The REAL HISTORY OF BAGHEL KINGS

REWAH (Princely State)
(17 gun salute)

AREA: 33,670 km2
PRIVY PURSE: 1,000,000R
ACCESSION: 1st January 1950
STATE: Madhya Pradesh
DYNASTY: Baghela
RELIGION: Hindu



PRESENT RULER: HH Samrajya Maharajadhiraja Bandhresh Shri Maharaja PUSHPRAJ SINGH Ju Deo Bahadur, 36th Vaghela ruler (1995/-) (Rewa House, Mumbai, India)
born 1960, married HH Maharani Ragini Singh, and has issue.
Yuvraj Divyaraj Singh
Rajkumari Mohena Kumari
PREDECESSORS AND SHORT HISTORY: Predecessor state was founded circa 1140. The chiefs of Rewa were Baghel Rajputs descended from the Solanki clan which ruled over Gujrat from the tenth to the thirteenth century. Vyaghra Deo, brother of the ruler of Gujarat, is said to have made his way into northern India about the middle of the thirteenth century and obtained the fort of Marpha, 18 miles north-east of Kalinjar. His son Karandeo married a Kalchuri (Haihaya) princess of Mandla and received in dowry the fort of Bandhogarh which, until its destruction in 1597 by Akbar was the Baghel Capital. In 1298, Ulugh Khan, acting under orders of emperor Alauddin drove the last Baghel ruler of Gujrat from his country and this is believed to have caused a considerable migration of the Baghels to Bandhogarh. Until the 15th century the Baghels of Bandhogarh were engaged in extending their possessions and escaped the attention of the Delhi kings, in 1498-9, Sikandar Lodi failed in his attempt to take the fort of Bandhogarh. Rulers were...
Raja SHAKTIVAN 1495/1500
Raja VEER SINGH Deo 1500/1540, married and had issue.
Thakur NADBHANU [Horildeo], third son, received the estate of Beerha as his patrimony in 1550, he was appointed a mansabdar with the title of Horilshah by Emperor Humayun of Delhi.
Raja VIRBHAN SINGH 1540/1555
Raja RAMCHANDRA 1555/1592
Raja BIRBHADRA 1592/1618, 19th Raja of Bandhogarh.
Raja VIKRAMADITYA 1618/1630, his accession gave rise to disturbances, Akbar intervened and captured and dismantled the Bandhogarh fort in 1597 after a siege of eight months. It is after this that the town of Rewa started gaining in importance. It is said to have been founded by Raja Vikramaditya in 1618 (which perhaps means that he undertook the construction of palaces and other buildings there because the place had already assumed importance in 1554 when it was held by Jalal Khan son of emperor Shershah).
Raja AMAR SINGH 1630/1643, married and had issue.
Rais FATEH SINGH, rebelled against his father and established himself in Sohawal.
Raja ANOOP SINGH 1643/1660
Raja BHAV SINGH 1660/1690
Raja ANIRUDH SINGH 1690/1700
Raja AVDHUT SINGH 1700/1755, the state was sacked by Hirde Shah of Panna in about 1731, causing the Raja to flee to Pratapgarh in Oudh; married (amongst others), Maharani Sagun Kunwar, daughter of Umara-i-Uzzam Maharaja Mahendra GOPAL SINGH of Bhadawar, and his fifth wife, the daughter of Raja Madho Singh Sirnet of Bansi.
Raja AJIT SINGH 1755/1809
Raja JAI SINGH 1809/1835, in 1812 a body of Pindaris raided Mirzapur from Rewa territory. Upon this Jaisingh was called upon to accede to a treaty, in which he acknowledged the protection of the British Government, and agreed to refer all disputes with neighbouring chiefs to their arbitration and to allow British troops to march through or be cantoned in his territories.
Raja VISHWANATH SINGH 1835/1854, married and had issue. He died 1854.
HH Maharaja RAGHURAJ SINGH Bahadur (qv)
Daughter, married Maharaja RAM SINGH II of Jaipur.
Daughter, married Maharaj Mahabat Singh of Jodhpur.
HH Maharaja RAGHURAJ SINGH Bahadur 1854/1880, born 1834, at the mutiny of 1857, Maharaja Raghuraj Singh helped the British in quelling the uprisings in the neighbouring Mandla and Jabalpur districta, and in Nagod which is now a part of Satna district, for this, the Maharaja was rewarded by restoration to him of the Sohagpur (Shahdol) and Amarkantak parganas, which had been seized by the Marathas in the beginning of the century, Maharaja [cr.1857], married eight wives, including HH Maharani Appala Kondyamba, daughter of Maharaja Mirza Pusapati Sir VIJAYARAMA GAJAPATHI Raju Bahadur of Vizianagram, died 14th December 1912, and had issue. He died 5th February 1880.
Lt.Col. HH Samrajya Maharajadhiraja Bandhresh Shri Maharaja Sir VENKAT RAMAN RAMANUJ PRASAD SINGH Ju Deo Bahadur (qv)
Daughter, married Maharaj Kishore Singh of Jodhpur.
Daughter, married 1903, HH Maharao Raja Sir RAGHUBIR SINGHJI Sahib Bahadur of Bundi. She died 1904.
Lt.Col. HH Samrajya Maharajadhiraja Bandhresh Shri Maharaja Sir VENKAT RAMAN RAMANUJ PRASAD SINGH Ju Deo Bahadur 1880/1918, born 23rd July 1876, G.C.S.I. [cr.1897], married 1stly, the daughter of Maharaja Sir RADHA PRASAD SINGH Bahadur of Dumraon in Bihar, married 2ndly, the daughter of HH Maharaja RANJIT SINGH of Ratlam, died 1913, married 3rdly, the daughter of a Parihar Thakur in Oudh, and had issue. He died 3rd November 1918.
HH Bandhvesh Maharaja Sir GHULAB SINGH Bahadur (qv)
Maharajkumar Ravendra Ramanuj Prasad Singh, born 10th January 1917.
HH Maharani Sudarshan Prasad Kumari, born 5th September 1906, married 18th April 1922, HH Maharajadhiraj Sri SADUL SINGH of Bikaner, and had issue. She died 19th December 1971.
Major-General HH Samrajya Maharajadhiraja Bandhresh Shri Maharaja Sir GHULAB SINGH Ju Deo Bahadur 1918/1946 (deposed 30th January 1946), born 12th March 1903, G.C.I.E. [cr.1.1.1931], K.C.S.I. [cr. 1.1.1927], married 1stly, 15th June 1919, HH Bandhveshwari Shri Maharani Sahiba Samrajyi Kunwar of Jodhpur, married 2ndly, 18th February 1925, the daughter of HH Maharaja MADAN SINGH of Kishangarh, and had issue. He died 13th April 1950.
HH Samrajya Maharajadhiraja Bandhresh Shri Maharaja MARTAND SINGH Ju Deo Bahadur 1946/1995, born 15th March 1923, elected to the Fifth, Seventh and Eighth Lok Sabha representing Rewa Parliamentary Constituency of Madhya Pradesh during 1971-1977 and 1980-1989. An agriculturist and businessman by profession, he was Raj Pramukh of Vindhya Pradesh. He was a very popular and active social worker. As a philanthropist, he built hospitals, dispensaries and organised camps for providing medical aid to indigent and sick people. He donated his palace at Satna and other properties for establishment of educational institutions like Banaras Hindu University and College in Satna. A widely travelled person, he evinced keen interest in the fields of sports, education, photography, archaeology and wildlife preservation. He established and developed National Park at Bandhogarh. He had served as a member of All India Wildlife Preservation Board and as the Director of Madhya Pradesh Udyog Vikas Nigam, Bhopal. He also made special efforts for development of irrigation, industries, transport, electrification and rail services in his area, married 1943, HH Maharani Pravin Kunverba of Kutch and had issue. He died 20th November 1995 at Rewah.
HH Samrajya Maharajadhiraja Bandhresh Shri Maharaja PUSHPRAJ SINGH Ju Deo Bahadur (son) (see above)