Bhopal

Bhopal’s history weaves together medieval legend, Afghan chieftains, powerful queens and modern state-building.

The area’s older identity is linked to the 11th-century Paramara king Raja Bhoj, who is believed to have created a great lake by building an embankment on local rivers; from “Bhoj” and “pal” (dam) comes the name Bhojpal, later Bhopal. For centuries the region lay within changing Malwa and Gond kingdoms, with scattered forts and villages around the lakes and hills.

Modern Bhopal, however, really begins in the early 18th century, when the Afghan soldier Dost Mohammad Khan, a former Mughal officer, carved out a small principality here amid the empire’s decline. He fortified the settlement, built the old fort area and founded the Bhopal State, which gradually became a recognised princely state under British paramountcy.

From the early 19th to early 20th century, Bhopal was famously ruled by a line of Begums—Qudsia Begum, Sikander Begum, Shah Jahan Begum and Sultan Jahan Begum—who oversaw modernisation, roads, rail links, palaces, mosques (including the vast Taj-ul-Masajid) and civic institutions. After Independence, Bhopal acceded to India, briefly formed a separate “Bhopal state,” and in 1956 was incorporated into Madhya Pradesh as its capital. Today the city is known both for its lakes and heritage and for its role as the administrative and educational heart of central India.