Shahdol district

Shahdol District is a district of Madhya Pradesh state in east central India. With a total area of 6,205 square kilometers and a population of 10,66,063. Shahdol is an important district of Madhya Pradesh. The town of Shahdol is the district headquarters. The district is also a Division. Some of the districts in this division are Annupur and Umaria.The Virateshwar Temple in Sohagpur Vangana is the most important tourist destination of Shahdol and a structural masterpiece. The district extends 110 km from east to west and 170 km from north to south.The total population of the district is 908,100, out of which 391,027 are Scheduled Tribes and 67,528 are Scheduled Castes.HistoryThe etymology of the name as ascertained from the local residents points to its derivation from the name of the one Shahdolwa Ahir of Sohagpur village. The progenitor of the Ex-Illakadar family of Sohagpur, Jamni Bhan was the second son of Maharaja Virbhan Singh of Bagelkhand. He decided to settle at Sohagpur and assured maximum facilities to settler around, and also declared that places settled by clearing forests will be named after the pioneer settlers. Shahdolwa Ahir is believed to have settled the former village of Shahdolwa, about 2.5 km. from the headquarters of Sohagpur after this declaration. Later on, the place used to be the camp site for the Maharaja of Rewa and British officers on tour. More villages were grouped into the village of Shahdol as it grew to a town. The District Headquarters was shifted from Umaria to Shahdol after the merger of princely states took place in 1947