Mandsaur
Mandsaur is a city and a municipality in Mandsaur district located on Border of Mewar and Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh state of central India. It is the administrative headquarters of Mandsaur District. The ancient Pashupatinath Temple is located in Mandsaur. It is also famous for large production of Opium around the world. Origin of name. The name Mandsaur evolved from Marhsaur, which originated from Marh and Saur (or Dasaur), two of the villages which merged in the town. The town was known as Dashapura in ancient times. The city consists of ten 'puras', which gave it the name  Dashpura. It is also believed that this place was once the maternal residence of Mandodari, the wife of Ravana. In old city areas, people worship the idol of Ravana and avoid participating in the 'Ravana Dahan' (burning the idol of Ravana as a symbol of victory of good over evil) ritual on Vijayadashami (Dashahara) as they regard Ravana their son-in-law. A 35-feet ten headed sitting idol of Ravana can be seen in the Khanpura area of the city. History. Aulikaras of Dashapura. Epigraphical discoveries have brought to light two ancient royal houses, who call themselves as Aulikaras  and ruled from Dashapura (present-day Mandsaur). The first dynasty, who ruled from Dashapura from the beginning comprised the following kings in the order of succession: Jayavarma, Simhavarma, Naravarma, Vishvavarma and Bandhuvarma. The Risthal stone slab inscription discovered in 1983 has brought to light another Aulikara dynasty, which comprised the following kings in the order of succession: Drumavardhana, Jayavardhana Ajitavardhana, Vibhishanavardhana, Rajyavardhana and Prakashadharma. After Parakshadharma, the ruler of Mandsaur was Yashodharma, who is identified with Vishnuvardhana, who erected a pillar of victory at Bayana due to which Bayana's name became Vijaygarh. In all probabilities, he was the son  and immediate successor of Prakashadharma. Yashodharman rule. Sondani (सोंधनी) is a small village at a distance of about 4 km from Mandsaur situated on Mahu-Nimach Highway towards Mahu. In a part of the inscription Yasodharman praises himself for having defeated king Mihirakula: Gurjara-Pratihara Dynasty. The Gurjara Pratihara empire was extended up to Mandasor during the reign of Mahendrapala II. Medieval era. There are two gardens in which there is a pillar of torandwar. It is believed to be pillar of Surya Mandir of the inscription of Bandhu Varma. There is a Shiva statue also in the garden. Avra  excavations (Chambal river) Avra is place where the Madhya Pradesh Archaeology Department excavated during 1960 and 1961 under the direction, of Dr. H. V. Trivedi, is located in the Garoth Pargana of Mandsaur District of Madhya Pradesh. It is about six miles west of Chandwasa a small town which has a Rest House and which is connected by a metalled road of fourteen miles from Shamgarh, a Railway Station between Ratlam and Kota on the Western Railway. The village is situated about half a mile east of the Chambal. Between the river and the modem habitation there is a series  of mounds, high and low, the top of two which nestled the village until about 10–12 years back when its inhabitants shifted to a safer place nearby because of the threat of the river, the mounds are separated from each other by small and broad depressions and rain gullies, some of which might represent old streets. The chain of mounds, however, creates an impression that they contain the remains of an extensive and populous city which grew along the bank of the river rather than at right angles to it as has been the case with most of the ancient  cities in India, like Ujjain and Maheshwar in this State and Hastinapura, Pataliputra and Kausambi outside. The old name of appears to be Apara, as we find on a terracotta seal recovered in the excavation. The name Apara was probably later on corrupted into Avra. Princely State. In 19th century before India's independence in 1947, Mandsaur was part of the princely state of Gwalior. It gave its name to the treaty with the Holkar Maharaja of Indore, who concluded the Third Anglo-Maratha War and the Pindari War in 1818. At the turn of the 20th century it was  a centre of the Malwa opium trade. Mention in Kalidas Manuscript. Mention of Dashpur can be found in Kalidas poem Meghdoot (Purva-megha) 47th stanza. Kalidas writes about the beauty of the eyes of women from Dashpur in his aesthetic piece of words. Geography. Mandsaur District forms the northern projection of Madhya Pradesh from its western Division, i.e., Ujjain Commissioner's Division. It lies between the parallels of latitude 230 45' 50" North and 250 2' 55" North, and between the meridians of longitude 740 42' 30" East and 750 50' 20" East. The District is an average size district  of Madhya Pradesh. It extends for about from north to south and from east to west. The total area is with a population of 1,16,483 in 2001. Demographics. India census, Mandsaur had a population of 141,468 male population was 72,370 and female population was 69,098, giving a sex-ration of 898. Mandsaur had an effective literacy rate of 86.79%, higher than the national average: male literacy was 92.74, and female literacy was 80.60%. 15,721 (11.1%) of the population was under 6 years of age. Transport. Roads. Mandsaur is situated on Ajmer-Lebad (Indore) NH-79 as well as Mhow-Neemuch SH-31  4 Lane road. Railway. Mandsaur railway station is situated on Chittaurgarh-Ratlam track of Indian Railways and is under Ratlam rail division of WR. Currently It has been electrified track . Currently there are many trains available from Mandsaur. Mandsaur has direct trains for Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Jaipur, Nathdwara, Okha, Ajmer, Udaipur, Agra, Kota, Indore, Ujjain, Bhopal, Harda, Ratlam, Chittaurgarh,Puna, Bengaluru city, Mysore, Surat, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Rameswaram, vijayawada, Chennai, Indore, Mhow. The major trains passing from Mandsaur are:- Local. Auto and Nager Seva are main source of local transport in Mandsaur Tourism. Mandsaur and its neighbourhood are full of  places of tourist interest. An inscription discovered near the town indicated the erection of a temple of the sun in 437, and at Sondani are two great monolith pillars recording a victory of Yasodharman, king of Malwa, in 528. The fort dates from the 14th and 15th centuries. Hindu and Jain remains are numerous, though the town is predominantly Muslim. Temple. Mandsaur is also famous for Pashupatinath Temple, a Hindu temple situated on the banks of the Shivana river. Pashupatinath Temple is one of the prominent shrines in Mandsaur of Madhya Pradesh. Lord Shiva in the form of Lord Pashupatinath  is the principal deity here. The highlight is a unique Shivling with eight faces of Lord Shiva. The shrine has four doors in four directions. Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary. River Chambal in Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary The Gandhi Sagar Dam is the first of the four dams built on the Chambal river. It is located in the Mandsaur district of Madhya Pradesh. It is a 64 metre high masonry gravity dam, with a live storage capacity of 6,920 million cubic metres and a catchment area of 22,584 km2. The dam was completed in 1960. The hydro-power station comprises five generating units  of 23 MW capacity each. The water released after power generation is used for power generation at Rana Pratap Sagar Dam, then for power generation at Jawahar Sagar Dam and then is used for irrigation through Kota Barrage. Sports. The 20,000-capacity Nutan Stadium, which is used mostly for cricket also comprises Badminton, Table Tennis, Chess, Judo, Karate courts along with roller skating ring and football ground, is the largest sports venue by capacity in Mandsaur. One can get a hockey turf near the bypass. One can say that Mandsaur is developing in the field of sports.