View source for Rampura-Bhanpura

{| class="wikitable"
|-
|colspan="0"|<div style="font-size:100%">
This article has been extracted from <br/>

THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908.<br/>

OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS.
</div>
|} 
[[Category:India|R]]
[[Category:Places|R]]
''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. ''


=Rampura-Bhanpura=

District of the Indore State, Central India, 
made by combining the old zilas of Rampura and Bhanpura, Though 
consisting of several detached blocks of territory, the district lies 
generally between 23 54' and 25 7' N. and 74 57' and 76 36' E., 
with an area of 2,123 square miles. The southern sections he in the 
undulating Malwa plateau region ; but north of Rampura the district 
enters the hilly tract formed by the arm of the Vmdhyas which strikes 
across east and west from Chitor towards Chanden and forms the 
border of the table-land known as the Pathar. 

The numerous remains scattered through this district point to its 
having been of much importance m former times. From the seventh 
to the ninth century it offered an asylum to the Buddhists, then fallen 
on evil days. At DHAMNAR and Poladongar, and at Kholvi and other 
places close by, are the remains of their caves, both chaitya halls and 
S) all of late date, excavated in the latente hills which rise 
abruptly from the plateau in this region. From the ninth to the four- 
teenth century it was part of the dominions of the Paramara Rajputs, 
to whose rule the remains of numerous Jain temples testify. An 
inscription belonging to this dynasty was lately discovered at Mori 
village. In the fifteenth century it fell to the Muhammadan dynasty 
of MALWA, passing in the last years of their rule to the chiefs of 
Udaipur. Under Akbar the district lay partly in the Subah of Malwa 
and partly in that of Ajmer. The Chandra wat Thakurs, who claim 
descent from Chandra, second son of Rahup, Rana of Udaipur, settled 
at Antrl, which was granted to Sheo Singh Chandrawat by Dilawar 
Khan of Malwa in the fifteenth century. They gradually acquired the 
surrounding country from the Bhils. To this day the head of the 
family, on his succession, receives the ttka from the hand of a Bhil 
descendant of the founder of Rampura. These Thakurs, though 
virtually independent, appear to have recognized to some extent the 
suzerainty of Udaipur, to which State the District certainly belonged 
in the seventeenth century. In 1729 it was given to Madho Singh, 
second son of Sawai Jai Singh of Jaipur, from whom it passed to 
Holkar about 1752. The district was intimately associated with the 
fortunes of Jaswant Rao Holkar, who practically made Rampura his 
capital instead of Maheshwar. 

The population decreased from 285,825 in 1891 to 156,021 in 1901, 
the density in the latter year being 73 persons per square mile. The 
district contains four towns, RAMPURA (population, 8,273), BHANPURA 
(4,639), MANASA (4,5 8 9)> SUNEL (3,655), with GAROT (3,456), the 
head-quarters ; and 868 other villages. For administrative purposes it 
is divided into ten parganas^ with head-quarters at Garot, Bhanpura, 
Chandwasa, Zirapur, Manasa, Nandwai, Narayangarh, Rampura, Sunel, 
and Talen-lataheri. The district is in charge of a Subah^ subordinate 
to whom are naib-subahs at Rampura and Bhanpura, and amlns in the 
remaining parganas. The total revenue is 6-9 lakhs. 

The district is traversed by the metalled road from Nimach to 
Manasa, where it meets a branch road from Piplia to Manasa and con- 
tinues to Rampura and Jhalrapatan in Rajputana. Other roads are 
in course of construction ; and the new Nagda-Muttra branch of 
the Bombay, Baroda, and Central Indian Railway will pass through 
Shamgarh, 6 miles from Garot.