Jaunpur Fort History

Shahi qila or Shahi fort or Karar Fort or Jaunpur fort is a 14th-century fort in Jaunpur, build by Firuz Shah.In  The imperial gazetteer of India writer W.W. Hunter Writes The Fort of Firoz, an irregular quadrangular building overlooking the north bank of Gumti ,consist of a stone wall ,build round an artificial earthen mound .The material was obtained from ruined Buddhist and Hindu temples and carved stone taken from these sources occur profusely in the walls.

The fort still offers a few interesting monuments together with the eastern gateway that has been salvaged along with a portion of the fort wall. Within the fort complex, one can visit the spacious Turkish Hammam of the Sharqis, locally referred to as Bhul-bhulian. 

Close to it is a three domed mosque built in a typical Bengali style with a four feet high sandstone minar in front. Arabic inscription on the minar assigns its construction to Ibrahim Naib Barbak (brother of Sultan Firoz Shah) in 1377. However, other historians read it as 1395 and credit it to Prince Ibrahim (subsequently Sultan Ibrahim) during the reign of the first Sharqi king (1395). 

Another six feet high pillar with 17 lines of Persian prose is placed outside the gateway. It dates back to 1769 and exhorts al Muslim and Hindu kotwals of the fort to continue the allowance, possibly to the descendants of the Sharqis. The inscription continues:

Shahi Bridge Jaunpur

The historical city of Jaunpur is located o the banks of the river Gomati. Jaunpur district is situated on the northwest side of the district of Varanasi. The history of Jaunpur dates back to 1388, when Feroz Shah Tughlaq, the Sultan of Delhi appointed a eunuch named Malik Sarwar as the governor of the region. Today Jaunpur shares the underdevelopment of a major portion of Eastern Uttar Pradesh.

There are endless tourist attraction spots in Jaunpur which include Sadar Imambara, Jami Masjid, Temple of Sheetla Devi, Tomb of Nawab Ghazi Khan, Lal Darwaza Masjid, Khalis Mukhlis Masjid, Shitla Choukiya Dham, Kadam Rasool, Temple of Mihar Devi, Panje Shareef, Atala Masjid, Trilochan Mahadev Temple, Yamdagni Ashram, Shahi Bridge, Zoological Museum, Archaeological Museum, Botany Museum, Cemetry of seven kings of Sharqi dynasty, Rauza of Shah Firoz, Saikh Burhana Mosque, Walls of Old Kankar Fort of Jauichandra, Jhanjhari Masjid and the list can go on and on. Out of all these places the one that really stands out from the rest is the Shahi Bridge.

Shahi Bridge, Jaunpur is built across the Gomati river. The Shahi Bridge, Uttar Pradesh consists ten arched openings that are supported on huge and massive pylons. There is an additional extension of five arches that were built so as to cover the diverted channel. The bridge initially possessed a hammam ( public bath house ) at the northern end, but it is no longer used and is permanently closed. For providing points on the bridge so that people can stop and gaze at the flowing river below, Chhatris ( small pavilions ) were built which lined on both the sides of the bridge..

Veer Bahadur Singh Purvanchal University

Veer Bahadur Singh Purvanchal University (Hindi: वीर बहादुर सिंह पूर्वांचल युनिवेर्सिटी ), formerly Purvanchal University, is in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh. It was established in 1987 as a residential-cum-affiliating university. It is named after Shri Vir Bahadur Singh, the former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.

The university is engaged in research through MoU with foreign and local universities, organizations and institutions. Many of its departments are identified by UGC as Centres of Excellence.

Started with 69 affiliated colleges, the university has widened its spectrum of activities with 470+ affiliated graduate and post-graduate colleges and students enrollment of nearly 500,000 Plus as on ( 2013–14 ) in 12 districts of Eastern Uttar Pradesh. The infrastructure development, achievement of academic excellence, quality assurance in the higher education and socio-economic development of this highly backward and rural region are the priority areas for the university.

A committee monitors research activity in the university. Over 60% of the faculty members have doctoral degrees and they are engaged in guiding research scholars. Faculty members are eligible to guide students after five years of teaching and publications in peer-reviewed journals. Department of Biotechnology is one of the leading departments of the university. it was established in the year 1999. the department has good research facilities and the research groups mainly Human Molecular Genetics Laboratory and Molecular Biology Group are involved in basic research.

Jaunpur History

Jaunpur is located to the northwest of the district of Varanasi in the eastern part of the North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Demographically, Jaunpur resembles the rest of the Purvanchal area in which it is located: having good Human development index.

Jaunpur historically known as Sheeraz-e-Hind having its historical dates from 1359, when the city was founded by the Sultan of Delhi Feroz Shah Tughlaq and named in memory of his cousin, Muhammad bin Tughluq, whose given name was Jauna Khan.^[2][3]In 1388, Feroz Shah Tughlaq appointed Malik Sarwar, an eunuch, who is notorious for having been the lover of Feroz Shah Tughlaq's daughter, as the governor of the region. The Sultanate was in disarray because of factional fighting for power, and in 1393 Malik Sarwar declared independence. He and his adopted son Mubarak Shah founded what came to be known as the Sharqi dynasty (dynasty of the East). During the Sharqi period the Jaunpur Sultanate was a strong military power in Northern India, and on several occasions threatened the Delhi Sultanate.

Silver coin of 32 rattis issued by Ibrahim Shah of Jaunpur.

It depicts the elephant Citranand attacking another, called Udiya, during the Mughal campaign against the rebel forces of Khan Zaman and Bahadur Khan in 1567.

The Jaunpur Sultanate attained its greatest height under the younger brother of Mubarak Shah, who ruled as Shams-ud-din Ibrahim Shah (ruled 1402-1440). To the east, his kingdom extended to Bihar, and to the west, to Kanauj; he even marched on Delhi at one point. Under the aegis of a Muslim holy man named Qutb al-Alam, he threatened the Sultanate of Bengal under Raja Ganesha.^[4]

During the reign of Husain Shah (1456–76), the Jaunpur army was perhaps the biggest in India, and Husain decided to attempt a conquest of Delhi. However, he was defeated on three successive attempts by Bahlul Khan Lodi. It is a dominant trend in modern historiography of the period that this defeat was a cause of a large number of eunuchs in the military ranks. Finally, under Sikandar Lodi, the Delhi Sultante was able to reconquer Jaunpur in 1493, bringing that sultanate to an end.

The Jaunpur Sultanate was a major center of Urdu and Sufi knowledge and culture. The Sharqi dynasty was known for its excellent communal relations between Muslims and Hindus, perhaps stemming from the fact that the Sharqis themselves were originally indigenous converts to Islam, as opposed to descendants of Persians or Afghans. Jaunpur's independence came to an end in 1480, when the city was conquered by Sikander Lodhi, the Sultan of Delhi. The Sharqi kings attempted for several years to retake the city, but ultimately failed.

Although many of the Sharqi monuments were destroyed when the Lodis took the city, several important mosques remain, most notably the Atala Masjid, Jama Masjid (now known as the Bari (big mosque) Masjid) and the Lal Darwaza Masjid. The Jaunpur mosques display a unique architectural style, combining traditional Hindu and Muslim motifs with purely original elements. The old bridge over the Gomti River in Jaunpur dates from 1564, the era of the MughalEmperor Akbar. The Jaunpur Qila, a fortress from the Tughlaq era, also remains in good form.

Jaunpur district was annexed into British India based on the Permanent settlement of 1779, and thus was subject to the Zamindari system of land revenue collection. During the Revolt of 1857 the Sikh troops in Jaunpur joined the Indian rebels. The district was eventually reconquered for the British by Gurkha troops from Nepal. Jaunpur then became a district administrative center.