Wardha
Encyclopedia
Wardha is a city and a municipal council
Municipal council
A municipal council is the local government of a municipality. Specifically the term can refer to the institutions of various countries that can be translated by this term...

 in Wardha district
Wardha District
Wardha district is one of the 35 districts in Maharashtra state in western India. This district is a part of Nagpur Division. The city of Wardha is the administrative headquarters of the district. The district had a population of 1,236,736 of which 26.28% were urban as of 2001.-History:The History...

 in the India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n state
States and territories of India
India is a federal union of states comprising twenty-eight states and seven union territories. The states and territories are further subdivided into districts and so on.-List of states and territories:...

 of Maharashtra
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...

. It is the administrative headquarters of Wardha district. Wardha gets its name from the Wardha River
Wardha River
- Origin :Wardha originates at an altitude of 777 meters Satpura Range near Multai in Betul District of Madhya Pradesh.- Course :From the origin it flows 32 km in Madhya pradesh and then enters into Maharastra. After traversing 528 km, it joins Wainganga together called Pranhita, which ultimately...

 which flows at the North, West and South boundaries of district. Founded in 1866, the town is now an important centre for the cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....

 trade. It was an important part of Gandhian Era.

Geography

Wardha is located at 20.75°N 78.60°E. It has an average elevation of 234 metres (767 feet).

Demographics

Wardha city is administered by a municipal council(category-A). According to census 2011, its population is nearly 1,05,000. But this figure is number of inhabitants within municipal boundaries. Urbanization has crossed municipal boundaries and neighboring villages viz. sindi(meghe), sawangi(meghe), borgaon(meghe), pipri(meghe),mhasala, nalwadi and chitoda have become part of urban agglomeration having population nearing 2 lacs.

India census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

, Wardha district had a population of 1,296,157 Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. Wardha has an average literacy rate of 80%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 83%, and female literacy is 76%. In Wardha, 11% of the population is under 6 years of age.

History

It was included in the empire of the Mauryas, Sungas, Satavahana
Satavahana
The Sātavāhana Empire or Andhra Empire, was a royal Indian dynasty based from Dharanikota and Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh as well as Junnar and Prathisthan in Maharashtra. The territory of the empire covered much of India from 230 BCE onward...

s and Vakataka
Vakataka
The Vākāṭakas were a royal Indian dynasty that originated from the Deccan in the mid-third century CE. Their kingdom is believed to have extended from the southern edges of Malwa and Gujarat in the north to the Tungabhadra River in the south as well as from the Arabian Sea in the western to the...

s.
Pravarapura, modern Pavnar was once the capital of the Vakataka dynasty. Vakatakas were contemporary of Imperial Guptas. Prabhavatigupta, the daughter of Chandragupta II
Chandragupta II
Chandragupta II the Great, very often referred to as Vikramaditya or Chandragupta Vikramaditya in Sanskrit; was one of the most powerful emperors of the Gupta empire in northern India. His rule spanned c...

 (Vikramaditya) was married with Vakataka ruler Rudrasena. The period of Vakatakas was 2nd to 5th century CE. The empire stretched from the Arabian sea in the west to the Bay of Bengal in the east, and from the Narmada river in the north to the Krishna-Godavari delta in south.

Later on, Wardha was ruled by the Chalukyas, Rashtrakuta
Rashtrakuta
The Rashtrakuta Empire was a royal dynasty ruling large parts of the Indian Subcontinent between the sixth and the 10th centuries. During this period they ruled as several closely related, but individual clans. Rastrakutas in inscriptions represented as descendants of Satyaki, a Yadava well known...

s, Yadavas, the Delhi Sultanate
Delhi Sultanate
The Delhi Sultanate is a term used to cover five short-lived, Delhi based kingdoms or sultanates, of Turkic origin in medieval India. The sultanates ruled from Delhi between 1206 and 1526, when the last was replaced by the Mughal dynasty...

, the Bahamani Sultanate, Muslim ruler of Berar, Gonds and Maratha
Maratha
The Maratha are an Indian caste, predominantly in the state of Maharashtra. The term Marāthā has three related usages: within the Marathi speaking region it describes the dominant Maratha caste; outside Maharashtra it can refer to the entire regional population of Marathi-speaking people;...

s. Raja Buland Shaha of Gonds, Raghuji of Bhonsale were the prominent rulers in the Medieval period.

During the 1850s Wardha, (then a part of Nagpur) felt into the hands of British. They included Wardha in the Central Provenance.

Wardha is a sister city for Sevagram
Sevagram
Sevagram is Hindi for "A village for service" and the name of a village in the state of Maharashtra, India. This was the place of Mohandas Gandhi's ashram. Previously it was named as Shegaon: it was Mahatma Gandhi who renamed it to Sevagram....

, and both were used as major centers for the Indian Independence Movement
Indian independence movement
The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...

, especially as headquarters for an annual meet of the Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...

 in 1934, and Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...

's Ashram.

The existing Wardha district was part of Nagpur
Nagpur
Nāgpur is a city and winter capital of the state of Maharashtra, the largest city in central India and third largest city in Maharashtra after Mumbai and Pune...

 district till 1862. Further it was separated for convenient administrative purposes and Kawatha near Pulgaon was the district Head quarter. In the year 1866, the district head quarter moved at Palakwadi village. The huts in village were destroyed and new city was constructed by English Town-planner Sir Bachlor and Crawdok. This new city was given name "WARDHA". In Wardha district there is a village called Pavanar where Acharya Vinoba Bhave
Vinoba Bhave
Vinoba Bhave , born Vinayak Narahari Bhave often called Acharya , was an Indian advocate of nonviolence and human rights. He is best known for the Bhoodan Andolan...

 lived.
Magan Sangrahalaya is National Museum
Gandhi Charkha is the simbol of wardha dist.

Ganghi Chakha (Teek wood)
seling point
Magandeep Khadi Bhandar,Sewagram, and
Magandeep khadi Bhandhar,wardha

Religion and Culture

Population of Wardha city constitutes Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists with little percentage of Christians, Jains and Sikhs. Main spoken languages are Marathi and Hindi. Other languages viz. Gujrati, Sidhi and Punjabi are spoken by people of respective communities. There are many temples, mosques, viharas, gurudwaras, jain temples and churches of which Laxminarayan temple (Bachchhraj road), Vitthal mandir (hawaldwarpura), Sai mandir (M.G. Road), Digambar and Shwetambar Jain temples (mahadeopura),Jama Masjid (Itwara), Shanti Stupa (Gopuri), Gurudwara (dayalnagar) are important.

Marathi Sahitya Sammelan
Marathi Sahitya Sammelan
Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan is a conference for literary discussions by Marathi writers. Though the conference has sometimes been held in a town outside the Indian state of Maharashtra, it is typically held annually in one of the towns in Maharashtra where Marathi is the mother tongue...

, the conference on Marathi Literature were held once in Wardha city. It was presided by President of the Conference Purushottam Shivram Rege in 1969.

Education

Wardha city is famous for a number of educations institutions. Some of the notable institutes are Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences
Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences
The Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences is run by the Kasturba Health Society. It was earlier affiliated to the Nagpur University and from 1998 to the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Nasik.-History:...

 (MGIMS)http://www.mgims.ac.in/ at Sewagram, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College at Sawangi, Rashtrabhasha Prachar Samiti at Wardha and Janakidevi Bajaj College of Science at Wardha. There are six engineering colleges in wardha namely Bapurao Deshmukh college of engg, Sureshrao Deshmukh college of engg, Om college of engg , Acharya Vinoba Bhave college of engg, Datta Meghe college of engg, Agnihotri college of engg.
Institute Of Pharmaceuticals Education and Research is a reputed pharmacy college in Wardha.

Bhavan's Lloyds Vidya Niketan
Bhavan's Lloyds Vidya Niketan
-Overview:Bhavan's Lloyds Vidya Niketan is a private secondary school in Bhugaon, Wardha, India, established in 1995. It is the most reputed Engish medium CBSE school in Wardha.-History:...

 is a reputed English-medium CBSE school in Wardha.

Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya
Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya
The Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya is an Indian central university established for the promotion and development of Hindi language and literature, through teaching and research. It is located in the city of Wardha in Maharashtra. The university came into existence on January 8,...

(Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University) is established by the Parliament of India and run directly by the Government of India. MGAHV is the only one central university of the west zone which provides large spectrum of deciplines for the students to think broadly

Magan Sangrahalaya (Museum)

This museum was inaugurated by Mahatma Gandhi in 1938. It is situated in Maganwadi near Centre of Science for village. Purpose of construction of this museum is to spread awareness about research and development of rural industries, agriculture, dairy etc. various types of charkhas, khadi, hadicrafts by rural artisans, methods to promote swadeshi movement etc. are exhibited there.

Gitai Mandir

This temple is situated in Gopuri near Vishwa Shanti Stupa. This is an unique temple in India which has no deity and roof. It has just walls made of granite slabs on which 18 chapters of Gitai (Shrimad-bhagwad-gita in marathi) are inscribed. The wall enclosed a little beautiful park. This temple was inaugurated by Acharya Vinoba Bhave in 1980. Beside are two exhibitions about life of Acharya Vinoba Bhave and Jamnalal Bajaj.

Vishwa Shanti Stupa

Vishwa Shanti Stupa was a dream of Fujii guruji as called by Gandhiji. It is beside Gitai Mandir. It is a large stupa of white color. Statues of Buddha are mounted on stupa in four directions. It also has a small Japanese Buddhist temple with a large park.

Sewagram Ashram

Old name of village Sewagram was shegaon. After leaving Sabarmati ashram, Gandhiji stayed a few days in Wardha City at Bunglow of Jamanalal Bajaj. Thereafter, this ashram was built by him for Gandhiji at outskirts of wardha. Gandhiji arrived here in 1936 and stayed till his death in 1948. It is a group of huts used by Gandhiji, his wife Kasturba and other disciples. The premise is very calming. All the things used by Gandhiji and others are preserved here including his spectacles, telephone, notebook, tables, mats etc. and also famous monkey-triplet indicating bura mat kaho-bura mat suno-bura mat dekho. Beside is exhibition of life of Gandhiji.

Paramdham Ashram

This ashram was established by Acharya Vinoba Bhave in 1934 on bank of river Dham with spiritual purpose. He also establish Brahma Vidya mandir in it. He started Bhoodan movement from here. Also starting point of "Bharat Chhodo Andolan" was this ashram.

External links

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