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

CHAPTER VIII.
RAO JODHA RECOVERS MARWAR.
AFTER a year's stay at Kahuni, Jodha
began to raid Mandor. His raids always
cost him men and horses without bringing
him any profit. One day, returning from his
raid, Jodhá came to a village and put up at
the house of one Rákan Jat. The mistress
of the house placed before Jodhá a tháli
(plate) full of hot ghát (porridge). Jodhá at
once thrust his fingers into the centre of the
porridge to take a morsel, and as the porridge
was burning hot, Jodhá burnt his fingers.
Seeing this and not knowing who the stranger
was, the Játni said : “Brother, thou art as
devoid of sense as Jodhá is.” Jodhá was
astonished to hear this remark and asked the
lady why she thought Jodhá was without
sense. The Játni replied that want of
sense in Jodhá was clear from the fact
that instead of raiding the out-lying country,
he always went straight to attack Mandor,
which was garrisoned by the Rana; and thus
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Maharana Kumbha.
at every encounter he lost horses and men
without gaining his object. And thou, too,
my brother, added the lady, lacketh sense
inasmuch as thou putteth thy hand straight
into the centre of the porridge and burneth thy
fingers. If thou wouldst but begin with the
porridge near the edge which is not so
hot, thou shouldst have by and by the
porridge in the centre of the plate too, as it
is not going to run away.¹
Jodhá took this advice to heart and gave
up going towards Mandor and began to
raid the country around. This brought
him plunder, and he got around him a body of
horsemen. His brothers also grew up and
began to assist him. With the help of the
Bhátis of Kelhan, where he had married, he
began to raise disturbances in the country.
He was, however, seriously handicapped by
want of horses and lack of money. There was
famine, too, in the land and grain was scarce.
While Jodhá was thus roaming homeless in
Marwar, his country being in the Maharana's
possession, an incident occurred which roused
¹ Marwar khyat, Vol. I, pp. 41-42.
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Maharana Kumbha..
him and put fresh energy into his activities.
The Dowager Queen of Mewar, Rao Ran
Mal's sister, sympathising with Jodhá in his
forlorn state, one day begged the Maharana
to restore Mandor to the young Rao,
telling him how Ran Mal had come to Chitor
to help the Maharana at a critical time, slain
Cháchá and Mairá, defeated the Mussalmans,
raised the credit of Mewar, and was killed
there, and that his son Jodhá was now
wandering in the jungles, homeless and
hopeless. Such, said the lady, was the
reward for services rendered to Mewar.
The Maharana replied that Ran Mal had
murdered Rághavadeva, Chondá's brother,
which Chonda could never forget, and that he,
for fear of wounding Chondá's feelings, could
not do anything to help Jodha, but promised
that if Jodhá should take Mandor he would
not molest him. Thus assured, the old lady
sent a confidential messenger, a Cháran
named Dulá, to Jodhá to communicate to him
the views of the Maharana and to encourage
him to make an effort and take Mandor.
Cháran Asiá Dulá went in search of
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Maharana Kumbha.
Jodhá, and eventually reaching the village
Bhādang, in the jungles of Padává, in the
sandy desert of Marwar, he found him with
his fifty horsemen and some foot followers in
the act of satisfying their hunger with the
bájri growing in the fields. The message
from Hansbai, the Dowager Queen of Mewar,¹
acted like a powerful tonic on him, and he
set about collecting means to effect his purpose.
He went straight to Ráwat Lunkaran of Sat-
ráwa, who had got 500 horses in his stables,
and appealed to his patriotism, and reminded
him of his duty to his kindred and asked for
200 horses. Lunkaran declined to give the
horses, saying that he held his fief from
the Maharana, who would deprive him
of the land if he should give him assistance.
Disappointed by the Ráwat, Jodhá went
to the Thakuráni, who was a sister of
Jodhá's mother. She was a Bhatyáni
lady, a class well known amongst the
Rajputs for wisdom and foresight. Seeing
Jodhá dejected, she enquired the cause.
He told her that the Ráwat had refused
him horses of which he was in sore need.

¹ Vir Vinod, Vol. I, p. 324.
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Maharana Kumbha.
The Bhatyáni asked him to cheer up, saying
the horses were all his. She sent for the
Ráwat and asked him to put certain valuables
in the Toshákháná; and when he unlocked
the room and went in to deposit the things,
the Thakuráni promptly shut the door
and locked him in. She then sent one
of her maids with Jodhá to the stables
with the message that the Ráwat had
ordered that the stables were at Jodhá's
disposal, and that the keepers were fully to
equip any horses that he wished to take
away. Jodhá picked out 140 of the best
steeds of Satráwá, mounted his Rajputs and
marched away. When he was gone the
Thakuráni unlocked the door of the Toshá-
kháná. Ráwat Lunkaran came out boiling
with rage, quarrelled with the Thakuráni,
scolded his Kámdárs and had the keepers of
the stables beaten, but could not get back
the horses.¹
¹ The following couplet refers to the incident :—
ज्यूं ज्यूं कहियो रावत लूणो ।
त्यूं त्यूं लड़े घणेरो खूणो ॥
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Maharana Kumbha.
Jodhá thus equipped went to enlist the
support of Harbá Sánkhlá, the celebrated
cavalier of Rajputana, whose deeds of chivalry
are sung everywhere in the country. This
great man, a Bála Brahmachári (he who
leads a life of celibacy from childhood), lived
a life of simplicity and asceticism, and was
ever ready to succour the distressed, help
the weak and champion the cause of the
oppressed. His generosity was proverbial,
his door was open to all who sought his aid,
his lance ever ready to go to the assistance of
a suppliant with a just grievance. His
house, a place of shelter to all who went
there, provided unbounded hospitality to
the stranger. He had been performing
the rite of Sadāvrat, at which everyone
is shown hospitality and granted his request.
Jodhá, with a hundred and twenty followers,
arrived when the “strangers’ fare” had been
distributed. Harbá had a hurried meal of
mujd boiled with flour, sugar and spices
prepared and set before the Ráo and his
followers, who enjoyed the pottage and went
to sleep
On waking, they stared at one another,
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Maharana Kumbha.
for their moustachios were dyed with the
evening's meal. Harbá, however, remarked
"that the grey of age was thus metamor-
phosed into the tint of morn and hope, so
would their fortunes become young and
Mandor again be theirs."
Thus aided, Jodhá started to recover his
patrimony. He first attacked the Maharana's
tháná of Chaukri. Raghavadeva Rathod with
his small following fled, leaving everything
behind, and Bháti Ranbir, Rana Visaldeva,
Ráwal Duda of the Rana's officers were killed.
Jodhá next attacked and took Kosáná, and by
rapid marches arrived at Mandor. Two sons
of Rawat Chondá, Kándhal and Manjá, were in
charge of the place. Despising the numbers
of the enemy, and ignorant of the fact that
the assailants included Harbá Sánkhlá, they
descended sword in hand to meet them. But
they were overpowered; Kándhal was slain and
Manjá took to his horse and fled but was
pursued, overtaken and slain on the way.
Ahádo Hingolo, Sisodiá Eko and others were
also slain. A chhatri still marks the place
on the Balsamad Lake, near Jodhpur, where
Hingolo fell after performing deeds of valour.
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Maharana Kumbha.
Chauhán Jassá, Harbhám Sindhal, Visaldeva
Parmar and the son of Firoz Khan of Nagor
fled. Jodhá recovered Mandor. In a few
days, Jheà also seized Sojat and took up his
abode there. Chondá would have invaded
Marwar to take vair (revenge)—as two sons .
of his had fallen while Mandor had lost only
one chief, Ran Mal—but abstained on learn-
ing that the Maharana forbade it. Conscious,
however, of the superior power of Mewar,
Jodha made peace with the Maharana. We find
that Jodha's daughter, Sringardevi, was married
to Maharana Kumbha's son Raimal.¹ The
inscription in the baodi (stepped well) built
by Sringardevi in A. D. 1504 in Ghosundi,
12 miles from Chitor, describes her as Rao
Jodha's daughter and wife of prince Raimal.
Thus after 7 years occupation² of it by the
Maharana, Jodha won back Mandor by the
sword about A.D. 1445.
¹ Bengal Asiatic Society's Journal, Vol. 55, Part I, pp.
79-82.
² The following verse supports the fact that the Maha-
rana occupied Marwar for seven years:—
थाणो जाय मंडावर थट्यो जोरकर लखपत
कियो राज चूंडे नव कोटा सात वरस तांई सीसोद
"Lakhpat (Maharana) established a thana (military post)
at Mandor; Chonda Sisodia ruled Marwar (Nava Kota) for
seven years." See Vir Vinod, Vol. I, p. 324.
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CHAPTER IX.
CONQUEST OF ABU AND HARAVATI.
THE kingdom of Sirohi lies in the south
west part of Rajputana, between 24'.20" and
25'.17" latitude and 72'.16" and 73'.10"
longitude, and is 1964 miles in area. Its
rulers belong to the Deora branch of the
Chauhan Rajputs. The most important place
in this kingdom is Mount Abu, the highest
point of the Aravalli Hills ( Adāvalā ) stretch-
ing from Delhi to Gujrat. Mount Abu, the
“Olympus of the Hindus” as Colonel Tod calls
it, was the seat of a powerful kingdom in old
days. Abu formed part of the empire of
Emperor Chandragupta of the Mauriya
dynasty, who ruled early in the fourth century
B.C. The territory of Abu passed successively
into the possession of the Khshtrapas, the
Imperial Guptas, the Vaisa dynasty of which
Emperor Sri Harsha was the ornament;
Chaoras, the Solankis, and the Parmārs.
From the Parmārs, the Chauhans of Jalor
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Maharana Kumbha.
took the kingdom of Abu. Lumba, a scion of
the younger branch of the Chauhan rulers of
Jalor, seized Abu from the Parmar Raja Hoon
about the year 1311 A.D. and became the first
king of the territory now known as the king-
dom of Sirohi. The famous town of Chandra-
vati, situated about four miles to the south of
the present Abu Road Railway station on the
B. B. & C. I. Ry. was then the capital of the
kingdom, and Lumba took up his residence
there and ruled till A.D. 1320. Maharao
Sahas Mal, the seventh in descent from Lumba¹,
finally abandoned Chandravati, founded
the present town of Sirohi² and made it the
capital of his kingdom in A.D. 1425.
Sahas Mal was an ambitious ruler and made
attempts to extend his dominions on all sides.
He found his opportunity in the civil turmoil
that followed the assassination of Maharana
Mokal. He annexed some of the territory
ruled by the Solanki Rajputs lying near by,
¹ Sahasmal was son of Shiv Bhan, who was son of Ran
Mal; Ran Mal was son of Salkha, who was son of Samant
Singh; Samant Singh was son of Kānhad Deva, who was son
of Tej Singh; Tej Singh was son of Lumba.
² Mahamahopadhyaya P. Gauri Shanker's History of
Sirohi, page 194.
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Maharana Kumbha.
and finding Maharana Kumbhakaran engaged
in punishing his father's murderers began
to encroach on the Maharana's territory
and took possession of a few villages on
the borders of Mewar. When the Maharana
came to know of this aggression he was
not slow to take action. As soon as the
rebels were disposed of, Maharana Kumbha
sent an expedition against Maharao Sahas Mal
under Dodiya Narsingh son of Rao Shalji.
Narsingh captured the stronghold of Abu,
seized Basantgarh and Bhula and annexed$^1$ the
whole of the eastern part of the Sirohi territory
to Mewar. A copper plate inscription of A.D.
1437 Asar, V. S. 1494) found in the Nandiya
village and at present deposited in the
Rajputana Museum, Ajmer mentioning a grant
of land in village Chavarli in the Ajari par-
gannah of Sirohi, shows that that part of the
Sirohi territory had passed into the Maharana's
possession before the year A.D. 1437.
The Sirohi Khyat says that Maharana
Kumbha was allowed by Maharao Lakha of
Sirohi to retire to Abu when attacked by the
$^1$ History of Sirohi by Mahamahopadhyaya P. Gauri
Shanker Ojha, p. 194. Also, his History of Udaipur, Vol. I,
p. 283.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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