Previous Posts: Dost Mohammad Khan - I and II
Rani of Mangalgarh's Rajput neighbors banded together against her and gathered for battle. After several days of war, the Rajputs for the festival of Holi sought a truce. Dost agreed to it. On the night of drunken revelry of Holi, Dost attacked and routed his unsuspecting rivals. A similar meeting was arranged at Jagdishpur, 20 miles south of Berasia, with Narsingh Rao Chauhan a Rajput chief. A tent was pitched on the banks of river Thal. Receiving Dosts signal, his soldiers hiding in nearby thickets rushed the tent, cut it's ropes and murdered the unsuspecting Rajputs. So gruesome was the slaughter that the river went red with blood, and is still called the River Halali. Dost renamed Jagdishpur as Islamnagar, strengthened the fort and made it his headquarters. After the death of Rani of Mangalgarh, Dost plundered the gold coins and jewellery from the treasury, which he was protecting till the day before. He also extended his rule over parganas (districts) of Doraha, Sehore, Ichawar, Ashta and Shujalpur.
Nizam Shah, one of the several Gond warlords, known as the Gond raja, ruled Bhopal at that time. Nizam shah had emerged as the strongest among the warlords, and he ruled from the fort of Ginnor. Located about 46 miles east of Bhopal, Ginnor fort was built on steep 2000-foot rock. Sheer cliff drops on each side and thick forests on all sides inhabited by beasts, left only one thin trail leading to the fort and were easily defended. He had taken for his wife Kamlapati, a woman of unmatched beauty, education, refined and superbly talented in the arts. A charming Gond legend described that on moonlit night she would emerge from her waterside palace and swim in the lake, carried afloat by a lotus flower and attended by 500 maidens following her in rowing boats. A rival Gond-raja Alam shah ruled Chainpur-Bara, and was obsessed by the beauty of Kamlapati. He eventually poisoned Nizam shah, leading an insecure Kamlapati to invite Dost Mohammad Khan to avenge her honour. A sum of Rupees one lakh was promised as the fees. Dost Mohammad attacked and slayed Alam Shah. Rani Kamlapati, unable to pay him the promised sum of one lakh, offered him Bhopal instead. Dost took over and consolidated the Bhopal riasat, thus laying the foundation of Mirazi-khel dynasty of Bhopal.
Several years later in 1723, after the death of Kamlapati, Dost sent hundred of his soldiers dressed as women in palanquins up the Ginnor fort. The unsuspecting guards of Kamlapati's son Nawal shah let the dolis through the gates of impregnable Ginnor fort, where Nawal shahs force was defeated and Nawal Shah was killed
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