Author Topic: Madho Singh Bhandari - A Warrior Hero - माधो सिंह भंडारी - एक बीर योद्धा  (Read 40435 times)

Mukesh Joshi

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Madho Singh Bhandari - A Warrior Hero
Along the Alakhnanda 30 kilometers upstream from Devprayag is a sleepy hamlet called Maletha. It probably isn’t sleepy, but I’ve almost always driven past it in the tranquil afternoon. The river makes a glistening, somnambulant U-turn and draped along its curve is the village of Maletha. On one journey from somewhere to somewhere at the tiny Maletha cross road an old gentleman boarded the bus. He sat next to me and talked. As the miles flew by a legend was spun and Madho Singh Bhandari got woven into my consciousness.

In the sixteenth or seventeenth century in the village of Maletha, in the house of a warrior popularly known as Sone Baan Kalo Bhandari, a son Madho Singh Bhandari was born. The Maletha Madho Singh grew up in was dry and arid. The fine flat fields yielded only Jhangora, coarse millet. As a young man Madho Singh joined the royal court at Srinagar. Bards sang of his exploits. A brave soldier he led his army into Tibet, built great forts and captured territories across the region.

On one of his visits home, when his only son was growing into a fine young man, Madho reached tired and hungry. He called to his wife to bring him food and water. When she didn’t appear for a long time he was angry. He shouted and she came. Empty handed. What would your worship like she asked, the finest vegetables, rice, dals, fruit... what?

The sarcasm cut through to Madho’s soul. The fields were wonderful and flat, but there was no water. The dry Jhangora and water went down with difficulty. That night Madho couldn’t sleep. In the early hours he vowed that he wouldn’t leave till he had dug a canal and brought water to his Maletha.

Along one ridge bordering Maletha flowed a stream the Chandrabhaga. Madho decided to tunnel through the mountainside and channel the water to Maletha. The next morning the village bustled. Priests blessed the area and the people led by Madho Singh Bhandari got to work. For weeks they laboured. Finally the tunnel was complete. One furlong long and five feet wide and five feet deep. But the Chandrabhaga refused to flow into it. Alterations were made, prayers offered but still Maletha remained dry. Puzzled the village went to sleep. That night the Goddess appeared in Madho’s dream. Sacrifice your son, she said, only then will the water flow to Maletha. The village agonized, he is Madho’s only son. What about his mother?

The brave son of Maletha knew what he had to do. The young man was sacrificed and his head was placed at the mouth of the tunnel. The water flowed through and carried the severed head on its powerful waves and placed it on a field. Soon Madho was summoned back to duty. With a heavy heart he left his home, never to return.

This is the story that is told around hearths and when field are being harvested. As scythes move in rhythm with music, words sing of Madho Singh Bhandari and his great sacrifice. Today Maletha is green and fertile, abundant and prosperous, and its people remember their hero with pride.

एम.एस. मेहता /M S Mehta 9910532720

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Re: Madho Singh Bhandari - A Warrior Hero
« Reply #1 on: September 06, 2008, 04:31:54 PM »


ABOUT MADO SINGH BHANDARI.


The Bhaadi bards sing of his adventures as a soldier who had led Garhwal’s armies into Tibet sometime in the 1600s, built forts ("garhs"), and expanded the frontiers of the Garhwal Raja’s kingdom across the Himalayas. However, his sacrifices on behalf of his village Maletha, are most poignant as they echo the most basic struggles that afflict many Uttarakhand’s villages to this very day.

Born to a famous warrior, Sone Baan Kalo Bhandari, Madho Singh left the dry and arid confines of Maletha at a young age, joining the royal court in Srinagar and rising to the rank of general in the raja’s army. However, his native village remained poor and its field unable to grow anything more than Jhangora, a coarse millet and a staple crop in the Uttarakhand hills.

Upon one of his visits home, the poverty of Maletha grew unbearable as his wife could bring him no food or water, and definitely not the fine vegetables, fruits, rice, and beans he had grown accustom to at the royal court. After a restless night, Madho vowed by dawn to build an irrigation channel bringing water from the nearby stream, the Chandrabhaga, to the fields of Maletha. To do so, Madho Singh had to burrow through a mountain to draw the water from the stream. He thus organized the villagers with the priests’ blessings, and began excavating the furlong long, five feet wide tunnel.

Weeks went by as the villagers, inspired by Madho’s dedication, set to the task with great alacrity. However, upon completion, the Chandrabhaga refused to flow. The villagers tried altering their design and the priests gave offerings to the local deities, but with no effect. The stream would not budge from its original course.

During the night, the Goddess appeared to Madho Singh, beckoning him to sacrifice his eldest son to free the stream of its original course. Madho Singh, crestfallen, refused as the price seemed too steep. Yet his son, who had grown up to be a strong young man, knew that the future of the village depended on his sacrifice and thus took his life but not before ordering the villagers to present his body to the Goddess. They did, placing his severed head at the mouth of the tunnel. The stream immediately changed course, flowing through the tunnel, carrying the head on its roaring waves and depositing it in the village’s fields.

पंकज सिंह महर

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Re: Madho Singh Bhandari - A Warrior Hero
« Reply #2 on: November 14, 2008, 11:46:22 AM »
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wrro7ClxsRU

माधो सिंह भण्डारी जी पर आधारित एक लोकगीत

पंकज सिंह महर

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Re: Madho Singh Bhandari - A Warrior Hero
« Reply #3 on: November 14, 2008, 12:13:53 PM »
9 KM from Srinagar, it is birth place of Madho Singh Bhandari, the legendry general who scarified his son to construct a tunneled canal in 1635 which still irrigates his village. An memorial has been built in his memory.



मलेथा स्थित माधो सिंह भण्डारी जी का स्मृति स्थल

एम.एस. मेहता /M S Mehta 9910532720

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Re: Madho Singh Bhandari - A Warrior Hero
« Reply #4 on: November 14, 2008, 01:16:27 PM »
Maletha Ki kool (मलेथा की कूल/गूल)Uttarakhandi film has been made on the lift of Mado Singh Bhandari.

Devbhoomi,Uttarakhand

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Re: Madho Singh Bhandari - A Warrior Hero
« Reply #5 on: July 05, 2009, 06:58:56 PM »
YE HAI MALETHA KA SERA JAHAN KE LIYE MADHAUSINGH BHANDAARI NE APNE BETE GAJESINGH KI BATI CHDAI THI
YAHIN HAIN WO CHHENDA JO KI AAJ BHI IN KHETON KO PAANI SE SHEENCHA JATA HAI


MALETHA KA SHERA YAANI KHET





Devbhoomi,Uttarakhand

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Re: Madho Singh Bhandari - A Warrior Hero
« Reply #6 on: July 05, 2009, 07:01:40 PM »
YE WO UTTARAKHAND KA VEER OR APNE PUTR KE PRAANON KI AAHOTI DENE WALA VEER GARWALI MADHAU SINGH BHANDARI

Devbhoomi,Uttarakhand

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Re: Madho Singh Bhandari - A Warrior Hero
« Reply #7 on: July 05, 2009, 07:04:05 PM »
MALETHA KI KOOL YAHIN SE HOKAR JAATI HAI JAHAN KI MADHAU SINGH BHANDARI JI KI MOORTI BANAAI GAYI HAI


Devbhoomi,Uttarakhand

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Re: Madho Singh Bhandari - A Warrior Hero
« Reply #8 on: July 05, 2009, 07:05:36 PM »

Devbhoomi,Uttarakhand

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Re: Madho Singh Bhandari - A Warrior Hero
« Reply #9 on: July 05, 2009, 07:07:33 PM »



MALETHA AAJ BHI MADHAU SINGH JI KI KURBAANI KE GEET GAATE HAI

 

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