Garha Kingdom

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Garha Kingdom of Gondwana

unknown–1781
CapitalGarha
Singhorgarh
Chouragarh (1564-1634)
Ramnagar (1634 - 1781)
Common languagesdravidian
Gondi
Religion
Gondi
GovernmentMonarchy
History 
• Established
unknown
• Disestablished
1781
Today part ofIndia

The Garha Kingdom, also called Garha Mandla or Garha Katanga was northern part of Gondwana.

History[edit]

The first Gond king of Garha-Mandla was Jadurai. He became king after disposing the Kalchuri Rajputs of Garha-Mandla, where earlier he worked in court.[1][2][3]

The Garha-Mandla kingdom was earlier a small territory which witnessed rapid expansion under the rule of Sangram Shah, the 48th king, He captured territories like Narmada Valley, Bhopal, Sagar, Damoh and most of the Satpura hills. He conquered 52 forts called Garh to strengthen and spread the Gond territory. The Chouragrh Fort in Narsinghpur was built in the honour of conquering 52 forts.[1] Sangram Shah is best known as a patron of arts and literature and he had great knowledge of Sanskrit. Rasratnamala was written by Sangram Shah.[4] At the time of Sangram Shah the capital of Garha kingdom was Singhorgarh.

His successor Dalpat Shah, was married to Rani Durgawati[5][2][6] who was a Chandela Rajput princess. Rani Durgavati moved her capital to Chouragarh because it was safer than Singhorgarh. Rani Durgawati made the kingdom extremely propserous, it was said that the people paid their taxes in gold in her reign.[2] She battled against Mughal Emperor Akbar's forces lead by Asaf Khan I in 1564. Though she lost, she is remembered as a war-heroine and is still praised in the areas of the former Garha kingdom. The Mughals acquired immense booty, including thousands of elephants from this victory. [2][7]

After 25 years of Mughal rule, the kingdom was restored to Chandra Shah, another son of Sangram Shah and half-brother of Dalpat Shah.[8] He was recognized as the successor of Rani Durgavati by Akbar on accepting Mughal suzerainty and ceding 10 of the garhas.[9][10] He was followed in succession by Madhukar Shah[9] and Prem Narain. Jhujhar Singh of Orchha deposed Prem Narain, however, Mughal intereference restored the kingdom to Hridayshah.[9][10]

Hridayshah maintained friendly relations with the Mughals, he spent days at the imperial court in Delhi as well.[1] He moved his capital from Chouragarh to Ramnagar of Mandla district.

Decline[edit]

Hriday Shah was the last great king of Garha-Mandla. After his death, no great ruler appeared and court intrigue was common, greatly weakening the state. It ceded away portions of its territory and its revenues were spent to buy off its enemies. One of its feudatories, the Gond rajas of Deogadh, took advantage of the kingdom's weakness subsequent to the temporary Mughal conquest in the early 17th century and annexed a large part of its territories.[11] Bakht Buland Shah, the Gond raja of Deogarh, was ceded the district of Seoni, Chauri, Dongartal and Ghansour[12] by Narendra Shah of Mandla for his aid against the latter's cousins.[13]

By the time of Maharaj Shah (1732-1742), the kingdom held only 29 out of the initial 52 forts held by his ancestor Sangram Shah. In 1742, peshwa Balaji Baji Rao attacked Mandla and killed Maharaj Shah. His son, Shivraj Singh, ascended he throne on the condition that he would pay an annual tribute of 4 lakhs to the Marathas.[14]

In 1781[1] or 1780,[11] Narhar Shah of Mandla was defeated by the Maratha king of Nagpur,[1][10] Mudhoji Bhonsle and sent to spend the rest of his days at Khurai fort in Saugor.[1] In 1817, Mandla came under British rule.[10] The anthropologist Stephen Fuchs describes- "In 1781 the last Gond ruler of Mandla, Narhar Shah, was tortured to death by the Maratha general Moraji, and Mandla became a dependency of the Saugor Marathas. In 1799 Mandla fell to the Bhonsla king of Nagpur, till in 1818 the British took over and assumed the rule also over Mandla."[15]

Shankar Shah, a pensioner of the British,[1] descendent of the rajas of Garha-Mandla and his son Raghunath Shah were arrested of a plot to murder the English residents of Jabalpur during the Revolt of 1857 and were executed by blowing from a gun[1] in Jabalpur.[7]

Emblem of Gondwana State[edit]

File:Gondwana emblem Amarkantak.jpg
Emblem at Amarkantak (MP)

For over a millennium in South Asia, the visual trope of a triumphant lion vanquishing one or several elephants has been common in architectural sculpture, both in the round and in relief. In the rather limited scholarship on this motif, diverse interpretations have been offered. Although its presence has remained fairly stable through time, there exist many minor variations on this motif, including the use of leonine creatures variously described as vyālas or yālīs, and the incorporation of other fantastic creatures known popularly as makaras in such combats. In South India, the myth of the fantastic composite animal called the Śarabha takes this imagery yet further. Yet, the simple image of a lion victorious over one or more elephants was situated very strategically within certain architectural programs for given periods and places. For example, Gondwana Kingdom forts, Deccani forts constructed between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries carried this representation on their barbicans and gateways . While tracing the history of this visual motif.

Administration[edit]

Administration of Gondwana was becoming centralised. The kingdom was divided into garh, each garh was controlled by particular Gond clan. This was further divided into units of 84 villages called chourasi. The chourasi was further subdivided into barhots which are made up of 12 villages each.

52 Garh of Gondwana[edit]

  1. Garha
  2. Singhorgarh
  3. Kurwai
  4. Rahatgarh
  5. Ginnorgarh
  6. Bhopal
  7. Makrai
  8. Madogarh( Mandla)
  9. Amoda(jabalpur)
  10. Patangarh( Jabalpur)
  11. Chourai
  12. Bargi
  13. Ghansour
  14. Karvagarh( seoni)
  15. Chaiturgarh Lafagarh korba
  16. Raigarh
  17. Tipagarh(Balaghat)
  18. Kanoja(Jabalpur)
  19. Pachelgarh(Jabalpur)
  20. Bagmar(Mandla)
  21. Dongartal(Nagpur)
  22. Jhanjhangarh(Jabalpur)
  23. Santagarh
  24. Diyagarh(Jabalpur)
  25. Bankagarh
  26. Amargarh(Dindori)
  27. Devhar(Dindori)
  28. Nimuagarh(Narsinghpur)
  29. Bhanwargarh(Narsinghpur)
  30. Pawai-karhi
  31. Shahnagar
  32. Dhamoni
  33. Hatta
  34. Madiyado
  35. Garhakota
  36. Shahgarh
  37. Garhpahra(sagar)
  38. Damoh
  39. Rehli
  40. Itwa(sagar)
  41. Khimlasa
  42. Badi
  43. Chowkigarh(Hoshangabad)
  44. Karubag(Raisen)
  45. Raisen
  46. Bhanwaraso
  47. Opadgarh(Bhopal)
  48. Punagarh(Narsinghpur)
  49. Deori
  50. Gourjhamar
  51. Partabgarh(Bilaspur)
  52. Fatehpur(Hoshangabad)

List of Rulers[edit]

Independent rulers[edit]

  • Kharji (1440-1460)
  • Gorakshakdas (1460-1480)
  • Sukhandar (1480-1500)
  • Arjun Das (150-1513)
  • Sangram Shah (1513-1543)[10]
  • Dalpat Shah (1543?-1550)[2]
  • Rani Durgawati (1550-1564)[5][2][10]
  • Chandra Shah (c. 1589 -?)[10]
  • Madhukar Shah
  • Prem Narain
  • Hridayshah (1634-1668)
  • Chhatra Shah (1668-1685)
  • Kesari Shah (1685-1688) [16]
  • Narendra Shah (1688-1732)
  • Shahi (1732-1742)
  • Shivaraj Shah (1742-1749)
  • Durjan Shah (1749)
  • Mahipal Shah (1749-1776)
  • Narhari Shah (1776-1778)
  • Sumedh Shah (1778-1781)

References[edit]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Chatterton, Eyre (8 January 2021). The Story Of Gondwana. Read Books Ltd. ISBN 978-1-5287-6963-1.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Gupta, Archana Garodia (20 April 2019). The Women Who Ruled India: Leaders. Warriors. Icons. Hachette India. ISBN 978-93-5195-153-7.
  3. ↑ "The Gond kingdoms". downtoearth.
  4. ↑ Miśra, Sureśa (2007). Tribal Ascendancy in Central India: The Gond Kingdom of Garha. Manak Publications. ISBN 978-81-7827-185-9.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Datta, Saurav Ranjan. Goddesses of Fury: History's Most Daring Queens. The Little Booktique Hub. p. 151. ISBN 978-93-93209-19-1.
  6. ↑ "Rani Durgavati: The Warrior Queen of the Gonds"
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 West, Barbara A. (19 May 2010). Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4381-1913-7.
  8. ↑ Orissa District Gazetteers: Mandla. Superintendent, Orissa Government Press. 1995.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Pradesh (India), Madhya (1992). Madhya Pradesh: Balaghat. Government Central Press.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 Sharma, Anima (2005). Tribe in transition : a study of Thakur Gonds (1st ed.). New Delhi: Mittal Publications. ISBN 9788170999898.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Deogaonkar, Shashishekhar Gopal (2007). The Gonds of Vidarbha. Concept Publishing Company. ISBN 978-81-8069-474-5.
  12. ↑ Sil, Jogendra Nath (1917). History of the Central Provinces and Berar. J.N. Sil.
  13. ↑ Host Bibliographic Record for Boundwith Item Barcode 30112050248951 and Others. 2013.
  14. ↑ Pradesh (India), Madhya (1989). Madhya Pradesh: Seoni. Government Central Press.
  15. ↑ Rashkow, Ezra; Ghosh, Sanjukta; Chakrabarti, Upal (18 August 2017). Memory, Identity and the Colonial Encounter in India: Essays in Honour of Peter Robb. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-351-59694-7.
  16. ↑ "Five-storey palace built from 350 year old stones". Naidunia. Naidunia. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
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