May 22 2004 is Maharana Pratap
Jayanti - Jyeshtha Shuka Tritiya, 2060. Even I did not know about it till
I saw my calendar. We may or may not know about Maharana Pratap outside
of the stories we were told in our childhood, but considering the times
we are in, it is only befitting that we remember this eternal patriot who
is credited as having fought the first war of Independence. The following
story of the great Maharana has been adapted from http://www.hindunet.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=34811&page=0&vie
w=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1.
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.
In 1567, when Crown Prince Pratap
Singh was only 27, Chittor was surrounded by the Mughal forces of Emperor
Akbar. Maharana Udai Singh II decided to leave Chittor and move his family
to Gogunda, rather than capitulate to the Mughals. The young Pratap Singh
wanted to stay back and fight the Mughals but the elders intervened and
convinced him to leave Chittor, oblivious of the fact that this move from
Chittor was going to create history for all times to come.
In Gogunda, Maharana Udai Singh
II and his nobles set up a temporary government of the kindom of Mewar.
In 1572, the Maharana passed away, leaving the way for Crown Prince Pratap
Singh to become the Maharana. However, in his later years, the late Maharana
Udai Singh II had fallen under the influence of his favorite queen, Rani
Bhatiyani, and had willed that her son Jagmal should ascend to the throne.
As the late Maharana's body was being taken to the cremation grounds, Pratap
Singh, the Crown Prince decided to accompany the dead body of the Maharana.
This was a departure from tradition as the Crown Prince did not accompany
the body of the departed Maharana but instead prepared to ascend the throne,
such that the line of succession remained unbroken. Pratap Singh, in deference
to his father's wishes, decided to let his half-brother Jagmal become the
next king. However, knowing this to be disastrous for Mewar, the late Maharana's
nobels, especially the Chundawat Rajputs, forced Jagmal to leave the throne
to Pratap Singh. Unlike Bharat, Jagmal did not willingly give up the throne.
He swore revenge and left for Ajmer, to join the armies of Akbar, where
he was offered a jagir - the town of Jahazpur - in return for his help.
Meanwhile, Crown Prince Pratap Singh became Maharana Pratap Singh I, 54th
ruler of Mewar - founded in 568 AD by Guhil - 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 Maharana Pratap to agree to
sign a treaty but the latter 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 Maharana Pratap to agree
to the former's suzerainty but Maharana Pratap turned down each one of
them. The last of these missions was headed by Raja Man Singh, the brother-in-law
of Akbar himself. 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.
Sakta 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, on their way
to Europe. 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, Sakta 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. However, the relentless attacks
of the Mughal army had left his army weaker, and he barely had enough money
to keep it going. It is said that at this time, one of his ministers, Bhama
Shah, came and offered him all this wealth - a sum enabling Maharana Pratap
to support an army of 25,000 for 12 years. It is said that before this
generous gift from Bhama Shah, Maharana Pratap, anguished at the state
of his subjects, was beginning to lose his spirit in fighting Akbar. In
one incident that caused him extreme pain, his children's meal - bread
made from grass - was stolen by a dog. It is said that this cut into Maharana
Pratap's heart deeply. He began to have doubts about his resolute refusal
to submit to the Mughals. Perhaps in one of these moments of self doubt
- something each and every human being goes through - Maharana Pratap wrote
to Akbar demanding "a mitigation of his hardship". Overjoyed at this indication
of his valiant foe's submission, Akbar commanded public rejoicing, and
showed the letter to a literate Rajput at his Court, Prince Prithiraj.
He was the younger brother of Rai Singh, the ruler of Bikaner, a State
established some eighty years earlier by the Rathores of Marwar. He had
been compelled to serve Akbar because of his kingdom's submission to the
Mughals. An award-winning poet, Prithiraj was also a gallant warrior and
a longtime admirer of the brave Maharana Pratap Singh. He was astonished
and grieved by Maharana Pratap's decision, and told Akbar the note was
the forgery of some foe to defame the Mewar king. "I know him well," he
explained, "and he would never submit to your terms." He requested and
obtained Akbar's permission to send a letter to Pratap, ostensibly to ascertain
the fact of his submission, but really with a view to prevent it. He composed
the couplets that have become famous in the annals of patriotism:
The hopes of the Hindu rest on the
Hindu; yet the Rana forsakes them. But for Pratap, all would be placed
on the same level by Akbar; for our chiefs have lost their valour and our
females their honour. Akbar is the broker in the market of our race: he
has purchased all but the son of Udai (Singh II of Mewar); he is beyond
his price. What true Rajput would part with honour for nine days (nauroza);
yet how many have bartered it away? Will Chittor come to this market ...?
Though Patta (an affectionate name for Pratap Singh) has squandered away
wealth (on warfare), yet he has preserved this treasure. Despair has driven
man to this market, to witness their dishonour: from such infamy the descendant
of Hamir (Hamir Singh) alone has been preserved. The world asks, from where
does the concealed aid of Pratap emanate? None but the soul of manliness
and his sword ... The broker in the market of men (Akbar) will one day
be surpassed; he cannot live forever. Then will our race come to Pratap,
for the seed of the Rajput to sow in our desolate lands. To him all look
for its preservation, that its purity may again become resplendent.
The now-famous letter led to Pratap
reversing his decision and not submitting to the Mughals, as was his initial
but reluctant intention.
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, Maharana 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 honour.
Postscript: It is difficult not
to draw parallels with what is happening in India these days - the Jagmals
and Man Singhs are back in power. Even though India is not subjugated and
its spirit is still free, one cannot but wonder at the alacrity with which
some of our own were ready to offer India's crown to an outsider. It is
not that India would have been brought under foreign rule - it would just
be a symbolic rule by an outsider. At 32 years of age, not much older than
I am today, Maharana Pratap was leading his men, and people, in a battle
to prevent just that - a rule by an outsider, if only in name - Akbar only
wanted Maharana Pratap to say that Akbar was his king, his Jahanpanah.
Considering that Maharana Pratap had fought the most important battle of
his life by the time he was 36 years old, it gives me some cause to pause
and reflect how I look at myself today, now that I have entered the 30s.
This great man died because he would not agree to be ruled by an outsider,
even in name. I, like many other Indians, would have been anguished, dejected,
heart-broken for 10-15 days and then life would have returned to "as-is"
had an outsider ascended to the throne of India. Where are the Maharana
Prataps today? Would he not be thinking, wherever he may be today, as to
why we find so much trouble peforming our duty to our country when he underwent
a lifelong penance? He too was aware of Vaasudhaiv Kutumbakam but he did
not misuse it nor mistake where it was applicable.
