Ahmednagar
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Ahmednagar is a city in the state of Maharashtra, India, on the left bank of the river S'na, about 100 km southeast of Pune. Population about 750,000. Ahmednagar is also the capital of a district of the same name.
The town was founded in 1494 by Ahmad Nizam Shah, on the site of a more ancient city, Bhingar. With the breakup of the Bahmani Sultanate, Ahmad established a new sultanate in Ahmednagar, one of the Deccan sultanates, which lasted until its conquest by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in 1636. Aurangzeb, the last great Mughal emperor, who spent the latter years of his reign, 1681-1707, in the Deccan, died there in 1707, and a small monument marks the site.
In 1759 the Peshwa of the Marathas obtained possession of the place by bribing the Muslim commander, and in 1790 it was ceded by the Peshwa to the Maratha chief Daulat Rao Sindhia.
In 1803, during the Second Anglo-Maratha War, Ahmednagar was invested by a British force under General Wellesley and captured. It was afterwards restored to the Marathas, but again came into the possession of the British in 1817, according to the terms of the Treaty of Poona.
Numerous Mughal-era buildings dot the environs. Ahmednagar fort, once considered the second most unimpregnable fort in India, was used by the British to house Nehru and other Indian Nationalists before Indian independence; a few rooms there have been converted to a museum. The town houses the second-largest display of military tanks in the world; the exhibit is open to the public.
The area is notable for a number of spiritual sites as well. Ahmednagar is in the center of Maharashtra's circle of Ganesha shrines, and is the site of Meher Baba's samadhi.
Sultans of Ahmednagar
- Ahmad Shah I 1490 - 1509
- Burhan Shah I 1509 - 1553
- Husain Shah I 1553 - 1565
- Murtaza Shah 1565 - 1588
- Miran Husain 1588 - 1589
- Isma'il Shah 1589 - 1591
- Burhan Shah II 1591 - 1595
- Ibrahim Shah 1595 - 1596
- Ahmad Shah II 1596
- Bahadur Shah 1596 - 1600
- Murtaza Shah II 1600 - 1610
- Burhan Shah III 1610 - 1631
- Husain Shah II 1631 - 1633
Ahmednagar District
Population (2001 census): 4,088,077
Ahmednagar district was created after the defeat of the Maratha confederacy in 1818, when most of the Peshwa's domains were annexed to British India. The district remained part of the Central division of Bombay province until India's independence in 1947, when it became part of Bombay state, and in 1960 the new state of Maharashtra.
Places of interest:
- Shirdi, home to the late Sai Baba, revered by Hindus and Muslims alike.
- Meherabad (Pimpalgaon), where the samadhi (tomb-shrine) of the spiritual master Meher Baba is place of pilgrimage, visited by thousands each year, particularly on the anniversary of his death, January 31.
- Ralegan Siddhi, a village which is a model for environmental conservation
External Links
- List of Ahmednagar sultans (http://www.hostkingdom.net/india.html#Ahmadnagar)
| Districts of Maharashtra |
| Ahmadnagar | Akola | Amravati | Aurangabad | Bhandara | Bid | Buldana | Chandrapur | Dhule | Gadchiroli | Gondiya | Hingoli | Jalgaon | Jalna | Kolhapur | Latur | Mumbai | Mumbai (suburban) | Nagpur | Nashik | Nanded | Nandurbar | Osmanabad | Parbhani | Pune | Raigarh | Ratnagiri | Sangli | Satara | Sindhudurg | Solapur | Thane | Wardha | Washim | Yavatmal |