MARDAN

town and district in Peshawar division, North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan. The town, the district headquarters, lies just north of the Kalpani River; it is connected by road and rail with Dargai (Malakand Pass), Nowshera, and Peshawar, 30 mi (50 km) south-southwest. A growing industrial centre, it has textile and vegetable oil mills, a cigarette factory, and one of the largest sugar refineries in the Indian subcontinent. Mardan is the site of a government college. The Rock of Shahbazgarhi, 7 mi northeast of Mardan, bears one of the great inscriptions of Emperor A soka (3rd century BC). Mardan district (area 1,211 sq mi [3,136 sq km]), until 1936 a part of Peshawar district, extends north of the Kabul River, comprises the greater portion of the Yusufzai plain, and has the largest concentration of irrigated land in Pakistan. The chief crops are wheat, corn (maize), sugarcane, tobacco, sugar beet, and fruit (peaches, plums, apples, apricots, and pears). Marble deposits are found in the hills. Pop. (1981 prelim.) town, 148,000; district, 1,423,000.