Sambalpur the oldest and largest city of odisha

SAMBALPUR

The oldest one

So today I am going to write about my home town SAMBALPUR

Sambalpur is a city and a muncipal corporation located in the western part of odisha. It is one of the oldest and largest city in the state. It is the headquarter of northern revenue division, mahanadi coalfield limited (MCL) and one of the railway division from East coast railway zone. It is situated about 300 km (190 mi) West of the state capital bhubaneswar.

The sambalpur City is also called as city of culture, Handloom city, city of textiles and Diamond city of India.

Population of the city as per census 2011 is 6,35,761 . The language used to speak by the people of sambalpur city is odia and Hindi. It has two official languages i,e Odia and English . The literacy rate of the city is 85.69%

Here below the history, culture and tourism of the city is described

History

Sambalpur is one of the ancient place of India, which survived even in the prehistoric age and hold a very important place in the history of odisha and India. Sambalpur came under the bhonsle of nagpur when the maratha conquered sambalpur in 1800. After the third anglo-maratha war in 1817, the British government returned to the Chauhan king.

In January 1896 Hindi was made official language of sambalpur,by abolishing odia language, which after violent protests by people was reinstated again. During the partition of bengal in 1905. Sambalpur and the adjacent odia speaking tracts where amalgamated with the odisha division under bengal presidency. Bengal's odisha division became part of new province of Bihar and odisha in 1912, and in April 1936 became the separate province of odisha, with addition of undivided ganjam and koraput district from Madras presidency. After indian Independence on 15 agust 1947, odisha became an Indian state. The ruler of the princely States of western odisha acceded to the government of India in January 1948 and became part of odisha State

From 1825 to 1827, lieutenant Gilbert (1785-1853), later lieutenant general sir WALTER GILBERT, the first baronet, G.C.B. was the political agent for the south west frontier with headquarter at sambalpur.he made a few painting during his stay at sambalpur by an unknown artists which are currently with the British library and Victoria and Albert museum

And prior to this history sambalpur has history related to the vajrayana Buddhism and kalki avtar sambalpur

Culture of sambalpur

As I already state that sambalpur is also known in the name of CITY OF CULTURE sambalpur is a traditional city in the view of it's culture. The top two festival celebrate in sambalpur is LOK MAHOTSAV and the marriage ceremony of the god Shiva and goddess Parvati .which is known in the name of SITALSASTHI . SITALSASTHI a carnival of folks dance and music along with decorated stand of God's and goddess.

Turism

The city also have some tuorist attractive places. these places have been described below

1.Hirakud dam

The world famous hirakud dam, build in 1956 across the mahanadi River, about 15 km (9.3 mi) from sambalpur is a major tourist attraction. Already I have posted a article about the world largest dam you can check this through the blog

2.The leaning Temple of huma

It is located about 25 km (16 mi) from sambalpur, built in the 17th century, lean at an angle of approximately, 47 degree to the west. It is one of a kind in India

3.Samleswari Temple

It is the main Temple of the goddess samleswari , located on the bank of river the mahanadi , sambalpur owes it's name to her

4.Chiplima

Chiplima hydro electronic project ( CHEP) located about 37 (23 mi) from sambalpur,is known for a natural fall (24.38m (80.0 ft) in height) harness for generating electricity. It is a very good picnic spot and famous for ghanteswari temple, the presiding diety of the place, this temple played an important role for river nevigation in the past