Ranakdevi Temple, Wadhwan – Legends

Ranakdevi Temple, Wadhwan – Legends

Ranakdevi was a legendary 12^th century queen of Khengara, the Chudasama ruler of Saurashtra region of western India. She is mentioned in the bardic tragic romance representing the battle between Chudasama king Khengara and Chaulukya king Jayasimha Siddharaja. However, this legend is not credible. It is said that Ranakdevi was born to the king of Kutch, but she was abandoned in forest as the astrologer had predicted that whomever marry her will lose his kingdom and die young.

The abandoned child was found by a potter named Jam Rawal of Majevadi village near Junagadh, the Chudasama capital. He raised her as his own daughter. The fame of her beauty reached to Jayasimha and determined to marry her but Chudasama king Khengara marry her which enraged Jayasimha. Meanwhile Khengara had attacked and broken gates of Jayasimha's capital Anahilapataka (now Patan) when he was on an expedition to Malwa which had further enraged Jayasimha.

Khengara used to stay himself at the fort of Uparkot in Junagadh but kept his queen Ranakdevi in his palace in the hill fort of Girnar, a mountain near Junagadh. His nephews Visal and Desal were the only persons allowed access there except the guard. Khengara used to go from the Uparkot to the Girnar fort to visit Ranakdevi. One day he found Desal drunk there and, in spite of all his protestations, accused him of an improper intimacy with her.

Then he expelled both Desal and Visal from the Junagadh. They went to Jayasimha and told him to attack Junagadh. They entered the Uparkot with some cattle carrying grain, slew the guards and attacked the palace. Khengara came forth and fought and died in the battle and the Uparkot was taken. After this Desal and Visal took Jayasimha up to the Girnar fort and asked their aunt to open the gate. She did so, not knowing what had happened.

Then Jayasimha entered and on seeing her two sons ordered them to be put to death. Jayasimha took Ranakdevi with him and returned towards Anahilapataka. On their way, at Vardhamanapura (now Wadhwan) on the banks of river Bhogavo, overcome by the noble bearing of Ranakdevi, he offered to make her his first queen, but she told him that nothing would make her forgive him the death of her innocent boys and his husband. She then cursed Jayasimha and warned him that he should die childless.

Then, she committed sati by burning herself on the funeral pyre of her husband, with his turban in her lap. Her curse was fulfilled and Jayasimha died childless. Several couplets uttered by Ranakdevi in the bardic accounts evokes sadness but their usefulness as the historical material is doubtful. Even the existence of Ranakdevi is doubtful. Ranakdevi is not mentioned in the Chaulukya era chronicles such as Puratana-prabandha-sangraha or Merutunga's Prabandha-Chintamani but instead they give name Sonaladevi and Sunaladevi respectively.

The Apabhramsa verses uttered by Sonaladevi after the death of Khengara counts eleven and eight in them respectively. Ranakdevi's paliya (memorial stone) and a shrine still stand on the southern banks of the Bhogavo river in Wadhwan, though the temple seems to have been built earlier, probably during the reign of Dharanivaraha of the Chhapa dynasty (last quarter of the 9^th century).