Haridwar district


Haridwar district, also spelled Hardwar, is part of Uttarakhand, India that lies in the Doab region, where people traditionally speak Khariboli. It is headquartered at Haridwar which is also its largest city. The district is ringed by the districts Dehradun in the north and east, Pauri Garhwal in the east and the Uttar Pradesh districts of Muzaffarnagar and Bijnor in the south and Saharanpur in the west.
Haridwar district came into existence on 28 December 1988 as part of Saharanpur Divisional Commissionary, On 24 September 1998 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly passed the 'Uttar Pradesh Reorganisation Bill', 1998', eventually the Parliament also passed the Indian Federal Legislation – 'Uttar Pradesh Reorganisation Act 2000', and thus on 9 November 2000, Haridwar became part of the newly formed Uttarakhand, the 27th state of the Republic of India.
As of 2011 it is the most populous district of Uttarakhand. Important towns in the district are Haridwar, BHEL Ranipur, Roorkee, Manglaur, Jhabrera, Laksar, Landhaura, Dhandera, Bhagwanpur, and Bahadrabad.

Geography

Haridwar district, covering an area of about 12.3 km per square, is in the southwestern part of Uttarakhand state of India. Its latitude and longitude are 29.96-degree north and 78.16-degree east respectively.
The river Ganges flows through it in a series of channels separated from each other called aits, most of which are wooded. Other minor seasonal streams are Ranipur Rao, Pathri Rao, Rawii Rao, Harnaui Rao, and Begam Nadi. A large part of the district is forested.

Climate

Average temperatures are mostly cooler than that of other parts of the country.

Nature and wildlife

The wooded Rajaji National Park, a wildlife sanctuary, is within the bounds of the district and is accessible through different gates; Ranipur and Chilla Gates are just about 9 km from Haridwar. Sureshvari Devi Mandir, a temple of Goddess Sureshwari, is situated in Rajaji National Park. Cheela Dam is a picnic spot with a dam and a man-made lake nearby; elephants and other wild animals could be easily spotted here. Neel Dhara Pakshi Vihar is a bird sanctuary, situated on the main Ganges river, or Neel Dhara, at the Bhimgoda Barrage; it is visited by bird watchers and home to migratory birds during the winter season.

History

Legends

A discourse of Bhishma in the Vana Parva Section XC of The Mahabharata notes:
According to Hindu literature, Daksha Prajapati, father of Dakshayani, Shiva's first wife, was a ruler here. He performed a yagna, to which he deliberately did not invite Shiva. When he arrived uninvited, he was further insulted by the king, seeing which Sati felt infuriated and self-immolated herself in the yajna-fire. This site is regarded to be at the Sati Kund as it is called now, situated in Kankhal. The heart and navel of Sati are believed to have fallen at the place which is the present site of the Maya Devi Temple, Haridwar, dating back to the 11th century. Daksha was later killed by Virabhadra, born out of Shiva's anger. Subsequently, the king was brought to life and given a goat's head by Shiva.
The Skanda Purana mentions a legend, in which Chanda and Munda, the asuras who fought under Sumbha and Nisumbha were killed by goddess Chandi. This site, according to regional legend, is regarded to be at the location of the Chandi Devi Temple.
Sage Kapila is regarded to have had an ashram here. The legendary King Bhagiratha, the great-grandson of the Suryavamsha King Sagara,, is said to have brought the river Ganges down from heaven, through years of penance in Satya Yuga, for the salvation of 60,000 of his ancestors from the curse of the saint Kapila.
Vishnu is said to have left his footprint on the stone that is set in the upper wall of Har-Ki-Pauri, where the Ganges touches it at all times. Devout Hindus perform ritualistic bathing here on the banks of the river Ganges, an act considered to be the equivalent of washing away one's sins to attain moksha.
Seven sages or Saptarishis, namely Kashyapa, Vashishta, Atri, Vishvamitra, Jamadagni, Bharadvaja and Gautama, are said to have meditated at the site of the Sapt Rishi Ashram and Sapt Rishi Sarovar, a place near Haridwar, where the Ganges split into seven currents, so that the rishis would not be disturbed by the flow.
In the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata, where sage Dhaumya tells Yudhishthira about the tirthas of India, Gangadwara, i.e. Haridwar and Kankhal, have been referred to; the text also mentions that the sage Agastya performed a penance here, with the help of his wife, Lopamudra.
It is said that while Pandavas were going to Himalayas through Haridwar, prince Bhima drew water from the rocks here, by thrusting his knee into the ground at the present site of 'Bhimagoda' situated at a distance of about 1 km from Har-ki-Pauri.

Ancient period

Archaeological findings have proved that terra cotta culture dating between 1700 BCE and 1200 BCE existed in this region.
Haridwar came under the rule of the Maurya Empire, and later under the Kushan Empire.
It is believed that the sacred Ghat Har ki Pauri was constructed by King Vikramaditya in memory of his brother Bharthari, who had come to Haridwar and meditated on the banks of holy Ganges and died here.
First ancient era written evidence of Haridwar is found in the accounts of a Chinese traveller, Huan Tsang, who visited India in 629 CE, during the reign of King Harshavardhan. He records Haridwar as 'Mo-yu-lo', the remains of which still exist at Mayapur, a little to the south of the modern Haridwar town; among the ruins are a fort and three temples, decorated with broken stone sculptures. He also mentions the presence of a temple, north of Mo-yu-lo called 'Gangadwara', Gateway of the Ganges.
It is believed that Adi Shankracharya had visited this region and the existing main statue of Chandi Devi Temple was established by him in 8th century A.D.

Medieval period

Haridwar region was a part of Delhi Sultanate. The armies of Emperor Timur, a Turkic conqueror, had passed through this region on 13 January 1399 to attack Delhi.
During his visit, first Sikh Guru, Guru Nanak bathed at Haridwar's 'Kushwan Ghat', wherein the famous, 'watering the crops' episode took place. His visit is today commemorated by a gurudwara ; according to two Sikh Janamsakhis, this visit took place on the Baisakhi day in 1504 CE. He later had also visited Kankhal en route to Kotdwara in Garhwal. Besides this, third Sikh Guru, Sri Amar Das also visited Hardwar twenty two times during his lifetime.
The Mughal period: Ain-e-Akbari, written by Abul Fazal in the 16th century during the reign of Mughal Emperor Akbar, refers to Maya, known as Hardwar on the Ganges, as sacred city of Hindus. It also mentions that during his travels, and also while at home, Mughal Emperor Akbar drank water from the Ganges river, which he called 'the water of immortality'. Special people were stationed at Sorun and later Haridwar to dispatch water, in sealed jars, to wherever he was stationed.
It is said that Akbar's famous Commander-in-Chief, Raja Man Singh of Amber, laid the foundation of the present day city of Haridwar and also renovated the ghats at Har-ki-pauri. After his death, his ashes are also said to have been immersed at Brahma Kund by Mughal emperor Akbar himself. Brahma Kund at Har ki Pauri, Haridwar is one among the four sites where drops of the elixir of immortality, Amrita, accidentally spilled over from the pitcher, in which it was being carried away by the celestial bird Garuda, after the Samudra manthan by the Devas and the Asuras. The famous Kumbh Melas are held at these four sites in rotation, to commemorate the event. Thomas Coryat, an English traveller, who visited the city in the reign of Emperor Jahangir mentions it as 'Haridwara', the capital of Shiva.

British Raj

The Ganges Canal was opened in 1854 after the work began in April 1842, prompted by the famine of 1837–38. The unique feature of the canal is the half-kilometre-long aqueduct over Solani river at Roorkee, which raises the canal 25 metres above the original river.

Post Independence period

In 1947, when India achieved independence from the British colonial subjugation, the region of present Haridwar district was a part of the then Saharanpur district, in the United Province of the British Raj; the province was renamed as Uttar Pradesh state of India. The Haridwar district came into existence on 28 December 1988 as part of Saharanpur Divisional Commissionary. On 24 September 1998 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly passed the 'Uttar Pradesh Reorganisation Bill', 1998'; eventually the Parliament also passed the Indian Federal Legislation – 'Uttar Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000' – and thus on 9 November 2000, Haridwar district became part of the newly formed Uttarakhand, the 27th state in the Republic of India.

Demographics

Social groups

Haridwar has a multiethnic population spread across two geocultural regions: Khadar, and Bangar. A large portion of the population is Gurjars, Sainis, and Chauhans including Van Gurjars and Khadi Chauhans classified as Other Backward Classes. Gurjars have villages in Jhabrera, Manglaur, Laksar, Khanpur, Roorkee, Bhagwanpur. Other the Sainis have villages in Roorkee, Laksar, Bhagwanpur, and Haridwar Rural. While Chauhans have villages in BHEL Ranipur, Haridwar Rural, Jwalapur and Laksar.
rest of the groups are Brahmins, Rajputs, and Garhwalis are Classified as Upper caste. Other the Scheduled Castes also have population in Haridwar. jats, Punjabis, Yadavs, Gadarias are also found here in small population.
According to the 2011 census Haridwar district has a population of 1,890,422, roughly equal to the nation of Lesotho or the US state of West Virginia. This gives it a ranking of 244th in India. The district has a population density of . Its population growth rate over the decade 2001–2011 was 30.63%. Haridwar has a sex ratio of 880 females for every 1000 males.
The main language of Haridwar is Hindi, Urdu at 9.7%. Khariboli and Garhwali are also spoken by small minorities.