Dhar

Dhar
Dhar Location of Dhar in Madhya Pradesh
Country	India
State	Madhya Pradesh
District(s)	Dhar
Population	75,472 (2001[update])
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)
Area • Elevation	• 559 m (1,834 ft)

Dhār (Marathi/Hindi: धार) is located in the Malwa region of western Madhya Pradesh state in central India. It is the administrative headquarters of Dhar District. The town is located 33 miles (53 km) west of Mhow, 908 ft (277 m) above sea level. It is picturesquely situated among lakes and trees surrounded by barren hills, and possesses, besides its old walls, many interesting buildings, both Hindu and Muslim, some of them containing records of a great historical importance.

Dar or Dhar is a surname among the Kashmiri Pandits from the state of Jammu and Kashmir in India. It is also a Bengali surname.

Geography

Dhār is located at 22°36′N 75°18′E / 22.6°N 75.3°E / 22.6; 75.3^[1]. It has an average elevation of 559 metres (1833 ft).

Local Monuments

View of Dhār from the fort

Fragments of the Iron Pillar

The historic parts of Dhār are dominated by an impressive sandstone fortress located to the north of the town on a small hill. It is thought to have been built in the time of Muhammad bin Tughluq, the Sultan of Delhi. Inside is a deep rock-cut cistern and a later palace of the Mahārāja of Dhār. In the palace area is an outdoor museum with a collection of temple fragments and images dating to the medieval period.

The Lāṭ Masjid or 'Pillar Mosque', to the south of the town, was built by Dilāwar Khān in 1405 out of temple spolia. It derives its name from a pillar (lāṭ) made of iron which is supposed to have been set up in the 11th century.^[2] The pillar, which was nearly 13.2 m high according to the most recent assessment, is fallen and broken; the three surviving parts are displayed on a small platform outside the mosque. It carries a later inscription recording a visit of the Mughal emperor Akbar in 1598 while on campaign towards the Deccan. The pillar's original stone footing is also displayed nearby. On the old ramparts is the tomb of Shaykh ‘Abdullah Shāh Changal, a warrior saint. The inscription on the tomb, written in Persian and dated 1455, records the Shaykh's arrival in Dhār, probably before the annexation of the area to the Delhi Sultanate in 1305.^[3]

Lāṭ masjid, interior

The Kamal Maula is a spacious enclosure containing four tombs, the most notable being that of Shaykh Kamal Maulavi (Kamal al-Dīn), a follower of the famous Chishti saint Nizamuddin Auliya (1238-1325). The mosque beside the tomb is made of re-cycled temple columns and other architectural parts except for the mihrab and minbar which were purpose-built for the monument. It is similar to the Lāṭ Masjid though perhaps slightly earlier in date as an inscription of 1392 found nearby records repairs by Dilāwar Khān.^[4] A Sanskrit and Prakrit inscription from the time of Arjunavarman (circa 1210-15) was found in the walls of the building in 1903 by K. K. Lele, Superintendent of Education in the Princely State of Dhār. The inscription, which is engraved with exceptional beauty, is displayed inside the entrance. The text includes part of a drama called Vijayaśrīnāṭikā composed by Madana, the king's preceptor who also bore the title 'Bālasarasvatī'.^[5] Although the inscription reports that the play was performed before Arjunavarman in the temple of Sarasvatī, there is no clear evidence whether the inscription comes from the site itself or was brought from elsewhere in Dhār in the 14th century. The other inscribed tablets recovered by Lele, among them a serpentine inscription giving grammatical rules of the Sanskrit language, suggest that materials were collected from old sites over a wide area. The finds, particularly of the grammatical inscription, prompted Lele to describe the building as the 'Bhoj Shala' or 'Hall of Bhoja', because king Bhoja (circa 1000-55) was the author of a number of works on poetics and grammar, among them the Sarasvatīkaṇṭhābharaṇa or 'Necklace of Sarasvatī'.^[6] The term 'Bhoja shala', first published by Luard in 1908, has enjoyed popular currency although Luard noted that it is a misnomer.^[7]

A marble statue of Ambikā, found in 1875 on the site of the old city palace in Dhār and now in the British Museum, was once thought to be the goddess Sarasvatī from the 'Bhoj Shala'. Although the inscription on the pedestal does indeed refer to Vāgdevī or Sarasvatī and is dated to the reign of king Bhoja, H. C. Bhayani's reading, published in 1981, shows that the image represents the Jain goddess Ambika.^[8] Bhayani's reading coincidentally demonstrates that the Sarasvatī temple at Dhār was dedicated to the Jain form of the goddess as does the testimony of Merutuṅga in the Prabandhacintāmaṇi (completed in samvat 1361/1304-05).^[9] Other sculptures from Dhār are kept in the local museum founded in the 19th century. The most important pieces from the collection have been moved to Mandu where the Department of Archaeology, Museums and Archives has created a new museum with a wide range of displays.

History

The town, the name of which is usually derived from Dhārā Nagara ('city of sword blades'), is of considerable antiquity, the first reference to it appearing the Jaunpur inscription of Īśvaravarman of the Maukhari dynasty.^[10] Later, it was made capital of the Paramara chiefs of Malwa by Vairisimha II, who transferred his headquarters hither from Ujjain at the close of the 9th century. During the rule of the Paramara dynasty, Dhār was famous throughout India as a centre of culture and learning, especially under king Bhoja (circa 1000-1055). The wealth and splendor of Dhār drew the attention of competing dynasties during the 11th century. The Cāḷukyas of Kalyāṇa under Someśvara I (circa CE 1042-68) captured and burnt the city, occupying also Māṇḍū (ancient Māṇḍava) ^[11] Slightly later Dhār was sacked by the Cāḷukyas of Gujarāt under Siddharāja. The Sultan of Delhi, Ala ud din Khilji dispatched an army to Mālwa in the early 14th century, and Dhār was made the capital of the province under Ain al-Mulk Mūltānī. He served as governor until 1313.^[12] Dilawar Khan, who had been appointed governor in 1319, practically established his independence soon afterwards. While Dilawar Khan established his independence de facto, his son Hoshang Shah became the first de jure Muslim ruler of Malwa, with his capital at Mandu. Subsequently, in the time of Akbar, Dhar fell under the dominion of the Mughals, in whose hands it remained till 1730, when it was conquered by the Marathas.

In late 1723, Bajirao at the head of a large army and accompanied by his trusted lieutenants, Malharrao Holkar, Ranoji Shinde (Scindia) and Udaji Rao Pawar, swept through Malwa. A few years earlier the Mughal Emperor had been forced to give the Marathas the right to collect chauth taxes in Malwa and Gujarat. This levy added much value to the Marathas, as both the king Shahu and his Peshwa, Bajirao, were ear-deep in debt. The revenues they collected from their own lands were not sufficient to run the administration of the state and finance their large military expenditure. The Marathas lived by the sword and trade was alien to them. Agriculture in the Deccan depended heavily on the timeliness and sufficiency of the monsoons. The most important source of money were therefore the chauth (a 25% tax on produce) and sardeshmukhi (a ten percent surcharge) exacted by the Marathas. The Maratha armies defeated the Mughal governor and attacked the capital Ujjain. Bajirao established military outposts in the country as far north as Bundelkhand.

Towards the close of the 18th and in the early part of the 19th century, the state was subject to a series of spoliations by Scindia of Gwalior and Holkar of Indore, (descendants of Ranoji Scindia and Malharao Holkar). It was only preserved from annihilation by the talents and courage of the adoptive mother of the fifth raja.

After the third Anglo-Maratha war, of 1818, Dhar passed under British rule. Dhar became a princely state of British India, in the Bhopawar agency of the Central India Agency. It included many Rajput and Bhil feudatories, and had an area of 1,775 square miles (4,600 km²). The state was confiscated by the British in the Revolt of 1857, but in 1860 was restored to Raja Anand Rao III Pawar, then a minor, with the exception of the detached district of Bairusia, which was granted to the begum of Bhopal. Anand Rao, who received the personal title Maharaja and the KCSI in 1877, died in 1898; he was succeeded by Udaji Rao II Pawar.

• The Punwars/Parmars of 12 villages in modern day Haryana claim proudly their descent from the king Bhoj (1010-1060).

Demographics

As of 2001 India census^[13], Dhar had a population of 75,472. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. Dhar has an average literacy rate of 70%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 76% and, female literacy is 63%. In Dhar, 14% of the population is under 6 years of age. Hindi is the main language today, but having been Maratha state, Marathi is spoken and understood widely.

Notable Natives

Baji Rao II the last of the Peshwas was born in Dhar.^[14]

External links

• Dhar District governmental website
• Dhar at the Islamic Monuments of India Photographic Database
• Genealogy of the Ponwar ruling family of Dhar
• More Information about Mandu near Dhar

References

1. ^ Falling Rain Genomics, Inc - Dhar
2. ^ V. A. Smith, 'The Iron Pillar of Dhār', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1898): 143-46; Amitava Ray, S. K. Dhua, R. R. Prasad, S. Jha, S. Banerjee, 'The ancient 11th century iron pillar at Dhar, India: a microstructural insight into material characteristics', Journal of Materials Science, Letters 16 (1997): 371–375.
3. ^ G. H. Yazdani, ‘The Inscription on the Tomb of ‘Abdullah Shāh Changāl at Dhār’ Epigraphica Indo-Moslemica (1909-10): 1-5.
4. ^ Luard, Dhar and Mandu (Bombay, 1916): 9
5. ^ S. K. Dikshit, ed., Pārijātamañjarī alias Vijayaśrī by Rāja-Guru Madana alias Bāla-Sarasvatī (Bhopal, 1968).
6. ^ R. Birwé, ‘Nārāyaṇa Daṇḍanātha's Commentary on Rules III.2, 106-121 of Bhoja's Sarasvatīkaṇṭhābharaṇa’, Journal of the American Oriental Society 84 (1964): 150-62.
7. ^ C. E. Luard, Western States (Mālwā). Gazetteer, 2 parts. The Central India State Gazetteer Series, vol. 5 (Bombay, 1908): part A, pp. 494-500; also Luard, Dhar and Mandu, p. 9.
8. ^ Kirit Mankodi, ‘A Paramāra Sculpture in the British Museum: Vāgdevī or Yakshī Ambikā?’, Sambodhi 9 (1980-81): 96-103.
9. ^ C. H. Tawney, The Prabandhacintāmaṇi or Wishing-stone of Narratives (Calcutta, 1901).
10. ^ J. F. Fleet, Inscriptions of the Early Gupta Kings and their Successors, Coprus Inscriptionum Indicarum, vol. 3 (Calcutta, 1888): 228 (line 6).
11. ^ G. Yazdani, ed., The Early History of the Deccan, 2 vols. (London, 1960) 1: 331 according to the Nander inscription (dated CE 1047) and Nāgai inscription (dated CE 1058).
12. ^ Iqtidar Husain Siddiqui, Authority and Kingship under the Sultans of Delhi (Delhi, 2006): 283-84.
13. ^ "Census of India 2001: Data from the 2001 Census, including cities, villages and towns (Provisional)". Census Commission of India. Archived from the original on 2004-06-16. http://web.archive.org/web/20040616075334/http://www.censusindia.net/results/town.php?stad=A&state5=999. Retrieved 2008-11-01. 
14. ^ Columbia-Lippincott Gazeteer p. 510

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.