Dhule district

[2] The district of Dhule was previously known as West Khandesh district.[3] The ancient name of this region was Rasika. It is bounded on the east by Berar (Ancient Vidarbha), on the north by the Nemad district (Ancient Anupa) and on the south by the Aurangabad (ancient Mulaka) and Bhir (ancient Asmaka) districts. Later the country came to be called as Seunadesa after the king, Seunchandra of the early Yadava dynasty, who ruled over it. Subsequently, its name was changed to Khandesh to suit the title khan given to the Faruqi kings by King Ahmad I of Guzerat.

Agastya Sage was the first to crossed Vindhya and resided on the bank of Godavari. This territory was included in the empire of Ashoka. Pushyamitra, the founder of Shunga dynasty overthrew Maurya dynasty. Later on Satavahan ruled over the region.

About A.D. 250, the Satavahans were supplanted by the Abhiras or Ahirs in Western Maharashtra (Region Isvarsena). The names of feudatories of Abhiras that ruled in Khandesh was found from copperplates discovered at Kalachala (Gujarath) and Cave X5II at Ajanta. After downfall of Satavahans the Vakatakas rose to power in Vidarbha. The Vakatakas were over thrown by Rastrakuta family. This region was ruled by Chalukyas of Badami and subsequently Yadavas.

In A.D. 1296, Ala-ud-din Khilji invaded Ramachandra Yadava who agreed to pay a heavy ransom. His son Sankaragana discontinued sending the stipulated tribute to Delhi and then defected and slain by Malik Kafur in A.D. 1318.

In 1345, Devagiri was passed into the hands of Hasan Gangu, the founder of Bahamani dynasty. However, Khandesh formed Southern boundaries of the Tashlug empire.

In 1370, Firoz Taghluq assigned the district of Thalner and Karavanda to Malik Raja Faruqui, the founder of the Faruqui dynasty. His family claimed the descent from Khaliph Umer Faruq. He established himself at Thalner. The governor of Gujarat honored Malik Raja with the little ‘Sipahsalar of Khandesh’. From the little Khan the region came to be known as ‘Khandesh’ the country of Khan. During the period, a rich ahir 'Asa' of Asirgad had many storehouses in Gondvana and Khandesh which were opened in order to sell the corn. However his wife was of a charitable disposition persuaded Asa to allow the grains to be distributed to the poor and suffering without payment to which Asa agreed. It was also with a view to employ many of the sufferers as labours that Asa leveled the old wall of Asir and constructed a fort built of masonry. Asa also distributed food to aged and decrepit who were unable to perform manual labour. The Ahir chief in spite of his wealth and strength of this fort, without any struggle acknowledged the supremacy of Malik Raja bequeathed Laling to his elder son Malik Nasir and Thalner to Malik Iftikar.

Malik Nasir had decided that upon seizing Asirgad, he would make it his own capital. He therefore wrote to Asa complaining that he was in great problems as the chief of Baglana, Antur and Kherla were rising against him. Of those; two had collected large forces. Laling, to close to enemy territories was not a safe retreat. He requested Asa to afford his family a safe retreat. Asa ordered suitable apartments to be filled up for the Malik Nasir's ladies. Shortly after that several covered litters with women were brought to into Asirgad and were visited by Asa's wife and daughters. Next day another of 200 litters arrived reportedly occupied by Malik Nasir's family. Asa along with his son went to receive them but to his astonishment instead of women, he found the litters full of armed soldiers who leapt up and murdered Asa and his innocent sons in cold blood. Not a single male child in the family was left alive. The treacherous and cunning Malik Nasir returned from his camp at laling to the Asirgad fort. Shortly after this a disciple of Shaikh Zain Uddin, the tutelary saint of the family came to congratulate Malik Nasir on his success. On his advice, Malik Nasir built two cities on the bank of Tapi, on the east Bank called Zainabad after the Saikh and the other on the west Bank called Burhanpur after Saikh Burhanuddin of Daulatabad. The Burhanpur became the capital of farugui dynasty. In 1917 Malik Nasir defected his younger brother Malik Iftikar.

On 6 January 1601 Khandesh came under Akbar regime. Khandesh was fancifully named by Akbar a Dandes after his son Daniyal. In 1634 Khandesh was made into a Suba.

On 3 June 1818 the Peshva surrendered himself before British and Khandesh came under British rule. It was part of Khandesh district till that district was divided in 1906,[3] and although the present name was not used then, the present district can be traced back to that year.

The district is further divided into two sub-divisions and four talukas for administrative purposes. Dhule and Sakri talukas are part of Dhule sub-division while Sindkheda and Shirpur talukas are part of Shirpur sub-division. Earlier there were five Vidhan Sabha constituencies in this district. These were Sakri, Shirpur, Sindkheda, Kusumba and Dhule. Dhule was the only Lok Sabha constituency in this district. Shirpur Vidhan Sabha constituency was part of Nandurbar Lok Sabha constituency.

After 2002 delimitation, now there is only one Lok Sabha constituency in the district which is Dhule Lok Sabha constituency comprising the six Maharashtra Assembly constituencies of Dhule Rural, Dhule City and Sindkheda. From Nashik district, Malegaon Outer, Malegaon City and Baglan are included in this lok sabha constituency. Sakri and Shirpur taluka's, though they are from Dhule district, the Legislative Assembly are the part of Nandurbar Lok Sabha seat.

There are five Maharashtra State Assembly seats namely Dhule Rural, Dhule City, Sindkheda, Sakri and Shirpur.

In 2006 the Ministry of Panchayati Raj named Dhule one of the country's 250 most backward districts (out of a total of 640).[4] It is one of the twelve districts in Maharashtra currently receiving funds from the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGF).[4]

According to the 2011 census Dhule district has a population of 2,050,862,[5] roughly equal to the nation of Botswana[6] or the US state of New Mexico.[7] This gives it a ranking of 223rd in India (out of a total of 640).[5] The district has a population density of 285 inhabitants per square kilometre (740/sq mi) .[5] Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 19.96%.[5] Dhule has a sex ratio of 946 females for every 1000 males,[5] and a literacy rate of 72.80%.[5]

At the time of the 2011 Census of India, 33.78% of the population in the district spoke Marathi, 28.70% Khandeshi, 10.51% Bhili, 6.74% Urdu, 5.88% Pawri, 3.27 Hindi, 3.07% Kokna, 1.96% Konkani, 1.14% Mawchi and 1.11% Banjari as their first language.[9]

Languages spoken include Ahirani, a Kandeshi tongue with approximately 780 000 speakers, similar to Marathi and Bhili;[10] Bhilali, with 150 000 speakers;[11] and three mutually unintelligible Bareli languages: Palya Bareli, a Bhil language with approximately 10 000 speakers centred in Madhya Pradesh;[12] Pauri Bareli, with approximately 175 000 speakers, written in the Devanagari script;[13] and Rathwi Bareli, with approximately 64 000 speakers.[14]

• Nashik division
• Dhule City
• Dhule City (Vidhan Sabha constituency)
• Dhule Rural (Vidhan Sabha constituency)
• Dhule (Lok Sabha constituency)
• List of villages in Dhule district

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dhule district.

• Official website of Dhule district
• Shirpur.in information about Shirpur Taluka