HAMIRPUR, a town and district of British India, in the Jhansi division of the United Provinces. The town stands on a tongue of land near the confluence of the Betwa and Jumna, IIO m. N.W. of Allahabad. Pop. It was founded, according to tradition, in the 1 ith century by Hamir Deo, a Karchuli Rajput expelled from Alwar by the Mohammedans.
The district has an area of 2,438 sq.m., and encloses the small Indian states of Sarila, Jigni and Bihat, besides portions of Charkhari and Garrauli. Hamirpur forms part of the great plain of Bundelkhand, which stretches from the banks of the Jumna to the central Vindhyan plateau and contains the famous artificial lakes of Mahoba. These magnificent reservoirs were constructed by the Chandel rajas before the Mohammedan conquest, for pur poses of irrigation and as sheets of ornamental water. Many of them enclose craggy islets or peninsulas, crowned by the ruins of granite temples, exquisitely carved and decorated. From the base of this hill and lake country the general plain of the district spreads northward in an arid and treeless level towards the broken banks of the rivers. Of these the principal are the Betwa and its tributary the Dhasan. The deep black soil of Bundelkhand, known as mar, retains the moisture under a dried and rifted sur face, and renders the district fertile; but the rainfall is precarious, and droughts are frequent. The staple produce is grain of various sorts, the most important being gram. Cotton is also a valuable crop. Agriculture suffers much from the spread of the kans grass, a noxious weed which overruns the fields and is found to be almost ineradicable wherever it has once obtained a footing. In 1931 the population was 502,689. Exports are chiefly agricultural produce and cotton cloth. Rath is the principal commercial centre.
From the 9th to the loth century this district was the centre of the Chandel kingdom, with its capital at Mahoba. The rajas adorned the town with many splendid edifices, remains of which still exist, besides constructing the noble lakes already described. At the end of the 12th century Mahoba fell into the hands of the Mohammedans. In i 68o the district was conquered by Chhatar Sal, the hero of the Bundelas, who assigned at his death one-third of his dominions to his ally the peshwa of the Mahrattas. Until Bundelkhand became British territory in 1803 there was constant warfare between the Bundela princes and the Mahratta chieftains.