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PLACES
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MEHKAR
Mehkar Town (Mehkar T., 20° 10' N., 76°37' E., p. 16,196): The headquarters of the tahsil bearing the same name is situated 42 miles to the south-west of Buldhana, with which it is connected by road. The myth connected with the name of Mehkar is that many thousand years ago there lived a demon by name Meghankara, who, like the giant Lonasura, devastated the surrounding country and threatened even the gods themselves. Vishnu, appearing in the incarnation of Sharangadhara, put the demon to death, and the scene of the fight has since borne his name in the corrupted form of Mehkar. There are outside the town, traces of a Hemadpanti temple, which may be connected with the legend. A Muhammedan poet tells us that Mehkar is 795 years older than the Hijra era. Mehkar is mentioned in the Ain-i-Akbari as the headquarters of a sarkar or revenue district. In 1769 the Peshva Madhav Rav accompanied by Rukn-ud-daula, the Nizam's minister, encamped at Mehkar while on his way to punish Janoji Bhosle for assistisg in Raghunath Rav's insurrection.
General Doveton also encamped at Mehkar in 1817 on his march to Nagpur against Appa Saheb Bhosle who had violated the treaty of Devgaon. Formerly the town contained a thriving community of weavers and Momins, the latter being so rich that about 500 years ago they fortified the place and built up the fallen rampart on the gate which is still called by their name. An inscription on the gate fixes the date at 1488 A.D. The town was in a verv prosperous state until the inroads of the Pendharis began, and these, together with the famine of 1803, completed its decline. It was formerly famous for the excellence of its dhotis. Mehkar at one time gave its name to the district. Of the Hemadpanti temple mentioned above nothing is now left except the retaining walls at the site on which the temple stood. Close hy is a partly ruined dharmashala which was probably merely a subsidiary building to the temple. It was used during the late famine as a kitchen. Much of the building has now fallen. The dharmashala is about 72 feet square inside, and is formed by a deep covered colonnade with two rows of pillars surrounding a small central square courtyard 23 feet square. Twenty-five of the sixty pillars still stand and many others are scattered about the town. The marked absence of figure sculpture, and the confinement of the decoration on the pillars to geometrical and conventional leaf design, indicate a period later than the earliest inroads of the Muhammedans into Central India. On the high ground to the east of the town there is an old Muham-medan shrine called the Punch Pir, and about a mile to the northeast are the remains of a palace which are known as the Kasbini-cha Mahal. There are no other buildings of architectural merit in the town. The temple of Balaji finely situated in the centre of the town with a magnificent view of the surrounding country was built at a cost of a lakh and a half of rupees subscribed by the public to house an image of Vishnu which was found on the site in 1888 while some excavations were in progress. The image is of black marble, finely carved and is about ten and a half feet in height. Of its origin and date nothing is known. The temple has an extensive sabhamandapa, and close to it there is a big dharmashala. The town is situated on the Old Dak Line from Bombay to Nagpur on the slopes of a small hill at the foot of which flows the river Penganga, from which the main water-supply of the town is derived.
The following is the description of the archaeological remains at Mehkar given in the Old Buldhana District Gazetteer: —
' The dhamiashala at Mehkar is about 72 feet square inside and is formed by a deep covered colonnade with two rows of pillars surrounding a small central square 23 feet square, which is open to the sky, and the pavement of which is sunk a few feet below the level of the colonnade. There were 60 pillars in all, of which 25 still stand. There is a marked absence of figure sculpture on this building, and the decoration on the pillars is almost entirely confined to geometric and conventional leaf designs, which, Mr. Cousens reasonably concludes indicates a period later than the earliest inroads of the Muhammedans into Berar and the Deccan. The new temple of Balaji is of no antiquarian interest in itself, but it contains a broken Jain image, with the date Samvat 1272 (A.D. 1215) upon it, in a short inscription.
The gate known as the gate of the Momins in the walls of Mehkar bears an inscription consisting of a text from the twenty-sixth chapter of the Koran, which gives in a chronogram the date of the construction of the gate as A.H. 894 (A.D. 1488), which, it may be noticed, corresponds with that of the repair of Gavilgarh, and falls only two years before the time when Fatehullah Imad-ul-Mulk declared himself independent.'
Being the headquarters of the tahsil it has an office of the tahsildar, the headquarters of the Civil Judge (Junior Division) and Judicial Magistrate, a police station, an office of the panchayat samiti and other administrative offices.
Besides the primary schools conducted by the municipality and others, educational facilities are provided in the town by the M.E.S. High School, the Janata High School, the Shivaji High School and the Jijamata Kanya Shala. In the town are the branches of the Buldhana District Central Co-operative Bank and the State Bank of India. There is also a telegraph office. Telephone facilities are also available in the town. The medical facilities to the town populace are provided by the municipal hospital with eight beds.
The cotton and agricultural produce market committee with cotton market established on January 18, 1928 and the agricultural produce marker established on October 10, 1956 cover 328 villages of the tahsil, the commodities regulated being cotton, all kinds of food grains, oil seeds and gur.
Municipality.— The municipality was established at Mehkar in 1929. It covers an area of 5.28 square kilometres. The municipal council is composed of 11 members with two seats being reserved for the scheduled castes and one for women.
In 1961-62 the total income of the municipality was Rs. 2,34,348 as against the expenditure of Rs. 2,61,018. The per capita municipal tax was Rs. 12.98.
During the year 1965-66 [The total income of the municipality during 1970-71 including the opening balance was Rs. 5,37,000 while the expenditure was Rs. 5,35,000.] the total income of the municipality was Rs. 3,17,849 and was composed of municipal rates and taxes, Rs. 1,69,052; revenue derived from municipal properties, Rs. 5,113; grants and contributions from the Government Rs. 99,150 and income from miscellaneous sources, Rs. 44,534.
The expenditure during the same year came to Rs. 3,14,064 comprising general administration, Rs. 29,722; collection charges, Rs. 42,479; public safety, Rs. 15,244; public health and convenience Rs. 89,670; public works, Rs. 35,304; public instructions, Rs. 66,030 and miscellaneous expenditure, Rs. 35,615.
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