THANK YOU FOR VISITING
Sri Vaishnavi Durga Temple – Under Construction
Over Crowded Morning Commute to Palasa
A hamlet called Manjusha, metamorphosed over the years to a town named Mandasa
At the outset, GreaterMandasa.com expresses thanks to the people of Mandasa and nearby places for their overwhelming co-operation from its infancy. As the fabric of the world changes and paces forward at an astonishingly speed in this DNA age the internet becomes an essential tool to navigate almost everything. Doubtless, you would appreciate the attempt to set up this website, exclusively on Mandasa and nearby places. Besides the availability of other popular social media platforms, we believe that GreaterMandasa.com will emerge as a unique avenue towards notification of events, countless reunions for families & friends, business enterprises and educational programs in the Mandasa area and around the World.
In this site, attempts were made to showcase the historical splendor of ‘Manjusha Jamindari’ days to rapidly growing present ‘Mandasa town-ship’. While our collection of relevant information about Mandasa from the past to the present through several resources has been an on-going effort, here we provide information so far collected in the form of different categories for the readers’ convenience. The categories include, Present Day Mandasa, History, Educational Institutions, Temples, People, Sightseeings,News updates, Blogs, and Alerts which can be informative and may also aid to interact on various issues surrounding our lives. Needless to mention, your constructive comments, a line about you, your family and ancestors would be gratefully appreciated. Please send email to: [email protected]
Views of Main Road from King’s Palace (Left), Bus Stand (M) and New Street from Bus Stand (Right)
General Information About Present Day Mandasa
(click on ‘ Mandasa ‘ for more information from Wikipedia)
- Geographical co-ordinates: 18.8667oN 84.4667oE with an average elevation of 31 meters (104 feet) from the sea level.
- Time Zone and Pin code: IST (UTC+5.30 h); 532242
- Population: ~25,000 + (Telugu 65% : Oriya 35%)
- Official language: Telugu (However majority are bilingual)
- Educational Institutions: Mandasa has three elementary schools, one High School (established in 1905 by Royal family and named as Sri Raja Srinivasa Memorial Zilla Parishad High School) and a Junior Govt. College; An Oriya library, reportedly the oldest (about 115 years) in the World; A general library is also present in the High school.
- Financial Institutions: For financial transactions, Mandasa has a State Bank of India, a Gramina Bank and a district credit co operative bank. There is also one fully operational Post Office.
- Local Politics: YSRCP is the present ruling party; Gram Panchayat President: Mrs. Dunkuru Triveni; MLA: Appalaraju Seediri; MP: Rammohan Naidu Kinjarapu
- Town ship: Mandasa has a wide main entrance road facing Raja’s Palace (Photo 1) from Palasa side and another similar road (Photo 3) from Parlakhemundi-Berhampur. These 2 main streets are surrounded by 25+ streets. The Bus Stand is located in front of Raja’s palace (Photo 2). It accommodates RTC and Private buses from Srikakulam, Palasa, Parlakhemundi, Sompeta, Itchapur and Berhampur.
- Surrounding villages: There are about 220 villages and 38 Panchayaths under Mandasa Mandal.
- Recreation: In the evening time people visit Gopala Sagaram to enjoy the scenic beauty of the calm and quite surroundings. There is a Movie theater, exhibiting mostly Telugu cinemas. There are a couple of mediocre tiffin and meals hotels (Restaurants !). No lodging hotels are available; nearest ones are at Sompeta or Kasibugga and Palasa.
- Internet: 3G/ 4G connections are available through VSNL. Airtel, Idea, Jio etc services are available for telephone communications. There are 8 computer training centers with internet access (Rs.20 per hour internet usage)
- Bazaar/Hatto/Santha/Flea Market: There is a regular bazaar selling fruits, meat, fish, locally produced vegetables etc. on a daily basis. Every Monday a large number of sellers including nearby merchants, farmers and tribals display their produce. Both sellers and buyers eagerly wait for that occasion every single week without fail. This traditional market has been in operation for the past several decades. The weekly market used to be near Gopal sagar, two decades ago.
- Special Festivals: Besides general festivals like Pongal, Ugadi, Dasahara, Diwali, Mandasa is well known for Brahmostavalu (9 days in February), Khillomunda celebrations (16 days during Dashara in October), Ratha jatra (9days in June) followed by Dasa Avatharala procession, Thakurani / Kanchumai sambaralu (yearly/biannually), Humna (Month of June) and Dol jatra (Month of March) celebrations.
- How to reach: There is a small railway station, namely, Mandasa Road, 6 Km away from Mandasa on NH-16 (Previously NH-5). Mostly passenger trains stop there. However recently Bhuvaneswar-Visakha Intercity and Thirupathi-Puri Express trains have stops at Mandasa Road. The Express/Super express/Mail trains stop at Palasa (17Km from Mandasa) and Sompeta Road (26 Km from Mandasa); The nearest air ports are, Visakhapatnam (in Andhra Pradesh: 200+ Km) and Bhubaneswar (in Orissa; ~200Km). By bus or car one can reach from towns like Palasa, Sompeta or Itchapuram (in Andhra Pradesh) and Parlakhemundi or Berahampur (in Orissa). The nearest Sea port is Visakhapatnam..
References and Acknowledgements
All the information described in this website are gathered from (1) several elders in Mandasa, (2) the translated articles from the most relevant book in Sanskrit, namely, ‘Manjusha Raja Vamsanu Charitham’ written by Pandit Sri Yogeandra Misra Sharma of Puri in 1915 (We are trying to link or include a scanned copy of the book in a reduced form in our site pretty soon for your reference), (3) several articles from the Souvenir published on the occasion of Sri Raja Srinivasa Memorial Zilla Parishad High School Centenary celebrations held during 11.30.2003 to 12.1.2003 (Attempts are also being made to display all the articles published in the souvenir in our website). We also gratefully acknowledge the support from the Mandasa Royal family members especially Col. (Ret’d.) Meherban-i-Dostan Raja Chatrapathi Singh Deo and his brother, Rajkumar Bikram Kesari Singh Deo who provided useful information about the history of Mandasa kingdom, its rulers and their contributions (Please go through their informative articles under ‘History’). GreaterMandasa.com also conveys sincere thanks to Wikipedia for using their links, countless individuals from India and abroad for providing their valuable comments and rare photographs.
Note: If anyone has additional information about any of the pictures/articles, please email us. We will add and acknowledge your contributions. We greatly appreciate your help in making this site informative and useful
