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Seuna Yadavas of Devagiri

The Seunas claimed descent from the Yadu line of Shri Krishna. Bhillama V built Devagiri around 1187, and his heirs ruled the first great Marathi-speaking kingdom until Alauddin Khalji’s armies broke it.

  1. Bhillama Vc. 1185–1193
  2. Jaitugic. 1193–1210
  3. Singhana IIc. 1210–1246
  4. Krishnac. 1246–1261
  5. Mahadevac. 1261–1271
  6. Ramachandrac. 1271–1311
  7. Shankaradeva (Singhana III)c. 1311–1313
  8. +1
Period: c. 1187–1317 CERegion: Maharashtra and northern Karnataka, from the Narmada to the TungabhadraCapitals: Devagiri (Daulatabad)
Photo: CNG Coins · CC BY-SA 3.0

01Devagiri on its rock

Bhillama V, a Chalukya feudatory, broke away as Kalyani declined and built his capital on a cone of basalt near Ellora, its sides cut sheer. Singhana II pushed the frontier south over the Hoysalas and north into Gujarat and Malwa. His court drew the musicologist Sharngadeva, whose Sangita Ratnakara is still the base text of Hindustani and Carnatic theory, and Changadeva, grandson of Bhaskaracharya, who founded a school at Patan to teach his grandfather’s works.

02Hemadri and Jnaneshwar

Hemadri, minister to Mahadeva and Ramachandra, compiled the Chaturvarga Chintamani, a vast digest of dharma, vrata and dana. The plain stone temples of the Deccan are still called Hemadpanti after him. In 1290, in Ramachandra’s reign, the young Jnaneshwar gave his Marathi commentary on the Gita at Nevasa; its closing verses name the Yadava king. Around the same time Chakradhar Swami founded the Mahanubhava panth, whose followers wrote early Marathi prose.

Renuka Devi Temple, Mahur (Ekaveerika)
Place · Shrine of great antiquity on Mahurgad; the Nanded district record says the temple was raised by a Yadava king of DevagiriRenuka Devi Temple, Mahur (Ekaveerika)Mahurye Ekaveerika: the Ashtadasha Shakti Peetha stotra names the Devi of Mahur among its eighteen. On the same hills stand the shrines of Sati Anasuya and the Datta Shikhar, held to be the birthplace of Bhagwan Dattatreya.Read →

03Three Khalji campaigns

In 1296 Alauddin Khalji, then governor of Kara, rode in by surprise while the Yadava army was away and forced Ramachandra to pay a huge ransom. It was the first Sultanate raid south of the Vindhyas. Malik Kafur came again in 1307–08 and took Ramachandra to Delhi, though he returned as a tributary king. His son Shankaradeva stopped paying and was killed in 1313. In 1317–18 Harapaladeva rose against the Sultanate, was captured and put to death, and Devagiri became a Delhi province.

The rulers

  1. 1Bhillama VFounded Devagiric. 1185–1193
  2. 2Jaitugic. 1193–1210
  3. 3Singhana IIGreatest of the line; patron of Sharngadevac. 1210–1246
  4. 4Krishnac. 1246–1261
  5. 5MahadevaHemadri served as ministerc. 1261–1271
  6. 6RamachandraJnaneshwari composed in his reign; Khalji raid 1296c. 1271–1311
  7. 7Shankaradeva (Singhana III)c. 1311–1313
  8. 8HarapaladevaRose against Delhi; executedc. 1313–1317

What they left

  • Devagiri fort, later named Daulatabad
  • Sharngadeva’s Sangita Ratnakara
  • Hemadri’s Chaturvarga Chintamani and the Hemadpanti style of temple building
  • The Jnaneshwari (1290), composed in their kingdom

People

Sant JnaneshwarSaint
1275–1296 CE

Sant Jnaneshwar

Varkari saint, author of the Jnaneshwari

Places

Renuka Devi Temple, Mahur (Ekaveerika)Standing
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Renuka Devi Temple, Mahur (Ekaveerika)

Mahurye Ekaveerika: the Ashtadasha Shakti Peetha stotra names the Devi of Mahur among its eighteen. On the same hills stand the shrines of Sati Anasuya and the Datta Shikhar, held to be the birthplace of Bhagwan Dattatreya.

Gondeshwar Temple, SinnarStanding
The long resistance: Sindh to Tarain

Gondeshwar Temple, Sinnar

The finest complete panchayatana temple of the Deccan: a Shiva shrine at the centre of a walled court, with four smaller shrines at the corners and a Nandi pavilion in front. Sinnar was an early seat of the Seuna (Yadava) kings before they moved to Devagiri.

Devagiri (Daulatabad) FortRuined
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Devagiri (Daulatabad) Fort

The capital of the Yadavas of Devagiri, a conical hill scarped smooth all round so that no one could climb it. Its fall to Alauddin Khalji’s armies between 1296 and 1318 opened the Deccan to the Delhi Sultanate.

Vitthal–Rukmini Temple, PandharpurStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Vitthal–Rukmini Temple, Pandharpur

The home of Vithoba on the banks of the Chandrabhaga, goal of the Warkari wari on Ashadhi Ekadashi. For eight hundred years Maharashtra’s saints have walked here singing.

NevasaStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Nevasa

A town on the Pravara where, in 1290, the young Sant Jnaneshwar gave the Jnaneshwari, his Marathi commentary on the Gita. The stone pillar he leaned against is still worshipped, and the river bank below has yielded tools of the old stone age.

Alandi, Sant Jnaneshwar’s SamadhiStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Alandi, Sant Jnaneshwar’s Samadhi

The town on the Indrayani where Sant Jnaneshwar entered sanjivan samadhi in 1296, at the age of twenty-one. Every Ashadh the Warkari palkhi to Pandharpur sets out from here.

Battles

Raid on Devagiri

The first Sultanate army to cross the Vindhyas caught the rich Yadava capital unready, and the gold of Devagiri paid for Alauddin Khalji’s path to the throne.

February–March 1296

On the timeline

  • 1187 CE

    Bhillama V founds DevagiriPolity

    The Seuna Yadava king made Devagiri, the hill of the gods, his capital; its rock-cut defences made it the strongest fort of the Deccan.

  • 1296 CE

    Alauddin Khalji raids DevagiriWar

    Alauddin, then governor of Kara, makes a surprise raid on Devagiri, capital of the Seuna Yadava king Ramachandra, and forces a heavy ransom. The gold pays for his seizure of the Delhi throne the same year.

  • 1318 CE

    Devagiri annexed; last Seuna Yadava killedWar

    Harapaladeva, who had risen against Delhi, is defeated by Mubarak Shah Khalji and put to death. The Seuna Yadava kingdom of Devagiri ends.