Dantan
Encyclopedia
Dantan I is an administrative division in the Kharagpur subdivision
Kharagpur subdivision
Kharagpur subdivision , is a subdivision of the Paschim Medinipur district in the state of West Bengal, India. It consists of Kharagpur municipality and ten community development blocks: Dantan–I, Dantan–II, Pingla, Kharagpur–I, Kharagpur–II, Sabang, Mohanpur, Narayangarh,...

 of Paschim Medinipur district in the India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n state
States and territories of India
India is a federal union of states comprising twenty-eight states and seven union territories. The states and territories are further subdivided into districts and so on.-List of states and territories:...

 of West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...

. Dantan police station serves this block. Headquarters of this block is at Dantan.

History

According to some, the name is derived from Dandabhukti
Dandabhukti
Dandabhukti was an ancient and medieval region/ territory spread across what are now Bankura, Hooghly, Paschim Medinipur and Purba Medinipur districts in the Indian state of West Bengal....

, which was an ancient territorial unit of Gupta Empire
Gupta Empire
The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire which existed approximately from 320 to 550 CE and covered much of the Indian Subcontinent. Founded by Maharaja Sri-Gupta, the dynasty was the model of a classical civilization. The peace and prosperity created under leadership of Guptas enabled the...

.

Dantan, was later a part of Hijli Kingdom
Hijli Kingdom
The Hijli Kingdom existed between 1687 and 1886 in the eastern part of India. Initially Hijli was a small island village on the banks of the Rasulpur River as it flows to the Bay of Bengal. It developed into a port town in 1687. Slowly, it converted into a province or kingdom covering parts of...

. It was a thriving town on the route to the Jagannath Temple
Jagannath Temple
-India:*Jagannath Temple, Puri, Orissa, India*Jagannath Temple, Koraput, Orissa, India*Jagannath Temple, Baripada, Mayurbhanj, Orissa, India*Jagannath Temple, Nayagarh, Orissa, India*Jagannath Temple, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India*Jagannath Temple, Delhi, India...

 in Puri
Puri
Puri is district headquarter, a city situated about south of state capital Bhubaneswar, on the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal in the Indian state of Orissa. It is also known as Jagannath Puri after the Jagannath Temple . It is a holy city of the Hindus as a part of the Char Dham pilgrimages...

 when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was a Vaishnava saint and social reformer in eastern India in the 16th century, believed by followers of Gaudiya Vaishnavism to be the full incarnation of Lord Krishna...

 reportedly passed through here in the 16th century.

Dantan is the location of at least three temples from the nineteenth century, the Jagannath
Jagannath
Jagannath is a transcendental non-anthropotheistic Hindu god worshiped primarily by the people of Indian state of Orissa, and, to a great extent, West Bengal...

 Temple, the Shyamaleswar Temple, and the Chandaneswar Temple. All three temples are built in the curvilinear rekha style that is common to temples of Orissa
Orissa
Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...

.

Near the town, there are two major tanks, the Bidyadhar and the Sarasankha. The Bidyadhar tank was created by a minister named Bidyadhara of Pratap Rudra Deva, king of Gajapati Kingdom
Gajapati Kingdom
The Gajapatis were a medieval Hindu dynasty that ruled over Kalinga , large parts of Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, and the eastern and central parts of Madhya Pradesh and the southern parts of Bihar from 1434-1541. Gajapati dynasty was established by Kapilendra Deva in 1434...

. The Sarasankha tank is attributed to the king Shashanka
Shashanka
Shashanka is often attributed with creating the first separate political entity in a unified Bengal called Gauda and as such is a major figure in Bengali history. He reigned in 7th century AD, and some historians place his rule approximately between 590 AD and 625 AD. He is the contemporary of...

 who ruled in the seventh century A.D.

Geography

Dantan is located at 21.911°N 87.270°E. The Subarnarekha River
Subarnarekha River
Subarnarekha River flows through the Indian states of Jharkhand, West Bengal and Orissa.-Etymology:As per tradition, gold was mined near the origin of the river at a village named Piska near Ranchi. This is why it was named Subarnarekha, meaning ‘streak of gold’. Legend has it that traces of...

 flows past the Dantan I block.

Dantan I community development block
Community Development Block in India
The Community development block is a rural area earmarked for administration and development in India. The area is administered by a Block Development Officer...

 has an area of 252.16  km2.

Weather

The climate in Dantan follows a hot-tropical monsoon
Monsoon
Monsoon is traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation, but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with the asymmetric heating of land and sea...

 pattern with highs in the mid 40s°C in the summer (generally April to June), mid 30s°C during the monsoon season (June to August) and low 30s°C for most of the other times of the year. Winters (December to January) are usually mild with lows in the 10s°C and high in the low to mid 20s°C. Most of the precipitation is from the southeast monsoon which may bring in excess of 1500 mm of rainfall.

Tornado
Tornado
A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...

es are relatively rare in West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...

 and Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

, but one did occur on March 24, 1998 killing over 250 near Dantan. Initially, this tornado was reported as a cyclone
Cyclone
In meteorology, a cyclone is an area of closed, circular fluid motion rotating in the same direction as the Earth. This is usually characterized by inward spiraling winds that rotate anticlockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth. Most large-scale...

 with wind speeds of close to 200 km/h that caused the destruction of an estimated 9,000 houses and injuries to 3,000 people. Later the event was characterized as a tornado.

Gram panchayats

Gram panchayat
Gram panchayat
Gram panchayats are local self-governments at the village or small town level in India. As of 2002 there were about 265,000 gram panchayats in India. The gram panchayat is the foundation of the Panchayat System. A gram panchayat can be set up in villages with minimum population of 300...

s of Dantan I block/ panchayat samiti are: Alikosha, Angur, Anikola, Chakismailpur, Dantan I, Dantan II, Monoharpur, Salikotha and Tararui.

Demographics

As per 2001 census, Dantan I block had a total population of 151,343, out of which 77,291 were males and 74,052 were females. Dantan I block registered a population growth of 19.41 per cent during the 1991-2001 decade. Decadal growth for the combined Midnapore district was 14.87 per cent.Decadal growth in West Bengal was 17.45 per cent.

Transportation

Dantan is connected by road from Kharagpur
Kharagpur
Kharagpur is an industrial city in India. It is located in the Midnapore West district of the state of West Bengal.Kharagpur was chosen as the location of the first campus of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology . The IITs are the premier technical education institutes in India and...

 via Belda
Belda
Belda , a small town in West Bengal, India located approximately south of Kharagpur town, and belongs to the Paschim Medinipur district. The NH 60 of the famous Golden Quadrilateral, familiar as O. T. Road before has connected this town to the rest part of India. It also connects its south-west...

 and from Orissa through Sonakonia. It is on NH 60
National Highway 60 (India)
National Highway 60 or NH 60 is a National Highway of India that runs from the junction with NH 5 at Balasore to NH 2. It passes through Jaleswar, Dantan, Belda, Kharagpur, Salboni, Bishnupur, Bankura, Gangajalghati, Mejia and Raniganj....

. Dantan rail station is between Kharagpur
Kharagpur
Kharagpur is an industrial city in India. It is located in the Midnapore West district of the state of West Bengal.Kharagpur was chosen as the location of the first campus of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology . The IITs are the premier technical education institutes in India and...

 and Balasore
Balasore
Balasore is a strategically located city in the state of Orissa, about north of the state capital Bhubaneswar, in eastern India. It is the administrative headquarters of Balasore district. It is best known for Chandipur beach. It is also the site of the Indian Ballistic Missile Defense...

in the Kharagpur Division of the South-Eastern Railway.
---Famous People---
1. Swapan Kumar Sahoo-Fight for the cause of SC/ST and OBC's

Schools

  • Dantan High School
  • Dantan Binapani Girl's School
  • Dantan Shishu Siksha Mandir
  • School Melvin
  • Dantan Bhagbat Charan High School

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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