Banurਬਨੂੜ

History

Banur is an old town of the Chandigarh–Patiala road, and its history is written in Rajput and Sikh records alike — a small town with an outsized past. Before 1948 it was a chhat — an estate centre — of the Taoni Rajputs, the clan that also held Kharar and the surrounding towns; the 1904 Ambala Gazetteer lists the Taoni chhats of this tract in detail, and Banur's name runs through them. The town's most dramatic moment came in 1709, when Banda Singh Bahadur, marching on Sirhind to avenge the martyrdom of the younger Sahibzadas, destroyed Banur on his way — the town lay directly on the Khalsa army's line of march.

After Independence Banur settled into the life of a highway market town, its bazaars serving farmers and truckers on the Chandigarh–Patiala run for seventy years. It lies in SAS Nagar (Mohali) district — some databases tag it to Patiala, but the town's municipal records, the census, and its position on the Mohali side of the district boundary place it firmly in Mohali.

Geography & people

Banur stands on the Chandigarh–Patiala highway (NH-7), about 25 kilometres from Chandigarh and 30 from Patiala, in the flat, fertile belt that feeds both cities' grain markets. The 2011 census counted 18,775 residents in the municipal council. Punjabi is the everyday language. The town serves the surrounding agricultural villages, and its highway frontage — dhabas, workshops, showrooms — gives it the economy of a corridor town. The new sectors of Greater Mohali are reaching toward it from the north, and land prices have begun to reflect Banur's position between Chandigarh and Patiala.

Places of interest

Banur's interest is in its old-town fabric: the streets of the former Rajput chhat, its gurdwaras and temples, the old wells shaded by banyans, and the highway bazaar that has fed travellers for generations. It makes a convenient stop on the Chandigarh–Patiala–Sirhind heritage route — Sirhind's great gurdwaras and the Fatehgarh Sahib complex are under an hour away. The surrounding countryside is classic Malwa farmland, and the town's old wells and banyan trees still mark the pre-highway landscape.

Notable people

The Taoni Rajput chiefs of Banur's chhat days are its historical figures, and Banda Singh Bahadur — who passed through in 1709 on the campaign that broke Mughal power in Sirhind and avenged the Sahibzadas — is the great name associated with the town. In the modern era Banur's identity is civic rather than personal: a highway town of Mohali district.