Life of Hardship

Yet even whilst his pursuers deemed him panting in some obscure lurking place, Maharana Partap would, by mountain signals, reassemble his bands and attack the unawares Moguls.

The Moguls became weary of combating their ubiquitous enemy; and once more the monsoon, swelling the mountain streams, brought respite to Maharana Partap.

On one occasion faithful Bhils saved Maharana Partap and his family, who carried them in wicker baskets and concealed them in the tin mines of Jaora, where Bhils guarded and fed them.

Yet amid such complicated evils, the fortitude of Maharana Partap remained unshaken, and a spy sent by Akbar described how he saw the Rajput and his chiefs seated at a scanty meal, maintaining all the etiquette observed in prosperity.

The Maharana Partap bestowing the danah on the most deserving, which nobles received with all the reverence of better days.

Maharana Partap Family Struggles in Wilderness

Years thus rolled away, each ending with a decreased his means and an increased his misfortunes. His family was his chief cause of anxiety. Maharana Partap dreaded their captivity—an apprehension at point of almost being realized.

But there were times when the wants of those dearer to him than his own life almost drove him to frenzy. His wife was insecure even in the mountain cave, and daily his children wept around him for food.

His family had frequently abandoned ready meals for want of opportunity to eat them. Once his queen and his son’s wife had prepared a few cakes from the flour of the meadow grass, of which one was given to each child ; half for the present, the rest for a future meal.

Until that moment his fortitude had been unsubdued. He had beheld his sons and his kindred fall around him on the field without emotion—” for this the Rajput was born”; but the lamentation of his children for food unmanned him.

Letter to Akbar

He cursed the name of royalty if only to be enjoyed on such conditions. He demanded Akbar to decrease his hardships.

Overjoyed at this indication of submission, the emperor commanded public rejoicings. He excitingly showed the letter to Prithvi Raj, a brother of the prince of Bikaner. His circumstances compelled him to follow the victorious car of Akbar.

The state of Bikaner had recently grown out of the Rathors of Marwar. Prithvi Raj was one of the most gallant cavaliers of the age.

He adored the very name of Maharana Partap, and Akbar’s intelligence filled him with grief. With all the warmth and frankness of his nature, he told the king that the letter was the forgery of some foe to the fame of the Rajput prince.

He requested and obtained permission to transmit by his courier a letter to Maharana Partap. Ostensibly to ascertain the fact of his submission, but in reality with a view to prevent it.

The wrote couplets to the following effect: “The hopes of the Hindu rest on the Hindu; yet the Rana forsakes them. But for Partap, all would be placed on the same level by Akbar ; for our chiefs have lost their valour and our females their honour. Akbar is the broker in the market of our race : all has he purchased but the son of Udai ; he is beyond his price”.

This encouragement of the Rathor roused him into action, for it was a noble incentive to find every eye of his race fixed upon him.

Bhama Shah comes to Rescue Mewar

Unable any longer to hold his own in Mewar, he determined to lead his Sisodias to the Indus. Maharana Partap plant the crimson banner on the insular capital of the Sogdi, and leave a desert between himself and his inexorable foe.

With his family and all that was yet noble in Mewar, he descended the Aravalli. They had reached the confines of the desert when an incident occurred which caused him to change his plans.

To Bhama Shah belongs the honor of having saved his country at this critical juncture. He was the Rana’s minister—an office which had long been hereditary in his family.

He now offered to his master the accumulated wealth of himself and his ancestors. Rana found sufficient wealth for the maintenance of 25,000 men for twelve years.

Maharana Partap goes on Offensive

This magnificent offering enabled Maharana Partap once more to collect his bands. While his foes imagined that he was endeavouring to effect a retreat through the desert, he fell suddenly on Shahbaz in his camp and cut his troops to pieces.

Soon, Maharana Partap assulted and captured Khumbhalgarh. He put Abdulla and his garrison to the sword. Maharana Partap captured  thirty-two other fortified posts and he put to death the mughal troops without mercy.

In one short campaign, Maharana Partap recovered the whole of Mewar, except Chittor, Ajmer, and Mandalgarh.  As some slight return to Raja Man, who had fulfilled to the letter his threat that Maharana Partap should “live in peril”. He invaded Ambar, and sacked its chief mart of commerce, Malpura.

Rana also regained Udaipur, though this acquisition was so unimportant as scarcely to merit remark. In all likelihood Akbar abandoned it as it was difficulty of defending it when all forts around it had submitted to Pratap.

Later Life

For the repose which he enjoyed during the latter years of his life, Pratap was indebted to a combination of causes. Akbar soon changed his focus on the new battle fields in the southern India.

Though full weight must also be given to the influence which the conduct of the Hindu prince had exerted, not only upon Akbar, but upon the many Rajput princes who swelled his train, and whose inclinations it would have been dangerous to treat with indifference.

During this period, he also built a new capital, Chavand, near modern Dungarpur.

Pratap died of injuries sustained in a hunting accident at Chavand on 19 January 1597, aged 56. Amar Singh I, eldest son of Maharana Pratap succeed him.

Thus closed the life of a Rajput whose memory is even now idolised by every Indian, and will continue to be so, till renewed oppression shall extinguish the remaining sparks of patriotic feeling.