1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Muzaffargarh

MUZAFFARGARH, a town and district of British India, in the Multan division of the Punjab. The town is near the right bank of the river Chenab, and has a railway station. Pop. (1901), 4018. Its fort and a mosque were built by Nawab Muzaffar Khan in 1794–1796.

The District of Muzaffargarh occupies the lower end of the Sind-Sagar Doab. Area, 3635 sq. m. In the northern half of the district is the wild thal or central desert, an arid elevated tract with a width of 40 m. in the extreme north, which gradually contracts until it disappears about 10 m. south of Muzaffargarh town. Although apparently a table-land, it is really composed of separate sandhills, with intermediate valleys lying at a lower level than that of the Indus, and at times flooded. The towns stand on high sites or are protected by embankments; but the villages scattered over the lowlands are exposed to annual inundations, during which the people abandon their grass-built huts, and take refuge on wooden platforms attached to each house. Throughout the cold weather large herds of camels, belonging chiefly to the Povindah merchants of Afghanistan, graze upon the sandy waste.

The district possesses hardly any distinct annals of its own, having always formed part of Multan (q.v.). The population in 1901 was 405,656, showing an increase of 6·4% in the decade, due to the extension of irrigation. The principal crops are wheat, pulse, rice and indigo. The most important domestic animal is the camel. The district is crossed by the North-Western railway, and the boundary rivers are navigable, besides furnishing numerous irrigation channels, originally constructed under native rule.