Washim district (Marathi pronunciation: �aːʃim is a

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

, India. The headquarters is at

Washim Washim (Vatsagulma) is a city and a Municipal Council in Washim district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Washim is the district headquarters of Washim district. Etymology Washim was known earlier as Vatsagulma and it was the seat of power ...

. The area of the district is .

Demography and Geography

The district had a population of 1,020,216 of which 17.49% were urban as of 2001. Washim district is located in the western region of Vidharbha (20.1390° N, 77.1025° E). Akola lies to its north,

Amravati Amravati (pronunciation (help·info)) is the second largest city in the Vidarbha region and ninth largest city in Maharashtra, India. It is administrative headquarters of Amravati district and Amravati division which includes Akola, Buldha ...

lies to its north-east,

Hingoli Hingoli is a city and a municipal council in Hingoli district in the Indian state of Maharashtra with the population of 184,443. Description Hingoli is a city and a municipal council in Hingoli district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Hin ...

lies to its south,

Buldhana Buldhana is the district headquarters and a Municipal Council in the Buldhana District of Amravati division in the Indian State of Maharashtra. Climate Demographics As of the 2011 India census, Buldhana had a population of 67,431. Males con ...

lies to its west, Yavatmal lies to its east. River Penganga is the main river of the district. It flows through the Tehsil of

Risod Risod is a city and a municipal council in Washim district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Risod is also a major market place for the people from Hingoli district as well as Risod tahsil. Penganga is major River flowing from Risod taluk ...

. Later it flows through the boundary of Washim and Hingoli districts. River Kas is the main tributary of Penganga. River Kas meets Penganga about 1 km from the village of Shelgaon Rajgure. River Arunavati and its tributaries originates in the Tehsil of Washim and them flows through the tehsils of Mangrul Pir and Manora into the district of Yavatmal. River Katepurna originates in the hilly areas of the district and flows northwards through the tehsil of Malegaon and enters the Akola district. There are hilly ranges extending from through the tehsils of Malegaon, Washim, Mangrul Pir and Manora. There is plain region in the basins of River Penganga in the Risod Tehsil. The important cities are Washim, Risod, Karanja, Malegaon, Mangrul Pir, Manora and Shirpur. Washim is the largest city in the district. There are many well known hospitals, Schools, Colleges and Banks in Washim City. It is specially famous for its Balaji Temple. It also has a railway junction. By railway is connected to Akola, Purna, Nanded and Khandwa. Karanja is another city. It has another railway junction. There are some parts covered by the forests. There are mainly two regions. Both the regions are protected under Katepurna Wildlife Sanctuary and Karanja Sohol Wildlife Sanctuary respectively.

History

Washim was once known as Vatsagulma, the capital of the Vatsagulma line of

Vakataka The Vakataka dynasty () was an ancient Indian dynasty that originated from the Deccan in the mid-3rd century CE. Their state is believed to have extended from the southern edges of Malwa and Gujarat in the north to the Tungabhadra River in the ...

dynasty. The Vatsagulma branch was founded by Sarvasena, the second son of Pravarasena I after his death. King Sarvasena made Vatsagulma, the present day Washim, in Washim district of

his capital.Mahajan V.D. (1960, reprint 2007) ''Ancient India'', New Delhi: S. Chand, , pp.590-91 The territory ruled by this branch was between the Sahydri Range and the Godavari River. They patronized some of the Buddhist caves at Ajanta. The account of Berar in the Ain-i-Akbari was added to that work in 1596–97. The greater part of the Akola district was included in

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 ...

's sorkar or revenue district of Narnala, but some of the

parganas Pargana ( bn, পরগনা, , hi, परगना, ur, پرگنہ) or parganah, also spelt pergunnah during the time of the Sultanate period, Mughal times and British Raj, is a former administrative unit of the Indian subcontinent and each ...

of this Sarkar are now included in

, while Akola, on the other hand, includes three parganas of Akbar's revenue district of Bashim. The whole revenue demand for the area now included in the Akola district seems to have been nearly twenty-four lakhs of rupees. The only special notice of any places in the District has reference to Balapur, Shahpur, and Bashim. Near Balapur, says Abdul Fazl, are two streams, about the borders of which are found various kinds of pretty stones, which are cut and kept as curiosities. Six kos distant were the headquarters of Sultan Murad, which grew into a fine city under the name of Shahpur'. Of Bashim he writes, 'About Bashim is an Indigenous race, for the most part proud and refractory, called Hatkars their forces consist of 1000 cavalry and 5000 infantry.' He adds that the Hatkars, who are

Dhangar Dhangar is a herding caste of people found in the Indian states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. They are referred as Gavli in southern Maharashtra, Goa and northern Karnataka, Golla in Andhra Pradesh and Karnat ...

, are

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 ...

which is true. Washim district was formed on 1 July 1998. In the year 1905, during the period of the British Raj, Washim district was bifurcated into two separate districts, namely, Akola District and Yavatmal District. Then Wasim was part of Akola district and depended on Akola district for its governance. It again became a district in 1998 when people from Akola district wanted to separate from Wasim for its development.

Divisions

This district is divided into three sub-divisions, namely, Washim, Mangrulpir and Karanja. These are further divided into six

taluka A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...

s (tehsils). The talukas are

Malegaon Malegaon is a city and a municipal corporation in Nashik District in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is situated on the bank of Mosam River. History Malegaon (previously Maligaon G.N. Wright, 1837. See entry for MULLIGAUM, p216.) at the co ...

Mangrulpir Mangrulpir is a city with Municipal council in Washim district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mangrulpir is place of honorary Pir Dada Hayat Qalandar who is one of 3 Qualandars all over the world. That's the reason how the city got its name ...

, Karanja,

Manora Manora may refer to: * Manora, Karachi, in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan * Manora, Washim, a taluka in Washim district of Maharashtra, India * Manora Cantonment, in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan * Manora Fort, Karachi, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan * Manora For ...

and

. Presently, there are three

Vidhan Sabha The State Legislative Assembly, or Vidhan Sabha, or also Saasana Sabha, is a legislative body in the states and union territories of India. In the 28 states and 3 union territories with a unicameral state legislature, it is the sole legislati ...

(Legislative Assembly) constituencies in this district. These are Karanja,

and

. While, Risod is part of Akola Lok Sabha constituency, Karanja and Washim are part of Yavatmal-Washim Lok Sabha constituency.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census Washim district has a

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

of 1,197,160, roughly equal to the nation of

Timor-Leste East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-weste ...

or the US state of

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

. This gives it a ranking of 398th in India (out of a total of

640 Year 640 (Roman numerals, DCXL) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 640 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar er ...

). The district has a population density of . Its

population growth rate Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 83 million annually, or 1.1% per year. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to ...

over the decade 2001-2011 was 17.23%. Washim has a

sex ratio The sex ratio (or gender ratio) is usually defined as the ratio of males to females in a population. As explained by Fisher's principle, for evolutionary reasons this is typically about 1:1 in species which reproduce sexually. Many species devia ...

of 926 females for every 1000 males, and a

literacy rate Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...

of 81.7%. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes made up 19.17% and 6.72% of the population respectively. At the time of the

2011 Census of India The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Information ...

, 75.88% of the population in the district spoke

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

, 8.50% Lambadi, 8.26%

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

as their first language.2011 Census of India, Population By Mother Tongue
/ref>

References

External links

Washim district official website
{{coord, 20.101048, N, 77.136954, E, type:adm3rd_source:itwiki, display=title Districts of Maharashtra 1998 establishments in Maharashtra Amravati division Minority Concentrated Districts in India Vidarbha