Satna


Satna is a city in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It serves as the headquarters of Satna district. It is the state's 7th largest city and 8th most populous city. The city is 500 km east of the state capital Bhopal. The city is distributed over a land area of 111.9 square kilometers.
Satna has been selected as one of the hundred Indian cities to be developed as a smart city under PM Narendra Modi's flagship Smart Cities Mission.

History

From antiquity to the mutiny of 1857

At nearby Bharhut are the remains of a 2nd-century BC Buddhist stupa, first discovered in 1873 by the archaeologist Alexander Cunningham; most of the finds from this site were sent to the Indian Museum. Some of them were also sent to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York..
The Mahabharata associates this site with rulers of the Haihaya, Kalchuri or Chedi clans.
The chiefs of Rewa, descended from Baghel Rajput kings, ruled over Gujarat in 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. Bandhavgarh, which, until its conquest in 1562 by Akbar the Great, was the Baghel capital. In 1298, general prince Ulugh Khan, acting under order of his brother Sultan Alauddin Khalji, drove the last Baghel ruler of Gujrat out of his country. This is believed to have caused a considerable migration of the Baghels to Bandhavgarh.
From then until the 15th century, the Baghels of Bandhavgarh were engaged in extending their possessions and so they escaped the attention of the Delhi Sultans. In 1498–99, Sikandar Lodi failed in his attempt to take the fort of Bandhavgarh.
The Baghel King Ramchandra was a contemporary of padshah Akbar the Great. Tansen, the great musician, was in the court of Ramchandra and from there Akbar summoned him to his Mughal court. After the death of Birdhabra, Ramchandra's son Vikramaditya acceded to the Rajput throne of Bandhogarh as a minor Raja, giving rise to civic disturbances. Akbar's generals intervened, capturing and dismantling the Bandhogarh fort in 1562. From then, the town of Rewa, along with the Sultanate of Malwa became a part of the Great Mughal Empire.
Following the Treaty of Bassein, the British made overtures of alliance to the ruler of Rewa, but the latter rejected them. In 1812, during the time of Raja Jaisingh, a body of Pindaris raided Mirzapur from Rewa territory. As a result, 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 within, his territories.
During the mutiny of 1857, Maharaja Raghuraj Singh helped the British in quelling the uprisings in the neighbouring Mandla and Jabalpur district, and in Nagod which is now a part of Satna district. For his part the king was rewarded by restoration of the Sohagpur and Amarkantak parganas, which had been seized by the Marathas in the beginning of the century.

Princely states

Baroundha state

Baroundha State belongs to the “Raghuvanshi” clan of Rajputs, considered one of the most prestigious clans among Rajputs according to Hindu literature. Baroundha was the most ancient state of the Bundelkhand and Baghelkhand region; it was established in 1169 during the Chandela era. The ruler of Baroundha State, Raghubar Dayal Shah, received the title “Raja Bahadur” at the Imperial Assemblage and was styled “His Highness” with a salute of nine guns. It was a saluted state from 1 January 1877. The ruling family belonged to the Raghuvanshi division of Rajputs.
The ruler was entitled to be received at a private durbar by His Excellency the Viceroy. The founder was Maharaja Budhraj Shah of Baroundha in 1169. Notably, he was a son-in-law of Paramardi Deva, who was a famous ruler of Kalinjar and belonged to the Chandela dynasty, and his daughter Chandravati married Budhraj Shah in 1169. Paramardi Deva gifted the northern part of his kingdom to Budhraj Shah in 1169, and the demarcation was from East- Chitrakoot, along the Ganga and Paisuni rivers- to West- the bank of the Bagai River- and North- the bank of the Yamuna River from Rajapur to Majhgawan.
In 1169, Budhraj Shah declared his capital at “Rasin” near modern Karwi, close to Marpha Fort, and Rajapur, later famous as the birthplace of Goswami Tulsidas. Budhraj Shah was a very brave, capable, and illustrious ruler. Paramardi Deva conferred upon him the title “Navrang Shah”.
Baroundha was a unique state of Raghuvanshi Rajputs from central India, belonging to the Solar dynasty, one of the most ancient dynasties, mentioned in early texts including the Vedas, the Ramayana, and the Shrimad Bhagavata. Raghuvanshis are a principal branch of the Suryavanshi Rajput clans of India, who ruled a number of kingdoms and princely states.
It was a princely state, and the last ruler was H.H. Maharaja Ram Pratap Singh, whose coronation was held in 1933; he died in 1983. His son, entitled Maharaja Anand Pratap Singh Judeo, died in 2013. At present, Maharaja Ragvendra Pratap Singh Judeo’s coronation was held in 2013, and his sons are Yuvraj Prathu Pratap Singh Judeoand Maharajkumar Punya Pratap Singh.

Nagod state

Until the 18th century, the state was known as Unchahara from the name of its original capital. The chiefs of Nagod were Parihar, Rajputs belonging traditionally to Mount Abu.
In the seventh century, Parihar Rajputs drove out the Gaharwar rulers and established themselves in the country between Mahoba and Mau. In the ninth century, they were repulsed eastwards by the Chandels, where Raja Dhara Singh seized the fort of Naro from the Teli Rajas in 1344. In 1478 Raja Bhoj obtained Unchahara, which he made the chief town. It remained so until 1720, when the capital was moved to Nagod by Raja Chainsingh. Later, the Parihars lost all their territories to the Baghels and Bundelas except the limited territory that they held before 1947.
Following the treaty of Bassein in 1820, Nagod was held to be a tributary to Panna and was included in the sanad granted to that state in 1807. In 1809, however, a separate sanad was granted to Lal Sheshraj Singh confirming him in his possessions.
For his loyalty during the 1857 mutiny, Chief Raghvendra Singh was rewarded by the British who granted him eleven villages, which had formerly belonged to the confiscated state of Bijeraghogarh.
Nagod chiefs had the title of Raja and received a 9 gun salute.

Maihar state

was a princely state in India during the British Raj. The state had an area of 1,050 square kilometres, and a population of 63,702 in 1901. The state, which included the Tons River, consists mainly of alluvial soil covering sandstone, and is fertile except in the hilly district of the south. A large area was forested, and lumber provided a small export trade.
The state was founded in 1778 by Rajput of the Kachwaha clan, who were granted land by the ruler of the nearby state of Orchha. From 1788 to 1790 Maihar State was occupied by Banda. The state became a princely state of British India in the early 19th century, and was administered as part of Bundelkhand Agency in the Central India Agency. In 1871 the eastern states of Bundelkhand Agency, including Maihar, were separated to form the new Bagelkhand Agency in Central India. In 1933 Maihar, along with ten other states in western Bagelkhand, were transferred back to the Bundelkhand Agency.
The state suffered severely from famine in 1896–1897. Maihar became a station on the East Indian Railway line between Satna and Jabalpur, 156 kilometres north of Jabalpur. Extensive ruins of shrines and other buildings surround the town. As of 1940, it had a population of 79,558 and an area of 412 square miles. In 1948 Maihar was merged into India.

Kothi state

was a princely state of the British Raj. It belonged to the Bagelkhand Agency of Central India. Its capital was at Kothi, in modern Satna district of Madhya Pradesh. It was a relatively small Sanad state of about 438 km2 with a population of 19,112 inhabitants in 1901. The state's territory divided neighbouring Sohawal State in two parts. Kothi State was founded at an uncertain date by a Rajput ruler who expelled the former Bharr ruler of the area.
Towards the beginning of the nineteenth century, and in much the same manner as neighbouring Sohawal, Kothi became a British protectorate initially subordinate to Panna State. However, a separate sanad was granted to Rais Lal Duniyapati Singh in 1810. The last ruler of Kothi signed the instrument of accession to the Indian Union on 1 January 1950.

Sohawal state

was a princely state of the Bagelkhand Agency of the British Raj. It was a relatively small sanad state of about 552 km2 with a population of 32,216 inhabitants in 1901. Its capital was at Sohawal, a small town —2,108 inhabitants in 1901— located in modern Satna district of Madhya Pradesh.
The state was divided in two sections, separated by territory belonging to Kothi State and, on its northern side, it formed a small enclave within neighbouring Panna State.
Sohawal State was founded in the mid-sixteenth century by a ruler named Fateh Singh. It had originally been much larger, but lost significant territory within the first centuries of its existence.
Sohawal became a British protectorate, initially subordinate to Panna State, but a separate sanad was granted to Rais Aman Singh in 1809. During the 1830 - 1833 interregnum, Sohawal came under direct British administration. The last ruler of Sohawal signed the instrument of accession to the Indian Union on 1 January 1950.
The Satna District is part of the region of Bagelkhand, a large part of which was ruled by the state of Rewa. A small part of Satna was ruled by feudatory chiefs, holding their states under the British Raj. Satna's name comes from the Satna River which originates at Sarang Ashram, situated near Sarangpur village in the Panna district. Previously, Sutna was the name of the railway station, the town being Raghurajnagar, but gradually the name of the station became associated with the city that is now Satna.
During the Ramayana Era, Lord Rama stayed in the region of Chitrakoot, half of which is in the outskirts of Satna, the other in Uttar Pradesh.
Once a British headquarters, the Baghelkhand Agency was established in Satna in 1872. Col. D.W.K. Barr prepared plans to develop Satna during the years 1882–88 and Sir Donald Robertson supervised the construction of roads and other amenities according to those plans in 1888–94.