Gaya, a town of Bengal, British India, in the district of Behar, 265 m. N. W. of Calcutta; pop. about 40,000. It consists of two parts, the old town, in which the Brahmans reside, and the new town, inhabited by the secular population and Europeans. The old town is well built, but the streets are narrow, filthy, and hardly passable. There are numerous shrines and places of pilgrimage, visited by devotees from all parts of India. The Phalgu, a tributary of the Ganges, flows through the town, and is deemed a sacred stream. The most revered structure here is the temple of Vishnu, erected by a Mahratta princess, 82 ft. in length, and crowned by an octagonal pyramid more than 100 ft. high. In the immediate vicinity are the ruins of Buddha-Gaya, supposed to have been the scene of the birth of Buddha, whence the sanctity of the existing town is derived. The new town has wide and straight streets, with a row of trees and foot walks on each side; but the houses for the most part are mere mud-built huts.