Burhanpur Town
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.
Burhanpur Town
Head-quarters of the tasil of the same name, Nimar District, Central Provinces, situated in 21° 18' N. and 76° 14' E., on the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, 310 miles from Bombay, the station being at Lalbagh, a suburb 2 miles distant from the town and not included in the municipality. The town is surrounded by a masonry wall with massive gates on the main roads, and the Tapti river flows along the southern side. The space contained within the walls is two miles in length from north to south, and half a mile in breadth ; but numerous remains outside show that the suburbs must once have been very extensive. The population at the last four enumerations was : (1872) 29,303, (1881) 30,017, (1891) 32,252, and (1901) 33,341, including 21,762 Hindus and 11,253 Muhammadans. Among the Musalmans are a number of Behnas or cotton-cleaners, and there is also a large community of Bohras, a sect of Gujarat! merchants.
Burhanpur was founded about 1400 by Nasir Khan, the first indepen- dent prince of the Faruki dynasty of Khandesh, and called by him after the famous Shaikh, Burhan-ud-din of Daulatabad. Zainabad on the opposite side of the Tapti was founded at the same time, and called after another Shaikh, Zain-ud-dln. Burhanpur was the usual residence of all the later Faruki kings, and it was during their rule of two centuries that the two great mosques called the Jama Masjid and the Bibi Masjid were built. In 1600 Burhanpur, with the kingdom of the Farukis, was annexed by the emperor Akbar. Under Akbar and his successor, Burhanpur was greatly embellished. In the Ain-i-Akbari it is described as a ' large city with many gardens, in some of which is found sandal-wood, inhabited by people of all nations and abounding with handicraftsmen. In the summer the town is covered with" dust, and during the rains the streets are full of mud and stone.' Burhanpur formed the seat of government of the Deccan princes of the empire till 1635, when Aurangabad took its place. After this event, Burhanpur became the capital of the large Subah of Khandesh, usually governed by a prince of the royal blood. The transfer had not occurred at the time when Sir Thomas Roe, Ambassador in 16 14 from James I to the Great Mughal, paid his visit to prince Parvez, son of Jahanglr. Forty- four years after Sir Thomas Roe's visit Tavernier described Burhanpur (or as he wrote it, Brampour), through which he then passed for the second time, as ' a great city very much ruined, the houses being for the most part thatched with straw.' He adds : ' There is also a great castle in the midst of the city, where the governor lives. The government of this province is a very considerable command, only conferred upon the son or uncle of the king. There is a great trade in this city ; and as well in Brampour as over all the Provinces, there is made a prodigious quantity of calicuts, very clear and white, which are transported into Persia, Turkey, and Muscovia, Poland, Arabia, to Grand Cairo, and
other places.' The remains of mosques and other buildings show that, at the height of its prosperity under the Mughals, Burhanpur extended over an area of about five square miles. The city continued to play an important part in the wars of the empire, particularly in the reign of Aurangzeb. It was plundered in 1685 by the Marathas just after the emperor had left it with an enormous army to subjugate the Deccan. Repeated battles were afterwards fought in its neighbourhood, until in 1 7 19 the demands of the Marathas for the chaiith or one-fourth of the revenue was formally conceded. Between 1720 and 1748 Burhanpur was the head-quarters of the Nizam Asaf Jah, who then possessed the government of the Deccan.
It afterwards belonged to the Peshwa and vSindhia, and was taken by General Wellesley's army in 1803, but did not finally become British territory until i860. In 1849 Burhanpur was the scene of a desperate and sanguinary affray between the Muham- madans and Hindus. In 1897 a large part of the town was destroyed by fire, and in 1903 there was a severe outbreak of plague with 1,872 deaths. The Bibl Masjid is now in a bad state of repair ; but the Jama Masjid, which was built by All Khan in 1588 and visited by Akbar twelve years later, is a fine building, decorated with stone carvings executed in perfect taste. Along the river bank the ruins of the fort rise to a great height, and the remains of lofty halls bear testimony to the magnificence of its palace. The tombs in the suburbs include those of Mubarak Shah and Adil Shah, which are under repair.
Burhanpur was created a municipality in 1869. The municipal receipts and expenditure during the decade ending 1901 averaged Rs. 65,000. In 1903-4 the income was Rs. 62,000, including octroi (Rs. 44,000) and conservancy (Rs. 7,000) ; and the principal items of expenditure, out of a total of Rs. 54,000, were sanitation (Rs. 13,000), education (Rs. 6,000), general administration and collection of taxes (Rs. 6,000), and refunds of duty on goods in transit (Rs. 5,000). A system of water-works was completed by the Mughal emperor Jahanglr in the seventeenth century. Several lines of subterranean wells were con- structed to catch the water percolating from the hills to the centre of the valley, and connected by conduits leading into masonry reservoirs.
Eight lines of wells can be traced, but all except two are quite out of repair. From the reservoirs water was distributed to the town by a system of earthenware or stone pipes, furnished at short intervals with tall hollow columns of masonry, which served the purpose of stand- pipes from which the water could be drawn off. The present scheme, which was completed in 1894, involved the construction of masonry channels for the conduits, and the substitution of cast-iron pipes with sluice-valves and stand-posts for the old earthenware and stone channels. The work cost 1-43 lakhs and the annual maintenance charges are Rs. 3,200. No water rate is yet levied except on private connexions.
Burhanpur has a considerable export trade in raw cotton, and the town contains three ginning factories. Two more ginning factories and two presses have been estabUshed at Lalbagh. The principal hand industry of the town is the production of silk cloths embroidered with gold and silver lace, which continues now in the same manner as described by Tavernier. The manufacture of the gold wire is distinct from the weaving industry, and is carried on by a special set of crafts- men. About 2,000 persons were supported in 1901 by the wire- drawing industry, and the same number by silk-weaving. Another small industry is the manufacture of rough globes of coloured and frosted glass for decorative purposes. The construction of the railway has deprived Burhanpur of the favourable position it formerly enjoyed as the main trade centre between Hindustan and the Deccan, while changes in fashion have decreased the demand for its costly embroidered fabrics. The population, however, continues to increase at a slow rate. Burhanpur contains an English middle and girls' school, several branch schools, and a dispensary.
