SHIKARPUR, a British district in the province of Sind, Bombay presidency, India, with an area of 10,000 square miles, lying between 27° and 29° N. lat. and between 67° and 70° E. long. It is bounded on the N. by Khelat, Upper Sind Frontier district, and the river Indus; on the E. by the native states of Bahawalpur and Jaisalmir; on the S. by Khairpur state; and on the W. by the Khirthar Mountains. ShikArpur is a vast alluvial plain, broken only at Sukkur and Rohri by limestone hills. The Khirthar range attains an elevation of 7000 feet, and forms a natural boundary between the district and Baluchistan. Extensive patches of salt land, known as kalar, are frequently met with, especially in the upper portion of ShikArpur, and towards the Jacobabad frontier barren tracts of clay land and ridges of sand-hills, covered with caper and thorn jungle, form a poor but distinctive feature in the landscape. The desert portion of Rohri subdivision, known as the Registhán, is very extensive. The forests (207 square miles) are situated on the banks of the Indus, mostly in the Rohri and ShikArpur subdivisions. The Indus Valley State Railway runs through the district, and the Kandahar railway also goes through a part of it....
In 1881 the population numbered 852,986 (males 461,033, females 391,953), of whom 93,341 were Hindus, 684,275 Mohammedans, and 736 Christians. The chief towns are Shikarpur, Sukkur (population 27,389), Larkhana (13,188), and Rohri (10,224). The cultivated land in 1882-83 amounted to 764,488 acres, of which 108,636 were twice cropped. Cereals—chiefly rice, joár (millet), and wheat—form the principal crops; but a considerable area is also under pulses and oil-seeds. The chief manufactures are carpets and coarse cotton cloths. The total revenue raised in 1882-83 amounted to £234,792, of which the land contributed £189,869. Passing from the dominion of the caliphs, Shikarpur was overrun by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1025, and a little later was governed by the Sumras, the Sammas, and the Arghuns in succession. The Kalhora dynasty came into prominence in the 18th century, and was followed by the Talpur mirs, who annexed a part of the Durani territory and incorporated it in the district. In 1843 Shikarpur passed to the British, and in 1852 the greater part of the Rohri subdivision was resumed from the mir of Khairpur, who had acquired it by fraud.
SHIKARPUR, the chief town of the above district, is situated 18 miles west of the Indus, in a tract of low-lying country annually flooded by the canals from that river. It is a great entrepôt for transit trade between the Bolan Pass and Karachi. The population in 1881 numbered 42,496 (males 22,889, females 19,607).
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