Vidisha district
Vidisha district is in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The district headquarters is the city of Vidisha. It is surrounded by Ashoknagar to the northeast, Sagar to the east, Raisen to the south, Bhopal to the southwest, and Guna to the northwest. The district sits on the Vindhyachal Plateau and is drained by the Betwa, Bina, and Sindh rivers, with the Vindhyachal Range extending into the Malwa Plateau. It covers an area of 7,371 square kilometers.
As of 2011, Vidisha district had a population of about 1.46 million, with a density of around 198 people per square kilometer. The population growth from 2001 to 2011 was about 20%. The sex ratio is 897 females for every 1,000 males. The literacy rate is around 72%, and about 23% of people live in urban areas. The main language is Hindi (about 95%), with Urdu spoken by a small minority (about 4.6%).
Historically, Vidisha was the second capital of the Shunga Empire. The district includes the historic Besnagar site and the famous Buddhist stupa at Sanchi. Vidisha was created in 1904 as Bhilsa District by merging Vidisha (Bhilsa) and Basoda tehsils, and its boundaries changed a few times before taking its current form in 1956 after the reorganization that created Madhya Pradesh.
Key sites in the district include Udayeshwar Temple in Udaypur, the Varahavtar sculpture at Udayagiri, the Udayagiri Caves, the Maladevi Temple in Gyaraspur, the Dashavatar Temple at Badoh-Pathari, and the Heliodorus Pillar in Vidisha.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 19:38 (CET).