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The upper crust of the plateau is of laterite, a soft porous rock with limonitic surface. This crust varies in depth from 100 ft (30 m) to 500 ft (150 m) and rests on a bed of trap, which is of much harder texture and less pervious to water. The volume of water filtered during the monsoons through the laterite stratum is arrested by the trappean bed, and a nursery of springs is formed whose natural level of effluence is the line of contact of the two strata along the base of the cliffs of the plateau. The water in course of time frets out for itself an orifice and macerates and loosens portions of its rocky channel till a rift is produced. The rift gradually dilates into a ravine, and the ravine expands into a vale.
The Karez System is built along a geological fracture. Such fractures are formed at the intersection of laterite and basalt rocks and form lineaments or springs that yield water. | Bidar Geology |
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Bidar soils are deep (>100 cm), well-drained gravelly red clayey soils developed on plateaus of laterites. They are slightly acid to neutral (pH 6.6) in reaction with low cation exchange capacity. They are highly gravelly soils with gravel content (60 to 10%) that decrease with depth. | Bidar Soil |
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LOC Karnataka, LOC Bidar | The winter season is from November to middle of February. Bidar is one of the coldest cities (by southern standards) in Karnataka as the minimum temperature during winter nights regularly hovers around 11-12 during December, which is the coldest month with mean daily maximum temperature of 27.3 C and mean daily minimum of 13.4 C. From the middle of the February, both day and night temperatures begin to rise rapidly. May is the hottest month with mean daily maximum temperature of 38.8 C and mean daily minimum of 25.9 C. With the withdrawal of southwest monsoon in the first week of October, there is slight increase in day temperature but night temperature decreases steadily. After October, both day and night temperatures decreases progressively. The highest maximum temperature recorded at Bidar was on 8-5-1931(43.3-degree C) and the lowest minimum was on 5-1-1901(2.9-degree C, the lowest temperature ever recorded in Karnataka).Present day Bidar covers an expanse of 5448 square kilometres of land and lies between 17°35' and 18°25' North latitudes and 76°42' and 77°39' east longitudes. | Bidar Climate |
LOC Bidar | At the time of the 2011 census, Bidar had a population of 216,020. Bidar city has a sex ratio of 938 females to males and a literacy rate of 85.90%. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes made up 14.11% and 4.73% of the population respectively.
At the time of the 2011 census, 52.23% of the population spoke Kannada, 33.32% Urdu, 5.54% Marathi, 3.67% Hindi and 3.33% Telugu as their first language. | Bidar Demographics |
LOC Bidar, LOC Kolhar | Once a home to many cottage industries, such as cotton and oil-ginning mills, there are now few industries that draw on local raw materials or skills. Even the well known form of local articrafts, bidri ware, is in a state of decline. Increasing prices of materials, especially silver, and declining sales have meant that many of the hereditary artisans are no longer employed in the production of such ware. Bidar city has a large industrial area known as Kolhar industrial area. | Bidar Economy |
LOC Bidar, ORG State Archaeology Department, LOC India, LOC Rajasthan, ORG Archaeological Survey of India, LOC Fatehpur Sikri, ORG WMF, LOC Deccan, LOC Karnataka, LOC Juna Mahal, PER Bonnie Burnham, LOC New York, PER Salim Chisti | Bidar is symbolically described as City of Whispering Monuments. The mountaintop city that served as the capital of medieval Deccan, has 98 monuments of which four national monuments are protected by the Archaeological Survey of India and 14 by the State Archaeology Department, Karnataka.
Bidar earned a place on the World Monument Watchlist 2014. Of the 741 proposals received from 166 countries, 67 sites from 41 countries were finally selected which were announced by WMF president Bonnie Burnham in New York on 8 October 2013. Along with "the historic city of Bidar", two other sites in India to figure in the list were the house of Sheikh Salim Chisti in Fatehpur Sikri and Juna Mahal in Rajasthan.
The WMF in its current watch site for "the historic city of Bidar" says ″challenges to the site include a lack of integrated conservation and maintenance, environmental pollution, and the construction of new developments and roadways that encroach on the historic fabric. Current land use regulations also threaten the economic livelihood of many of the city's residents, and it is hoped that revised, context-specific planning policies would both protect Bidar's historic assets while also supporting the future of its local population. It is hoped that Watch-listing will spur documentation and analysis of the city's conditions, followed by policy development and applied conservation interventions that will reveal and maintain Bidar's rich heritage, as well as support a robust and sustainable tourist industry.″ | Bidar Tourism |
LOC Mahmud Gawan Madrasa, LOC India, ORG Archaeological Survey of India, PER Aurangazeb, PER Mahmud Gawan, ORG Madrasa | This grandiose madrasa was built by the prime-minister of the Bahmani empire, Mahmud Gawan in the late 15th century. Its only the most imposing building of the Bahmani period, but in its plan and in the general style of its architecture it is a unique monument of its kind in India. The Madrasa, a multi-disciplinary university he set up, which had a library of around 3,000 valuable manuscripts, was severely damaged when gunpowder stored inside the rooms went off during a 27-day siege of the city by Mughal king Aurangazeb in 1656. The Mahmud Gawan Madrasa is protected by the Archaeological Survey of India. | Bidar Mahmud Gawan Madrasa |
LOC Bidar Fort, PER Ahemd shah, LOC Bidar, LOC Tarkash Mahal, LOC Gagan Mahal, LOC Royal Palace, PER Barid, PER Gumbad Darwaza, LOC Rangeen Mahal, PER Barid Shahi, LOC Rangin Mahal, LOC Takht Mahal, PER Bahamani, LOC Mahal | Bidar Fort is considered one of the most formidable forts of the country. Bidar city was distinctly planned and built. The main citadel complex housed the royal places. Mahals and Mosque. Adjoining to this on the southern side, the city was built for the people. Both the citadel complex and city had separate forts for protection the plan of the Bidar city fortification is pentagonal. There are five gateways for entry into the city fort. It is main citadel complex fort which is stronger.
It is built on the brink of the plateau. Engineers and architecture of various countries were employed on its design and construction.
A Museum is preset there having old armor, old sculptures. including many of the ancient stones,
Rangeen Mahal, situated in the fort, near Gumbad Darwaza, is unique because of its decoration with coloured tiles and other art work. Wood carving done there is not only precious but also unique. The walls of Mahal are adorned with mother-of-pearl of the finest quality in laid in jet-black stone. Floral patterns and calligraphic text are also depicted here. Stone carving, stucco art are other attractions of this monument. It was rebuilt during Barid Shahi period. The design of this monument represents a blend of both Hindu and Muslim architecture. There are rooms in the basement of the Rangin Mahal.
Tarkash Mahal is said to have been built for Turkish wife of the sultan. From the remains of the decorative work found in the ornamentation of the walls, it can be said that the Mahal was built or extended by the Barid Shahi Sultans who had kept large harem with ladies from different nationalities.The rooms were decorated with stucco work.
Gagan Mahal was originally built by the Bahamani kings and some alterations and additions were made by the Barid Shahi rulers. It has two courts. The outer court was used by the male staff and guards. The inner court also, there are rooms on either side of the covered passage for the accommodation of the guards. The main building of the palace was for the use of the sultan and his harem.
Takht Mahal, The Royal Palace, was built by Ahemd shah. It was the royal residence. The place was fully decorated with coloured titles and stone carvings part of which can be seen even today. It had two side royal pavilions with lofty arches and a spacious hall at the back of which was the sultan's room. The building had stately dimensions and exquisite surface decoration. The coronations of several Bahamanis and Barid Shahi sultans were held there. From the royal pavilion which is situated behind throne palace one can view the valley and low land below.
Solah Khamba Mosque (Solah Sutoon Ki Masjid) was built by Qubil Sultani between 1423 and 1424. The mosque derives its name from the 16 pillars that are lined in the front of the structure. Popularly known as the Zanana Masjid, this mosque is about 90 metres long and 24 metres wide. Behind the southern wall of this mosque, there is a large well. Characterised by columns, arches and domes, this mosque is one of the largest in India. | Bidar Bidar Fort |
LOC Jama Masjid, LOC Chaubara, LOC Ashtur, LOC Bidar, LOC Barid Shahi, LOC Bahmani, LOC Chaukhandi, LOC Hazrat Khalil Ullah | Chaubara is a tall tower, facing in four directions. This is an old cylindrical tower of 22 meters, height is situated in the centre of Bidar city. It was used as a watchtower, commanding a fine view of the entire plateau from the top. A winding staircase of eight steps leads to the top of the tower, a clock is being placed on top of the tower, can be viewed from all the four directions .
Jama Masjid, a large mosque with no minarets, located near Chaubara.
Bahmani Tombs called as "Ashtur", located near "Chaukhandi of Hazrat Khalil Ullah" around a distance of 1 km
Barid Shahi Tombs
Chaukhandi of Hazrat Khalil Ullah | Bidar Other monuments |
LOC Gurudwara Nanak Jhira Saheb, PER Guru Shri Guru Nanak Dev ji, LOC India | Gurudwara Nanak Jhira Saheb is known to be one of Holiest Place For Sikh Devotees in India and is believed that first sikh Guru Shri Guru Nanak Dev ji visited the place during famine in this region. | Bidar Gurudwara Nanak Jhira Sahib |
PER Sufi Hazrat Khaja Banda nawaz, PER Hazrat Khaja Ghareeb Nawaz, LOC Bidar, LOC India | Muslim shrines are in Bidar since Mughal empire in India, some of these Sufies are a relatives of world famous Sufi Hazrat Khaja Banda nawaz and Hazrat Khaja Ghareeb Nawaz | Bidar Muslim shrine (Dargah) |
LOC London, PER Vijay Mallya, LOC Bidar, ORG Kingfisher, LOC Rajpath, LOC Davos, LOC National Museum, LOC Karnataka, LOC Victoria and Albert Museum, LOC New Delhi, ORG Bidri, PER Rehaman Patel, LOC Indian Museum, LOC Kolkata, ORG Gulbarga University | Bidriware, one of the rarest and most intricate art forms is now unique to the city. This native art form has obtained Geographical Indications (GI) registry. The various art forms created by artists from Bidar city centuries ago are now major attractions in museums such as Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the National Museum in New Delhi and Indian Museum in Kolkata.The Karnataka tableau at the 2011 Republic Day Parade at Rajpath in New Delhi featured Bidriware and Bidri artisans from Bidar.
Rehaman Patel did an extensive research in Bidri Art from Gulbarga University. His book in Kannada version (2012) and English version (2017) also published on Bidri Art.
All the dignitaries & guests of XIX Commonwealth Games 2010 were presented with mementos hand crafted in Bidri art. This art form is the Union government's choice for souvenirs at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The Kingfisher company owner Vijay Mallya has a bidri dining table with floral designs made of nearly 3.5 kg silver. | Bidar Bidri wares |
LOC Vijayawada, PER Narendra Modi, ORG Daily, LOC Bidar, LOC Nanded, LOC Machilipatnam, LOC Latur, LOC Renigunta, LOC Gulbarga, LOC Aurangabad, LOC Sainagar Shirdi, LOC Parbhani Jn, LOC Hyderabad, LOC Manmad, LOC Visakhapatnam, LOC Yeshwantpur, LOC Mumbai, LOC Bangalore | Bidar has connectivity with Bangalore, Hyderabad, Sainagar Shirdi, Parbhani Jn, Aurangabad, Latur, Nanded, Manmad, Mumbai, Visakhapatnam, Machilipatnam, Vijayawada and Renigunta (according to railway budget 2014-15) Construction of the Gulbarga-Bidar link is completed which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Bidar-Hyderabad inter-city train service became operative in September 2012. A Bidar-Yeshwantpur (Daily) express train and Bidar-LTT Mumbai express train service has been started recently. Another train starting from Bidar through Latur to Mumbai started, which runs on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. | Bidar Rail |
LOC Bidar Airport, ORG Force Station, LOC Bidar, LOC India, LOC Domestic Airport, ORG Star Air, LOC BLR, LOC Bidar Air, LOC Karnataka, PER VOBR, LOC IXX, LOC Bangalore | Bidar Airport, also known as Bidar Air Force Station, (IATA: IXX, ICAO: VOBR) is a military airbase cum Domestic Airport in Bidar, Karnataka, India.The city is home to an air force station. Star Air operates 3 days a week flight between Bidar (IXX) and Bangalore (BLR). | Bidar Air |
ORG KSRTC, LOC Belgavi, LOC Bengaluru, LOC Davangere, LOC Nanded, LOC Solapur, LOC Kalaburgi, ORG Volvo, LOC Latur, LOC Gulbarga, LOC Mangalore, LOC Hubli, LOC Hyderabad, LOC Mumbai, LOC Udgir, LOC Pune | Frequent KSRTC buses to Kalaburgi (Gulbarga), Hyderabad, Latur, Udgir, Nanded, Solapur. Also Volvo services to Bengaluru, Hubli, Belgavi, Davangere, Mumbai, Mangalore and Pune. | Bidar Road |
ORG Bidar Institute of Medical Sciences, LOC Bidar, ORG Karnataka Veterinary, Animal and Fisheries Sciences University Shaheen Group of Institutions, ORG BRIMS, ORG Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College | Bidar Institute of Medical Sciences (BRIMS)
Karnataka Veterinary, Animal and Fisheries Sciences University
Shaheen Group of Institutions, Bidar
Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Bidar | Bidar Education institutions |
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. | Bidar Citations |
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PER Ghulam, ORG Pioneer Press, LOC Bidar, LOC Allahabad, PER Yazdani, PER Haig, LOC Deccan, ORG Oxford University Press, PER Major T. W. | Haig, Major T. W. (1907). Historic Landmarks of the Deccan. Pioneer Press, Allahabad.
Yazdani, Ghulam (1947). Bidar, Its History and Monuments. Oxford University Press. | Bidar Bibliography |
LOC Bikaner, LOC Ganges Canal, LOC India, LOC Rajasthan, LOC Indira Gandhi Canal, LOC Jaipur, LOC Bikaner District, PER Rao Bika | Bikaner (pronunciation ) is a city in the northwest of the state of Rajasthan, India. It is located 330 kilometres (205 mi) northwest of the state capital, Jaipur. Bikaner city is the administrative headquarters of Bikaner District and Bikaner division.
Formerly the capital of the princely state of Bikaner, the city was founded by Rao Bika in 1488 CE and from its small origins it has developed into the fourth largest city in Rajasthan. The Ganges Canal, completed in 1928, and the Indira Gandhi Canal, completed in 1987, facilitated its development. | Bikaner Introduction |
LOC Bikaner, PER Rao Jodha, LOC Junagarh Fort, PER Akbar, LOC Jodhpur, PER Bika, LOC Bika, PER Rao Bika, LOC Mahal, LOC Mewar, LOC Burhanpur, PER Rai Singh, PER Karan Singh, LOC Karan Mahal, LOC Rajasthan, PER Jodha, LOC Gujarat, PER Jahangir, LOC Central Asia, LOC Empire, LOC Jangladesh, PER Rai Singhji, LOC Chintamani Durg, LOC Junagarh, LOC Thar Desert | Prior to the mid 15th century, the region that is now Bikaner was a barren wilderness called Jangladesh.Rao Bika established the city of Bikaner in 1488. He was the first son of Maharaja Rao Jodha of the Rathore clan, the founder of Jodhpur and conquered the largely arid country in the north of Rajasthan. As the first son of Jodha he wanted to have his own kingdom, not inheriting Jodhpur from his father or the title of Maharaja. He therefore decided to build his own kingdom in what is now the state of Bikaner in the area of Jangladesh. Though it was in the Thar Desert, Bikaner was considered an oasis on the trade route between Central Asia and the Gujarat coast as it had adequate spring water. Bika's name was attached to the city he built and to the state of Bikaner ("the settlement of Bika") that he established. Bika built a fort in 1478, which is now in ruins, and a hundred years later a new fort was built about 1.5 km from the city centre, known as the Junagarh Fort.Around a century after Rao Bika founded Bikaner, the state's fortunes flourished under the sixth Raja, Rai Singhji, who ruled from 1571 to 1611. During the Mughal Empire's rule in the country, Raja Rai Singh accepted the suzerainty of the Mughals and held a high rank as an army general at the court of the Emperor Akbar and his son the Emperor Jahangir. Rai Singh's successful military exploits, which involved winning half of Mewar kingdom for the Empire, won him accolades and rewards from the Mughal emperors. He was given the jagirs (lands) of Gujarat and Burhanpur. With the large revenue earned from these jagirs, he built the Chintamani Durg (Junagarh fort) on a plain which has an average elevation of 760 feet (230 m). He was an expert in arts and architecture, and the knowledge he acquired during his visits abroad is amply reflected in the numerous monuments he built at the Junagarh fort.Maharaja Karan Singh, who ruled from 1631 to 1639, under the suzerainty of the Mughals, built the Karan Mahal palace. Later rulers added more floors and decorations to this Mahal. Anup Singh, who ruled from 1669 to 1698, made substantial additions to the fort complex, with new palaces and the Zenana quarter, a royal dwelling for women and children. He refurbished the Karan Mahal with a Diwan-i-Am (public audience hall) and called it the Anup Mahal. Maharaja Gaj Singh, who ruled from 1746 to 1787 refurbished the Chandra Mahal (the Moon Palace).
During the 18th century, there was an internecine war between the rulers of Bikaner and Jodhpur and also amongst other thakurs, which was put down by British troops.Following Maharaja Gaj Singh, Maharaja Surat Singh ruled from 1787 to 1828 and lavishly decorated the audience hall (see illustration) with glass and lively paintwork. Under a treaty of paramountcy signed in 1818, during Maharaja Surat Singh's reign, Bikaner came under the suzerainty of the British, after which the Maharajas of Bikaner invested heavily in refurbishing Junagarh fort.
Dungar Singh, who reigned from 1872 to 1887, built the Badal Mahal, the 'weather palace', so named in view of a painting of clouds and falling rain, a rare event in arid Bikaner.
General Maharaja Ganga Singh, who ruled from 1887 to 1943, was the best-known of the Rajasthan princes and was a favourite of the British Viceroys of India. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India, served as a member of the Imperial War Cabinet, represented India at the Imperial Conferences during the First World War and the British Empire at the Versailles Peace Conference. His contribution to the building activity in Junagarh involved separate halls for public and private audiences in the Ganga Mahal and a durbar hall for formal functions. He also built the Ganga Niwas Palace, which has towers at the entrance patio. This palace was designed by Sir Samuel Swinton Jacob, the third of the new palaces built in Bikaner. He named the building Lalgarh Palace in honour of his father and moved his main residence there from Junagarh Fort in 1902. The hall where he held his Golden Jubilee (in 1938) as Bikaner's ruler is now a museum.Ganga Singh's son, Lieutenant-General Sir Sadul Singh, the Yuvaraja of Bikaner, succeeded his father as Maharaja in 1943, but acceded his state to the Union of India in 1949. Maharaja Sadul Singh died in 1950, being succeeded in the title by his son, Karni Singh (1924-1988). The Royal Family still lives in a suite in Lalgarh Palace, which they have converted into a heritage hotel. | Bikaner History |
LOC Bikaner, LOC Thar | Bikaner is situated in the middle of the Thar desert and has a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification BWh) with very little rainfall and extreme temperatures. In summer temperatures can exceed 48 °C, and during the winter they may dip below freezing.
The climate in Bikaner is characterized by significant variations in temperature. In the summer season it is very hot when the temperatures lie in the range of 28–53.5 °C (82.4–128.3 °F). In the winter, it is fairly cold with temperatures lying in the range of −4–23.2 °C (24.8–73.8 °F). Annual rainfall is in the range of 260–440 millimetres (10–17 in). The highest ever temerature recorded is 49.5 °C (121.1 °F) on 19 May 2016 and lowest ever recorded is −4.0 °C (24.8 °F) on 26 January 1964. | Bikaner Climate |
LOC Rajasthan, LOC Bikaner, LOC India | As of the 2011 Census of India the population of Bikaner city was 644,406 placing it in the top 70 major cities of India and 5th in Rajasthan. The female to male ratio in the city was 904/1,000. The literacy rate in the city was about 79%, male literacy being 87% and female literacy being 71%.
Majority of the population of the city follows Hinduism, with followers of Islam a large minority. The city has a substantial followers of Jainism. | Bikaner Demographics |
LOC Indore, LOC National, LOC Bikaner, PER Narendra Modi, LOC Chandigarh, LOC Allahabad, LOC Bilaspur, LOC Alwar, ORG Delhi, LOC Bikaner Railway Station, LOC North Western Railway, LOC Jodhpur, LOC Delhi, ORG Central Bus Stand, LOC Rajasthan State, ORG Indian Railways, LOC Mumbai, LOC Nagaur, LOC Jammu, LOC Bhatinda, LOC Kanpur, LOC Hisar, LOC Puri, LOC Ludhiana, LOC Ajmer, LOC Jalandhar, LOC Churu, LOC Sikar, LOC Nal Airport, LOC Hyderabad, LOC Pathankot, LOC Surat, LOC Haridwar, LOC Sri Ganganagar, LOC Vadodara, LOC Panipat, LOC Rewari, LOC Bengaluru, LOC Bhilwara, LOC Rajasthan, LOC Jaisalmer, LOC Narnaul, LOC Amritsar, LOC Chennai, LOC Coimbatore, ORG Jodhpur State Railway, LOC Kolkata, LOC Pune, LOC Guwahati, ORG JAI, LOC Howrah, LOC Bhubaneswar, LOC Ambala, LOC Jaipur, LOC Baroda, LOC Barmer, LOC Ahmedabad, LOC Ratangarh, LOC Thiruvananthapuram, LOC Agra | Bikaner railway station is a major railway junction in the North Western Railway zone of Indian Railways. The first railway link to Bikaner was established on 9 December 1891 as part of Jodhpur State Railway and it has undergone many administrative modifications since then.
Today Bikaner Railway Station is efficiently well connected to National Capital Delhi and Rajasthan State's capital Jaipur along with major Indian cities like Jodhpur, Sri Ganganagar, Rewari, Howrah, Kolkata, Mumbai, Kanpur, Agra, Allahabad, Surat, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Pathankot, Bhatinda, Amritsar, Haridwar, Jammu, Chandigarh, Pune, Hisar, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Puri, Coimbatore, Thiruvananthapuram, Bhubaneswar, Bilaspur, Indore, Jalandhar, Baroda, Ratangarh, Jaisalmer, Barmer, Alwar, Nagaur, etc.
Bikaner is well served with roads and is linked directly to Delhi, Jaipur, Agra, Sri Ganganagar, Jodhpur, Alwar, Rewari, Narnaul, Ludhiana, Bhatinda, Ambala, Panipat, Surat, Ahmedabad, Ajmer, Haridwar, Jaisalmer, Bhilwara, Churu, Sikar and many other cities.
Central Bus Stand is the main bus station in Bikaner. It connects Bikaner to other cities in Rajasthan and nearby states via road.
Bikaner has Domestic Civil Airport Nal Airport which is located 15 km west of the city. Regular flights to Jaipur JAI and Delhi DEL commenced in 2017-18 under UDAN scheme of Narendra Modi Govt. | Bikaner Transport |
LOC Bikaner | The city is most famous for its savoury snack Bikaneri bhujia which is sold all over the world and also have geographical indication (GI) tag to keep its originality intact. Other special food items for which Bikaner is well known are Bajre ki Roti (Chapati made up of Pearl millet flour), Dal baati Churma, Ghevar, Halvas, Papads/Papadum, Rasgulla, Gulab Jamun, Kachori and Samosa. | Bikaner Cuisine |
LOC Bikaner, LOC Chintamani, PER Raja, LOC Junagarh Fort, LOC Rajasthan, PER Rai Singh, PER Karni Singh | The Junagarh Fort was built around 1594 CE by Raja Rai Singh. The fort was originally called Chintamani. It is one of the few major forts in Rajasthan which was not built on hilly terrain. The modern city of Bikaner has developed around the fort. The fort is studded with temples, grand palaces and huge pavilions and walls. In 1961, a museum was set up by Maharaja Karni Singh. Its temples and palaces are preserved as museums and provide insight into the grandiose living style of the past Maharanas of Rajasthan. | Bikaner Junagarh Fort |
PER Samuel Swinton Jacob, LOC Bikaner, LOC Laxmi Niwas Palace, PER Ganga Singh | The Laxmi Niwas Palace is a former residential palace built by Maharajah Ganga Singh, the ruler of the former state of Bikaner. It was designed by the British architect, Samuel Swinton Jacob in the year 1902. The style of architecture is Indo-Saracenic. It is now a luxury Heritage hotel owned by the royal family of Bikaner. | Bikaner Laxmi Niwas Palace |
PER Rao Bikaji, LOC Junagarh Fort, LOC Bikaji Ki Tekri | Rao Bikaji's first fort, 'Bikaji Ki Tekri' built in 1478 is now in ruins. A hundred years later a new fort was built about 1.5 km from the city centre, named Junagarh Fort. | Bikaner Rao Bikaji's Fort |
LOC Bikaner, LOC करणी माता ) Temple, PER Durga, LOC Karni Mata, LOC Rajasthan, LOC Jodhpur, PER Karni, PER Karni Mata, LOC Rat Temple, LOC Deshnoke | The Karni Mata (करणी माता) Temple or the Rat Temple of Rajasthan is situated around 30 km away from the Bikaner city and is dedicated to goddess Karni Mata, a famous mystic of her times, believed to be an incarnation of goddess Durga. The locals will be quick to point out that the creatures running around in the temple are not rats, they are kaaba. Kaabas are believed to be reincarnations of humans who had been devotees of Karni Mata, and the brevity of human life did not sufficiently satisfy their devotion.
The shrine of Karni Mata can be found in the town of Deshnoke 30 km south from Bikaner on the road to Jodhpur. Karni Mata is worshiped as an incarnation of Goddess Durga. | Bikaner Karni Mata Temple |
PER Jambeshwar, PER Guru Jambeshwar, LOC Mukam, ORG Bishnois, LOC Mukam Temple, LOC Mukti Dham Mukam, LOC Nokha | The Mukam Temple, also known as Mukti Dham Mukam, is located near Nokha. The Mukam is a holy place of 29 rules of followers of Bishnois. Bishnoi sect was founded by Guru Jambeshwar. Bishnois are quite protective of nature. Mukam Temple is the place where the soul of guru Jambeshwar lies. | Bikaner Mukam Bishnoi Temple |
LOC Bikaner, PER Lord, PER Vishnu, PER Laxmi, LOC Junagarh Fort, PER Maharaja Rao Lunkaran, LOC Shri Laxminath Temple | Built by Maharaja Rao Lunkaran, Shri Laxminath Temple is one of the oldest temples in Bikaner and just 4 kilometres away from the famous Junagarh Fort. Lord Vishnu and Goddess Laxmi, grace the sacred sanctum of the temple. The most exquisite artwork inside the temple apart from the shrines is the doorway which is embellished in silver work. Festivals like Janmashtmi, Nirjala Ekadashi, Rama Navami, Diwali and Gita Jayanti are majorly celebrated at the temple. | Bikaner Laxminath Temple |
LOC Bhandasar Jain Temple, PER Bhandasa Oswal | Bhandasar Jain Temple is known for its beautiful leaf paintings, frescoes and ornamented mirror work. This temple was constructed by Bhandasa Oswal in the 15th century. This temple is constructed using red sandstone with beautiful paintings on walls and pillars of the sanctum and mandapa. The temple is dedicated to the 5th Tirthankara sumatinatha. The temple consist of garbhagriha, antarala, mahamandapa, and ardhamandapa. | Bikaner Bhandasar Jain Temple |
LOC Bikaner, LOC Gajner Wildlife Sanctuary, LOC Jorbeer, LOC Turkey, LOC Spain | A variety of wild animals including various birds, mammals and reptiles are found in Bikaner's Semi-Arid climate. Initiatives are being taken to bring back the number of vultures which have dwindled at a staggering rate before. There are around 600 resident vultures at Jorbeer. The region is host to another 1200 migratory vultures. Local varieties include Egyptian and King Vultures. The most common migratory vulture is Eurasian Griffon coming from Spain and Turkey. Other migratory vultures include Cinereous and Himalayan Griffons.Saw-scaled Viper is also natively found in Bikaner.Gajner Wildlife Sanctuary is located 32 km west of the Bikaner city. | Bikaner Wildlife |
PER Maharaja Ganga Singh, LOC Bikaner, ORG BSF, ORG Bikaner Camel Corps, ORG Indian Council of Agricultural Research, ORG Independent India, ORG National Research Centre on Camels, ORG Central Government, LOC Indian State of Bikaner | National Research Centre on Camels was established in 1984 in Bikaner by the Central Government under Indian Council of Agricultural Research at the outskirts of Bikaner city to promote research and development related to camels such as effective breeding, utilisation of camel milk. Scientists engage with all stakeholders like Camel herders, traders via collaborative programmes and significant growth had been made. A camel museum is available to apprise them of the developmental and research aspects of the camel in the desert ecosystem. Maharaja Ganga Singh of the Indian State of Bikaner founded Bikaner Camel Corps around 1890 and became a part of the BSF in Independent India. | Bikaner National Research Centre on Camels, Bikaner |
LOC Rajasthan, LOC Bikaner, ORG Ministry of Cow Husbandry, LOC Amarpura | The Rajasthan government has decided to set up its first cow sanctuary in Bikaner. It has a dedicated Ministry of Cow Husbandry. The sanctuary is likely to be set up near Amarpura village, about 70 km from Bikaner. | Bikaner Cow sanctuary |
LOC Bikaner, ORG Rajasthan University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, ORG Sardar Patel Medical College, ORG Maharaja Ganga Singh University, ORG Government Engineering College Bikaner, ORG Swami Keshwanand Rajasthan Agricultural University, ORG Bikaner Technical University, ORG Government Polytechnic College Bikaner | Educational Institutes located in Bikaner are Sardar Patel Medical College, Government Engineering College Bikaner, Government Polytechnic College Bikaner, Maharaja Ganga Singh University, Rajasthan University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Swami Keshwanand Rajasthan Agricultural University, and Bikaner Technical University. | Bikaner Education |
PER Marwan, PER Bikana, ORG Department of Tourism, Art and Culture | International Camel Festival is held every year in January. Organised by the Department of Tourism, Art and Culture, the city celebrates the festival in honour of the "Ship of the Desert – The Camel".
Beautifully adorned camels and performances by artists from different regions are the key attraction for both domestic and foreign tourists. The event includes spectacular camel performances like Camel dances, Camel races, Neck shaking Camel rides.
Competitions like Mr Bikana and Miss Marwan are also held during the festival. | Bikaner International Camel Festival |
LOC Vishnupur, LOC Bishnupur | Bishnupur or Vishnupur may refer to: | Bishnupur Introduction |
LOC India, LOC Manipur, LOC India Bishnupur, LOC Bishnupur, LOC West Bengal | Bishnupur district in Manipur, India
Bishnupur district, West Bengal in West Bengal, India
Bishnupur subdivision in West Bengal, India | Bishnupur Administrative divisions |
LOC Siraha, LOC Saptari, LOC Nepal, ORG Bishnupur Rural Municipality | Bishnupur Rural Municipality, Saptari, a rural municipal division in Province No. 2, Nepal
Bishnupur Rural Municipality, Siraha, a rural municipal division in Province No. 2, Nepal | Bishnupur Municipal division |
LOC Bankura, LOC South 24 Parganas district, LOC India, LOC Bishnupur, LOC West Bengal | Bishnupur, Bankura (community development block) in Bankura district, West Bengal, India
Bishnupur I - Community development block in South 24 Parganas district, West Bengal, India
Bishnupur II - Community development block in South 24 Parganas district, West Bengal, India | Bishnupur CD Blocks |
LOC West Bengal Bishnupur, LOC Bankura, LOC South 24 Parganas, LOC Manipur, LOC India Bishnupur, LOC Bishnupur, LOC West Bengal, ORG Assembly | Bishnupur (Lok Sabha constituency) in Bankura district, West Bengal, India
Bishnupur, Bankura (Vidhan Sabha constituency) in West Bengal
Bishnupur, South 24 Parganas (Vidhan Sabha constituency) in West Bengal
Bishnupur (Manipur Legislative Assembly constituency), in Manipur | Bishnupur Electoral constituencies |
LOC Bankura District, LOC India Vishnupuri, LOC Manipur, LOC Sitamarhi, LOC Maharashtra, LOC Bishnupur District, LOC Bihar, LOC India Vishnupur, LOC Birbhum, LOC North 24 Parganas, LOC Bishnupur, LOC West Godavari, LOC West Bengal, LOC Mandirbazar, LOC Bara, LOC Bankura, LOC South 24 Parganas, LOC Meghalaya, LOC Andhra Pradesh, LOC East Khasi Hills, LOC South Bishnupur, LOC India Vishnupur Ratwara, LOC Nepal Bishnupur, LOC India, LOC Shillong, LOC Nanded, LOC Mahottari, LOC India Bishnupur | Bishnupur, Manipur, a town in Bishnupur District, Manipur, India
Bishnupur, Bankura, a town in Bankura District in West Bengal, India, noted for its archaeological importance
Bishnupur, South 24 Parganas a town in South 24 Parganas district in West Bengal, India
Bishnupur, North 24 Parganas, a census town in North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal, India
Bishnupur, Bara, a village in Nepal
Bishnupur, Mahottari, a village in Nepal
Bishnupur, in Shillong taluk, East Khasi Hills district, Meghalaya, India
South Bishnupur (South 24 Parganas), an area in Mandirbazar, West Bengal, India
Vishnupuri, Nanded, a village in Nanded district, Maharashtra, India
Vishnupur Ratwara, a village in Sitamarhi district, Bihar, India
Vishnupur, a village in West Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh, India
Bishnupur, Birbhum, a census town in West Bengal, India | Bishnupur Towns and villages |
LOC Bankura, LOC India, LOC Bishnupur, LOC Bishnupur Kingdom, LOC West Bengal | Bishnupur Kingdom, a mediaeval kingdom of Bankura district, West Bengal, India
Bishnupur gharana, a form of singing which originated in Bishnupur, Bankura | Bishnupur Other uses |
LOC Lumbini, LOC Gaya, LOC Sarnath, LOC Bodhi Tree, PER Gautama Buddha, LOC Mahabodhi Temple, LOC Bodh Gaya, LOC Bodh Gayā, LOC Mahabodhi Temple Complex, LOC Bihar, LOC Kushinagar | Bodh Gayā is a religious site and place of pilgrimage associated with the Mahabodhi Temple Complex in Gaya district in the Indian state of Bihar. It is famous as it is the place where Gautama Buddha is said to have attained Enlightenment (Pali: bodhi) under what became known as the Bodhi Tree. Since antiquity, Bodh Gaya has remained the object of pilgrimage and veneration both for Hindus and Buddhists. In particular, archaeological finds including sculptures show that the site was in use by Buddhists since the Mauryan period.For Buddhists, Bodh Gaya is the most important of the main four pilgrimage sites related to the life of Gautama Buddha, the other three being Kushinagar, Lumbini, and Sarnath. In 2002, Mahabodhi Temple, located in Bodh Gaya, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. | Bodh Gaya Introduction |
LOC Benares, LOC Gaya, LOC Sarnath, LOC Buddhagaya, LOC Lilajan River, LOC Deer Park, PER Gautama Siddhartha, LOC Vaisakh, PER Gautama, LOC Bodh Gaya, LOC Urubela, PER Ashoka, PER Baisakhi, LOC Uruwela, LOC Nirvana, PER Buddha, PER Siddhartha | Bodh Gaya is considered to be the holiest site in Buddhism. Known as Uruwela in the Buddha's time, it is situated by the bank of Lilajan River. The first temple at the site was built by King Ashoka.Traditionally, Buddha was born in 563 BC on the following auspicious Baisakhi purnima. As Siddhartha, he renounced his family at the age of 29 in 534 BC, and travelled and meditated in search of truth. After practicing self-mortification for six years at Urubela (Buddhagaya) in Gaya, he gave up that practice because it did not give him Vimukthi. Then he discovered Noble Eight-fold path without help from anyone and practiced it, then he attained Buddhatva or enlightenment. Enlightenment is a state of being completely free from lust (raga), hatred (dosa) and delusion (moha). By gaining enlightenment, you enter Nirvana, in which the final stage is Parinirvana.
At this place, the Buddha was abandoned by the five men who had been his companions of earlier austerities. All they saw was an ordinary man; they mocked his well-nourished appearance. "Here comes the mendicant Gautama," they said, "who has turned away from asceticism. He is certainly not worth our respect." When they reminded him of his former vows, the Buddha replied, "Austerities only confuse the mind. In the exhaustion and mental stupor to which they lead, one can no longer understand the ordinary things of life, still less the truth that lies beyond the senses. I have given up extremes of either luxury or asceticism. I have discovered the Middle Way." This is the path which is neither easy (a rich prince) nor hard (living in austere conditions practicing self-denial). Hearing this, the five ascetics became the Buddha's first disciples in Deer Park, Sarnath, 13 kms north east of Benares.The disciples of Gautama Siddhartha began to visit the place during the full moon in the month of Vaisakh (April–May), as per the Hindu calendar. Over time, the place became known as Bodh Gaya, the day of enlightenment as Buddha Purnima, and the tree as the Bodhi Tree.
The history of Bodh Gaya is documented by many inscriptions and pilgrimage accounts. Foremost among these are the accounts of the Chinese pilgrims Faxian in the 5th century and Xuanzang in the 7th century. The area was at the heart of a Buddhist civilization for centuries, until it was conquered by Turkic armies in the 13th century.
The place-name, Bodh Gaya, did not come into use until the 18th century CE. Historically, it was known as Uruvela, Sambodhi (Saṃ+bodhi, "Complete Enlightenment" in Ashoka's Major Rock Edict No.8), Vajrasana (the "Diamond Throne" of the Buddha) or Mahabodhi ("Great Enlightenment"). The main monastery of Bodh Gaya used to be called the Bodhimanda-vihāra (Pali). Now it is called the Mahabodhi Temple.
During the period from the 11th to 13th centuries, Bodh Gaya was under the control of local chieftains known as the Pithipatis of Bodh Gaya who were responsible for the management of the region. One of their rulers, Acarya Buddhasena, was noted as making a grant to Sri Lankan monks near the Mahabodhi temple. | Bodh Gaya History |
PER Stūpa I, LOC Sri Lanka, LOC Mahabodhi Temple, LOC Bhārhut, LOC Bodh Gaya, LOC Patna, PER Asoka, PER Buddha, LOC Sanchi | The complex, located about 110 kilometres from Patna, at 24°41′43″N 84°59′38″E,
contains the Mahabodhi Temple with the Vajrasana or "diamond throne" and the holy Bodhi tree. This tree was originally a sapling of the Sri Maha Bodhi tree in Sri Lanka, itself grown from a what is claimed to be a sapling of the original Bodhi tree.
In approximately 250 BCE, about 200 years after the Buddha attained Enlightenment, Emperor Asoka visited Bodh Gaya in order to establish a monastery and shrine on the holy site.Representations of this early temple are found at Sanchi, on the toraṇas of Stūpa I, dating from around 25 BCE, and on a relief carving from the stupa railing at Bhārhut, from the early Shunga period (c. 185–c. 73 BCE). | Bodh Gaya Mahabodhi Temple |
LOC Ceylon, LOC Sri Lanka, LOC Mongolia, LOC Bakraur, LOC Japan, LOC Middle Way, PER Banyan, PER Xuanzang, LOC China, PER Elder Revata, LOC Thailand, LOC Nepal, LOC Bagan, PER Kittisirimegha, LOC Cambodia, PER Gautama Buddha, PER Samudragupta, LOC Tibet, LOC Laos, PER Beal, PER Buddha, LOC Sujata Stupa, LOC Vietnam, LOC Sujata, LOC Myanmar, LOC Mahabodhi Temple, PER Buddhaghosa, LOC Nippon temple, LOC Korea, LOC Sikkim, PER Sujata, LOC Taiwan, LOC Bhutan, LOC Phalgu | Kittisirimegha of Sri Lanka, a contemporary of Samudragupta, erected with the permission of Samudragupta, a Sanghārāma near the Mahabodhi Temple, chiefly for the use of the Singhalese monks who went to worship the Bodhi tree. The circumstances in connection with the Sanghārāma are given by Xuanzang (Beal, op. cit., 133ff) who gives a description of it as seen by himself. It was probably here that Buddhaghosa met the Elder Revata who persuaded him to come to Ceylon.
Several Buddhist temples and monasteries have been built by the people of Bhutan, Mongolia, China, Japan, Korea, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Tibet and Vietnam in a wide area around the Mahabodhi Temple. These buildings reflect the architectural style, exterior and interior decoration of their respective countries. The statue of Buddha in the Chinese temple is 200 years old and was brought from China. Japan's Nippon temple is shaped like a pagoda. The Myanmar (Burmese) temple is also pagoda shaped and is reminiscent of Bagan. The Thai temple has a typical sloping, curved roof covered with golden tiles. Inside, the temple holds a massive bronze statue of Buddha. Next to the Thai temple is 25-metre statue of Buddha located within a garden which has existed there for over 100 years.
Sujata StupaAcross the Phalgu river is the Sujata Stupa, in the village of Bakraur. The stupa was dedicated to the milkmaid Sujata, who is said to have fed Gautama Buddha milk and rice as he was sitting under a Banyan tree, ending his seven years of fasting and asceticism, and allowing him to attain illumination through the Middle Way. The stupa was built in the 2nd century BCE as confirmed by finds of black polished wares and punch-marked coins in the attending monastery. | Bodh Gaya Other Buddhist temples |
LOC India, LOC Mahabodhi Temple, PER Dalai Lama, ORG Daijokyo, LOC Bodhgaya | The Great Buddha Statue also known as 80 feet statue is in Bodhgaya. The unveiling and consecration of the Great Buddha Statue took place on 18 November 1989. The consecration ceremony was attended by the 14th Dalai Lama, who blessed the 25-meter statue, the first great Buddha ever built in the history of India. The Statue is now a symbol of the holy place Bodhgaya, next to Mahabodhi Temple which is a World Heritage site, and enjoys constant visits of pilgrims from all over the world. Among local people, it is nicknamed "the 80-foot (25-meter) Buddha Statue."
Under the slogan "Spread Buddha's rays to the Whole World," Daijokyo spent seven years on construction of the Great Buddha Statue, mobilizing 120,000 masons in total. | Bodh Gaya The Great Buddha Statue |
ORG National Investigation Agency, LOC Karmapa Temple, ORG NIA, LOC Mahabodhi Temple, LOC Patna, ORG Indian Mujahideen, PER Buddha | On 7 July 2013, at around 05:15, a low intensity bomb blast took place in the 2500-year-old Mahabodhi Temple complex. This was followed by a series of nine low intensity blasts which resulted in two monks being injured; one was Tibetan and the other Burmese. These blasts were carried out by an Islamic terrorist organization called Indian Mujahideen. Two other bombs, one under the 80-foot statue of the Buddha and the other near Karmapa Temple were defused by the police.On 1 June 2018, a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court of Patna sentenced five suspects in the case to life imprisonment. | Bodh Gaya Mahabodhi Temple bombings |
LOC Bodh Gaya | As per the 2001 census, Bodh Gaya had a population of 30,883. Males constitute 54% of the population and females 46%. Bodh Gaya has an average literacy rate of 51%, lower than the national average of 59.5%; with male literacy of 63% and female literacy of 38%. 8% of the population is under 6 years of age. | Bodh Gaya Demographics |
ORG BSTDC, LOC Gaya Airport, LOC Gaya Junction, LOC Bodh Gaya, LOC Patna, ORG Bihar Tourism Department, LOC Rajgir, LOC Bodhgaya | Buses have been introduced by the BSTDC between Patna and Bodh Gaya via Rajgir.
A special caravan service called Wonder on Wheel, between Patna and Bodh Gaya, has been introduced by the Bihar Tourism Department.
Gaya Airport is situated 7 kilometres (4 mi) from Bodh Gaya and approximately 10 kilometres (6 mi) from Gaya Junction railway station.
Bodhgaya has restricted the use of auto rickshaws, cars and buses to make the pilgrimage site more peaceful. A permit is required for the use of cars and buses, and the only taxi available is an electric rickshaw that is mostly noiseless. | Bodh Gaya Transportation |
LOC Bodh Gaya, LOC Nara Prefecture, LOC Japan | Bodh Gaya has one official sister city:
Nara Prefecture, Japan | Bodh Gaya Sister cities |
LOC London, PER Matthew R, PER Jacob N., ORG Routledge, PER Abhishek Singh, PER Amar, PER Sayers, PER Geary, ORG Journal of the American Academy of Religion, PER David, LOC New York, PER Kinnard | Kinnard, Jacob N. (1998). When Is The Buddha Not the Buddha? The Hindu/Buddhist Battle over Bodhgayā and Its Buddha Image. Journal of the American Academy of Religion 66 (4), 817-839
Geary, David; Sayers, Matthew R; Amar, Abhishek Singh (2012). Cross-disciplinary perspectives on a contested Buddhist site: Bodh Gaya jataka. London, New York: Routledge | Bodh Gaya Bibliography |
PER Chamba | Chamba may refer to: | Chamba Introduction |
PER Jessica Chamba, PER Gilberto Chamba | Gilberto Chamba (born 1961), Ecuadorian serial killer
Jessica Chamba (born 1981), European activist | Chamba People |
LOC Chamba, LOC Northern Region | Chamba, a town in the Northern Region | Chamba Ghana |
LOC Chamba, LOC Himachal Pradesh Chamba, LOC Himachal Pradesh, LOC Tehri - Garhwal, LOC Chamba State, LOC Uttarakhand | Chamba (Vidhan Sabha constituency), Himachal Pradesh
Chamba, Himachal Pradesh, city in Himachal Pradesh
Chamba district, Himachal Pradesh
Chamba State, princely state
Chamba, Uttarakhand, small town in Tehri-Garhwal district, Uttarakhand | Chamba India |
LOC Chamba, LOC Zanjan, LOC Khuzestan Province, LOC Zanjan Province, LOC Khuzestan | Chamba, Khuzestan, a village in Khuzestan Province
Chamba, Zanjan, a village in Zanjan Province | Chamba Iran |
LOC Chamba, LOC Khyber - Pakhtunkhwa, LOC Abbottabad, LOC Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, LOC Mansehra | Chamba, Abbottabad, a village in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province
Chamba, Mansehra, a village in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province | Chamba Pakistan |
LOC Nigeria, LOC Chambá, LOC Cameroon, LOC Malawi | Chamba language (disambiguation), several languages
Chamba people, ethnic group in Nigeria and Cameroon
Chamba goat, a Himalayan breed
es:Chamba, a slang word used by some Spanish speaking people to denote "work"
Chamba or Malawi Gold, a popular strain of marijuana
Chambá, a local name for the medicinal plant Justicia pectoralis | Chamba Other uses |
LOC Myanmar, LOC India, LOC Indo, LOC Mizoram, LOC Champhai | Champhai (Pron:/tʃamˈpʰaɪ/) is a border town in Mizoram state, in far eastern India. It is the headquarters of Champhai district, one of the eleven districts in the state. It is located on the Indo-Myanmar border and is situated in a strategically important location. Because of this, it is the main business corridor for India and Myanmar in the area.
The area of Champhai is 3,185.83 square kilometres (1,230 sq mi). The average annual rainfall is 1,814 millimetres (71.4 in). | Champhai Introduction |
PER Lalbura Sailo, ORG MNF, ORG Assam Rifles, ORG British Colonial Authorities, PER Vanhnuailiana, ORG Mizo Independence, LOC Champhai, LOC Champhai Valley, LOC Mizo | Champhai was the headquarters of Lalbura Sailo, son of Vanhnuailiana, a Mizo Chief against whom the British Expedition of 1871–72 was directed. It was accorded the status of a fort during the British period. The Champhai Valley was once a lake and was gradually silted to obliterate the lake. The soil of the plain was still uncultivated during the Lushai Expedition of 1872. Irrigated rice cultivation started in Champhai in the year 1898 encouraged by the British Colonial Authorities to supply rice for their soldiers and laborers. As of 1922, there was only 1 shop in Champhai. On 1 March 1966, the MNF declared unilateral Mizo Independence and attacked Assam Rifles post at Champhai. | Champhai History |
LOC Zokhawthar, LOC Myanmar, LOC Mizoram, LOC Champhai | The economy of Champhai is mainly agriculture and border trade. Champhai is also the main trading centre of Mizoram with goods like clothes, silverware and electronics imported from Myanmar through the trading post in Zokhawthar. It has a flatland measuring 113 kilometres long and 48 kilometres in width for wet rice cultivation which can produce 19,200 quintals of rice per year. 10,000 quintals of grape were cultivated in 2011 alone churning 20,000 bottles a year. These are the two main agricultural products. | Champhai Economy |
LOC Champhai | Champhai has a moderate climate. In winter, the temperature varies from 10 °C to 20 °C and between 15 °C and 30 °C in summer. | Champhai Climate |
ORG Champhai College | Champhai College is the only institution for higher education in the town. However, there are many government owned and privately run schools operating here. | Champhai Education |
ORG Lenrual Pasaltha Rihlipui, LOC Champhai | The Major Media in Champhai are:
Lenrual
Pasaltha
Rihlipui
CCN (Digital TV Operator)
LCN (Digital TV Operator) | Champhai Media |
PER Pawan Hans, LOC Aizawl, LOC Champhai | A helicopter service by Pawan Hans has been started which connects the Aizawl with Champhai. The distance between Champhai and Aizawl is 194 km and is connected with regular service of bus and maxi cab. | Champhai Transport |
PER Jane Drew, LOC Chandigarh, LOC Mohali, PER Maciej Nowicki, LOC Chandigarh Capital Region, ORG BBC, LOC New Delhi, LOC Greater Chandigarh, LOC Panchkula, ORG LG Electronics, PER Le Corbusier, LOC State of Haryana, LOC Amritsar, ORG UNESCO, LOC State of Punjab, PER Corbusier, LOC India, PER Albert Mayer, LOC Capitol Complex, PER Maxwell Fry | Chandigarh () is a union territory and planned city in India. Chandigarh is bordered by the State of Punjab to the north, west and the south, and by the State of Haryana to the east, the states for which it serves as the capital. It constitutes the bulk of the Chandigarh Capital Region or Greater Chandigarh, which also includes the adjacent satellite cities of Panchkula and Mohali. It is located 260 km (162 miles) north of New Delhi and 229 km (143 miles) southeast of Amritsar.
Chandigarh is one of the earliest planned cities in post independence India and is internationally known for its architecture and urban design. The master plan of the city was prepared by Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier, which built upon earlier plans created by the Polish architect Maciej Nowicki and the American planner Albert Mayer. Most of the government buildings and housing in the city were designed by a team headed by Le Corbusier, Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry. Chandigarh's Capitol Complex—as part of a global ensemble of Corbusier's buildings—was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO at the 40th session of the World Heritage Conference in July 2016.Chandigarh has grown greatly since its initial construction, and has also driven the development of two satellite cities in its neighbouring states. The metropolitan area of Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula collectively forms a "tri-city", with a combined population of over 1,611,770. The city has one of the highest per capita incomes in the country. The union territory has one of the highest Human Development Index among Indian states and territories. In 2015, a survey by LG Electronics ranked it as the happiest city in India on the happiness index. In 2015, an article published by BBC named Chandigarh one of the few master-planned cities in the world to have succeeded in terms of combining monumental architecture, cultural growth, and modernisation. | Chandigarh Introduction |
LOC Panchkula District, LOC Chandigarh, PER Albert Mayer, PER Chandi, LOC Chandi, LOC Garh, PER Hindu, LOC Chandi Mandir | The name Chandigarh is a compound of Chandi and Garh. Chandi refers to the Hindu goddess Chandi and Garh means fortress. The name is derived from Chandi Mandir, an ancient temple devoted to the Hindu Goddess Chandi near the city in Panchkula District.The motif or sobriquet of "The City of Beauty" was derived from the City Beautiful movement, which was a popular philosophy in North American urban planning during the 1890s and 1900s. Architect Albert Mayer, the initial planner of Chandigarh, lamented the American rejection of City Beautiful concepts and declared, "We want to create a beautiful city..." The phrase was used as a logo in official publications in the 1970s and is now how the city describes itself. | Chandigarh Etymology |
LOC Chandigarh, LOC Punjab, PER Jawaharlal Nehru, PER Matthew Nowicki, LOC Lahore, LOC High Court, LOC East Punjab, LOC Pakistan, PER Partap Singh Kairon, LOC Palace of Assembly, LOC Geometric Hill, LOC Shimla, PER Edward Nirmal Mangat Rai, PER Le Corbusier, LOC La Main Ouverte, LOC Martyrs Memorial, LOC Secretariat, PER Mayer, LOC India, LOC Assembly, PER Albert Mayer, LOC Secretariat Building, LOC West Punjab, LOC Capitol Complex, PER Nowicki | As part of the partition of India in 1947, the former British province of Punjab was divided into two parts, the mostly Hindu and Sikh East Punjab in India, and the mostly Muslim West Punjab in Pakistan. The capital of undivided Punjab, Lahore, had become part of Pakistan after the partition. Instead of shifting the capital to an already existing and established city, Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, envisioned an altogether new and modern city to be built to serve as the capital of Punjab. Partap Singh Kairon, then the Chief Minister of East Punjab, and Edward Nirmal Mangat Rai, then the Chief Secretary of East Punjab, were instrumental in creating Chandigarh as the capital of the state. In 1949, the American planner and architect Albert Mayer was commissioned to design a new city to be called "Chandigarh". The government carved out Chandigarh from about fifty Puadhi-speaking villages in the then-state of East Punjab, India. Shimla was the temporary capital of the state until Chandigarh was completed.
Albert Mayer developed a superblock-based city interspersed with green spaces, with an emphasis on cellular neighbourhoods and traffic segregation. His site plan took advantage of natural land characteristics; the land's gentle grade promoted proper drainage. Mayer stopped his work on the city after his architect-partner Matthew Nowicki died in a plane crash in 1950. Government officials recruited Le Corbusier to succeed Mayer and Nowicki, who utilized many elements of Mayer's original plan without attributing them to him.
Le Corbusier designed many administration buildings, including the High Court, the Palace of Assembly, and the Secretariat Building. Le Corbusier also designed the general layout of the city, dividing it into sectors. Chandigarh hosts the largest of Le Corbusier's many Open Hand sculptures, standing 26 metres high. The Open Hand (La Main Ouverte) is a recurring motif in Le Corbusier's architecture, a sign for him of "peace and reconciliation. It is open to give and open to receive." It represents what Le Corbusier called the "Second Machine Age". Two of the six monuments planned in the Capitol Complex which has the High Court, the Assembly, and the Secretariat, remain incomplete. These include Geometric Hill and Martyrs Memorial. Drawings were made, and they were begun in 1956, but they were never completed.The capital city was officially shifted from Shimla to Chandigarh on 21 September 1953, though Chandigarh was formally inaugurated by India's first president, Rajendra Prasad on 7 October 1953.
During excavations at the time of the building of the city, some Indus valley artefacts were discovered, suggesting that the area that is today Chandigarh was home to some settlements of the Indus valley civilisation.
On 1 November 1966, after a long-drawn movement demanding the formation of a Punjabi state, the former state of Punjab was split in two. The western and northern mostly Punjabi-speaking portion became the present-day state of Punjab, while the eastern and southern Hindi- and Haryanvi-speaking areas became Haryana. Chandigarh ended up being located on the border of the two states, and both of them moved to incorporate the city into their respective territories. However, the city of Chandigarh was controlled directly by the central government and was to serve as the shared capital of the two states until a resolution could be reached.
Present-day Chandigarh was also the site of a short-lived late 18th-century principality, with a small fort at Mani Majra. As of 2016, many villages that predate the city are still inhabited within the modern blocks of some sectors, including Burail and Ottawa, while several other such villages lie on the margins of the city. | Chandigarh History |
LOC Shivalik Range, LOC Terai, LOC Himalayas, LOC New Chandigarh, LOC Chandigarh, LOC Punjab, LOC India, LOC Mohali, LOC Patiala, LOC Rupnagar, LOC Ambala, LOC Delhi, LOC Amritsar, LOC Haryana, LOC Bhabar, LOC Zirakpur, LOC Panchkula | Chandigarh is located by the foothills of the Shivalik Range of the Himalayas in northwest India. It covers an area of approximately 114 km2. It borders the states of Punjab and Haryana. The exact geographic coordinates of Chandigarh are 30.74°N 76.79°E / 30.74; 76.79. It has an average elevation of 321 metres (1053 ft).
The city, lying in the northern plains, includes a vast area of flat, fertile land. Its northeast covers sections of Bhabar, while the remainder of its terrain is part of the Terai. Its surrounding cities are Mohali, New Chandigarh, Patiala, Zirakpur and Rupnagar in Punjab, and Panchkula and Ambala in Haryana.
Chandigarh is situated 44 km (28 miles) north of Ambala, 229 km (143 miles) southeast of Amritsar, and 250 km (156 miles) north of Delhi. | Chandigarh Location |
LOC Himalayas, LOC Chandigarh, LOC Mediterranean Sea | Chandigarh has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen: Cwa) characterised by a seasonal rhythm: very hot summers, mild winters, unreliable rainfall and great temperature variation (−1 to 45 °C or 30.2 to 113.0 °F). The average annual rainfall is 1,110.7 millimetres or 43.73 inches. The city also receives occasional winter rains from the Western Disturbance originating over the Mediterranean Sea. The western disturbances bring rain predominantly from mid-December until the end of April, which can be heavier sometimes with strong wind and hail if the weather turns colder (during March–April months), which usually proves disastrous to local crops. Cold winds usually tend to come from the Himalayas that lie to the north, which receive snowfall during wintertime.
The city experiences the following seasons and the respective average temperatures:
Spring: During spring (from February-end to early April), temperatures vary between a maximum of 13 to 20 °C or 55.4 to 68.0 °F and a minimum of 5 to 12 °C or 41.0 to 53.6 °F.
Autumn: In autumn (from September-end to mid-November), the temperature may rise to a maximum of 30 °C or 86 °F. Temperatures usually remain between 10 to 22 °C or 50.0 to 71.6 °F in autumn. The minimum temperature is around 6 °C or 42.8 °F.
Summer: The temperature in summer (from mid-April to June-end) usually peaks at around 43 °C or 109.4 °F in mid-June, and generally varies between 38 and 42 °C (100.4 and 107.6 °F).
Monsoon: During the monsoon season (from early July to mid-September), Chandigarh receives moderate to heavy rainfall and sometimes heavy to very heavy rainfall (generally during August or September). Usually, the rain-bearing monsoon winds blow from the southwest/southeast. The city mostly receives heavy rain from the south (which is mainly persistent rain), but it generally receives most of its rain during the monsoon season either from the northwest or the northeast. The maximum amount of rain received by the city of Chandigarh during the monsoon season is 195.5 millimetres or 7.70 inches in a single day.
Winter: Winters (November-end to February-end) are mild but can get chilly during peak winter weeks. Average temperatures in the winter generally fluctuate between a maximum of 5 to 14 °C or 41.0 to 57.2 °F and a minimum of −1 to 5 °C or 30.2 to 41.0 °F. Rain usually comes from the west during winter as a persistent rain for 2–3 days, sometimes with hailstorms. | Chandigarh Climate |
LOC Chandigarh, LOC Sukhna Lake, LOC Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary, LOC Japan, LOC Parrot Bird Sanctuary Chandigarh, LOC Siberia, LOC Ashoka | Most of Chandigarh is covered by dense banyan and eucalyptus plantations. Ashoka, cassia, mulberry and other trees flourish in the forested ecosystem. The city has forests surrounding itself that sustain many animal and plant species. Deer, sambars, barking deer, parrots, woodpeckers, and peacocks inhabit the protected forests. Sukhna Lake hosts a variety of ducks and geese and attracts migratory birds from parts of Siberia and Japan in the winter season.
The Parrot Bird Sanctuary Chandigarh provides a home to a large number of parrots. Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1998. | Chandigarh Wildlife and biodiversity |
LOC Chandigarh, ORG Department of Forest & Wildlife Chandigarh Administration | Many trees in Chandigarh are given the status of the natural heritage of the city. The Chandigarh government has identified a list of 31 trees as Heritage Trees. The Department of Forest & Wildlife Chandigarh Administration is the nodal department for this purpose, and has published a detailed booklet about it. The trees in the city which are 100 years or more old have been given heritage status. | Chandigarh Heritage Trees of Chandigarh |
LOC Zakir Hussain Rose Garden, LOC Butterfly Park, LOC Chandigarh, LOC Botanical garden, LOC Valley of Animals, LOC Garden of Palms, LOC Japanese Garden, LOC Bougainvillea Garden, LOC Sukhna Lake, LOC Garden of Silence, LOC Garden of Fragrance, LOC Sukhna Choe, LOC Rock Garden, LOC Terraced Garden, LOC Shanti Kunj Garden, LOC Shivalik Hills, LOC Asia | Sukhna Lake, a 3 km2 artificial rain-fed lake in Sector 1, was created in 1958 by damming the Sukhna Choe, a seasonal stream coming down from the Shivalik Hills.Chandigarh has a belt of parks running from sectors. It is known for its green belts and other special tourist parks. Sukhna Lake itself hosts the Garden of Silence. The Rock Garden, is located near the Sukhna Lake and has numerous sculptures made by using a variety of different discarded waste materials. The Zakir Hussain Rose Garden (which is also Asia's largest rose garden) contains nearly 825 varieties of roses in it and more than 32,500 varieties of other medicinal plants and trees. Other gardens include the Garden of Fragrance in Sector 36, Garden of Palms in Sector 42, Butterfly Park in Sector 26, Valley of Animals in Sector 49, the Japanese Garden in Sector 31, the Terraced Garden in Sector 33, Shanti Kunj Garden, the Botanical garden and the Bougainvillea Garden. There is also a Government museum and art gallery in Sector 10, Chandigarh. | Chandigarh Landscape |
LOC Chandigarh, LOC India | As of 2011 India census, Chandigarh had a population of 1,055,450, giving it a density of about 9,252 (7,900 in 2001) persons per square kilometre.Males constitute 55% of the population and females 45%. The sex ratio is 818 females for every 1,000 males. The child sex ratio is 880 females per thousand males. Chandigarh has an effective literacy rate of 86.77% (based on population 7 years and above), higher than the national average; with male literacy of 90.81% and female literacy of 81.88%. 10.8% of the population is under 6 years of age. The population of Chandigarh forms 0.09 per cent of India in 2011.There has been a substantial decline in the population growth rate in Chandigarh, with just 17.10% growth between 2001 and 2011. Since the 1951–1961 period, the growth rate has decreased from 394.13% to 17.10%, a likely cause being the rapid urbanisation and development in neighbouring cities. The urban population constitutes 97.25% of the total and the rural population makes up 2.75%, as there are only a few villages within Chandigarh, situated on its Western and South-Eastern border, and the majority of people live in the heart of Chandigarh. | Chandigarh Population |
LOC Chandigarh | English is the sole official language of Chandigarh. The majority of the population speaks Hindi (76.8%) while Punjabi is spoken by 22.03%. Government schools use English, Hindi, and Punjabi textbooks. The percentage of Punjabi speakers has fallen from 36% in 1981 to 22% in 2011, while that of Hindi speakers has increased from 51% to 78%. | Chandigarh Languages |
LOC Mata Mansa Devi Mandir, LOC Chandigarh, LOC Manimajra, LOC Mata Jayanti Devi Mandir, LOC Nada Sahib Gurudwara, LOC Mata Basanti Devi Mandir, LOC Chandi Mandir, ORG Roman Catholic Diocese of Simla and, PER Shitala, LOC Burail | Hinduism is the predominant religion of Chandigarh followed by 80.71% of the population. Sikhism is the second most popular religion in the city, followed by 13.11% of the people, followed by Islam at 4.87%. Minorities are Christians at 0.83%, Jains at 0.19%, Buddhists at 0.11%, those that didn't state a religion at 0.10%, and others are 0.02%.There are several places of worship located all over the city, with many in each sector. One such historic temple located in the heart of the city is Mata Basanti Devi Mandir at Sector 24 of the city. The temple is dedicated to Goddess Shitala and specially visited by devotees during first Tuesday of Chaitra month after Holi. Chandi Mandir, Mata Mansa Devi Mandir and Mata Jayanti Devi Mandir are important Hindu temples located near Chandigarh.Nada Sahib Gurudwara, a famous place for Sikh worship lies in its vicinity. Apart from this, there are a couple of historical mosques in Manimajra and Burail. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Simla and Chandigarh serves the Catholics of the city, with a co-cathedral in the city. Most of the convent schools of Chandigarh are governed by this institution. | Chandigarh Religion |
LOC Chandigarh, LOC Punjab, LOC India, PER Banwarilal Purohit, LOC Union Territories | Article 239 of the Constitution of India provides for the administration of the Union Territories by the President through an administrator. Since 1984 the Governor of Punjab has served concurrently as the administrator of Chandigarh. Banwarilal Purohit is the administrator of the union territory since September 2021. | Chandigarh Administrator of the Union Territory |
ORG State Assembly, PER Kirron Kher, LOC Chandigarh, ORG BJP | Chandigarh, as a union territory, is not entitled to a state-level election: thus State Assembly elections are not held and it is directly controlled by the central government. One seat for Chandigarh is allocated in the Lok Sabha elections held every five years.
Kirron Kher (BJP) is the Member of Parliament elected in 2019 from the Chandigarh Lok Sabha constituency. | Chandigarh Politics |
ORG Akali Dal, LOC Chandigarh, PER Amit Shah, LOC Punjab, PER Anindita Mitra, ORG Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, PER Sarbjit Kaur, ORG INC, ORG AAP, ORG Union | The city is governed by a civic administration or local government headed by Municipal Commissioner Anindita Mitra and Mayor Sarbjit Kaur. The city comprises 35 wards represented by 35 elected councillors, and also nominates 9 councillors.On 27 March 2022, Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced that the Chandigarh employees who were working under the Punjab service rules until 2022, would be working under the central civil services rules from 1 April 2022. The move was criticised by political parties such as the AAP, the INC and the Akali Dal.Composition of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation after 2021 Chandigarh Municipal Corporation election as of December 2021: | Chandigarh Civic administration |
ORG CSCL, LOC Chandigarh, ORG Municipal Corporation, ORG BJP, ORG Chandigarh Smart City Ltd, ORG Municipal Corporation Chandigarh | The prime responsibilities of the civic body Municipal Corporation Chandigarh, are to ensure cleanliness and sanitation in the city, illumination of street lights, maintenance of parks, and sewerage disposal. The city has both brick and pipe sewers laid in four phases. In September 2020, the civic body announced that it would upgrade and renew the 50-year-old sewerage system. The pilot project for the 24x7 water supply is expected to begin in Chandigarh in May 2021, which was initially to start in September 2020 and end in March 2022. On 8 April 2021, the Chandigarh Smart City Ltd (CSCL) board is yet to take the final decision.In 2021, the BJP ruled corporation had increased the water tariff by 1.5 to 2.5 times. This created a widespread discontent among the residents.In 2021, there was an acute shortage of parking spaces. The problem was aggravated by an increase of 17% in parking rates by the Municipal Corporation. The increase in the waste collection charges, water tariff and property tax rates during the last five years 2016 to 2021 were unpopular among the public. | Chandigarh Civic utilities |
ORG BJP, LOC Dadu Majra, LOC Chandigarh, LOC India | In 2016, Chandigarh was the second cleanest city of India. In the years that followed, garbage from the city was not disposed of properly. The lack of a proper process or mechanism led to the garbage piled up at the Dadu Majra garbage dump site.In 2021, Chandigarh fell 66 positions in the list of cleanest cities in India, once a point of pride for the city. The fall in cleanliness became an important poll issue. The residents were upset with the downfall in the cleanliness.The government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in India damaged the BJP's image as the voters felt that they were not given desired help in getting the hospital beds and medical oxygen from their elected representatives. The sitting Councillors were accused of not being found to be approachable when the public needed support. Complaints that No major relief measure was taken by the local government were raised. | Chandigarh Cleanliness |
ORG Reserve Bank of India, LOC Chandigarh, LOC India, LOC Beldon, LOC Amritsar | Chandigarh has been rated as one of the "Wealthiest Towns" of India. The Reserve Bank of India ranked Chandigarh as the third-largest deposit centre and seventh largest credit centre nationwide as of June 2012. With an average household monthly income of ₹199,000 (US$2,500), Chandigarh is one of the richest towns in India. Chandigarh's gross state domestic product for 2014–15 is estimated at ₹290 billion (short scale) (US$4.3 billion) at current prices. According to a 2014 survey, Chandigarh is ranked 4th in the top 50 cities identified globally as "emerging outsourcing and IT services destinations" ahead of cities like Beldon (Amritsar). | Chandigarh Economy |
LOC Chandigarh, LOC Punjab, LOC Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology, ORG CII, LOC Delhi, ORG PGIMER, ORG Airtel, ORG Ordnance Cable Factory of the Ordnance Factories Board, LOC Haryana, ORG Park, ORG Infosys, ORG PhD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, ORG IT Park, LOC Chandigarh Metro, ORG The Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry, ORG ASSOCHAM India, PER Kirron Kher, ORG Punjab, ORG TechMahindra, ORG Chandigarh Administration, ORG Quark, ORG FICCI, ORG EVRY, ORG Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, ORG Confederation of Indian Industry, LOC India, LOC Himachal Pradesh, ORG Amadeus IT Group, ORG DLF, ORG Haryana High Court, ORG Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry | The government is a major employer in Chandigarh, with three governments having their base here, those being the Chandigarh Administration, the Punjab government and the Haryana government. A significant percentage of Chandigarh's population, therefore, consists of people who are either working for one of these governments or have retired from government service, mainly armed forces. For this reason, Chandigarh is often called a "Pensioner's Paradise". Ordnance Cable Factory of the Ordnance Factories Board has been set up by the government of India. There is about 15 medium-to-large industries, including two in the public sector. In addition, Chandigarh has over 2,500 units registered under the small-scale sector. The city's important industries are paper manufacturing, basic metals and alloys, and machinery. Other industries in the city are food products, sanitary ware, auto parts, machine tools, pharmaceuticals, and electrical appliances.
The main occupation here is trade and business. However, the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), the availability of an IT Park, and more than a hundred government schools provide other job opportunities to people.
Four major trade promotion organisations have their offices in Chandigarh. These are The Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry, ASSOCHAM India in Sector 8, Chandigarh, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry, (FICCI) the PhD Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) which has its regional headquarters at Sector 31, Chandigarh.Chandigarh IT Park (also known as Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park) is the city's attempt to break into the information technology world. Chandigarh's infrastructure, proximity to Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh, and the IT talent pool attracts IT businesses looking for office space in the area. Major Indian firms and multinational corporations like Quark, Infosys, EVRY, TechMahindra, Airtel, Amadeus IT Group, DLF have set up base in the city and its suburbs.
The work of the Chandigarh Metro was slated to start by 2019. It was opposed by the Member of Parliament from Chandigarh, Kirron Kher. With an estimated cost of around $109 billion including 50% funds from the governments of Punjab and Haryana and 25% from Chandigarh and government of India, funds from the Japanese government were proposed to include approximately 56% of the cost. However, the project was turned down owing to its non-feasibility. Kher promised a film city for Chandigarh. After winning the seat, she said that she had difficulty in acquiring land in Chandigarh. Her proposal was accepted by the Chandigarh Administration and the film city is proposed to be set up in Sarangpur, Chandigarh. This has been considered as a source of employment in the future. | Chandigarh Employment |
LOC Zakir Hussain Rose Garden, LOC Sukhna Lake | Every year, in September or October during the festival of Navratri, many associations and organisations hold a Ramlila event, which has been conducted here for over 50 years.The Rose Festival in Zakir Hussain Rose Garden every February shows thousands of subspecies of roses.The Mango Festival is held during the monsoons, and other festivals are held at Sukhna Lake. | Chandigarh Festivals |
LOC Panipat, LOC Patiala, LOC Chandigarh, LOC Punjab, LOC India, ORG Chandigarh Transport Undertaking, LOC NH 44, LOC Himachal Pradesh, LOC NH, LOC Ambala, LOC Ludhiana, ORG CTU, LOC NH 5, LOC Delhi, LOC Kaithal, LOC Haryana, LOC Shimla | Chandigarh has the largest number of vehicles per capita in India. Wide, well-maintained roads and parking spaces all over the city ease local transport. The Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU) operates public transport buses from its Inter State Bus Terminals (ISBT) in Sectors 17 and 43 of the city. CTU also operates frequent bus services to the neighbouring states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and to Delhi.
Chandigarh is well-connected by road to the following nearby cities, by the following highway routes:
NH 7 to Patiala in the southwest.
NH 152 to Ambala and Kaithal in the south (NH 44 catches up from Ambala to Panipat-Delhi).
NH 5 to Shimla in the northeast, and to Ludhiana in the west. | Chandigarh Road |
LOC Dubai, LOC Chandigarh, LOC Punjab, LOC India, LOC Mohali, LOC Chandigarh Airport, LOC Sharjah, ORG Airports Authority of India, LOC Haryana | Chandigarh Airport has scheduled commercial flights to the major cities of India. An international terminal was completed in 2015, and international flight routes to Dubai and Sharjah were started. The runway is located in Chandigarh, while the terminal is in Mohali. The governments of Punjab and Haryana each have a 24.5% stake in the international terminal building, while the Airports Authority of India holds a 51% stake. | Chandigarh Air |
ORG Northern Railway, LOC India, LOC Chandigarh Junction, ORG Indian Railways, LOC Panchkula | Chandigarh Junction railway station lies in the Northern Railway zone of the Indian Railways network and provides connectivity to most of the regions of India. The railway station also serves the neighbouring town of Panchkula. There were long-standing proposals to develop a metro rail system in the city, which were formally scrapped in 2017. | Chandigarh Rail |
ORG Punjab Engineering College, LOC Chandigarh, ORG PGIMER, ORG St. Anne ' s Convent School, ORG Bhavan Vidyalaya, ORG National Institute of Technical Teacher Training and Research, ORG NITTTR, ORG Delhi Public School, ORG Carmel Convent School, ORG Government Model Senior Secondary School, ORG St. John ' s High School, ORG Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, ORG Sector 16, ORG Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, ORG Sacred Heart Senior Secondary School, ORG Panjab University, ORG Post Graduate Government College, ORG D. A. V. Public School, ORG DAV College | There are numerous educational institutions in Chandigarh. These range from privately and publicly operated schools to colleges. These include Panjab University, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Punjab Engineering College, National Institute of Technical Teacher Training
and Research (NITTTR), Post Graduate Government College, and DAV College.
According to the Chandigarh administration's department of education, there are a total of 115 government schools in Chandigarh, including Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 16, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Bhavan Vidyalaya, convent schools like St. Anne's Convent School, St. John's High School, Chandigarh, Sacred Heart Senior Secondary School and Carmel Convent School, and other private schools like Delhi Public School and D.A.V. Public School. | Chandigarh Education |
LOC Mohali, LOC Sector 16 Stadium, LOC PCA Stadium, LOC Chandigarh Golf Club | The Sector 16 Stadium has been a venue of several international cricket matches, but it has lost prominence after the PCA Stadium was constructed in Mohali. It still provides a platform for cricketers in this region to practice and play inter-state matches.The Chandigarh Golf Club has a 7,202-yard, 18-hole course known for its challenging narrow fairways, dogleg 7th hole, and floodlighting on the first nine holes. | Chandigarh Sports |
LOC Chandigarh | The main tourist attractions in Chandigarh are: | Chandigarh Tourist attractions |
LOC Chandigarh, LOC Chandigarh Parrot Bird Sanctuary, LOC Chandigarh Sukhna, LOC Chandigarh Zakir Hussain Rose Garden, LOC Garden of Springs, LOC Mahendra Chaudhary Zoological Park Sukhna Lake Sukhna | Rock Garden of Chandigarh
Garden of Springs, Chandigarh
Zakir Hussain Rose Garden
Japanese Garden, Chandigarh
Parrot Bird Sanctuary, Chandigarh
Mahendra Chaudhary Zoological Park
Sukhna Lake
Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary
Rose Festival (Chandigarh)
Heritage Trees of Chandigarh
Sukhna Interpretation Centre | Chandigarh Natural landscape |
LOC Gandhi Bhawan, ORG Government Museum and Art Gallery, LOC Chandigarh | Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh
Gandhi Bhawan, Chandigarh
Open Hand Monument | Chandigarh Museums |
LOC Palace of Assembly, LOC Chandigarh Chandigarh Capitol Complex, LOC Chandigarh | Open Hand Monument
Palace of Assembly, Chandigarh
Chandigarh Capitol Complex
Secretariat Building, Chandigarh | Chandigarh Architecture |
LOC Downtown, ORG Tagore Theatre, LOC Chandigarh Burail Fort Manimajra Fort Chandi Mandir, LOC Mall, ORG Elante | Sector-17, Chandigarh
Burail Fort
Manimajra Fort
Chandi Mandir
Elante Mall
Paras Downtown Square
Tagore Theatre | Chandigarh Others |
PER Le Corbusier, LOC Chandigarh, LOC India, PER Nehru, LOC Punjab, LOC Pakistan, LOC New Delhi | Nehru said of Chandigarh when he first visited the site of the new city in 1952: "Let this be a new town, symbolic of the freedom of India, unfettered by the traditions of the past, an expression of the nation's faith in the future". For Nehru, Chandigarh represented a vision of how a new planned city could be a canvas for the regeneration of the nation itself after centuries of oppression under British colonial rule and the dilution of Indian character from the nation's towns. Guided by the architectural optics of Le Corbusier, the development of Chandigarh was part of a state-driven exercise to break from the traditions of imperialism in city making and begin the process of healing from the injustices suffered.To the extent that Chandigarh epitomises the destructive influence of the British, in the impetus of its creation as a solution to the otherwise violent partitioning of territory between India and Pakistan, it represents an early ideological symbol for the birth of India's future. The selection of the physical site involved an extensive vetting process. Many existing towns in Punjab were surveyed as options for the new capital and dismissed for poor performance concerning factors such as military defensibility and capacity for accommodating potential refugee influxes. The construction of a new town in Chandigarh was determined to be the best option due to its relative strength in these factors as well as its proximity to the national capital, New Delhi, its central location within the state of Punjab, its abundance of fecund land and its beautiful natural landscape. | Chandigarh Background |
LOC Chandigarh, PER Le Corbusier, LOC India, PER Nehru, LOC Bhubaneswar, LOC Gandhinagar, LOC Britain | Off the back of this conflation of assets Chandigarh then was well poised to serve a function as a city-building project in national identity. From a federal policy perspective, the development of the new town became a tool in India for modernisation and an intended driver of economic activity, legal reform, and regional growth as well as a significant agent for the decolonisation project. As Britain's grip on their empire began to weaken their accelerated withdrawal between the beginning of the second world war and 1947 left their former colony in states of disarray and disorganisation, and policymakers for the new Indian government were required to contend with issues such as rapid rural depopulation, urban congestion, and poverty. As well as in Chandigarh this policy tool was implemented in the creation of new capital cities in Bhubaneswar and Gandhinagar, and more broadly throughout India in the 112 planned cities created between independence and 1971, purposed to absorb migration from those regions in demise after being abandoned by the British and provide hubs for growing industries such as in steel and energy.These examples from a genealogy of utopian urban forms developed in post-independence India as a panacea for issues related to underdevelopment as well as post-independence complications to do with separatist religious conflict and the resulting diplomatic tensions. Chandigarh is the first example of a state-funded master-planned modernisation scheme. These "urban utopias" attempt to enforce nation-building policies through a federalised rule of law at a regional level, and diffuse postcolonial urbanism which codes justice in its design. The intent is that the economic success and progressivism of cities such as Chandigarh as a lightning rod for social change would gradually be emulated at the scale of the nation. Chandigarh was for Nehru and Le Corbusier an embodiment of the egalitarian potential offered by modernism, where the machine age would complete the liberation of the nation's citizens through the productive capacity of industrial technology and the relative ease of constructing civic facilities such as dams, hospitals, and schools; the very antithesis of the conservative and traditional legacy of colonialism. Though built as a state capital Chandigarh came to be focused on industry and higher education. The specialisation of these new towns in particular functions represents a crucial aspect of the modernisation process as a decolonising enterprise, in completing a national portfolio where each town forms a part of the utopian model for contemporary India.
The post-colonialism of Chandigarh is rooted in the transformation of the political ideas of those such as Nehru who generated a new Indian nationalism through the design of newly built forms. Scholars such as Edward Said have emphasised the sinister nature of nostalgia and the romanticisation of colonial architecture in newly independent colonies as artefacts that perpetuate the ideological legacy of the hegemony and replicate the hierarchy of power even after decolonisation. Insofar as modernism in architecture (which defined town planning under the Nehru era of rule) represents an active radical break from tradition and a colonial past even the very presence of Le Corbusier has been recognised as an indelible resistance to the British construction legacy, as he provided the first non-British influence on design thinking in India, enabling a generational shift in the contemporary cohort of architects and planners to be hired by the state throughout the rest of the century who were initiated under Modernist conditioning.As early as the 1950s the presence of the International Style could be detected in the design of houses in India, "whether mistri or architect-designed". The development of low-cost housing was a priority for Chandigarh, and the modern forms designed by Corbusier are characterised by a dispensing with colonial forms focused on classic aesthetics and a refocusing on strategies such as using narrow frontages and orientation for minimising direct exposure to the sun and maximising natural ventilation and efficient cost while providing modern amenities in the International Style aesthetic. These developments are credited as the beginning of a "Chandigarh architecture", inspiring gradual experimentation with form and an "Indianising" of the International Style which precipitated the formation of the country's new cultural identity in town design. | Chandigarh Modernism in new town design |
PER Corbusier, LOC Chandigarh, PER Le Corbusier, LOC India, PER Nehru, PER Brent C. Brolin | Criticisms are well established regarding the implementation of the postcolonial vision of Nehru and Le Corbusier, and the critical emphasis on its influence. Claims have been made that the focus on Corbusier's architect-centred discourse erases the plural authorship of the narrative of Chandigarh's development, arguing that it was, in fact, hybridity of values and of "contested modernities" of Western and indigenous Indian origin and cultural exchanges rather than an uncontested administrative enterprise. Such criticism is consistent with claims that decolonisation in India has marked a shift from segregation based on race to segregation based on class, and that planned cities are truly "designed" ones which represent the values and interests of a westernised middle-class Indian elite which ignore the complexities of India's diverse ethnic and cultural landscape and enabled neocolonial hierarchies such as the imposition of the Hindi language on non-conforming castes.Brent C. Brolin argues that Le Corbusier ignored Indian preferences in designing the housing and communities and that the residents have done what they can to recreate their accustomed lifestyle. Furthermore, the early over-saturation of the minimalist International Style in building design in Chandigarh has attracted criticisms of effecting a "democratic, self-effacing banality", though this criticism is perhaps negligent of how this was necessary for galvanising higher standards of urban living throughout the country. | Chandigarh Criticisms |
LOC London, LOC Pallava, LOC Fort St. George, LOC British Raj, PER Damarla Chennapa Nayaka, LOC Coromandel Coast, LOC Chola, ORG India Today, LOC Madrasapattinam, LOC Madras Presidency, LOC Chennai Metropolitan, ORG Area, LOC South India, LOC Madras State, LOC Chennai, LOC Tamil Nadu, LOC Pandya, ORG British East India Company, LOC India, LOC Madras, LOC Vijayanagara, LOC Bay of Bengal, ORG Greater Chennai Corporation | Chennai ( (listen), Tamil: [ˈt͡ɕenːaɪ̯]), formerly known as Madras, is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. It is the state's primate city both in area and population and is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian census, Chennai is the sixth-most populous city in India and forms the fourth-most populous urban agglomeration. The Greater Chennai Corporation is the civic body responsible for the city; it is the oldest city corporation of India, established in 1688—the second oldest in the world after London.
Historically, Chennai and surroundings were part of the Chola, Pandya, Pallava and Vijayanagara kingdoms for many centuries. The coastal land, which then contained the fishing village Madrasapattinam, was purchased by the British East India Company from the Nayak ruler Damarla Chennapa Nayaka, in the 17th century. The British garrison established the Madras city and port, and built Fort St. George—the first British fortress in India—which the French won over briefly in 1746, before becoming the winter capital of the Madras Presidency, a colonial province of the British Raj in the Indian subcontinent. After India gained its independence in 1947, Madras continued as the capital city of the Madras State and present-day Tamil Nadu. The city was officially renamed as Chennai in 1996.
The city is coterminous with Chennai district, which together with the adjoining suburbs constitutes the Chennai Metropolitan Area, the 36th-largest urban area in the world by population and one of the largest metropolitan economies of India. As the traditional and de facto gateway of South India, Chennai is among the most-visited Indian cities by foreigners. It was ranked the 43rd most-visited city in the world in 2015 and 36th in 2019. The Quality of Living Survey rates it as India's safest city. Chennai attracts 45 percent of health tourists visiting India, and 30 to 40 percent of domestic health tourists. As such, it is termed "India's health capital". Chennai has the fifth-largest urban economy, and had the third-largest expatriate population in India.Ranked as a beta-level city in the Global Cities Index, Chennai was dubbed India's best city by India Today in 2014. It was named the "hottest" city (city worth visiting and worth living in for long term) by the BBC in 2015, citing its amalgam of both modern and traditional values. It was the only South Asian city to feature on National Geographic's "Top 10 food cities" in 2015, and ranked ninth on Lonely Planet's best cosmopolitan cities of the world. In October 2017, Chennai was added to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) list for its rich musical tradition. Chennai hosts more than one-third of India's automobile industry, and is a major film production center, home to the Tamil film industry. | Chennai Introduction |