Real Historical Facts

Maharana Pratap never ate bread made of grass

“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.”

This whole statement is sufficient to prove that Maharana Pratap had to struggle to keep intact his position but he and his family did not ever face such a situation that they had to eat bread made of grass

Dara Shikoh: This Mogul was a real secular man

Forget Akbar (if you have him on your mind), it’s some other Mogul who was really a secular man. It is Dara Shikoh, son of fifth Mugol emperor Shahajehan. If we say that Dara Shikoh was the most secular Mogul or Muslim ruler, it won’t be an exaggeration. He was secular in real sense. It is quite unfortunate that our historians who have written thousand of books praising Akbar and his secularism and left no stone unturned to establish him to be the “GREAT” (Though he was not), have kept mum on Dara Shikoh.

Early Life

Dara was born on 28 October 1615. He was the eldest son of Shah Jehan and his second wife, Mumtaz Mahal and was the heir-apparent. He was the most favorite child of his father. He was married to Nadira Banu Begum, his first cousin who was daughter of Sultan Parvez Mirza. Apparently, it was an exceptionally happy and successful marriage. The couple was devoted to each other, and Dara never married again. The love between the couple shows his characteristic values which were stronger than his father, grandfather and great grandfather. He was not a womanizer like his ancestors.

He was a voracious reader and had a never ending thirst for knowledge. He would spend his lot of time in the royal library. The initial education of Dara was no difference from other princes. He was also taught Quran, Persian and History. His tutor Mulla Abdul Latif Saharanpuri had a great influence on him. It was Mulla Abdul Latif Saharanpuri who inculcated in him the thirst for knowledge and Sufi learning.

.At an early age of 18, Dara was appointed a military commander; he was commander of 12,000-foot and 6000 horse. He was successively promoted. In1636, he was promoted to commander of 15,000 foot and 9000 horse. With regular promotions, in 1642 he was commander of 20000 foot and 15000 horse. He consistently rose to prominence and till 1657 he was the commander of 50,000-foot and 40,000 horse. Dara was most favored prince of his father Shahjehan and Shahjehan wanted to coronet him as 6^th Mogul emperor of the country. In spite of the strong support from his father, Dara lost the battle against Aurangjeb. He ran away and hid and tried to fight against Aurangjeb but again defeated. Aurangjeb, the cruelest and most fanatic Mogul ruler did not spare him and brutally killed him. He was declared an apostate from Islam. Clergies condemned him for blasphemy and he was considered the traitor of Islam

A truly Secular Muslim

He was truly a secular Muslim. He used to respect all religions and want harmony between all faiths. There are a lot of instances which establishes his secular credentials. Dara had developed a good friendly relationship with seventh Sikh Guru, Guru Har Rai. He endeavored towards developing a common spiritual language between Islam and Hinduism and tried to build a platform between two communities. It was he, who translated 50 Upnishads from Sanskrit to Persian in 1657 so that Muslim scholars could read them and know the mystical value of Hindu religion. He was known for his work,Majma-ul-Bahrain ("The Confluence of the Two Seas"). It was also an effort to reveal the numinous and pluralistic resemblance between Sufic and Vedantic speculation.

He was an intellectual epitome of divine religious assumption and a poetic spiritualist of syncretism cultural interaction among people of all faiths. This made him a heretic in the eyes of his orthodox brother and a suspect eccentric in the view of many of the fundamentalist clergies and religious leaders.

Dara spent many years to understand Hindu religious systems. For this, he studied Sanskrit and employed a large number of Sanskrit scholars from Benaras.

Shah Jehan : Great Lover or a womanizer?

We are taught in our childhood that TAJMAHAL was built by Emperor Shah Jehan in memory of his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. We are also taught that Shah Jehan was a staunch lover of Mumtaz. Now it becomes inevitable for us to examine the real character of Shah Jehan so that we can come to know if he was really a passionate lover or a philanderer.

Mumtaz Mahal belonged to a well-known Persian noble family which was in service of Mughals from Akbar’s time. Originally, Mumtaz Mahal’s name was Arjumand Banu Begum and she was a niece of Nurjahan. She was the second wife of Shah Jehan.

Mumtaz Mahal died at the age of 40 from labour pain and she was expected to give birth of their 15^th child. It shows that in their 21 year old marital relationship she bore 14^th children and she died from labor pain. What does it indicate? Wasn’t she a mere machine of child production for him?

Mumtaz Mahal was his second wife and he did not stop marrying there only. He had married three times. He had several other marriage alliances (though chronicler say that they were more for political consideration and these wives only enjoyed the tag of royal wives) and lots of concubines. His harem was full of beautiful young women. It is also said that the red light area called G.B. Road in Delhi was inhabited by women who were abandoned by him or kicked out from his 'Harem'. They started living there and prostitution was their main business to survive.

It is a well established fact that he was a great womanizer. In fact, his (Shah Jehan) Harem had more beautiful women than Jahangir and Akbar. English writer Col. James Tod has written in his book ‘ANNALS AND ANTIQUITIES OF RAJASTHAN’ page 36 “Shah Jehan in the language of the chronicler “became a slave of seraglio (Harem)” and sent his sons, as viceroys, to govern the grand divisions of the empire.” It proves that as he grew older, his sexual fantasies increased.

As if it is not enough, several renowned historians accused him of incest relation with his own daughter Jahan Ara.

According to P.N.Oak, Shah Jehan was such a rogue that many historians believe that he had incest relations with his daughter and for that his logic was that a gardener could eat the fruits of his trees.

François Bernier (25 September 1620 – 22 September 1688), a French physician and traveler and contemporary to Shah Jehan has also written on that. As per his words “Begum Sahiba, the elder daughter of Shah Jahan, was very handsome and of lively parts, and passionately beloved by her father. Remour has it that his attachment reached a point which it is difficult to believe, the justification of which rests on the decision of Mullahs or the doctors of Islamic law. According to them, it would have been unique to deny the king the privilege of gathering fruits from the tree he had himself planted.”

According to Peter Mundy, another European traveler, Shah Jahan had illicit sexual relation with his younger daughter.

Though we don’t authenticate any of such view, we live decision upon you.

Rana Sanga didn’t invite Babar to attack India.

A totally wrong perception is prevalent strongly in medieval Indian history that king of Mewar, Rana Sanga invited Babar to attack India. There are lots of logic which strongly proved that Rana Sanga did not invite Babar.
1.) Had he invited Babar, He would have fought against Ibrahim Lodhi alongside Babar in the first Battle of Panipat, on 21 April 1526. He could have not avoided this battle at all ethically and logically.

He was a Rajput and Rajput were known to keep their promises. They never betrayed their words. It proves he had not committed anything to Babar.
2.) He had become a dominant force within the northern India after suppressing Sultans of Malwa and Gujarat. Most of the Rajput kings of Northern India were either his subordinates or supporters. Rana Sanga was the most influential and commanding Rajput leader of his time.

He had already once subdued Ibrahim Lodhi in the battle of Khatauli. Hence, it would have been a much better option for him to attack Ibrahim Lodhi himself and dethroned the Lodhi king in order to become the emperor of the country (In a way, he ruined his chances to become Indian emperor by inviting Babar so it does not seem a proper reason for a reasonably sane king Rana Sanga).

3.) Rana Sanga was an adversary of Babar not an ally and battle of Khanwa proved it.

The historians and the people who supported this idea that Rana Sanga invited Babar gave a very feeble logic that he invited the invader because he thought that he would come, attack, overcome Lodhi and plunder Delhi and would go back to his kingdom and then this would be easier for Sanga to dethrone Ibrahim Lodhi.

Now let’s examine this logic also. We believe this theory but we also have to ponder that Rana Sanga was not crazy. The first question is, how could he be so confident of Babar that he would defeat Ibrahim Lodhi?

What makes us believe that he would have not thought of the reverse i.e. Lodhi’s win?

At the same time, why was he so assured that Babar would return to Kabul after defeating and plundering Lodhi?

Now let’s also examine the might of Rana Sanga.

Rana Sanga was the chief of all Rajputs king of the country and was the leader of most Hindu rulers of the Northern and Western India. In Col. James Tod’s words “Eighty thousand horse, seven Rajas of the highest rank, nine Raos of Gwalior, Ajmer, Sikri, Raesen, Kalpee, Chanderi, Boondi, gagrown, Rampoora, and Aboo, served him as tributaries or held him in chief” He further says, “He had gained 18 pitched battles against the kings of Delhi and Malwa. In two of these he was oppsed by Ibrahim Lodhi in person,at Bakrole and Ghatoli, in which last battle the imperial forces were defeated with great slaughter, leaving a prisoner of the blood royal to grace the triumph of Cheetore.”
Babar himself mentioned Rana Sanga in Babarnama with a great respect. He had all respect for his bravery and valor. In fact, he had confessed that he was afraid of Rajput bravery, courage and heroism. Their sheer will to die for their country and their ‘Dharma’ without a bit of hesitation had made him weak on his knee.

Tod writes with full conviction, “The crown of the ‘CHAKRAVERTA’ might again have encircled the brow of a Hindu, and the banner of supremacy been transferred from Indraprastha to the battlements of Cheetore.”

It is enough to prove his might and it also prove that he was fully capable of overpowering Ibrahim Lodhi. He didn’t need to invite anyone else to make him weak.

This quotation of Tod is enogh to prove that Sanga did not invite Babar, “But Babar arrived at critical time to rally the dejected followers of Koran, and to collect them around his own victorious standard.” It is suffice to make everything clear that Rana Sanga did not invite Babar. In fact, Babar spoiled his chances of becoming Delhi emperor.

There is one more point which proved it wrong. Before the first battle of Panipat, Babar had attacked India thrice but was not very successful. He was always eager and interested in entering into India.

He was actually invited by Daulat Khan Lodhi, the governor of Lahore, under Ibrahim Lodhi’s reign. He came to know that Ibrahim Lodhi was all set to cancel his governorship. This prompted him to invite Babar to attack Ibrahim Lodhi.