Pānchāla corresponds to the geographical area between the Ganges River and Yamuna River around the city of Kanpur and Benares. Anciently, it was home to an Indian kingdom, the Panchalas, one of the Mahajanapadas.
Panchala (Sanskrit: Pañcāla) was the name of an ancient kingdom of northern India, located in the Ganges-Yamuna Doab of the upper Gangetic plain, encompassing the modern-day states of Uttarakhand and western Uttar Pradesh. During Late Vedic times (c.850-500 BCE), it was one of the most powerful states of South Asia, closely allied with the Kuru Kingdom. By the c. 5th century BCE, it had become an oligarchic confederacy, considered as one of the solasa (sixteen) mahajanapadas (major states) of South Asia. After being absorbed into the Mauryan Empire (322-185 BCE), Panchala regained its independence until it was annexed by the Gupta Empire in the 4th century CE.