Maharana Pratap [Personalities in News]

Maharana Pratap Jayanti was celebrated on 9th May.

About Maharana Pratap

• Maharana Pratap was born on May 9, 1540, in Kumbhalgarh Fort to Jaiwanta Bai and Udai Singh II.
• Maharana Udai Singh II  ruled the kingdom of Mewar, with his capital at Chittorgarh.
• Maharana Pratap was granted the title of Crown Prince since he was the eldest of twenty-five sons.
• In the line of the Sisodiya Rajputs, he was destined to be the 54th ruler of Mewar.
• Chittor was surrounded by Emperor Akbar’s Mughal forces in 1567 when Crown Prince Pratap Singh was just 27 years old.
• Maharana Udai Singh II chose to abandon Chittor and relocate his family to Gogunda.
• The young Pratap Singh decided to stay and battle the Mughals, but his elders intervened and persuaded him to leave Chittor.
• In 1572, after the demise of Udai Singh, Rani Dheer Bai insisted her eldest son, Jagmal, should be crowned as the king.
• But the senior courtiers felt that Pratap was a better choice to handle the prevailing situation. This is how Pratap succeeded his father to the throne.
• In the course of the year 1573, Akbar sent six diplomatic missions to Mewar to get Rana Pratap to agree to the former’s suzerainty but Rana Pratap turned down each one of them.
• The last of these missions was headed by Raja Man Singh.
• Akbar understood that Maharana Pratap would never submit and he would have to use his troops against Mewar.
• In 1576, the famous battle of Haldighati was fought with 20,000 Rajputs against a Mughal army of 80,000 men commanded by Raja Man Singh.
• The Mughals were triumphant and killed a large number of Mewaris, but they were unable to capture the Maharana.
• The fighting took place in a narrow mountain pass near Gogunda, which is now known as Rajsamand in Rajasthan.
• Maharana Pratap Singh died on January 19, 1597, at the age of 56, in Chavand from injuries suffered in a hunting accident.
• His eldest son, Amar Singh I, succeeded him.