- Khandwa District
Khandwa District, formerly known as East Nimar District, is a district of
Madhya Pradesh state in centralIndia . The city ofKhandwa is the administrative headquarters of the district.The district has an area of 6206 km², and a population 1,261,768 (2001 census). Khandwa District lies in the
Nimar region, which includes the lower valley of theNarmada River . The Narmada forms part of the northern boundary of the district, and theSatpura Range form the southern boundary of the district.Burhanpur District , to the south, lies in the basin of theTapti River . The pass through the Satpuras connecting Khandwa andBurhanpur is one of the main routes connecting northern and southern India, and the fortress ofAsirgarh , which commands the pass, is known as the "Key to the Deccan". Betul and Harda districts lie to the east,Dewas District to the north, andKhargone District to the west.Khandwa district was surrendered by the
Maratha s to theBritish Raj in 1818, and later became part of theCentral Provinces and Berar . The area to the west, which forms the present Khargone district, was part of theprincely state of Indore. After India's independence in 1947, the Central Provinces and Berar became the new Indian state ofMadhya Pradesh .Khandwa District was known as Nimar District before 1956, when the state of
Madhya Bharat to the west was merged with the state of Madhya Pradesh. The present-dayKhargone District of Madhya Bharat was also called Nimar, so the districts were renamed West and East Nimar. Khandwa was known as East Nimar until recently. Burhanpur District was separated from Khandwa District onAugust 15 ,2003 . Khandwa District is part ofIndore Division .Famous people from Khandwa
Actor
Ashok Kumar and his singer/actor brotherKishore Kumar andAnoop Kumar were brought up in Khandwa before moving toBombay to make their mark.Former Chief Minister of Madhya PradeshBhagwantrao Mandloi was born in Khandwa. Dadaji dhuniwale who was a religious saint of Hindus also lived here. A large number of Hindu devotees also come on Gurupurnima for worship on his samadhi.Great Hindi poet & freedom fighter Pt. Makhanlal Chaturvedi has chosen Khandwa as his place of work. He was editor of Karmveer news-paper which had played a major role in freedom struggle of India. His wellknown poem is "Pushpa ki Abhilasha" (wish of a flower). Saint Singaji, A great poet and saint also lived here. His status is same as the great poet Kabir. He born in Fifteenth Century in a poor gavali ( herdsman) family of Khajuri Village of Barwani state of that time(Now Barwani [http://www.barwani.nic.in] is a District of Madhya Pradesh) . Later he came at piplia village of Harsud Tehsil and remained here till samadhi . He came in touch of saint Manrangeer and after that dedicated his life to God. He practiced the Nirguna Sect of Hindu religion ( The believer of Nirguna sect believes that the God is Absolute, abstract and has no form, incarnation etc.). He became the object of wide population devotion, especially among the Gavalis of Nimar Districts. A fair is held in his holy memory every year on sharad purnima at his samadhi place Piplia-Singaji(now submerged into Indira Sagar Project). His Bhajans are being sung in villages.External links
* [http://khandwa.nic.in Khandwa District web site]
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