DHAR, an Indian state in the Bhopawar agency, Central India. It includes many Rajput and Bhil feudatories, and has an area of 1,778 sq.m. The raja is a Ponwar Mahratta. The founder of the present ruling family was Anand Rao Ponwar, a descendant of the great Paramara clan of Rajputs who from the 9th to the i3th century, when they were driven out by the Mohammedans, had ruled over Malwa from their capital at Dhar. In 1742 Anand Rao received Dhar as a fief from Baji Rao, the peshwa, the victory of the Mahrattas thus restoring the sovereign power to the family which seven centuries before had been . expelled from this very city and country. Towards the close of the i8th and in the early part of the i9th century, the state was subject to a series of spoliations by Sindia and Holkar, and was only pre served from destruction by the talents and courage of Anand Rao's widow. By a treaty of 1819 Dhar passed under British protection. The State was confiscated for rebellion in 1857, but in 186o was restored, with the exception of the detached district of Bairusia, which was granted to the begum of Bhopal. The chief has the style of Maharaja and a salute of 15 guns. In 1931 the population was 243,43o. The state includes the ruins of Mandu, for Mandogarh, the Mohammedan capital of Malwa.
The TOWN OF DHAR (pop. [1931] 19,607), is picturesquely situated among lakes and trees surrounded by barren hills, and possesses, besides its old walls, many interesting buildings, Hindu and Mohammedan, some of them containing records of great historical importance. The Lat Musjid, or Pillar Mosque, was built by Dilawar Khan in 1405 out of the remains of Jain temples. It derives its name from an iron pillar, supposed to have been originally set up at the beginning of the i3th century in commemoration of a victory, and bearing a later inscription recording the seven days' visit to the town of the emperor Akbar in 1598. The pillar, which was 43 ft. high, is now overthrown and broken. The Kamal Maula is an enclosure containing four tombs, the most notable being that of Shaikh Kamal Maulvi (Kamal ud-din), a follower of the famous 13th-century saint Nizam-ud din Auliya. The mosque known as Raja Bhoj's school was built out of Hindu remains in the i4th or 5th century : its name is derived from the slabs, covered with inscriptions giving rules of Sanskrit grammar, with which it is paved. On a small hill to the north of the town stands the fort, a conspicuous pile of red sand stone, said to have been built by Mohammed ben Tughlak of Delhi in the i4th century. It contains the palace of the raja.
The town is of great antiquity, and was made the capital of the Paramara chiefs of Malwa by Vairisinha II., who transferred his headquarters hither from Ujjain at the close of the 9th century. During the rule of the Paramara dynasty Dhar was famous throughout India as a centre of culture and learning; but, after suffering various vicissitudes, it was finally conquered by the Mohammedans at the beginning of the i4th century. Subse quently, in the time of Akbar, Dhar fell under the dominion of the Moguls, in whose hands it remained- till 173o, when it was conquered by the Mahrattas.