Raipur
(2002 est. pop. 617,000). Raipur is the capital of the new state of Chhattisgarh, created in 2000 from territory formerly in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The city, which is also the headquarters of the Raipur district, was founded in the fourteenth century by the by Rai Brahma Deo, ruler of the Ratunpur dynasty. The city is situated on a plateau some 300 meters in elevation, not far from the Mahanadi River, and some 290 kilometers east of the city of Nagpur. Much of the surrounding forested countryside is occupied by the Gond and Halba tribes. The town is home to ruins of an immense fort built by Bhubaneswar Singh (a local king) in 1460, with old Hindu temples and many rather more recent man-made ponds, some of them very scenic.
The modern town of Raipur was laid out by the British in 1830; it featured a wide central street flanked by houses with balconies and elaborately carved pillars. There is a fine collection of eighth-to ninth-century Indian sculptures in the Mahant Ghasidas Memorial Museum. The 1968 Nobel Laureate geneticist Har Gobind Khorana (b. 1922) was born in Raipur. The local university was established in 1963. Iron ore is common in the region, and the principal local crop is rice.
Further Reading
Babb, Lawrence A. (1975) The Divine Hierarchy: Popular Hinduism in Central India. New York and London: Columbia University Press.
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