Raigarh is a city in northern Chhattisgarh known as the 'Cultural capital of Chhattisgarh'; Raigarh is famous for its dance form “SUWA” (as Raigarh Gharana) and classical music; Raigarh is also known as Sanskritidhani. It is also known for its coal reserves and power generation for the state and the country. With a population of just about 1,50,019 (2011) it is a rapidly growing industrial city. Raigarh is one of the major rice-producing districts in India. Rich in culture and tradition, Raigarh City is the administrative headquarters of Raigarh district. Apart from its cultural heritage, the city of Raigarh is also known for its Kosa (a fine silk) and rich deposits of coal. Raigarh is home to one of the oldest jute mills in India and is major producer of steel, iron ore and electricity in the country. The most spoken language of the people living here are Odia, Chattisgarhi and Hindi. It is rapidly emerging as industrial city on the map of Chhattisgarh and India.

Transportation

Railways

Raigarh railway station is a station on the Tatanagar–Bilaspur section of Howrah-Nagpur-Mumbai line the broad gauge line. All express and some superfast trains stop here, while Gondwana express and Janshatabdi express originate at Raigarh. It is well connected with many major cities. While for other destinations, it has to depend upon Bilaspur railway station, which is a regional rail hub connected to every part of the country and 132 km from Raigarh district headquarter. Kirodimal Nagar railway station is another suburb small station of Raigarh city. Raigarh railway station serving to the people of the nearby area lie Surguja, Dharamjaigarh, Lailunga, Sarangarh. The Raigarh railway station has a good Vehicle parking facility even overnight parking can be done on need.

Airport

The nearest airport is Bilasa Devi Kevat Airport (Bilaspur Airport), just 156 km from Raigarh City. Raigarh Airport, a private airport owned by the Jindal Steel and Power Limited is located north-west of the city.

History

The tradition preserved by the ruling family of the erstwhile state of Raigarh maintains that the Raj Gond family migrated to this region from Bairagarh/Wariagarh of Chanda district of Maharashtra state about the beginning of the eighteenth century and first stayed at Phuljhar in Raipur district. From there Madan Singh, head of the family, migrated to Banda of the present-day Raigarh. The successor kings of Raigarh state after Maharaja Madan Singh were Maharaja Takhat Singh, Maharaha Beth Singh, Maharaja Dilip Singh, Maharaja Jujhar Singh, Maharaja Devnath Singh, Maharaja Ghansyam Singh, Maharaja Bhupdev Singh, Maharaja Natwar Singh, and Maharaja Chakradhar Singh. Truly speaking music, dance, and literature got fillip during the reign of Maharaja Bhupdev Singh and developed further during the rule of Maharaja Chakradhar Singh. Prior to Indian Independence, Raigarh was capital of Princely State of Raigarh.

Geography and climate

Raigarh is located at . It has an average elevation of 215

metre The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...

s (705 feet). The Kelo river flows through the city, which is one of its main water sources. The minimum-maximum temperature range is 29.5 - 49 °C in summer, and 8 - 25 °C in winter.

Language and demographics

Languages spoken are Chhattisgarhi,

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

, and Odia. The demographics of the city consist mainly of people from Chhattisgarh,

Odisha Odisha (), formerly Orissa (List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2011), is a States and union territories of India, state located in East India, Eastern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by ar ...

Haryana Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...

and

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

. A sizeable community of Bengali, Telugu and Marathi speaking people also live here. India

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

Raigarh district had a population of 1,493,984, and the city of Raigarh a population of 137,126. Males constitute 51% of the population and females 49%. Raigarh has an average literacy rate of 87.02%, male literacy is 93.18%, and female literacy is 80.60%. Religion in Raigarh (2011)

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...

is Raigarh predominant religious faith, with 90.20% of Raigarh population, followed by

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

(5.50%),

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

(2.99%),

Sikhism Sikhism is an Indian religion and Indian philosophy, philosophy that originated in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent around the end of the 15th century CE. It is one of the most recently founded major religious groups, major religio ...

(0.85%),

Jainism Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religions, Indian religion whose three main pillars are nonviolence (), asceticism (), and a rejection of all simplistic and one-sided views of truth and reality (). Jainism traces its s ...

(0.19%) and

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

(0.19%).

Education

Average literacy rate in Raigarh district as per census 2011 is 85.22% of which males and females are 92.01% and 78.09% literates respectively. As of the 2011 Census of India, Raigarh had 55 primary schools, 37 middle schools, 9 secondary schools and 16 senior-secondary school, Shaheed Nandkumar Patel University, along with 2 arts and commerce colleges (including Kirodimal Govt. Arts and Science College ), 1 law college, 1 Medical College( Late Shri Lakhiram Agrawal Medical College ), 1 polytechnic college. O.P. Jindal University and Kirodimal Institute of Technology are newer institutions in the city.

Notable people

* Raja Chakradhar Singh * Sulakshana Pandit * Surendra Kumar Singh * Lalitkumar Singh * Gomati Sai

References

External links

Official government website
{{Authority control Cities and towns in Raigarh district Former capital cities in India