Chanderi, is a town of historical importance in
Ashoknagar District of the state
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 ...
in India. It is situated at a distance of 127 km from
Shivpuri
Shivpuri is a city and a municipality in Shivpuri district located in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is in the Gwalior Division of northwest Madhya Pradesh and is the administrative headquarters of Shivpuri District. It is sit ...
, 37 km from
Lalitpur, 55 km from
Ashok Nagar and about 46 km from
Isagarh
Isagarh, is a town in Ashoknagar District of Madhya Pradesh state in central India. It is the administrative headquarters of Isagarh tehsil.
Name
The original name of Isagarh was "Ondila" or "Unda" until 1808, when Durjan Lal Khichi conquered ...
. It is surrounded by hills southwest of the
Betwa River. Chanderi is surrounded by hills, lakes and forests and is spotted with several monuments of the
Bundela
The Bundela is a Rajput clan. Over several generations, the cadet lineages of Bundela Rajputs founded several states in area what came to be known as Bundelkhand anciently known as Chedi Kingdom from the 16th century.
Etymology
As per Jaswant ...
Rajput
Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Ra ...
s and
Malwa
Malwa is a historical region of west-central India occupying a plateau of volcanic origin. Geologically, the Malwa Plateau generally refers to the volcanic upland north of the Vindhya Range. Politically and administratively, it is also syno ...
sultan
Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...
s. It is famous for ancient
Jain
Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being ...
Temples.
Its population in 2011 was 33,081.
History
Chanderi is mentioned by the Persian scholar
Alberuni in 1030.
Ghiyas ud din Balban
Ghiyas ud din Balban (1216–1287, reigned: 1266–1287) ( ur, ); (Hindi: ग़ियास उद-दीन बलबन); ( IAST: ''Ghiyās ud-Dīn Balban'') was the ninth sultan of the Mamluk dynasty of Delhi.
Ghiyas ud Din was the ''reg ...
captured the city in 1251 for
Nasiruddin Mahmud,
Sultan of Delhi
The following list of Indian monarchs is one of several lists of incumbents. It includes those said to have ruled a portion of the Indian subcontinent, including Sri Lanka.
The earliest Indian rulers are known from epigraphical sources fou ...
. Sultan
Mahmud I Khilji
Mahmud is a transliteration of the male Arabic given name (), common in most parts of the Islamic world. It comes from the Arabic triconsonantal root Ḥ-M-D, meaning ''praise'', along with ''Muhammad''.
Siam Mahmud
*Mahmood (singer) (born 199 ...
of
Malwa
Malwa is a historical region of west-central India occupying a plateau of volcanic origin. Geologically, the Malwa Plateau generally refers to the volcanic upland north of the Vindhya Range. Politically and administratively, it is also syno ...
captured the city in 1438 after a siege of several months.
Rana Sanga of
Mewar
Mewar or Mewad is a region in the south-central part of Rajasthan state of India. It includes the present-day districts of Bhilwara, Chittorgarh, Pratapgarh, Rajsamand, Udaipur, Pirawa Tehsil of Jhalawar District of Rajasthan, Neemuch and Man ...
conquer much of the Malwa along with Chanderi and appointed his vassal
Medini Rai a rebellious minister of Sultan Mahmud II of Malwa as ruler of Malwa under his lordship.Medini Rai made Chanderi as capital of his kingdom. In the
Battle of Chanderi, the Mughal Emperor
Babur captured the fort from Medini Rai and witnessed the macabre
Rajput
Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Ra ...
rite of
jauhar
Jauhar, sometimes spelled Jowhar or Juhar, was a Hindu practice of mass self-immolation by women, in the Indian subcontinent, to avoid capture, enslavement and rape by an invading army, when facing certain defeat during a war. Some reports of ...
, in which, faced with certain defeat and in an attempt to escape dishonor in the hands of the enemy, women with children in their arms jumped in a fire pit to commit suicide, which was made for this specific purpose, against the background of vedic hymns recited by the priests. Jauhar was performed during the night and in the morning the men would rub the ashes of their dead women folk on their forehead, don a saffron garment known as kesariya, chew tulsi leaves (in India tulsi leaves are placed in the mouth of a dead body), symbolizing their awareness about impending death and resolve to fight and die with honour. This method of fighting & dying for the cause of retaining honour was called ''saka''. In 1529,
Puran Mal was defeated by Babur's forces after he tried to recapture Chanderi.
In 1542 it was captured by
Sher Shah Suri
Sher Shah Suri ( ps, شیرشاه سوری)
(1472, or 1486 – 22 May 1545), born Farīd Khān ( ps, فرید خان)
, was the founder of the Sur Empire in India, with its capital in Sasaram in modern-day Bihar. He standardized the silver coin ...
and added to the governorship of
Shujaat Khan
Shujaat Husain Khan (born 19 May 1960) is one of the greatest North Indian musicians and ''sitar'' players of his generation. He belongs to the Imdadkhani ''gharana'' school of music. He has recorded over 100 albums and was nominated for a Gram ...
.
The Mughal Emperor
Akbar
Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar (25 October 1542 – 27 October 1605), popularly known as Akbar the Great ( fa, ), and also as Akbar I (), was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Hum ...
made the city a ''sarkar'' in the ''subah'' of Malwa.
The
Bundela
The Bundela is a Rajput clan. Over several generations, the cadet lineages of Bundela Rajputs founded several states in area what came to be known as Bundelkhand anciently known as Chedi Kingdom from the 16th century.
Etymology
As per Jaswant ...
Rajputs captured the city in 1586, and it was held by Ram Sab, a son of Raja Madhukar of
Orchha
Orchha is a town, near city of Niwari in Niwari district of Madhya Pradesh state, India. The town was established by rajput ruler Rudra Pratap Singh some time after 1501, as the seat of an eponymous former princely state of covering parts of c ...
. In 1646 Devi Singh Bundela was made ruler of the city, and Chanderi remained in the hands of his family until it was annexed in 1811 by
Jean Baptiste Filose
Jean Baptiste Filose was a military commander in the army of Daulat Rao Sindhia, the Maratha ruler of Gwalior. In 1811 he captured the fortress of Chanderi on the eastern border of Sindhia's kingdom from the Bundela Rajput rulers. He led Sindhia ...
for the
Maratha
The Marathi people (Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as a M ...
ruler
Daulat Rao Sindhia
Shrimant Daulat Rao Shinde (also Sindhia; 1779 – 21 March 1827) was the Maharaja (ruler) of Gwalior state in central India from 1794 until his death in 1827. His reign coincided with struggles for supremacy within the Maratha Empire, and war ...
of
Gwalior
Gwalior() is a major city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh; it lies in northern part of Madhya Pradesh and is one of the Counter-magnet cities. Located south of Delhi, the capital city of India, from Agra and from Bhopal, the s ...
.
The city was transferred to the
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
in 1844.
The British lost control of the city during the
Revolt of 1857
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against Company rule in India, the rule of the East India Company, British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the The Crown, British ...
, and the city was recaptured by
Hugh Rose on 14 March 1858.
Richard Harte Keatinge
Lieutenant General Richard Harte Keatinge (17 June 1825 – 25 May 1904) was an Irish people, Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to United Kin ...
led the assault, for which he was awarded the
Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...
. The city was transferred back to the Sindhias of
Gwalior
Gwalior() is a major city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh; it lies in northern part of Madhya Pradesh and is one of the Counter-magnet cities. Located south of Delhi, the capital city of India, from Agra and from Bhopal, the s ...
in 1861, and became part of
Isagarh District of Gwalior state.
Chanderi fought for independence of India under the leadership of Bundelkhand Kesri Dewan Shatrughan Singh and his Rani Rajendra Kumari.
After India's independence in 1947, Gwalior became part of the new state of
Madhya Bharat
Madhya Bharat, also known as Malwa Union, was an Indian state in west-central India, created on 28 May 1948 from twenty-five princely states which until 1947 had been part of the Central India Agency, with Jiwajirao Scindia as its Rajpramukh. ...
, which was merged into
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 ...
on 1 November 1956.
Geography
Chanderi is located at . It has an average elevation of 456 metres (1496 feet).
Demographics
India
census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...
, Chanderi had a population of 28,313. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%.
Access
There is a good roadway network in Chanderi. The town lies at State Highway 20 and National Highway 376 with connections to Ashoknagar, Ishagarh, Lalitpur etc.
There is no railway service in or near Chanderi but necessary administrative measures were adopted in 2014 for a line to be operated by Northern Railways on a Pipraigaon-Chanderi-Lalitpur route.
Jainism at Chanderi
The Chanderi area has been a major center of
Jain
Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being ...
culture. It was a major center of the
Parwar Jain community. There are a number of Jain places nearby- Gurilagiri (7 km), Aamanachar (29 km), Bithala (19 km), Bhamon (16 km), Khandargiri (2 km), Thuvanji (22 km) and Bhiyadant (14 km), and
Deogarh, Uttar Pradesh
Deogarh is a village in Lalitpur district, Uttar Pradesh, Lalitpur district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located on the right bank of Betwa River and to the west of Lalitpur hills. It is known for Gupta Empire, Gupta monuments an ...
(20 km, across the border).
The Jain
Bhattaraka
A Bhaṭṭāraka ( pka, भट्टारक "holy one") heads traditional Digambara Jain institutions. He is responsible for training scholars, maintenance of libraries, managing endowments, presiding over installation ceremonies and running ...
s of
Mula Sangh
''Digambara'' (; "sky-clad") is one of the two major schools of Jainism, the other being '' Śvētāmbara'' (white-clad). The Sanskrit word ''Digambara'' means "sky-clad", referring to their traditional monastic practice of neither possessing ...
,
Balatkara Gana
Balatkara Gana is an ancient Jain monastic order. It is a section of the Mula Sangh. It is often termed ''Balatkara Gana Sarasvati Gachchha''. Until the beginning of the 20th century it was present in a number of places in India. However all ...
had a center at Chanderi that flourished for several centuries. The lineage, as constructed by Pt. Phulachandra Shastri is as following:
![Adinath](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Adinath.jpg)
# Devendrakirti (see
Balatkara Gana
Balatkara Gana is an ancient Jain monastic order. It is a section of the Mula Sangh. It is often termed ''Balatkara Gana Sarasvati Gachchha''. Until the beginning of the 20th century it was present in a number of places in India. However all ...
), who awarded
Singhai
Singhai (also Sanghvi,sangoi, Shanghvi, Shingavi or Singhi from Sanskrit Sanghapati (संघपति), literally chief of the Sangha) is a hereditary title awarded in the past to leaders of the Jain Sangha.
Among the Digambara Jains the title ...
title in 1436 CE (see
Parwar (Jain))
# Tribhuvanakirti (anointed in
Vikram Samvat
Vikram Samvat (IAST: ''Vikrama Samvat''; abbreviated VS) or Bikram Sambat B.S. and also known as the Vikrami calendar, is a Hindu calendar historically used in the Indian subcontinent. Vikram Samvat is generally 57 years ahead of Gregorian Calend ...
1522),
# Sasasrakirti
# Padmanandi
# Yashahkirti
# Lalitkirti
# Dharmakirt
#Padmakirti (died Vikram Samvat 1717)
# Sakalakirti
# Surendrakirti (pratishtha in Vikram Samvat 1746)
A branch of this lineage continued at Sironj.
# Jagatkirti (pupil of Dharmakirti above)
# Tribhuvanakirti
# Narendrakirti
# Unknown
# Rajkirti
# Devendrakirti (pratishtha in samvat 1871)
;Jain Temple
List of Jain temples at Chanderi:
# Shri Choubeesee Bara Mandir : This temple has 2 parts with front part is known as Bara mandir and back part called Choubeesee mandir. As suggested by inscription this temple was built around year 1293(V.S. 1350). This temple was renovated in 13th to 18th century. This temple has 24 idols for 24
Tirthankars
In Jainism, a ''Tirthankara'' (Sanskrit: '; English: literally a 'ford-maker') is a saviour and spiritual teacher of the '' dharma'' (righteous path). The word ''tirthankara'' signifies the founder of a '' tirtha'', which is a fordable passa ...
and these idols are made by the stones of actual colors as the
Tirthankar. All idols are same in dimensions, which is very difficult in real.
# Shri Parasnath Digamber Jain Purana mandir Jain temple : It is one of the oldest jain temple in chanderi containing idols of Shri Prasnath ji of 7th century.
# Shri Khandargiri Jain temple : It is one of the most famous religious site in Chanderi. This temple has a 45 feet carved idol of
Rishabhnatha. Inscriptions suggest that this statue is over 700 years old. Six caves have been cut out of the hillside. Inside there are a number of religious carvings of Jain saints and decorations carved into the existing hillside. The oldest cave is cave 6 that dates back to 1236.
# Shri thobonji Jain temple : This temple belongs to 9th century.
Moolnayak of this temple is light blue colored idol colossal of Adinath of height 36 feet 8 inches. The other colossal idols in this temple are Bhagwan
ParshVanatha of height 13 feet 4 inches and Bhagwan Parshwanath of height 12 feet 6 inches.
# Shri Chandraprabha digambar Jain temple : This temple is dedicated to
Chandraprabha
Chandraprabha () is the eighth Tirthankara of ''Avasarpini'' (present half cycle of time as per Jain cosmology). Chandraprabhu was born to King Mahasena and Queen Lakshmana Devi at Chandrapuri to the Ikshvaku dynasty. According to Jain tex ...
, the 8th tirthankar of Jainism. Oldest inscription date back to year 967 AD.
In popular culture
*
Stree – The 2018 horror-comedy film
Stree, about a witch who abducts men at night, is set and shot in the town of Chanderi.
*
Sui Dhaaga
''Sui Dhaaga: Made in India'' (; ) is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed by Sharat Katariya and produced by Aditya Chopra and Maneesh Sharma. Edited by Charu Shree Roy, the film stars Varun Dhawan and Anushka Sharma as a married ...
– Some parts of this
Anushka Sharma and
Varun Dhawan
Varun Dhawan (; born 24 April 1987) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films. One of India's highest-paid actors, he has been featured in '' Forbes India'' Celebrity 100 list since 2014. He has starred in 11 consecutive box-office successes ...
starrer film were shot in Chanderi. In this film the weaving setup was from Chanderiyaan Chanderi
*
Gudiya Humari Sabhi Pe Bhari serial shot in Chanderi,
starting with Chanderi Bus stand whose named Lalitpur Bus Adda and background of Kila Kothi.
*
Janhit Mein Jaari starring
Nushrratt Bharuccha
Nushrratt Bharuccha (born Nushrat Bharucha; 17 May 1985) is an Indian actress who works in Hindi cinema. She has appeared in films like '' Love Sex Aur Dhokha'', '' Pyaar Ka Punchnama'', '' Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2'', ''Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety'', ' ...
on
Zee5
ZEE5 is an Indian subscription video on-demand and over-the-top streaming service, run by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. It was launched in India on 14 February 2018 with content in 12 languages. The ZEE5 mobile app is available on Web, Androi ...
is set in Chanderi with major portions filmed there.
See also
*
Chanderi sari
Transport
The nearest airport is Gwalior.
References
Sources
*
* Hunter, William Wilson, James Sutherland Cotton, Richard Burn, William Stevenson Meyer, eds. (1909).
* ''Imperial Gazetteer of India'', vol. 9. Oxford, Clarendon Press.
External links
Shri Digamber Jain Atishaya Kshetra Choubeesee Bara Mandir, ChanderiShri Digamber Jain Atishaya Kshetra KhandargiriShri Digamber Jain Atishaya Kshetra ThuvonjiChanderi Geographical Index WebsiteFilm on the master weavers of Chanderi''Chanderi: Travel Guide'' Goodearth Publications, New Delhi, 2006. ()
Chanderi Tourist Destinations: Madhya Pradesh Tourism
{{Authority control
Cities and towns in Ashoknagar district
Jain rock-cut architecture
9th-century Jain temples
13th-century Jain temples