Solapur History, India

Solapur is one of those cities for India that have been conquered by many historical rulers one after the other. Some of these famous dynasties were Rashtrakutas, Andhrabhratyas, Yadavas, Bahamanis, and the Chalukyas.

The city of Solapur has been famous amongst the historians for its uniquely styled and short lived independence against the British Rulers way ahead of the Indian Independence. Somewhere in the year 1930 the British Rulers went against Mahatma Gandhi and did physically molest him. His supporters were very hurt due to this act of the British army and hence they started to revolt against the British control. Under the rising pressure the British policemen emptied the city and ran for their safety. This was the time when the city of Solapur enjoyed total freedom from May 9th 1930 till May 11th 1930 (which means just for 3 days).

The politicians also raised the national flag during these days of independence on the empty building of municipal council. These days of freedom didn’t last long and the British Policemen returned with greater force to curb the rising strength of various politicians. They hanged many politicians that were behind this mini revolt and once again the city was under the control of British Rulers.

Many theories have been prevalent to indicate the true reason behind why this city is called as Solapur. The major one being that two words of Hindi Language which people regularly use were used to name this city. The words were Sola (that means the numerical digit 16) and the other being Pur (which has the meaning ‘village’). This was done as during those days the city of Solapur was made up of 16 different villages. All these villages were located next to each other and they were comprised to form the city of Solapur.

Another theory which is prevalent behind the naming of Solapur is the one that gives a short summary of who actually ruled Solapur and when. The land on which today the city of Solapur is flourishing was called as Sonnalage during the times when Kalyani dynasty was ruling the land. The pronunciation later on was changed to Sonnalagi. This new name was in use from the Kalyani Dynasty to Yadava Dynasty. By the year 1238 Yadavas lost control of this land and the name was also changed by new rulers.

It was the Muslims who conquered the region and called it as Sandalpur. The British Rule came and called the city as Sholapur which changed to Solapur as per the comfort of locals.

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