The land of Mewar had produced so many great warriors and rulers, one such ruler is Thakur Amarchand Badwa, it’s unfortunate that such dynamic and able ruler didn’t get the recognition he deserves, very few people know about this great personality and this is our attempt to spread the greatness to the masses.
Thakur Amarchand Badwa was born today, 13th July 1721. Unlike Rajputs he hailed from Sanadhya Brahmin community, he was the Prime Minister of Mewar throughout the reigns of the four Maharanas Pratap SinghII, RajsinghII, Arisingh II, and Hammir Singh II. His tenure stretched from 1751 to 1778. Thakur Amarchand Badwa was a wise ruler and army strategist when he took the responsibility of Mewar that time Mewar was under threat of enemies, in 1769 the Mewar army fought the Kshipra war near Ujjain, in that war the Mewar army lost the major commandants and faced the defeat after that when Shri Amarchand Badwa got to know about the plans of Madhav Rao Scindia of attacking Udaipur, no commander in Mewar was ready to face Marath Army, the then Maharana Ari Singh II was sent to Mandalgarh and told that only Thakur Amarchand Badwa can save Mewar, Amar Chand Barwa created a huge army within a time period of six months in which he also involved the tribal warriors from Bheel community. He didn’t let Maratha King Madhavraj Scindia enter Udaipur for 6 Months, for this he erected a huge 22 feet canon on Machhla Magra, the canon was so powerful that its sound could be heard in entire Udaipur and nearby villages, it was called, ‘DushmanBhanjak top'(enemy eliminator canon). This canon was called ‘Jagat Shobha top’, it is still present on the ‘Burj’ in front of the present ‘City Railway Station Udaipur’, this canon is now worshipped by people and said to have divine powers. Various other canons were erected at other top cliffs such as Indragarh, Sarneshwargarh, Surajpol, and Ambavgarh. The first fire was made from the ‘Jagat Shobha Top'(canon), Madhav Raj Scindia was forced to do compromise with Mewar Forces.
Amar Chand Badwa saved the Mewar from becoming a slave of intruders by his excellent army management and thus was conferred the ‘Thakur’ title by the Maharana. Amar Chand Badwa also built the tripolia, Bagore ki Haveli, 12 gates, and the ‘Selkot'(Wall) around the city. The wall was constructed to keep the city safe now the walled city is known as the Old Udaipur City. he also constructed Amarchandiya Lake which is 40 km from Udaipur.
Thakur Amarchand Badwa was an epitome of honesty too, he was so honest that he invested all his wealth for state welfare and when he died there was not even a piece of cloth(shroud/kafan) with him, his last rites were also performed with the help of contributions from locals. Every year on his birth anniversary people from Thakur Amar Chand Badwa Manch and various brahmin groups pay tribute at the ‘Cenotaph'(chhatri) of Thakur Amarchand Badwa situated in Ahar, Udaipur.
