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

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
77

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.
78

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.
79

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