महाराणा कुम्भा (हरविलास सारदा - मेवाड़ साम्राज्य के अद्वितीय विजेता, निर्माता व विद्वान्)

Maharana Kumbha. Sultan of Gujrat, that the Maharana refused to give up Abu after the Sultan's army returned to Ahmedabad, and that Lakha thereupon attacked the Maharana and recover- ed Abu from him. This can not be true, for there is incontestable evidence that the Maha- rana had taken possession of Abu before A.D. 1437, while Maharao Lakha came to the throne of Sirohi only in A.D. 1451.¹ It also appears from Mirati Sikandari, that the Maharana was in possession of Abu in A.D. 1456 and that Abu had been taken by Kumbha by force of arms from Sirohi. The Mirati Sikandari says that when Sultan Qutbuddin of Gujrat invaded the Maharana's dominions in A.D. 1456 in order to avenge his defeat at Nagor by Maharana Kumbha, the Maharao of Sirohi met the Sultan on the way and offered him his services and requested him to wrest the fort of Abu from the Maharana and restore it to the Maharao, as it was the hereditary seat of the Rajas of Sirohi, and the Maharana had forcibly deprived the Maharao of it. The Sultan detached an army under Malik Shaaban Imadul Mulk to attack ¹ Gauri Shanker Ojha's History of Sirohi, p. 197. 80

Maharana Kumbha. Abu, conquer it and restore it to Sirohi. Imadul Mulk had to pass through narrow passes, and the Rajputs from the heights attacked the Gujrat forces from all sides, and defeated the Malik, inflicting severe losses. The Chitor Tower of Victory Inscription, verse 284, says:—"The great Maharana by force of arms, conquered Abu and built the fort of Achalgarh on the summit of the hill, and as an offering to Vishnu, built the temple of Kumbhaswami there. The Ekling- Mahatamya, written in Kumbha's time, says the same thing. The song which ends with the couplet:— डोडे राव सिरोही दुजडा दलसजड़ा पर हंस दिया । आबु गिरवर शिखर ऊपरां कुम्भे सरवर महल किया ॥ celebrates this event. The couplet says that Kumbha after conquering Abu, constructed a lake and a palace there.¹ CONQUEST OF BUNDI. Bundi is now the head of the ruling houses of the great Chauhan family of the ¹ See Vir Vinod, Vol. I, p. 332. 81

Maharana Kumbha. Rajputs. The Chauhans reached the zenith of their prosperity and greatness when Prithviraj, king of Ajmer ruled the whole of Northern India as its last Hindu Emperor (1179 to 1191 A.D.) After the death of Prithviraj, the Chauhans declined rapidly. Prithviraj’s son Govindraj was driven out of Ajmer by Prithviraj’s younger brother Hariraj for accepting Shahbuddin Ghori’s suzereinty¹, and had to retire to the famous fortress of Ranthambhor. He and his descendants ruled there for several generations. The last re- presentative of this House, the celebrated King Hammira was killed fighting against Sultan Allauddin Khilji of Delhi² in 1301 A.D. and the rule of the direct descendants of Prithviraj came to an end in Rajputana. Another branch of the Chauhan family headed by Luxman, the younger brother of king Sinhraj of Ajmer, took possession of Nadole and founded a kingdom there in V. S. 1024 (967 A.D.).³ The seventh in descent from him, Alhan (V. S. 1209— ¹ Ajmer: Historical and Descriptive, p. 156. ² Hammira of Ranthambhor, p. 46. ³ Gaurishanker Ojha's History of Sirohi, p. 166. 82

Maharana Kumbha. 1218=A.D. 1152—1161) was reigning at Nadole, when his younger brother Manikraj migrated to Bambaoda in Mewar. One of his descendants, Har Raj called Hārā, gave the name Hārā to the family which is now known as the Hārā Rajputs, and their country as Haravati. Har Raj's grandson Deoraj took Bundi¹ in V. S. 1398=A. D. 1341 from its Mina rulers with the assistance of Maharana Ari Singh² and founded the kingdom of Bundi. Its rulers always recognised the Maharana of Mewar as their overlords. During the confusion following the murder of Mokal and the rebellion of Chacha and Maira, the Hārās of Bundi threw off their allegiance to Mewar and took possession of the fort of Amargarh by a stratagem, and began to molest the Rajputs of Mandalgarh. Maharana Kumbha, therefore, invaded Hārāvati, took Amargarh where a large number of the Hārās including Toghji, the governor of the fort, were killed. He also conquered Bambaoda, Bundi, Khatgarh and Mandalgarh³ ¹ Tod's Rajasthan, Vol., II. p. 460 ² Nainsi's Khyat, Vol., I. pp. 105-6. ³ The Kumbhalgarh Inscription of A.D. 1460. 83

Maharana Kumbha. and reduced the Hārās to submission. The Kumbhalgarh Inscription, verse 265, states that the Maharana “vanquished the Hārās and received a tribute from them.” The Maharao of Bundi sued for pardon and was allowed to retain Bundi on payment of the expenses of the invasion and a fine. The conquest of Bundi is mentioned in the Ranpur Temple Inscription of A.D. 1439 (V.S. 1496) and must therefore have taken place in that year or sometime before it. Thus the two chief Chauhan ruling families of his time, who had dared to encroach on the Mewar territory, the one in the west and the other in the east, were defeated and the greater part of their territories annexed to Mewar by Maharana Kumbha. 84

CHAPTER X. WARS WITH THE SULTANS OF MALWA AND GUJRAT. WE now turn to the foreign relations of Mewar and see how the valiant Maharana not only successfully defended his country against the attacks, first made singly and when thus defeated, made in combination by the Kings of Malwa and Gujrat, then at the zenith of their power and prestige, but carried the war into the countries of his foes, humbled their pride, took from them several forts and cities, extended his dominions on all sides and became the most powerful sovereign of his time in India. In 1443 A.D., Maharana Kumbha had to go to Haravati to punish some rebels. Finding Mewar unprotected, Sultan Mahmud Khilji of Mandu, who had been smarting under the shame of having been kept a prisoner in Chitor by Maharana Kumbha, and burning with a desire to take revenge and wipe off his disgrace of 1437 A. D., invaded Mewar. 85

Maharana Kumbha. Arriving near Kumbhalgarh, he prepared to destroy the temple of Bān Mata in the village Kailwara, at the foot of the hill. This big temple had a fortified wall round it and contained some munitions of war. Despairing of making any impression on the fort of Kumbhalgarh, the Sultan determined to use all his resources to seize this temple and himself led the assault on it. The Maharana's Sardar, Thakur Dip Singh, who lived in it, collected his warriors and opposed the Sultan. For seven days, Dip Singh successfully repulsed all attempts of the Sultan's army to take possession of the temple. On the seventh day, Dip Singh was killed and the temple fell into the hands of the Sultan. He razed it to the ground, burnt the stone image of the Nundi (bull) found in it and used the lime with betel leaves. Flushed with this small success, he started for Chitor, and leaving a part of his army to take the fortress, advanced to attack the Maharana, sending his father, Azam Humayun, towards Mandsaur to lay waste the Maharana's country. When the Maharana heard of these events, he left Hárávati to return to his dominions 86

Maharana Kumbha. and came upon the Sultan's army near Mandalgarh. A battle was fought here in which the Sultan was defeated, but the defeat was not decisive.¹ A few days later the Maharana made a night attack on the Sultan who was utterly defeated and fled towards Mandu.² Ferishta says: "The Sultan returned without molestation to Mandu."— Vol. IV, p. 210. This is Ferishta's way of describing a defeat. To retrieve this fresh disaster, Mahmud set about preparing another army, and four years later, on 20th Rajab, H. 850 (Kartik Bad 6th, S. 1503), 11 October 1446 A.D., he went towards Mandalgarh with a large army. Reaching Rampura (now in Indore State) he appointed Malik Saifuddin as governor there in place of Bahadur and moved further. The Maharana's army attacked him while he was crossing the river Banas,³ and having ¹ Ferishta (Vol. IV, page 210) says that the Maharana attacked the Sultan on 26th April 1443 A.D. with an army of 12 thousand horse and 6000 infantry but was unsuccessful. The next day, the Sultan obtained some loot and returned to Mandu with the intention of attacking Chitor the following year. The historians of Rajputana say that the Sultan was defeated, but the defeat was not decisive. ² Vir Vinod of Mahamahopadhyaya Kaviraj Shamaldas Vol. I, p. 325. ³ Vir Vinod, Vol. I, page 325. 87

Maharana Kumbha. defeated him, drove him back to Mandu. For about 10 years after this defeat, Mahmud Khilji did not venture to take the offensive against the Maharana. Ferishta, in conformity with the practice of Persian historians, who ignore or try to whitewash defeats and unfavourable issues, says (Vol. IV, p. 210) that the Sultan returned after taking Nazrana. This is obviously far from true. For, had the Sultan obtained a victory and concluded peace after receiving Nazrana, why should he have, as stated by Ferishta himself (Vol. IV, p. 215) sent Taj Khan with eight thousand cavalry and 20 elephants to attack Chitor without any cause whatever from Bayana, where he had gone immediately after his return to Mandu. Had the Sultan achieved a victory, we should not have found him (as will be seen later) asking the King of Gujrat for help, and proposing to him when that Sultan too had been defeated by the Maharana, an offensive alliance against the Maharana. In 1454 A.D., however, Sultan Mahmud Khilji made another attempt to attack Chitor, but the Maharana attacked him before he 88

Maharana Kumbha. came near Chitor and inflicted a severe defeat on him which compelled him to return to Mandu. Ferishta says (Vol. IV, page 222) that the Sultan sent Prince Gayasuddin to take Ranthambhor and himself started to attack Chitor, and that leaving Mansur-ul-Mulk to lay waste the district of Mandsaur, himself advanced and threatened to appoint his own governor there and found a town and named it Khiljipur. Thereupon the'Maharana tendered submission, and the Sultan seeing the approach of the rainy weather, returned to Mandu with some gold. Instead of saying that the Sultan returned discomfited and defeated, Ferishta puts it nicely and says that Sultan owing to the approach of the rains returned after taking some gold! About this time (1454 A.D.) the state of affairs at Ajmer drew the Sultan's attention to it. This important city—"the heart of Raj- putana"—is a place of the greatest strategical importance in Upper India. It stands at the summit of the plateau which marks the highest elevation on the plains of Hindustan. Its politi- cal importance is proved by the fact that every 89

Maharana Kumbha. power aspiring to dominate the country has first taken possession of it and used it as a ladder to mount to political supremacy in India. Its religious importance is due to the existence of Pushkar, the King of Hindu places of pilgrimage in its environs, and the mausoleum of Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti in the town. The death of Swami Dayanand Saraswati at Ajmer, invests the place with peculiar importance in the eyes of Reformed Hinduism.¹ During the reign of Maharana Mokal, Ráo Ran Mal of Mandor had wrested this stronghold from the Sultans of Delhi and restored it to Mewar. Acting on the advice of pancholi Khemsi, Ran Mal sent him with a picked force of Rathods to take Ajmer. Under the pretence of conveying a daughter to the Viceroy of Ajmer, he introduced his men into that renowned fortress, the ancient stronghold of the Chauháns, putting the Delhi garrison to the sword. Salim Shah, the King of Multan, who had gone on pilgrimage to Ajmer after killing Chondá, father of Rao Ran Mal at ¹ See my "Ajmer: Historical and Descriptive" p. 23 90

Maharana Kumbha. Nagor was also killed by the Rájputs. Khemsi was rewarded with the grant of the township of Khatoo, then lately captured from the Káimkhanees.¹ In A. D. 1454, Mahmud Khilji having received representations that all Muhammadan religious practices had been forbidden in Ajmer² by the Hindu governor of the place, and receiving promises of help from its Mussalman residents, undertook an expedition against that city. Ajmer was in the posses- sion of the Maharana and the Sultan did not venture openly to invade it. He had recourse to a ruse. Sending the bulk of his army against Mandsaur to keep the Maharana's forces engaged, he advanced and attacked Ajmer. Gajádhar Singh, the governor of the fort of Ajmer, defended the fort for four days, and then, despising the foe's forces, he came out and attacked the Sultan's army. He was killed after performing deeds of valour and slaying numbers of the enemy. As his men were retiring into the fort, the Sultan's men ¹ The Jodhpur Khyat. ² Brigg's Ferishta, Vol. IV., page 222. 91

Maharana Kumbha. mixed themselves among the Rajputs and entered it. The Sultan thus obtained posses- sion of the fort but "not without sustaining severe loss."¹ He appointed Khwaja Naimat- ullah as governor of the fort, with the title of Saif Khan, and himself went towards Mandalgarh. As he approached the river Banas, the Maharana's army came out of the fort and fell upon the Sultan, who sustained a severe defeat and fled to Mandu. Ferishta says: "Rana Kumbha, at the head of a body of Rajputs, attacked one flank of the king's army under Taj Khan and sent another body to attack that under Ali Khan. A severe engagement ensued in consequence, when the retreat was mutually sounded. On the following morning, the Malwa officers persuaded the Sultan of the necessity of his army retiring into quarters, both on account of the reduced numbers and the wretched state of the camp equipment, now rendered almost useless, which circumstances, together with the approach of the rainy season, induced ¹ Ferishta, Vol. IV, page 222. 92

Maharana Kumbha. Sultan Mahmud to return to Mandu."—Brigg's English translation of Ferishta, Vol. IV, p. 223. Mr. Briggs in a footnote says : "The drawn battle mentioned by the Malwa historians must be deemed a defeat." An attack on Mandalgarh made by the Sultan¹ in A.D. 1456 also failed and the Sultan had to return to Mandu discomfited. Altogether five attempts were made by the Sultan to wipe out his disgrace of 1437 A.D., but every time he was defeated by the Maharana. Sultan Mahmud Khilji, now convinced that it was impossible to cope with Maharana Kumbha single handed, resolved to ask the Sultan of Gujrat to combine with him and, thus united, attack the Maharana. For this purpose, he sent his prime minister Taj Khan to Gujrat. About this time, Sultan Mahmud Khilji's son Prince Umar Khan, owing to disagree- ment with his father fled to Ahmedabad, but ¹ Ferishta says that the Sultan failed to take the fort itself but after 11 months' seige was able to take the lower fort and, then retired to Mandu after receiving some money.—Brigg's Ferishta, Vol. IV, p. 223. 93

Maharana Kumbha. mixed themselves among the Rajputs and entered it. The Sultan thus obtained posses- sion of the fort but "not without sustaining severe loss."¹ He appointed Khwaja Naimat- ullah as governor of the fort, with the title of Saif Khan, and himself went towards Mandalgarh. As he approached the river Banas, the Maharana's army came out of the fort and fell upon the Sultan, who sustained a severe defeat and fled to Mandu. Ferishta says : "Rana Kumbha, at the head of a body of Rajputs, attacked one flank of the king's army under Taj Khan and sent another body to attack that under Ali Khan. A severe engagement ensued in consequence, when the retreat was mutually sounded. On the following morning, the Malwa officers persuaded the Sultan of the necessity of his army retiring into quarters, both on account of the reduced numbers and the wretched state of the camp equipment, now rendered almost useless, which circumstances, together with the approach of the rainy season, induced ¹ Ferishta, Vol. IV, page 222. 92

Maharana Kumbha. Sultan Mahmud to return to Mandu."—Brigg's English translation of Ferishta, Vol. IV, p. 223. Mr. Briggs in a footnote says: "The drawn battle mentioned by the Malwa historians must be deemed a defeat." An attack on Mandalgarh made by the Sultan¹ in A.D. 1456 also failed and the Sultan had to return to Mandu discomfited. Altogether five attempts were made by the Sultan to wipe out his disgrace of 1437 A.D., but every time he was defeated by the Maharana. Sultan Mahmud Khilji, now convinced that it was impossible to cope with Maharana Kumbha single handed, resolved to ask the Sultan of Gujrat to combine with him and, thus united, attack the Maharana. For this purpose, he sent his prime minister Taj Khan to Gujrat. About this time, Sultan Mahmud Khilji's son Prince Umar Khan, owing to disagree- ment with his father fled to Ahmedabad, but ¹ Ferishta says that the Sultan failed to take the fort itself but after 11 months' seige was able to take the lower fort and, then retired to Mandu after receiving some money.—Brigg's Ferishta, Vol. IV, p. 223. 93

Mahāraṇa Kumbha. finding no support there came to Maharana Kumbha, who gave him shelter and kept him in Chitor for a long time. Later, he was killed in an encounter with the Sultan at Chanderi.¹ The same year (Hijra 860 = A.D. 1454) Firoz Khan, Khan of Nagor, died.² He belonged to the family of the Sultans of Gujrat. His father Shams Khan had obtained from his elder brother Muzaffar Shah, the first Sultan of Gujrat, the province of Nagor. On Firoz Khan's death, his elder son, Shams Khan so named after his grand father, succeed- ed him, but Firoz Khan's younger brother, Mujahid Khan, deposed him and prepared to take his life Shams Khan fled to Maharana Kumbha for shelter and help.³ Kumbhá, who had long had designs on Nagor, gladly embraced this opportunity of carrying them out, and agreed to place Shams Khan on the throne of Nagor on the condition that he acknowledged Maharana Kumbha's supremacy by demo- lishing a part of the battlements of the fort of ¹ Vir Vinod, Vol. I, page 327. ² Ferishta, Vol. IV. p. 40 (Cal. Edition of 1910) ³ Bayley's Gujrat, page 148. 94

Maharana Kumbha. that place.¹ Shams Khan accepted the terms.² The Maharana marched with a large army to Nagor, defeated Mujahidkhan, who fled towards Gujrat, and placed Shams Khan on the gádi of Nagor, and demanded of him the fulfilment of the condition. As preparations were being made for the demolition of the battlements, one of the old Pathan officers of Shams Khan cried out: "Would that Firoz had a daughter instead of a son, for even she would not have allowed her father to be disgraced by permit- ting the dismantling of the fortifications of the fort."³ On this, Shams Khan humbly prayed to the Maharana to spare the fort just then, for otherwise his nobles would kill him after the Maharana was gone. He promised to demolish the battlements himself later on. The Maharana granted this prayer and returned to Mewar. No sooner, however, had Kumbhá reached Kumbhalgarh than Shams Khan, instead of demolishing, began to strengthen the fortifica- ¹ Ferishta, Vol. IV, page 40. Also Bayley's History of Gujrat, page 148, footnote. ² Ferishta, Vol. IV, page 41. ³ Bayley's History of Gujrat, page 148, footnote. 95

Maharana Kumbha. tions of Nagor. This brought Maharana Kumbhá on the scene again with a large army. Shams Khan was driven out of Nagor, which passed into Kumbhá's possession. The Maha- rana now demolished the fortifications of Nagor, thus carrying out his long-cherished design. The Maharana took away from the treasury of Shams Khan a large store of precious stones, jewels and other valuable things. The Eklinga Mahatmya composed during Kumbhá's lifetime, says that he "defeated the King of the Shakas (Mussalmans), put to flight Mashiti (Mujahid Khan), slew the heroes of Nágpur (Nagor), destroyed the fort, filled up the moat round the fort, captured elephants, im- prisoned large number of Shak (Muslim) women and punished countless Mussalmans. He gained a victory over the King of Gujrat, burnt the city ¹ (Nagor) with all the mosques therein, liberated twelve lakhs of cows from the Muslims, made the land a pasture for cows and gave Nagor for a time to Bráhmans."² He carried away the gates ¹ Kumbha's commentary on the Gita Govinda, verses 60-62, also reiterates these things. ²See also Chitorgarh Kirtisthambha Inscription. 96

Maharana Kumbha. of the fort, and an image of Hanumán from Nagor, which he fixed to the principal gate of the fortress of Kumbhalgarh, calling it the Hanumán Pol.¹ The Chitorgarh Kirtisthambha Inscription repeats these facts, and says that he destroyed "the great mosque built by Sultan Firoz, which showed Muslims the way to Nagor", (verse 19) and dismantled the fort and filled up the moat. "He uprooted the Mussalman tree of Nagor and destroyed it with all its mosques," Verse 22; and took away Shams Khan's treasure containing heaps of jewels (V. 23). Shams Khan fled to Ahmedabad, taking with him his daughter, whom he gave to Sultan Qutb-ud-din to wife.² The Sultan thereupon espoused his cause and sent a large army under Rái Rám Chandar and Malik Gadday to take back Nagor. The Maharana allowed the army to approach Nagor, when he came out, and after a severe engagement ¹ Vir Vinod Vol. I, p. 332, says the Maharana carried away the image of Hanuman from Nagor. The Kumbhalgarh Ins- cription, however, says that the image had been brought by Kumbha from Mandor. ² Bayley's Gujrat, page 149. Ferishta, Vol. IV, page 41. ³ Ibid. The Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. I, page 242, has Anup 'Chand Manek and Malik Gadai. 97