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DharDhar is a town in western Madhya Pradesh state, central India. It is 33 miles west of Mhow, 908 ft. above sea level. It is picturesquely situated among lakes and trees surrounded by barren hills, and possesses, besides its old walls, many interesting buildings, Hindu and Muslim, some of them containing records of a great historical importance. The Lat Masjid, or Pillar Mosque, was built by Dilawar Khan in 1405 out of the remains of Jain temples. It derives its name from an iron pillar, supposed to have been. originally set up at the beginning of the 13th century in commemoration of a victory, and bearing a later inscription recording the seven days visit to the town of the emperor Akbar in 1598. The pillar, which was 43 ft. high, is now overthrown and broken. The Kamal Maula is an enclosure containing four tombs, the most notable being that of Shaikh Kamal Maulvi (Kamal-ud-din), a follower of the famous 13th-century Muslim saint Nizamuddin Auliya. The mosque known as Raja Bhoj's school was built out of Hindu remains in the 14th or 15th century: its name is derived from the slabs, covered with inscriptions giving rules of Sanskrit grammar, with which it is paved. On a small hill to the north of the town stands the fort, a conspicuous pile of red sandstone, said to have been built by Sultan Mohammed bin Tughluk of Delhi in the 14th century. It contained the palace of the raja. Of modern institutions may be mentioned the high school, public library, hospital, and the chapel, school and hospital of the Canadian Presbyterian mission. There was also a government opium depot for the payment of duty, the town having been a considerable centre for the trade in opium as well as in grain. The town, the name of which is usually derived from Dhara Nagari (the city of sword blades), is of great antiquity, and was made the capital of the Paramara chiefs of Malwa by Vairisinha II, who transferred his headquarters hither from Ujjain at the close of the 9th century. During the rule of the Paramara dynasty Dhar was famous throughout India as a centre of culture and learning, especially under king Bhoj (1010-1060); but, after suffering various vicissitudes, it was finally conquered by the Sultans of Delhi of the 14th century. At the close of the century Dilawar Khan, the builder of the Lat Masjid, who had been appointed governor in 1399, practically established his independence, his son Hoshang Shah being the first Muslim king of Malwa. Under this dynasty Dhar was second in importance to the capital Mandu. Subsequently, in the time of Akbar, Dhar fell under the dominion of the Mughals, in whose hands it remained till 1730, when it was conquered by the Marathas. The first Maratha ruler was Anand Rao Punwar, a descendant of the great Paramara clan of Rajputs who from the 9th to the 13th century, when they were driven out by the Muslims, had ruled over Malwa from their capital at Dhar. In 1742 Anand Rao received Dhar as a fief from Bhajirao, the peshwa, the victory of the Marathas thus restoring the sovereign power to the family which seven centuries before had been expelled from this very city and country. Towards the close of the 18th and in the early part of the 19th century, the state was subject to a series of spoliations by Sindhia of Gwalior and Holkar of Indore, and was only preserved from destruction by the talents and courage of the adoptive mother of the fifth raja. By a treaty of 1819 Dhar passed under British protection, and bound itself to act in subordinate co-operation. Dhar became a princely state of British India, in the Bhopawar agency, Central India. It included many Rajput and Bhil feudatories, and had an area of 1775 square miles. The state was confiscated by the British in the Revolt of 1857, but in 1860 was restored to Raja Anand Rao Punwar, then a minor, with the exception of the detached district of Bairusia, which was granted to the begum of Bhopal. Anand Rao, who received the personal title Maharaja and the K.C.S.I. in 1877, died in 1898, and was succeeded by Udaji Rao Punwar. The state included the ruins of Mandu, or Mandogarh, the Muslim capital of Malwa. Dhar District Area 8,153 sq km, population 1,740,577, (2001 census), and increase of 24% from its 1991 population of 1,367,412. Dhar District is bounded by the districts of Ratlam to the north, Ujjain to the northeast, Indore to the east, Khargone (West Nimar) to the southeast, Badwani to the south, and Jhabua to the west. It is part of Indore division. External links
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