Rewa (princely state)
Rewa State, also known as Rewah, was a Rajput princely state of India, surrounding its eponymous capital, the town of Rewa. With an area of about , Rewa was the second largest princely state in the Bagelkhand Agency and the third largest in Central India Agency. Rewa was also the fourth wealthiest principality in Central India, with an average revenue of rupees 2.9 million in 1901. The Bagelkhand Agency was dissolved in 1933, following which Rewa was placed under the authority of the Indore Residency. Rewah state had a 15 gun salute. History. According to legend, the kingdom  of Rewa was founded around 1140 CE. On 5 October 1812, it became a British protectorate. Between 1 April 1875 and 15 October 1895, Rewa remained under the direct colonial administration of British India. The ruler of Rewa ruled from Bandhavgarh during the founding reign of Raja Vyaghra Dev, who was a direct descendant of Gujarati warrior king Vir Dhawal. In 1617, Maharaja Vikramaditya Singh moved his capital to Rewa. Maharaja Martand Singh was the last ruler of Rewa who acceded to the Union of India after the country became India. Akbar was given refuge at Rewa at age 10 , when his father Humayun fled India following a defeat in war. Prince Ramchandra Singh and Akbar grew up together as royal heirs. Maharaja Ramchandra Singh and Akbar remained friends. In the mid-1550s, Raja Ramachandra Singh Baghela maintained a musically talented court, including the legendary Tansen. Two of the Navratnas of Akbar, Tansen and Birbal (originally named Mahesh Das) were sent from Rewa by Maharaja Ramchandra Singh once Akbar became Emperor of India. In 1580, Akbar reorganized his empire into 12 "Subahs" and combined the provinces of Jaunpur Sultanate, Kara-Manikpur and territory of Bandhogarh into the "Subah of Ilahabad". Rewa  was the first princely state in India to declare Hindi the national language, in the times of Maharaja Gulab Singh. He is also credited for declaring the first responsive government in modern India, providing citizens of Rewa state a right to question their monarch's decisions. The state came under British paramountcy in 1812 and remained a princely state within the British Raj until India's independence in 1947. During the long minority of Raja Venkat Raman Singh (1876, 1880–1918), the administration of the state was reformed. In 1901, the town boasted a high school, a "model jail" and two  hospitals: the Victoria hospital and the Zenana hospital. However, it was still adjudged among the most backward areas of the country by V.P. Menon, after he visited the state in 1947. Post-independence period. Upon India's independence in 1947, the maharaja of Rewa acceded unto the Dominion of India. Rewa later merged with the Union of India and became part of Vindhya Pradesh, which was formed by the merger of the former princely states of the Bagelkhand and Bundelkhand agencies. Rewa served as the capital of the new state. In 1956, Vindhya Pradesh was merged with other nearby political  entities to form the Indian constitutive state of Madhya Pradesh. The Maharaja's palace was converted into a museum. In February 2007, the most-extensive book on the history of Rewa, "Baghelkhand, or the Tigers’ Lair" by Dr D.E.U Baker, was published by Oxford University Press. Bagheli is local language of Rewa. Rulers. The predecessor state, Bandhogarh, was founded 1140. The chiefs of Rewa were Vaghelas descended from the Rajput Solanki clan, which ruled over Gujarat from the 10th to 13th century. Vyaghra Deo, a brother of a ruler of Gujarat, is said to have made his way into northern  India around the middle of the 13th century and gained the fort of Marpha, 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 the sultan of Delhi, Alauddin Khilji, drove the last Vaghela ruler of Gujarat from his country and this is believed to have caused a considerable migration of Baghels to Bandhogarh. Until the 15th century, the Baghels of Bandhogarh were engaged in extending their possessions  and escaped the attention of the Delhi Sultans, in 1498–1499, Sikandar Lodi failed in his attempt to take the fort of Bandhogarh. List of rulers. The following is a list of known rulers of Rewa (or its predecessor state, Bandhogarh), in chronological order by their reign. They took the title of Raja or, from 1857, Majaraja or Maharaja.