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PLACES
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MARDI
Situated eight miles to the south of Sholapur in North Sholapur taluka has, according to the Census of 1971, a population of 4,715 souls. It has a post office, a primary school conducted by the Zilla Parishad and a high school known as the Mahatma Phule High School. Besides the private medical practitioners, the curative and preventive medical relief is provided by a dispensary conducted by the Swedish Mission at Sholapur.
The village has a mosque built out of a destroyed Hemadpanti temple. All the pillars of the mosque are Hemadpanti in style as also the dome. From this it can easily be deduced that the mosque must have been built from the remains of a Hemadpanti temple. The side wall of the masjid bears an inscription in Kannada which cannot be deciphered. A few years back one inscription in Sanskrit was collected from one dilapidated temple in the village. In the surrounding wall of the temple of Nagnath to the west of the village is carved in a stone slab a tree with a monkey sitting over it and a cobra encircling the tree. The village also contains a Hemadpanti temple dedicated to the goddess Yamai Devi. Near the mosque are also seen the remains of a Hemadpanti well with much good sculpture.
Two fairs are held at Mardi. A fair in honour of the goddess Yamai Devi is held on Chaitra Vad. 8 when about four to five thousand people assemble. An assemblage of an equal number of devotees and pilgrims is seen on the occasion of a fair held in honour of Nagnath Maharaj. This fair is held on Ashwina Shuddha 9.
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