Mharana Prathap Great Indian Warrior King

Maharana Prathap Great Indian Warrior King

Date of Birth: 9^th May, 1540 and Date of Death: 19^th January, 1597
Maharana Pratap or Pratap Singh Mewar was a Hindu ruler of Mewar, a state in north-western India.  In popular Indian culture, Pratap is considered to exemplify the qualities like bravery and chivalry to which Rajputs aspire.
Maharana Pratap was born on 9^th May, 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 54^th ruler of Mewar, in the line of the Sisodiya Rajputs.

Maharana Pratap never accepted Akbar as ruler of India, and fought Akbar all his life.  Akbar first tried diplomacy to win over Maharana Pratap but was unsuccessful.  Pratap maintained that he had no intention to fight with Akbar but he could not bow down to Akbar and accept him as his suzerainty.  Some scholars argue that there was some possibility that Maharana could have allied with Akbar, but this was precluded by the feelings of resentment and profound injustice following the siege of Chittor, where Akbar had killed 27,000 civilians.  Tod’s Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan relates how Pratap also stopped the then practice of Rajput chiefs in cementing their ties with the Mughals by giving their daughters in marriage into the court.

Chittorgarh (Chittor fort), Pratap’s ancestral home, was under Mughal occupation.  Living a life on the run, the dream of reconquering Chittor (and thus reclaiming the glory of Mewar) was greatly cherished by Pratap, and his future efforts were bent towards this goal.  In essence Pratap remained king only on paper as he never ruled any land in his lifetime.

On 21^st June, 1576 (18^th June by other calculations), the two armies met a Haldighati, near the town of Gogunda in present-day Rajasthan.  While accounts vary as to the exact strength of the two armies, all sources concur that the Mughal forces greatly outnumbered Pratap’s men (4:1).  The Battle of Haldighati, a historic event in the annals of Rajputana, lasted only four hours.  In this short period, Pratap’s men essayed many brave exploits on the field.  Folklore has it that Pratap personally attacked Man Singh: his horse Chetak placed its front feet on the trunk of Man Singh’s elephant and Pratap threw his lance; Man Singh ducked, and the mahout was killed.

The battle of Haldighat is considered to be the first Major breakthrough of Rajputs against the Mughals since the Second Battle of Khanwa in 1527, which was fought between Rana Sanga grandfather of Maharana Pratap, and the Mughal Babur grandfather of Akbar.  It is regarded with a degree of significance by many Rajput families.