Naiki Devi – The fearless tigeress chalukyan queen

 

       Naiki Devi – The fearless tigeress chalukyan queen

                     We know that Muhammad Ghori defeated Prithviraj Chauhan in 1192. What few know that fourteen years before this battle Ghori was defeated by Naikidevi, a Goa born queen of Gujarat. This victory is chronicled by Hindu and Muslim chroniclers.                     

                 Being the daughter of the Kadamba king of Goa, Naikidevi was well-trained in military strategy, war tactics, cavalry and others elements of statecraft.

       According to volume 5 of The History and Culture of Indian People published by the Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan pg 78, “After the death of Kumarapala in A.D. 1171-72 Ajayapala, nephew of Kumarapala became kind. Ajayapala lost his life in A.D. 1176 and was succeeded by his young son Mularaja II, whose mother queen Naikidevi, the daughter of the Kadamba Paramardin, the king of Goa acted as agent”.

                                      

       Naiki Devi remained undaunted about the possibility of an invasion of her kingdom by the marauding forces of Ghor. She decided to throw herself completely into strategising a well-conceived opposition to the invading hordes. She also opened diplomatic channels seeking support from neighbouring kingdoms for help including to the court of the chivalrous Prithviraj Chauhan who held sway over large parts of what is today’s Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and even parts of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. However, unfortunately for reasons best known to them, none of these provinces, including that of Chauhan, seemed to share the foresight of Naiki Devi in forging a united alliance against the recurring menace. It was left for her to merely garner the support of the vassal states of the Chalukyas, the clans of the Naddula Chahamanas, the Jalor Chahamanas and the Arbuda Paramaras. Naiki Devi realised that in terms of size and strength this ragtag confederacy was no match to Ghori’s superior army .

                                          

        Naiki Devi planned the conquest against the Ghorid army in the rugged terrains of Gadaraghatta. This was an area at the foothills of Mount Abu, near the village of Kasahrada (in today’s Sirohi district) .

    “In A.D 1178 Muhammad Ghuri (Ghori) attacked the kingdom of Gujarat. Naikidevi, taking her son in her lap, led the Chalukyan army against the Muslims and defeated them at Gadaraghatta near Mount Abu.” 

       From the works of Merutunga, a Jain scholar of the 14th century comes the most appropriate description of Naikidevi defeat of Muhammad Ghori. One of Merutunga’s chief work, Prabandha Chintamani, is where one can find details of how the queen fought the armies of Ghori at Kyara or Gadararaghatta near the foot of Mount Abu.

                          

        It seems the weather, too, supported the forces of Naiki Devi as unseasonal monsoons put the Ghori army under further disadvantage from the position that they were camped in. Merutunga elucidates this rather poetically when he says: ‘Queen Naiki, the daughter of Paramardin, fought at a ghat called Gadaraghatta and conquered the king of the Mlechchhas by the aid of a mass of rain clouds that came out of season attracted by her virtue.’ The unexpected massive rout that befell his army shattered Muhammad Ghori’s pride — more so since this defeat was wrought on him by a woman whom he had vastly underestimated. He fled from the battlefield with a handful of bodyguards to save his life .

      Naikidevi’s capital is the present day Patan in Gujarat. Patan is known today for Rani-ki-Vav a wow step-well . TBI Trivia: Naiki Devi’s capital, Anhilwara or present-day Patan, is also home to a mesmerisingly beautiful stepwell called the Rani ka Vav. The intricately constructed 11th century monument is a subterranean water storage system and was built by Queen Udaymati for her husband King Bhimdev I of the Chalukya (Solanki) dynasty .

                                                    

         He wound of Gujarat remained with Ghori for long and it was later left to his slave Qutub-ud-din Aibak to avenge his master’s humiliation, decades later in 1195–97. But thanks to the bravery and strategic assault of the fierce Queen of Patan, Gujarat remained invincible for Muhammad Ghori personally. Had this conquest been won by Ghori the whole of southern Rajputana and Gujarat would have gone under his control .

                                              

                                                     (Muhammed Ghori)

             Interestingly, this was the same route taken by Alexander the Great and Mahmud of Ghazni. Later on, Timur (Tamurlane) would also take the same route during his conquest of northwest India in 1383, and so would his descendant Babur, on his way to founding the Mughal empire in India in 1526 . As for the Battle of Kasahrada, had the indomitable queen of the Chalukyas not taken charge, it is quite likely that the history of India would have been very different. Interestingly, Naiki Devi’s victory finds several mentions in the accounts of the state chroniclers of Gujarat as well as Chalukyan inscriptions .

                         

        For instance, Gujarati poet Someshwara’s works mention how the army of ‘Bala’ Mularaja (infant king) had defeated the lord of Turushkas (Turkish people) and crushed the mlechchha (foreign) army. Another poet, Udayaprabha Suri, states in his Sukrita-Kirti-Kallolini, that Naiki Devi’s army had defeated the Hammira (Sanskrit form of Emir) and his mlechchha army, whose soldiers were covered from head to toe in order to protect themselves .

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Suvendu & Mamata & Krish Singha .