Real Historical Facts

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.” 

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.