Bakht Buland Shah

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Bakht Buland Shah
Raja
Portait of Bakht Buland Shah.png
Portrait of Bakht Buland Shah, the Gond king of Deogarh and founder of Nagpur
King of Nagpur
Reign1686-1706
PredecessorKok Shah (1620-1660)
Successor Chand Sultan (1706-1739)
BornBhagtu [1]
Burial
Juni Shukrawari [2] [3]
Issue Chand Sultan, Mohammad Shah, Ali Shah, Yusuf Shah, Wali Shah [4]
House Gonds of Deogarh
Dynasty Rajgond
FatherGorakh Shah [5]
Religion Islam
Statue of Bakht Buland Shah in Nagpur, India Gond king of nagpur.jpg
Statue of Bakht Buland Shah in Nagpur, India

Bakht Buland Shah was a ruler of the Rajgond dynasty. He added to his kingdom, the territories of Chanda and Mandla, and portions of Nagpur, Balaghat, Seoni, Bhandara and the adjoining Rajput kingdom of Kherla/Khedla. [6] The present districts of Chhindwara and Betul also fell under his control. A great warrior, he went on to conquer Pauni, Dongartal, Sivni, and Katangi. [7] [8]

Contents

Ascension to the throne

Bakht Buland's initial name was Bhagtu. [9] [1] After his father Kok Shah's death, a war of succession broke out. He was the younger son of Gorakh Shah, the Gond ruler of Deogarh. [5] To regain his throne from his brother, Bakht Buland went to Mughal capital of Delhi in 1686 and reluctantly accepted Islam, in order to get military assistance from the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. [10] [7] In exchange, he was recognized as the Raja of Deogarh. [7] With Aurangzeb's help, he was firmly established as the ruler of Deogarh in 1686. [9]

Reign

Bakht Buland Shah later rebelled against the Mughals in 1700 and snatched portions of their territory, when the empire had grown weak due to the long Mughal war against the Marathas. [7] [11] He even plundered the Mughal territory [7] on both sides of the Wardha river. [12] Thus he earned the disfavour of Aurangzeb, who thereupon ordered that the title "Bakht Buland" (lit.'of high fortune') should be changed to "Nigun Bakht" (lit.'of mean fortune'). Nothing is known of the army sent to punish Bakht. [8]

He was ceded the district of Seoni, Chauri, Dongartal, and Ghansour [12] by Narendra Shah of Mandla for his aid against the rebellious Pathan jagirdars in the Garha Kingdom. [13] [14] He also added parts of the Chanda Kingdom to his domain. [15] His kingdom included the present-day districts of Chhindwara, Betul, Balaghat, Sivni (Seoni), and Bhandara. [16]

He is chiefly remembered for founding the present settlement of Nagpur city. [15] Bakht Buland Shah founded the city of Nagpur in 1702 by joining the twelve hamlets formerly known as Rajapur Barsa or Barasta. [17] [4] He built roads and a strong wall around the city. [16] [18] [19]

According to Sir Richard Jenkins, "He indiscriminately employed Musalmans and Hindus of ability to introduce order and regularity into his immediate domain. Industrious settlers from all quarters were attracted to Gondwana, thousands of villages were founded, and agriculture, manufacture and even commerce made considerable advances. It may be said that much of the success of the Maratha administration was owing to the groundwork established by him." [7]

He died in about 1706 and was succeeded by his elder son Chand Sultan. [8] [4]

Related Research Articles

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The Gondi (Gōṇḍī) or Gond people, who refer to themselves as "Koitur", are an ethnolinguistic group in India. Their native language, Gondi, belongs to the Dravidian family. They are spread over the states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, and Odisha. They are listed as a Scheduled Tribe for the purpose of India's system of reservation.

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The Wainganga is a river in India originating in the Mahadeo Hills in Mundara in Gondwana region near the village Gopalganj in Seoni, Madhya Pradesh. It is a key tributary of the Godavari. The river flows south in a winding course through the states of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, roughly 580 km (360 mi). After joining the Wardha River, the united stream, which is known as the Pranahita River, empties into the Godavari River at Kaleshwaram, Telangana.

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Chhindwara district is one of the major districts of Madhya Pradesh state of India, and Chhindwara town is the district headquarters. Chhindwara was the largest district in Madhya Pradesh with an area of 10,293 square km before the bifurcation of Pandhurna district. The district is part of Jabalpur division.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nagpur kingdom</span>

The Kingdom of Nagpur was an Indian kingdom within the Maratha Confederacy in the 18th and 19th centuries. It came under the rule of the Marathas of the Bhonsle dynasty in the mid-18th century. The city of Nagpur was the capital of the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Nagpur</span> Aspect of Indian history

The history of Nagpur, in central India, spans over 5,000 years, including the Kingdom of Nagpur in the 18th and 19th century. Human existence around present-day Nagpur city can be traced back 3,000 years to the 8th century BC. Menhir burial sites at Drugdhamna indicate megalithic culture existed around Nagpur and is still followed in present times.

The Rajgonds are the ruling class of the Gonds. The region of Gondwana consisted of neighbouring kingdoms. To the south was the Kingdom of Chanda and to the north was the powerful Garha-Mandla kingdom. In the 16th century, the Kingdom of Deogarh rose as a powerful state with the Kherla Kingdom in its western past.

Ajanbahu Jatbasha is considered by historians to be founder of the Gond dynasty of Chhindwara and Nagpur, which ruled the present days territories of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and part of Maharashtra in the 16th-18th centuries. Documentation of his origins and rise to power have not survived, but he is the first historical leader of the mountain Gondi people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chand Sultan</span> Raja

Chand Sultan (1706-1739) was a Gond king of Nagpur. He was the eldest son and successor of Bakht Buland Shah of Deogarh. He ascended the throne of Deogarh in 1706 and shifted his capital from Deogarh to Nagpur. He carried out further reforms in his kingdom and planned layout of the new city of Nagpur and under him, the kingdom prospered. He was a kind ruler who loved his people and extended his territory considerably to the east of the river Wainganga.

Gondwana Kingdom was the ruling kingdom in Gondwana region of India. The Gondwana region includes core region of eastern part of the Vidarbha of Maharashtra, Garha Kingdom the parts of Madhya Pradesh immediately to the north of it, and parts of the west of Chhattisgarh. The wider region extends beyond these, also including parts of northern Telangana, western Odisha and southern Uttar Pradesh.

The Garha Kingdom, also called Garha Mandla or Garha Katanga, was an early-modern-era kingdom in India. It was the first large kingdom to be founded by the Gond tribe and dominated much of Central India at its peak.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islam in Maharashtra</span>

Islam is the second largest religion in Maharashtra, India, comprising 12,971,152 people which is 11.54% of the population. Muslims are largely concentrated in urban areas of the state, especially in Mumbai and the Marathwada region. There are several groups of Muslims in Maharashtra: Marathi and Konkani Muslims, whose native language is various dialects of Marathi and Konkani, Dakhni Muslims, whose native language is Dakhni Urdu, and more recent Urdu-speaking migrants from North India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bhonsles of Nagpur</span> Maratha royal house that ruled the Nagpur Kingdom

The Bhonsles of Nagpur were a Maratha royal house that ruled the Kingdom of Nagpur from 1739-1853. They hailed from the Bhonsle clan of Marathas and were one of the most important and powerful Maratha chiefs in the Maratha Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gonds of Deogarh</span> Gond royal house in 17th-century India

The Gonds of Deogarh were a Gond royal house that originally ruled the zone which became the Nagpur Kingdom after being practically being made state pensionaries by the Bhonsle Maratha leader Raghoji I Bhonsle. They made Nagpur region a prosperous and plentiful kingdom, founding the city of Nagpur and building further infrastructure. However, internal bickering led to their downfall.

The siege of Nagpur was laid by Khan-i-Dauran, a high-ranking Mughal official to the fort of Nagpur, ruled by the Gond king of Deogarh, Kok Shah.

The Kingdom of Chanda was one of the main Gond kingdoms, ruling parts of central India. In 1751, it was conquered by the Maratha ruler of Nagpur, Raghoji I Bhonsle.

References

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