Ghats
or GHAUTS (gâts), EAST- ERN and WESTERN, two converging ranges of mountains, which run parallel with the E. and W. coasts of southern GHAZIPUR India, and meet at Cape Comorin, inclosing the Deccan. The Ghats commence in the vicinity of Balasor, a little N. of the Mahanadi, and run through Madras, with an average height of 1,500 feet, for the most part at a distance of from 50 to 150 miles from the coast. They are nowhere a watershed on any considerable scale, being penetrated and crossed by nearly all the drainage of the interior.
The Western Ghats stretch from the valley of the Tapti, in about the same latitude as Balasor, to their junction with the kindred ridge, and on to Cape Comorin itself. Though they are generally far more continuous and distinct than the Eastern Ghats, yet they are sharply divided by the gap of Palghat-the N. section measuring 800 miles in length, and the S. 200. Their general elevation varies from about 3,000 feet to upward of 7,000; the peak of Dodabetta, in the Nilgiri hills, is 8,760 feet above sea-level.
The name Ghats is also applied to the flights of steps, whether intended as landing places or as bathing stairs, which line the river banks in towns and places of pilgrimage in northern and central India. Most great rivers, and especially the Ganges, possess many gháts; but they are also built on the margins of lakes, as at Pushkar and Sagar, or even of tanks. The uniformity of the long lines of steps is often broken by shrines or temples, built either close to the water's edge or at the top; and on these steps are concentrated the pastimes of the idler, the duties of the devout, and much of the necessary intercourse of business. The ghats of Benares, Harwar, Panharpur, and of Maheswar, on the Nerbudda, are noteworthy either for their number or beauty; while Cawnpur, Sadullapur, the ruined city of Gaur, and other places possess noted "burning ghats" for purposes of cremation.
GHAZIPUR (gä-ze-pör'), a city, capital of the district of Ghazipur, India, on the left bank of the Ganges, 44 miles N.
E. of Benares. The city, which stretches along the Ganges for about 2 miles, contains the ruins of the palace of Forty Pillars, and a marble statue by Flaxman to Lord Cornwallis, who died here in 1805. Ghazipur is the headquarters of the Government Opium Department for the Northwest provinces, all the opium from these provinces being manufactured here, and there is some trade in sugar, tobacco, rosewater, and cloth.
Pop. about 23,000.
GHAZNI (gäz'nē or guz'nē), a town of Afghanistan, below a spur of a range of hills, at an elevation of 7,729 feet, 84 GHEE miles S. W. of Kabul, on the road to Kandahar and at the head of the Gomal route to India. It is a place of considerable commercial importance. The climate is cold, snow often lying for three months in the year. Nevertheless, wheat, barley, and madder are grown in the vicinity. From the 10th to the 12th century Ghazni was the capital of the empire of the Ghaznevids (see below); it then fell into the hands of the Sultan of Ghûr; and afterward captured by the Mongols. It remained subject to the Mongol rulers of Delhi and Agra till 1738, when it was taken by Nadir Shah of Persia, and at his death was incorporated in the kingdom of Afghanistan. During the 19th century it figured in the British wars against the Afghans, having been stormed by Lord Keane in 1839, and again in 1842 by the Afghans, but retaken the same year by General Nutt.
In the neighborhood of Ghazni there are several ruins and monuments of its former greatness, such as the tomb of Mahmud, Mahmud's dam in the Ghazni river, and many Mohammedan shrines.
The celebrated gates of Somnath were kept at Ghazni from 1024 to 1842.
Ghaznevid Dynasty. - About the middle of the 10th century a lieutenant of the Samanid ruler of Bokhara seized on Ghazni, and, dying in 977 977, left it to his son-in-law, Sebuktagin, who during a reign of 20 years extended his sway over all modern Afghanistan and the Punjab.
But it was under his son Mahmud (997- 1030) that the Ghaznevids reached their highest point of splendor and renown.
This prince repeatedly invaded India, and carried his conquering arms as far as Kurdistan and the Caspian on the W. and to Samarkand on the N. He was the first monarch in Asia to assume the title of sultan. His descendants had a keen struggle to maintain themselves against the Seljuks, who had seized on Khorasan, Balkh, Kharezm, and Irak during the reign of Mahmud's son Masaud (1030-1042), and against their jealous rivals the princes of GHûR (q. v.). Bahram Shah, ruler of Ghazni from 1118 to 1152, was at length driven from his capital by the latter, and retired to the Punjab. There his grandson, Khosrau Malek, the last of the dynasty, made Lahore his capital. This town was, however, taken by the Prince of Ghûr in 1186, and with this the Ghaznevid dynasty came to an end.