Amarkantak (

NLK Serine/threonine protein kinase NLK is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ''NLK'' gene. Its name is an abbreviation for ''Nemo-Like Kinase'', Nemo (nmo) being the ''Drosophila'' ortholog Sequence homology is the biological homology b ...

''Amarakaṇṭaka'') is a pilgrim town and a

Nagar Panchayat A nagar panchayat (town panchayat; ) or Notified Area Council (NAC) in India is a settlement in transition from rural to urban and therefore a form of an urban political unit comparable to a municipality. An urban centre with more than 12,000 ...

Anuppur Anuppur is a City in northeastern Madhya Pradesh state of central India. It is the administrative headquarters of the Anuppur tehsil and Anuppur District. Previously, it was in Shahdol district. Geography Anuppur is located at . It has an aver ...

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

, India. The Amarkantak region is a unique

natural heritage Natural heritage refers to the sum total of the elements of biodiversity, including flora and fauna, ecosystems and geological structures. It forms part of our natural resources. Definition Heritage is that which is ''inherited'' from past gener ...

area and is the meeting point of the

Vindhya The Vindhya Range (also known as Vindhyachal) () is a complex, discontinuous chain of mountain ridges, hill ranges, highlands and plateau escarpments in west-central India. Technically, the Vindhyas do not form a single mountain range in the ...

and the

Satpura Range The Satpura Range is a range of hills in central India. The range rises in eastern Gujarat running east through the border of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and ends in Chhattisgarh. The range parallels the Vindhya Range to the north, and these ...

s, with the

Maikal Hills The Maikal Hills are range of hills in the state of eastern Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh India. The Maikal Hills are an eastern part of the Satpuras in Kawardha District of Chhattisgarh and Anuppur district of Madhya Pradesh, overlooking the ...

being the fulcrum. This is where the Narmada River, the

Son River Son River ( hi, सोन नदी, also spelt Sone River) is a perennial river located in central India. It originates near Amarkantak Hill in Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi district of Chhattisgarh and finally merges with the Ganges River near Pat ...

and Johila River (Tributary of Son) emerge. Popular 15th-century Indian mystic and poet

Kabir Kabir Das (1398–1518) was a 15th-century Indian mystic poet and saint. His writings influenced Hinduism's Bhakti movement, and his verses are found in Sikhism's scripture Guru Granth Sahib, the Satguru Granth Sahib of Saint Garib Das, ...

is said to have meditated on ''Kabir Chabutra'', also called the platform of Kabir situated in the town of Amarkantak.

Etymology

Amarakantaka is a combination of two

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

words, ''amara'' (immortal) and ''kantaka'' (obstruction or thorn). The poet

Kalidas Kālidāsa (''fl.'' 4th–5th century CE) was a Classical Sanskrit author who is often considered ancient India's greatest poet and playwright. His plays and poetry are primarily based on the Vedas, the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata and ...

has mentioned it as ''Amarakuta'', which later became ''Amarakantaka''.

Location

Amarkantak is located in the state of Madhya Pradesh in India at . It has an average elevation of . Roads running through

Rewa Rewa may refer to: Places Fiji * Rewa (Fijian Communal Constituency, Fiji), a former electoral division of Fiji * Rewa Plateau, between the Kaimur and Vindhya Ranges in Madhya Pradesh * Rewa Province, Fiji * Rewa River, the widest river in Fiji ...

Shahdol Shahdol is a city in Shahdol district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of Shahdol district, The total geographical area of the district is . Demographics India census A census is the procedure o ...

, Anuppur,

Jabalpur Jabalpur is a city situated on the banks of Narmada River in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. According to the 2011 census, it is the third-largest urban agglomeration in Madhya Pradesh and the country's 38th-largest urban agglomeration. J ...

Katni Katni officially Murwara is a city on the banks of the Katni River in Madhya Pradesh, India. It is the administrative headquarters of Katni District. It is in the Mahakoshal region of central India. The city is from the divisional headquarters ...

, Bilaspur and Gaurela, Pendra Road connect it. The nearest railway stations are

Pendra road Pendra is a nagar panchayat in the Gaurella-Pendra-Marwahi district in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Geography Pendra has an average elevation of . Demographics India census, Pendra had a population of 12,392. Males constitute 50% of the ...

and

, Pendra road is via Keonchi and only via Jwaleshwar. The nearest airport is

Bilaspur Airport Bilaspur Airport , officially known as Bilasa Devi Kevat Airport is located at Chakarbhatta, 10 kilometres south of Bilaspur, in the state of Chhattisgarh, India. Bilaspur Airport made by royal Airforce in 1942 oldest Airport of chhattisgarh ...

(120 km).

Demographics

The Amarkantak Nagar Panchayat has a population of 8,416 of which 4,514 are males while 3,902 are females as per report released by Census India 2011. The population of children with age of 0-6 is 921 which is 10.94% of the total population of Amarkantak (NP). In Amarkantak Nagar Panchayat, female sex ratio is 864 against a state average of 931. Moreover, the child sex ratio in Amarkantak is around 931 compared to Madhya Pradesh's state average of 918. Literacy rate of Amarkantak city is 80.20%, higher than the state average of 69.32%. In Amarkantak, male literacy is around 88.06% while the female literacy rate is 71.02%. 95.51% of the population, or 8,038 people, follow

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

Tourism

* Ancient temples of Kalachuri period: The ancient temples of

Kalachuri The Kalachuris (IAST: Kalacuri), also known as Kalachuris of Mahishmati, were an Indian dynasty that ruled in west-central India between 6th and 7th centuries. They are also known as the Heheya Kingdom, Haihayas or as the Early Kalachuris to d ...

period (famously known as Trimukhi Temple) are in the south of Narmada Kund, just behind it. These were built by Kalachuri Maharaja Karnadeva (1041–1073 AD.) *

Sarvodaya Jain temple Sarvodaya Jain temple is a Jain temple in Amarkantak town in Anuppur, Madhya Pradesh. History The temple construction started under the guidance of Acharya Vidyasagar in 2006. Upon completion the height of the temple will be 151 feet, width 1 ...

Yantra Mandir
The Shri Yantra Mandir in Amarkantak is in the form of a Maha Meru which is a three-dimensional representation of the Shree Yantra or Shri Chakra. This temple is located on the hallowed land that is the birthplace of the sacred Narmada River in Amarkantak, Annupur District, Madhya Pradesh.

Flora and fauna

The town of Amarkantak is surrounded by a rich variety of flora with medicinal properties. The

Achanakmar Wildlife Sanctuary The Achanakmar Wildlife Sanctuary is a sanctuary in Mungeli district of Chhattisgarh and in the Anuppur and Dindori districts of Madhya Pradesh in India. It had been established in 1975, under the provisions of the ''Indian Wildlife Protection ...

, is located at a distance of no more than 40 km from the town of Amarkantak in the state of Chhattisgarh on the road to Bilaspur. The enchanting lush green forest belt in Amarkantak is a part of

Achanakmar-Amarkantak Biosphere Reserve The Achanakmar-Amarkantak Biosphere Reserve is a biosphere reserve in India that extends across the states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, covering a total area of 383,551 hectares (3835.51 km2). Location The reserve is located in t ...

. The forests of Amarkantak are linked with the forests of

Kanha National Park Kanha Tiger Reserve, also known as Kanha–Kisli National Park, is one of the tiger reserves of India and the largest national park of the state of Madhya Pradesh. The present-day Kanha area is divided into two protected areas, Hallon and Banja ...

. Amarkantak falls on the Kanha-Achanakmar Corridor, a hilly region covered with dense forests. Kanha and Achanakmar are both conserved wildlife parks in India famous for

Bengal tiger The Bengal tiger is a population of the ''Panthera tigris tigris'' subspecies. It ranks among the biggest wild cats alive today. It is considered to belong to the world's charismatic megafauna. The tiger is estimated to have been present in ...

s. ''

Pinus caribaea The Caribbean pine (''Pinus caribaea'') is a hard pine species native to Central America and the northern West Indies (in Cuba, the Bahamas, and the Turks and Caicos Islands). It belongs to subsection '' Australes'' in subgenus ''Pinus''. It inha ...

'', known as

tropical pine ''Pinus tropicalis'', the tropical pine, is a pine tree endemic to the western highlands of the island of Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of ...

, was planted in Amarkantak in 1968 on advice of Forest Research Institute,

Dehradun Dehradun () is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and is governed by the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, with the Uttarakhand Legislative As ...

on the recommendations of

National Commission on Agriculture National Commission on Agriculture was an Indian Government body that was created to find ways to increase agricultural productivity in India. The Commission was founded in August 1970 under the Ministry of Agriculture An agriculture ministry ...

looking to the future demand of quality pulpwood. This work was undertaken under a

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

Technical Assistance Project by clearing natural sal forests. The naturalists and environmentalists in India raised controversy over it; ultimately the project of tropical pine plantation was abolished.

Educational institutions

The

Indira Gandhi National Tribal University Indira Gandhi National Tribal University in Amarkantak, Anuppur district, Madhya Pradesh, India was established through an Act of Parliament, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University Act, 2007, by Government of India The Government of I ...

was established in Amarkantak by an Act of Parliament in 2007, to promote education and research in various aspects of tribal communities and provide higher education to the tribal population. It has 28 departments which offer undergraduate, post-graduation, and PhD programs. The

Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs) is a system of central schools for talented students predominantly from rural areas in India. They are run by Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti, Noida, an autonomous organization under the Department of School Educati ...

was established here with the aim of nourishing and fostering the rural young. Jawahar Navodya Vidyalaya, Anuppur started in the year 1987.

References

Falling Rain Genomics, Inc – Amarkantak

External links

Anuppur : Official

Amarkantak :Tourist Place
{{Shahdol Division Geography of Madhya Pradesh Hindu pilgrimage sites in India Hindu holy cities Cities and towns in Anuppur district Tourism in Madhya Pradesh