Bhawanigarh


Bhawanigarh, earlier known as Dhode is a town and a municipal council in Sangrur district in the state of Punjab, India. It is also the headquarter of Bhawanigarh tehsil, which was formed in December 2016. The town is also called Dhode, after the clan of its original founders. The town lies 19 kilometres east of Sangrur on the Patiala-Sangrur road whereas Patiala is 39 kilometres east of Bhawanigarh. The literacy rate is higher than other places of Sangrur. Bhawanigarh is divided into 13 wards.

Etymology

The name Bhawanigarh originates from "Bhawani" mata, the hindu goddess. There is a temple of Bhawani mata in the town. Earlier, town was known as Dhode and was a tehsil of Karamgarh.

Demographics

As of 2011 India census, Bhawanigarh has population of 22,320 out of which 11,780 are males whereas females are 10,540. Population of children is 2422 which is 10.85% of total. Female Sex Ratio of Bhawanigarh is 895 whereas child sex ratio is 862. literacy rate of Bhawanigarh is 77.56% which is higher than state average. In Bhawanigarh, Male literacy is around 82.60 % while female literacy rate is 71.95 %.

Places of interest

Gurduara Sahib Patshahi Nauvi

stayed here during one of his journeys through the Malwa country. The original memorial on the spot where the guru had stayed was in time developed into a gurdwara called Gurudwara Sahib Patshahi Nauvi. Gurudwara Patshahi Nauvi Sabhib is situated in the Bhawanigarh Town in District Sangrur. Guru Tegh Bahadur accepting the invitation of King of Assam, started journey from Shri Anandpur Sahib along with the 300 sangat and carrying necessary commodities for 3 years journey visited this place and stayed here for 2 days. On his two days stay Guru Sahib used perform kirtan darbar here. From here they resumed the journey via Phaguwal, Gharancho and Ghanour. With Guru Sahib's blessings peoples wishes are fulfilled here.
The present gurudwara, consisting of a rectangular hall in front of a semi-octagonal sanctum with verandahs on three sides, was constructed in 1916CE. A small sarovar was added in the 1980s. The gurdwara owns of agricultural land and is now managed directly by the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee. The gurudwara's budget for 1990-91 shows rental income from land alone as Rs. 210,000.

Bhawanigarh Fort

Bhawanigarh Fort was built by Maharaja Aala Singh of Patiala in 1749 for their defense. In 1781, Sahib Singh became king of Patiala at age of seven. In 1794, Marathas attacked Punjab and fought against Rani Sahib Kaur’s force and finally Marathas lost the war. But because of some traitors Rani Sahib Kaur was imprisoned in Bhawanigarh Fort by Maharaja Sahib Singh. Rani escaped from the fort and lived in Ubhawal and died there in 1799.

Transportation

Bhawanigarh is settled along the NH 7. The town is well linked to Patiala, Sunam, Rajpura, Chandigarh, Mansa, and Bathinda through the road. The town is connected to Nabha through state highway SH 12A while is also connected to Samana.
The town consists of two bus stands generally known as “Old Bus Stand” and “New Bus Stand”. Though the town lies on national highway has good bus service and the most of buses including public and private have two bus stops in the town. The “New Bus Stand” is still under construction and is expected to complete by 2019.

Sports

Shri Guru Teg Bahadur Stadium situated near the police station. It is of approximately 5 acres in area. The stadium was built under the construction budget of ₹2.5 crore.

Notable people