PLACES

ARJUNI ZAMINDARI

Arjuni, is a village in Sakoli tahsil situated to its east and traversed by the Nagpur-Raipur highway. It is popularly known as Sadak Arjuni and is also connected by another road with Gondia which further on runs to Balaghat in Madhya Pradesh. It was previously the headquarters of the Arjuni zamindari [When independence came there were certain estates managed by Zamindars. These estates were of a feudal nature and were granted as reward for military service etc. The Zamindari had full proprietary rights in these estates including the right to divide and alienate their lands. They paid only quit rents to Government. In this edition of the Gazetteer the accounts of theZamindaris are given merely for the sake of record. It needs to be noted, however, that Zamindari and malguzari systems were abolished under the Madhya Pradesh Abolition of Proprietary Rights (Estates, Mahals, Alienated lands) Act, 1950 which came into operation on 14th March 1951. The system of land tenure has since become ryotwari.].

"Arjuni has a weekly market of some importance and there are a school and a post office. At Deopaili, a village of the zamindari, is a shrine which is believed to be under the guardianship of two white tigers, and it is supposed that these make their appearance on the occasion of the death of each zamindar. Another story is that the Raja of Nagpur intended to build a tank by blocking a pass in the hills, which would rival Navegaon lake. But so many of the labourers died that he desisted, but he buried the money which would have been expended on the tank in one of the hills where it is still supposed to remain [Bhandara District Gazetteer, 1908 ed., p. 183.]" Arjuni has a maternity home and an ayurvedic dispensary.

TOP