Bariya Village (Deogarh Bariya)
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts.Many units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Bariya Village (Deogarh Bariya)
Chief town of the State of the same name in the Rewa Kantha Agency, Bombay, situated in 22° 42' N. and 73° 51' E., 50 miles north-east of Baroda, about 5 miles from Limkheda on the Godhra-Ratlam branch of the Bombay, Baroda, and Central India Railway. Population (1901), 3,717. It lies almost in the centre of the State, about half a mile from the Panam river, in an angle formed by two lines of hills. The third side is enclosed by a wall built by Raja Prithwiraj. About the end of the eighteenth century the town seems to have been of considerable importance. It was on a much- frequented route between Gujarat and Malwa, the tolls levied at its gates generally exceeding Rs, 20,000 a year. Partly on the Deogarh hill and partly in the plain stands the Bariya fort, with walls about 10 feet high in the plain and 6 feet on the hill slopes. On the top of the hill a small white building contains the tutelary deity of the Bariya house. The story is that three generations after the fall of Champaner, when Dungar Singh was looking for a site for his capital, one of his Bhils, cutting wood on a hill, struck his axe against two round stones, blood gushed out, and the axe was shivered. Hearing his story, Dungar Singh visited the spot, called it Deogarh or ' God's fort,' installed the stones as the tutelary deity of the hill, and founded his capital at its foot. The stones are still visited with great pomp by the Raja every twelfth year.
