Ballia

Ballia is a city with a municipal board in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The eastern boundary of the city lies at the junction of two major rivers, the Ganges and the Ghaghara.The city is situated 140 km (87 mi) east of Varanasi and about 380 km from the state capital Lucknow. It is home to a protected area, the Jai Prakash Narayan bird sanctuary. Ballia is around 4 km (2.5 mi) from Bihar. The name Ballia is an ancligised spelling of Hindi Baliyā (Devanagari: बलिया). According to Paul Whalley, the name is derived from the personal name Bali along with the suffix -ā. The "y" in the name is a glide inserted between the vowels to make it easier to pronounce; the resulting similarity to the diminutive suffix -iyā is only coincidental.[3]: 56