Hi All,
Posted a new article in this series.
Link of this post: >>
We have already gone through 4 articles in the Chittor Battle Series. In the last article, we read about the course of this fierce war that lasted almost six months.
Now that the detailed background of this war is clear, let's discuss the details of the ultimate battle. The moment of ultimate 'annihilation'. This post also contains MANY pictures of Chittor Fort taken from fine angles, not present on the Internet.
In this post, we are going to see the events following the fall of the commander of the Chittor garrison - Raja Jaimal Rathore and the consequent Jauhar and Saka conducted by the Rajput women and defenders of the Fort of Chittor, as recorded in Mughal accounts.
The next post will describe this war, as seen from Rajput & other accounts, so that a complete picture is presented to the readers for complete understanding.
No one ever saw such battles,
Nor ever heard of such from the experienced,
What shall I say of that battle and engagement,
I cannot mention one item out of a hundred thousand.
These verses by Abul Fazl describing the final Battle of Chittor captures vividly the intensity of the war and the zeal of the two combating armies to make the other bite dust.
The two armies raised their lances
They formed ambuscades, and drew up in line
They were all iron-fisted, they were all biters of steel,
All were famous and were clad in iron
The heroes brandished swords red with blood
One was yielding up his life, another was flying,
They mowed down with swords the elephant-trunks
You'd say serpents were being rained down from the clouds.
The Commander on a mighty, raging elephant
Continually assailed the bow string.
One paid off his debt of hate with lance and sword
Sometimes the heart was riven, sometimes the breast was consumed.
Tulips were painted by his dagger
There was a rain of rings from the heroes' armour.
Just reading the accounts of the war, even from one side only, makes our hearts beat faster and sends shivers of horror down our spine. The ferocity of the war in which man and beast alike were willing to kill and be killed for their cause, can only be imagined faintly.
300 armoured trained Mughal War Elephants were let loose in the Fort in addition to the 60,000+ Mughal army fighting the force of 8000 Rajputs.
The post recounts how Rajput warriors like Isar Das Chauhan and others singly fought these trained armoured war elephants and died fighting.
The heroic exploits of Patta, Kalla, Jaimal are recorded in these Mughal accounts. The Rajputs were glorious even in the defeat.
Akbar recalls an incident where a chivalrous Rajput asked him to fight, and Akbar , though managed to kill this soldier, was amazed at the fighting spirit of this person, and tried his best to know who this brave man was.
The Rajputnis were not behind. The post recalls the horrors which the Rajputnis endeared in this war. Some of them died fighting the Mughal forces, some preferred Jauhar. Not giving those details here. They are present in the post.
"The Rajput garrison was in sore distress, and ready to succumb, but no one proposed surrender to the Emperor.
The Emperor had determined that he would capture by storm this Chittor - the strongest fortress of Hindustan, so that in future no other fortress should DARE to resist our Imperial army."
A unprecendented carnage ordered by Akbar after winning the battle..
From A to Z, every lesser known details from 5 Mughal accounts has been presented here...This time i have gone beyond Abu'l Fazl, Badayuni and Nizam-ud-din's accounts..
We, who live in modern times, can hardly understand the emotions that must have run high in both the Mughals and the Rajputs during the course of the battle.
Just what changed the course of the war in favour of the Mughals after months of a bitter and hostile face-off between the two equally poised sides?
All has been explained in the post..Link of this post: >>
1. Why did Akbar attack Chittor ? | Part-1
2. Preparation of Rajputs - Battle of Chittor | Part-2
3. Battles BEFORE the Battle of Chittor - At Kumbhalgarh, Rampur, Udaipur, Mandalgarh | Part-3
History of Jaimal and Patta | HEROes of the 3rd Siege of Chittor
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