16th
century onwards over greatly diminished territories, until its overthrow
by the Mahrattas in 1745. The second ruler of this dynasty, Ratnaraja,
was the founder of Ratanpur.

The inscriptional records cease abruptly in the 12th century, and no
more is known of the country until the rise of the Gond dynasties from
the 14th to the 16th centuries. The first of these is mentioned in 1398,
when Narsingh Rai, raja of Kherla, is said by Ferishta to have ruled all
the hills of Gondwana. He was finally overthrown and killed by Hoshang
Shah, king of Malwa. The 16th century saw the establishment of a
powerful Gond kingdom by Sangram Sah, who succeeded in 1480 as the 47th
of the petty Gond rajas of Garha-Mandla, and extended his dominions so
as to include Saugor and Damoh on the Vindhyan plateau, Jubbulpore and
Narsinghpur in the Nerbudda valley, and Seoni on the Satpura highlands.
Sangram Sah died in 1530; and the break up of his dominion began with
the enforced cession to the Mogul emperor by Chandra Sah (1563-1575) of
Saugor and Damoh and of that portion of his territories which afterwards
formed the state of Bhopal.

About 200 years after Sangram Sah's time, Bakht Buland, the Gond
chieftain of a principality seated at Deogarh in Chhindwara, having
visited Delhi, set about introducing the civilization he had there
admired. He founded the city of Nagpur, which his successor made his
capital. The Deogarh kingdom, at its widest extent, embraced the modern
districts of Betul, Chhindwara, Nagpur, with parts of Seoni, Bhandara
and Balaghat. In the south of the province Chanda was the seat of
another Gond dynasty, which first came into prominence in the 16th
century. The three Gond principalities of Garha-Mandla, Deogarh and
Chanda were nominally subject to the Mogul emperors. In addition to the
acquisitions made in the north at the expense of Garha-Mandla, the
Moguls, after the annexation of Berar, established governors at Paunar
in Wardha and Kherla in Betul. Having thus hemmed in the Gond states,
however, they made no efforts to assert any effective sovereignty over
them; the Gond rajas for their part were content with practical
independence within their own dominions. Under their peaceful rule their
territories flourished, until the weakening of the Mogul empire and the
rise of the predatory Bundela and Mahratta powers, with the organized
forces of which their semi-barbarous feudal levies were unable to cope,
brought misfortu