Sitamau Town
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, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Sitamau Town
Capital of the State of the same name in Central India, situated in 24° 1' N. and 75° 21' E., on a small eminenn 1,700 feet above sea-level. Sitamau is 132 miles distant by road from Indore. It is connected with the Mandasor station of the Rajputana- Malwa Railway by a metalled road 18 miles in length, and is 486 miles from Bombay. Population (1901), 5,877. The town is surrounded by u wall with seven gates, and its foundation is ascribed to a Mina chief,
Satajl (1465). It fell later into the hands of the Gajmalod Bhumias. These Bhumias were Songara Rathors, who came into Malvva and took Sitamau from its original owners about 1500. About 1650 Mahesh Das Rathor, father of Ratan Singh, was journeying from Jhalor to Onkarnath, and was forced to stop at Sitamau, owing to his wife's illness. She died here, and he asked the Gajmalod Bhumias for permission to erect a shrine to her memory, but they refused. He treacherously invited them to a feast, murdered them, and seized Sitamau. The connexion thus established between this place and the Rathor clan caused Ratan Singh to get it included in his grant of Ratlam.
Laduna, situated 7/2 miles from Sitamau, on the edge of a fine tank, was the chief town from 1750 to 1820, Sitamau being too open to attack by the Marathas. The town contains a school, a guesthouse, a dispensary, and a British post and telegraph office.
