Bandhavgarh national park is one of the most popular tiger safari destination at Madhya Pradesh in Central India. It is not only a jungle safari destination but also a open art gallery which will take us back to 2000 years old history of this area. It was one time power center of Baghelkhand, ruled by Baghel rulers. Before them, Kalchuri rulers maintained their control over this region. At present its popular name is Bandhavgarh which is continuing from the era of Baghel dynasty. It is surrounded by many villages which are centuries old. Here each village and Bandhavgarh itself have a naming history which means the names are given on the basis of some logical reason. Here we will try to understand those reasons
Popular version of naming history of Bandhavgarh is referring to Hindu epic Ramayana. As per this version, after conquering Lanka, when lord Rama, Sita and Laxmana were on the way to return back to there home Ayodhya, they took rest at Bandhavgarh hills. Here lord Rama handover the fort of Bandhavgarh to his younger brother Laxmana to keep watch on surrounding region. Thus it was named Bandhavgarh. It is collection of 2 hindi language words, "Bandhav" means brother and "Garh" means fort thus collectively it was pronounced as Bandhavgarh means brother's fort.
One more unpopular version of Bandhavgarh naming comes from Bandhavdheesh temple. We all know that it is active temple adjoining to fort are, on same plateau. At Bandhavdheesh temple, we will find statue of Lord Rama, Sita and Laxmana. If we try to understand the meaning of "Bandhav", we will conclude that it is popularly referred for relatives which includes brothers, sisters and other close family members. As temple is of brothers Rama and Laxmana thus we can conclude that it is of both brothers and not for one brother. We we notice the height of the platform of Bandhavdheesh temple, on which these statues are placed, we will find that its height is more than the height of any other structure platform which indicated its sprimacy. In those days, rulers often declared god as the actual ruler of kingdom and represent themselves as the person who rules as a representative of God. Thus here here Lord Rama and Laxmana were declared as the actual rulers and king was the representative of them.