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

Maharana Kumbha.
4th, V.S. 1518 (A.D. 1461) engraved on the
pedestal of the magnificent brass image of
Adinātha in the Achalgarh Jain temple at
Abu. It records that while Maharajadhiraja
Kumbhakaraṇa was ruling at Kumbhalmeru,
the image was made at Dungarpur during
the reign of Rāwal Somadāsa and brought to
Abu by the Sangha (community) of Tapa-
gachchha. It was set up by Sā Sābha, his
wife Karanādē and their sons Sālā and Mālā.
The consecration ceremony was performed by
Lakshmīsāgarasuri of Tapagachchha.
COINS.
Maharana Kumbhā struck gold, silver and
copper coins. Ferishta (Briggs' Translation,
Vol. IV, page 221) mentions gold coins of
Kumbhā. In the Mamādeva temple in the
fort of Kumbhalgarh, there is an image, of
the size of a man, of Kuvér, treasurer of the
gods, with two attendants pouring coins from
bags into plates. One plate is full of circular
coins and the other square ones, which shows
that Maharana Kumbha's coins were of two
varieties, circular and rectangular. The coins
that have come to light so far are only copper
187

Maharana Kumbha.
ones. They are of five kinds, all square or rec-
tangular in shape. The Obverse contains the
name of Maharana Kumbhakaran, and the Reverse
either Kumbhalmeru or Eklingji. The biggest
of them, has the year V.S. 1517 (A.D. 1460.)
OBVERSE. $\qquad$ REVERSE.
सामने की तरफ़ $\qquad$ दूसरी तरफ़
१ [OBVERSE:]
श्रीकुंभल
मेरु महा
▫️⮑ ➔
राणा श्री कुं
भकर्णस्य
[REVERSE:]
श्रीएकलिं
ग | श्री | स्य
प्र | | ला
दात १५१७
२ [OBVERSE:]
राणा श्री
कुं | श्री | भ
कर्णस्य
[REVERSE:]
श्रीकुंभ
लमेरु
▫️⮑ ➔
३ [OBVERSE:]
राणा श्री
कुंभकर्ण
[REVERSE:]
श्री कुंभ
लमेरु
४ [OBVERSE:]
राणा कुं-
भकर्ण
[REVERSE:]
श्री कुंभ
लमेरु
▫️⮑ ➔
५ [OBVERSE:]
कुंभ
कर्ण
[REVERSE:]
एक
लिंग
188

CHAPTER XVI.
————
KUMBHA AS A SOVEREIGN.
Of the various Rajput clans, who have
ruled or are ruling in Rajputana, only the
Chauhans, the Guhilots (Sisodias) and the
Rathods ever fought for the liberties of their
country and played prominent parts in the
history of Rajputana during the last 800 years.
And of these three, the Chauhans of Ajmer
alone achieved Imperial position, and became
supreme rulers of India during the twelfth
century of the Christian era. The Guhilots
(Sisodias), after the decline of the Chauhans,
achieved suzerain power in Rajputana and
enjoyed a position, achieved by no other
Rajput clan.
When the first Afghan invasion of India
took place in 1191 A.D., it was the Chauhan
Emperor Prithviraj who fought against the
invader Shahbuddin Ghori. And later, when
Babur invaded India, it was the Sisodia king,
Maharana Sānga of Mewar, who, as the most
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Maharana Kumbha.
powerful king of his time in India, headed the
confederacy of the Rajput kings of Rajputana
and the Pathan Sultan of Delhi, and opposed
the Turk invader. Thus, the Chauhans as the
Imperial Power in India, and the Guhilot
Maharana of Chitor as the suzerain power in
Rajputana, led the opposition, when the
Afghans and the Turks first came to conquer
India.
The Rathods came to Rajputana in the
thirteenth century A D. and rapidly spread in
its western parts. They had several times to
fight against the Afghan Sultans and Turk
Emperors of Delhi in defence of their country,
and materially helped in bringing about the
fall of the Turk empire in India.
The Kachhwāhas of Jaipur were minor
chieftains till the middle of the sixteenth
century, and only came into prominence under
Raja Bhagvandas in Akbar's time. They were
the first amongst the Rajputs to accept Turk
suzerainty: and they never took up arms
against the Emperors of Delhi.
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Maharana Kumbha.
While the Rathods, and sometimes the
Deoras (Chauhans) of Sirohi, fought against the
Turk emperors of Delhi, it was the Maharanas of
Mewar, who continually opposed the Turks,
never bowing their head to them. They
sacrificed their all to preserve their indepen-
dance and self respect. Maharana Kumbha was
not only one of the greatest of the Maharanas,
but was the real founder of the greatness of
Mewar.
Maharana Kumbha reigned from A.D. 1433
to A.D. 1468. The period marks the consolida-
tion of the power of Mewar, which under the
great Hindupati Maharana Sanga and the
immortal Pratap, shone so brilliantly in the
following century when the great adventurer
from Samarkand invaded India, and his grand-
son Akbar, the greatest of the Mughal emperors
of India, founded a magnificent empire in this
country. The period also marks the rise of the
Rathod Power, which later becoming famous
in history as the Lākh Talwar Rathodān,
played a prominent part in the foundation and
the consolidation of the Mughal empire during
the reigns of Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan;
191

Maharana Kumbha.
and which eventually helped in giving the death
stroke to that empire during the time of Aurang-
zeb and his successors The popular couplet
हथनापुर हलचल मची, पड़ी सितारे गल्ल ।
धुंवां आंबर ढाकया वै रूठा रिड़मल्ल ॥
"There is consternation in Delhi : anxiety pre-
vails in Satara (amongst Marhattas). The sky
has become overcast with gloom ; for, the
Rathods have been offended."
illustrates the power, the Rathods wielded
in India during the 18th century.
Maharana Kumbha, was a great sove-
reign, a great military commander, a great
builder and a great scholar. Rarely has the
world seen such a combination of qualities in
one man, each of which would stamp a man,
great. It is wonderful how a great sovereign
like Maharana Kumbha, constantly engaged in
warfare from almost his childhood, could find
time and opportunities to become a great poet
and dramatist, a master of the science of
music, and write commentaries on Gita
Govind—one of the master-pieces of lyric
literature in the world—and books like Chandi
Shataka and Sangit Ratnakar, and a treatise
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Maharana Pratap.

Maharana Kumbha.
on the architectural art of building Towers
of Victory (Kirtisthamba). Contemporary
European history does not furnish an example
of a great monarch who was also a great
administrator, a great general, a great builder,
a great poet, and a great author. India, with
its great historic past, the home of religion,
science and philosophy, where great ethical
truths and cultural traditions have so deeply
permeated the life of the common people,
has been in a favourable position to give to
the world great men.
Amongst the Rajput sovereigns of Raj-
putana, Kumbha occupies a most prominent
position. His natural abilities and his
achievements place him in the forefront among
the great rulers not only of Mewar, but of the
whole of India. The best known Maharanas
of Mewar are Maharana Sānga, Maharana
Pratap and Maharana Raj Singh. Now, Maha-
rana Pratap stands by himself. He is beyond
compare. He lived in times so different from
those of Kumbha or Sanga, that no compari-
son between him and the other Maharanas is
possible. Pratap had, as his enemy, one of the
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Maharana Kumbha.
greatest sovereign of all times in Asia or
Europe, and had had ranged against him not
only the whole might of Akbar's empire, but
also the knowledge and resources of the kings
of Amber (Jaipur), Jodhpur and Bikaner. Yet
he triumphed over this powerful combination
and succeeded in preserving the independence
of Mewar and the liberties of his people.
For sheer intellectual ability, however,
Kumbha takes the first place amongst the
Maharanas of Mewar. If we consider his
great work for the defences and the embellish-
ment of Mewar, he again stands easily the first.
As an ever-victorious monarch, he stands
unrivalled amongst the kings of India of the
last thousand years.
Sāngā also was a great sovereign, and
triumphed over all his enemies except Babur.
Maharana Raj Singh had to fight the Moghal
empire in India at its zenith, and succeeded in
defeating the attempts of Aurangzeb to
reduce Mewar to submission. But the heroic
and successful fights the Maharanas were able
to put up against the Moghal Emperors were
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Maharana Kumbha.
in no small measure due to the immensely
strengthened defences of Mewar, effected by
the foresight and wisdom of Maharana Kumbha.
Kumbha was in every respect, the equal of
Sāngā, and in some respects, his superior. If
Kumbha or Sānga's elder brother Prithviraj,
had been in Sanga's place to lead the Indian
opposition to Babur, Babur would, in all
probability, have ended his days in Kabul. If
Kumbhā is not so well known to readers of
history, it is because important Persian histories
which began to be written only with the
advent of the Moghals (Turks) in India have
given little attention to events that occurred
before Babur came to this country. And the
English histories, which are based entirely on
Persian histories, only repeat what the latter
have recorded. Sāngā's fame rests chiefly on
the accounts given of his character and his ex-
ploits by the memoirs of Babur and Humāyun,
and the histories written by writers who
hovered round the Moghal Court. Kumbha
has not had that advantage.
The Rajputs had produced men as great
and as remarkable as Kumbha, before the latter
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Maharana Kumbha.

appeared on the scene. The great Chauhan
Emperor Visaldeva,¹ the uncle of the famous
Emperor Prithviraj, who flourished in the
12th century of the Christian era, besides
being a great sovereign and a great military
commander, was also a great scholar. He
conquered the whole of Upper India, carried
his arms right up to the Himalayas, making
Delhi a tributary to Ajmer, which then became
the capital of the Indian empire. In his inscrip-
tion on the famous Siwalik Pillar, originally
erected in Gurhwal by Emperor Asoka— who
according to Mr. H. W. Wells, the author of the
Outline of History, is the greatest monarch of
all times—and which now stands in the Firoz-
shah ka Kotla at Delhi, Emperor Visaldeva
states that he had freed Hindustan of all in-
vaders from the North West. He was not only
a great king and a great commander, but also a
scholar and a dramatist, as is proved by his
drama Harkeli Nātak, parts of which engrav-
ed on black basalt slabs, are preserved in the
Rajputana Museum, Ajmer.

¹ For an account of Emperor Visaldeva, see my article on
him in the Vedic Magazine and Gurukul Samachar of Aswin,
V. S. 1969, Vol. IV, pp. 292-97, and my book, Ajmer : Historical
and Descriptive, page 154.

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Maharana Kumbha
The great Parmār sovereign, Raja Bhoja
of Dhārānagri, who flourished in the eleventh
century of the Christian era was a great
general, a great scholar and a great sovereign.¹
¹ The eminent orientalist, Mr. K. P. Jayaswal, in his
article on the Udaipur temple of Malwa in the Modern Review
for June, 1932, p. 604, says about Raja Bhoja :—
"The most famous king of the eleventh century in India
was Bhoja of the Parmār dynasty, who was king of Malwa
from 1010 to 1050 A.D. His undertakings were gigantic: he
surveyed the whole of Sanskrit and Prakrit literature and had
encyclopædias on art and sciences compiled, books on literary
art criticism written, vast anthologies prepared, books on the
art of poetics, on astrology, astronomy, music and architecture
composed, and Hindu law re-stated. In this survey of national
culture, he took part personally more than what Napoleon
did in the preparation of Code Napoleon. Bhoja was one of
the greatest scholars of his time, he had his own theories on
poetics. He was a very keen art-critic, and composed very
fine verses extempore.
"In the domain of kingship, he was the best general of
his time. As in Napoleon so in Bhoja, literary taste and
soldierly ability were united. In the history of Hindu law,
Bhoja is a landmark : with him the Mitakshara law, which
reigns to-day, arose. As an architect and builder, Bhoja was
one of the greatest men. He conceived the idea of turning
the parched hills of the Vindhayas in Malwa into a green
paradise and succeeded in doing so. His lake which, on
expert calculation, covered 260 square miles, changed the
climate of Malwa. In Muhammadan times when the lake was
still existing, there came into vogue the saying, 'I wish,
I enjoyed the night of Malwa and the morning of Benares.
The nights of Malwa have ceased to be of that charm with
the destruction of the lake. The lake was named 'Bhoja-
pala; pal, in the language of Malwa, even to-day means the
embankment of an artificial lake. Bhoja-pal is now pronounced
as Bho-pal."
The well known Hindi couplet
ताल तो भोपाल ताल और सब तलैयां हैं ।
गढ़ तो चित्तोड़ गढ़ और सब गदहैयां हैं ॥
"Lakes : There is only one lake, the Bhopal lake :
others are ponds of water. Chitorgarh is the
only fort; others are mere fortified places,"
shows that the people held the Bhopal lake to be the king of
the lakes of the world.
197

Maharana Kumbha.
Three great personalities emerge from the
events that crowd the life of the first half of the-
fifteenth century of the history of Mewar. The
dominating personality of the period was the
great Maharana Kumbha. During his time,
two other remarkable men appeared on
the scene; 1. Rao Chonda, the founder of the
House of Saloombar and progenitor of the
Chondawats of Mewar; who in his life, illus-
trated qualities, that illumine history and
ennoble Rajput traditions; and 2. Rao Ranmal
of Mandor, whose son Jodha founded Jodhpur
and laid the foundations of the Rathod Power,
which during the later Mughals was one of
the principal forces to be reckoned with in
Indian history.
Great as Kumbha was, Rao Chonda also
was a remarkable man. His nobility of mind
and chivalrous character not only distinguish
him from the ordinary run of chieftains in
Rajputana, but have placed him amongst the
noblest of Rajputs in India. Like Sri Ram
Chandra of Ayodhia, one of the noblest of
mortal men, and, according to the Hindus,
“the perfect man,” Chonda, springing from
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Maharana Kumbha.
the same noble stock, Raghuvamsa, has given
to the world an example of a life of high
spiritual elevation and moral grandeur, rare
in human annals.
Rao Ranmal of Mandor, who also, out of
filial love and obedience, gave up his right to
the throne of Mandor, and who, inspite of the
unjust treatment meted out to him, always
showed during his exile, the same respect to
his father, and devotion to the interests of his
country as before, was a remarkable man of
great mortal worth. Physically a giant amongst
men, a great general, and a man of immense
energy and resource and of great courage,
he repaid a thousandfold to Mewar, the debt
he owed to Maharana Mokal, by rendering
her services which a true student of history
must acknowledge with admiration. His
achievements are a source of pride to all who
call themselves Rathods.
While we pay homage to the greatness
of Maharana Kumbha, and have great
reverence and respect for Rawat Chonda,
and admiration and esteem for Rao Ran-
199

Maharana Kumbha.
mal, the thought obtrudes itself as to why
notwithstanding the possession of the noble
qualities with which nature richly endowed
him, Kumbha, who was ever successful
in all his undertakings—successful not only
in defending his kingdom against the united
efforts of the most powerful kings of his time;
successful in punishing the enemies of his
country and his religion—failed to restore
Rajput supremacy in Upper India, and free
Western India from the tyranny and the
domination of the Afghan adventurers who
had usurped supreme power in some of those
parts, by crushing once for all his enemies;
eminently fitted as he was to do so.
The answer is writ large on every
page of Indian history. The Hindus had,
owing to various causes, the principal
one being the rise amongst them of certain
schools of religious thought, lost the one
quality necessary to achieve political success.
Maharana Kumbha, and after him, Maharana
Sanga, both failed to save India from being
subjected to foreign domination, because of
the lack of that quality. That quality is
200

Maharana Kumbha.
political foresight, which comes only of full
national consciousness.
The introduction of the caste system in the
social polity of the Hindus cut up the nation
into a number of parts, each part becoming, as
time progressed, more and more conscious of its
separateness from the other parts, and sapped
the foundations of a common nationality and
destroyed national consciousness among the
Hindus.
Historical and other records show that the
Hindus long before the earliest invasions from
the North West began to take place, had,
owing to their acceptance of certain moral and
spiritual principles of life ceased to be an
aggressive race. The wish to dominate other
people for their economic exploitation or, to
impose their rule in order to force their reli-
gious beliefs on the subject races, has always
been absent from their character. They never
thought of invading their neighbours' countries
like Mahmud Ghaznavi, Shahbuddin Ghori,
Timur, or Changez Khan. Live and let live,
has been their rule of life, due to the teachings
201

Maharana Kumbha.
of their religion and philosophy, which have
influenced their lives more than has been the
case with other peoples.
During the last two thousand years and
more, the Hindus have confined their politi-
cal activities to defending themselves and
their possessions when attacked by others.
After the rise of those schools of thought,
of which the doctrine of Ahimsa was a
cardinal feature, and which produced repercus-
sions on the social organization of the people
dividing them into watertight compartments,
the Hindus as a nation, lost thought of
national preservation and national well-being,
and gave themselves up to practices which
they thought, would secure them individual
salvation. With their neglect of politics, they
not only ceased to grow and to be self assertive,
but ceased even to take necessary precautions
to preserve their national independence, and
protect their country and their liberties from
foreign invasion. It became their belief that
it was inconsistent with the teachings of their
religion and the high principles of their moral
philosophy, to attack their neighbours and
202

Maharana Kumbha.
crush them when they could easily do so,
even though this was necessary to save
their country from attack. They even went
further, and, as we have seen in this book,
spared their foes when the latter fell into
their hands, and sometimes even sent them
home loaded with gifts under proper escort,
completely ignoring the direful results of
similar previous acts of misconceived genero-
sity, repeatedly shown by Hindu monarchs.
They never learnt the lesson that the
best defence against an enemy is to attack
him, and that one can never break the
power of an enemy by limiting one's activi-
ties to mere defence. The inevitable result of
a purely defensive policy is loss of one's posses-
sions. The law of nature is that you must
advance, make progress. or fall back and dis-
appear. Individuals may comfort themselves
that they would gain Heaven by pursuing
this policy, but they would lose their freedom
and their country as surely as that the day
follows the night.
It is the first principle of political conduct
that you should not only defend yourself
203

Maharana Kumbha.
against attack but should, if possible, break
the power of your enemy by attacking him and
rendering him incapable of doing you harm.
Help the weak by all means, do justice to all
but also do justice to yourself and to those who
depend on you and whom, it is your duty, so
far as possible, to protect from present or
future attacks. Depriving enemies of the
power of doing you harm is doing nothing
more than protecting yourself. Failure to do
so, whether in obedience to teachings of false
philosophy, or owing to indolence or weakness,
is failure to do your duty. The adoption by
the Hindus of the foolish and futile policy of
limiting their activities to defending them-
selves when attacked, resulted in their
subjugation in the 12th and the 16th centuries
A.D. ; for they had failed to learn the lesson
that history teaches to all nations, and Indian
history so emphatically, to the Hindus.
204