Dantewada

Dantewada, also called Dantewara, lies in the Bastar country of Chhattisgarh. The town stands on the banks of the Shakini and Dakini rivers at an average elevation of about 351 metres. Those streams give a direct line between the settlement and the surrounding inland plateau, where roads, fields, and forest produce meet. The riverbanks form the natural focus of the place even as the built-up area spreads beyond them.

The Maa Danteshwari temple is the town's notable sacred landmark, while Gondi and Halbi belong to the region's cultural and linguistic landscape. Dantewada therefore combines a river crossing, a regional centre, and a sacred place whose meaning reaches beyond the town into the villages of Bastar.