Gora Dhay (Hindi: गोरां धाय) (1646–1704) was a woman from Kingdom of
Marwar
Marwar (also called Jodhpur region) is a region of western Rajasthan state in North Western India. It lies partly in the Thar Desert. The word 'maru' is Sanskrit for desert. In Rajasthani languages, "wad" means a particular area. English tran ...
who exchanged her son with infant
Ajit Singh, her son was later captured by
Aurangzeb
Muhi al-Din Muhammad (; – 3 March 1707), commonly known as ( fa, , lit=Ornament of the Throne) and by his regnal title Alamgir ( fa, , translit=ʿĀlamgīr, lit=Conqueror of the World), was the sixth emperor of the Mughal Empire, ruling ...
and was raised as muslim.
History
Ajit Singh was born in 1679 after his father
Maharaja Jaswant Singh
Jaswant Singh Rathore (26 December 1626 – 28 December 1678) was a Maharaja of Marwar in the present-day Indian state of Rajasthan. He was a distinguished man of letters and author of "Siddhant-bodh", "Anand Vilas" and "Bhasa-bhusan".
Early l ...
's death. Aurangzeb, with an intention to either kill or convert Ajit Singh, put a condition that the upbringing of Ajit Singh will be done at
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
. Gora Dhay replaced him with her own son.
The slave girl alongwith her infant son remained behind to be captured.
Aurangzeb deigned to accept this deceit and sent the child to be raised as a Muslim. Jadunath Sarkar mentioned that Aurangzeb brought up a milkman's son in his harem as Ajit Singh.
[, p334] Ajit Singh later constructed a Chattri in honour of Gora Dhai.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dhay, Gora
1646 births
1704 deaths
Marwar