Makrana is an urban city located, near Kuchaman City, at the centre of state in Didwana-Kuchaman district in the

Indian state India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, for a total of 36 subnational entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into 800 districts and smaller administrative divisions by the respe ...

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the List of states and union territories of ...

Rajasthani language The Rajasthani languages are a group of Western Indo-Aryan languages, primarily spoken in Rajasthan and Malwa, and adjacent areas of Haryana, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh in India and South Punjab and the adjacent areas of Sindh in Pakistan. T ...

is widely spoken here. It also served as a

tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a Zila (country subdivision), district including the designated populated place that ser ...

headquarters, with 136 villages under its jurisdiction thus making it the largest tehsil in the district. The biggest village of Makrana tehsil by area is Modicharna. Makrana is west of

Jaipur Jaipur (; , ) is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the List of cities and towns in Rajasthan, largest city of the north-western States and union territories of India, Indian state of Rajasthan. , the city had ...

and north-east of

Jodhpur Jodhpur () is the second-largest city of the north-western Indian state of Rajasthan, after its capital Jaipur. As of 2023, the city has a population of 1.83 million. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Jodhpur district and ...

. Makrana is known for the part it has played in building the

Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal ( ; ; ) is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was commissioned in 1631 by the fifth Mughal Empire, Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his belo ...

by supplying marble, craftsmen and stonemasons to build the iconic

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

world heritage centre. It is one of the developing cities in the state. The marble from the town Makrana which is known as Makrana Marble, gets the GHSR (

Global Heritage Stone Resource The Global Heritage Stone Resource (GHSR) designation seeks international recognition of natural stone resources that have achieved widespread utilisation in human culture. Details of the "Global Heritage Stone Resource" proposal were first provid ...

s) status from the IUGS.

Geography

Makrana is located at , and has an average elevation of . It lies in the middle of the

Aravalli Range The Aravalli Range (also spelled ''Aravali'') is a mountain range in North India, Northern-Western India, running approximately in a south-west direction, starting near Delhi, passing through southern Haryana and Rajasthan, and ending in Ahme ...

, and these mountains are the source of its fame as a marble producer.

History

Makrana was a part of

Jodhpur State Kingdom of Marwar, also known as Jodhpur State during the modern era, was a kingdom in the Marwar region from 1243 to 1818 and a princely state under British rule from 1818 to 1947. It was established in Pali by ''Rao Siha'', possibly a migran ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

. It is home to some of the world's most renowned white

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...

sites, from which the

, Victoria Memorial of Kolkata, Birla Temple of Jaipur and Jain Temple of Dilwara in Southern Rajasthan were built. It is said that the town is named after the 1800 artisans who came from the coastal strip of

Makran Makran (), also mentioned in some sources as ''Mecran'' and ''Mokrān'', is the southern coastal region of Balochistan. It is a semi-desert coastal strip in the Balochistan province in Pakistan and in Iran, along the coast of the Gulf of Oman. I ...

in southern

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

, The region planned to be new capital of Iran. Subsequently, Persians also used the term "muqarnas" for the town.

Economy

The town is served by railroads and other forms of transportation, serving as a key junction between Jaipur, Parbatsar and Jodhpur. Makrana is a large town in formerly entire Nagaur district, with a deposit of 56 million tonnes of marble and 40,000 labourers working in 900 mines in the several ranges of the Aravallis. Makrana is the main centres of marble in

. Calcitic in nature, Makrana marble is regarded as the oldest, and finest in quality. The present rate of marble production from Makrana is 19.20 million tonnes per year with an annual revenue of rupees (INR) 20036

crore Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the India ...

. Per capita income is INR 50,000, which is much higher than national average of INR 46,000. It is the richest municipality in Rajasthan. Makrana is source of employment to more than 100,000 people from about 200 surrounding villages. The Victoria Memorial of

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

, the

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 Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is the ...

, the Raudat Tahera in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

and the

Jain Temple A Jain temple, Derasar (Gujarati: દેરાસર) or Basadi (Kannada: ಬಸದಿ) is the place of worship for Jains, the followers of Jainism. Jain architecture is essentially restricted to temples and monasteries, and Jain buildings ge ...

of Dilwara in southern Rajasthan are built from Makrana marble. Some other monuments where Makrana marble has been used are the

Haji Ali Dargah The Haji Ali Dargah is a Sufi shrine, and the monument of Pir Haji Ali Shah Bukhari, that is located on an islet off the coast of Worli in southern Mumbai, in the state of Maharashtra, India. An exquisite example of Indo-Islamic architecture, ...

of Mumbai, the Jain Temple of

Mysore Mysore ( ), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of Mysore district and Mysore division. As the traditional seat of the Wadiyar dynasty, the city functioned as the capital of the ...

, and the Ambedkar Park of Lucknow, Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.

Mining

Makrana marble is a metamorphic rock. It is found in a single deposit in India. The Makrana marble has a range of about 90–98% Calcium Carbonate. Makrana has various mines in the Aravallis range, popularly known as Doongri, Devi, Ulodi, Saabwali, Gulabi, Kumari, Neharkhan, Matabhar, Matabhar Kumari, Chuck Doongri, Chosira and Pahar Kua. The Pahar Kua range is thought to be the actual mine from which the marble for the Taj Mahal was extracted. The Doongri, Devi, Sahabwali, Ulodi, Chosira and Neharkhan mines are famous for white marble, whereas Ulodi is famous for albeta marble (white marble with dark patterning). The Gulabi mine produces pink plain and pink adana marble, whereas almost all mines produce adanga marble with brown and grey shades. There are about 800 factories for marble cutting and processing. The factories use gang saws to cut the marble.

Culture & Festivals

Makrana has unique culture, The Hindu people worship Bhagwan Charbhujanath. Charbhuja Mandir is oldest existing temple here. It is said that the idol of deity charbhujanath was found between 1580 and 1590 AD from an Ancient Bawadi named Charbhuja Bawdi. Peer ki dargah is oldest Makbara in Makrana where Laganshah Peer Baba is buried.

References