Khalghat (22°09'26.2"N 75°27'09.7"E) is a small town and a
gram panchayat
Gram Panchayat () is a basic village-governing institute in Indian villages. It is a democratic structure at the grass-roots level in India. It is a political institute, acting as cabinet of the village. The Gram Sabha work as the general bo ...
in
Dhar district
Dhar district is a district of Madhya Pradesh state in central India. The historic town of Dhar is administrative headquarters of the district.
The district has an area 8,153 km2. It is bounded by the districts of Ratlam to the north, Ujja ...
in the state of
Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. It is located on the north bank of the Narmada, at an important ford where the Agra-Bombay national highway crosses the river. Hindi and Nimadi and Malvi are the primary languages spoken in the area.
History
In ancient times Khalghat was known as Khalighaṭṭa and lay on long-distance routes connecting Malwa to the Deccan. Here on the banks of the Revā i.e. Narmada, Caccha, a feudatory of
Paramāra king
Sīyaka II (c. 949–972) gave battle to
Khoṭṭigadeva, the
Rāṣṭrakūṭa king of Māṇyakheṭa, around 972-973 CE, and died a heroic death. This is recorded in verse 29 of the Panaheda temple inscription of Maṇḍalīka, king of a Paramāra branch ruling from
Vāgaḍa in Banswara district of Rajasthan.
Under the Mughal Empire, the main crossing was 1.5 km further east on the south bank of the Narmada, known as Akbarpur (22°08'58.6"N 75°28'13.7"E). In the 16th and 17th century, this river-crossing lay on a route frequented by several foreign travellers to the Mughal court, from the Catalán Jesuit
António de Monserrate in 1580 to the merchant
William Finch (d. 1613) and captain
John Jourdain
John Jourdain (? – 17 July 1619), was a captain in the service of the English East India Company (EIC), and the first president of the EIC Council of India
Life and career
He was the sixth child and fourth son of John Jourdain, a Lyme Regis bas ...
(d. 1619) of the East India Company: Burhanpur—Asirgarh—Bhikangaon—Akbarpur—Mandu—Depalpur—Ujjain—Barrai—Sironj. This route seems to have suffered under Emperor Shah Jahan, when Handiya became the major conduit for military traffic to Deccan. But with the establishment of Maratha rule, the Khalghat/Akbarpur ford was revived in order to serve the towns of western Malwa, especially the new capital at Indore. The British main road from Bombay to Agra, which developed between 1840 and 1860, crossed Khalghat over a collapsible trestlework bridge, continuing through Indore, Sarangpur and Shivpuri to Gwalior.
Geography
Dhar is located at . It has an average elevation of 150 metres (495 feet).
It is located on the banks of
Narmada River and
National Highway 3 Agra
Agra (, ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital New Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra i ...
-
Indore
Indore () is the largest and most populous city in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It serves as the headquarters of both Indore District and Indore Division. It is also considered as an education hub of the state and is the only city to ...
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Dhule
Dhule is a city located in the Dhule District in the northwestern part of Maharashtra state, India known as West Khandesh. Situated on the banks of Panzara River, Dhule is the regional headquarters of MIDC, RTO, and MTDC.
The city is mainly kn ...
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Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...
.
Places of archaeological interest
The town is rich in unexplored archaeological sites, which include Panch-paoli, Nāwada-ki-mātā, and the ruins of a terrace. Excavations were conducted at Khalghat in 1998-1999 under G.K. Chandrol and P. Mathur of the Directorate of Archaeology, Archives & Museums, Madhya Pradesh.
References
{{Indore Division
Cities and towns in Dhar district