JABALPUR GUIDE.
YOUR WINDOW TO JABALPUR

JABALPUR - THE CITY OF MARBLE ROCKS

JABALPUR- Is an ancient city in central India situated in the heart of India on shores of holy river Narmada & lying in plains of tributaries Hiran & Gour & Ken & Sone. Narmada River valley having world famous Marble Rocks the only of its kind in the world where the whole river flows for nearly 2 K.M.s. in between varied coloured & tinted marble rocks with a deap water fall. Its cardinal point are 23 degree 10'N latitude and 79 degree 57' E longitude with altitude of 393 metres maan sea level. Jabalpur is well connected by National highway-7 (Nagpur-Varanasi) Broad gauage & metere gauge railway lines & Skeleton air service. It is Divisional & district headquarter with about 14 lacs population. It is on Deccan Pleatue with Ht of 393 meters & sorrounded on all sides by most ancient basalt rocks with thick forest alround having about 1386 mm rainfall. The highest maximum temperature 46.7 C was recorded on 25th May 1924 and lowest minimum was zero degree on 29th December 1905.

The topography of Jabalpur is unique.The city is sorrounded by low, rocky, and barren hillrocks. Some of which form a barrier for continous development of urban form and restrict inter-links between various parts of the city. Kariapather hillock to the north-east, Sita Pahad and Kandhari hills to the east, Madan Mahal hills and rocks outcrops to the south-west. Railway line girding the city like a "horse shoe" had its due influence in the growth of urban form. The main water reservoir of Khandari and Pariyat are located to the north-east direction of the city. Recently water is also drawn from Narmada River by Public Health Dept.

The main crops are wheat, rice, pulses, oilseeds, maize etc. Nearby is Bargi Dam on the river Narmada for irrigation, water supply & power generation. The town is surrounded by several lakes & water tank used for culture in them & in rivers. Besides the area is rich in limestone, refractory clay, bauxite, iron ore, managnese & other deposits. Three Cement plants several fireclay refractories lime stone kilns & good indusrial estates nearby. Beside defence factories like GCF, Vehicle factory, G.I.F. & Ordnance factory depot.

The name is said to be derived from Saint Jabali Pattanam or Jabal (in Arabic meaning rocks). It is Geologist & Archeologists paradies as all sorts of rocks and monuments are present. The excavation by Archeological department dates back to 4000 years and in 1930 full skeleton of Dynasour was found. In vedic language and also in Ramayan and Mahabharat the Tripuri is described (Near Jabalpur) and accoding to some ancient historians the Lanka of Ramayan was in this area. The area had been earlier ruled by Chedies & Kalchuries. The famous temple of 64 yoginies near Bheraghat marble rocks is testimony of earlier education & civilisation. Later the area was under the Gond Princes when in 16th century famous Rani Durgavati laid down her life fighting the Moghul empire. Thereafter it was ruled by the Peshwas snd then came under British rule & was made headquarter of 12 districts. There was also proposal of shifting Indian capital to Jabalpur which did not materialise. Clock Tower, Famine Smarak, Soldier's smarak, Townhall, are memorials of martyrs. The city played vital role during 1857 Mutiny & in Pakistan/China war giving martyrs to nation. A combined memorial was built recently for civil and defence service martyrs.

Politically under Lokmanya Tilak's direction Jhanda Satyagraha was launched with success (who visited 3 times) Mahatma Gandhi visited 4 times & famous Congress session was held at Tripuri (Jabalpur) in 1939 when Late Subhash Chandra Bose was elected the congress President against the wishes of Mahatma Gandhi. Methodology of two thoughts to achieve freedom was formulated in the session. A memorial Kamania gate was erected in city. Later Shaheed Smarak & Mahatma Gandhi smarak was erected. Even after independence this city had been very active politically & produced politicians like Pt. D.P. Mishra, Seth Govind Das, Pt. Kunjilal Dubey, Parmanand Patel, Smt. Ratna Kumari Devi, Smt. Jayashree Banerjee (presently Member of Parliament from Jabalpur), Babu Jagmohandas, Babu Manmohandas, Thakur Laxmansingh Chauhan. Bhawani Prasad Tiwari, Beohar Rajendra Singh Baburao Pranjpe etc.

Jabalpur is a big Defence & Military Centre having Army Officers school (Now College of Defence Management) where veteran military Generals took training. Also it has large Defence factories like Gun Carriage Factory, Ordnance Factory, Vehicle Factory, Grey Iron Foundary, EME workshop, Central Ordnance Depot, Signal's centre & Army Area Head Quarters with 2 Lt General rank officer's. Besides there is big Cantonment & M.E.O. Canteen stores Deptt etc. Jabalpur is seat of Madhya Pradesh High Court (having Hon. Justice M.Hidayatullah & later vice President of India as the first chief justice.) It has produced famous judges like Hon Justice V.R. Sen, Justice A.P. Sen, J.B. Sen, J.S. Verma, Late Past Dist. Governor R.K. Tankha and several others besides our past Distt. Governor Hon. Justice Gulab Gupta who is now Chairman of M.P. Human Right Commission. Jabalpur also has headquarter of M.P. State Electricity Board, Homeguards & some Government Departments of Centre & State. The Telecom factory, Telegraph workshop & Telecom training centre & other postal departments, Survey of India etc are several offices worth mentioning. Jabalpur has been and is great education centre having two Universities Rani Durgavati University & Jawaharlal Nehru Agricultural University plus and having about 30 colleges with all faculties like engineering, medical, veterinary, teacher's training, arts, science, commerce, theology etc.The old Roberston College is more than 135 yrs old, besides 87 years old Spence Training College for teachers.

VINOBA BHAVE the modern saint philosopher of India christened this city as SANSKAR DHANI- the capital of various cultural influences. He was impresed by its cosmopolitan character and communal harmony. The city has sizeable population of people from Bengal, Gujrat, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and South India who live in total harmony peace and add richness to the life in the city. One can also see the fusion of cultures in this city.

Jabalpur has also given to the world, philosophers like Maharishi Mahesh Yogi of Transcendental Meditation fame and Osho (Bhagwaan Rajneesh). Jabalpur has been centre of ancient music with music Colleges & great Cultural centre for arts, drama and has produced several famous musicians, dramatists, cinema actors, mono players, magicians etc. In sports it has been buzzing with activities for nearly a century. Famous J.E.A.A. Tournament & other national tournament are regularly held. Col. Sir Navil Francis first designed snooker (Biliards) in 1875 at Jabalpur. In cricket Shree Chandu Sarwate won Ranji Trophy and represented Indian team against England, Australia & Ceylon. Women also had been great sports persons in Jabalpur & Avinash Sidhu (Awarded Vikram Award in 1975) & others have made mark in sports.

Industrially it has now four Industrial Estates with several small & medium scale industries. The largest among Cottage industries is the Biri manufacturing (No mechanisation anywhere). Due to lack of infrastructure large industries have not come up as yet. The city has several Government & private hospitals catering to the public health needs. The city transport is mainly by cycle rikshaw besides buses & minibuses, autos etc. There are several Daily Newspapers like Navbharat, Naveen Duniya, Dainik Bhasker, Deshbandhu etc. beside Hitvada & M.P. Chronical.