Bandhavgarh History :Bandhavgarh is a legendry place and is having mythological importance.The word "Bandhavgarh" is a combination of two Hindi language words: Bandhav + Garh, where 'Bandhav' means the brother and Garh means the fort, so the name of Bandhavgarh means the brother's fort. The name of the reserve was due to the presence of ancient fort on the mountain. It was belived that lord Rama has gifted the fort to his younger brother lord Lakshmana.
There is irrefutable evidence of human activity and architectural techniques used in the fort. There are several man made caves with inscription and rock paintings.The archeological surveys states that Bandhavgarh dates back to before chirst period.
In the Bandhavgarh fort region you will find the written proofs of the bharihas and vakatak dynasties ruled over the land in and around the Bandhavgarh region.
Some of the major dynasties which ruled the Bandhavgarh area were the Sengars, the Kalchuris and the Baghels. The Baghels were believed to be ruled the Bandhavgarh fort for the long period.In 1618 AD, the Baghels decided that their kingdom had so been extended that Bandhavgarh now was in a corner of the kingdom, rather than in the center. So, in days when distances were measured in days rather than in hours, it was deemed fit to shift the capital to rewa in order to save a couple of days. Baghels, with this one stroke were able to save ages for this marvelous land, for they ended up tiger, quite unlimited though ! Once the king and the armies had villages around the fort were deserted and people started to move to greener pastures. Pressures removed, the habitat responded marvelously and a dense, diverse jungle came up, enabling the tiger pyramid to firmly establish itself.
The Maharajas of Rewa, as historians would later call Baghels, realized that a most marvelous jungle had sprung up around the deserted fort of Bandhavgarh and that large and fierce beasts of strength roamed within its folds. chivalry was the most ferocious of all beasts the Tiger ! So, Bandhavgarh was declared a game reserve with only the royal family having rights of hunting the fierce animal. But, they put the fence rather high, so far as chivalry acknowledgments were concerned at 109 to be exact ! The Rajahs and princes had to shoot down at least 109 tigers to be termed truly chivalrous. So, Rajah Gulab Singh Baghel ended up bringing down 83 tigers during one single year in this pursuit of the magical figure of 109 !
