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PLACES
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AMGAON
Amgaon (the mango village), is a large village of 7,228 inhabitants in 1971 in Gondia tahsil, about 60 miles north-west of Bhandara and two miles from the Bagh river where an irrigation project is in progress. It is also a railway station on the Nagpur-Raipur broad gauge line of the south-eastern railway the settlement, however, lies about a mile from the railway. Amgaon was the capital of the erstwhile Amgaon zamindari which consisted for the most part of a long and narrow strip of land in the valley of the Bagh river, widening considerably towards the south. The village is now the headquarters of a development block with a panchayat samiti. At Padampur on the Amgaon Deori road about a mile and half east of Amgaon, there are remains of massive stone buildings and old images of Hindu gods like Vishnu and Sarasvati and of some Jain Tirthankaras, which indicate that the place is probably indentical with ancient Padmapura, the birth-place of Bhavabhuti, one of the greatest Sanskrit playwrights, the author of the Mahaviracharita, Malati-Madhava and Uttara-Rama-charita. Today an arts and commerce college at Amgaon perpetuates the memory of Bhavabhuti. The village is best known as the site of the most important and perhaps the largest cattle market in the district. Being a railway station it is well situated for the export of cattle to places outside the district and even outside the State. The railway also handles large quantities of bamboo and other forest produce. Butchers from Kamptee and other places throng the Friday-Saturday weekly market for the purchase of infirm and worn-out cattle. Buffaloes from Indore, Jaypur, Bhopal, Nimad, etc., brought here for sale, are principally purchased by agriculturists from Chhatisgadh. Bulls and horses are also traded. The market has become a lucrative source of revenue to the Zilla Parishad, realisations by way of tax amounting to an average sum of Rs. 3,000 at each market during the busy season from April to June. Receipts vary from Rs. 100 to Rs. 400 at each market during the slack season. Amgaon is a wholesale centre for collection and export of agricultural produce, there being a regulated market, essential amenities and facilities such as market yard, godown, cattle shed, water troughs, rest-house and fencing are provided. There are bidi manufacturing and rice dehusking units. There is a fine tank here which was improved by Government during the famine of 1900 at a cost of Rs. 15,000. It has since been greatly expanded and serves the double purpose of irrigation and pisciculture. Educational institutions, in addition to primary schools and the college, include three high schools one of which is maintained by the Zilla Parishad, a balak mandir and a library. A maternity home, an ayurvedic and an allopathic dispensary, the latter maintained by the Government, and a veterinary dispensary provide medical care to both beast and man. There are a post and telegraph office, a police station, a rest-house and a range forest office. Two fairs, one in honour of Khandoba in Margashirsha (November-December) and another in honour of Mahadev in Vaishakha (April-May) are held annually. At one of these fairs free food is distributed by the former zamindar family. |
