MIRZAPUR  , a

city and district of British India, in the Benares division of the United Provinces . The city is on the right bank of the Ganges; a station on the East Indian railway, about half-way between Allahabad and Benares, 509 M . N.W. from Calcutta . Pop . (1901), 79,862 . The river front, lined with stone ghats or flights of stairs, mosques, Hindu temples and dwelling-houses of the wealthier merchants, is handsome; but the interior of the town is mainly composed of mud huts . Formerly it was the emporium of trade between central India and Bengal, which has now been diverted to the railways . It has European and native lace factories, and manufactures brass vessels and woollen carpets . The London Mission manages a high school and an orphanage . The municipal limits include the town of Bind-hachal, an important centre of pilgrimage, with the shrine of Vindhyeshwari . The DISTRICT OF MIRZAPUR extends into the Sone valley . Area, 5238 sq. m .

It is crossed from east to

west by the Vindhya and Kaimur ranges . A central jungly plateau connects these and separates the valley of the Ganges from that of the Sone . The part north of the Vindhyas is highly cultivated and thickly peopled, but the rest of the district consists largely of ravines and forests with a sparse population . The population in 1901 was 1,082,430, showing a decrease of 6.8 % in the decade . The district comprises a large part of the hereditary domains of the raja of . Benares, which are revenue-free . It is traversed, near the Ganges, by the main line of the East Indian railway . The Great Southern road used to start from the city .