The Queen Who Drowned !
“Being brave meant that though you might be frightened, you would face the greatest danger if you knew it was the right thing to do.”
-Anne Holm.
We often hear so many stories of kings doing great things for their people by being brave and facing death/near death situations in order to complete their mission. I often have get these two questions when I hear such stories or watch their movies ( which has in fact increased so much that now we see at least one period drama every month!):
- Why is always bravery being tagged to winning wars, giving up life for pride, sometimes to even show how great their caste/religion/clan is or taking revenge on someone in the name of patriotism?
- Why are such stories told only about kings and not queens? We definitely have so many of them who were so brave and did some remarkable things during their time!
For first point, I’m still searching for an answer, I guess time and some rational thinking will answer in the future. But for second point, started googling some great untold stories/urban legends which have been kept away from our books and movies and most of such stories’ origin places have becomes great tourist spots without even knowing the history behind it, one such interesting story that I read is what we are gonna see today. Lets jump directly into it, but keep pondering your mind on the first point!
Once upon a time, lol chill, I’m not gonna start it that way!
The story actually took place in Gujarat, very close to modern day Ahmedabad, the place was ruled by Rana Veer Singh, in fact it was ruled by Queen Roodabai and her husband King Rana! He decided to help his subjects by putting an end to the water scarcity that prevailed in the kingdom. So he starts the construction of a step well to help his cause and function as a water source for all the surrounding villages. When the construction is half way through, they are attacked by enemy forces, led by Mohammad Begda. Rana fights along with his army till the very end and dies in the war for his people.
Wait, now that’s not the story, let’s rewind and start the story in a different way:
During the rule of Queen Roodabai and her husband King Rana, they decide to build a step well to help remove water scarcity and due to an attack from the enemy forces, Rana dies, and the step well construction is stopped half way through. Now, Roodabai proceeds for Sati(the most stupidest and cruel treatment of women, we have discussed this in a separate story) but King Begda, from the enemy forces says he wants to marry her. Queen Roodabai accepts his idea, but says she will marry him only after he completes the construction of the step well, which Begda accepts and as usual the subjects are shocked ! Once the construction is complete, now the opening ceremony ( maybe a different name in those days) happens, and now Begda goes to her place to marry her, but she slowly walks into the well and gives up on her life, apparently called Jal Samadhi. That’s how the story ends !
I’m definitely not glorifying her death in that manner or the way its portrayed in some of the myths, that is nothing but Sati but in water. But what we need to see here is her brave act of getting the construction done for her people and not giving up on the project that went on to save thousands of people over generations. She always thought about her people and their welfare, even when she knew she was risking everything. As I already said, in the world of glorifying self sacrifices of women only during sati for her husband and calling it a proud death, we often don’t talk about such heroics of women where all they did was live for their people, that is something that I wanted to bring up and hopefully I did, again there are many versions to this story, but why are they not out for everyone to read and know, again something which I’ll leave it to you !
Slightly modifying the title now,
