Dhule : At a Glance

The district of Dhule was erstwhile known as West Khandesh district and was called as Rasika. In north it is surrounded by Berar (ancient Vidarbha), in south by Nemad district (ancient Anupa) and by Aurangabad (ancient Mulaka) in the south and Bhir (ancient Asmaka) districts. Later it was called as Seunadesa after the name of king Seunchandra of early yadav dynasty and with the passing time it was changed to Khandesh. The history of Dhule also suffers from severe lacunae.

During Aryans interference in the Deccan region Agastya was the first Aryan ruler to cross the Vindhya and settle on the banks of Godavari. Later this region was incorporated with the empire of Ashoka. In the coming years the Maurya dynasty was over ruled by the founder of Sanga Dynasty, Pusyamitra.

After Pusyamitra the area came under the dominance of Satavahans around A.D. 250, they were cheated by the Abhiras in Western Maharashtra and lost their control on the region. All these historical records are mentioned on the inscriptions founded at Kalachala and cave X511 at Ajanta. The decline Satavahans gave rise to power of Vakatakas in the Vidarbha. Similarly like other districts the reign kept of transferring from one dynasty to other, after Vakatakas to Rashtrakuta, then to Chalukyas of Badami and finally in the hands of Yadavs.

In A.D. 1296 Allauddin Khilji defeated the Yadav ruler Ramachandra Yadav and who agreed to paid heavy ransom every year to the Sultans of Delhi. After Ramchandra Yadav his son Sankargana refused to pay the consolidated amount to the Delhi and as result got defeated by Malik Kafur in A.D. 1318.

After the period of more than two decades Devagiri came under the control of Hasan Gangu who founded the Bahamani Dynasty, at that time Khandesh came under the southern boundaries of the Taghluq Empire.

During 1370, Firoz Taghluq handed over the administration of Thalner and Karavanda district to Malik Raja Faruqui who founded the Faruqui dynasty. Later he was honoured as ‘Sipahsalar of Khandesh’ by the then Governor of Gujarat and thus, from the little Khan the region came to known as Khandesh meaning the country of Khan’s.

In 1601 Khandesh came under the control of Akbar. In 1634 Khandesh was made into a ‘Suba’. After which Dhule had been under the rulers of different dynasties. Finally on June 3, 1818, the last Peshwa rurler gave up before the British administration and Khandesh became the province under British rule.

In 1906 as the result of administrative reforms Khandesh was divided into two districts known as West Khandesh and East Khandesh. The old districts of Khandesh namely Dhulia, Nandurbar, Nayapur, Peta, Pimpalner, Shahda, Shirpur, Sindkheda and Taloda were retained in West Khandesh.

In 1960 Dhule was declared as the part of Maharashtra state and got separated from the old Bombay district. On July 1, 1998 the district was Dhule was again divided into two districts i.e., Dhule and Nandurbar.

Geography: The district of Dhule is located in the northern parts of Maharashtra and lies on Latitude 20 ⁰ 38'  to 21 ⁰ 61' N and  Longitude  73 ⁰  50' to 75 ⁰ 11' E. It is located on the merging point of three national highways namely NH-6 (Surat-Nagpur), NH-3 (Mumbai-Agra) and NH-211 (Dhule-Sholapur).

Statistical Information about Dhule

 

Connectivity: Dhule is located about 340 Kms northeast of Mumbai while 350 Kms North of Pune. Three National Highways namely NH-6 (Surat - Nagpur), NH-3 (Mumbai - Agra) and NH-211 (Dhule - Solapur) are passing through the district. The town is connected by regular buses from nearby towns/cities.

 

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