Category:Ramtek

Ramtek, Maharashtra 

A town in Nagpur district with 4th-century Hindu pilgrimage roots
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Instance of	town
Location	Nagpur district, Nagpur division, Maharashtra, India
Area	3.54 km²
Elevation above sea level	345 ±1 m
21° 23′ 42″ N, 79° 19′ 37.2″ E
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Ramtek is a city midst hills about 45 kilometers northeast of Nagpur in Maharashtra, India. It is one of the few places from ancient India whose history and significance as a tirtha (pilgrimage site) can be traced for over 1,600 years.

Ramtek is called Ramagiri, Sinduragiri, Tapamgiri, or Tapogiri in historic inscriptions and manuscripts. It was a natural hub of trade routes that connected historic pura (cities) in northern India and kingdoms along the Ganges basin in eastern India to central and south India. This brought pilgrims, merchants, monks and scholars through Ramtek, earning it mentions in Buddhist, Hindu and Jaina literature.

Ramtek is mentioned in pre-1st century BC texts. It has copious archaeological evidence from the Vakataka era (4th-century onwards). This evidence is spread over about 10 kilometer radii from modern Ramtek, including ancient Nagardhan that served as the first capital of the Vakatakas till early 5th century. The archaeological evidence include temple ruins, pushkarini, inscriptions in different languages and scripts, seals with Brahmi inscriptions with Narayano and other Hindu deities, extensive Hindu and Jain artwork, some of oldest known Ganesha statues in India, secular Hindu statues such as the "Man with a Book" that is now preserved in the Nagpur museum.

This ancient city has notable and reasonably preserved evidence of VaKataka, Chalukya, Yadava, Vijayanagara, Maratha and modern era Hindu and Jain monuments. It also has a few Buddhist monuments that is colocated with Hindu and Jain sites. The quality of historic artwork found in and around Ramtek is among the finest anywhere in South Asia.