JAUNPUR, a city and district of British India, in the Benares division of the United Provinces. The city is on the left bank of the river Gumti, 34 m. N.W. from Benares by rail. Pop. (1931), 37,675. Jaunpur is an ancient city, the former capital of a Mohammedan kingdom which once extended from Budaun and Etawah to Behar. It abounds in splendid architectural monu ments, most of which belong to the period when the rulers of Jaunpur were independent of Delhi. The fort of Feroze Shah is in great part completely ruined, but there remain a fine gateway of the 16th century, a mosque dating from 1376, and the ham mams or baths of Ibrahim Shah. Among other buildings may be mentioned the Atala Musjid (1408) and the ruined Jinjiri Musjid, mosques built by Ibrahim, the first of which has a great cloistered court and a magnificent facade; the Dariba mosque constructed by two of Ibrahim's governors ; the Lal Darwaza erected by the queen of Mahmud; the Jamma Musjid (1438-1478) or great mosque of Husain, with court and cloisters, standing on a raised terrace, and in part restored in modern times; and finally the splendid bridge over the Gumti, erected by Munim Khan, Mogul governor in 1569-1573. The city has now lost its importance, the only industries surviving being the manufacture of perfumes and papier-mache articles.
The DISTRICT OF JAUNPUR has an area of 1,550 sq.m. It forms part of the wide Gangetic plain, and its surface is accordingly composed of a thick alluvial deposit. The whole country is closely
tilled, and is divided into two unequal parts by the sinuous chan nel of the Gumti, a tributary of the Ganges, which flows past the city of Jaunpur. The Gumti is liable to sudden inundations dur ing the rainy season, owing to the high banks it has piled up at its entrance into the Ganges, which act as dams to prevent the prompt outflow of its flooded waters. The greatest recorded flood took place in Sept. 1871, when 4,000 houses in the city were swept away, besides 9,00o more in villages along its banks. Pop. (1931), 1,236,071. Sugar-refining is the principal industry.
In prehistoric times Jaunpur seems to have formed a portion of the Ajodhya principality, and when it first makes an appear ance in authentic history it was subject to the rulers of Benares. With the rest of their dominions it fell under the yoke of the Mohammedan invaders in 1194. In 1388 Malik Sarwar Khwaja was sent by Mohammed Tughlak to govern the eastern province. He fixed his residence at Jaunpur, made himself independent of the Delhi court, and assumed the title of Sultan-us-Shark, or "eastern emperor." For nearly a century the Sharki dynasty ruled at Jaunpur, and proved formidable rivals to the sovereigns of Delhi, until in 1478 Bahlol Lodi recovered his imperial sway. In 1775 the district became British by the Treaty of Lucknow.