Maharana Pratap Jayanti

Maharana Pratap was born in the Sisodia dynasty at the house of Maharana Udai Singh in Kumbhalgarh fort of Rajasthan on 9 May 1540 AD on the third day of Shukla Paksha of Jyeshtha month. The birth anniversary of that brave man of Rajasthan is celebrated as Maharana Pratap Jayanti.

Early Life

When Delhi was under the rule of the Mughals, then about 200 princely states of Rajputana of Rajasthan accepted the power of Akbar and were bound in the shackles of slavery. The same Sisodia dynasty of Mewar was shining with self-respect in front of the whole world. At that time Mewar was ruled by King Udai Singh. Who, like their ancestors, did not accept anyone's subordination. When Maharana Pratap was born, the Mughals were ruling. They used to attack the Mughal army passing through Mewar with slingshots.His body was more greater than other children. His mother's name was Jaivanta Bai. Since childhood, he was very fond of using weapons. Therefore, he went to study in Gurukul. In the evening he used to study spear-wielding with the Bhils. Because of living with Bhils, he was called 'Kika' in his childhood. His mother gave him the story of Shri Krishna and knowledge of war strategy from Mahabharata. As a result of which he became successful in war policy.

Uday Singh had many wives. They had 33 children. Dhirbai Shah was his favorite among all the queens. On his request, Udai Singh declared his son Jagmal as the Rana of Mewar. Whereas Maharana Pratap was the eldest son of Udai Singh. According to the scriptures, only the eldest son always becomes the king, but Maharana Pratap accepted to give power to his younger brother. Suddenly Udai Singh's health deteriorated, and he died in 1572. When he died, all the feudal lords, ministers and sons were present there. But his younger son Jagmal was getting his coronation done in the palace. He was not present at his father's death. On this, all the feudal lords and soldiers coronated Maharana Pratap and Maharana Pratap along with the soldiers proceeded towards Jagmal's palace. When Jagmal heard this news, he ran away from the palace and took refuge in King Akbar. Since then, the Mughals had many battles with Maharana Pratap and every time the Rana won. Akbar could never win over Maharana Pratap.

Bravery of Maharana Pratap

The great battle of Haldighati took place on 18 June 1576. In this war, there was an army of 80 thousand Mughals on one side and 20 thousand army of Mewar on the other side. Both the armies had come face to face. As soon as Maharana Pratap stepped into the battlefield, an atmosphere of panic spread among the Mughal army. Wherever Maharana moved, there were heaps of dead bodies of his enemies. At that time the Mughals had seen Maharana Pratap for the first time, before that they had only heard the name. Maharana Pratap was 7 feet 5 inches tall. At that time, he used to carry two swords of 55 kg each (one for himself and one for the unarmed enemy so that the fight could be equal), 72 kg of armor and 81 kg of spear. During the war, he used to fight with a weight of 208 kg. Due to the blow of one of his swords, Bahlol Khan's horse was cut into two pieces. Bahlol Khan was the army chief of King Akbar. The name of his horse was Chetak. He was 11 feet tall and blue in color and very beautiful looking. His mask was that of an elephant so that the war elephants would remain confused as to whether it was an elephant or a horse. Chetak was so fast that he could talk to the air. The frightened Mughal army started running towards the Aravalli valley. Seeing the army running away, Mehtar Khan started shouting that King Akbar himself was coming to the battlefield with a huge army. Hearing this, the Mughal army got lost in the thought that if they ran away, Akbar would kill them and if they stayed, Maharana would kill them. After this, Maharana Pratap's horse appeared in front of Mansingh. Chetak placed both his feet on Mansingh's Aiharavat but Chetak's foot got injured by the sword . Seeing Chetak injured, the Mughal army tried to surround Maharana Pratap but Maharana Pratap's horse, sensing the adverse situation, ran away saving him from there.

When Chetak ran away from the battlefield with Maharana Pratap, the Mughal army started chasing him but there was 26 feet drain on the way and Chetak jumped to cross that drain. Due to the wide width of the drain, injured Chetak fell with down face across the drain due to which he died. After this, the Bhil army took charge and there was a war between the Bhil army and the Mughal army. And thus, the Mughal army was attacked by the Rajputana and Bhil armies together and then Mansingh diverted the Mughal army towards Ajmer. After the battle of Haldighati, Maharana Pratap came to Kumbhalgarh. His treasury was emptied during the war. Just a few months after the Haldighati battle, Akbar attacked Kumbhalgarh in 1577. After the Haldighati battle, due to Rana not having a proper army, the Mughal army started getting overwhelmed. Then the Rana abandoned the fort, and the Mughals took control of Kumbhalgarh. After a few months, Rana again prepared his army and won back Kumbhalgarh. Then he went to Gujarat, there he prepared a huge army and then conquered Mewar fort. While doing this, he made Akbar uneasy by hoisting his flag on 32 forts. After this, Maharana Pratap ruled Mewar for 12 years and regained the lost shine. On January 19, 1597, at the age of 57, he suffered a serious injury while hunting and died.

Maharana Pratap Jayanti

Maharana Pratap Jayanti

Early Life

Bravery of Maharana Pratap

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