Deval Devi

In 1298, the then Sultan of Delhi, Alauddin Khilji, sent an expedition into Gujarat under the command of Ulugh Khan and Nusrat Khan. Karan Deva II of the Vaghela dynasty, the main ruler of Gujarat, was defeated. His queen, Kamla Devi, fell into the hands of the invaders and was sent as booty to Alauddin Khilji. Karna Deva himself, along with his very young daughter Deval Devi and other surviving followers, fled to the Deccan and took refuge in the court of Rama Chandra Deva, ruler of Deogiri (later known as Daulatabad).

Meanwhile in Delhi, Karan Deva's wife Kamla Devi was married to Alauddin Khilji as his third wife. She soon became the favourite queen of Alauddin and often told the sultan of how much she missed her little daughter. Therefore when in 1308, ten years after mother and daughter had been separated, the Khilji sultan happened to send an expedition to the Deccan, he instructed his general, Malik Kafur, to bring Deval Devi back with him whether by hook or by crook. By this time, Deval Devi had come of age. The historian Firishta tells us that Rama Chandra Deva, who had granted refuge to Deval's father and his party, had suggested that she be married to his son and heir, Shankara Deva. While in material terms this would be a great match for the refugee princess, her father was not inclined to accept, because the Vaghela dynasty were Rajputs whereas their hosts were Yadavas of lower standing in the caste hierarchy.He initially refused to take the hint, then made polite excuses and demurred; the hosts realized that he was not interested in a matrimonial alliance and dropped the matter. At this point, Deogiri was faced with the invading army from Delhi and the special interest of the invaders in Deval Devi became known. A deeply agitated Karna Deva now pressed his hosts to accept his daughter as bride for Prince Shankara Deva. They agreed to this and advised Karna Deva to immediately send his daughter under escort into the fort of Devagiri (the refugee king had been granted an estate comprising a few nearby villages and was living there) because war seemed imminent. Karna Deva immediately did as he was advised; bedecked as a bride, Deval Devi was seated in a palanquin and sent under armed escort towards the citadel to marry the crown prince. However, before reaching the fort, the party was waylaid by a contingent of Sultanate soldiers and Deval Devi was captured. Nizam ud-Din and `Abd al-Qadir Bada'uni opine that the party was led by Ulugh Khan personally. She was sent to Delhi, where she was reunited with the mother who she had not seen since childhood. Shortly afterwards, at the insistence of Kamla Devi, she was married to Alauddin's eldest son Khizr Khan (her mother's step-son).

Following Ala-ud-Din's death in 1316, his third son ascended the throne as Qutb ud din Mubarak Shah. During Mubarak's reign, a conspiracy was made to murder him and put one of the sons of Khizr Khan on the throne. When Mubarak came to know about the plan he put everyone involved in the conspiracy, including Khizr Khan, to death. It is stated that Mubarak had written a letter to Khizr, asking him to return Deval to the royalty but the latter protested strongly. Historian Haji-ud-Dabir wrote that Mubarak had married Deval forcibly. Mubarak was stabbed and beheaded by his favourite Khusro Khan (and his followers) on the night of 14 April 1320. Ziauddin Barani, the contemporary historian wrote that Khusro married Deval Devi.

Deval Devi is an important character in the Gujarati historical novel Karan Ghelo by Nandshankar Mehta. Amir Khusraw wrote his masnavi Deval Devi—Khizr Khan, a famous work on the romance between Khizr Khan and Deval Devi and popularly called Ishqiya, Ishqia and Ashiqa. She is the central character in Sudheer Maurya's Hindi book Deval Devi : Ek Aetihasik Upanyaas.