Dholpur district :

Dholpur district is a prominent district of Rajasthan and its administrative headquarters is at Dholpur. Surrounded by Agra district of Uttar Pradesh in the north east, Morena District of Madhya Pradesh in the south, Karauli District of Rajasthan in the west, and Bharatpur District of Rajasthan in the northwest it covers a total area of 3,084sq. Km. The Chambal River flows through the southern boundary of the district. It receives an annual rainfall of 67 cm. and is one of the hottest places in Rajasthan. The nearest airport is at Agra. 

History :

Dholpur district, according to the epics, was initially known as Dhawalgiri and later on Dhaulagir, and now as Dholpur. Before the battle of Mahabharata this whole area was under the Yadavas. The key to the ancient history of Dholpur is the ruins of strong fort which is situated on the bank of river Chambal. 

During the second phase of ancient history, the ruins of Mahabharata period could be seen and around the temple of Muchukund ji. According to the Shastras Muchukund was a very illustrious king before Krishna. During the war between Devtas and Danavas, King Muchukund sided with the devtas and was instrumental in their victory. Indra was so pleased that he asked Muchukund to have a boon. Muchukund was so tired that he asked Indra to allow him to sleep peacefully and if anyone should dare to wake him up, Muchukund's angry gaze would burn him to ashes. Mahabharata reveals that during one of the battles with the demons Krishna ran away to save his life from one of the demons and came to the spot where Muchukund was sleeping. He put his pitamber on the sleeping Muchukund. The demon thinking him to be Krishna woke him up, and thus the demon was burnt to ashes, and thus the life of Krishna was saved. The event took place, in a spot very near to the Muchukund Ji's temple, where the ruins of old palaces still exist. The appearance of these, however does not seem to be that old. 
The antiquities found in Dholpur can be datable to pre-Gupta period, and the site remained under the occupation up to the late medieval period. 

Brahmnism and Jainism both were prevailing in the society during the early medieval period. The discoveries of Naga and Nagis figures from Dholpur put the considerable influence of Nagavansies of Padamvaties over this area. They were succeeded by Guptas as evidences reported from the excavations at Donder Khera. The figures of Nagas and Nagis sculptures all belong to tenth to twelfth century A.D. An eleventh century panchayatana temple called as Jogni-Jogana situated near Sone-ka-Gurja is an important edifice of this period. 

Geography :

The geographical coordinates for Dholpur (Dhaulpur) are 26° 42' 0" North, 77° 54' 0" East. Total area of Dholpur district is 3,034 sq. kilometers. The Chambal River forms the southern boundary of the district, across which lies the state of Madhya Pradesh. All along the bank of the Chambal River the district is deeply intersected by ravines; low ranges of hills in the western portion of the district supply quarries of fine-grained and easily worked red sandstone.

Range of sand stone hills runs from Dholpur town in a south western direction attaining at one place on attitude of 356.91 Meters above sea level. The land in Dholpur  district is fertile and rises from alluvial plain near the level. Hills and broken grounds characterize almost the whole territory, along the velly of the Chambal as irregular  and lofty wall of rocks separate the land on the river from the uplands. 

Climate :

Dholpur experiences quite variations in its seasons. It is quite hot in summers while cold in winters. Dholpur recorded highest temperature at 50 °C on June 3, 1995.  The hottest months are May and June, which mark the oppressive summer season. Temperatures in summers are normally higher than 40 °C. Coldest months are  December and January where temperatures sometimes reach near-zero and subzero levels. The lowest recorded temperature is -4.3 °C on January 29, 1990.

Demographics :

According to the 2011 census Dholpur district has a population of 1,207,293, roughly equal to the nation of Bahrain or the US state of New Hampshire.This gives it a ranking of 394th in India (out of a total of 640).The district has a population density of 398 inhabitants per square kilometre (1,030/sq mi) . Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 22.78%. Dhaulpur has a sex ratio of 845 females for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 70.14%

Economy :

There are three large scale industries in Dholpur district namely, the High-tech Precision Glass factory, Dholpur; Dholpur glass works Ltd., Dholpur and Rajasthan Explosives Limited Dholpur. The High-tech Precision Glass factory, Dholpur; Dholpur glass works Ltd., are public limited concerns. They went in to production in April 1964 with an authorized share capital of Rs. 50 and Rs. 10 Lacs respectively. 

Dholpur Glass Works Ltd. was established under a special agreement with erstwhile Dholpur State as a proprietary concern in 1943. Later in the year 1945, it was converted in to a public limited company. In the year 1956, it started manufacturing laboratory and hospital glass wares, as well as penicillin vials providing employment to the nearly 900 workers. The raw materials used are sand soda ash, borax, dolomite, feldspar, selenium, black powder etc. 

During the last century Dholpur remained industrially backward. It mainly depended on agriculture and only a few cottage industries were in existence. 

Quarrying of building stone was the only activity which provided employment to the comparatively large number of persons. Baroli, Bari, Baseri, Sarmathura were important places where building and millstone were quarried. These quarries have been famous for quality stone and have been worked on for several centuries. None of industries were properly organized. They were mostly cotton industries subsisting on the patronage of village communities. People, however, started using imported machine-made goods from the neighboring commercial and industrial centers such as Agra, Mathura, Delhi and Gwalior. The better and cheaper mill-made cloth adversely affected the handloom, spinning, dyeing and weavings. Bangles made of transparent glass lured the women folk to give up their crude glass and lac bangles, further more the monopoly of arts and crafts by individuals meant that the skills died with them, in the absence of regular, organized inheritance of such skills. 

Dholpur district has a vast area, full of rocks, especially the Dholpur and Rajakhera Part of the Chambal valley is covered by Kachhar. Masonary stones, concrete, sandstone and lime stones are found in plenty in the area. Glass sand is produced from unconsolidated weathered sandstone and is sold mainly to glass manufactures. 

Quarrying work is mainly done by hand with the help of chisel, hammer, iron bars and the over-burden is blasted with gun powder. Sandstone areas are leased out to private sector under the Rajasthan mines and mineral concession rules 1959. 

Many persons are engaged in weaving, pottery, leather tanning, carpentry, black smithy, rope making etc. In rural areas of the district Rajasthan Khadi and Village industries board, provide guidance and financial help. There are other agencies too, to encourage such units. Village ghanis, Moodha industry, sugar cane-crushers, Khas Distillation are the other units, which keep persons employed and provide opportunity to local crafts men and artists to come forward. 

Places of attraction :

Machkund Temple : Situated approximately 4 kms from Dholpur, Machkund Temple is careful a highly scared place amongst devotee. Deep entrenched in tradition, the temple has a water tank located in the middle which is bounded by many temples around it. Machkund is name after the well-known Raja Machchh Kund, the 24th king belong to the Suryavanshi Dynasty who is supposed to have ruled for 19 generation before Lord Ram.

Shergarh Fort : This is towards the south of Dholpur Tower, can be reach easily from Dholpur town. The extensive defence tower was build by Sher Shah Suri, the sultan of Delhi next to the prowling rulers of Mewars during the 16th century. A few beautiful Jain and Hindu motifs still line the wall of the Fort.

Van vihar temple : Van Vihar old wildlife treasury of the ruler of Dholpur spread over an area of 59.86. sq. kms, were notify as wildlife sanctuary by the Rajasthan Government in 1955 AD. Van Vihar is approximately 18 kms away from Ramsagar and Dholpur is another 18 kms away from Van Vihar. As a matter of fact, these are really two separate wildlife sanctuary. Van Vihar is situated on Vindhyan flat terrain, supports a rather open underdeveloped growth of Dhok and Khair trees. It is occupied by animals like Sloth Bear, Blue Bull, Sambhar, Chital, Wild Boar, Hyena and Leopard.