Rani Kamlapati was the Gond queen of the Bhopal region in the 18th century. She was one of the seven wives of Gond ruler Nizam Shah. Her father’s name was Chaudhari Kirpa Ramchandra. Rani Kamlapati was known for her bravery and beauty.
Rani Kamlapati was the widow Gond ruler of Nizam Shah, chief of Ginnorgarh.
It is said that she avenged her husband’s death by killing Alam Shah, Nizam Shah’s nephew. Alam Shah had poisoned his uncle.
It is said that the Queen’s beauty was legendary and was often praised.
She built the seven-storey Kamlapati Palace that overlooks Upper and Lower Lakes and is now an ASI-protected monument.
Rani Kamlapati Palace is a secular architecture of the 18th century built of Lakhauri bricks, cusped arches over crumpled pillars. The merlons are shaped as water lotuses honouring the name of the Queen.
According to the history of the palace, Queen Kamlapati died of suicide by jumping into the lake in 1723.
A Times of India report citing Gond legend said that on moonlit nights, Rani Kamlapati would emerge from her waterside palace and float on the lake, carried afloat by a lotus flower and attended to by 500 maidens following her in rowing boats.
The Gond community comprises the largest tribal group of India with more than 1.2 crore population.
Linguistically, the Gonds belong to the GondiManda subgroup of the South Central branch of the Dravidian language family.
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