Дхар қаласы: Тарих және мәдениет ортасы

City in Madhya Pradesh, India
the city

Dhar is a city located in Dhar district of the Malwa region in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. The city is the administrative headquarters of the Dhar district. Before Indian independence from Great Britain, it was the capital of the Dhar princely state.

Dhar is situated between 21°57' to 23°15' N and 74°37' to 75°37' E. The city is bordered in the north by Ratlam, to the east by parts of Indore, in the south by Barwani, and to the west by Jhabua and Alirajpur. The town is located 34 mile (55 km) west of Mhow. It is located above sea level. It possesses, besides its old ramparts, many buildings contain records of cultural, historical and national importance.

The most visible parts of ancient Dhar are the massive earthen ramparts, which are best preserved on the western and southern sides of the town. These were most likely built at beginning of the 9th century. Wall remains show that the city was circular in plan and surrounded by a series of tanks and moats, similar to the city of Warangal, in the Deccan. The circular ramparts of Dhar, unique in north India and an important legacy of the Paramāras, are unprotected and have been slowly dismantled by brick makers and others using the wall material for construction. On the north east side of the town, the ramparts and moats have disappeared beneath modern homes and other buildings.

The historic parts of Dhar are dominated by an impressive sandstone fortress on a small hill. The fortress is thought to have been built by Muhammad bin Tughluq, the Sultan of Delhi, most likely on the site of the ancient Dhārāgiri mentioned in early sources. One of the gateways, added later, dates to 1684–85 in the time of 'Ālamgīr. Inside the fort there is a deep rock cut cistern of great age, and a later palace of the Mahārāja of Dhar that incorporates an elegant pillared porch from the Mughal period, possibly built in the mid 17th century. The palace area houses an outdoor museum with a small collection of temple fragments and images dating to medieval times.

Inside the fort, a large number of sculptures and antiquities from Dhar and its neighbourhood are kept in utilitarian buildings constructed in the late 19th century. Some pieces from the collection have been moved to Mandu where the Department of Archaeology, Museums and Archives has created a museum with a range of displays in the 'Barnes Koti', a Sultanate period building used by Captain Ernest Barnes, the political agent of the Bhopawar agency.

On the overgrown ramparts of the medieval city, overlooking the old moat, is the tomb of Shaykh Abdullah Shāh Changāl, a warrior saint. The earliest evidence for the tomb comes from an inscription of 1455; the building was entirely rebuilt in the second half of the 20th century.

One of the most significant historical attactions at Dhār is the ancient iron pillar. Fragments of it are at the Lat Mosque where the three surviving portions are displayed outside the mosque on a platform thanks to the conservation efforts of the Archaeological Survey of India. The pillar, which was nearly 13.2 m high according to the most recent assessment, carries several inscriptions, the most important recording a visit by the Mughal emperor Akbar in 1598 while on a military campaign in the Deccan. The pillar's original stone footing is displayed nearby.

The Lat Masjid, or 'Pillar Mosque', located to the south of the town, was built as the Jami' Mosque by Dilawar Khan in 1405. It derives its name from the iron pillar ("lāṭ" in Hindi), which lies in the immediate campus of the mosque.

The Kamāl Maulā is a spacious enclosure containing a number of tombs, the most notable being that of Shaykh Kamāl Mālvī or Kamāl al Dīn (circa 1238–1331). Kamāl al Dīn was a follower of Farīd al Dīn Gaṅj i Shakar (circa 1173–1266) and the Chishti saint Nizamuddin Auliya (1238–1325) and migrated to Malwa with his brother in the late 1200s. His descendants have served as custodians of Kamāl al Dīn's tomb in an unbroken line for 700 years.

Except for the Mihrab and Minbar, which were purpose built for the monument, the hypostyle hall immediately next the tomb of Kamāl Maula is made of recycled temple columns and other architectural parts. It is similar to the Lāṭ Masjid, but was built earlier, as an inscription from 1392 described records of repairs by Dilāwar Khān. In 1903, a Sanskrit and Prakrit inscriptions from the time of Arjunavarman (circa 1210–15) were found in the walls of the building by K. K. Lele, Superintendent of Education in the Princely State of Dhar. The engraved inscriptions are displayed inside the entrance. One text includes parts of a drama called Vijayaśrīnāṭikā composed by Madana, the king's preceptor, or 'Bālasarasvatī'. Other tablets noted by Lele include a slab inscribed with the Kūrmaśataka – verses in praise of the Kūrma incarnation of Viṣhṇu – and serpentine inscriptions containing the grammatical rules of the Sanskrit language. These finds, particularly the grammatical inscriptions, prompted Lele to name the building Bhoj Shala, or 'Hall of Bhoja', in reference to King Bhoja (circa 1000–55), the author of several works on poetics and grammar such as the famous Sarasvatīkaṇṭhābharaṇa or 'Necklace of Sarasvatī'. In 1908, C. E. Luard did not follow Lele in using the term Bhoj Shala but mentions traditions describing the building as 'Raja Bhoja's school'.

The old city palace of the Puar (Pawar) clan, a branch of the Marathas, is now used as a school. It is a plain, medium sized building built around 1875. A marble statue of the Jain goddess Ambikā, discovered on the site of the palace in 1875, is now in the British Museum. Of the same time period as the palace are a collection of domed cenotaphs of the Pawar rulers on the edge of the large tank known as Muñj Talab. The name of the tank was probably derived from Vākpati Muñja (10th century), the first Paramāra king that entered Mālwa and made Ujjain his main administrative seat.

The tomb said to be that of Shaykh Zahīr al Dīn Qādirī, a contemporary of Kamāl al Dīn, stands in the fields on the western side of the old circular city.

On the east side of the old town the tomb of Tāj al Dīn 'Aṭā'ullah. Popularly known as Bugḍe Pīr, the building is a small domical structure of the seventeenth century. 'Aṭā'ullah was born in 1578 79 and enjoyed the patronage of Nur Jahan.

Another colonial era building at Dhar, located outside the old town on the road to Indore, is the Agency House. It was built by the Public Works Department during British rule and was the center of the administration of Dhar State and the Central India Agency. The building has been abandoned and is now in ruins.

In the 1860s, the Powars built a palace at Hazīra Bāgh, adjacent to the road to Māṇḍū. Known as the Jheera Bāgh Palace, the complex was renovated by Mahārāja Anand Rao Pawar IV in the 1940s and is now run as a heritage hotel. Designed in an unpretentious art deco style, it is considered to be one of the most elegant and forward looking examples of early modern architecture in North India.

The town of Dhar, derived from Dhārā Nagara ('city of sword blades'), is of considerable antiquity, Dhar rose to prominence when it was made the primary seat of the Paramara chiefs of Malwa by Vairisiṃha (circa 920 45 CE). Vairisimha appears to have transferred his headquarters to Dhar from Ujjain. During the rule of the Paramāras, Dhar was a respected centre of culture and learning, Dhar was subsequently sacked by the Cāḷukyas of Gujarāt under Siddharāja. The devastation and political fragmentation caused by these wars meant that there was no significant opposition when Ala ud din Khilji, the Sultān of Delhi, dispatched an army to Mālwa in the early 14th century. The region was annexed to Delhi, and Dhar was made the capital of the province under 'Ayn al Mulk Mūltānī, who served as governor until 1313. The events that occurred during the following seventy years are unclear, but some time in A. H. 793/C. E. 1390 91 Dilawar Khan was appointed muqṭi''' of Dhar (and also the governor of Mālwa) by Sulṭān Muḥammad Shāh. Dilāwar Khān took the title 'Amīd Shāh Dā'ūd' and mandated the khutba'' to be read in his name in A. H. 804/C. E. 1401 02, thereby establishing himself as an independent sulṭān. Upon his death in 1406, his son Hoshang Shah became king, with his capital situated in Māṇḍū. In the time of Akbar, Dhar fell under the dominion of the Mughals, and remained under Mughal control until 1730, when the town was conquered by the Marathas. In 2019, Chattar Singh Darbar of the Bharatiya Janata Party was elected as a Member of Parliament representing the Dhar constituency. Maharaja Shrimant Hemendra Singh Rao Pawar is the present titular head of the Kshatriya Maratha Pawar Puar dynasty of the State of Dhar.

As of the 2011 Indian Census, Dhar had a total population of 93,917, of which 48,413 were males and 45,504 were females. 11,947 were between 0 and 6 years old. The total number of literate people in Dhar was 68,928. 73.4% of the population was literate, with a male literacy rate of 78.1% and a female literacy rate of 68.4%. The literacy rate of the 7+ population in Dhar was 84.1%, of which the male literacy rate was 89.9% and the female literacy rate was 78.0%. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes population was 7,549 and 16,636 respectively. As of 2011, Dhar has 18531 households. This is an increase from the 2001 India census, when Dhar had a population of 75,472, of which males constituted 52% and females 48%. In 2001, Dhar had an average literacy rate of 70%, higher than the national average of 59.5%. Male literacy was 76% and female literacy was 63%. In 2001, 14% of the population of Dhar was under 6 years of age.

The majority of the population adheres to Hinduism, with significant groups following Islam and Jainism. Fossils of Titanosaurus, Isisaurus, Indosaurus, Indosuchus, Laevisuchus and Rajasaurus have been discovered here. Unique eggs have been discovered in Dhar region which indicates that the species reproduced like birds and the first egg within egg (ovum in ovo) or multi shelled egg has been discovered here.