Maharana Pratap

While talking about Maharana Pratap, his birth was on 9th May 1540 at Kumbhalgarh in Rajasthan, India (Bharat). Rana Kumbha built the Kumbhalgarh fort which was nominated as the UNESCO world heritage site in 2013. Rajasthan’s six (6) forts are announced as world heritage sites out of which Kumbhalgarh fort is also present which was built by Rana Kumbha. Rana Kumbha in a way can be called as father of forts, he built many forts, more than half of the forts in Rajasthan are built by him itself, and the concept of forts is really very much important such that if fort is won then full state is won. In 1540, Maharana Pratap birth took place in Kumbhalgarh itself, his father’s name is Udai Singh II and his mother’s name is Rani Jeevant Kunwar, Udai Singh II had more than 20 wives and we see that Rani Jeevant Kunwar son was Maharana Pratap, he was the mighty, from beginning itself he had much focus on administration, he used to play games also of kings and legends, in childhood itself he learned all qualities of life (there are 16 qualities of life in total), had learned Fencing (Talwar bazi), how to run a kingdom and all he had learnt, was among one of the favourite children of his father.

Now, at the time of Maharana Pratap in 1540, what was going on side by side is, in 1540 the condition of Mughals was not good, Humayun in 1540 had to run away after Battle of Chausa and Battle of Kannauj as Sher Shah Suri won, so as I told there were Islamic invasions which took place in the north and the situation of Mughals was very tight in the north, Humayun tried last time to try regaining Bharat (India) back in its hands and in which he got success.

Akbar then came to the throne in 1556 to handle the king’s seat and after that everything started to change, after Allahuddin Khilji, the ruler who conquered the whole of India was Akbar. If we talk about islamic invaders, only Akbar was the one who was being respected, Akbar was a very tolerant king and he didn’t want any bloodshed and he haven’t done it till here and we see that all the kingdom he won, later he gave those kingdom to the kings ruling there previously back to them, this was his tactics, calling and giving those kings their kingdoms back saying that you are now under us and you can run kingdom as you wish now, but there is also a stain on his personality which is why Akbar should never be given a good place in the history and his deeds and reason is discussed further after a couple of things.

Before Maharana Pratap became king, many things took place, so what happened was:

DISCUSSION UPON THE NEXT KING:

Because Udai Singh II had more than twenty (20) wives, Udai Singh II had many children, therefore when the time came for the next heir of the throne and with that Udai Singh II favourite wife was Rani Dheer Bai and her child wished to be the next heir, now chances of split in the family were visible, so Rani Dheer Bai’s son Jagman wished to be the next king, so what happened was Raja Udai Singh II said okay to it, Let Jagmal be the heir of the kingdom there is no problem as he used to love Rani Dheer Bai whose son wished to be the king. Maharana Pratap was never attached to Luxury and stuff, infact Maharana Pratap used to always stay with people, he used to say if you want to give the throne give it, I don’t care that much, in fact he was preparing to leave the kingdom when he got the news that Jagmal was being made the next king, Raja Jagmal will be the King of Rajputs, so not much effect was built upon Maharana Pratap and said that it is my fathers heartily decision and I will not go against my father and if he wishes, make Jagmal the king. Now, for a while Jagmal was made king of Mewar, but all the courtiers present there said that this ain’t going to work anymore, he will ruin everything, Maharana Pratap should only take it further onwards, now Maharana Pratap used to live with people of kingdom itself and therefore everybody knew he had amazing administrative skills, in front of Akbar nobody was able to fight, so Maharana Pratap was more important at this place and point of time.

TEMPORARY CONTROL OF MUGHALS OVER CHITTOR:

Now I would like to tell you one more thing, now the things which we’ll talk happened in 1567, what happened in 1567 was a very important thing that Maharana Pratap was of twenty seven (27) years old, and Mughal forces had gained control over Chittor, the thing that happened was Akbar wanted to win Chittor, and Chittor fort was almost impossible to win, fort was not meant to won, so now Akbar didn’t disclosed his policy to anyone, he knew that if he will disclose his plan it will be somehow known to Rajputs and then it will not be possible to win Chittor Fort, so he now secretly goes taking with him a small troop of soldier saying everyone the reason that I am going for hunting prey in the forest, he took the troops and went towards Chittor, now any fort cannot be attacked directly, one needs to stand outside for much long time, so now Akbar camped the area outside, he camped for much longer period, all supply was cut off, then a whole internal meeting was called in kingdom, and Udai Singh II was in the meeting, and in the whole meeting it was concluded to Udai Singh that you please leave from this fort currently, and if you stay here then now problem will be created, if anything will happen to you then the fight we have with Akbar, the fight we have with Mughals, will go in vain, will be futile, that is why it is important for you to leave, Maharana Pratap at that time were of 27 years of age so he denied it, we will fight on the field, kill on the field, no problem, we won’t leave and go, but some conditions became such that they had to leave and go, so Maharana Pratap and Udai Singh II leaves with his family, and in 1567 Chittor was taken control by Akbar and all the Women performed Jauhar, very much difficulty persisted, but we see here that again Maharana Pratap gains full control over Chittor, and again he gained control, now the whole history of the battle of Haldighati which was fought in 1576 has the whole details of incidents which took place and will look into it soon, so Akbar’s life has a stain because of his deed and should never be recognized much due to his acts which he did, when Maharana Pratap won the fort and entered there again there seemed to be nothing left, all women had performed Jauhar, there were no people there, in a way there was nothing, everyone was cut down slashed as carrot and radish, more than thirty thousand people (> 30,000 civilians) were killed by Akbar and his army, even hundreds of Temples (> 300) were destroyed by him and his army around the fort, and Maharana Pratap emotionally felt very much deep inside, so this was the stain on Akbar, his entire life, so this thing had happened.

After this we see year 1572 comes, now in 1572 returning back to the story, about Maharana Pratap that he said it's okay and make Raja Jagmal king but the courtiers after some time objected, and decided that Maharana Pratap you please come and there will be coronation (Tajposhi) done and you will be crowned, Raja Jagmal's mood deteriorated and he said to do coronation, and he said that do your coronation, I am not going to come in your coronation, Jagmal into anger and having a very angry mood leaves the kingdom, now this is the only problem, heavy lack of Unity in Rajputs, if Unity existed then no Mughals would come, Khilji would have not came, no Britishers would have came, but now due to lack of unity he went with Akbar, went on the Mughals side, and now, also Akbar was very clever, what he did was, he used to give Estate (Jagir) to everyone saying take it, take the property, take the land, run it in your way but having a alliance with us, this is the same way he took Bharat in his own hands, he have not done wars, he had applied diplomacy, first Akbar used to send diplomats to settle the scenario by talks and is a better thing to do, and if it does not go well then he used to do war, so this all things were going and when Maharana Pratap became king in 1572, now what had happened was when Maharana Pratap became king of Mewar in 1572, he was 54th ruler of Mewar, if we talk about Mewar, winning Mewar was very much important, we can see that Rajasthan’s many kingdoms were taken by Akbar but Mewar wasn’t taken, Mewar was the most important, Mewar’s capital was Chittor, now why was Mewar important is because all the business which took place was through Mewar, on the way of business route was located Mewar, and in Mewar, Maharana Pratap used to keep and hold full control of area, without his permission no foreign entities can do business and if you want to do then you have to pass through us, give us a good portion of money to do your business, so here, there was full control of Rajputs, in Mewar, and nobody used to win Mewar, and now Akbar knew this stuff, Akbar knew that if I had won full Bharat but if I didn’t won Mewar then it is going to be a big problem, business route will get hampered, so firstly he sended a lot of people to Maharana Pratap, big shots, kings came, their diplomats came, to talk with Maharana Pratap about treaty and sign the peace treaty, that you rule your kingdom we have no issues in that but you just need to be subjected under Akbar, you will be absolutely spared, we won’t do any war and it is a simple thing, Maharana Pratap rejected everything and said that I don’t care and I do not want to give Chittor, Chittor is mine and if you want to have a war we can do that, I will see how much power you have, Akbar sent again and again, he sent 8 times his diplomatic missions, every time Maharana Pratap used to send them back that you please go and whenever diplomats comes, Maharana Pratap used to treat them respectively with regards. Maharana Pratap’s greatest thing was that he was definitely a legendary warrior but with that his heart was also much soft, let me tell you that he never used to disdain (the feeling that someone or something is unworthy of one's consideration or respect) anyone, he used to respect everyone with much respect and dignity. Not only humans but also animals used to surrender in front of Maharana Pratap, Chetak which is a horse, history evidences, even Maharana Pratap’s horse Chetak name was so much popular that hardly any human’s name was that much popular at that time, so this is a legacy, and Maharana Pratap used to give proper training to their elephants too, so everyone was much happy with Maharana Pratap, any diplomats who used to come to him was warmly welcomed and treated with regards, he makes them stay in his fort, gives proper and good food, but at last makes them leave back.

Pressure was being made on Maharana Pratap repeatedly. Again and again Akbar used to send diplomatic measures that you submit to us, but Maharana Pratap never used to surrender, he said that we won’t submit to you, there is one very famous story I would like to share it with you, Raja Man Singh I came to meet Maharana Pratap, so if we talk about Raja Man Singh then he holded a very important position in Akbar’s army and he was a king himself too, and here we got to see that when Raja Man Singh went to meet Maharana Pratap then Maharana Pratap does not meet him himself, however, he received a grand welcome here by his elder son, Amar Singh, he did a grand welcome of Raja Man Singh, hosted an entire dinner at Udaisagar Lake but Maharana Pratap did not went to meet him, Raja Man Singh felt very disrespected about it, felt disrespected that I came here and king didn’t came to meet me, and when he asked Amar Singh about why king have not come to meet me, Amar Singh tells that Maharana Pratap has a small stomach ache, actually what was the condition with Maharana Pratap is that Raja Mansingh was working for Akbar and Maharana Pratap was irritated by such Rajput kings who works with Akbar, Maharana Pratap was irritated that he was not willing to meet Raja Man Singh, however after much force by Raja Man Singh, Maharana Pratap came and later when they were getting up, and Raja Man Singh was going, Maharana Pratap gave a derision to him saying you should have not come taking your uncle as you have already given your aunt in dowry, you have given your aunt in dowry, means, here we see that what Akbar does is whenever Akbar wins the regions of Rajasthan, he used to marry the queens of those regions, marital alliance takes place and everything goes good, they used to become relatives, here Raja Man Singh had also given his aunt to Akbar, so he gave a derision, well so all these things happened.

Now year 1573 arrives in the book of history, now at this point of time the war which was supposed to take place had became inevitable, now anyhow you cannot avoid it, then finally Akbar announces that now finally we will go towards War and enough talks have been made with Chittor, will take Chittor under control by force, Maharana Pratap was already ready, but let me tell you that many of Maharana Pratap’s brother were eventually gone with Akbar, out of which his brother Shakti Singh was also there but later don’t know what feeling of brotherhood woke up in him that he came with Maharana Pratap, and the plans which Akbar had were told to Maharana Pratap by him (Shakti Singh), even during ongoing war when some Mughals were behind Maharana Pratap, Shakti Singh went and killed them. So here we got to see that firstly his brother was with Akbar, but later something happened and he came along with Maharana Pratap.

Firstly all these things happened and finally in year 1576, the Battle Of Haldighati was fought, now friends, the army of Mughals was very much powerful, here more than one lakh (>1,00,000) mughal army was present with huge elephants, but here the passion and emotions present were with Maharana Pratap, army of Maharana Pratap was not much big in number, he had an army of twenty thousand (20,000) and was not having much big army, but each and every soldier of this army, was equal to ten (10) in number, and we see that this famous Battle of Haldighati was fought in 1576, 18th June 1576 to be specific, now if we talk about Haldighati then it was one kilometre wide and that ghati (the valley) wasn’t much big, and still if you go and visit there today then you will find blood at Haldighati, if you still look at the soil present there then blood is found in the soil, today you dig the soil there and swords will be found, so it was such fierce battle. In the history of Bharat (India is a part of Bharat) after The Kalinga War, Battle of Haldighati was the most fierce battle ever which was fought, so if we talk about Battle of Haldighati then in front of 20,000 Rajput soldiers there were more than one lakh army of Mughals, now here Akbar did not fought directly with Maharana Pratap, he knew here that his height is very small in front of 7.5 foot Maharana Pratap, Maharana Pratap was so much powerful that one of Akbar’s commander Bahlol Khan whose name was very famous and understand here that he had killed many people and there was a lot of terror by him and in his name, Maharana Pratap on attack with his one sword, the body which was of Bahlol Khan was divided into whole two parts, and when Maharana Pratap attacked with his sword, definitely he was divided into two parts but along with that his horse also was separated into two parts and divided dead at the spot, this much tough and powerful Maharana was. Maharana Pratap knew that if Akbar comes in front of me then Akbar is gone and no one can save him, he won’t survive, so in place of him Raja Man Singh who was commander in chief of Akbar’s army was fighting with Maharana Pratap, so here a fierce battle happens, Maharana Pratap knew that if he want to win the battle then he will surely need to kill Raja Man Singh, now his horse Chetak, what a fantastic war Chetak had fought, let me tell you that Maharana Pratap used to tie Elephant’s Trunk in front of mouth of horses, because Mughals had very big elephants here and elephants used to get confuse whether they are horses or elephants, so now this Chetak here, Chetak started moving towards Raja Man Singh breaking the central line, now here we see that the elephants of Mughal which was their war defence and in front of them sword was tied by them and so while Chetak was moving forward even one of his leg gets cut down, so here we see that there was elephant of Raja Man Singh in front of him, Chetak came running and took a jump on elephant, think about jumping on elephant, he jumped and resisted his feet on the elephant’s teeth, and a very big spear was with Maharana Pratap and he throws it with all his strength towards Raja Man Singh but he was literally just saved by one inch else he would have been dead, but Raja Man Singh’s elephant driver (Mahaavat) gets killed and this was the only decisive point, this was the only decisive point and then all Mughals came and then Maharana Pratap even gets injured but here Chetak runs by pouring his whole strength while his one leg was already cut, but still Chetak ran in front and Mughals running behind him, and in front comes a very big pit hole on the way, Chetak jumped over the 25 feet length pit hole which came in front of him, his leg was cutted and heavily injured, and until Chetak didn’t find a safe spot for Maharana Pratap he kept on running, and then Chetak gave up his life to heaven, he was martyred, Maharana Pratap cried a lot, and the army persons present there at that time all saluted him, let me tell you that the only Muslim Chief in Maharana Pratap army was Hakim Khan Suri, when he saw that Mughals were overloaded and beating Maharana Pratap then without caring about his life Hakim Khan Suri tried to save him, he Sur Suri alone fought with ten-ten mughals, he had to loss his life and was martyred, but in spite of that he saved Maharana Pratap and while talking about Maharana then this was his story and Battle of Haldighati was indecisive, neither Maharana Pratap won in this battle nor Akbar wins it, it was indecisive, though few unclaimed sources says it to be won by Mughals which facts and history proves it wrong.

Maharana Pratap took an oath that until I don’t win Chittor till that time, I will sleep on floor, and I will eat chapatis made of grass, I won’t use dishes of silver too, and after that for next 20 years, from 1576 to 1596 spent years to win Chittor and continue fighting with Akbar so that it doesn’t go in his hands too, Akbar was also trying again and again because Chittor was even didn’t in his hands and wasn’t won by him, he was trying again and again to win Chittor but Akbar didn’t win and also Akbar wasn’t able to kill Maharana Pratap, but Akbar used to respect his enemies, and this is the only main thing which can be recognized about Akbar that he used to give much respect to his enemies too, then coming back to the ongoing battle, Akbar sended his detectives in the kingdom, at that time Maharana Pratap was staying in the Jungle of that region, he created and made his own army in the jungle and many local tribes and small kings supported him and helped him, he used to eat chapatis of grass while staying and roaming in the jungle, during this there is an incident which took place, what happened was, the son of Maharana Pratap was eating chapatis of grass, he was small in age, so one dog comes and takes away his chapati, now when this happened then the kid started to cry, so Maharana Pratap was much sad, was much angry from inside that this is this the only kingdom I am fighting for? And he cursed himself and he said that why I am fighting, everything has happened because of me, neither I had kingdom nor this condition would have happened, at that time his mind confused a little, and then wrote a letter to Akbar, now after that Akbar was so much happy, a rumour spreaded everywhere that Maharana Pratap is going to surrender, Akbar became so much happy, he called Pruthvi Singh who was the king of Bikaner at that time, and said to him that are you seeing that Maharana Pratap is going to surrender and I am very much happy, later when Pruthviraj Rathore came to know about it then he wrote a letter to Maharana Pratap whether he is truly going to surrender, which shows that the news was spreaded everywhere and effected to many, in that letter he also writes/says that it would be bad if you do that, our spirit shook when we heard that you are about to surrender, which motivated him even more, Maharana Pratap gave a reply with no and it was Maharana Pratap’s strategy to let enemy feel he is won and then wild attack when enemy is not expecting anything, he says Lion never bows down in front of Jackals, and so he never lose and continued fighting, after that for twenty (20) years he did wars with Guerilla Warfare tactics (Chapamaar Yudh Padhati), troops comes into jungle, kills the army, kills Mughal army and runs away, Akbar was very much disturbed and stressed by this, Akbar had tried a lot, Akbar even spreaded his detectives to watch what Maharana Pratap is doing and to know about his strategies, so Akbar detectives returns and informs Akbar that Maharana Pratap was eating chapatis made of grass, in a way he didn’t have anything but still the family was really so much happy, Akbar himself then realized that Maharana Pratap is such a great man that for the sake of Honor, for the Respect, he will never bow down his head, I also give a salute to such Yoddha (The Warrior), so Akbar too respected him much, so here we see that as the time goes on moving forward, here Maharana Pratap didn’t have money, money runs out gradually, without money he will fight in war, army was also not much now, but he had WillPower and Courage, then till the year 1582, he had gained many of the regions means have won the regions of which Gogunda, Udaipur, and Kumbhalgarh were won and Akbar was never able to defeat Maharana Pratap. So in a way many of the areas which were present were under Maharana Pratap’s control now, completely won by him again.

And as soon as Maharana Pratap dies his elder son, Amar Singh I, became the next king and came to the throne, he seated on the throne of Mewar, so in his entire life Akbar was never able to win Chittor and what happened was Maharana Pratap had full control over western Mewar.

So this was the story of Mahaveer Maharana Pratap's life and I hope you all liked it, we request you to forward it further, thank you.

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