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BIJAPUR

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 928 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BIJAPUR , an See also:

ancient See also:city and See also:modern See also:district of See also:British See also:India in the See also:southern See also:division of Bombay. It is a station on the Southern Mahratta railway, 6o m. S. of See also:Sholapur. The ancient city was supplied with See also:water by an elaborate underground See also:system of reservoirs and aqueducts, which has been restored in See also:part as a See also:famine See also:relief See also:work. The See also:population in 1901 was 23,811. The city used to be the extensive, splendid and opulent See also:capital of an See also:independent See also:sovereignty of the same name, but now retains only the vestiges of its former grandeur. It is still, however, the most picturesque collection of ruins in India. The city of Bijapur owed its greatness to Yusuf Adil Shah, the founder of the independent See also:state of Bijapur. It consists of three distinct portions—the citadel, the fort and the remains of the city. The citadel, built by Yusuf Adil Shah, a mile in See also:circuit, is of See also:great strength, well built of the most massive materials, and encompassed by a ditch too yds. wide, formerly supplied with water, but now nearly filled up with rubbish, so that its See also:original See also:depth cannot be discovered. Within the citadel are the remains of See also:Hindu temples, which prove that Bijapur was an important See also:town in pre-See also:Mahommedan times. The fort, which was completed by See also:Ali Adil Shah in 1566, is surrounded by a See also:wall 6 m. in circumference.

This wall is from 30 to 50 ft. high, and is strengthened with ninety-six massive bastions of various designs. In addition there are ten others at the various gateways. The width is about 25 ft.; from See also:

bastion to bastion runs a battlemented curtained wall about to ft. high. The whole is surrounded by a deep See also:moat 30 to 40 ft. broad. Inside these walls the Bijapur See also:kings bade See also:defiance to all comers. Outside the walls are the remains of a vast city, now for the most part in ruins, but the innumerable tombs, mosques, caravanserais and other edifices, which have resisted the havoc of See also:time, afford abundant See also:evidence of the ancient splendour of the See also:place. Among its many buildings three are specially worthy of mention. The Gol Gunbaz, or See also:tomb of See also:Sultan Mahommed Adil Shah, which was built 1626-1656, is one of the most interesting buildings in the See also:world. It is a square See also:building, 135 ft. each way, which is surmounted by a great circular See also:dome 198 ft. high. The inside See also:area (18,36o ft.) is greater than the See also:Pantheon at See also:Rome (15,833 sq. ft.). When first built the dome was covered by See also:gold See also:leaf, and the See also:outer walls were adorned with See also:stucco work picked out in gold and See also:blue, but to-See also:day there are very few traces of this ornamentation. Of See also:late years this See also:mosque has been thoroughly restored, and one portion is now used as a museum in which all See also:objects of See also:interest discovered in the surrounding See also:country are exhibited.

Next to this comes the See also:

Ibrahim Roza, or tomb and mosque of Ibrahim Adil Shah II., which was completed about 162o and is supposed to be one of the most exquisite buildings in the world after the Taj at See also:Agra. It is said to have cost £1,700,000 and to have occupied See also:thirty-six years in its construction. The Gagan Mahal, or ancient See also:audience See also:hall, is now a See also:mass of ruins, but when See also:complete must have been a beautiful building. The archway remains. It is over 6o ft. span and about 90 ft. high. Through this See also:arch Sikandar Adil Shah, the last See also:king of Bijapur, was brought See also:bound with See also:silver chains, while on a raised See also:platform sat See also:Aurangzeb, the See also:Mogul See also:emperor, who had See also:left See also:Delhi three years previously to conquer the See also:Deccan. This magnificent See also:palace, where so many scenes historic in the Bijapur See also:dynasty occurred, is now the See also:abode of hundreds of pigeons. Their cooing is the only See also:sound that breaks the silence of the old halls. See also:History.—The founder of the Bijapur dynasty, Yusuf Adil Shah, is said by See also:Ferishta to have been a son of the See also:Ottoman sultan See also:Murad II. When on his See also:accession Mahommed II. gave orders for the strangling of all his See also:brothers, Yusuf was saved by a stratagem of his See also:mother. He went to India, where he took service under the Bahmani king of the Deccan, and ultimately became a See also:person of great importance at the See also:court of Mahmud IL In 1489 he took See also:advantage of the break-up of the Bahmani See also:power to establish himself as an independent sultan at Bijapur, his dominions including See also:Goa on the See also:west See also:coast. He died in 1511 (Goa had been taken by the Portuguese a few months before), and was succeeded by his son See also:Ismail, who reigned prosperously till 1534.

The next king See also:

worth mentioning is Ali Adil Shah I., who reigned from 1557 to 1579 and, besides the fort, built the Jama Masjid or great mosque, the aqueducts and other notable See also:works in the city. His son Ibrahim (d. 1626) maintained the prosperity of the state; but under his successor, Mahommed Adil Shah (d. 1656), the rise of the Mahratta power under See also:Sivaji began to make inroads upon it, and it was exposed to the yet more formidable ambition of Shah 3ahan. On the See also:death of Mahommed the See also:succession passed to Ali Adil Shah II., and on his death in 1672 to his See also:infant son, Sikandar Adil Shah, the last of the See also:race. The See also:kingdom had been for some time rapidly falling to ruin, and in 1686 the Mogul emperor Aurangzeb, who as Shah Jahan's See also:general had unsuccessfully besieged the city under Mahommed Adil Shah, took Bijapur and annexed the kingdom to the Delhi See also:empire. Among the curiosities of the capital is the celebrated See also:monster See also:gun (Malik-i-See also:Maidan), stated to be the largest piece of See also:cast See also:bronze See also:ordnance in the world. It was captured from the king of See also:Ahmednagar by the king of Bijapur about the See also:middle of the 17th See also:century. An inscription on the gun recording that fact was erased by Aurangzeb, who substituted the See also:present inscription stating that he conquered Bijapur in 1686. The city and territory of Bijapur remained annexed to Delhi till 1724, when the See also:nizam established his See also:independence in the Deccan, and included Bijapur within his dominions. His sway over this portion of his acquisitions, however, was of brief duration; for, being defeated by the See also:Peshwa in 1760, he was compelled to See also:purchase See also:peace by its cession to the See also:Mahrattas. Upon the fall of the Peshwa in 1818 Bijapur passed into the hands of the British, and was by them included in the territory assigned to the See also:raja of See also:Satara.

In 1848 the territory of Satara was escheated through the failure of heirs. The city was made the administrative headquarters of the district in 1885. The district of Bijapur, formerly called Kaladgi, occupies a barren See also:

plain, sloping eastward from a See also:string of feudatory Mahratta states to the nizam's dominions. It contains an area of 5669 sq. m., and its population in 1901 was 735,435, showing a decrease of 8% compared with an increase of 27 % in the preceding See also:decade, and a decrease of 21 % in the See also:period between 1872 and 1881. These changes in population reveal the effects of famine, which .was very severely See also:felt in 1876–1878 and again in 1899-1000. There is very little See also:irrigation in the district.-BIJNOR The See also:principal crops are See also:millet, See also:wheat, See also:pulse, oil-seeds and See also:cotton. There are considerable manufactures of cotton and See also:silk goods and blankets, and several factories for ginning and pressing cotton. The See also:East Deccan See also:line of the Southern Mahratta railway traverses the district from See also:north to See also:south.

End of Article: BIJAPUR

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