Real Historical Facts: Medieval India

Truth of Bhamashah's donation

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.

How many wars were fought between Prithviraj Chauhan and Ghauri?

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.

Humayun never respected Karnawati’s RAAKHI

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.

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.