Durgawati (d. 1564)

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Durgawati (d. 1564)

Rani and regent of India's Gondwana who militarily opposed the Mughal expansion. Name variations: Durgautti or Durgavati; Maharani or Maharanee of Gurrah. Birth date unknown; took her own life in the battle of Narhi in 1564; daughter of Salwahan, the raja of Rath and Mahoba; married Dalpat Sa Garha Mandala, the raja of Gondwana; children: Bir Narayan.

Raja Dalpat of Gondwana died (1548); became regent of Gondwana (1548); Akbar ascended the throne as emperor of the Mughal imperial (1562); border raids by Asaf Khan; Adhaz Kayastha negotiated with Akbar the Great in Agra; invasion of Gondwana by Asaf Khan (1564); battle of Narhi (1564).

In 1398, Tamerlane raided and sacked Delhi for the first time. It was, however, left to his descendant, Babar, to conquer the Sultanate in 1526. By the time of Babar's death in 1530, the empire that he had left to his sons stretched from Badakshan to Bengal in the southwest. It was an empire dominated by Persian culture, tastes, ideas, and attitudes. But as a political entity it was beset by rebellion and instability. In 1562, Akbar the Great ascended the throne and quickly moved to consolidate his vast inheritance. He faced several potent foes, whose independence was threatened by the very existence of the Mughal Empire. One of these adversaries was Rani (queen) Durgawati of Gondwana. Located just outside the southern boundaries of the Mughal Empire, sooner or later Gondwana's proximity to Akbar's possessions was bound to bring the two states into conflict.

Almost nothing is known of Durgawati's birth and early life. She was the daughter of Raja Salwahan, ruler of Rath and Mahoba. Raised in the court of her father, she is reputed to have combined beauty and refinement with inexhaustible energy, intelligence, and bravery. The Gonds were a group of Dravidian tribes that made up the original inhabitants of this region of India. Durgawati was a princess of the Chandel Dynasty, which figured prominently in the political and social history of India from the 9th to the 16th centuries.

In Indian society, the offering of a daughter in marriage was considered a sign of the social superiority of the groom's family. This, however, did not apply to royal marriages. Thus, Durgawati was married at an early age to the Raja Dalpat Sa Garha Mandala of Gondwana, a strikingly handsome prince. To suit her, he changed the location of his capital from Singaurgarh to Chanragarh.

During the 16th century, the role of elite women in India was in transition. Unlike royal women of a preceding age, the mothers, wives and sisters of monarchs began to exercise increasing influence on the course of government policy. The Rani Durgawati was a case in point. Durgawati's husband died in 1548, four years after their marriage, and she became the regent of Gondwana, ruling successfully in the name of her young son Bir Narayan. Noted for her religious devotion, Durgawati patronized many religious figures, including the Brahmin Vitthaleshvara, and she built seven religious houses for the wellknown devotee of Krishna. When Vitthaleshvara traveled abroad, he was always escorted by a large contingent of Durgawati's troops.

Durgawati ruled Gondwana for 16 years, with the assistance of her two able ministers, Adhaz Kayastha and Man Brahman. Known as a moderate and skillful monarch, she excelled at both diplomacy and conquest. During her reign, the kingdom prospered economically. Gondwana could field a well-equipped army of 20,000 calvary and 1,000 war elephants, along with an indeterminate number of infantry. However, the Mughal Empire controlled access to the best horses imported from Iran, central asia and Arabia, thus in this regard opponents like Gondwana were at a distinct disadvantage.

The rani followed in the footsteps of her predecessors by enlarging the size of her domain. She was noted for her martial skills and qualities as a general. Of the 23,000 villages in her kingdom, 12,000 were under the control of the crown, while the remainder were administered by her vassals. As Abul Fazl, the 16th-century intellectual, noted:

She was not lacking in any of the essentials of bravery and effort, and did great things by dint of her far-seeing abilities. She had great contests with Baj Bahador [of Malwa] and the Mianas [Afghans of Sironj in Malwa] and was always victorious…. She was a good shot with gun and arrow, and continually went a-hunting, and shot animals of the chase with her gun. It was her custom that whenever she heard that a tiger had made his appearance, she did not drink water till she shot him. There are stories current in Hindustan of her exploits in the assemblies of peace and in the fields of battle.

Asaf Khan, who had led a successful military expedition against Raja Ramchand of Pannah, was appointed as the Mughal governor of Kara Manipur, a province on the border of Gondwana. Initially, he encouraged peaceful trade with the rani's subjects. However, the wealth of Gondwana soon attracted his interest. By various means, Asaf Khan attempted to force Durgawati into acknowledging Akbar the Great's sovereignty over Gondwana. The governor sent spies into Gondwana to ascertain the strength of its army and the size of its treasury. Next, he employed a policy of destabilization, by raiding villages along the border. The rani sent her minister Adhaz Kayastha to negotiate with Emperor Akbar, but this proved unsuccessful. Akbar seems to have demanded the cession of certain territories, but Durgawati's ambassador refused.

In retaliation for the Mughal raids into Gondwana, Durgawati sent her own forces across the border into Pannah. A wasting border war soon erupted. In 1564, acting upon his own initiative, but with the Emperor Akbar's permission, Asaf Khan invaded Gondwana with an army of 50,000 troops.

Durgawati did not expect a full-scale invasion that year. Many of her cavalry defected to the Mughal imperial side, led by the petty chiefs of Garha. The rest of her army was dispersed; she had only 500 troops with her in the capital of Chanragarh. Before she could gather more of her military strength, however, she marched against the invaders, much to the dismay of her ministers Man Brahman and Adhaz Kayastha. Durgawati blamed Adhaz Kayastha for the mismanagement of her military forces. She is reputed to have answered his objections by saying, "How could I, who have for years governed the country, think of flight? It is better to die with glory than to live with ignominy."

Although Asaf Khan suggested a negotiated settlement, Durgawati refused the offer, considering it an insult that she should deal with a mere governor. Had the emperor come in person, the outcome might have been different. A game of cat and mouse began. Dogged by the Mughal imperial army, Durgawati marched her army swiftly around the countryside, seeking to gain time, hoping to enlarge her force by local recruiting and a general call to arms. She received scant support, however, since many of the local chiefs were intimidated by the approach of the massive Mughal force.

Proceeding through dense forest and difficult terrain, Durgawati led her small army to the town of Garh. Then she moved north, to Narhi. The village of Narhi was surrounded by mountains and bordered by the Gaur and Narmade rivers on both sides, natural obstacles that made Narhi an excellent defensive position of great strategic value. The only possible access to the town was through a narrow and difficult mountain pass. Durgawati was advised by her ministers to avoid battle, partly to win time in order to raise more troops. But she was outraged by the suggestion. "How long am I to shelter among the trees?" she replied.

Asaf Khan's army attacked through the mountain pass protecting Narhi. Donning armor and mounting an elephant, Durgawati surprised the enemy with her troops, holding the pass and driving them back down the other side. The Mughals retreated, pursued by the rani's troops, who took bloody revenge on the fleeing soldiers of Asaf Khan's army.

Durgawati's next maneuver was to suggest a preemptive strike on the Mughal imperial camp during the night. But the majority of her chiefs were against such a risky undertaking, and so she relented, privately grumbling as to their lack of courage. Without a night attack, Asaf Khan easily recaptured the cliffs overlooking the pass the next morning. After a brief skirmish, he then fortified them with artillery. Canons were one of the factors that accounted for the military superiority of Mughals, and much of their knowledge had been acquired from the Turks.

Riding her war elephant and accompanied by her son Bir Narayan, Durgawati faced the Mughal army on the following day. Asaf Khan's troops employed mounted archers against her elephants. A two-day battle ensued. Outnumbered, Durgawati and her troops repulsed three imperial attacks. On the second day, Bir Narayan was wounded, and he was escorted from the battlefield by a large contingent of the rani's soldiers. His removal from the battlefield caused a panic, which left Durgawati with only 300 troops. Weakened, her demoralized army was soon overpowered in a bloody melee. Durgawati was wounded by two arrows, and, rather than suffer capture, she asked Adhaz Kayastha to take her life. He refused to obey, however, and promised to carry her from the battlefield. She is said to have beseeched him, crying:

It is true we are overcome in war, but shall we also be vanquished in honor? Shall we, for the sake of a lingering ignominious life, lose the reputation and virtue we have been so solicitous to acquire? No! let your gratitude now repay that service, for which I lifted up your head, and which I now require at your hands. Haste—let your dagger save me from the crime of putting an end to my own existence!

Adhaz Kayastha still refused. Instead, Durgawati raised the dagger to her chest and plunged it in, taking her own life. The Rani of Gondwana was buried in a narrow defile some 12 miles from Jabalpur.

Asaf Khan now marched upon the capital. Due to his losses in the battle of Narhi, he did not besiege Chanragarh for nearly two months. Durgawati's son Bir Narayan held the celebrated fortress that dominated the city. He sallied forth from the fort with the remainder of the Gondwanan army and died in battle. The treasure inside the fortress included incalculable amounts of gold, silver and jewels, and Asaf Khan seems to have kept much of the booty for himself. Kamlavati , the sister of the rani, was also captured, along with the Gondwanan court.

As O.P. Kejarival has noted, there is some dispute as to whether Gondwana was entirely annexed as a result of Durgawati's defeat. It may well be that it became a tributary of the Mughal Empire, retaining some of its regional autonomy. Douglas Streusand, however, stressed the long-term implications of Gondwana's eventual conquest:

It fits the general pattern of Mughal expansion: resistance to the end meant destruction; submission, even at the last moment … meant survival. The heroism of Rani Durgawati is beyond doubt; one also cannot doubt that it led only to her death and the extinction of her dynasty and principality.

Durgawati exhibited all the attributes of leadership so widely valued in 16th-century India. She was a renowned beauty and a fierce, but fair, ruler. Along with her religious piety, she proved herself a resourceful negotiator and diplomat, a skilled trader and financial manager, and a determined general and warrior.

The Rani of Gondwana fits the emerging pattern of Indian princesses of the day. Elite women increasingly claimed the right to rule and did so successfully. Not only did they resist incursions into their territory, but they also struck strategic alliances with other Indian states for their own benefit. Not all of the ranis resisted the expansion of the Mughal Empire, however, and many retained their positions as vassals of the Great Mughal. But none seems to have asserted her right to independence as fiercely as Durgawati, rani of Gondwana.