JAUNPUR, a city and district of British India, in the Benares division
of the United Provinces. The city is on the left bank of the river
Gumti, 34 m. N.W. from Benares by rail. Pop. (1901), 42,771. Jaunpur is
a very ancient city, the former capital of a Mahommedan kingdom which
once extended from Budaun and Etawah to Behar. It abounds in splendid
architectural monuments, most of which belong to the period when the
rulers of Jaunpur were independent of Delhi. The fort of Feroz Shah is
in great part completely ruined, but there remain a fine gateway of the
16th century, a mosque dating from 1376, and the _hammams_ or baths of
Ibrahim Shah. Among other buildings may be mentioned the Atala Masjid
(1408) and the ruined Jinjiri Masjid, mosques built by Ibrahim, the
first of which has a great cloistered court and a magnificent façade;
the Dariba mosque constructed by two of Ibrahim's governors; the Lal
Darwaza erected by the queen of Mahmud; the Jama Masjid (1438-1478) or
great mosque of Husain, with court and cloisters, standing on a raised
terrace, and in part restored in modern times; and finally the splendid
bridge over the Gumti, erected by Munim Khan, Mogul governor in
1569-1573. During the Mutiny of 1857 Jaunpur formed a centre of
disaffection. The city has now lost its importance, the only industries
surviving being the manufacture of perfumes and papier-mâché articles.
The DISTRICT OF JAUNPUR has an area of 1551 sq. m. It forms part of the
wide Gangetic plain, and its surface is accordingly composed of a thick
alluvial deposit. The whole country is closely tilled, and no waste
lands break the continuous prospect of cultivated fields. It is divided
into two unequal parts by the sinuous channel of the Gumti, a tributary
of the Ganges, which flows past the city of Jaunpur. Its total course
within the district is about 90 m., and it is nowhere fordable. It is
crossed by two bridges, one at Jaunpur and the other 2 m. lower down.
The Gumti is liable to sudden inundations during the rainy season, owing
to the high banks it has piled up at its entrance into the Ganges, which
act as dams to prevent the prompt outflow of its flooded waters. These
inundations extend to its tributary the Sai. Much damage was thus
effected in 1774; but the greatest recorded flood took place in
September 1871, when 4000 houses in the city were swept away, besides
9000 more in villages along its banks. The other rivers are the Sai,
Barna, Pili and Basohi. Lakes are numerous in the north and south; the
largest has a length of 8 m. Pop. (1901), 1,202,920, showing a decrease
of 5% in the decade. Sugar-refining is the principal industry. The
district is served by the line of the Oudh & Rohilkhand railway from
Benares to Fyzabad, and by branches of this and of the Bengal &
North-Western systems.
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