Bharat ka Veer Putra Maharana Pratap Legend lives on

Anupama Nair

www.mediaeyenews.com

Our great Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the Amrit Mahotsav or celebration of  India’s 75^th year of Independence. We will be celebrating this event till 2022. I am going to write a feature on all those great men and women who fought against foreign invasion not just against the British. Today I am going to write about Maharana Pratap, the great King of Chittor, who was very famous for his battles against the cruel butcher of humans, Akbar. Akbar is glorified by the ultra-left oriented historians, who unfortunately wrote our History. Foreign historians give him the title Akbar the Great. However, Rana Pratap is unfortunately forgotten in the annals of history.

The city of Chittor and her history is one of the most stirring chapters in Indian history for it was here that the “flower of Rajput chivalry sprang to life and the immense stretch of its sacred walls and ruined palaces relate the saga of innumerable sieges and heroism which has almost become a myth now”. However, any patriotic Indian will never forget the tales of valor of our great kings and queens even if our History curriculum says differently.

Chittorgarh was one of the most fiercely contested seats of power in ancient and medieval India. Bappa Rawal, the legendary founder of the Sisodia dynasty, received Chittor as a dowry for his marriage to the Solanki princess. Highly fortified, “it crowns a seven-mile-long hill, covering 700 acres with its fortifications, temples, towers and palaces”. Historians claim the palace was a sight to behold. For eight centuries from the 8^th to the 16^th century,  his descendants ruled over an important kingdom called Mewar stretching from Gujarat to Ajaymeru (Ajmer). The city of Chittorgarh is located on the banks of rivers Gambhiri and Berach.

Chittorgarh is home to the Chittor Fort, which is the largest fort not only in India but also the continent of  Asia. In its history of eight centuries, it was ransacked thrice – in1303 AD by the cruel Alauddin Khilji, by 1535 AD by Bahadur Shah of Gujarat, and lastly by the cruel Akbar in  1568 AD. The great Hindu Rajput rulers fought fiercely to maintain their independence. On all three occasions mentioned above, faced with a certain defeat, the men fought to death while the women committed Jauhar (mass self-immolation). Chittorgarh is not only famous for the valor and bravery of its warriors, but also for the beauty of Rani Padmini and her Jauhar, the land of the great devotion of Meera Bai and the great sacrifice of Panna Dai!

Pratap Singh I, popularly known as Maharana Pratap, was a Hindu king of Mewar. He was given the title “Mewari Rana” and was notable for his military resistance against the expansionism of the Mughals and is well known for his participation in the Battle of Haldighati. He was born on 9^th May 1540 in Kumbhalgarh to Udai Singh II and Jaiwanti Bhai. His younger brothers were Shakti Singh, Vikram Singh and Jagmal Singh and had two sisters Chand Kanwar and Man Kanwar. He was married to Ajabde Punwar of Bijolia.

After the death of Udai Singh in 1572, one of his stepmothers, Rani Dheer Bai wanted her son Jagmal to become the next king, but senior courtiers preferred Pratap (as he was the eldest son, and they were also impressed by the valor of Pratap), to be their king. The desire of the nobles succeeded and Pratap ascended the throne as Maharana Pratap, the 54^th ruler of Mewar, in the line of the Sisodia clan. However, Jagmal was no Bharat to leave his kingdom for his brother Rama, he swore revenge and left for Ajaymeru (Ajmer), to join the armies of Akbar. He was given the town of Jahazpur as a Jagir in return for his help. A familiar story, isn’t it? Our history is filled with Ambis, Jaichands, and the story continues…

Pratap Singh was unhappy he had not been to his beloved city Chittor since 1567. His home now beckoned to him. The pain of his father's death, and the fact that his father also 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. Akbar realized that his ambition of being the “Shehanshah-e-Hindustan” was doomed to failure,  so long as the people of Mewar supported their Maharana.

In the next part I will talk about his battles with Akbar and his beloved Chetak.

(to be continued….)