Virbhadra is a town in

Dehradun district Dehradun district () is a district in Garhwal which is a part of Uttarakhand state in northern India. The district headquarters is Dehradun, which has also served as the interim capital of Uttarakhand since its founding in 2000. The district ha ...

in the

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand (, ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the n ...

, located close to the pilgrimage town of

Rishikesh Rishikesh, also spelt as Hrishikesh, is a city near Dehradun in the Indian state Uttarakhand. The northern part of Rishikesh is in the Dehradun district while the southern part is in the Tehri Garhwal district. It is situated on the right bank ...

. It is most known as the factory township of Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited,

plant (IDPL), a

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

undertaking, established in 1967, with about 2800 houses, with Government Inter College and a

Kendriya Vidyalaya The Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan () is a system of Government of India, central government schools in India. Governed by the Ministry of Education (India), Ministry of Education, Government of India. , it has a total of 1,257 schools in India, ...

, established in 1976 with support from IDPL administration but get closed in 2000, again reestablished by initiative of centre government in same campus in 2003 The town also has a historical Virbhadra Temple, Neem Karoli Baba Ashram and a Hanuman Mandir. Very near to the town is the Pashulok Barrage which acts as a water reservoir for the Chilla Hydro power plant. The motorable road to the

Neelkanth Mahadev Temple Neelkanth Mahadev Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Nilkanth, an aspect of Shiva. The temple is about 120 km from Pauri, Pauri town, the district headquarters, 32 km from Rishikesh in the Pauri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand, India. ...

passes along the top of the dam.A book on IDPL township titled "Township ke Din" was written by writer Dr Harish Yadav which depicts the life of IDPL Virbhadra Township.

Geography

Virbhadra is located at . It has an average elevation of 330 metres (1,083 feet).

History

It is named after ''

Virabhadra Virabhadra (), also rendered Veerabhadra, Veerabathira, and Veerabathiran, is a fierce form of the Hindu god Shiva. He is created by the wrath of Shiva, when the deity hurls a lock of his matted hair upon the ground, upon hearing of the self- ...

'', an avatar created through the wrath of

Shiva Shiva (; , ), also known as Mahadeva (; , , Help:IPA/Sanskrit, ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐh and Hara, is one of the Hindu deities, principal deities of Hinduism. He is the God in Hinduism, Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions w ...

after the

yajña In Hinduism, ''Yajna'' or ''Yagna'' (, ɐd͡ʒɲə ) also known as Hawan, is a ritual done in front of a sacred fire, often with mantras. Yajna has been a Vedic tradition, described in a layer of Vedic literature called Brahmanas, as well a ...

Daksha Daksha ( ,) is a Hindu god whose role underwent a significant transformation from Vedic mythology, ''Vedic'' to Itihasa-Purana, ''Itihasa-Puranic'' mythology. In the ''Rigveda'', Daksha is an ''Adityas, aditya'' and is associated with priestly ...

, at

Kankhal Kankhal is a small colony in Haridwar in the Haridwar district of Uttarakhand States and territories of India, state in India. Mentioned in the Vayu Purana and the Mahabharata as ''Kanakhala'',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 ...

, Virbhadra had a population of 13,271. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. Virbhadra has an average literacy rate of 81%, higher than the national average of 74.04%: male literacy is 86%, and female literacy is 75%. In Virbhadra, 8% of the population is under 6 years of age.

References

Cities and towns in Dehradun district {{Uttarakhand-geo-stub