Mandla () is a city and a
municipality in
Mandla district in the
Indian
state of
Madhya Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of Mandla District. The town is picturesquely situated in a loop of the
Narmada River, which surrounds it on three sides, and for 15 miles between Mandla and
Ramnagar the river flows in a deep bed unbroken by rocks. The Narmada is worshipped here, and many beautiful
ghats have been constructed on the banks of the river.
The city was a capital of the Gond dynasty who built a palace and a fort, which in the absence of proper care have gone to ruins.
History
Mandla was called as Mahishmati nagari before 1500A.D. Queen Rani Durgawati ruled Mandla province and fought against Britishers and moguls.
The
Gond-
Rajput dynasty of
Garha-Mandla commenced, according to an inscription in the palace of
Ramnagar, in the fifth century, with the accession of Jadho Rai, a Rajput adventurer who entered the service of an old Gond king, married his daughter, and succeeded him to the throne.
Alexander Cunningham placed the date two centuries later in 664 . The Garha-Mandla kingdom was a petty local chiefship until the accession of Sangram Sah, the forty-seventh king, in 1480. This prince extended his dominions over the Narmada Valley, and possibly
Bhopal,
Sagar, and
Damoh and most of the Satpura hill country, and left fifty-two forts or districts to his son. In addition to Mandla,
Jabalpur and
Garha in
Jabalpur District and Ramnagar in Mandla District served at times as capitals of the kingdom.
The control of the Garha-Mandla kings over their extended principality was, however, short-lived, for in 1564 Asaf Khan, the Mughal viceroy, invaded their territories. The queen Durgavati, then acting as regent for her infant son, met him near the fort of Singorgarh in Damoh District; but being defeated, she retired past Garha towards Mandla, and took up a strong position in a narrow defile. Here, mounted on an elephant, she bravely headed her troops in defence of the pass, and notwithstanding that she had received an arrow-wound in her eye refused to retire. But by an extraordinary coincidence the river in the rear of her position, which had been nearly dry a few hours before the action commenced, began suddenly to rise and soon became unfordable Finding her plan of retreat thus frustrated, and seeing her troops give way, the queen snatched a dagger from her elephant-driver and plunged it into her breast. Asaf Khan acquired immense booty, including, it is said, more than a thousand elephants. Mandla had a population of 45,907. Males constitute 51% of the population and females 49%. Mandla has an average literacy rate of 77%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 82%, and female literacy is 72%. Majority of Population belongs Adivasi, so there is a Special education programs to promote them. In Mandla, 12% of the population is under 6 years of age.70% of population are Hindus, 15% Christians, 4% Muslims and rest counts for Atheist and others.
Transport
Mandla is connected with road to nearby cities like
Jabalpur,
Nagpur and
Raipur through National Highway 12A (Express highway). From Jabalpur to Mandla it takes less than 3:00 hours (100 km approx.). Mandla is served by a
narrow gauge railway spur from
Nainpur, where it connects to the narrow gauge line between
Jabalpur and
Gondia.
Tourists are attracted toward
Kanha National Park. Decades before tourist were interested in Killa
(Fort) in kille Ghat, Shahastra dhara but now due to insufficient maintenance, even localites won't travel those places. For accommodation there is couples of hotels in kanha and Hotel Tourist
(M.P.T) administered by state government in Mandla. In average of 10,000 tourists visits each year, in which 400-500 are foreigners mainly from US, France and Germany.Some small waterfalls are also available in this region.
Environmental changes
Once this small town was considered among the most green towns; now this is just a memory. Deforestation has largely affected this area as shown in summer 2007 when the temperature exceeded 46°C. Each day around 20,000 kg of woods are cut. Only because of Ma Narmada (Narmada River) is this town living: it bounds from all around.
Education centres
The prominent schools in Mandla are
*1) Montfort School.
2) Maharshi Vidya Mandir.
3) Bharat Jyoti Higher secondary school.
4) Jagganath Excellence School (Govt.)''
5) Gyan Deep English Medium (HS) School.
6) Sarasawati Shishu Mandir
7) Kendriya Vidyalaya
8) Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya
9) Nirmala Higher Secondary School.
The prominent High education centres in Mandla are
*1) Rani Durgawati Mahavidyalaya
2) Jagannath Munnalal Choudhary Mahila Mahavidyalaya
3) Polytechnic Girls College
Although competitive institutes are not available here for higher studies,this region have produced many international personalities(including IITians,doctors,sportsmen etc)
Mandla constituency (Politics)
Mandla is a Lok Sabha constituency in Madhya Pradesh. This is a Scheduled Tribe seat; it became a reserved seat in 1957.
Members of Parliament
(as Mandla Jabalpur South):
1951: Mangroo / Govind Das Maheshwari, Indian National Congress (open seat)
*1957: Mangrubabu Uike, Indian National Congress
1962: Mangru Ganu Uike, Indian National Congress
1967: M. Uikey, Indian National Congress
1971: Mangru Uikey, Indian National Congress
1977: Shyamlal Dhurve, Bharatiya Lok Dal
1980: Chhotelal Sonu, Indian National Congress - I
1984: Mohan Lal, Indian National Congress
1989: Mohan Lal, Indian National Congress
1991: Mohan Lal, Indian National Congress
1996: Faggansingh Kulaste, Bharatiya Janata Party
1998: Faggan Singh Kulaste, Bharatiya Janata Party
1999: Faggan Singh Kulaste, Bharatiya Janata Party
2004: Faggan Singh Kulaste, Bharatiya Janata Party
2009: Basori Singh Masram, Indian National Congress
References
External links
Category:Cities and towns in Mandla district
