History of Jabalpur

The ancient city of Tripuri, the Jabalpur of today, was mentioned in the great epic Mahabharata. The original inhabitants of Jabalpur were the nomadic Bhil and Gond tribes. These tribal communities were not highly structured as the North Indian Rajputs, or the Western Marathas. They were groups of farming communities in the fertile Narmada basin. The naïve tribes were gradually driven to the forests by the ordered Armies of the Marathas and then the Mughals. The British decimated the might of the tribal people by passing the Forest Act, which gave them absolute control over all the forests. The earliest known states, the State of Avanti; which controlled the territory of modern day Jabalpur and the Eastern part of Madhya Pradesh, dates back to third century BC. Avanti had regular change of guards and various dynasties; the Sungas, Guptas, Harshas ruled the state. The Kalchuri dynasty in the latter part of eighth century AD made Jabalpur as their capital. The Gonds having imbibed the art of war wrested control in the 13th Century. The Gondwana Kingdom thrived in the region till late 16th Century. The Gonds were lovers of art and worshippers of the Janani or the mother creator. The power to procreate is truly divine and their unsullied culture recognized sex as an ultimate worship. They built the exotic temples and palaces with erotic sculptures and the exquisite fine carvings all over the Gond Kingdom. The beauty of the temples and palaces in Jabalpur is an apt statement of their craftsmanship. The Mughal rulers expanding their rule to the South India viewed the region as the major bottleneck and attacked it time and again. The legend of Durgawati, the Gond Queen and local Joan of Arc, was born when she killed herself after been defeated by the Mughal Emperor Akbar. The rugged terrain was not the forte of Mughals and soon the specialists in guerilla warfare, Marathas gained control. The saga of change was not to stop here and the British defeated the Marathas in early 18th century. The elusive Pindari tribes of the region, the Thugs, were notorious for their looting and treacherous killings of traders and merchants. The British were instrumental in wiping out this menace. The Collector of Jabalpur, Colonel William H Sleeman was the man behind eradicating the Thugee menace. On the way to Pench National Park, the village of Kokha, once a bastion of the Thugee cult; saw hanging and trampling by elephants of hundreds of Thugs. The city of Jabalpur was made the capital of the Sagar and Narmada territories under the British rule and developed it into a massive cantonment. Later the city had the headquarters of one of the Southern Army divisions. The location of the city within the Indian hinterland led to the development of Jabalpur as the major supplier of arms and equipment, and establishment of the ordnance factories. The city was part and parcel of the freedom struggle with bigwigs like Mahatma Gandhi, Lokmanya Tilak and Subhash Chandra Bose holding major conferences in the city. The city has maintained its fickle character even after independence and witnessed Hindu Muslim riots, Hindu revivalist movements and even today considered as the stronghold of the BJP and RSS, the Hindu Revivalist political parties of India.