The word "Dharwad" means a place of rest in a long
travel or a small habitation. For centuries, Dharwad acted as
a gateway between Malenaadu(western mountains) and Bayalu seeme
(plains) and it became a resting place for the travelers. Another
theory is, during VijayaNagara rule of Dharwad, there was a
ruler by name "Dharav" (1403 AD) and Dharwad got its
name from him. There are some inscriptions that refer to Dharwad
as KampaNa Sthana.
The inscriptions found near Durga Devi temple, in Narendra(
a village near by) and RLS high school date back to 12th century
and have references to Dharwad. This proves that Dharwad existed
in 12th century and it is now at least 900 years old!!!!..
DHARWAD FORT
Chalukyas ruled Dharwad during 12th century. A stone inscription
indicates that there was ruler by the name BhaskaraDeva in 1117
AD. Later Dharwad became a part of the Vijayanagara empire.
After then fall of the Vijayanagara empire(1453 AD), Bijapur's
Adil Shah captured Dharwad and built a fort. The fort area was
called MannaKille, and later Nazratabad. With this fort , the
strategic importance of Dharwad increased and it thus became
part of everyone's empire, Auranjeb, Shivaji ,Auranjeb's son
Mu Azam, Peshwe Balaji Rao, Hidar Ali, Tipu Sultan and finally
British.
During early 19th century , when British were expanding their
kingdom , they faced lot of opposition from local rulers.To
mention two of them, Baba Saheb of Naragund and Kittur Rani
Chennamma.
Dharwad was peaceful for much part of late the 19th century.
During those times, the British started English Medium school
in Dharwad in 1848 and in 1856, started town municipality. Later
in 1863, the Bassel Mission organization started another school.
In 1867 British opened another school, Varmal school, which
later on became known as Training college. In 1883, the municipality
area included Sidapur, Lakamanhalli, Haveri Pete, Bagtalan,
Madihal, Galaganjikop, Malapur, Kamalapur, Narayanpur, Saptapur,
Atti kolla and Hosayellapur. The British government also established
the Railway station in 1888.
Vidyavardha Sanga:
VIDYAVARDHAKA SANGHA
The Karnataka Vidyavardhaka Sangha was established in 1890.
The Sangha brought people of Dharwad together to excel in
various fields like art , music , drama , culture and freedom
struggle . The Karnataka Vidyavardhaka Sangha's one of the
greatest contribution, is uniting Kannada speaking population
and the formation of Karnataka. Aluru Venkatraya was at the
fore front of the "Unite Karnataka" movement.
During the early 20th century, importance of Dharwad increased
and it soon became a center of freedom struggle. The first
political conference in Karnataka was held in Dharwad (1920).
During non cooperative movement (1921), the first ever police
firing in whole of India took place in Dharwad. Dharwad participated
actively in Khilafat and Quit India movements. There were
many police firings and lathi charges on people of Dharwad.
A monument stands in the center of Dharwad in the memory of
those who died in the struggle.
From 1947 Aug 15 to 1956 Oct 31, the district of Dharwad was
in the Bombay province as the British Govt. divided it. On
the 1st Nov 1956, after the state reorganization based on
the language, Dharwad became part of Karnataka State.
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