JAUNPUR

This article appears in Volume V15, Page 283 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: INV-JED

JAUNPUR , a city and

district

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. (1901), 42,771. Jaunpur is a very ancient city, the former

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

of a Mahommedan kingdom' which once extended from Budaun and Etawah to Behar. It abounds in splendid architectural monuments, most of which belong to the period when the rulers of Jaunpur were independent of Delhi. The fort of Feroz Shah is in

great

GREAT

part completely ruined, but there remain a fine gateway of the 16th century, a mosque dating from 1376, and the hammams or baths of Ibrahim Shah. Among other buildings may be mentioned the Atala Masjid (1408) and the ruined Jinjiri Masjid, mosques built by Ibrahim, the first of which has a

great

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 Jama Masjid (14381478) 01 great mosque of Husain,. with court and cloisters,

standing

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

GOVERNOR (from the Fr. gouverneur, from gouverner, O. Fr. governer, Lat. gubernare, to steer a ship, to direct, guide)

in 15691573. During the Mutiny of 1857 Jaunpur formed a centre of disaffection. The city has now lost its importance, the only industries surviving being the manufacture of perfumes and papier-mache articles.
The

DISTRICT

DISTRICT

OF JAUNPUR has an area of 1551 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 no waste lands break the continuous prospect of cultivated fields. It is divided into two unequal parts by the sinuous channel of the Gumti, a tributary of the Ganges,. which flows past the city of Jaunpur. Its total course within the district is about 90 m., and it is nowhere fordable. It is crossed by two bridges, one at Jaunpur and the other 2 M. lower down. The Gumtiisliableto sudden inundations during the

rainy

RAINY, ROBERT (1826-1906)

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. These inundations extend to its tributary the Sal. Much damage was thus effected in 1774; but the greatest recorded flood took place in September 1871, when 4000 houses in the city were swept away, besides 900o more in villages along its banks. The other rivers are the Sal, Barna, Pili and Basohi. Lakes are numerous in the north and south; the largest has a length of 8 m. Pop. (19or), 1,202,920, showing a decrease of 5% in the decade. Sugar-refining is the principal industry. The district is served by the line of the Oudh & Rohilkhand railway from Benares to Fyzabad, and by branches of this and of the Bengal & North-Western systems.
In prehistoric times Jaunpur seems to have formed a portion of the Ajodhya principality, and when it first makes an appearance in authentic history it was subject to the rulers of Benares. With the rest of their dominions it fell under the yoke of the Mussulman invaders in 1194. From that time the district appears to have been ruled by a prince of the Kanauj dynasty, as a tributary of the Mahommedan suzerain. In 1388 Malik Sarwar Khwaja was sent by Mahommed 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. The last of the dynasty was Sultan Husain, who passed his life in a fierce and chequered struggle for supremacy with Bahlol Lodi, then actual emperor at Delhi. At length, in 1478, Bahlol succeeded in defeating his rival in a

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

of decisive engagements. He took the city of Jaunpur, but permitted the conquered Husain to reside there, and to complete the building of his great mosque, the Jama Masjid, which now forms the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

ornament of the town. Many other architectural works in the district still

bear

witness to its greatness under its independent Mussulman rulers. In 1795 the district was made over to the British by the Treaty of Lucknow. From that time nothing occurred which calls for notice till the Mutiny. On the 5th of June 1857, when the news of the Benares revolt reached Jaunpur, the sepoys mutinied. The district continued in a state of complete anarchy till the arrival of the Gurkha force from

Azamgarh

AZAMGARH, or AZIMGARH

in September. In November the surrounding country was lost again, and it was not till May 1858 that the last smouldering embers of disaffection were stifled by the repulse of the insurgent leader at the hands of the people themselves.
See A. Fiihrer, The Shargi Architecture of Jaunpur (1889).
JAUNTING-CAR, a light two-wheeled carriage for a single horse, in its commonest form with seats for four persons placed back to back, with the foot-boards projecting over the wheels. It is the typical conveyance for persons in Ireland (see CAR). The first part of the word is generally taken to be identical with the verb " to jaunt," now only used in the sense of to go on a short pleasure excursion, but in its earliest uses meaning to make a horse caracole or prance, hence to jolt or bump up and down. It would apparently be a variant of " jaunce," of the same meaning, which is supposed to be taken from O. Fr. jancer. Skeat takes the origin of jaunt and jaunce to be Scandinavian, and connects them with the Swedish dialect word ganta, to romp; and he finds cognate bases in such words as " jump," " high jinks." The word " jaunty," sprightly, especially used of any-thing done with an easy nonchalant air, is a corruption of " janty," due to confusion with " jaunt." " Janty," often spelt in the 17th and 18th centuries " jante " or " jantee," represents the English pronunciation of Fr. gentil, well-bred, neat, spruce.

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