Sardarshahar

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?Sardarshahar Rajasthan • India
Coordinates: (find coordinates)
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)
District(s)	Churu
Population • Density • Sex ratio	81,378 (2001) • 235 /km² (609 /sq mi) • 234/1000

Sardarshahar is a city and a municipality in Churu district in the Indian state of Rajasthan.

It is situated at a distance of 50km west of Churu. Graduating in 1831 from a mere village, this little town assumed the title of Sardarshahar (chief town).

The Oswal Jain merchant community mostly inhabits the town situated in the Thar Desert and has elegant havelis adorned with colourful fresco paintings and carved woodwork. It also has a small fort that now houses the government offices.

Anoop Chand Birdichand Jammer Haveli’s east wall of the mansion has a frieze depicting the story of Pabuji, the hero who introduced camel into Rajasthan. The Jammer Haveli has some nice paintings from c.1900 that depict scenes from the Mahabharata. The Haveli of Chandmal Budhmal Nahata is a big mansion with two storeys and has quite a few exquisite friezes on the walls of the forecourt.

Sardarshahr is famous for Gandhi Vidya Mandir (GVM) a public charitable institution of education, social service and rural developmen,founded in 1950 by Shri Kanhaiyalal Dugar. He donated his entire wealth, running in millions, and whole of his life to create this epitome of human endeavour. The renowned IASE University is a constituent of GVM. The foundation stone of the university building was laid in 1955 by the first President of India Dr. Rajendra Prasad. It has over 10,000 students from KG to PG and Ph.D. levels of multi-faculty education. Shri Dugar, the living legend, embraced ‘sanyas’ in 1985 and came to be known a Swami Shri Ramsharanji. He took to his eternal abode on August 1, 2005. Shri Milap Dugar is now heading the organization as its Vice Chancellor.

[edit] Demographics

As of 2001 India census^[1], Sardarshahar had a population of 81,378. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. Sardarshahar has an average literacy rate of 51%, lower than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 53%, and female literacy is 49%. In Sardarshahar, 17% of the population is under 6 years of age. This place has become a landmark for the followers of Lord HANUMAN, due to construction of ICHHAPURTI HANUMAN temple, on the highway towards Ratangarh. This is the only temple in the world, where Lord hanuman sits on the throne as a king, else he is seen as a das(Daas roop) with Shri Ram, or carrying Sanjeevani (Veer roop). Pran Pratishtha of the idol was done on basant Panchami of vikram samvat 2061, (2005 AD) On this day, there was a snowfall in temple premises and outside the boundary it was dry. The Jyoti (holy fire) is said to have been brought from Salsar Balajis temple. Through out the construction of this temple, a black faced monkey administered the process, who came very next day of the foundation being led. He touched each and every stone used in construction. He used to destroy the wronly placed parts during the construction process. He is no more now, and a Samadhi has been build up in town after him.