The city has been one of the most prominent trade and political centres of the Indian Subcontinent from the time of the ancient Mahājanapadas until the British colonisation of India.

It remained an important political, commercial, and cultural centre of Central India until the early 19th century, when the British administrators decided to develop Indore as an alternative to it.

According to Puranic legend, Ujjain, along with Haridwar, Nashik, and Prayag, is one of four sites where drops of amrita,[9] the elixir of immortality, accidentally spilled over from a kumbha (pitcher) while being carried by the celestial bird Garuda during the Samudra Manthana, or the churning of the ocean of milk.

[10] Excavations at Kayatha (around 26 km from Ujjain) have revealed Chalcolithic agricultural settlements dating to around 2000 BCE.

Archaeologist H. D. Sankalia theorised that the Chalcolithic settlements at Ujjain were probably destroyed by the Iron Age settlers.

[12] According to Hermann Kulke and Dietmar Rothermund, Avanti, whose capital was Ujjain, "was one of the earliest outposts in central India" and showed signs of early incipient urbanisation around 700 BCE.

[19] During the reign of his father Bindusara, Ashoka served as the viceroy of Ujjain,[20] which highlights the importance of the town.

[21] According to the Sinhalese Buddhist tradition, their children, Mahendra and Sanghamitra, who preached Buddhism in modern Sri Lanka, were born in Ujjain.

[22] From the Mauryan period, Northern Black Polished Ware, copper coins, terracotta ring wells, and ivory seals with Brahmi text have been excavated at Ujjain.

[16] Ujjain emerged as an important commercial centre, partially because it lay on the trade route connecting north India to the Deccan, starting from Mathura.

Kalidasa, the great Indian classical poet of the 5th century who lived in the times of the Gupta king Vikramaditya wrote his epic work Meghadūta in which he describes the richness of Ujjain and its people.

[25] Bhartṛhari is said to have written his great epics, Virat Katha, Neeti Sataka, the love story of Pradyot Princess Vasavadatta and Udayan in Ujjayini, as the city was called during his times.

Somadeva's Kathasaritsagara (11th century) mentions that the city was created by Vishwakarma, and describes it as invincible, prosperous and full of wonderful sights.

[14] With the decline of the Paramara kingdom, Ujjain ultimately came under Islamic rule, like other parts of north-central India.

The struggle of supremacy between the Holkars of Indore and Scindias (who ruled Ujjain) led to rivalry between the merchants of the two cities.

John Malcolm, the British administrator of Central India, decided to reduce the importance of Ujjain "by transferring a great part of that consequence it now enjoys to the Towns of Indore and Rutlam cities, which are and will continue more under our control.

[38][39][40][41] Ujjain is located in the west-central part of India, and is north of the upper limit of the Vindhya mountain ranges.

Located on the Malwa plateau, it is higher than the north Indian plains and the land rises towards the Vindhya Range to the south.

[42] The region is an extension of the Deccan Traps, formed between 60 and 68 million years ago[43][44] at the end of the Cretaceous period.

Winters are cool, dry and sunny with occasional cold snaps during which temperature may drop to close to freezing (0° to 3 °C).

The Ujjain Municipal Corporation (UMC) was established in 1956 under the Madhya Pradesh Nagar Palika Nigam Adhiniyam.

Previously, Dr. Chintamani Malviya of the Bharatiya Janata Party was the member of parliament who won in the 2014 Indian general elections.

[60] The Current Member of Parliament from Ujjain is Anil Firojiya (BJP) after the Lok Sabha Election of 2019.

The Government of Madhya Pradesh has allotted 1,200 acres for the development of an industrial area on the Dewas-Ujjain Road (MP State Highway 18) near Narwar village.

The stakeholders in the project include the state government and the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) Trust.

In 2013, the Government of Madhya Pradesh started a Ujjain-Bhopal air services as a joint venture with Ventura AirConnect.

A large number of state run private buses are available for Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Ajmer, Khajuraho, Harda, Indore, Bhopal, Pune, Mumbai, Kota, Mandu, Jhalawar and various other locations.

The citizens were able to post their views pertaining to basic services such as water supply, sewerage, urban transport, social infrastructure and e-governance.