Ahmednagar

Ahmednagar is a city in the state of Maharashtra, India, on the left bank of the river S'na, about 100 km southeast of Pune. Population about 750,000. Ahmednagar is also the capital of a district of the same name.

Related Topics:
State - Maharashtra - India - S'na - Pune

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The town was founded in 1494 by Ahmad Nizam Shah, on the site of a more ancient city, Bhingar. With the breakup of the Bahmani Sultanate, Ahmad established a new sultanate in Ahmednagar, one of the Deccan sultanates, which lasted until its conquest by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in 1636. Aurangzeb, the last great Mughal emperor, who spent the latter years of his reign, 1681-1707, in the Deccan, died there in 1707, and a small monument marks the site.

Related Topics:
1494 - Ahmad Nizam Shah - Bhingar - Bahmani Sultanate - Deccan sultanates - Mughal - Shah Jahan - Aurangzeb - 1681 - 1707 - Deccan

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In 1759 the Peshwa of the Marathas obtained possession of the place by bribing the Muslim commander, and in 1790 it was ceded by the Peshwa to the Maratha chief Daulat Rao Sindhia.

Related Topics:
1759 - Peshwa - Maratha - 1790 - Daulat Rao Sindhia

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Ahmednagar was invested by a British force under General Wellesley and captured. It was afterwards restored to the Marathas, but again came into the possession of the British in 1817, according to the terms of the Treaty of Poona.

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Numerous Mughal-era buildings dot the environs. Ahmednagar fort, once considered the second most unimpregnable fort in India, was used by the British to house Nehru and other Indian Nationalists before Indian independence; a few rooms there have been converted to a museum. The town houses the second-largest display of military tanks in the world; the exhibit is open to the public.

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The area is notable for a number of spiritual sites as well. Ahmednagar is in the center of Maharashtra's circle of Ganesha shrines, and is the site of Meher Baba's samadhi.

Related Topics:
Ganesha - Meher Baba - Samadhi

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