Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 10 (2nd edition).pdf/23

 JULTAN CITY.

LI

towns and villages, 225 contain less than five hundred inhabitants, and 38 between five hundred and a thousand, while only 24 contain a population exceeding a thousand souls. The average area under cultivation for the five years 1877–78 to 1881-82 is returned at 190 square miles, or 121,602 acres, the area under the principal crops being as follows:-\l'heat, 44,433 acres; jour, 12,672 acres; cotton, 12,096 acres; indigo, 6971 acres; biljni, 5993 acres; rice, 4864 acres; barley, 2616 acres; gram, 2457 acres; and vegetables, 7159 acres. Revenue of the tahsil, £17,450. The administrative staff, including the officers attached to the Divisional and District head-quarters, comprises i Commissioner, 1 Deputy Commissioner, 1 Judicial Assistant Conmissioner, 3 Assistant or extra-Assistant Commissioners, 1 Small Cause Court Judge, i tuhsildir, 2 munsifs, and i honorary magistrate. These officers preside over 10 civil and 9 criminal courts. Vumber of police circles (thens), 3 ; strength of regular police, 244 men ; village watch or rural police (chaukidurs), 95.

Múltán (looltan). -City, municipality, and administrative headquarters of Múltán District, Punjab; situated in lat. 30° 12' v., and long. 71° 30' 45" E., on a mound, the accumulated debris of ages, at a distance of four miles from the present left bank of the Chenáb, enclosed on three sides by a wall from 10 to 20 feet in height, but open towards the south, where the dry bed of the old Ráví intervenes between the town and citadel. As late as the days of Timúr, the Raví seems to have flowed past Múltán, joining the Chenab 10 miles lower down; and the original site consisted of two islands, whichi are now picturesquely crowned by the city and citadel, at an elevation of some 50 feet above the surrounding country. The fortifications were dismantled in 1954, but the fort still remains a place of some strength, and is occupied by a European garrison. Large and irregular suburbs have grown up outside the wall since the annexation in 1849. Within the city proper, one broad básár, the Chauk, runs from the Husáin gate for a quarter of a mile into the centre of the city, ending at the Walí Muhammad gate, froin which three broad streets lead to the various gates of the city. The other streets are narrow and tortuous, often ending in culs-de-sac.

Múltán is a town of great antiquity, being identified with the capital of the Malli, whom Alexander conquered in his invasion of the Punjab; but the history of the city is included in that of Multan DISTRICT. The principal buildings include the shrines of the Muhammadan saints, Baha-ud-dín and Rukhn-ul-alam (of the Arab tribe of Koresh, to which the Prophet belonged), which stand in the citadel. Close by are the remains of an ancient Hindu temple of the Narasinha Avatar of Vishnu, called Pahládpuri, partially blown down by the explosion of the powder magazine during the siege of 1848-49. The great temple of