Mandleshwar is from Maheshwar, capital of the Holkar states. The eighth-century philosopher Maṇḍana Miśra reportedly lived in the town and debated with Aadya Guru Shankarachaarya at the Gupteshwar Mahadev Temple. The British Raj is memorialized in the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, PWD office, the district jail, fort and the 'ghat'. Mandleshwar was the headquarters for the Nimar Agency and cantonment from 1819 to 1864. In 1823, it became the headquarters for the District of Nimar, Sahastradhara, and Ram kund are other places of historical significance. A flight of 123 steps leads down to the river and expands into the Ram Ghat, where the Ram, Hanuman, Dattatraya and Ratneshwar Temples are located. Ghat is located is at a narrow point of the Narmada River where, during the monsoon, the river often rises above its normal level, hence those many steps. Mandleshwar also has a temple dedicated to Brahmachaitanya Maharaj Gondwalekar. Vasudevanand Saraswati lived in Mandleshwar for a long time. Swami Vivekananda reportedly lived in the town on his way to Raipur. Vinoba Bhave, an advocate of nonviolence and human rights, visited Mandleshwar; Indira Gandhi visited in 1971 to inaugurate the water-supply-system plant run by the Public Health Engineering Department and the Government of Madhya Pradesh. The Maheshwar Dam produce 400 MW of electricity. A one-kilometer bridge crosses the river.
Geography
Mandleshwar is located at, and has an average elevation of 153 metres.
Demographics
In the 2001 India census, the town had a population of 11,345. Males made up 51 percent of the population, and females 49 percent. Mandleshwar had an average literacy rate of 68 percent, higher than the national average of 59.5 percent; male literacy was 76 percent, and female literacy 59 percent. Fourteen percent of the population was under six years of age.
The Charak Institute of Pharmacy and the Sardar Patel Institute of Technology and Management, an engineering college, are located in Mandleshwar. The town has one government college, three private colleges, the Sardar Patel International School Mandleshwar, two government higher secondary schools and nine public schools Among them 2 are CBSE affiliated schools and most popular ones in the town "sandipani Academy" and "Shri kanwartara senior secondary school". An organization, Maa Umiya Sansthan, operates a higher secondary school affiliated to the M. P. Board in Bhopal, a women's college, a B. Ed college and a women's hostel serving students from across India. Courses are offered by the Shri Umiya Girls College in bioinformatics, biotechnology and computer science. Mandleshwar's oldest school is the Mahatma Gandhi Govt Higher Secondary School, established in 1947 and the only school within a 50-km radius at the time.
