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. 'Maru' is a Sanskrit word for desert. The word 'wad' literally means fence in Rajasthani languages. Engl ...

who exchanged her son with infant Ajit Singh, her son was later captured by

Aurangzeb Alamgir I (Muhi al-Din Muhammad; 3 November 1618 – 3 March 1707), commonly known by the title Aurangzeb, also called Aurangzeb the Conqueror, was the sixth Mughal emperors, Mughal emperor, reigning from 1658 until his death in 1707, becomi ...

and was raised as Muslim.

History

Ajit Singh was born in 1679 after his father

Maharaja Jaswant Singh Raja Jaswant Singh I (26 December 1626 – ) was the Rathore ruler of the Kingdom of Marwar in the western part of Rajputana (modern-day Rajasthan, India). He was a distinguished man of letters and author of noted literary works like ''Siddha ...

'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, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

. Gora Dhay replaced him with her own son. The slave girl along with 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 People from the Kingdom of Marwar