The Chunar Fort was established by Maharaja Vikramaditya, the King of Ujjain, in honour of the stay of his brother Raja Bharthari. It is believed that Raja Bharthari left his body and took Mahasamadhi at this fort, a servant disciple is still taking care of the place and offers deepam dhupam to the Raja everyday. As per Alha Khand in 1029 AD. King Sahadeo made this fort as his capital and established the statue of Naina Yogini in a cave of Vindhya hill and put the name as Nainagarh. King Sahadeo built a stone umbrella based on 52 pillars in the memory of the victory on 52 other kings, inside the fort which is still preserved. He had a brave daughter who got married with Alha the then King of Mahoba whose marriage place in still preserved with the name of Sonava Mandap. Beside this some other stories are also related with the fort as Magna- Deogarh, Ratan Deo’s Burj and King Pithaura who named it Patthargarh as well. In mid July 1537 Humayun left Agra and arrived at Chunar after 5 months and spent 3 months besieging the Chunar fort. Humayun later offered Chunar and Jaunpur to Sher Shah Suri in exchange for Bengal. It has got much importance due to the stay of the founder of Mughal Dynasty Babar in 1525 AD. Later on Shershah Suri obtained the possession of the fort by marrying the widow wife of Taj Khan Sarang-Khani, the Governor of Ibrahim Lodi. In 1574 AD. Akbar the great captured this fort and since that very time it was in the Mughal regime up to 1772 AD. Once emperor Jahangir appointed one Iftikhar Khan as Nazim and in the regime of Aurangzeb one of his Governor’s Mirza Bairam built a mosque in 1663 AD. near the Bhairo-Burj. In 1772 AD this fort was captured by East India Company who established in it a depot of Artillery and ammunition. Later it was taken by Maharaja Chet Singh of Benaras temporarily and after Chet Singh outbreak in 1781 AD. Warren Hestings retired for safety to Chunar where a force was collected by Major Phophan, which expelled Chet Singh from his stronghold in his neighbourhood. Hastings liked the situation and climate, his residence is still standing. Near it, there is a sundial bearing the inscription.
Demographics
As of 2011 Indian Census, Chunar had a total population of 37,185, of which 19,647 were males and 17,538 were females. Population within the age group of 0 to 6 years was 4,926. The total number of literates in Chunar was 24,674, which constituted 66.4% of the population with male literacy of 73.5% and female literacy of 58.3%. The effective literacy rate of 7+ population of Chunar was 76.5%, of which male literacy rate was 84.3% and female literacy rate was 67.6%. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes population was 5,657 and 119 respectively. Chunar had 5951 households in 2011.
Economy
Chunar is known for producing handicraft items especially statues and toys, cup and plates from clay and plaster of paris.
In the media
The shooting of Anurag Kashyap's film Gangs of Wasseypur took place in Chunar. Before it, in the nineties, Doordarshan series Chandrakanta's shooting also took place in Chunar.
