MONGHYR  , a

town and district of British India, in the Bhagalpur division of Bengal . The town is on the right bank of the Ganges, and has a railway station, with steam ferry to the railway on the opposite bank of the river . Pop . (1901), 35,880 . In 1195 Monghyr, a fortress of great natural strength, appears to have- been taken by Mahommed Bakhiyar Khilji, the first Moslem conqueror of Bengal . Henceforth it is often mentioned by the Mahommedan chroniclers as a place of military importance, and was frequently chosen as the seat of the local government . After 1590, when Akbar established his supremacy over the Afghan chiefs of Bengal, Monghyr was long the headquarters of his general, Todar Mal; and it also figures prominently during the rebellion of Sultan Shuja against his brother, Aurangzeb . In more recent times Nawab Mir Kasim, in his war with the English, selected it as his residence and the centre of his military preparations . Monghyr is famous for its manufactures of iron: firearms, swords, and iron articles of every kind are produced in abundance but are noted for cheapness rather than quality . The art of inlaying sword-hilts and other articles with gold and silver affords employment to a few families . The DISTRICT of 1VIUTvcuYR has an area of 3922 sq. m . The Ganges divides it into two portions .

The

northern, intersected by the Burhi Gandak and Tiljuga, two important tributaries of the Ganges, is always liable to inundation during the rainy season, and is a rich, flat, wheat and rice country, supporting a large population . A considerable area, immediately bordering the banks of the great rivers, is devoted to permanent pasture . Immense herds of buffaloes are sent every hot season to graze on these marshy prairies; and the ghi, or clarified butter, made from their milk forms an important article of export to Calcutta . To the south of the Ganges the country is dry, much less fertile, and broken up by fragmentary ridges . Irrigation is necessary throughout the section lying on the south of the Ganges . The population in 1901 was 2,068,804, showing an increase of 1.6% in the decade . The principal exports sent to Calcutta, both by rail and by river, are oil-seeds, wheat, rice, indigo, grain and pulse, hides and tobacco; and the chief imports consist of European piece-goods, salt and sugar . The southern portion of the district is well provided with railways . At Lakhisarai junction the arc and chord lines of the East Indian railway divide, and here also starts the branch to Gaya . At Jamalpur, which is the junction for Monghyr, are the engineering workshops of the company . In the early years of British rule Monghyr formed a part of Bhagalpur, and was not created a separate district till 1832 . See Monghyr District Gazetteer (Calcutta, 1909) .