CHUArJR TO [17Y
333
The density of population, 314 persons per square mile, is considerably
above the District average. The Ganges divides the pargana of Karyat
Sďkhar on the north from the rest of the tahsil, which stretches away
south to the middle of the Vindhyan plateau. In the west the scarp
of the Vindhyas reaches almost to the Ganges, and scattered hills are
found on the bank of that river; but in the east lies a broader stretch
of level land. The Jirgo rises in the south of the tahsil, and flows
north to join the great river near Chunar. The area under cultivation
in 1903-4 was 242 square miles, of which 36 were irrigated. Wells
supply more than half the irrigated area, and tanks most of the
remainder.
Chunâr Town.-Head-quarters of the tahsil of the same name in
Mirzapur District, United Provinces, situated in 25° 7' N. and 82°
54" E., on the right bank of the Ganges and on the East Indian
Railway. Population (19o1), 9,926. Tradition assigns a high antiquity
to the fort of Chunâr. Bhartrinath, brother of the half-historic Vik-
ramaditya of Ujjain, is said to have chosen this solitary wooded rock
overhanging the Ganges as the site of his hermitage. In the early
Muhammadan period a Hindu, named Prithwi Raja, possessed the
fortress, and after his death it was seized by the Musalmans. A
mutilated slab over the gateway, however, commemorates its recovery
from the invaders. It again fell into the hands of the Muhammadans,
though the actual command of the fort remained in the hands of the
Bahelias till it became British. Sher Khan, Siir, afterwards Sher Shah,
obtained Chunar by marriage with the daughter of a local chief; and
in the struggles between Pathan and Mughal the fort was of great
importance as the key to Bengal and Bihar. It was captured by
Humayűn in 1537, and recaptured shortly after by Sher Shah. In
1575 Akbar's armies took the place, which remained in the power of
the Mughals till the eighteenth century, when it fell into the hands
of the Nawab of Oudh. The British troops under Major Munro
attacked it without success in 1763; but it came into our possession
after the battle of Buxar in the following year. After Raja Chet
Singh's outbreak in 1781, Warren Hastings retired to Chunar, where
a force was collected under Major Popham, which expelled Chet Singh
from his strongholds in the neighbourhood. Hastings was fond of the
situation and climate of Chundr, and his residence is still standing.
The fort was used for some time as a place of confinement for state
prisoners, and was garrisoned up to 1890. The Provincial reformatory
for juvenile offenders in the United Provinces is now located here.
The fort is built on an outlier of the Vindhyan range, a sandstone
rock jutting into the Ganges and deflecting the river to the north. It
lies nearly north and south, Boo yards long, 133 to 3oo broad, and 8o
to 175 feet above the level of the surrounding country. The circum-
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