Mahendragarh is a city and a

municipal committee Municipal or local governance refers to the third tier of governance in India, at the level of the municipality or urban local body. History Municipal governance in India in its current form has existed since the year 1664. In 1664, Fort Ko ...

Mahendragarh district Mahendragarh district is one of the 22 districts of Haryana state in northern India. The district occupies an area of 1,899 km² and has a population of 922,088 (2021census). District have 3 Sub-divisions : Narnaul, Mahendragarh and Kanina ...

in the Indian

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land a ...

. It is from Gurgaon and comes under

National Capital Region (India) The National Capital Region (NCR) is a planning region centred upon the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi in India. It encompasses Delhi and several districts surrounding it from the states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The N ...

Etymology

Earlier named ''kanaud'', in early 1860s it was renamed after Maharaja Mahendra Singh (r. 1721-1748 CE) of

Patiala State Patiala State was a self-governing princely state of the British Empire in India, and one of the Phulkian States, that acceded to the Union of India upon Indian independence and partition. Patiala Kingdom/State was founded by Sidhu Jat ...

who was gifted this area by the British East India Company rule for his help in crushing the

Indian Rebellion of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the fo ...

.Magnificent havelis of Nangal-Sirohi

The Tribune ''The Tribune'' or ''Tribune'' is the name of various newspapers: United States Daily California *'' Oakland Tribune'' * ''The Tribune'' (San Luis Obispo) *''San Gabriel Valley Tribune'' Indiana *'' Kokomo Tribune'' *'' Peru Tribune'' * ''The Tri ...

, 22 June 2002.

Geography

Mahendragarh is located at . It has an average elevation of 262 metres (859 feet).

is bounded on the north by Charkhi Dadri Bhiwani and

jhajjar Jhajjar is a town in Jhajjar district in the Indian state of Haryana. The city is situated on the road connecting Rewari to Rohtak (NH-352), Loharu to Meerut (NH334B), Charkhi Dadri to Delhi and Gurgaon to Bhiwani. Jhajjar is located west o ...

districts, on the east by

Rewari district Rewari district is one of the 22 districts in the state of Haryana, India. It was carved out of Gurgaon district by the Government of Haryana on 1November 1989. It is also part of the National Capital Region. The administrative headquarter of t ...

and Alwar district of Rajasthan, on the south by

Alwar Alwar (Pronunciation: �lʋəɾ is a city located in India's National Capital Region and the administrative headquarters of Alwar District in the state of Rajasthan. It is located 150 km south of Delhi and 150 km north of Jaipur. ...

Jaipur Jaipur (; Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. , the city had a population of 3.1 million, making it the tenth most populous city in the country. Jaipur is also known ...

and Sikar districts of Rajasthan, and on the west by

Sikar Sikar is a city and municipal council in the Sikar district of the state of Rajasthan in India. It is the administrative headquarters of the Sikar district. It is part of the Shekhawati region, which consists of Sikar, Churu and Jhunjhunu.Si ...

and

Jhunjhunu district Jhunjhunu district is a district of the Indian state of Rajasthan in northern India. The city of Jhunjhunu is the district headquarters. District location The district falls within Shekhawati region, and is bounded on the northeast and east ...

s of

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern s ...

. It has five tehsils of Kanina,

Narnaul Narnaul is a city, a Municipal Council, and location of headquarters of the Mahendragarh district in the Indian state of Haryana. It is located in the National Capital Region of India. History Narnaul is built on a prominent tell, but th ...

, Ateli, Nangal Choudhary And Mahendergarh. It is situated at the bank of

Dohan River The Dohan river ( hi, दोहान नदी, sa, वधूसरा, ), is a rain-fed river that originates at Mandholi village near Neem Ka Thana in Sikar district of Rajasthan and then disappears in Mahendragarh district in Haryana where ...

(which was a seasonal river), which is at the verge of extinction.

History

Fort of Kanod was built by

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 ...

ruler Tatya Tope in 1755 CE. In 1860, it came under the

during the

British raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was him ...

. ruler of Patiala, Narendra Singh, changed the name of Kanod Fort to Mahandragarh after his son Mahendra. Because of the name of the fort, this town came to be known as Mahendragarh and the name of Narnaul Nizam was changed to Mahendragarh Nizam.Sohan Singh Khattar and Reena Kar, 2021
Know Your State Haryana
Arihant Publications, pp 308. It is said that Malik Mahadud Khan, a servant of abar had settled a habitation here. In 1948, with the formation of PEPSU, Mahendragarh territory from Patiala State, Dadri territory (Now Charkhi Dadri) from Jind and Bawal territory from Nabha State were constituted into

with the headquarters at

. At that time, there were three tehsils, namely; Narnaul, Charkhi Dadri and

Bawal Bawal is a big industrial town located, near Rewari city in Rewari district in Indian state of Haryana. It lies in the National Capital Region (NCR) of India. It is located on national highway NH 48 (formerly called NH 8), 11 km from Rewari, ...

and Mahendragarh was a sub-tehsil. In 1949, Mahendragarh sub-tehsil was made a tehsil. In 1950, Bawal tehsil was broken up and 78 villages were transferred to

Gurgaon district Gurgaon district, officially known as Gurugram district, is one of the 22 districts of Haryana in northern India. The city of Gurgaon is the administrative headquarters of the district. The population is 1,514,432. It is one of the southern dist ...

forming Bawal as a sub-tehsil and remaining villages were added to Narnaul and Mahendragarh. In 1956 the Rewari tehsil (except 61 villages ) was excluded from Gurgaon district and included in Mahendragarh district. The Charkhi-Dadri sub-division was excluded from Mahendragarh district and included in the newly constituted district of Bhiwani. In 1977, 81 villages of Rewari tehsil was constituted into Bawal tehsil. In 1978 the district comprised 4 tehsils (Mahendragarh, Rewari, Narnaul and Bawal). On 1 November 1989, Rewari and Bawal tehsils (taken from Mahendragarh district) and Kosli tehsil except 10 villages (taken from Rohtak district) were constituted into a new district of Rewari. Presently Mahendragarh district has 3 sub-divisions ( Kanina, Narnaul and Mahendergarh), 5 tehsils ( Kanina, Mahendragarh,

Nangal Chaudhary Nangal Choudhary is a town and tehsil (administrative division) in District Mahendragarh at Narnaul in India. A famous personality, Baba Ramdev, belongs to the village (Said Alipur) which is a part of this region. History During the Mughal ...

, Ateli, Narnaul) and 1 sub-tehsil ( Satnali).

Demographics

As of 2011 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 in ...

, Mahendragarh had a population of 23,977. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Mahendragarh has an average literacy rate of 76, higher than the national average of 75%: male literacy is 89%, and female literacy is 67%. In Mahendragarh, 14% of the population is under 6 years of age.

Hindus Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

constitute 98% of the population. In spite of being a district headquarters, there is no administrative office. All the relevant work is done in

. The very first ''guggul (

Commiphora wightii ''Commiphora wightii'', with common names Indian bdellium-tree, gugal, guggul, gugul, or mukul myrrh tree, is a flowering plant in the family Burseraceae, which produces a fragrant resin called gugal, guggul or gugul, that is used in incense a ...

) vatika'' (place where medicinal plants are planted) was established here. Now many government offices have opened in Mahendragarh near Government Boys college in new Court.

Social groups

According to Haryana District Gazetteers: Mahendragarh

Ahirs Ahir or Aheer are a community of traditionally non-elite pastoralists in India, most members of which identify as being of the Indian Yadav community because they consider the two terms to be synonymous. The Ahirs are variously described as a ...

form the agricultural backbone of the district. However

Yaduvanshi Ahirs Ahir or Aheer are a community of traditionally non-elite pastoralists in India, most members of which identify as being of the Indian Yadav community because they consider the two terms to be synonymous. The Ahirs are variously described as a ...

are in majority in the district.Haryana District Gazetteers: Mahendragarh-page-67

Notable personalities

* Swami Ramdev - Yoga Guru and Co founder of Patanjali Ayurved *

Rao Tula Ram Rao Tularam Singh (''circa'' 9 December 1825 – 23 September 1863) was a Yaduvanshi Ahir King or chieftain of Rewari. He was one of the leaders of the Indian rebellion of 1857 in Haryana, where he is considered a state hero. Personal life H ...

- freedom fighter * Gujarmal Modi - founder of Modi Industries and Modi Nagar *

Satish Kaushik Satish Chandra Kaushik (born 13 April 1956) is an Indian actor, director, producer, comedian and screenwriter. Early life Satish was born on 13 April 1956 in Mahendragarh, Haryana. He graduated from Kirori Mal College, Delhi in 1972. He is a ...

- Indian film director, producer and actor

References

{{Villages of Mahendragarh District