Halol
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Halol
Head-quarters of the petty subdivision {petha) of the same name in the Kalol taluka of the Panch Mahals District, Bombay, situated in 22° 30 N. and 73° 29' E., on the high road to Jambu- ghoda, about 7 miles south of Kalol and 4 north-west of Pavagarh hill. Population (1901), 2,819. Besides well-to-do Kunbl cultivators, the largest class in the village, there are Vania traders carrying on business in grain and forest produce with Jambughoda, and in hardware, tobacco, and cloth with Godhra and Baroda. At Halol is said to have been (1484) the most beautiful of all the gardens for which Champaner was famous. The chief relic of its former prosperity as a suburb of Champaner is a reservoir of considerable size to the north-east. Near the present site is a mausoleum, which was described in 1785 as con- sisting of two large and five small domed structures, all of admirable workmanship, the two larger containing marble tombs adorned with excellent skill. Since then some of the domes have fallen, but in other respects the buildings are in good repair. They were raised by Bahadur Shah (1526-37) in honour of his brother Sikandar Shah, who was murdered by Imad-ul-mulk in 1526 (May 30) after a reign of three months and seventeen days. The mausoleum contains two other tombs— one to NasTr Khan, the other to Latif Khan, both of them brothers of Bahadur Shah, who died in the same year (1526). The town contains a dispensary, and two schools for boys and one for girls, attended by 181 and 51 pupils respectively.
