Rewa

Rewa stands among the Vindhyan uplands of central India, where the Bichhiya and Behar rivers meet. It became the capital of the Baghela rulers and gave its name to their extensive kingdom. Before its rise as a royal seat, the Baghelas had ruled from the forested hill fort of Bandhavgarh.

Raja Ramchandra of Bandhavgarh was a contemporary of Akbar, and the musician Tansen served at his court before entering the Mughal emperor’s service. In 1597 Akbar’s forces captured and dismantled Bandhavgarh after a long siege. Rewa gained importance in the aftermath, and Vikramaditya developed it as his capital in the early seventeenth century, building a fort and royal residences. In the eighteenth century a Bundela chief of Panna seized the city during the minority of its ruler, but the Baghela house recovered its seat. A treaty with the British in 1812 marked another change in the kingdom’s external relations.