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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 22, p. 307.

SHOLINGHUR 307 walls, where still standing, are 8 to To feet high, 4 to 6 feet wide at the base, and 3 to 4 feet wide at the top. The fort is an irregular oblong about 230 yards by 176, enclosed by a double line of lofty battlemented and towered walls of rough stone 10 to 20 yards apart, and surrounded, except on the east or Siddheswar lake side, by a wet moat 10o to 150 feet broad and 15 to 3o deep. The whole work is Muhammadan, the outer wall dating from the fourteenth century, and the inner wall and four great square towers from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The outer wall, with battle- mented curtains and four corner and twenty-three side towers pierced for musketry, and with openings and vaulted chambers for cannon, rises 20 to 30 feet from the edge of the moat. About 20 yards behind, the inner wall, also towered and battlemented, rises 5 to 1o feet above the outer wall. It has about twenty-five towers, exclusive of the four square towers. The houses in the city are mostly built of mud, but sometimes of stone and burnt bricks, and are covered with flat roofs. On account of the absence of any high ground in the neighbourhood, Sholapur is on all sides exposed to the winds. The climate, except during the months of March, April, and May, is agreeable and healthy. The municipality, established in 1853, had an average income during the decade end- ing rgo1 of 12 lakhs. In 1903-4 the income was 24 lakhs, including loans from Government (Rs. 45,ooo) and octroi dues (Rs. 6o,ooo). Water-works, constructed by the municipality between 1879 and 1881, give a daily supply of about 13 gallons a head. The water is drawn from the Ekruk lower level canal through a line of 1o-inch pipes into a settling tank, and thence pumped by steam-power. Sholapur has 39 schools, attended by 1,425 boys and 638 girls, including a Govern- ment high school with 165 pupils, four middle schools, one normal school, an industrial and a commercial school. There is also a kindergarten class supported by the American Mission. Besides the chief revenue and judicial offices there are two Subordinate judges' courts, two hospitals, of which one is for females, and four dispensaries. Sholapur is the head-quarters of the American Pro- testant Mission, which has branches at 8 villages in the Sholapur tdluka. Sholinghur.=Town in the Walajapet tdluk of North Arcot District, Madras, situated in 13° 7' N. and 79° 25~ E. Population (rgo1), 6,442. The station of the same name on the Madras Railway is 74 miles from the town. The name is said to be a contraction of the words Chola-linga-puram, and to have been given to it because one of the Chola kings here found a natural lingam and built a shrine over it called the Choleswara or Sholeswara temple. The town is extensive, and a brisk trade is carried on in its bazars and at its weekly fair;