As stated in the article on Kol, it is known that Rajput dynasties
were ruling in various parts of the Central Provinces from about the
sixth to the twelfth centuries. They then disappear, and there is a
blank till the fourteenth century or later, when Gond kingdoms are
found established at Kherla in Betul, at Deogarh in Chhindwara, at
Garha-Mandla, [42] including the Jubbulpore country, and at Chanda,
fourteen miles from Bhandak. It seems clear, then, that the Hindu
dynasties were subverted by the Gonds after the Muhammadan invasions
of northern India had weakened or destroyed the central powers of the
Hindus, and prevented any assistance being afforded to the outlying
settlements. There is some reason to suppose that the immigration of
the Gonds into the Central Provinces took place after the establishment
of these Hindu kingdoms, and not before, as is commonly held. [43]
But the point must at present be considered doubtful. There is no
reason however to doubt that the Gonds came from the south through
Chanda and Bastar. During the fourteenth century and afterwards the
Gonds established dynasties at the places already mentioned in the
Central Provinces. For two or three centuries the greater part of the
Province was governed by Gond kings. Of their method of government in
Narsinghpur, Sleeman said: "Under these Gond Rajas the country seems
for the most part to have been distributed among feudatory chiefs,
bound to attend upon the prince at his capital with a stipulated
number of troops, to be employed wherever their services might be
required, but to furnish little or no revenue in money. These chiefs
were Gonds, and the countries they held for the support of their
families and the payment of their troops and retinue little more
than wild jungles. The Gonds seem not to have been at home in open
country, and as from the sixteenth century a peaceable penetration of
Hindu cultivators into the best lands of the Province assumed large
dimensions, the Gonds gradually retired to the hill ranges on the
borders of the plains." The headquarters of each dynasty at Mandla,
Garha, Kherla, Deogarh and Chanda seem to have been located in a
position strengthened for defence either by a hill or a great river,
and adjacent to an especially fertile plain tract, whose produce
served for the maintenance of the ruler's household and headquarters
establishment. Often the site was on other sides bordered by dense
forest which would afford a retreat to the occupants in case it fell
to an enemy. Strong and spacious forts were built, with masonry tanks
and wells inside them to provide water, but whether these buildings
were solely the work of the Gonds or constructed with the assistance of
Hindu or Muhammadan artificers is uncertain. But the Hindu immigrants
found Gond government tolerant and beneficent. Under the easy eventless
sway of these princes the rich country over which they ruled prospered,
its flocks and herds increased, and the treasury filled. So far back
as the fifteenth century we read in Firishta that the king of Kherla,
who, if not a Gond himself, was a king of the Gonds, sumptuously
entertained the Bahmani king and made him rich offerings, among
which were many diamonds, rubies and pearls. Of the Rani Durgavati of
Garha-Mandla, Sleeman said: "Of all the sovereigns of this dynasty she
lives most in the page of history and in the grateful recollections
of the people. She built the great reservoir which lies close to
Jubbulpore, and is called after her Rani Talao or Queen's pond; and
many other highly useful works were formed by her about Garha." When
the castle of Chauragarh was sacked by one of Akbar's generals in 1564,
the booty found, according to Firishta, comprised, independently of
jewels, images of gold and silver and other valuables, no fewer than
a hundred jars of gold coin and a thousand elephants. Of the Chanda
rulers the Settlement officer who has recorded their history wrote
that, "They left, if we forget the last few years, a well-governed
and contented kingdom, adorned with admirable works of engineering
skill and prosperous to a point which no aftertime has reached. They
have left their mark behind them in royal tombs, lakes and palaces,
but most of all in the seven miles of battlemented stone wall, too wide
now for the shrunk city of Chanda within it, which stands on the very
border-line between the forest and the plain, having in front the rich
valley of the Wardha river, and behind and up to the city walls deep
forest extending to the east." According to local tradition the great
wall of Chanda and other buildings, such as the tombs of the Gond kings
and the palace at Junona, were built by immigrant Telugu masons of the
Kapu or Munurwar castes. Another excellent rule of the Gond kings was
to give to any one who made a tank a grant of land free of revenue of
the land lying beneath it. A large number of small irrigation tanks
were constructed under this inducement in the Wainganga valley, and
still remain. But the Gond states had no strength for defence, as was
shown when in the eighteenth century Maratha chiefs, having acquired
some knowledge of the art of war and military training by their long
fighting against the Mughals, cast covetous eyes on Gondwana. The
loose tribal system, so easy in time of peace, entirely failed to
knit together the strength of the people when united action was most
required, and the plain country fell before the Maratha armies almost
without a struggle. In the strongholds, however, of the hilly ranges
which hem in every part of Gondwana the chiefs for long continued to
maintain an unequal resistance, and to revenge their own wrongs by
indiscriminate rapine and slaughter. In such cases the Maratha plan
was to continue pillaging and harassing the Gonds until they obtained
an acknowledgment of their supremacy and the promise, at least, of an
annual tribute. Under this treatment the hill Gonds soon lost every
vestige of civilisation, and became the cruel, treacherous savages
depicted by travellers of this period. They regularly plundered and
murdered stragglers and small parties passing through the hills, while
from their strongholds, built on the most inaccessible spurs of the
Satpuras, they would make a dash into the rich plains of Berar and
the Nerbudda valley, and after looting and killing all night, return
straight across country to their jungle fortresses, guided by the light
of a bonfire on some commanding peak. [44] With the pacification of
the country and the introduction of a strong and equable system of
government by the British, these wild marauders soon settled down
and became the timid and inoffensive labourers which they now are.