Bukkur
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Bukkur
{Bakhar). — Fortified island in the river Indus, in Sukkur District, Sind, Bombay, situated in 27° 43' N. and 68° 56' E., between the towns of Sukkur and Rohri. Population (1901), 8,062. Bukkur is a rock of limestone, oval in shape, 800 yards long by 300 wide, and about 25 feet in height. The channel separating it from the Sukkur shore is not more than 100 yards wide, and, when the river is at its lowest, about 15 feet deep in the middle. In 1903 this channel dried up for the first time on record. The eastern channel, or that which divides it from Rohri, is much broader, being, during the same state of the river, about 400 yards wide, with a depth of 60 feet in the middle.
The Government telegraph line from Rohri to Sukkur crosses the river here by the island of Bukkur, and the railway passes by a cantilever bridge over the wider branch. The Lansdowne Bridge, which crosses the Indus via Bukkur, was completed in 1889 at a cost of 38-2 lakhs. The largest span between Bukkur and Rohri is 820 feet. A little to the north of Bukkur, and separated from it by a narrow channel of eas\- passage, is the small isle of Khwaja Khizr, or Jind Pir, containing a shrine of much sanctity ,; while to the south of Bukkur is another islet known as Sadh Bela, covered with foliage, and also possessing some sacred shrines. Almost the whole of the island of Bukkur is occupied by the fortress, the walls of which are double, and from 30 to 35 feet high, with numerous bastions ; they are built partly of burnt and unburnt brick, are loopholed, and have two gatew^ays, one facing Rohri on the east, and the other Sukkur on the west. The fort presents a fine appearance from the river, but the walls are now in disrepair. Until 1876, Bukkur was used as a jail subsidiary to that at Shikarpur,
That Bukkur, owing to its insular position, must always have been considered a stronghold of some importance under native rule is evi- denced by its being so frequently a bone of contention between different States. So early as 1327, when Sind was an apanage of the Delhi empire, Bukkur seems to have been a place of note, from the fact that trustworthy persons were employed by the emperor Muhammad bin Tughlak to command here. During the rule of the Samma princes, the fort seems to have changed hands several times, being occasionally under their rule, and at times under that of Delhi.
In the reign of Shah Beg Arghun, the fortifications of Bukkur appear to have been partially, if not wholly, rebuilt, the fort of Alor being broken up to supply the requisite material. In 1574 the place was delivered up to Keshu Khan, a servant of the Mughal emperor Akbar. In 1736 the fortress fell into the hands of the Kalhora princes, and at a sub- sequent date into that of the Afghans, by whom it was retained till captured by Mir Rustam Khan of Khairpur. In 1839, during the first Afghan War, the fort of Bukkur was ceded by the Khairpur Mirs to the British, to be occupied by them, and it so remained till the conquest of the whole province in 1843. Bukkur was the principal British arsenal in Sind during the Afghan and Sind campaigns.
