Malik Raja Malik Founder 1382–1399
Founded the Faruqi line on the Tapti, the first state whose centre of gravity was the trough itself rather than the plateau above it or the Deccan below.
Dynasty: Faruqi. Seat: Thalner
Nimar · Central Highlands & Forest Belt
History
Nimar's dates are the valley's, not the plateau's. Its ancient period belongs to Mahishmati on the Narmada, which most scholars identify with Maheshwar and which was the southern capital of the Avanti country while Ujjayini was the northern one. Its medieval period begins in 1382, not with any Delhi date, when the Faruqi line established itself on the Tapti and built the two places that governed the eastern half of the trough for two centuries — the fortress at Asirgarh on the Satpura crest and the city of Burhanpur below it. Its modern period begins in 1601, when the Mughals annexed Khandesh and Burhanpur became the empire's Deccan headquarters, turning the valley from a country into a corridor. Running underneath all three, and taking no notice of any of them, is the river's own calendar — the island shrine at Omkareshwar, the ghats, and the Parikrama walked around the whole length of the Narmada on foot. And authority in the ranges on either side was never dynastic at all. The Satpura and Vindhya slopes were held by Bhil and Bhilala naiks who controlled the passes and the fords, an office rather than a house, recognised in turn by whichever state held the valley floor.
Periodisation is regional, not national — the medieval period does not begin in the same century here as it does elsewhere in India.
Ancientc. 500 BCE – c. 1200 CE
The trough's importance was always the crossing. The trunk route between the northern plains and the Deccan had to get over the Narmada, and it did so in this reach, which is why a town of consequence stood on the north bank from very early. Mahishmati is named in the Sanskrit epics as the seat of the Haihaya king Kartavirya Arjuna — tradition rather than record — and appears in the historical record as the southern capital of Avanti, later a Kalachuri seat. The valley's religious geography is equally old and rather more durable than its politics. It is riverine rather than urban, attached to fords, islands and confluences rather than to any capital, which is why it survived every change of ruler above it.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| c. 6th–5th century BCE | Mahishmati, identified by most scholars with Maheshwar on the Narmada, is the southern capital of the Avanti country, Ujjayini above the scarp being the northern one. |
| Traditional, undated | The Ramayana and the Mahabharata place the Haihaya king Kartavirya Arjuna at Mahishmati. This is tradition and carries no date. |
| c. 3rd century BCE onward | The route between the Ganga plain and the Deccan crosses the Narmada in this trough, and the valley's towns grow at the crossings rather than on the fields. |
| 1st–4th century CE | A town on this reach is identified by some scholars with the Minnagara of Greco-Roman itineraries. The identification is not settled. |
| 6th century CE | The early Kalachuris rule from Mahishmati before the line's centre of gravity moves north-east to Tripuri. |
| 11th century | The Omkareshwar temple on the island of Mandhata, counted among the twelve jyotirlingas, is built under Paramara patronage. |
Medievalc. 1200 – 1601
In these centuries the valley divided along a line it has never quite lost. The east became a state. Malik Raja founded the Faruqi line at Thalner on the Tapti in 1382, his successor took the crag at Asirgarh and founded Burhanpur below it, and under Adil Khan II the city became a trading and cotton weaving town of real consequence — the ancestor of the Burhanpuri textile trade. The west stayed a frontier. A Sisodia chiefship held Barwani on the south bank among a largely Bhil population, and the Satpura ghats behind it were held by naiks who took customary dues for safe passage and answered to whoever could reach them. No sultanate held that country closely, which is why the western half of Nimar enters the record much later and much more thinly than the eastern half.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1382 | Malik Raja founds the Faruqi line at Thalner on the Tapti, claiming descent from the caliph Umar al-Faruq. |
| late 14th century | Nasir Khan Faruqi founds Burhanpur and names it after the Sufi Burhan-ud-Din. Sources give the year as 1388 and as 1399. |
| 1399–1437 | Nasir Khan takes Asirgarh on the Satpura crest and makes it the dynasty's fortress, holding the pass between the Narmada and the Tapti. |
| 1457–1501 | Under Adil Khan II, Burhanpur becomes a centre of trade and cotton textile production. |
| 11th or 14th century | The Sisodia chiefship of Barwani, originally called Avasgarh, is established on the south bank among a largely Bhil population. The founding date is not settled. |
| 1599–1601 | Akbar occupies Burhanpur in 1599 and Asirgarh surrenders on 17 January 1601, ending 219 years of Faruqi rule. |
Modern1601 – 1947
Annexation turned Burhanpur into the Mughal empire's forward base for the Deccan, and for eighty years the imperial court came to the valley rather than the other way round. Governors and princes were posted there, a subterranean water system and gardens were built for the town, and Mumtaz Mahal died in it in 1631. When the Marathas came in the 1720s the valley was divided again, this time between Holkar, Scindia, the Bhonsles and the Barwani chiefship, and Ahilyabai Holkar governed from Maheshwar for nearly thirty years, bringing weavers to the town and giving the Maheshwari sari its form. After 1818 the British held Nimar as a district of the Central Provinces with princely territory interleaved through it, and the ranges on both sides remained what they had always been — country the state could tax only with difficulty, which is where the valley's armed resistance came from in 1857 and again in the 1880s.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1601 | Khandesh is annexed to the Mughal empire, and Burhanpur becomes the capital of the new subah and the empire's Deccan headquarters. |
| early 17th century | Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khanan, governor at Burhanpur, builds a subterranean water supply for the town and lays out its gardens. |
| 1609 | Jahangir posts his son Parviz to the Deccan with Burhanpur as headquarters. |
| 1631 | Mumtaz Mahal dies at Burhanpur and is buried there for six months before removal to Agra. |
| 1720s | Maratha forces under Peshwa Baji Rao take Burhanpur, and the valley is divided among Maratha houses and the Barwani chiefship. |
| 1767–1795 | Ahilyabai Holkar rules from Maheshwar. Weavers are brought in from Mandu and Surat, and the Maheshwari sari takes its form, its border patterns copied from the carvings of the fort above the sheds. |
| 18 October 1803 and 9 April 1819 | Asirgarh is taken by Company forces, first in the Second Anglo-Maratha War and finally in the Third. |
| 1818 | The valley passes to the British after the Third Anglo-Maratha War. Nimar becomes a district of the Central Provinces, with Holkar, Scindia and Barwani territory interleaved through it. |
| 1878–1889 | Tantya Bhil keeps an armed band in the valley and the ranges above it for more than a decade. |
Rulers and commanders
Nasir Khan Faruqi Sultan Founder 1399–1437
Took the crag at Asirgarh and founded Burhanpur beneath it, giving the dynasty the two things it needed — a fortress commanding the pass between the Narmada and the Tapti, and a city on the plain to tax.
Dynasty: Faruqi. Seat: Burhanpur and Asirgarh
Adil Khan II Sultan Ruler 1457–1501
The dynasty's longest and most prosperous reign, under which Burhanpur became a trading and cotton weaving town. The Burhanpuri textile trade dates from this period.
Dynasty: Faruqi. Seat: Burhanpur
Bahadur Shah Faruqi Sultan Ruler 1597–1601
The last Faruqi. He surrendered Burhanpur in 1599 and held out in Asirgarh until the fort was given up on 17 January 1601, after which Khandesh was annexed to the Mughal empire.
Dynasty: Faruqi. Seat: Asirgarh
Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khanan Mughal governor Administrator governor at Burhanpur, early 17th century
Ran the new Khandesh subah from Burhanpur and built its infrastructure, including the underground water supply that still carries water to parts of the town, along with its gardens. He was also a poet in Persian and in Hindi, and his court is one of the reasons Burhanpur has a literary record at all.
Seat: Burhanpur
Ahilyabai Holkar Maharani Ruler 1767–1795
Governed the Holkar state from Maheshwar for nearly thirty years, built its fort, ghats and temples, brought weavers to the town and gave the Maheshwari sari its pattern vocabulary, and endowed ghats and rest houses at pilgrimage sites the length of the country.
Dynasty: Holkar. Seat: Maheshwar
The Rana of Barwani Rana Ruler founding dated to the 11th or the 14th century, unsettled
A small chiefship on the south bank governing a largely Bhil population on the Satpura slopes. It was never tributary to the Marathas and entered the colonial order as a protected state, which is why the western valley floor remained a patchwork of jurisdictions into the twentieth century.
Dynasty: Sisodia of Barwani. Seat: Barwani
The Bhil and Bhilala naik Office, not a dynasty Administrator documented from the 18th century
Authority in the ranges was held by naiks, headmen who controlled a pass, a ford or a stretch of road and took customary dues for safe passage. It was an office attached to ground rather than a line attached to a throne, and every state that held the valley floor — Faruqi, Mughal, Maratha and British in turn — had to come to terms with it. When the valley rose in 1857 and again in the 1880s, it rose through these offices.
Seat: The Satpura and Vindhya slopes and the Narmada fords
The history of Nimar from ancient through medieval to modern times, and the rulers, commanders and administrators who shaped it. (8)