Real Historical Facts

Whenever Mewar, Maharana Pratap, and Haldighati struggle are discussed, Bhamashah who did economical arrangement for Maharana Pratap is always talked about. It is widely believed and oft written that Bhamashah donated his entire wealth to Maharana Pratap during his struggle days against Akbar. Bhamashah is proved to be the greatest munificent of all time who donated everything for national interest. Those who accept this half-truth and write about it vividly don’t know that they are doing a great injustice to Bhamashah also whose contribution, Loyalty, duty to nation were immense. Because of that, today, we perceive Bhamashah as a merchant having fat belly and who donated everything that he earned in whole life miserly.

The historians believe that Bhamashah’s donation to Maharana Pratap was not actually donation while It was Maharana's own state fund which was earlier given to Bhamashah for taking care of. By giving it at the time of crisis, he only accomplished his duty.. If we believe historians, it is very much proved that Bhamashah was not a merchant but he would look after state’s finance and treasury system. Moreover, he was also a warrior himself who had led the soldiers during Malwa's battle and acquired huge wealth which he gave to Maharana. Some historians have written that that Bhamashah also had given a lot of wealth to Maharana Pratap what he got at Malwa's battle. Unfortunately, some historians made warrior Bhamashah merchant Bhamashah.

Famous historian Gorishankar Ojha considers 'Bhamashah’s donation to Maharana Pratap story factitious. According to Ojha, that was Mewar's royal family’s wealth which was accumulated by Maharana Kumbha and Rana Sanga and others in centuries. They kept and buried it in mountain areas so that money could be saved from invaders.Being the chief treasurer Bhamashsh was the only person who knew all these information in detail.  He would keep this information in his account sheet.

 Historian Dr. Gopinath Sharma writes in his book "History of Rajasthan", his minister Bhamashah dedicated all his money to Ranapratap for Possible subsistence of 25,000 soldiers for next 12 years. For this, Bhamashah is called Mewar's savior and munificent. It is true that Bhamashah’s ancestors and he himself had been working for Mewar for so many years, but to accept it that Bhamashah had helped Maharana by giving him his own wealth is not true. Bhamashsh would keep state's treasure and it was custom to keep it safe during battle time.

" Tezsingh Tarun in his book "Rajasthan ke soorma" writes "Bhamashah went to Rampura near Malwa border and Tarachand had also reached till then. In the year 1578 AD, both brothers amassed the Mewar's Scattered military power and attacked Akbar's province Malwa. This wealth supported Maharana Pratap a lot and he again prepared for struggle against Mughals. This is the wealth that made Bhamasha to Bhamashah and given a new name Bhamashah(An individual who helps in trouble).This name gave birth to too many stories.

Nalanda University was set on fire by the Turkish ruler Bakhtiyar Khilji. The university’s library had a huge collection of books, because of which the fire did not go off for three months. Khilhji also put many of the religious gurus to death.

Khilji’s complete name was Ikhtiyaaruddin Mohammad Bin Bakhtiyaar Khilji. Khilji captures some of the areas ruled by Buddhists. The reason behind setting Nalanda University on fire as explained by world renowned historians was, Once Khilji was very ill, and irrespective of various medication he could not recover. Then Khilji was suggested that, he should be treated under Rahul Sheelbhadra, who was the head consultant (aacharya)of Ayurveda in Nalanda University. Khilji made a condition that he would not take any Indian medicine. He said, if he does not recover he will get the aacharya killed.

Next day aacharya went to him with the holy Quraan and said, Khilji has to read certain pages of Quraan and eventually he would recover. He did so and he was cured. Khilji was angry instead of being happy upon his recovery, he was angry because understanding of an Indian ayurvedic doctors was better than their hakims. Actually Rahul Sheelbhadra, who was the ayurvedic doctor, applied certain medicine on those pages which Khilji was prescribed to read. Every time he turned the page, he consumed the medicine as he licked his finger in order to turn the pages. Thus, he recovered.

Instead of being great full and showing gratitude to Buddhism and Ayurveda , Khilji was angry and set the Nalanda University on fire in the year 1199. The university’s library had a huge collection of books, because of which the fire did not go off for three months. Khilhji also put many of the religious gurus to death.

How many wars were fought between Prithviraj Chauhan and Ghauri?  The answer to this question is still controversial. Talking of legends, Prithviraj fought 17 wars against Ghauri and PrithviRaj won 16 out of these 17 wars and forgave Ghauri.

Based on the facts that present historians and historic facts, two wars were fought between Prithviraj Chauhan and Ghauri. The first war was fought in 1191 followed by another in 1192. Both of these wars were fought in Tarrain Battlefield. Muslim historians only glorified and proved one war, which was won by Ghauri. However, few Muslim historians like Farishta, Minhaz, As Siraj Janul Masri, Tabqat-e-Nasiri and Hasan Nizami etc believed that there were two wars fought. This falsifies the other historian who believed that only one war was fought. Ojha distinctly said, these historians either disguise or twist the story of Ghauri’s defeat. Hindu and Jain Epic textbooks described many wars fought between these two. Prithviraj Raso and Archeological compilation describes 8 wars being fought between Prithviraj Chauhan and Ghauri. Chintamani management believed that there were many wars fought. However, Epic Hammir describes 7 wars being fought. Dasharatha Sharma also describes frequent and continuous conflicts between these two in 1186.

Chauhan and Ghauri lead their own army themselves during the wars in Tarrain Battlefield. Meanwhile many small and big wars were fought amongst feudal lords and their army. Ghauri’s constant invasion was defeated by Chauhan’s feudal lords.  There has been description of two attacks through Khaiber pass. These were primarily small encounters which were handled by Pajwan Rai, who was Chauhan’s general. These attacks by Ghauri were to assess the army strength of Chauhan. He always knew, he wouldn’t be able to rule India unless he defeats PrithviRaj. Ghauri was already defeated by Solankis of Gujrat in 1178. That’s why he was even more careful about powerful rulers like Prithviraj Chauhan. After few small and big attacks, in the year 1191, Ghauri attacked in once again with extravagant war preparation. 

Historically, Prithviraj and Ghauri have only encountered each other twice in the battlefield of Tarrain. There were definitely some fights between the two armies from 1180 to 1190 in which Ghauri was defeted by Prithviraj Chauhan’s general. The historical evidence of Prithviraj’s presence in those fights is not found.  

It is written in history that queen of Chittor Karamvati who is also known as Karnavati once sent Rakhi to Humayun and consequently he helped her. But this is not a truth. In fact, it is a false attempt to prove Humayun a thorough gentleman and a true secular who respected Indian tradition and values.

Chittor's Maharana Vikramaditya was an inept ruler when Gujrat’s Bahadur Shah attacked him. The Chittor's Feudalists were not happy with him. At that time, in order to deal with the trouble, Queen Karamvati sent a Rakhi to Humayun through Seth Padmshah and insisted him to help her like his sister.   Actually, Humayun understood the values of Queen’s Rakhi and reciprocating he sent her a number of gifts and good wishes. Humayun was already aware of the significance of Rakhi and Brother-Sister relations in Indian culture. He knew it because once he took a refuge at Amarkot (currently in Pakistan) ruled by Rajpoot king Rana Veershal when he was deported from Delhi by Shershah suri. At that crucial time, Rana Veershal provided him a shelter and gave him due respect like his close relative. During that time, Humayun's wife gave birth to Akbar in Amarkot.

Initially, in an awe of Indian tradition, Humayun marched towards Chittor along with his troop to save Chittor. But in the midway, in Gwalior, he received Bahadurshah’s letter in which Bahadurshah emphasized that he had had a 'Jehad' against Kafir(infidel) so he should not come to their rescue. After reading this, Humayun’s all emotions were vanished and he quickly forgot the greatness of Indian culture that once gave him shelter and saved his life. He just stopped there and didn't move ahead. The words 'Jihad against Kafirs' had more importance for him than anything else in the world. He forgot the brother-Sister relationship. It had no meaning for him before Islam. He stayed in Gwalior for next one month and returned back to Agra on 4 March 1533.

In the meantime, one of Humayun's man Mohamad Jama escaped from Byana and took refuge in Gujarat. Even on the insistence of Humayun, Bahadurshah refused to send Mohamad Jama back. Urgently, Humayun attacked Gujrat and defeated Bahadurshah's General Tatar khan easily. At that time, Bahadurshah had attacked Chittor for the second time. When he heard his army defeat's against Mughals, He immediately planned to proceed towards his kingdom leaving chittor behind. But his one Sardar counseled him that until he was in Chittor, inflicting JIHAD against Kafir, Humayun would not move ahead against us. And history reveals that exactly the same happened as Badusrshah’s man said.  Humayun stayed in Sarangpur and kept himself waiting for the result of Chittor battle. But he did not turn up for protecting the Rakhi’s respect despite having enmity with Bahadurshah. Later Bahadur Shah won the Chittor battle and went on to Mandsaur along with his troop where Mughals were already waiting for him. History witnesses one more battle, but Bahadurshah’s Army was severely defeated by Mughals. Hearing the news of Bahadurshah's defeat Chittor's 7,000 Rajpoots attacked on Bahadurshah’s soldiers and made them run away from Chittor. Later Vikramaditya was taken back from Boondi and Ascended to the throne.

It is an irony that Humayun was given false credit to help Rajpoots get Chittor back by pseudo seculars and communist historians. But in reality, Humayun never fought any battle against Bhadurshah for Chittor.    

“On one occasion his queen and his son’s wife were preparing a few cakes from the flour of the meadow grass of which one was given to each; half for the present, the rest for a future, meal. Pertap was stretched beside them pondering on his misfortunes, when a piercing cry from his daughter roused him from reflection: a wild cat had darted on the reserved portion of food, and the agony of hunger made her shrieks insupportable. Until the moment his fortitude had been unsubdued. He had beheld his sons and his kindered fall around him on the field without emotion—“For this the Rajpoot was born”; but the lamentation of his children for food “unmanned him.”  This was written by Colonel James Tod in his book Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan Part 1 (page 272-73)

We have no information how Tod got this information about Maharana Pratap that he ate bread made of meadow grass. Unfortunately, this is not a truth. This is an exaggeration of facts for the reason unknown.  Maharana Pratap was never in such a dire condition that he would ever need to eat bread made of grass.

The reality was, Akbar could never occupy the whole of the Mewar. He could only hold Chittod, Udaipur and some of the parts of Mewar while most of the Mewar was still in Maharana’s possession which was prosperous and fertile.

Gorishankar Heerachand Ojha writes in his book “History of Udaipur state part 2” (page 394), “This whole statement is an exaggeration and fabricated because Maharana never ever faced such awful circumstances. He had Kumbhalgarh in North, 90 miles long mountain region in south and east. This area was safe and secured also due to the geographical reasons. Maharana and his followers for lived there with their respective families fearlessly and comfortably. Moreover, they could move to Godwad, Idar, Sirohi and Malwa region for obtaining food. This area was full of water and greenery. There were dozens of villages and thousands of Bheels lived there. Maize, Rice were the main crop of the region and due to good number of domestic animals like cow and buffaloes milk and milk products were in abundance. The Mogul Army was in eastern part of Mewar only.”