Tuesday, 9 October 2012
Born: May 9, 1540 in Kumbhalgarh, Rajasthan
Father's Name: Maharana Udai Singh II Mother's Name: Rani Jeevant Kanwar Died: January 29, 1597 in Chavand
Maharana Pratap was born on May 9th 1540 in Kumbhalgarh, Rajasthan. His father was Maharana Udai Singh II
and his mother was Rani Jeevant Kanwar. Maharana Udai Singh II ruled
the kingdom of Mewar, with his capital at Chittor. Maharana Pratap was
the eldest of twenty-five sons and hence given the title of Crown
Prince. He was destined to be the 54th ruler of Mewar, in the line of
the Sisodiya Rajputs.
| |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
The year was 1572. Pratap Singh had just become
the Maharana of Mewar and he had not been back in Chittor since 1567.
His old fort and his home beckoned to him. The pain of his father's
death, and the fact that his father had not
been able to see Chittor again, troubled the young Maharana deeply.
But he was not the only one troubled at this time. Akbar had control of
Chittor but not the kingdom of Mewar. So long as the people of Mewar
swore by their Maharana, Akbar could not realize his ambition of being
the Jahanpanah of Hindustan. He had sent several emissaries to
Mewar to get Rana Pratap to agree to sign a treaty but the letter was
only willing to sign a peace treaty whereby the sovereignty of Mewar
would be intact. In the course of the year 1573, Akbar sent six
diplomatic missions to Mewar to get Rana Pratap to agree to the former's
suzerainty but Rana Pratap turned down each one of them. The last of
these missions was headed by Raja Man Singh. Maharana Pratap, angered that his fellow Rajput was
aligned with someone who had forced the submission of all Rajputs,
refused to sup with Raja Man Singh. The lines were completely drawn now -
Akbar understood that Maharana Pratap would never submit and he would
have to use his troops against Mewar.
With the failure of efforts to negotiate a peace
treaty in 1573, Akbar blockaded Mewar from the rest of the world and
alienated Mewar's traditional allies, some of whom were Maharana
Pratap's own kith and kin. Akbar then tried to turn the people of the
all-important Chittor district against their king so they would not help
Pratap. He appointed Kunwar Sagar Singh, a younger brother of Pratap,
to rule the conquered territory, However, Sagar, regretting his own
treachery, soon returned from Chittor, and committed suicide with a
dagger in the Mughal Court. Shakti Singh, Pratap's younger brother now
with the Mughal army, is said to have fled the Mughal court temporarily
and warned his brother of Akbar's actions.
In preparation for the inevitable war with the
Mughals, Maharana Pratap altered his administration. He moved his
capital to Kumbhalgarh, where he was born. He commanded his subjects to
leave for the Aravali mountains and
leave behind nothing for the approaching enemy - the war would be
fought in a mountain terrain which the Mewar army was used to but not
the Mughals. It is a testament to the young king's respect amongst his
subjects that they obeyed him and left for the mountains. The Bhils of
the Aravalis were completely behind him. The army of Mewar now raided
Mughal trade caravans going from Delhi to Surat. A section of his army
guarded the all important Haldighati Pass, the only way to get into
Udaipur from the North. Maharana Pratap himself undertook several
penances, not because his finances forced him to do so, but because he
wished to remind himself, and all his subjects, why they were
undertaking this pain - to win back their freedom, their right to exist
as they wished. He foreswore that he would eat from leaf-plates, would
sleep on the floor and would not shave. In his self-inflicted state of
penury, the Maharana lived in mud-huts made from mud and bamboo.
In 1576, the famous battle of Haldighati
was fought with 20,000 Rajputs against a Mughal army of 80,000 men
commanded by Raja Man Singh. The battle was fierce though indecisive, to
the Mughal army's astonishment. Maharana
Pratap's army was not defeated but Maharana Pratap was surrounded by
Mughal soldiers. It is said that at this point, his estranged brother, Shakti Singh,
appeared and saved the Rana's life. Another casualty of this war was
Maharana Pratap's famous, and loyal, horse Chetak, who gave up his life
trying to save his Maharana.
After this war, Akbar tried several times to
take over Mewar, failing each time. Maharana Pratap himself was keeping
up his quest for taking Chittor back.
The Haldighati Battle was a conspiracy by Akbar to end Rajput Power In India, on one side was The Brave Maharana Pratap with his handful but brave 20000 soldiers which were obviously majority powerful Rajputs including some deshbhakt Bhills. and on the other side There was Akbar's army of 80000 soldiers which again included 70% Rajputs(from neighbouring provinces who were enemies of Mewad Kingdom) and remaining muslims. Mansingh (who was a Rajput) led the army from Akbar's side. Akbar Himself didnt participate in this battle because he have heard about Maharana Pratap's Courage and Anger about Mughals, he knew that if he would participate in the battle Maharana Pratap would never let him walk alive from the battlefield. Akbar played a wise game, he led his army with 70% Rajputs to face Maharana's Army of Rajputs and Bhils. Due to this the soldiers killed during the war were almost all brave Rajputs who in Future could come in Akbar's way to fulfil his evil intentions to rule all over India. Maharana Pratap's army was totally outnumbered (20,000) in front of Akbar's army led by Mansingh (80,000). The Battle ended up as a draw with aprrox. 50,000 Akbars soldiers killed in battle and aproxx 15000 muslim soldiers fleed from the battlefield by the order of a Mughal Sardar. and 17000 from the side of Maharana Pratap Died fighting for Motherland. Maharana's Army showed a Great valour. Chetak the loyal horse of Maharana gave his life for his master showing enormous valour. The Main Reason Behind foreign invaders rule in India was that there was no unity among Indians. Right From the Mughals to The British , every foreign invader used the Divide And Rule Policy.
After 1587, Akbar
relinquished his obsessive pursuit of Maharana Pratap and took his battles into Punjab and India's Northwest Frontier. Thus for the last ten years of his life, Maharana Pratap ruled in relative peace and eventually freed most of Mewar, including Udaipur and Kumbhalgarh, but not Chittor. Bhagwat Singh Mewar: "Maharana Pratap Singh (was) called the light and life of the Hindu community. There were times when he and his family and children ate bread made of grass." Maharana Pratap became a patron of the Arts. During his reign Padmavat Charita and the poems of Dursa Ahada were written. Palaces at Ubheshwar, Kamal Nath and Chavand bear testimony to his love of architecture. These buildings, built in the dense hilly forest have walls adorned with military-style architecture. But Pratap's broken spirit overpowered him in the twilight of his years. His last moments were an appropriate commentary on his life, when he swore his successor, Crown Prince Amar Singh to eternal conflict against the foes of his country's independence. Maharana Pratap was never able to win back Chittor but he never gave up fighting to win it back.
In January 1597, Rana Pratap Singh I, Mewar's
greatest hero, was seriously injured in a hunting accident. He left his
body at Chavand, aged 56, on January 29, 1597. He died fighting for his
nation, for his people,
and most importantly for his honor.
Maharana Pratap Singh Ki Jai | |||||||||||
