ORIGIN OF NAME OF DISTRICT
According to the tradition , the name
of this town,after which the district itself is named was
GIRZAPUR , which in terms
derives its name from the goddess
Parvati (Girija) who sacrificed
hersel here in a vajna.Mirza, Vindhyavasini ,and
Lakshmi are the other names of the goddess whose
temple exists at Vindhyachal .The present
name of the district is derived from goddess Lakshmi who
emerged from the sea . The
word Mirza is formed from two
words ; Mir meaning sea and ja
meaning outcome , with the
dditional pur standing for town. It is also locally
believed that the town
was founded by raja Nanner
and was known as Girijapur,but later on it came to
know as Mirzapur .
The earliest mention of the
town is found in the writings of Tieffenthaler,who drew up
his description
of the country between
1760 and 1770 . He mentioned it, under the name of Mirzapur
specially as a
great mart. In the records of Jonathan
Duncan,who was resident of Varanasi,frequent mention is made
of the place as Mirzapur.
LOCATION ,BOUNDRIES,AREA AND POPULATION
The District of Mirzapur lies between the paralles of 23.52 & 25.32 North latitude and 82.7
and 83.33 East longitude. It forms a portion of the Varanasi Division. On the north and north-east
it is bounded by the Varanasi district ; on the south bounded by district Sonbhadra. On the south west
by the district of Allahabad. The shape to the north and west is some what irregular. In no direction,except
for about 13 km. in the north east where he Ganga separates the Tehsil of Chunar from the district of
Varanasi , has Mirzapur a natural frontier. According to Central Statistical organisation the district of
Mirzapur had an area of 4521 Sq.Km. At the census of 2001, the population of the district is 1657140
(males 1093849 and females 980860) of which 1788203 were living in rural and 286506 in the urban area
of the district.