Bhandaria, Bhavnagar

Bhandaria was a single village princely state under a Kamaliya Ahir chieftain.[1]

It had a population of 449 in 1901, yielding a state revenue of 4000 Rupees (mostly from land; 1903-4) and paying 322 Rupees tribute to the Gaikwar State (Baroda) and Junagarh State.

During the British Raj, the petty state was under the colonial Eastern Kathiawar Agency.

Modern Bhandaria, in Bhavnagar Taluka of Bhavnagar district, is situated on Maleshri or Maleshvari river.

Bhandaria is known for its stone, a kind of laterite. A very fine bridge of this stone has been built across the Maleshvari river at Bhandaria itself, which is on the high road from Bhavnagar to Mahuva.[2]

The neighbouring hills, a branch of the Khokhara range, are called the Malnath hills, after a temple which lies in one of their gorges, and which is called the Malnath Mahadev. This temple has a fine kund or reservoir of water close to it. The names of the principal hills near Bhandaria are the Kalvira, the Rojmal, the Bhinmal, the Kan-phata, and the Kurma.[2]

• Imperial Gazetteer on DSAL.UChicago.edu

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency: Kathiawar. VIII. Printed at the Government Central Press, Bombay. 1884. p. 382.