ORCHA BUNDELKHAND HISTRY

The history of Orchha sheds light on the glorious past of the Madhya Pradesh city that was famed as an erstwhile princely state in the Bundelkhand region. The legendary Bundela chieftain Rudra Pratap Singh founded the town of Orchha, way back in the 16th century.

The town of Orchha has fought against the vagaries of time. The chronicles of Orchha history record that Raja Jujhar Singh, a former Orchha monarch had renegaded against the mighty Mughal potentate, Shah Jehan in the 17th century. This tactical error met with disastrous consequences and soon afterwards, in between 1635 to 1641 AD, the Mughal army took over the princely state and caused wanton carnage and destruction.

Very soon, however Orchha grew into a powerful empire. The only state that did not succumb before the Marathas in the 18th century, Orchha has many a claim to its fame. In the year 1783, the town of Tehri ( present Tikamgarh) was established as the capital of Orchha. Tehri is also an historically eminent town that houses the majestic and crenelated fort of Tikamgarh.

In the long lineage of the Orchha emperors, Maharajah Hamir Singh was another celebrated monarch who ruled over Orchha between 1848 to 1874. The philanthropist Maharaja Pratap Singh, Hamir Singh's successor ascended to the throne in 1874 AD and worked solely for the noble cause of the sustainable growth and development of the state's engineering and irrigation facilities. In fact, Orccha reached the zenith of prosperity during his regime.

In the year 1904, the state encompassed an area of 2080 sq. miles and marked a net populace of 321,634 people. The first and foremost of the Bundela states with a 15-gun salute, the Maharajahs of Orchha were deeply esteemed in the region and were conferred the hereditary title of the First of the Princes of Bundelkhand. The annals about Orchha state that Vir Singh had coalesced his princely state with the Union of India on 1st January 1950.

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AGRA HISTRY

Though Agra's history is largely recognised with Mughal Kingdom, but the place was established much before it and has linkages since Mahabharat period and Mahirshi Angira in 1000 BC. It is generally accepted that Sultan Sikandar Lodī, the Ruler of the Delhi Sultanate founded Agra in the year 1504. After the Sultan's death the city passed on to his son Sultan Ibrāhīm Lodī. He ruled his Sultanate from Agra until he fell fighting to Bābar in the First battle of Panipat fought in 1526.

In the year 1556, the great Hindu warrior Hemu Vikramaditya, also known as Samrat Hem Chander Vikramaditya, won Agra as the Prime Minister cum Chief of Army of Adil Shah of the Afghan Sūrī Dynasty. The commander of Humāyūn / Akbar's forces in Agra, Tardi Beg Khan, was so scared of Hemu that he retreated from the city without a fight. This was Hemu's 21st continuous win since 1554, and he later went on to conquer Delhi, having his coronation at Purānā Qil'a in Delhi on 7 October 1556 and re-established the Hindu Kingdom and the Vikramaditya Dynasty in North India.

The golden age of the city began with the Mughals. It was known then as Akbarabād and remained the capital of the Mughal Empire under the Emperors Akbar, Jahāngīr and Shāh Jahān. Shāh Jahān later shifted his capital to Shāhjahānabād in the year 1649.

Since Akbarabād was one of the most important cities in India under the Mughals, it witnessed a lot of building activity. Babar, the founder of the Mughal dynasty, laid out the first formal Persian garden on the banks of river Yamuna. The garden is called the Arām Bāgh or the Garden of Relaxation. His grandson Akbar raised the towering ramparts of the Great Red Fort, besides making Agra a center for learning, arts, commerce and religion. Akbar also built a new city on the outskirts of Akbarabād called Fatehpūr Sikrī. This city was built in the form of a Mughal military camp in stone.

His son Jahāngīr had a love of gardens and flora and fauna and laid many gardens inside the Red Fort or Lāl Qil'a. Shāh Jahān, known for his keen interest in architecture, gave Akbarabād its most prized monument, the Tāj Mahal. Built in loving memory of his wife Mumtāz Mahal, the mausoleum was completed in 1653.

Shāh Jahān later shifted the capital to Delhi during his reign, but his son Aurangzeb moved the capital back to Akbarabād, usurping his father and imprisoning him in the Fort there. Akbarabād remained the capital of India during the rule of Aurangzeb until he shifted it to Aurangabad in the Deccan in 1653. After the decline of the Mughal Empire, the city came under the influence of Marathas and Jats and was called Agra, before falling into the hands of the British Raj in 1803.
Agra, Main Street, c.1858

In 1835 when the Presidency of Agra was established by the British, the city became the seat of government, and just two year later it was the witness to the Agra famine of 1837–38. During the Indian rebellion of 1857 British rule across India was threatened, news of the rebellion had reached Agra on 11 May and on 30 May two companies of native infantry, the 44th and 67th regiments, rebelled and marched to Delhi. The next morning native Indian troops in Agra were forced to disarm, on 15 June Gwalior (which lies south of Agra) rebelled. By 3 July the British were forced to withdraw into the fort. Two days later a small British force at Sucheta were defeated and forced to withdraw, this led to a mob sacking the city. However, the rebels moved onto Delhi which allowed the British to restore order by 8 July. Delhi fell to the British in September, the following month rebels who had fled Delhi along with rebels from Central India marched on Agra – but were defeated. After this British rule was again secured over the city until the independence of India in 1947.[7]

Agra is the birth place of the religion known as Dīn-i Ilāhī, which flourished during the reign of Akbar and also of the Radhaswami Faith, which has around two million followers worldwide. Agra has historic linkages with Shauripur of Jainism and Runukta of Hinduism, of 1000 BC.

Tāj Mahal, Agra Fort and Fatehpūr Sikrī, all three of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Air

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HISTRY OF THE JHANSI INDIA

Rani Laxmi Bai, The Rani (Queen) of Jhansi (c.19 November 1827 – 17 June 1858)[2] known as Jhansi Ki Rani, the queen of the Jhansi, was one of the leading figures of the First Freedom Struggle of India, and a symbol of resistance to British rule in India. She has gone down in Indian history as a legendary figure, the firebrand who began the Indian Revolution against British Colonialism and for Indian independence. The Muslim governors of the Mughal empire were constantly making incursions into the Bundela country. In 1732 Chhatrasal, the Bundela king, called in the aid of the Hindu Marathas. They came to his assistance, and were rewarded by the bequest of one-third of the Maharaja's dominions upon his death two years later. The Maratha general developed the city of Jhansi, and peopled it with inhabitants from Orchha state. In 1806 British protection was promised to the Maratha chief. In 1817, however, the Peshwa in Pune ceded all his rights over Bundelkhand to the British East India Company. In 1853 the Raja of Jhansi died childless, and his territory was annexed by the Governor-General of India. The Jhansi state and the Jalaun and Chanderi districts were then formed into a superintendency. Rani Lakshmibai, widow of the Raja, protested the annexation because she was not allowed to adopt an heir (as was customary), and because the slaughter of cattle was permitted in the Jhansi territory.

The Revolt of 1857 accordingly found Jhansi ripe for rebellion. In June a few men of the 12th Native Infantry seized the fort containing the treasure and magazine, and massacred the European officers of the garrison along with their wives and children. Rani Lakshmi Bai put herself at the head of the rebels and died in battle in Gwalior. It was not until November, 1858 that Jhansi was brought under British control. It had been given to the Maharaja of Gwalior, but came under British rule in 1886 as the result of a territorial swap.

Jhansi was added to the United Provinces, which became the state of Uttar Pradesh after India's Independence in 1947.

The fort standing in the hilly area shows that how the North Indian style of fort construction differentiated from that of the South. In South majority of the forts were built on the sea beds like the one at Bekal in Kerala.

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