Ramtek () is a city and municipal council in Nagpur district of Maharashtra, India. Located at the foot of a prominent hill northeast of Nagpur, Ramtek is an important Hindu pilgrimage centre associated with the god Rama. Numerous shrines and temples have been built on Ramtek Hill since at least the early 5th century, when it served as the main religious sanctuary of the Vakataka dynasty. As of 2011, Ramtek had a population of 22,310, in 4,929 households.
Names Ramtek is first attested in a copper plate grant from the early 400s, during the reign of Prabhāvatīguptā, which mention the place as Rāmagiri and say that they were issued from there. It is later attested in an inscription from Ramtek, dated to the late 1200s, as Sindūragiri and Tapaṃgiri (for Tapogiri, "tapas hill"). The inscription says that the name Sindūragiri was given because the hill was stained red with the blood of the asura king Hiraṇyakaśipu when he was killed by Narasiṃha; according to Henry Cousens, the name Sindūragiri may have simply been because of the reddish colour of the rock and stone here. The name Tapogiri is stated in the Sindūragiri-māhātmya to be because this is where Śambūka was practicing tapas before he was killed by Rāma.
The modern name Rāmṭek means "the hill of Rāma".
History
Ramtek has been a regionally-important religious site since at least the 5th century, and it was probably also a strategic centre controlling the highway connecting the northern Deccan with the central and eastern Ganges plain. It was about 6 km north of Nandivardhana, at present-day Nagardhan, which was the capital of the Vākāṭaka dynasty until the 440s. Ramtek itself was probably a locally-venerated sacred site associated with Rāma even before the Vākāṭakas, but it was under the Vākāṭakas that Ramtek was built up into the main religious centre in their kingdom.
Classical period: development under the Vakatakas
Vasudev Vishnu Mirashi has identified Ramtek with the Rāmagiri that features in Kālidāsa's Meghadūta, as the place where the yakṣa protagonist lives for a year after being banished from the city of Alakā. The Meghadūta describes Rāmagiri as being marked with Rāma's footprints — a description that parallels the grant of Prabhāvatīguptā, which says it was issued from "near the footprints of the lord of Rāmagiri". The identification of Ramtek with Kālidāsa's Rāmagiri has not been decisively proven, although Hans T. Bakker wrote regarding Mirashi's proposal that "of all possible candidates, Ramtek has the strongest claim".
Whether there was actually a sanctuary of Rāma on top of the hill during this period is disputed. Although Mirashi suggested that Ramtek was a centre of Rāma bhakti during this period, A. P. Jamkhedkar later wrote, based on more recent discoveries, that this idea should be "cautiously considered and probably rejected". However, Bakker suggested that a sanctuary of Rāma may have existed on the site of the present-day Rāma temple — the most prominent spot on the hill, on its western spur — during the Vākāṭaka period. However, worship of Narasiṃha was one of the most important features of the site in this period. Two other avatars of Viṣṇu, namely Vāmana and Varāha, also had temples during this period.
At least six still-extant temples were built during the Vākāṭaka period. Two are close-together red stone temples dedicated to Narasiṃha. Another is an open structure featuring an image of Varāha, Viṣṇu's boar avatar. A fourth temple depicts Vāmana but all that survive of it are the image (which is badly damaged) and part of the entrance. The fifth, and most impressive, of the Vākāṭaka-period temples at Ramtek is the Bhogarāma temple, located opposite the temple of Varāha and features two garbhagṛhas next to each others. It is mentioned in the Līḷācaritra and the Sthānapothī. Cakradhara, the founder of the Mahānubhāva sect, stayed at this temple for 10 months as a saṃnyāsin early in his religious career in the mid-1200s. These temples are all located along the route leading up to the main area on the west spur of the hill.
In building up Ramtek from a local cult site to "the primary religious centre of the Vakataka state", the Vākāṭakas were likely inspired at least partly by the Udayagiri Caves, which had already been built up as the Guptas' main religious sanctuary under Chandragupta II. Both Ramtek and Udayagiri appear to have featured Viṣṇupāda (footprints of Viṣṇu) shrines prominently, and both played similar role as royally-favoured religious sanctuaries, and the Vākāṭakas may have been trying to promote Ramtek as their big paramount Vaiṣṇava site to match the big paramount Gupta Vaiṣṇava site at Udayagiri. The connection between Rāmagiri and Udayagiri may have been a well-known allusion at the time, and Kālidāsa may have been alluding to this by having the eponymous cloud in the Meghadūta make the first leg of its journey from Rāmagiri to Udayagiri.
Early medieval period Very little construction appears to have taken place Ramtek between the Vākāṭaka period and the Yādava period. The earliest appears to have been the stone Sindūravāpī tank, which has a maṇḍapa with pillars at its northern end stylistically similar to the Vākāṭaka style. The only other construction from Ramtek dated to this period is the Kalika Devi temple in Ramtek town, which Jamkhedkar dates to the 7th or 8th century.
Rāmagiri seems to have only been regionally important as a tīrtha during these earlier periods. In his History of Dharmaśāstra, Pandurang Vaman Kane notes only two major texts that mention Rāmagiri: the Meghadūta and the Garuḍa Purāṇa.
Yadavas of Devagiri During the Yādava period, Ramtek again seems to have become a major royal religious centre, and there was a major wave of building activity. The basic structure of the main buildings within the citadel today, including the Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa temples, date from this period, although with later modifications. The Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa temples may have themselves been reconstructions of earlier temples, possibly from the Calukya period, with their vimānas "grafted upon an older groundplan". The Karpūravāpī tank complex on the northern side of the hill was built or rebuilt during this period. In the Lakṣmaṇa temple is an inscription from the reign of Rāmacandra, the last Yādava ruler (late 1200s). Although it is heavily damaged, this inscription "very valuable literary information" about the site. It appears to contain a māhātmya of Ramtek, which "begins by proclaiming that of all incarnations of Viṣṇu the foremost is Rāmacandra, who lives on the mountain together with Hanumat" and contains the story of Narasiṃha slaying Hiraṇyakaśipu, "whose blood gave the hill its red colour (sindūra) and its name 'Sindūragiri'". It also indicates that a shrine of the Aṣṭamātṛkās, or Eight Mothers, existed on the hill, although it is apparently no longer extant.
Maratha period Ramtek as it exists today is heavily influenced by Raghuji I, the first raja of Nagpur (), who sponsored extensive construction projects here in the 1700s. Rāma was Raghuji's patron deity, and during Raghuji's reign in Nagpur, he made a pilgrimage to Ramtek every year as part of his court's "especially grand" celebration of Rāmanavamī. So it was only natural for Raghuji to sponsor extensive construction projects at Ramtek. He fortified the hilltop and renovated the temples of Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa (he seems to have kept the temples' appearance more or less the same as it was before, instead of substantially changing it). He also provided new idols for the temples of Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa. His munim (accountant) was responsible for the construction of the Jain temple complex at the northern foot of the hill, along with several temples around Ambālā Lake. Ambālā Lake in general was developed extensively under Raghuji and his successors, and most of the temples around the lake date from this period. The Sindūravāpī and Siteci Nhani tanks were also renovated during this period.
Ramtek remained an important dynastic religious centre under the later Bhonsles of Nagpur. For example, it influenced Raghuji's son Bimbaji, who created his own version, called Ramtekri, at Ratanpur when he was governor of Chhattisgarh.
Under Maratha patronage, Ramtek underwent a "third period of bloom". Besides the flurry of construction, there was production of religious literature. The Sindūragiri-māhātmya dates from this period: it probably represents "a new up-to-date recension" of older māhātmya texts that had probably been passed down locally over the preceding centuries. Bābū Mairāl, who was active as a writer in Ramtek during the late 1700s, is credited with authorship of the Sindūragiri-māhātmya, although he was almost certainly not the sole author, since multiple versions of the text exist.
Between the 1200s and the 1700s, a major shift in Hindu devotional trends had resulted in Rāma bhakti becoming one of the most popular worship practices in Hinduism. For example, a Rāma-centric strand of Vaiṣṇavism had emerged. This increased emphasis on Rāma made Ramtek, one of the oldest centres of Rāma worship, even more popular throughout India; it was now "a pilgrimage centre with an all-India appeal".
19th century Ramtek was constituted as a municipality in 1867 under British rule, making it the second-oldest municipality in Nagpur district, after Nagpur itself.
20th century Since Mirashi first presented his identification of Ramtek with Kālidāsa's Rāmagiri in 1959, the association of Ramtek with Kālidāsa has gained widespread popularity and led to the construction of the Kalidasa Memorial building on the hilltop. A festival is now held here annually in honour of Kālidāsa.
Geography
Ramtek is located 45 km northeast of Nagpur, at the western end of the Ramtek hills, a well-wooded, horseshoe-shaped range that rises steeply from the surrounding plain. Partly encircled by the hills' "horseshoe" is a narrow valley containing Ambālā Lake, which is the starting point for the stairway leading up the hill to its western summit. At the highest point, a western spur rising to 469 m above sea level, is the main sanctuary, where the temple of Rāma is located. The Ramtek hills form the western extremity of the Ambāgaḍ range, which extends off to the east.
The town of Ramtek itself is spread out on the plain below the hills to the west and southwest. Another hill, lower and smaller then the Ramtek hill range, also rises on the west side of town, reaching about 406 m above sea level. Numerous large tanks exist around the town, especially on the south side; there are some 27 tanks in Ramtek in all, some of which are considered sacred.
About 7 km east-northeast of Ramtek is the vast Khindsi Lake, which is an artificial lake created by a 22 m-tall dam across a gorge on the Sūr river built between 1906 and 1914. The lake occupies an area of 36,930 hectares, and about 331 km of canals branch off from the lake to provide irrigation water for agriculture in the area.
To the north, south, and west of Ramtek are broad open plains that are mostly covered by farmland. About 3 km west of Ramtek is the town of Mansar, where there is another hill range to the north. North of Ramtek, the plains go north for several kilometres, covering the catchment area of the Sur Nadi, before running into a vast rugged forest region.
The municipal area is 3.54 km2.
Temples and other monuments
Ramtek is an exceptionally good example of Indian architectural history because has been the site of monumental construction since at least the 5th century with little interruption (except for approximately the 14th through 16th centuries) and no apparent cases of destruction, allowing a uniquely wide range of architectural periods to be represented at the same site.