BEJAPUR, be-ja-por' (anciently Vi_java PURA, the impregnable city), Hindustan, a town in the Bombay presidency, near the borders of the Nizam's dominions, about 245 miles south east of Bombay and near the right bank of an affluent of the Krishna. For many centuries it was the capital of a rich and powerful king dom, coming under the sway of Hindu and Mussulman alternately. Aurungzebe captured it in 1686 and in the 18th century the Mahrattas seized it. In 1818 the British gave it to the Rajah of Satara. From the great extent of the ruins here it would seem to have been formerly one of the largest cities of India. In its present state it may be described as two towns adjoin ing each other —the fort on the east and the old town on the west. The former, though much less than the" latter, has one entire and regular street 50 feet wide and nearly three miles long. Some of the mosques and mauso leums of Bejapur are elaborately elegant, but the prevailing character is solid and massive.
The great dome of Mahomet Shah's tomb is visible far off. The fretwork on the ceilings and verandahs, the panels covered with passages of the Koran in bas-relief, and the stone trel lises pierced with a mesh-work of Arabic char acters, are all in the richest style of Oriental sculpture. Among the religious structures is a Hindu temple, built in the earliest style of Brahmanical architecture. There are here some guns of enormous size; one cast in 1549 is the largest piece of brass ordnance extant. Bejapur has become the chief town of Kaladgi district, and some of the old palaces are now used for public purposes. Pop. (1911) 27,615. Consult Fergusson,