NANDED–The second largest city of Maharashtra

Nanded is situated on the banks of river Godavari. It is Marath-wada’s
second leading city. It excels in various fields next to Aurangabad in
Marathwada. While it has made advances in fields such as spiritual, social,
political, science, arts etc, its contribution is indeed note-worthy in certain
spheres.

Nanded in the past:

Consequent upon reorgani-zation of states in 1956, the district of Nanded
came to comprise six talukas namely Kandhar, Hadgaon, Biloli, Deg-loor, Mudhol
where as Mukhed and Bhokar were called ‘Ma-hals’ (revenue headquarters).

As a result of states reorga-nization, Bichkunda, Jukkal
villages of Degloor taluka as well as excluding Dharmabad, entire Mudhol Taluka
got mer-ged with Nizamabad district of Andhra Pradesh and in lieu of them Kinwat
and Islapur villa-ges were separated from Adila-bad district and were made part
of Nanded district again.

Even though Nanded is men-tioned in historical accounts since
4th century AD, the evidence of human habitation in this area has been found for
the past 40 to 50 thousand years. Standing on the banks of holy river Godavari,
this place boasts of a rich history. Though its ancient inhabitants made great
strides, they did not leave any account of their achieve-ments perhaps this may
be attributed to Indians’ general attitude of anonymity and hence we have to
go in pursuit of this information. Geora-phically, Nanded district forms part of
eastern border of Mara-thwada while Nizamabad, Medak and Adilabad districts of
Andhra Pradesh occupy its eastern border and Bidar district of Karnataka falls
on its southern side.

Whereas Parbhani and Latur district of Marathwada are on its
western side, Yeotmal dis-trict of Vidarbha occupies its northern side. Just as
the effect of continuous association is clearly discernible on a person so also
it is reflected in the behavioral pattern of the peo-ple of a region. The impact
of Andhra, Karnataaka and Vidar-bha can therefore be seen on the language,
behavior and general conduct of the people of Nanded. Around 15 years ago, there
was no authentic ancient historical account of Nanded available. It was mainly
because no survey was condu-cted at all. Earlier during Nizam’s region that is
until 1948, entire region appeared to be a victim of indifference. Also the
technique and general know how required for the kind of survey were not known.
It was only as late as in the 8th decade of the 20th century, experts in this
area thought of making a survey. Obviously there is no mention of ancient
history of Nanded district in gazetteer published in 1971.

Various parts of Maharashtra in 6th century BC were known as
Kuntal, Aparant, Ashmak, Mulak etc. The area of present Aurangabad was called
Mulak. The capital city was Pratishtan (Paithan), the Nanded region formed a
part of Vidarbha. The name Nanded is intimately rela-ted to river Godavari. The
name is derived from the Sanskrit name Nandikat. It means the city situated on
the banks of the river. Ashmaka, this area consisted the parts of Marath-wada
specially Aurangabad and Beed. Afterwards, this area became a part of Kuntala,
wh-ich consisted of Satara, Sangali, Kolhapur, Ahemadnagar etc. Then even major
part of Karna-taka became a part of Kuntala. Therefore, the dynasties of
Chalukya and Rashtrakut kings called themselves ‘Kuntalesh-wara’. Some
scholars think that the old name was ‘Narmandera’ as it might be part of ‘Nanda
state’. Then most of Mahara-shtra became southern part of Mourya empire, as it
is evident from the inscription of emperor Ashok at Sopara (Thane district) and
Devtak (Chandrapur). But it is doubtful whether Nanded region was part of it.
After Maurya, Sahunga dynasty came to power. At that time, a king Yagyasen was
ruling Vidarbha. He was opposed by his brother Madhaksen. Shunga prince,
Agnimitra aided Madhaksen. Then Vidarbha was divided in two parts to be ruled by
two brothers. One of them became ruler of south Vidarbha, which included Nanded.

Nanded in the middle age was divided in Vidarbha and Godavari–Vanjara
(Manjra) valley during 14 th century. Hadgaon, Kinwat , Mahur were in Vidarbha.
Parbhani District at the northern Godavari was also a part of Vidarbha and so,
Nanded which is situated on the northern banks of the river Godavari was nearer
to Vidar-bha. Marathi Shilalekhas are found in Nanded, Ardhapur, Mahur and
Kannada Shilale-khas are found in Kandhar area, which is on the southern banks
of Godavari. It means that Kalyani’s Chalukya regime was up to the confluence
of Goda-vari and Vanjara and Marathi tributary rulers were ruling on the
northern banks of Godavari–Nanded Ardhapur, Had-gaon, Kinwat etc. There are
many marks of cultural life of this period in Nanded district. For example,
Renuka Temple at Mahur, the hot springs temple at Unapdev and temples on the
banks of river Godavari and Vanjara etc. The holy places of Mahanubhavas are
from these marks we can imagine Nanded of Yadav’s Period.

With the starting of the 14th century, the political
situation of south India changed. Turk Sultan, Allauddin Khilji conquered
Vidarbha first. And then his son Mubarak Khiji ended Yadav’s regime in 1317 AD
and established his power over Maharashtra. In this same year, his
Commander-in-Chief, Khushro conquered the fort of Bidar. The Turks were all the
time trying to win Andhra, War-agals regime by passing thro-ugh Maharashtra. In
1303 AD they tried to win Waranqal by attacking form Orissa but in this
invasion, Khilji’s army was completely destructed. Learn-ing from this
experience the commander-in chief of Khilji went to Warangal via Varhad,
Chandrapur, Karimnagar and conquered Prataprudra and made him their tributary
king. In Delhi, The Tughlakas started their rule and so, there was third
invasion in 1323 AD this time prince Mohammad Tugh-lak went to Warangal via
Deo-giri by Nanded and Kandhar. There is a Masjeed in Bodhan from Andhra, near
Nanded, built on the old Indranarayana’s temple. The Shilalekh is inscri-bed,
with date there and so we can certainly know Mohammad Tughlak’s arrival at
Bodhan. This period is about 1323-24 AD This Masjeed is built during that
period.

Near Bodhan around 50 km away, there is Kandhar,
histori-cally famous place in Nanded district. Krishapur means Kandhar, it was
very important city during Rashtrakut and Chalukya’s period. It was secon-dary
capital at that time. The unique information of temples, charitable institutions
and monasteries of Kandhar is attended from the Shilalekhs of that time. In
those days, Nan-ded was having importance as a center of learning. Kandhar
economically helped Nanded University. Various temples of Gods and Goddesses
crowded the surroundings of Kandhar. The researchers have a notion that there
must be a ‘Shaktipith’ here in Kandhar. If it is in reality, then there the
link in chain can be put together with Kandhar and and Shrishailym and Alam-pur
in Andhra, and Mahur, Tutj-apur and Ambejogai in Mahara-shtra. In Kandhar there
were temples of Shiv, Vishnu, Vina-yak etc. as they were in And-hara. Such a
prosperous city Kandhar was in the powerful hands of Mohammad Tughlak. There was
no shortage of the people in Tughlak’s army who were religious minded and
wanted to expand their reli-gion. These people had come from Arabsatan, Iran,
Turkstan etc. During the 14 th and 15 th century, in Maharashtra and other
places in India, many temples were disappeared and there erected Masjids.
Monas-teries were changed in Dargas. Many people have to accept Muslim religion.
The report of such things is found in abunda-nce in the literature of
Mahanu-bhavas and others.

If we want to see the differe-nce in Paithan of Yadava’s
per-iod and Paithan of middle age period, we read ‘sthan’ instead of ‘than’
in the religious book of Mahanubhavas. So, Kandhar in Nanded district is no
exce-ption. Today, there is no temple from middle age period in Kandhar. The
honor of chang-ing Kandhar into a big Isamic centre goes to the sufis of
fourteenth century–Sultan, Sangad , Musbikl, Ason, Kuffar, Bhajan. We can
imagine the Maharastian condition of that period from the example of Kandhar. In
the regime of Tug-hlaks, some Turk Sardar of south rebelled. One of them was
Sardar Hasan Gangu Bha-mani who had established another linage.

Nanded at present

Nanded earlier known as ‘Nandigram’ is located to the southeastern part of
Mahara-shtra State. Nanded is situated 650 kms away from Mumbai and 270 kms from
Hyderabad.

Nanded has a uniqueness of its own due to its historical,
social and political importance. The tenth Guru of Sikkhs, Guru Gobind Singhji
held his court and congregation here. This is the place where he recovered
after assassins attacked him.

It is the second largest city in Marthawada after Auranga-bad.
Latur and Parbhani distri-cts are to the west of Nanded district; Yavatmal
district lies in the north. The state of And-hra Pradesh lies to the east and
Karnataka state to the south. Nanded district is amo-ngst the large districts in
the state having 15 Talukas.

Many of the eminent perso-nalities of the country are from
the soil of Nanded. Nanded has been always a place of atten-tion because of its
political imp-ortance in the state. Shanka-rrao Chavan from Nanded had been
Chief Minister of the state for two terms. MLAs from Nanded have always hold
important portfolios in the state cabinet.

Many authors, Kirtankars, social workers and freedom fighters
are from this place. The late Vidvanmani Shri Ram-krishna Bapu Sonyaji who has
written literature in Sanskrit, well known authors like Vishnu-pant Shesh, Waman
Pandit, Narhar Kurundkar are the famous few. The famous Kirtan-kar Hari Bhakt
Parayan Sant Dasganu Maharaj was also from this district. Nanded has a per-sonality
of its own due to its mythological, historical, social and cultural importance.
The river Godavari flows through the city. Temples and ghats on the banks of
Godavari have made Nanded one of the holiest places for Hindus.

Nanded has plenty of natural resources. There are thick
forests in Kinwat, Bhokar and Hadgaon talukas of the district. Teak, bamboo, moh,
tendu are the trees found in these forests. There is Penganga sanctuary near
Kinwat. In this sanctuary, tigers, leopards, bears and peacocks are observed.

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