Mandsaur

This article is about the municipality in Gujarat, India. For its namesake district, see Mandsaur District.

Mandsaur Dashpur
City(Town)
मन्दसौर
Gandhi sagar dam
Nickname:  dashpur
Mandsaur Mandsaur
Coordinates: 24.071955°N 75.069404°E / 24.071955; 75.069404
Country	India
State	Madhya Pradesh
District	Mandsaur district
Government
• Type	BJP
• Body	Municipal Council Mandsaur
• Mayor	Shri Gotam singh(IAS)
Area
• Total	50 km2 (20 sq mi)
Population  (2011)
• Total	141,667
• Density	2,800/km2 (7,300/sq mi)
Demonym(s)	Mandsauri, Mandsaurian
Demographics
• Official language	Hindi
• Literacy rate	71.64%
Time zone	UTC+5:30 (IST)
PIN	458001/2
Telephone code	07422
Vehicle registration	MP-14
Website	www.mandsaur.nic.in

Mandsaur is a city and a municipality in Mandsaur district located on Border of Mewar and Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh state of central India. It is the administrative headquarters of Mandsaur District. The ancient Pashupatinath Temple is located in Mandsaur. It is also famous for large production of Opium around the world.Mandsaur Krishi mandi is biggest Mandi of MP mostly in Area wise and Quantity of grains.

Origin of name

The name Mandsaur evolved from Marhsaur, which originated from Marh and Saur (or Dasaur), two of the villages which merged in the town. The town was known as Dashapura in ancient times. The city consists of ten 'puras', which gave it the name Dashpura.

It is also believed that this place was once the maternal residence of Mandodari, the wife of Ravana. In old city areas, people worship the idol of Ravana and avoid participating in the 'Ravana Dahan' (burning the idol of Ravana as a symbol of victory of good over evil) ritual on Vijayadashami (Dashahara) as they regard Ravana their son-in-law. A 35-feet ten headed sitting idol of Ravana can be seen in the Khanpura area of the city.

History

Aulikaras of Dashapura

Epigraphical discoveries have brought to light two ancient royal houses, who call themselves as Aulikaras and ruled from Dashapura (present-day Mandsaur). The first dynasty, who ruled from Dashapura from the beginning comprised the following kings in the order of succession: Jayavarma, Simhavarma, Naravarma, Vishvavarma and Bandhuvarma. The Risthal stone slab inscription discovered in 1983 has brought to light another Aulikara dynasty, which comprised the following kings in the order of succession: Drumavardhana, Jayavardhana Ajitavardhana, Vibhishanavardhana, Rajyavardhana and Prakashadharma. After Parakshadharma, the ruler of Mandsaur was Yashodharma, who is identified with Vishnuvardhana, who erected a pillar of victory at Bayana due to which Bayana's name became Vijaygarh. In all probabilities, he was the son and immediate successor of Prakashadharma.

Yashodharman rule

Victory pillar of Yashodharman at Sondani, Mandsaur

Info of Victory pillar of Yashodharman at Sondani, Mandsaur

Main articles: Sondani inscription and Sondani

Sondani (सोंधनी) is a small village at a distance of about 4 km from Mandsaur situated on Mahu-Nimach Highway towards Mahu. In a part of the inscription Yasodharman praises himself for having defeated king Mihirakula:

"He (Yasodharman) to whose two feet respect was paid, with complimentary presents of the flowers from the lock of hair on the top of (his) head, by even that (famous) king Mihirakula, whose forehead was pained through being bent low down by the strength of (his) arm in (the act of compelling) obeisance"

— Sondani pillar inscription

Gurjara-Pratihara Dynasty

Main article: Mahendrapala II

The Gurjara Pratihara empire was extended up to Mandasor during the reign of Mahendrapala II.

Medieval era

There are two gardens in which there is a pillar of torandwar. It is believed to be pillar of Surya Mandir of the inscription of Bandhu Varma. There is a Shiva statue also in the garden.

Avra excavations (Chambal river)

Avra is place where the Madhya Pradesh Archaeology Department excavated during 1960 and 1961 under the direction, of Dr. H. V. Trivedi, is located in the Garoth Pargana of Mandsaur District of Madhya Pradesh. It is about six miles west of Chandwasa a small town which has a Rest House and which is connected by a metalled road of fourteen miles from Shamgarh, a Railway Station between Ratlam and Kota on the Western Railway.

The village is situated about half a mile east of the Chambal. Between the river and the modem habitation there is a series of mounds, high and low, the top of two which nestled the village until about 10–12 years back when its inhabitants shifted to a safer place nearby because of the threat of the river, the mounds are separated from each other by small and broad depressions and rain gullies, some of which might represent old streets. The chain of mounds, however, creates an impression that they contain the remains of an extensive and populous city which grew along the bank of the river rather than at right angles to it as has been the case with most of the ancient cities in India, like Ujjain and Maheshwar in this State and Hastinapura, Pataliputra and Kausambi outside.

The old name of appears to be Apara, as we find on a terracotta seal recovered in the excavation. The name Apara was probably later on corrupted into Avra.

Princely State

In 19th century before India's independence in 1947, Mandsaur was part of the princely state of Gwalior. It gave its name to the treaty with the Holkar Maharaja of Indore, who concluded the Third Anglo-Maratha War and the Pindari War in 1818. At the turn of the 20th century it was a centre of the Malwa opium trade.

Mention in Kalidas Manuscript

Mention of Dashpur can be found in Kalidas poem Meghdoot (Purva-megha) 47th stanza. Kalidas writes about the beauty of the eyes of women from Dashpur in his aesthetic piece of words.

Geography

Mandsaur District forms the northern projection of Madhya Pradesh from its western Division, i.e., Ujjain Commissioner's Division. It lies between the parallels of latitude 230 45' 50" North and 250 2' 55" North, and between the meridians of longitude 740 42' 30" East and 750 50' 20" East.

The District is an average size district of Madhya Pradesh. It extends for about 142 km (88 mi) from north to south and 124 km (77 mi) from east to west. The total area is 5,521 km² (2,132 sq mi) with a population of 1,16,483 in 2001.

Demographics

As of 2011 India census, Mandsaur had a population of 141,468 male population was 72,370 and female population was 69,098, giving a sex-ration of 898. Mandsaur had an effective literacy rate of 86.79%, higher than the national average: male literacy was 92.74, and female literacy was 80.60%. 15,721 (11.1%) of the population was under 6 years of age.

Transport

Roads

Mandsaur is situated on Ajmer-Lebad (Indore) NH-79 as well as Mhow-Neemuch SH-31 4 Lane road.

Railway

Mandsaur railway station is situated on Chittaurgarh-Ratlam track of Indian Railways and is under Ratlam rail division of WR. Currently It has been electrified track . Currently there are many trains available from Mandsaur. Mandsaur has direct trains for Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Jaipur, Nathdwara, Okha, Ajmer, Udaipur, Agra, Kota, Indore, Ujjain, Bhopal, Harda, Ratlam, Chittaurgarh,Puna, Bengaluru city, Mysore, Surat, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Rameswaram, vijayawada, Chennai, Indore, Mhow. The major trains passing from Mandsaur are:-

• Mandsaur - Meerut City Link Express
• Mandsaur - Kota Passenger
• Mandsaur - Udaipur Passenger
• Ratlam - Udaipur City Express
• Indore - Bikaner Mahamana Express
• Indore–Jaipur Express via Ajmer
• Veer Bhumi Chittaurgarh Express
• Bandra Terminus Udaipur Superfast Express
• Jodhpur - Indore Express
• Jaipur - Hyderabad Weekly Express
• Jaipur – Hyderabad SF Express
• Jaipur - Yesvantpur Suvidha Express
• Bhopal–Jaipur Express
• Bandra Terminus Udaipur Express
• Ajmer Bandra Terminus Express
• Okha - Nathdwara Express
• Haldighati Passenger
• Mhow - Bhilwara DMU
• Mhow - Chittorgarh DMU
• Haldighati Passenger
• Udaipur - Mysore Humsafar Express
• Rameswaram - Ajmer Humsafar Express

Local

Auto and Nager Seva are main source of local transport in Mandsaur

Tourism

Idol of Lord Pashupatinath in Mandsaur.

Mandsaur and its neighbourhood are full of places of tourist interest. An inscription discovered near the town indicated the erection of a temple of the sun in 437, and at Sondani are two great monolith pillars recording a victory of Yasodharman, king of Malwa, in 528. The fort dates from the 14th and 15th centuries. Hindu and Jain remains are numerous, though the town is predominantly Muslim.

Temple

Mandsaur is also famous for Pashupatinath Temple, a Hindu temple situated on the banks of the Shivana river. Pashupatinath Temple is one of the prominent shrines in Mandsaur of Madhya Pradesh. Lord Shiva in the form of Lord Pashupatinath is the principal deity here. The highlight is a unique Shivling with eight faces of Lord Shiva. The shrine has four doors in four directions.

Panorama of the Pashupatinath Temple from the other bank of Shivna river, Mandsaur.

Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary

Main article: Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary

River Chambal in Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary The Gandhi Sagar Dam is the first of the four dams built on the Chambal river. It is located in the Mandsaur district of Madhya Pradesh. It is a 64 metre high masonry gravity dam, with a live storage capacity of 6,920 million cubic metres and a catchment area of 22,584 km2. The dam was completed in 1960. The hydro-power station comprises five generating units of 23 MW capacity each. The water released after power generation is used for power generation at Rana Pratap Sagar Dam, then for power generation at Jawahar Sagar Dam and then is used for irrigation through Kota Barrage.

Mandsaur Fort

Mandsaur or Dashpur Fort

Main article: Mandsaur Fort

Sports

The 20,000-capacity Nutan Stadium, which is used mostly for cricket also comprises Badminton, Table Tennis, Chess, Judo, Karate courts along with roller skating ring and football ground, is the largest sports venue by capacity in Mandsaur. One can get a hockey turf near the bypass. One can say that Mandsaur is developing in the field of sports.

See also

• Mandsaur Institute of Technology

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Mandasor". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 559.