Bhaumakaras were most probably tribals. They claimed descent from Bhamasura – son of Vishnu’s avatar Varaha & Bhudevi. They ruled from Toshali near Bhuvaneshwar and became rich through trade with SE Asia. In the ninth century Tribhuvana Mahadevi rose to power and restored their glory which had waned after their defeat at the hands of the Palas of Bengal.

An inscription in Dhenkenal calls her Katyayini (Durga). An intriguing reference in an Arabic source, ‘Hudud-al-Alam’ mentions that the ‘Rayini (queen) had made the Bhaumas superior to all’. Dandi Mahadevi who ruled from 916CE was probably the finest ruler of the dynasty.

Some hostile rulers got their female relatives married into the kingdom to usurp the queenship. The ploy succeeded in 940CE when the last queen’s brother from Somavanshi family ended up conquering the kingdom.

Picture Credit: S. R. Ramanujam

Didda was born beautiful but lame. She descended from the great Hindu Shahis of Kabul. Around 950CE, Kashmir was in turmoil. The royal who won the throne tried to legitimize himself by marrying his son to the lame princess of great lineage. By 958 CE, Didda’s father in law and husband were dead and she became regent to her infant son.

Using diplomacy, bribery and bravery she kept a hostile court at bay. She favored and punished a succession of competent court favorites. A series of sons and grandsons died as child kings, mean accounts suggest that it was Didda’s doing. Around 980 CE, Didda took power directly, ruling till 1003CE and making Kashmir stable & prosperous. She anointed her brother’s son as her successor and his Lohara dynasty ruled for 300 years.

Kalhana writes, “The Lame Queen that no one thought could step over a cow’s footprint, stepped over an ocean of enemies just like Hanuman got over the ocean”.

Picture Credit: The Wikimedia image by Old India Coins is of coins issued by Queen Didda. She is shown sitting cross-legged.

Muslim rule was established at Delhi in 1206CE by Qutub-ut-din Aibak. It was called Slave Dynasty as the early sultans started their lives as slaves. The second Sultan, Iltutmish stabilized the dynasty by creating a cohort of 40 loyal nobles ‘Chahalgani’ (The Forty).

When his designated heir died young, he named his daughter Raziya as the heir as his other sons were wastrels. The Forty nobles were horrified. When the sultan died in 1236CE, they raised Raziya’s stepbrother to the throne. He was an extremely bad ruler and Raziya easily toppled him. As queen, she called herself Raziya Sultan and not Sultana which to her meant wife of Sultan.

During her reign, she was constantly fending revolts, rumours of affairs and jealousy among her courtiers. Eventually, she succumbed to the rebels and was killed in 1240CE. Siraj, a contemporary historian wrote, “She had all qualities befitting a king, but not born in the right sex, they were considered worthless”.

Picture Credit: The image shows the poster of the film Raziya Sultan starring Hema Malini.

By 1700, the fledgling Maratha kingdom was on its knees against the Mughals. Shivaji’s son Sambhaji Bhonsle had been captured, tortured and killed in 1689. His family was taken hostage. Sambhaji’s half brother Rajaram became king, and managed to win back a foothold in the state. He suddenly died in 1700.

Aurangzeb gleefully observed that Marathas were left with a widow and two infants. The widow Tarabai, wife of Rajaram, assumed leadership. In a masterly campaign of 8 years too back 6 Mughal provinces. After Aurangzeb’s death, Sambhaji’s son, Shahuji was released and became king. Tarabai established a rival kingdom at Kolhapur in 1709.

Both the Maratha kingdoms kept fighting till Shahu’s Peshwa managed to depose Tarabai in 1714 and place another Bhonsle scion at Kolhapur. Tarabai was imprisoned and was released only in 1730 when she was shifted to Satara. She spent her time there causing intrigue and fighting the Peshwas who were now the real power, till her death in 1761.

Picture Credit: The Wikimedia image is the statue of Rani Tarabai at Kolhapur courtesy pradeep717.

Chenamma was the queen of Kittur, a small principality in North Karnataka. British refused to recognize her adopted son as a legitimate successor. She refused to let the British annex her state in 1824. She fought the British bravely but unsuccessfully.

She is considered among the first freedom fighters of India. She is a great heroine in Karnataka with numerous folk songs & books about her, stadiums & ships named after her and her statues dotting the landscape. One of her statues is at the Parliament building in Delhi.

Picture Credit: The Wikimedia image is a statue of the queen near the townhall in Bengaluru sourced from flickr.

The great Maratha general Malhar Rao Holkar established a kingdom in Malwa. He married his son Khande Rao to a simple girl, Ahilyabai Shinde. She was 8 when married in 1733, but Malhar Rao gave her the education of a prince. Both he and his son were away fighting wars and Ahilyabai managed the state.

After the death of her husband, father in law and son, Ahilyabai took up direct reign in 1767. She ruled till her death in 1795. Ahilyabai was a financial genius and made Holkar state very prosperous and a major mercantile centre.

She also had a pan India perspective. She funded the regeneration of almost all the major Hindu pilgrimage centres – the 12 Jyotirlingas, 4 Dhams, five Kedars & seven Puris. She built the current Kashi Vishwanath temple at Benaras and her murti is now installed in the renovated complex.

Picture Credit: The Wikimedia image is by Ashish Bhatnagar.

Among the many successor states of the Vijayanagara empire were the kingdoms of Madurai, Tanjore, Mysore, Travancore etc. They kept quarreling among themselves in the 17th century CE. Chokkanath Nayak of Madurai married Mangammal, a non royal. Addicted to fighting, Chokkanath succumbed to death. Mangammal became regent in 1689 to her son and grandson in succession.

Abjuring violence, she concentrated on building infrastructure. Her crowning achievement was the highway between Kanyakumari and Madurai, the modern version of which is named after her. She is said to have died in 1706, imprisoned and starved by her own grandson who had come of age and wanted total control. The Madurai kingdom was finally annexed by the Nawab of Arcot in 1739.

Picture Credit: The Wikimedia image shows a statue of Rani Mangammal.

Rani Karnavati was the regent of her infant son who ascended the throne of a small hill state Garhwal in Uttrakhand.

The Mughal state considered this upstart kingdom as just ‘zamindars’ (landlord). Shahjehan sent a strong 30000 force under Najabat Khan in 1640CE to subdue it. The Rani’s forces kept on retreating until they had trapped the Mughals. With no supplies left, the Mughal army surrendered but the Rani cut the noses of the soldiers in lieu of safe return. Najabat Khan committed suicide. Infuriated, Shahjehan sent a couple more expeditions but both failed. Garhwal and its capital, Srinagar became a legend.

Many subsequent Mughal rebels would seek refuge in the indomitable kingdom. Dara Shikoh’s son who was fleeing Aurangzeb also took refuge there. Karnavati’s story has been told by foreigners visiting India during the time like Manucci, Tavernier and Bernier and she was called ‘nak-kaati-rani’.

Picture Credit: The image is a cover of Hindi novel ‘Nak-kaati-rani’ by Kuldeep Rawat.

After the fall of Vijayanagara a small successor kingdom rose, centred around Ullal near Mangalore, Karnataka. There were at least two queens named Abbakka who ruled Ullal between 1540 to 1620. The elder one defeated the Portuguese in a land fight while the younger one handed a European naval fleet a rare defeat in medieval times.

Just off the Arabian sea coast, her soldiers sneaked in among small ships and destroyed the Portuguese fleet with fire arrows. So shocking was the result that an Italian traveller Pietro Della Valle was advised by the great Persian emperor, Shah Abbas to visit the famous heroine. When Pietro finally met her, instead of a regal queen he found a workaholic who met people in the fields rather than in a palace.

In South Karnataka, the memory of these two queens is fused as one legendary character and celebrated even today in folk theatre (Yakshagana) and ritual dance (Bhuta Kola).

Veeramangai (Brave woman) Velu Nachiyar was the queen of the small Sivaganga in Tamil Nadu. She ruled directly between 1780-90. Born in the royal family of Ramnad, she was a prodigy who knew ten languages. Impressed by her Urdu diplomacy, Tipu Sultan became an ally.

The Nawab of Arcot & the British killed her husband and captured Sivaganga. She raised an army in exile including a woman’s corps led by a Dalit woman ‘dalavai’ Kuyili. Velu attacked Sivaganga in 1780 on Dussehra day. Her woman soldiers mingled with the women gathering for special puja to Rajarajeshwari and entered the city. The British were surprised but replied with guns. Kuyili quickly doused herself in oil from the temple lamps and set herself on fire in the ammunition dump of the British, who then beat a retreat.

Sivaganga was Velu’s and she ruled for 10 years after which she retired due to health issues. The kingdom did not continue long after, the British annexing it after the fall of Tipu in 1799.