History discussions thread for Invitees only - Page 109

I came across this article by Deepti Verma in Indiaopines.com which made very interesting read. I am placing her article and also my opinion on the same
Mughal Emperor Akbar was no two person and so it is very obvious that the great warrior had a definite nature, and characteristic pertaining to everything, whether it was war, women or work & development. However, the Akbar shown in the two competitive channel of Indian Television are drastically opposite to each other.
While, the Akbar of Jodha Akbar is more close to the Akbar that we have read all this while, the Akbar shown in Maharana Pratap looks more of a Sultan of Delhi Sultanate than a Mughal.

Here are the Contrasting nature and behavior:
Jalal in Maharana Pratap is shown lusting Phool Kanwar, nature which was often witnessed in Delhi Sultans. The way he makes his men in search of Phool, reminds me of Alaudddin Khilji who in the lust of Rani Roopmati even attacked Chittor and captured her husband.
On the other hand, Jalal of Jodha Akbar knows to respect women. He is never show lusting anybody. Even when he accidently fell for a girl (Jodha) when he went in Amer, it was always love and never lust. Besides, after marrying he never forces himself on her but is waiting for her to fall in love with him. This nature of Akbar is quite famous; even if he at all lusted then his lust was not what is shown in Maharana Pratap.

Maharana Pratap's Akbar cuts off the hands of painter while Jodha Akbar's Jalal is not even cruel to his enemies.Perhapas the makers of Maharana Pratap wanted to show how cruel the Mughals were and that is why they chose Akbar the scapegoat who ironically was the most tolerant of the lot. They showed Akbar ordering to cut off the hand of the painter who paints Phool Kanwar. Now, can you imagine Akbar of Jodha Akbar cuting off somebody's hand that too a professional who solely depends on his hand for a living? Absolutely not, because the Akbar enacted by Rajat Tokas tries to be as just as he can. He can never be cruel to innocent lives. That is why, we see him trying his best to see his praja aka awaam in happiness.

Even then, not everything exhibited in the Jodha Akbar serial is true because Jalal here sometimes appear a bit of idiot and weak time and again. To everybody's surprise, he always listens to the ladies out their without using much of his brain. Well, as per the records Jalal did listen to Maham but then he would have surely applied his brain too unlike what the serial throws at us., don't you think so?

While Maharana Pratap shows Akbar as cruel, nasty and a shrewd person, Jodha Akbar potrays him as a tolerant, nice and a strategist ruler. Some might argue that both the potrayal makes sense because one Akbar has just become the Mughal shenshah while the other has become a bit matured and so changed post his marriage to Jodha. However, in that case can the basic nature like lust, cruelty towards innocent change?

Well, both the serial is trying to exaggerate Akbar's nature. While Maharana Pratap more towards the cruelty side and Jodha Akbar more towards his soft side. Since, both the serial is running around the TV during the same slot, the audiences are in dilemma which show is giving them the actual thing.

But, in either case the authenticty of Indian Historical drama is in question mark in the eyes of its audiences.

Emperor Akbar & Rana Pratap: A comparison of facts
Age difference between the two - Pratap Two years older
Relationship- Arch Adversaries
Akbar became king in 1556 at age 14
Pratap became king in 1568 aged 28

Akbar at the age of 13 was Busy with North India and not Pratap
When Akbar was of 13 as currently shown in the serial, he along with Bairam Khan was busy capturing the North. His priority was Hemu, the general of the Sur ruler and not Pratap, the potential Maharana of the Mewar region. No wonder, he defeated Hemu in the Battle of Panipat and then set his foot towards Punjab to get rid of Sikandar Shah. I repeat, at that particular age, his priority was generals and officers related to Delhi Sultanate and not a prince of Mewar. In fact, Maharana Pratap and Akbar never came face to face.

Akbar in his Teen dealt with Pratap's Father Uday Singh and not Pratap
In the current slot, the great Mughal Emperor is shown getting jealous of Pratap, the prince of Mewar. Well, don't you think it is a bit too much to show a monarch busy in some unproductive activity when he actually had the capacity of giving threat to the father of the prince? Akbar was no fool to waste his time over Phool Kanwar and her love interest Maharana Pratap, he was busy planning how to capture the fort of Chittorgarh from Uday Singh.

Akbar's reason to capture Mewar was not Phool Kanwar
Uday Singh was the head of the Sisodia Clan of Rajputs. Bringing him under the imperial hold meant bringing the entire Sisodia Kings under the Mughal rule. This was the major reason why Akbar eyed Uday Singh. Another reason was due to Mewar's geographical location as it connected Agra with Gujarat. These two reasons were the major causes of the rift between Akbar and Mewar. Phool Kanwar is just to entertain the Indian Television viewers!

Akbar wanted Rajput as his Alliance and not Enemies
Akbar was a smart monarch. He always wanted to get hold of the Rajputs as he was not only well versed with their strength, intelligence, honesty but also their bravery. No matter, how cruel the serial shows Akbar is towards the Rajputs, the truth is, he respected them and wanted them as an alliance and not enemy.

If Akbar was so Lusty he would have Married Phool Kanwar Forcefully
Akbar in the serial is madly in love with Phool Kanwar and wants her as his wife. He is so obsessed with her that no sooner he hears of her marriage with Pratap, he is ready to kill Pratap. However, had it been a true story, I'm sure Akbar's third wife would be Phool Kanwar instead of Jodha Bai. But, but, but, the script writers forget the basic nature of Akbar, they forgot, that unlike the other foreign rulers of that time, he wasn't lusty at all. He had the greed of power and not women.

One should not forget Akbar married the Hindu princess Jodha, not out of lust but as a political alliance. He was a strategist, visionary and a pure statesman. Showing him in bad light for things which he never attempted only for gaining TRPs, is injustice towards the great monarch who as per the records, is way better than some of the prominent Hindu monarchs.

I am surprised that people historians have not objected to the distortion of facts of one of the Famous Moghul rulers of India whose reign was proclaimed by Historians as the Golden era of India. Akbar was given the title after is marriage to Jodha and when he abolished the jizya tax by the people and not when he was young. People distort history and facts just to titillate TRP and fan unnecessary controversies.

Pratap and Akbar A history of battle
In 1568, during the reign of Udai Singh II, Chittor was conquered by theMughal Emperor Akbar after the third Jauhar at Chittor. However, Udai Singh and the royal family of Mewar escaped before the capture of the fort and moved to the foothills of the Aravalli Range where Udai Singh founded the city of Udaipur. Rana Udai Singh wanted Jagmal, his favorite son, to succeed him but his senior nobles wanted Pratap, the eldest son, to be their king as was customary. During the coronation ceremony, Jagmal was physically moved out of the palace by the Chundawat Chief and Tomar Ramshah and Pratap was made the King, the Rana of Mewar. Folklore has it that Pratap did not want to go against the wishes of his father but Rajput nobles convinced him that Jagmal was not fit to rule in the troubled times of the day; but it is quite possible that what occurred was a bitterly contested struggle for succession: something characteristic of most South Asian kingdoms of the age.

Though the chief reasons for resentment between Pratap Singh and Akbar, two very visionary rulers is unclear, it is now largely agreed that it had to do with disagreements over the status of Mewar within the Mughal Empire, were it to at all accept Mughal suzerainty. The tensions were further characterised by the fact that Babur and Rana Sanga, grandfathers to Akbar and Pratap respectively, had earlier bitterly contested the control over the Gangetic plains and the Doab. It is evident that there were had been some measures of reconciliation, such as acceptance of ambassadors and representatives between the two courts. However, none of these could ever be taken to any logical end.

Conflict
Chittorgarh (Chittor fort), Pratap's ancestral home, was under Mughal occupation. Living a life on the run, the dream of reconquering Chittor (and thus reclaiming the glory of Mewar) was greatly cherished by Pratap, and his future efforts were bent towards this goal. In essence Pratap remained king of the whole of Rajputana (now Rajasthan) and the lands surrounding it except Chittor.

Nearly all of Pratap's fellow Rajput chiefs had meanwhile entered into the vassalage of the Mughals. Even Pratap's own brothers, Shakti Singh and Sagar Singh, served Akbar. Indeed, many Rajput chiefs, such as Raja Man Singh of Amber (later known as Maharaja of Jaipur) served as army commanders in Akbar's armies and as members of his council. Akbar sent a total of six diplomatic missions to Pratap, seeking to negotiate the same sort of peaceful alliance that he had concluded with the other Rajput chiefs. This is clearly evidential of the ends sought by each of the two rulers: for Akbar, having an independent or semi-independent kingdom, within his otherwise consolidated empire was politically unsound and militarily dangerous; for Pratap Singh, on the other hand, to accept vassalage with little in return was a political suicide, and a steep fall for Mewar in the region's power structure.

Battle of Haldighati and great Chetak
On June 21, 1576 the two armies met at Haldighati, near the town of Gogunda in present-day Rajasthan. However, the numerical superiority of the Mughal army and their artillery began to tell. Seeing that the battle was favouring Akbar and with the huge amount of death of soldiers on both sides, Pratap's generals prevailed upon him to flee the field so as to be able to fight another day riding his trusty horse Chetak, Pratap was able to successfully evade captivity and escape to the hills. However, Chetak was critically wounded on his left thigh . hetak was bleeding heavily and he collapsed after jumping over a small brook a few kilometres away from the battle field.