Battle For Chittoor: Storming the Last Hindu fortress in 1567 By Jeffrey Say Seck Leong In 1567, while the other Rajput kingdoms of northern India submitted to the Mogul Emperor Akbar, the Sesodias of Mewar made a defiant stand in the formidable fortress of Chittoor.
whose courage and determination enabled him to become master of a vast empire that covered almost two-thirds of the Indian subcontinent. One of the greatest testaments to Akbar’s military and political skills was his subjugation he walls had been breached. The Mogul of the martial Rajput kingdoms. forces were closing in on the gallant Rajput defenders inside Chittoor Garh, the fort of The domain of Rajputana or Land of the Rajputs Chittoor. Suddenly, flames were seen rising up (in what is now the desert state of Rajasthan) in the air from three places inside the fort. The occupied the northwestern portion of India and courtiers of Akbar the Great, the Mogul emperor, had presented special difficulties for preceding gave various explanations for the fires. Then Muslim rulers, as well as the Moguls. The hostile Raja Bhagwant Das, a Rajput leader who had Rajput kingdoms lay across the routes that ran allied himself with the Moguls, said that the fires south from the principal Muslim centres of could only mean one thing. The johar–the Rajput Delhi and Agra and were uncomfortably close custom of burning their women to death in the to Dehli and Agra themselves. Mogul rulers also face of impending defeat–had been performed. feared that the independent Rajput kingdoms Now the Rajput warriors sallied forth to meet could provide a safe haven for rebels plotting the invaders in a desperate last stand with their against them. Furthermore, Rajputana bordered traditional cry of ‘death for all before dishonour. on Gujarat, an important centre of commerce It was Tuesday, February 23, 1568. For more than with western Asia and Europe. To Akbar and the four months, the Mogul army had undertaken Moguls, therefore, there were potentially huge a costly and gruelling siege of the fort, directed political and economic advantages to be gained personally by their commander in chief and by securing Rajputana. emperor, Akbar. Now the campaign had reached its apocalyptic climax. The Rajputs (sons of kings) had begun to settle in northern and northwestern India after the Abu-al-Fath Jalal-ud-Din Muhammad Akbar breakup of the mighty Gupta empire in the late was born on October 15, 1542. His grandfather 5th century. They were probably descendants and the first of the Mogul emperors, Babur, was of Central Asian invaders who had contributed a Chaghatai Turk who came from an area in what to the fall of the Gupta dynasty. Others believe is now Uzbekistan in Central Asia–and was a that the Rajputs were the descendants of descendent of the Mongol conquerors Genghis the kshatriyas (warrior caste, the second tier of Khan and Tamerlane. Akbar became emperor the Hindu caste system), who had lived during at the age of 14 upon the death of his father, the Vedic period between 1500 and 500 bc, when Humayun, in 1556. In his nearly 50 years on the an Indo-European people from Iran, called the throne (15561605), Akbar proved to be a tolerant Aryans, settled in India. statesman, a shrewd administrator and an avid patron of the arts. He was also a strong-willed The Rajputs were governed by a chivalric individual and a brilliant military commander warrior’s code not unlike that of the knights of
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