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Research dossier · Places & Architecture

Palwal

city in India

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionDec 1, 2025
Entity authorityQ2086217
Source-derived summary

Palwal is a city and a municipal council. It is the headquarters of Palwal district, the 21st district of Haryana state in northern India. It is a centre of the cotton trade in the area. It is part of Braj region. It is also a part of National Capital Region.

Etymology and legend

The origin of Palwal is related to the local legend related to the Mahabharata, according to which the town is named after an asura called "Palwasura" who was slain by Balarama, the brother of Krishna. To commemorate this event an annual festival called "Baldev Chhat Ka Mela" is held here, and a "Dauji temple" in honor of Balrama is situated in Banchari village 25 km from Palwal on Grand Trunk Road.

History

The local tradition identifies Palwal with the Apelava town mentioned in the Mahabharata, which was later restored by Vikramaditya.

Matia Fort or Palwal Fort was built during Sher Shah Suri's reign. Excavations have unearthed evidence of a grand palace at the bottom of the fort.

Editorial summary

“Palwal” enters the record as city in India. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Palwal, city and India can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA valuable geographic starting point for tracing changing names, boundaries, uses and administrative responsibility. The current 170-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Palwal, city and India.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Palwal” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Palwal, city and India provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 1, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q2086217. Authority coordinates are 28.143, 77.327. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.

Critical limits

A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Palwal”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Palwal primary sources, Palwal archive and Palwal research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Palwal”?
  2. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
  3. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Palwal” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.