The Love Story of Dhola Maru - Love Stories
It was the 11th century, at that time the Bikaner region of Rajasthan was known as Jhanglu Pradesh. At that time, severe famines occurred every few years in Rajasthan. During famines, there used to be a great shortage of food and water for humans and animals, which created a threat to the lives of all living beings. To avoid such a severe famine, the people of Jhanglu Pradesh often used to leave their homes and go towards Malwa. Malwa Pradesh is called the land of rivers, many rivers flow there. Therefore, there is never a shortage of water there even during a severe famine.
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During one such famine, King Pingal of Pungalgarh princely state of Jhanglu Pradesh reached Narwargarh, a princely state of Malwa Pradesh, with his family and animals. King Sodha Singh of Narwargarh was a very good friend of King Pingal, seeing his friend coming, Sodha Singh welcomed him wholeheartedly. During the famine, both friends spent a very long time together. One day King Pingal received the news that it had rained in his region and the famine was over. On receiving this news, King Pingal started preparing to return to his kingdom.
But Raja Sodha Singh did not want his friend to forget him after returning, so he wanted to convert their friendship into a relationship. So he proposed to marry his three-year-old son Saleh Kumar to Raja Pingal's one and a half year old daughter Marwani. Raja Pingal gladly accepted his friend's proposal. Saleh Kumar was lovingly called Dhola by everyone and Princess Marwani was lovingly called Maru.
The two friend kings married their children with great pomp and show. The wedding celebrations lasted for several weeks. It is said that 900 maunds of chillies were used in the wedding feast of Dhola-Maru, and so much food was used that it was impossible to even count it. Dhola and Maru had a child marriage, according to the custom of that time whenever a child marriage was done, the girl did not go to her in-laws' house but stayed with her parents and when the girl became an adult, her husband came to take her. So as per custom Maru returned to Poongalgarh with her parents.
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Maru was told from her childhood that she was married and when she grows up, her husband will come to take her. Meanwhile, in Narwargarh, Dhola's parents die after a few years and at the young age of 6 years, Dhola becomes the king of Narwargarh. After a few years, Dhola grows up and becomes a powerful king and forgets his childhood marriage with Maru. At the age of sixteen, Dhola marries Malvani, the princess of another kingdom of Malwa. After marriage, Dhola gets busy in managing his kingdom and starts living happily with his queen Malvani.
On the other hand, Maru is still waiting for her husband to come back. She is completely unaware of the fact that her husband Dhola has married another woman and has forgotten his first marriage. A few years pass after Dhola's marriage and 17-year-old Maru is eagerly waiting for her husband Dhola to come back. Many years had passed, neither Dhola came to take her nor did any message from him come, so Maru was now sad. According to the custom of that time, once a girl got married, she would maintain that marriage for the rest of her life.
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According to the custom, when the bride attained adulthood after marriage, the bride's side did not request the groom's side to take her away, rather the husband himself had to come and take his wife away. Therefore, Maru and his family could not contact Dhola in any way to take the bride away. But Dhola did not even remember that she was married to Maru. Thus, one or two more years passed, and no message came from Dhola.
On the other hand, Maru had become impatient waiting for her husband Dhola, she wanted to contact Dhola in any way. At that time, contact was possible only through correspondence, so Maru wrote a letter to Dhola without telling her parents. When that letter reached Narwargarh, Dhola had gone out of his kingdom for some work, so that letter reached Queen Malvani. On reading the letter, Queen Malvani came to know everything about Dhola's first marriage.
Queen Malvani sent a spy to Poongalgarh to find out about Princess Maru. When the spy saw Princess Maru for the first time, he kept staring at her. Princess Maru was as beautiful as a celestial maiden, and all the people of Poongalgarh never tired of praising the qualities of Princess Maru. When the messenger returned to Narwargarh and told all this to Queen Malvani, she became nervous.
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Queen Malvani thought that if Dhola and Maru were united, then her importance in Dhola's life would end. Thinking this, Queen Malvani tore that letter and threw it away and ordered her postal department employees that whatever letter came from Poongalgarh would be given to Queen Malvani first. The state employees could not disobey the order of their queen, so they promised to follow the order.
On the other hand, Princess Maru started waiting for the reply to her letter. Some months passed but there was no reply from Dhola. Impatient Princess Maru wrote another letter to Dhola. When that letter reached Narwargarh, the postal department employees gave that letter directly to Queen Malvani. Queen Marwari tore that letter and threw it away.
On the other hand, Maru was waiting for the reply to her second letter, but there was no reply from Dhola. Now Princess Maru started feeling very sad. She wrote 18 letters one by one and sent them to Narwar in the interval of 2 to 3 years, but she did not get any reply to any letter. Now Princess Maru was 21 years old. Maru, distraught with the separation from her husband, started feeling stressed. She was not able to understand what to do. Neither Dhola was coming to pick her up nor was he replying to her letters.
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One day, sitting alone in the garden, Princess Maru was singing a song in a sad voice in separation from Dhola. There was so much sadness in her voice that even stones cried on hearing it. At the same time, some people of the Dhadi caste were passing by, the people of the Dhadi caste were music lovers, they were people who knew the essence of music. When they heard the sad song of Princess Maru, their soul was shaken, they wondered, who is this girl and why is she singing such sad songs.
They go and talk to Princess Maru, the princess never told anyone about her heart, but when the people of the Dhadi caste asked the reason for her sadness, she could not stop herself. Princess Maru told all the sorrows of her heart to them. The princess told that she is the princess of Poongalgarh, she was married to King Dhola of Narwargarh at the age of one and a half years, since then till today she is waiting for Dhola to come. Maru told that she has written 18 letters to Dhola till now but she has not received any reply to any of the letters, she does not know whether Dhola has received all those letters or not.
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The princess said, if you people understand my pain, then please do me a favour. Please deliver my message to King Dhola of Narwar. He is not replying to my letters, so you go and meet him yourself and give him my message, that your first queen Maru has been waiting for you in Poongalgarh for 22 years. If you do this work for me, then I will be grateful to you for the rest of my life. Hearing all this, the people of the Dhadi caste felt pity for the princess, and they promised to deliver the princess' message to King Dhola of Narwargarh.
After travelling for a few days, they reach King Dhola's palace in Narwargarh. After reaching there, they start singing songs, and through songs, they tell Dhola about his first wife, and describe her beauty. After listening to their songs, Dhola calls them to his palace and asks them the reason for singing such songs.
Then they tell the king in clear words, how his first queen has been waiting for him for 22 years and is restless in his separation. They tell that Princess Maru has written 18 letters to you so far, but you have not replied to any of her letters. King, if you do not want to meet her, then at least you can reply to her letter, making someone wait for 22 years in this way is not right in any way.
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When King Dhola heard all this, the ground slipped from under his feet. Dhola said that I did not receive any letter from that princess and neither do I remember that I was married to her. People of Dhaadi caste said that that princess cannot lie, we have seen the truth in the eyes of that princess, have felt her separation pain, have heard the pain in her heart, that girl cannot lie. You should find out from your postal department employees whether they have received the letters or not.
Hearing all this, Dhola strictly interrogates his postal department employees, on being asked by the king, they tell the truth that they had received 18 letters from Poongalgarh, but Queen Malvani had ordered that all the letters that came from Poongalgarh should be given to her, so we had delivered all those letters to Queen Malvani. Hearing all this, Dhola becomes very angry, and goes straight to Queen Malvani and tells her that I did not expect from you that you will interfere in my first marriage in this way, knowing everything.
Dhola sent a messenger to Poongalgarh the same day and sent a message to Princess Maru that King Dhola of Narwargarh will come to take her in a few days. Princess Maru was overjoyed to hear the news of Dhola's arrival. The next day when Dhola started to bring Princess Maru, Queen Malvani stopped him by making some excuse. Whenever Dhola would go out to bring Princess Maru, Malvani would stop him by making some excuse or the other. In this way another 6 months passed.
One day at midnight when Queen Malvani was sleeping, King Dhola set out on a camel to take Princess Maru. After travelling for a few days, he reached Poongalgarh. Dhola was given such a grand welcome in Poongalgarh that it is still cited as an example in royal families. When Dhola saw Princess Maru for the first time, he could not stop looking at her. Princess Maru looked as beautiful as a celestial maiden. Dhola happily spent many days with Maru at his in-laws' place, after which he asked permission from Princess Maru's father King Pingal to take her to his in-laws' place, King Pingal happily granted permission for this.
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Dhola and Maru left for Narwargarh with a convoy of camels. The son of a minister of Poongalgarh, whose name was Umar-Sumra, wanted to marry Princess Maru. Therefore, he planned to kill King Dhola on the way and acquire Princess Maru. He sat down with a party arranged on the way of Dhola-Maru, when Dhola and Maru passed by him, he stopped the convoy of Dhola-Maru to welcome them. Dhola let Maru stay on the camel and himself got down from the camel and went to Umar-Sumra.
In those days, the wedding party was welcomed with opium, which was called Amal Ki Manuhar. Dhola started taking Amal Ki Manuhar along with Umar-Sumra. A Drummer, a trusted Drummer of Princess Maru's family, was also going in Dhola-Maru's convoy. He understood the conspiracy of Umar-Sumra. He understood that Umar-Sumra wanted to kill Dhola. The Drummer told Princess Maru about this conspiracy. On hearing this, Maru immediately kicked his camel with his heels, due to which the camel started running fast.
Suddenly seeing the running camel, Dhola started running behind it to stop it. When Dhola reached the camel while running, Maru told him that this is a deception. Umar-Sumra wants to kill you. Get on the camel quickly. On hearing Maru's words, Dhola immediately got on the camel. Then the camel kept running and stopped only after reaching Dhola's kingdom Narwargarh. Now both of them were safe after reaching Narwargarh, they were given a grand welcome there, now Princess Maru became the queen of King Dhola and started living happily in Narwargarh.
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