ਮੌੜਮੌੜ

Maur, usually called Maur Mandi, is a mandi town in Bathinda district of Punjab's Malwa region, about 35 kilometres southwest of Bathinda city. Home to 31,849 people at the 2011 census, it has been the headquarters of Bathinda district's fourth sub-division since 2013, serving the grain and cotton trade of the surrounding villages.

Where is Maur?

Maur stands at 30.08 degrees north and 75.25 degrees east, in the southwest of Bathinda district, at an elevation of about 212 metres. The town's PIN is 151509, vehicles carry PB-80 registration plates, and the local dialling code is 165311. It sits on the Bathinda-Mansa road, roughly 35 kilometres from Bathinda city, 18 kilometres from Talwandi Sabo, 122 kilometres from Patiala and 187 kilometres from Chandigarh. The municipal council covers 14.08 square kilometres, making Maur one of Bathinda district's larger towns.

ਇਤਿਹਾਸ

Local tradition says the town was founded by a man named Maur, a Jat of the Mann clan. Older than the mandi is the neighbouring village of Maur Kalan; local accounts say the British planned the mandi town, Maur Mandi, after the village was already there. The town's old gurdwara is associated with a visit by Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Sikh Guru. The traditional account says the Guru stayed here for a few days and freed the villagers from a ghost that troubled them, and a fair is held at the gurdwara on every Amavas, the new-moon day. This is the community's remembered history rather than a documented record. In the decades after Partition the town grew steadily as a market. In 2013 the Punjab government upgraded Maur from a sub-tehsil to a sub-divisional headquarters, making it the district's fourth sub-division. The Maur assembly constituency, number 95, was created in the 2012 delimitation; the Shiromani Akali Dal won it in 2012 and the Aam Aadmi Party has held it since 2017.

Geography and people

The 2011 census counted 31,849 residents in Maur: 16,902 men and 14,947 women living in about 6,250 households. The sex ratio was 884 women per 1,000 men, and Scheduled Caste residents numbered 10,337. Literacy stood at 78 percent overall, 85 percent for men and 79 percent for women, with about 13 percent of the population under six years of age. The town has grown steadily for decades, rising from 3,847 in 1951 to 10,944 in 1961, 18,853 in 1981, 25,180 in 1991, 27,543 in 2001 and 31,849 in 2011, at a density of about 2,262 people per square kilometre. Punjabi is the official language, and agriculture sets the rhythm of daily life.

Mandi, markets and industry

Maur's reason for being is trade. Its grain and cotton mandi draws wheat, paddy and cotton from the surrounding villages, and commission agents, transporters and financiers crowd the bazaar around it. The town has long made agricultural implements and shoes; local listings also name electrical items, plastic shoes and zarda among its small industries. It is a Class II municipal council, and since 2013 it has housed the sub-divisional offices that serve the villages of the Maur area. The old Bathinda-Mohali state highway, number 12-A, that runs past the town has been upgraded into National Highway 148B, the Bathinda to Kotputli corridor, strengthening its road links south toward Haryana and Rajasthan.

Gurdwaras and nearby landmarks

The town's religious centre is the old gurdwara linked with Guru Tegh Bahadur's visit, where the Amavas fair draws devotees every new moon. About 18 kilometres away at Talwandi Sabo stands Takht Sri Damdama Sahib, one of the five Sikh takhts, which makes Maur a convenient stop for pilgrims travelling through Bathinda district. The town bazaar and the grain market square complete the local landmarks.

Administration and getting there

Maur has its own railway station, code MAUR, on the Firozpur-Bathinda-New Delhi line, with regular trains linking it to Bathinda, about an hour away, and onward to Delhi. By road the upgraded NH 148B connects it to Bathinda, Mansa and beyond, and buses run regularly across the district. Administratively the town is a municipal council and a sub-divisional headquarters; politically it anchors the Maur assembly seat, number 95, under the Bathinda Lok Sabha constituency. In the 2022 Punjab election Sukhveer Singh Maiserkhana of the Aam Aadmi Party won the seat with 63,099 votes, taking a margin of 35,008 over the independent runner-up.