01Tripuri and the Kalachuris
The Puranas tell how Shiva destroyed the three cities of the asura Tripura, and the country around Jabalpur keeps the name in Tripuri, today the village of Tewar, capital of the Kalachuri kings of Chedi from the ninth to the twelfth century. Under kings like Yuvaraja I, Gangeyadeva and Lakshmikarna they ruled much of central India. Their circular Chausath Yogini temple stands on a hill at Bhedaghat, where the Narmada runs between cliffs of white marble, with images of the sixty-four yoginis set round an open courtyard. Ashoka had left an edict at Rupnath to the north long before, so this has been settled country for more than two thousand years.
02Durgavati’s Garha
The Gond kings of Garha-Mandla held the country from the fifteenth century. The small fort of Madan Mahal on a granite ridge is ascribed to their line. Durgavati, a Chandela princess married to Dalpat Shah, ruled for her young son Vir Narayan from about 1550; she built tanks around Garha, of which the Rani Tal keeps her name, and beat off Baz Bahadur of Malwa. In 1564 Akbar’s general Asaf Khan invaded. She fought him at Narai, east of the city, on 24 June 1564, and when the battle turned and she was wounded she killed herself rather than be taken. Her samadhi is at Barela. In 1857 the Gond raja Shankar Shah and his son Raghunath Shah were blown from guns at Jabalpur on 18 September for plotting against the Company.
The life of this place
- 24 June 1564Rani Durgavati falls at Narai fighting Asaf Khan’s Mughal army.
- 1781The Marathas of Sagar annex what remains of the Garha kingdom.
- 1818The Company takes the Narmada valley from the Bhonsles of Nagpur.
- 18 September 1857Raja Shankar Shah and Raghunath Shah are blown from guns at Jabalpur.
- March 1939The Congress meets at Tripuri, with Subhas Chandra Bose as president.
