In the last decade or so thanks to the social media's prominence it has become amply clear to the Hindus of Gen X, millennial and later generations that they were offered a carefully crafted history of their ancestors to shape their critical thinking in a certain way. That certain way was to force you to believe that Hindu civilization was easily defeated and subjugated without any resistance to the invading Islamic marauders. Thankfully there is a clear, welcome and widespread trend to
unlearn [the biased history],
discover [the real one] and
re-learn among Hindu masses. Though a little late, the government of India
has also started to acknowledge the problem and NCERT has undertook
initiatives to undo factually inaccurate and incomplete history that was served to kids through a nationwide curriculum.
Today to further the process of re-learning our glorious past, we will look at the forgotten story of Maharana Hammir Singh.
In order to understand the story and contribution of Hammir Singh, let's rewind it back a little into the history of Mewar.
Background:
After the fall of the Ranthambor fort ending the rule of the Chauhan king Hammir dev, the 13th Sultan of Delhi, Alauddin Khilji was emboldened to further his ambitions to capture more states of Rajputana and set his sights on one of the most prestigious seat of Hindu power in the medieval India, Chittor, under the princely state of Mewar. One of the documented reasons for Khilji's interest in Mewar was his infatuation with the queen Padmini of Mewar. He likely also had economic and commercial reasons for his interest in the kingdom as Mewar had an abundance of silver and zinc deposits which were used for making the armoury. Khilji also wanted to invade South India for its riches but Chittor stood in the way, both metaphorically and literally. He laid the first siege to the Chittor fort in 1302 CE. Laid down the dishonorable and unacceptable condition of surrender of Rajputs and acquisition of queen Padmini for himself in lieu of lifting the siege. A bloody battle ensued resulting in thousands of deaths on both sides but the Rajputs under the king Rawal Ratan Singh did not relent. Khilji understood winning Chittor was still a distant dream and offered truce. After the truce meeting when Rawal Ratan Singh escorted Khilji down the fort outside the fort walls, Khilji revealed his true colors and abducted Ratan Singh. The famously beautiful queen Padmini was a master planner and warrior herself. Along with the Mewar nobles, she planned the extrication of Rawal Ratan Singh and was successful in bringing back Ratan Singh with the supreme sacrifice of thousands of Rajputs along with the most notable contribution by the uncle-nephew duo of queen Padmini, Gora and Badal.
Allauddin replenished his resources by plundering the rest of the Rajasthan and returned to Chittor a year later in around February of 1303. Mewar had not yet recovered from her loss of many of her sons. After failing to carry the fort by assault, he decided to wait. He pitched his imperial pavilion between Bedach and Gambhiri rivers to play the long game. After seven long months of siege, Khilji managed to obtain a hill at a Southern point. Rawal Ratan Singh is said to have had the vision of the presiding deity of Chittor stating that the continuance of Rajput control over Chittor needed regal blood. Ratan Singh convened a midnight council of his nobles and announced his intention to carryout the advice of the divine vision. Twelve sons and nephews of Ratan Singh were lined up to lead the final frontal assault one by one. Eleven princes including the eldest Ari Singh were martyred in 3 days of Mewar's frontal assault. On the fourth day Ratan Singh proclaimed, " I give myself to Chittor now" and charged towards the enemy along with hundreds of his most able Rajput warriors to perform saka (Final war leading to supreme sacrifice). Inside the fort, the queen Padmini and 20,000 of her loyal maids, friends, noble womenfolk and ordinary female citizens of Chittor locked themselves to perform Jauhar, an act of super-human like unmatched bravery anywhere recorded in human history where the women offer themselves into the giant holy fire pits to avoid the captivity thus saving themselves from dishonor by the vicious Islamic hordes. Visualize young children being tied to their mothers before they enter the holy fire pits. 30,000 male soldiers and civilians were killed on the 26th August 1303 CE. Thus, after withstanding the Islamic onslaught for 600 continuous years, the greatest seat of Hindu resistance fell to the Islamic Invaders.
Maharana Hammir Singh: Recoverer of Chittor & the slayer of Tughlaqs (Reign : CE 1326-1364)
With the fall of Chittor after the battle with Allaudin Khilji in 1303 CE, the elder branch of the Guhil family, i.e. the Rawal branch had no successor left; the junior branch of Guhil family, Ranas of Sisoda village then took over the inheritance. It would be easy to understand by looking at the lineage chart below. Rawal branch of the Guhil family stopped at Rawal Ratan Singh while the secondary branch took the reigns. Many great warriors like Rahap, Mahap, Karan Singh sacrificed their lives trying to regain their ancestral place in a short span of three decades.
Finally Bhuvan Singh recovered the fort. Bhuvan Singh was succeeded by Laxman Singh, while power in Delhi had shifted from Khilji's to the Tughlaqs. Muhammad Bin Tughlaq attacked Chittor and Laxman Singh along with his son Ari Singh died defending Chittor. Chittor was lost once more. The younger son of Laxman, Ajay Singh, escaped with severe injuries and built his capital at Kailwada where he was sheltered and healed by Jain munis.
Before the attack by Tughlaq, elder son of Laxman Singh, Ari Singh went out to hunt boars in the jungles of Kailwada and came across a local girl in the village of Oondwa. She confronted him when he wanted to enter the cornfield while chasing the wounded boar. The girl ask him not to ruin the farm and wait for her to return with the game. To Ari Singh's utter amazement she came back with the carcass of the boar. Then she politely asked Ari Singh to cook the boar in the village and enjoy his meal. On their way to village Ari Singh, already impressed with her, noticed how carrying a milk pitcher on her head, she was also effortlessly dragging two buffaloes. Ari Singh contemplated, 'If I were to have a son from her, he would be a very strong and powerful man indeed.' He inquired about her family which happened to be Chadana Rajputs and asked for her hand from her father. Ari Singh marries this girl Urmila, but because she is no royalty, the marriage was kept a secret. Ari kept visiting Urmila regularly and they had a son who was named Hammir Singh. Hammir became the progenitor of the Sisodia clan, a branch of the Guhila dynasty, to which every succeeding Maharana of Mewar has since belonged.
Ajay Singh who escaped from the war with the Tughlaq and was settled in Kailwada had two sons, Sajjan Singh and Kshem Singh, both of whom were weak and ineffective. Ajay Singh was constantly challenged by a local mountain chief Moonja Baloch but was too old to fight him. Then, some samants loyal to his martyred elder brother Ari Singh told Ajay Singh about his brother's son from a secret marriage. Hammir Singh was beckoned from his village Oondwa at the age of thirteen. Hammir learned about the Moonja Baloch and set up his men at Semari village where Moonja was expected to attend an event. Hammir attacked Moonja and beheaded him, carrying back Moonja's head on his saddle-bow. Ajay Singh kissed his nephew, applied a teeka on Hammir's forehead with Moonja's blood. Thus, Hammir Singh became the king of Mewar, overcoming his circumstances through his extreme valor and twist of fate around CE 1326.
Now the long awaited daunting task of regaining the control of the ancestral seat of power, Chittor, rested on the able and broad shoulders of Hammir Singh. Hammir made Kailwada his residence and his first plan of action was to order the people of Mewar to vacate the plains and climb up the hills according to the 'scorched earth policy' of Mewar. This policy was made to render the plains of Mewar barren and useless for the enemy and create such hardships that they would starve in the absence of local farming and other commodities required for sustenance. This evacuation of the plains and shifting the entire population to the hills was a strategy that was carried out by successive Maharanas of Mewar to counter Islamic invaders. It was quite an amazing feat to achieve and even communicate such a message to the entire state in those challenging times. Even more baffling was the absolute trust the population had in their king to have joyously followed their Rana to a life of extreme hardship and adversity. We can only look back in awe at such trust and love showered by the entire population on their ruler and it is difficult to decide whose sacrifice among the two was greater - the Maharanas, who chose to famish the entire commerce of their state and lived a life of wandering warriors OR the people of Mewar, who followed the Maharanas to poverty and deprivation. Though employed by many Maharanas, the most remarkable results leading to victory with scorched earth policy were seen twice - first with Maharana Hammir and two centuries later with Maharana Pratap.
However, it was not an easy journey for Hammir. Even after putting his people through all these immense hardships, destroying local commerce, Hammir did not gain much military success. A time came when he did not even have the money to pay the salaries of his army. In the mean time, Tughlaq went back to Delhi, leaving Chittor in the hands of Maldev Songara (of Jalore) as his vassal. Maldev protected it fiercely and nursed the ambition of ruling the whole of Mewar someday. He was aware of Hammir Singh's designs but he considered him weak. Though Kailwada provided the perfect refuge from the plains, the repeated failures at recapturing Chittor began to drain out the Samants and friends of the Mewar Royal house. The campaign to free Chittor was losing steam and starting to disintegrate.
Hammir, dejected and drained, abandoned his home and retreated to Dwarka in Gujarat. En route to Dwarka, he camped at a village called Khod, a settlement of the local Charan community. Here Hammir chanced upon a female mystic named Birwadi Devi, daughter of Chakhda Charan. Birwadi Bai was locally believed as the incarnation of Hinglaj Mata. To her he narrated his misfortunes and failures to recover Chittor. This encounter between Hammir and Birwadi Devi not only changed his life but also the dimensions of the entire Hindu-Muslim conflict in the subcontinent irreversibly. Birwadi looked at Hammir and proclaimed,"O brave brother, go back to Kailwada! You will get Chittor back when you get a matrimonial offer from the most unexpected place, don't reject it! Accept it, as that will be instrumental in getting back your lost kingdom."
To which Hammir replied, " Bai (Sister)," how will I get Chittor back? I don't have a horse to ride, nor men to fight for me and no money even to feed my family."
Barwadi assured Hammir that her son Baruji will come over to Kailwada with a caravan of 500 horses and required wealth and resources to aid him with rebuilding his army to relaunch his mission with gusto. Hammir was inspired by Birwadi Devi's words and decided to follow her advice. In any case, he had nothing to lose by following her advice. Hammir returned to Kailwada and waited. As promised by Birwadi Devi, her son Baruji arrived with the resources and replenishment. Hammir honored Baruji by bestowing the Raj Kavi of Mewar and many villages given to him as grants. Baruji's descendants inhabit these villages to this day. Once again Bhils of Mewar rose to support the royal house of Mewar and supplied with thousands of warriors and bowmen to fulfill the dream. They also started the spy-ops to track the movements of the enemy troops.
Then, through a strange turn of events, Maldev, the vassal of Tughlaq who was handed over Chittor was advised by his trusted men to give his daughter to Hammir as it would truly expand his frontiers and save from repeated attacks from Hammir to recapture Chittor. For Hammir this was unacceptable as he would have to cease his campaign but at the same time he was convinced about Birwadi Devi's prophecy and accepted the matrimonial offer.
The marriage took place at Chittor and Jalore's Songara princess won Hammir's heart on their very first night. Songara princess too fell instantly in love with Hammir and helped him layout a plan to win back Chittor. She advised Hammir to ask for Maldev's servant Mauji Ram, to which bride's father Maldev consented. Mauji Ram came to Kailwada with the newlyweds and immediately approached Hammir, "Now is the time to make your move, for which you had sought my loyalties from Maldev."
Hammir followed the advice and along with Mauji Ram took his small army to Chittor on the pretext of hunting. At midnight, since the gatekeepers of the fort recognized Mauji Ram the gates of the fort were opened and Hammir entered the fort with his men and seized control, slaughtering whatever little resistance he faced from stationed Jalore army. This was 1326 CE when Chittor was recaptured by Hammir Singh. Maldev was furious when he learnt of this and gathered his army to attack Chittor. Hammir by now had gathered all his former aides, chieftains and repelled the attack by Jalore army led by Maldev and his five sons. Maldev informed Muhammad Bin Tughlaq and joint forces of Jalore and Tughlaq were preparing to march to Chittor. However in the meantime, the news of Hammir's ascendance to the throne and seizing of the Chittor fort spread like wildfire and learning about the pride of Hindwa Sooraj [The shining Sun of Hindus] being reinstated, people of Mewar started pouring in from the Western highlands and the valley of Kumbalgarh to cheer their beloved king. The glory of Chittor being restored was a signal for the people to return to their ancient abodes in the plains from the hills and other hideouts.
Armed with renewed zeal and fervor of the people and the samants of Mewar, Hammir amassed vast army and instead of waiting for the Tughlaq led army to attack, decided to march towards them to engage them at the place and time of his choice.
There are three routes to approach Mewar - the Western route through Marwar, the central route through Dewair and the Eastern route through the plateaus of Aravallis. Tughlaq was ill-advised by his counsellors to take the Eastern route where his massive army's numerical edge was rendered useless by the intricate and narrow passes of Mewar. Tughlaq was camped in the village named Singoli on the banks of Chambal river with 70,000 cavalry and 20,000 infantry. Despite being outnumbered by one to four, Hammir with his 20,000 cavalry mounted a surprise attack on the Tughlaq's army slaughtered them mercilessly killing nearly all of the Generals of the Tughlaq's army. Hammir also killed Maldev's grandson Haridas in a one to one combat. Not only Hammir achieved unbelievable and DECISIVE victory routing the joint forces of Delhi Sultnate and Jalore but he also succeeded in taking Muhammad Bin Tughalq as the prisoner.
This battle of Singoli in 1336 and its favorable outcome for Hindu kingdom of Mewar had monumental consequences for the Indian subcontinent. It has been willfully ERASED from history books of India by the successive Muslim education ministers under Congress govt over the decades. The map below shows the village of Singoli in Rajasthan marked with a dotted red line.
Tughlaq was forced to surrender Ajmer, Ranthambore, Nagamand and Shivpuri to Hammir besides giving Rs. 50 Lak and 100 war elephants as a penalty. Hammir was so confident by now that while releasing Tughlaq he did not extract any promise from him of launching no further attacks on Chittor. Hammir reportedly said to Tughlaq as he stood locked in the chains in the royal court of Mewar :
"If you were to attack Chittor again, be prepared that I will defend Chittor, not from within, but outside her walls."
It was this huge victory that earned Hammir Singh the honorary title of "विषम घाटी पंचानन"(Vishama Ghati Panchanan), the one who roars like a lion in the most trying times. This title was conferred to him many decades later by Rana Kumbha in KirtiStambh Prashasti. Mahavir Prasad Prashasti identify Hammir as Vanquisher of Turushkas.
Humiliated and defanged Muhammad Bin Tughlaq was released by Hammir and never recovered after this war. He turned towards the South and there too Tughlaq was defeated by the mighty Vijayanagar empire, another crucial fact suppressed to keep Hindu generations upon generations from knowing their glorious past. In the Jalore kingdom, Banbeer, son of Maldev made an alliance with Hammir and went on to become one of his most trusted lieutenants. Hammir became the SOLE prince with power and dominance in the North-West India surrounded by the Muslim states of Delhi, Malwa and Gujarat but capable of expelling all three simultaneously.
The power and prestige of Mewar state was so well consolidated by Hammir Singh that for the next SIX generations spanning over two centuries, Mewar not only repelled every Islamic attack on their territory but brought the war to enemies territory. The Hindu chiefs of Marwar, Ajmer, Boondi, Gwalior, Chanderi, Raesen, Sipri, Calpi, Abu etc brought their levies and paid their homage to the prince of Mewar. Mewar saw an unprecedented rise in wealth and prosperity in the times of Hammir. Trade Routes flourished and the people of Mewar became very rich.The architecture and scale of the buildings, columns and temples of those times bear testimony to this rebuilt prosperity.
Hammir invited Mata Birwadi Devi from Khod (Gujarat) to Chittor and hosted her with full honor and affluence. He even constructed a temple in her memory named Mata Annapoorna temple which stands even today inside the formidable walls of the fort of Chittor.
Hammir's conquest of the Delhi Sultanate and imprisonment of Muhammad Bin Tughlaq was a dagger into the heart of Islamists dreaming of Islamising India after capturing Chittor and Ranthambore and attempting near complete decimation of Sisodia Rajput clan of Mewar.
Hammir ruled uninterruptedly for almost 40 years, rebuilt Hindu temples all over the region all the way up to Gaya and Banaras. He passed away a natural death at a ripe age. He left behind a name deeply venerated in Mewar even today as one of the wisest, most gallant and invincible king of Mewar, bequeathing a well-established and extensive Hindu kingdom to his heirs.
Hammir's story from birth to death is a surreal saga of what Sisodia princes endured in medieval India to keep the land of Hindus FREE from Islamic invaders and sustain Hindu dharma and dharmiks (people) at the cost of their lives.
Whenever you visit Rajasthan and come across a life-size oil painting of Hammir Singh in any of the magnificent Mewar palaces, please take off your shoes, bow in reverence as a proud Hindu and offer your respects to the MAN who kept the flame of Hindu dharma alive against all odds.
If you are Instagram user, here is a nice and short infographic series on Hammir Singh that you may like.
My sincerest gratitude and dandvat pranam to Shri Omendra Ratnu ji from whose book, "Maharans : A Thousand years war for Dharma" I have copied many paragraphs verbatim. Also sincerest gratitude to that Bengali patriot friend who was the inspiration behind penning this article.
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