B URH, XPUR TOWN 105
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
1719 the demands ,of the Marathas for the chauth or one-fourth of the
revenue was formally conceded. Between 17zo and 1748 Burhanpur
was the head-quarters of the Nizam Asaf Jâh, who then possessed the
government of the Deccan. It afterwards belonged to the Peshwa and
Sindhia, and was taken by General Wellesley's army in 1803, but did
not finally become British territory until 1860. 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 î9o3 there was a severe outbreak of plague with 1,872
deaths. The Bib! Masjid is now in a bad state of repair ; but the Jama
Masjid, which was built by Ali 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. 6z,ooo, including octroi
.(Rs. 44,ooo) and conservancy (Rs. 7,ooo) ; and the principal items of
expenditure, out of à total of Rs. 54,000, were sanitation (Rs. 13,000),
education (Rs.6,ooo), general administration and collection of taxes
(Rs. 6,ooo), and refunds of duty on goods in transit (Rs. 5,ooo). A system
of water-works was completed by the Mughal emperor Jahangir in the
seventeenth century. Several lines of subterranean wells were con-
strueted 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:
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