This historic place lies in latitude 25.7 North & Longitude

80.55 East , 32 Km.east of Mirzapur and is connected by rail and

road. It is also connected by rail  with Varanasi  via. Mugalsarai

in the east.

             Tradition asserts that Bawan Bhagwan disguising

himself as a Brahamana begged three steps of land from king

Bali.His first foot-step rested upon the hill of Chunar 

impressing it with his foot-mark.Consequently, the hill came to

be known as Chunar Adri or footstep hill. With the passage of

time, the name became Chunar.In the course of time the

religious significance of this place increased considerably. It is

aid that Bhati Nath, brother of the half Mythical Vikramaditya of

Ujjain, having embraced the habit and profession of a hermit,

selected the rock of Chunar as his place of retirement.

Vikramaditya is said to have discovered the hiding place of his

brother by the aid of certain holy hermit named Gorakhnath, and

to have visited Chunar and built for his brother a residence, he

in his religious  absorption having neglected to provide any

shelter for himself.And a variant of the legend, already given,

states that it is the asint urf saint, not God himself,    Who is

invisibly seated on the black stone in the saint, ashrine on the

summit of the hill. The next name connected with the fort is

that of Prithiviraj, who is reported to have effected a settlement

in this, part of the country and to brought under his rule a

number  of the surrounding villages. After his death the country

is said to have been taken from his successors by one Khair-ud-

din Subuktagin. It appears, however, from a mutilated   sanskrit

inscription the gateway of the fort that the place was again

recovered by one Swami Raja, who put up the stone to

commemorate the event.The fort was finally acquired by

sahab-ud-din, who appointed  a ceryain sanidi, an African, and

a Bahelia, with the title of hazari, as the governors of the fort,

at the same time conferring on them a jagir is said to have

remained with the Bahelia family through all (the British) its

succeeding viciasitudesuntil its final cession to the British in 1772.

    Chunar Big Fort    (Chandrakanta Chunargarh)

         Chunar did not become a fortress of first rate importance

till the sixteenth century,when the struggles between the

pathans and Mugals for the mastery of the east took place to

which it was regarded as the key, Baber visited the place in 1529

A.D. and awing to the number of wild beasts that infested the

neighborhood, lost many of his soldiers. These men were

subsequently venerated as martyrs and their tombs are still to

be seen scattered about the neighborhood. Serkhan sur,

afterwards the emperor Sher Shah, obtained possession of the

fort by marrying the wife of deceased Govern and for some time

resided in it.He built the Turkish bath (haman) and armory

(silah-khana). He refused to give it up to Humayun in 1536,

whereupon Humayun besieged it for six months, ultimately

succeeding in capturing it by means of a floating  battery built

high enough to command the fortifications . But no sooner had

be continued his advance into Bengal, than it fell into the hands

of Sher Khan again and it was not until 1575 A.D., that it was

recovered by Akbar. The latter visited Chunar for shikar(hunting)

. He also built the watergate in 1586 A.D. Which is the date

engraved on the stone archway. Until 1750A.D. it remained with

the Mughals. The emperor Jahangir appointed one Iftikhar Khan

as its nazim,and in the reign of Aurangzeb one of its Governors

was Mirza Bairam Khan, who built a mosque there in 1663 A.D.

near the Bharion Burj. But after the disruption of the Mughal

empire, the fort fell into the hands of the nawab vizir of Avadh,

and through all the subsequent aggressions and intrigues  it

was the only place which Balwant Singh was not able, or did not

dare,to reduced into his possession. In 1764 an unsuccessful

attack was made on it by the British troops under major Munro.

Two assaults failed and the siege was turned into a blacked

which,however,was abandoned owing to the menacing attitude

of Shuja-ud-daula after an unsuccessful night attack, a breach

was effected in the south western rampart from batteries

erected on Gaddess fort was exchanged for that of Allahabad,

but in 1772 it was formally ceded to the East India Company ,

who established in it a depot for artillery and ammunition.After

Chet Singh's outbreak in 1781, Warren Hastings retired for safety

to Chunar fort where a force was collected under major Popham,

which expelled Chet Singh from his strongholds in the

neighborhood.

               In 1791, Chunar fort became the headquarters of

invalid battalion of European and Indian troops serving in India,

all officers and men who were unfit for field  service, being sent

here for light duty. From 1815 onwards the fort was used as a

place of confinement for state prisoners.During the freedom

struggle of 1857-58, it was garrisoned by the artillery and

infantry company of the European invalid Battalion and all the

district officers and European residents. The enclosure of Bhartri

Nath's shrine was once being used as civil treasury. It was

garrisoned until the year 1890,when the troops were finally

withdrawn, the buildings in the fort being handed over to the

charge of the civil authorities who first used it as a convalescent

jail.Later on it was turned into a religious place.

        The fort contains some buildings of historical and archaeo-

logical significance. The building known as Sonwa Mandap has

28 pillars reflecting purely the Hindu style of architecture.There

is engraving on the mehrab which, it is said, was filled with

gold.In the back portion there is the samadhi of Bhartri Nath .

At present religious ceremonies are also held there. It has four

gates. There is a tunnel in font of this building. It is said that

in 1333 A.D.princess Sonwa, daughter of Sandeva , a Nepali king

,used to go to take bath in the river Ganga through this tunnel ,

which leads down from the fort . There is about 17M. diameter

and about 200M. deep bawali in the fort still having water. It is

said that princess sonwa used to take bath here. It is also said

that it is connected with the Ganga which supplies water to it.

            Less than one Km. south west of the fort is situated

the tomb or dargah of Shah Qasim Sulmiani. it is a building of

considerable  architectural  pretensions.The saint whose remains

are interred here is said to have been an Afghan by birth and to

have lived during the reigns of Akbar and  Jahangir, the date of

his being given 956 Hijri or 1549 A.D. and the age of 27 he be

took himself to a holy life, and setout to visit the sacred places

at Mecca and Medina.

The Pristige gained by his pilgrimage procured him on his return

a considerable following of disciples, but unfortunately he incurr-

ed the displeasure of Akbar by declining to subscribe to that

monarch's  views on religion. During Akbar by declining to

subscribe to that monarch's views on religion. During Akbar reign

he was not molested further than having his place of residence

fixed at Lahore, but on the accession of Jahangir his enemies

represented to the king the danger of all-owing Shah Qasim

to attract so large a number of followers.At first Jahangir

appears to have contemplated punishing the saint with death.

But better counsel prevailed and Shah Sulamiani was sent as

prisoner to his Chunar in 1606 A.D. where he died the following

year. His disciples erected the mausoleum into his memory and

his two sons were installed as its chief attendants. The process

of canonization was now complete, and Jahangir himself

recognized the sanctity of the shaine by a grant to the saint's

son of 30 bighas of land in the advacent village of Tikar.One of

the sons,  Shah Kabir Baba,become a saint , and his disciplesset

up a mausoleum to his memory at Kanauj. Another son ,

Muhammad Wasih, and two grandsons, Muhammad Afzal and

Muhammad Hakim, were honored with tombs near that of Shah

Qasim.Further additions to the landed estate of the shrine were

made in the reigns of Shah Jahan and Farrukhsiyar. To the latter

it owes the gift of the village of Begpur . Poor Muslim travelers

were provided with food for three days out of the income derived

from the estates. The annual offerings to the saint take place

between the 17th and 21st days of the month jamadi-ul-awwal,

and during March and April five dargah fair are held  on Thursday

which are attended by all classes,prays and praise being

conjoined  with a brisk market in wordily goods. The buildings

are seven in number . First there is the mausoleum of Shah

Qasim himself.It is enclosed by lattice stone walls,outside

which standing on stone basements,are the graves of his

disciples in groups,being separated from each other by beautifully

carved stand it is believed that these when gently rubbed by one

of his disciples, poor out a divine effluence through entrance

gate there is a brief inscription in five lines all of which, except

the last , are in Arabic and consist of paresis of the saint,the

date given in 1607 A.D.  There are two other mausoleums ,one

belonging to the saints son, Muhammad Wash,and the other to

his grandsons Muhammad Afzal and Muhammad Hakim, and the

other buildings include the Nakkashi Darwaza or principal

gateway, the Fawara Sawan Bhadon or mountain of the rainy

season, the Range Mahal on the corner walls of which are

engraved 16 persian couplets, and the mosque. The last six

were all built it is said, by Muhammad Wasih in 1618 A.D.   There

are beautiful carvings on the principal gateway and the stone

lattice with which the garden is enclosed.

           Less than one Km. up a narrow revine to the south-

southwest to the railway station is a perennial spring , called

Durga Kund. To the north side of the ravine stands the temple

of Kamakshi Devi, and just below it a small old temple. The

ravine or Jhima nala,is spanned by a bridge, which leads to a row

of three dalansor cloisters formed by building against the face

of the rock.Against the back wall there is a low platform,or seat

,about 38 cm. high and 40 cm. broad, which was probably

intended for the reception of statues. Sculptured on the rock

there are several figures of lions,forces, and elephants in outline

.The face of the rock is about 3/2 meters high,above which the

constructions exist. The whole back wall is covered with short

inscriptions of many ages beginning from the Gupta period.Similar

inscriptions are also cut in the rock of Durga Khoor Durga cave,

a little further up the ravine,near which an annual fair is held on

the ninth day of the Durgapuja festival. The cave is simply an

old quarry which has been converted into a dwelling by building

up two pillars under the edge of the overhanging rock ,but the

inscriptions are of considerable antiquity, several of them being

of the  Gupta period, through they are chiefly the personal

records of pilgrims who have visited the cave of Durga where

she is said to have sprung out of the rock.

              There are several other interesting buildings about the

outskirts of Chunar.The mausoleum of Iftikhar Khan, nazim in the

reign of Jahangir , known as the old tahsildari, lies beyond the

Jirgo. Near the only gate by which admittance is gained there is

a baoli (well) called the "robber's cave" with steps leading down

to the water's adage.Formerly a subterranean passage led from

the latter to the mausoleum,but this has long since been closed

.An inscription over the well shows the date of its construction

to have been A.D. 1605. The tomb of saiyid Bahadur Ali is on a

high stone platform at Tikaur. He was a large land holders in the

neighborhood,who was assigned a grant of land rent-free by

Shah Jahan. He adopted the usage's and habits of a faqir and is

much venerated by the people of the neighborhood who built a

tomb.It is affirmed that the tomb was originally of stone but it

was mysteriously transformed into white marble.Close to the

railway station is situated ,on the boarders of a swamp ,

Phulwaria. In the days of raja Sahadeo,a mythical raja of the

fort, who had a daughter named Sunnia who was married to Alha

,the Benapher hero of Mahoba,there was a garden here, the

flowers from which used to be offered daily to his residence here

called idol at Durga Kho. Udal is said to have taken up his

residence here for a brief spell,and the garden is said to have

been the model of one made by Saiyid Jamal-ud-din,anazim of

Chunar in the reign of Qutb-ud-din Aibak,at Benares which was

famed for the excellence of its melons.Near it is a monastery

called Achraj, composed of blocks of stone buildings in which

accommodation was provided for monks,pilgrims,and others who

came to worship. Along a terrace near the entrance is an array

of Hindu deities with grotesque countenances. It is said to be

the birth place of the great Hindu hieresiarch Swami Ballabhach-

arya or, according to another version , of his son Bithal Nath, in

whose honour the edifices were built.At the declivity of a hill ,

believed to be the Sonwar Pahar, south east of Phulwaria, there

are the remains of a small mosque.

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Last modified: May 21, 2003