BURHANPUR, a town of British India on the G.I.P. railway, in the Nimar district of the Central Provinces, situated on the north bank of the river Tapti, 310 m. N.E. of Bombay. It was founded in A.D. 1400 by a Mohammedan prince of the Farukhi dynasty of Khandesh. His successors held it for 20o years, after which it was annexed to the empire of Akbar. It formed the chief seat of the Government of the Deccan Provinces of the Mogul empire till Shah Jahan removed the capital to Aurangabad in Burhanpur was plundered in 1685 by the Mahrattas, and became for 1 oo years the centre of many conflicts between the Mahrattas and Moguls. In 1803 it was captured by General Wellesley, of ter wards duke of Wellington, but restored by treaty to Sindhia, by whom it was finally ceded to the British in 1861. In its fort, old palace, mosques and tombs, it resembles the old Mogul capitals of the north, and is referred to in the Ain-i-Akbari, by Sir Thomas Roe, and Tavernier, as a city with very flourishing industries and trades. Like all Mogul cities, it was famous for luxury articles— brocades, flowered silks, gold and silver embroideries. It is now an ancient walled city which, after many years of decay from its old-time status, and the decline almost to vanishing point of the old industries, is showing an upward tendency under more modern conditions. There are a few old families who still produce gold and silver thread and brocades, and it still has a large body of weavers of silk bordered cloths, while the establishment of cotton mills, ginning factories and presses has restored some of its lost wealth.
Its population, after many intercensal fluctuations, has now risen to 44,066, comprising the largest proportion of Mohammedans to be found in any town in the Central Provinces. Its old Mogul water supply has been modernized, and the insanitary conditions considerably improved.