Defenders of India: Maharana Pratap

Bharat ka Veer Putra: Maharana Pratap

hello guys and welcome to another edition of the defenders of India series today's episode is going to be about Maharana Pratap. Maharana Pratap was a ruler of Mewar of the Sisodia clan of Rajputs and he was born to Maharana Uday Singh the second and Jaiwanta Bai. 

Maharana Pratap height was about 7 feet and 5 inches. If we measured the height of Maharana Pratap in meters, it was about 2.2 meters. Maharana Pratap iswidely regarded as a great hero and one of India's most famous freedom fightersand.

He's regarded as a freedom fighter is because he spent his entire lifefighting alone and fighting an uphill battle where all the kingdoms and allthe kings around him were capitulating and were submitting and surrendering tothe Mughal Empire. 

He was the only one that kept fighting. in 1567 when PrincePratap Singh was only 27 the capital of Mewar, Chittor, was surrounded by the Mughal forces of Emperor Akbar Maharana Uday Singh decided to leave CHittor andmove his family to Gogunda rather than surrender to the Mughals after the deathof Maharana Uday Singh Rani Dheer Bai wanted her son Jagmal to succeed him but senior courtiers preferred Pratap, as they realized thatjagmal would be disastrous for the kingdom and Pratap would make a much better King and eventually the courtiers.

wishes prevailed and Maharana Pratap wasmade the new king the Mughal emperor Akbar had control of large areas of Mewar, but was still intent on securing a stable route to gujarat through Mewar when maharana Pratap was crowned king in 1572 akbar sent a number of envoys anddiplomatic missions asking the rana to become a subject of the Mughal Empirejust like many other Rajput leaders had done in the region. 

The last of these missions was headed by Raja maan Singh who was the brother-in-law of Akbarhimself Maharana Pratap. when he found out about Raja maan Singh became very angry that his fellow Rajput was aligned with someone who had forced the subjugation of so many Rajputs and was angry at the fact that he hadaligned himself with the people that had forced so much death and destructionupon the Rajputs and upon his culture and therefore he refused to the terms of Raja Man Singh and refused to surrender to Akbar. 

Therefore war became inevitable in preparation of the war and long afterthe war Maharana Pratap himself under took several penances not only because his finances forced him to do so but also because he wished to remind himself and all of his subjects why they were undertaking this pain to win backt heir freedom that their right to exist as they wished to win back their cultureand their homeland. 

It is also important to remember that during this point all Rajput kings and kingdoms around him were crumbling and surrendering to the Mughal Empire except for him does the Battle of Haldighati was fought on 18th of June 1576 between Maharana Pratap and Akbar's forces led by maan Singh of Amber. 

Unfortunately the Mughal army found a traitor in Pratap's office brother Shakti Singh who told them about secret passes in the Haldighati. after afierce battle that lasted more than three hours Pratap found himself woundedand the day lost. 

Maharana Pratap chieftain maan Singh jala exchangedarmors with Maharana Pratap to confuse the Mughal army. this allowed Maharana Pratapto make his escape and live to fight another day.

Maharana Pratap favorite host Chetak, he also perished in this battle he waskilled by Mughal archers even though the Mughals won the day this was not a verydecisive victory for them because Maharana Pratap was still able to makehis escape and he was still out there resisting the Mughals so the Mughalsknew that as long as Maharana Pratap was alive and was resisting they would not be able to have a stable Mewar and a stable route through Mewar to Gujaratas a result of this battle. 

However most of Mewar except for the hills fell in Mughal hands but Mharana Pratap did not give up fighting.however the relentless attacks of the Mughal army had left Maharana Prataparmy weaker and he barely had enough money to keep it going it is said that his children had to eat bread made of grass at one point and watching hischildren suffer and watching them starving broke his heart,cracked his will and he thought about surrendering to the Mughals at one point he also wrote a letter to Akbar where he expressed a willing,to maybe surrender Akbar then showed this letter to another Rajput in his court Prithviraj rathore. 

Prithviraj rathore requested and obtained Akbar'spermission to send a letter back to Pratap to confirm whether it was indeedPratap who had written this letter but what he wanted to do was to convinceMaharana Pratap to not submit and not surrender to the Mughals. 

so he wrote aletter back and in the letter he wrote a very famous poem and when MaharanaPratap read the poem from Prithviraj rathore, it strengthened his will and itreminded him of what he was fighting for and he decided not to surrender to the Mughals after all and continued fighting it was at this time that one of hisministers Bhama Shah came and offered Maharana Pratap all of his wealth a sumthat would enable Maharana Pratap to support an army of 25,000 soldiers for 12 years. 

Thus, he was able to continue fighting the mughals. mughals pressure onMewar are relaxed after 1579 following rebellions in bengal bihar andMirza Hakeem's incursion into the punjab in 1582, Maharana Pratap was ableto attack and occupy the Mughal post at Dewair in 1585, Akbar moved to Lahore and remained there for the next few years watching the situation in then or thwest this allowed Maharana Pratap to recovera lot of the lost territory in western. 

Mewar including kumbhalgarh, Udaipur and Gogunda during this period he also built a newcapital Chavand near modern Dungarpur Maharana Pratap through his relentlessefforts eventually managed to free most of mewar except for the capital Chittor. 

In 1597 however Maharana Pratap was seriously injured in a huntingaccident and he passed away aged 56 On January 29 1597.