Hukeri
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Hukeri
Village in the Chikodi taluka of Belgaum District, Bom- bay, situated in 16° 13' N. and 74° 36' E., 30 miles north-north-east of Belgaum town. Population (1901), 6,265. Hukeri is connected with the high road to Poona and with the large town of Gokak by metalled roads. It is a mahalka?i's station. On the outside of the village, to the north, are some interesting Muhammadan remains of the sixteenth century, including two domed tombs in the same style as those at Bijapur. One of the tombs is kept in repair and furnished for the use of the Collector, or as a resthouse for travellers. A few miles to the east is another large tomb of the same architecture.
The place is abundantly supplied with good water by means of an underground pipe connected with a spring to the north-west. This system of water- supply dates from the period of Muhammadan rule. A municipality was established in 1854, but abolished in 1864. The town, which has suffered severely from plague, contains a boys' school with no pupils and a girls' school with 46. In 1327 Muhammad bin Tughlak stationed officers here on his conquest of the Carnatic. On the Mughal de- struction of Bijapur in 1686 Hukeri was the only part of Belgaum that remained to the Marathas, and it continued to be held by an inde- pendent Desai, the ancestor of the present Vantamurikar. In 1763 Madhu Rao Peshwa reduced the Hukeri Desai and handed his district to the Kolhapur chief, who was deprived of it in 1769. In 1791 Captain Moor found Hukeri a poor town.
