Rajnandgaon is a city in Rajnandgaon District, in the state of Chhattisgarh, India. the population of the city was 163,122. Rajnandgaon district came into existence on 26January 1973, as a result of the division of Durg district.

History

Originally known as Nandgram, Rajnandgaon State was ruled by Somvanshis,

Kalachuris of Tripuri The Kalachuris of Tripuri (IAST: ), also known the Kalachuris of Chedi, ruled parts of central India during 7th to 13th centuries. They are also known as the Later Kalachuris to distinguish them from their earlier namesakes, especially the Kala ...

and

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 ...

s. The palaces in the town of Rajnandgaon reveal their own tale of the rulers, their society and culture, and the traditions of those times. The city was ruled by a dynasty of Hindu caretakers ( Bairagis), who bore the title Vaishnav and Gond rajas (chiefs). Succession was by adoption. Its foundation is traced to a religious celibate who came from the Punjab towards the end of the 18th century. From the founder it passed through a succession of chosen disciples until 1879, when the British government recognized the ruler as an hereditary chief and it came to be known as princely state of Raj Nandgaon. Afterwards conferred upon his son the title of Raja Bahadur. The first ruler Mahant Ghasi Das was recognized as a feudal chief by the British government in 1865 and was granted a sanad of adoption. Later the British conferred the title of raja on the ruling mahant.

Demographics

Census 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 ...

, Rajnandgaon had population of 1,537,133 of which male and female were 762,855 and 774,278 respectively. Rajnandgaon has an average literacy rate of 86.97%, male literacy is 91.19%, and female literacy is 82.98%.

Census 2001

India

, Rajnandgaon had a population of 143,727. Males constituted 51% of the population and females 49%. Rajnandgaon had an average literacy rate of 73%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 80%, and female literacy is 65%. In Rajnandgaon, 13% of the population is under 6 years of age.

Language

Chhattisgarhi and

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 ...

are the main spoken languages in Rajnandgaon. Chhattisgarhi is the native language of this town, besides being followed by

. People from different parts of the country live here, so other languages are also spoken by a majority of people. Some people of the city also speak dialects of Hindi such as Rajisthani and Bastari Chhattisgarh.

Sports

Digvijay Stadium Digvijay Stadium (''Hindi'': दिग्विजय स्टेडियम) is an international multi-sports stadium in Rajnandgaon, India. The ground is mainly used for organizing matches of football, cricket and other sports as well. ...

is a multi-purpose stadium and is mainly used for organizing matches of football, cricket and other sports. The stadium hosted four first-class matches in 1988 when Madhya Pradesh cricket team played against Rajasthan cricket team. Rajnandgaon was earlier known as ''NURSERY OF HOCKEY'' The

International Hockey Stadium International Hockey Stadium is a field hockey stadium in Mohali, Punjab, India. This stadium serves as the home ground for the hockey club, Punjab Warriors, of Hockey India League. On May 25, 2021, the stadium was renamed the Olympian Balbir S ...

, which is Chhattisgarh's first international astroturf hockey stadium, is spread over an area of nearly 9.5 acres, and was built at an estimated cost of 22 crores. It was dedicated to the public on 17 January 2014 by state Governor Shekhar Dutt and chief minister Raman Singh.

Geography

Rajnandgaon is located at Falling Rain Genomics, Inc - Raj Nandgaon
/ref> in Chhattishgarh. It has an average elevation of 307 . metres (1010

feet The foot ( : feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg made ...

Climate

Transport

Railways

Rajnandgaon railway station is on the Howrah-Nagpur-Mumbai line. The station comes under Nagpur Division of SECR. Local trains provide frequent service west to Dongargarh and

Nagpur Nagpur (pronunciation: aːɡpuːɾ is the third largest city and the winter capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the 13th largest city in India by population and according to an Oxford's Economics report, Nagpur is projected to ...

Station, and east to

Raipur Raipur ( ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Raipur is also the administrative headquarters of Raipur district and Raipur division, and the largest city of the state. It was a part of Madhya Pradesh before the state of Ch ...

, while direct express trains are available for all the metros:

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

, Ahmedabad,

Bangalore Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...

, and

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...

. Rajnandgaon railway station is the fourth busiest railway station of the state after Bilaspur, Raipur and Durg. Railway station consists of four well developed platforms. More than 190 trains passes from city. Direct connections are available for Indore, Bhopal, Jabalpur, Gwalior, Nagpur, Gondia, Wardha, Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Hapa, Chennai, Trivandrum, Patna etc.

Bus

Rajnandgaon has two bus stands, Old Bus Stand and New Bus Stand. Bus connectivity is good for transportation to nearby cities and villages, but long-distance bus connectivity is practically non-existent.

MSRTC The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation abbreviated as (MSRTC, or simply ST), is the state run bus service of Maharashtra, India which serves routes to towns and cities within Maharashtra as well as to its adjoining states. It has a flee ...

under

Bhandara Bhandara () is a city and municipal council which serves the administrative headquarters of eponymous administrative Bhandara Taluka and Bhandara district in the state of Maharashtra, India. It is connected with NH-53 and NH-247. Overvie ...

Division provides bus services to Rajnandgaon from its various depots that interconnect Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh. Bhandara and Rajnandgaon have connected under the same link of NH6.

Notable people

References

External links

Official website of Rajnandgaon district
{{Rajnandgaon district Cities and towns in Rajnandgaon district Former capital cities in India