During the ‘Satavahana’ and ‘Vakataka’ periods, some 2,000 years ago, an ancient village was located, where Wani city is situated today. Its name was Nirguda. Nirguda river got its name from this village. Later, this tribal village was developed and became Wani. But the exact location of this village could not be found. After Prof Suresh Chopane undertook the research work of the taluka to write the history of Wani city, the village of Nirguda was found to the south of Wani. Prof Suresh Chopane had been conducting survey and research in the area for his book on the history of Wani since last year. While doing research, in May, he found the village of Nirguda on the banks of the river to the south of Wani. Neer means water and Guda means village, hence the name Nirguda for the river. Since this village is very ancient, no written evidence has been found here at present.

 

Today, due to the settlement of Khalbala Moholla (Ranganath Nagar) in this place, all the evidence has been destroyed. Only the ancient temples have remained. Even today, the four temples of tribal god Bhivasan, Matamai have been found here, and there are also temples of Shiva and Hanuman dating back a thousand years. On the other side of the Nirguda river, two temples of the earlier inhabitants and a Shiva temple have been found on the east bank. This means that Nirguda village was situated on both banks of the river. Lalguda village also has Bhivasan and Mata temples as well as Shiva and Ganesh temples.

 

From this, both the villages of Lalguda and Nirguda were tribal villages in ancient times. Later, Hindus came to live in this village and built temples. This settlement grew further during the Vakataka and Yadav kingdoms and extended to the Ranganatha Swami temple. Where the forest is today, there was previously a dense forest. The British mapped the forest and built a city. The ancient forest had grown from south to north. The original village of Wani is in this Nirguda village.

 

When this area became a trading centre during the Hindu kings, cloth and grocery shops started here in large numbers. Then people from the surrounding villages used to come here to buy groceries. Grocery shopkeepers were called ‘Wani’. From this word Wani, this large settlement was called Wani’s settlement. Muslims used to call it Van or Wun. In the British Empire, the British started writing the name Wun in documents based on the pronunciation of the Muslims. But the residents here did not change the name Wani. After all the studies, it is clear that the previous Nirguda is the original village of Wani and the river got its name Nirguda from this village, as per the information given by researcher Prof Suresh Chopane.