RANI DURGAVATI - MEDIEVAL INDIA
News: Rani
Durgavati Gaurav Train MP: Who was this Gond Queen?
What's in the news?
● The
Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government in Madhya Pradesh launched the six-day
Rani Durgavati Gaurav Yatra June 22 and marked June 24 – when the queen is
believed to have died while fighting the Mughals in the mid-16th century – as a
day of sacrifice.
Rani Durgavati:
● Rani
Durgavati is said to have been born in 1524, in Mahoba’s Chandela dynasty.
● The
region comes under present-day Uttar
Pradesh, near the southern border with MP.
● Her
father was Raja Salbahan of Ratha and Mahoba, and the Chandelas were known for
building the famous Khajuraho temples
in the 11th century.
Queen of Gonds:
● She
was later married to Dalpat Shah, the
son of the Gond King Sangram Shah of the kingdom of Garha-Katanga.
● This
kingdom included the Narmada Valley and
parts of northern MP. It was first welded together by Sangram Shah and is
noted as one of the most powerful kingdoms of the Gond tribe.
● She
is a good marksman, skilled at using guns, bows, and arrows.
● It
was noted at the time that she was so intent on hunting tigers that “whenever
she heard that a tiger had appeared she did not drink water until she shot it.”