SHOLAPUR  , a

city and district of British India, in the Central division of Bombay . The city is 164 m . S.E. from Poona by rail . Municipal area, about 8 sq. m.; pop . (Igor) 75,288 . Since 1877 it has ceased to be a military cantonment . Its great fort, of Mahommedan construction, dates from the 14th to 17th centuries . The large bazaar is divided into seven sections, one of which is used on each day of the week . There are two municipal gardens, with fine tanks and temples . It is an import-ant centre of trade, with three cotton mills . The DISTRICT OF SHOLAPUR has an area of 4541 sq. m . Except in Karmala and Barsi subdivisions, in the north and east, where there is a good deal of hilly ground, the district is generally flat or undulating; but it is bare of vegetation, and presents every-where a bleak treeless appearance .

The

chief rivers are the Bhima and its tributaries—the Man, the Nira and the Sinaall flowing towards the south-east . Lying in a tract of uncertain rainfall, Sholapur is peculiarly liable to seasons of scarcity; much, however, has been done by the opening of canals and tanks, such as the Ekruk and Ashti tanks, to secure a better water-supply, the Ekruk tank near Sholapur city is the second largest irrigation work in the Deccan . In Igor the population was 720,977, showing a decrease of 4% in the decade . The principal crops are millet, pulse, oil seeds and cotton . There are manufactures of silk and cotton cloth, and blankets . The chief trading mart is Barsi . Pandharpur is a popular place of pilgrimage . The Great Indian Peninsula railway runs through the district, with a junction for the Southern Mahratta railway, and another junction for the Barsi light railway, recently extended to Pandharpur . Sholapur passed from the Bahmani to the Bijapur kings and from them to the Mahrattas . In 1818, on the fall of the peshwa, it was ceded to the British, when it formed part of the Poona collectorate, but in 1838 it was made a separate district .