Mewar or Mewad is a region in the south-central part of Rajasthan state of India. It includes the present-day districts of Bhilwara, Chittorgarh, Pratapgarh, Rajsamand, Udaipur, Pirawa Tehsil of Jhalawar District of Rajasthan, Neemuch and Mandsaur of Madhya Pradesh and some parts of Gujarat. For centuries, the region was ruled by Rajputs. The princely state of Udaipur emerged as an administrative unit during the period of British East India Company governance in India and remained until the end of the British Raj era. Temples were desecrated, palaces and 'havelis' denuded of their wealth and works of art, vandalised. hardly anything survived the holocaust in the fort, except the undying spirit of Mewar that left an indelible message behind-'I will be back'. Padmini perished in the flames of jahuar, but left a legacy that still lingers in our consciousness. In fact, it is the likes of her who have enabled us to survive the slavery of a thousand years with almost every thing intact - our 'Vedas' and values, our festivals and fairs, our 'Ragas' and rituals, our arts and culture and above all, our pride in the past. B.K. Karkra, Rani Padmini, The Heroine of Chittor. (2009) Rupa. In June 1576 Maharana Pratap of Chittor had to face Akbar’s armies in the famous battle of Haldighati. Rana Pratap fought with exemplary courage and of his soldiers only a little more than half could leave the field alive. In the darkness of the evening, the wounded Rana left the field on his favourite horse Chetak. A little later, in October, Akbar himself marched in person in pursuit of the Rana, but the latter remained untraced and unsubdued. Later on he recovered all Mewar except Mandalgarh and Chittor. His nearest associates, the Bhil and Lohia tribals, had taken a vow that until their motherland was not freed, they would not eat in metal plates, but only on leaves; they would not sleep on bedsteads, but only on the ground; and they would renounce all comforts. The bravest among them even left Chittor, to return to it only when Mewar had regained independence. That day was not destined to come in their life-time. It was not to come for decades, for generations, for centuries. “In Rajab AH 836 (AD February-March, 1433) Sultãn Ahmad mounted an expedition for the conquest of MewãR and Nãgaur. When he reached the town of Nãgaur, he sent out armies for the destruction of towns and villages and levelled with the ground whatever temple was found at whichever place... Having laid waste the land of Kîlwãrã, the Sultãn entered the land of Dîlwãrã, and he ruined the lofty palaces of RãNã Mokal and destroyed the temples and idols...” Tabqãt-i-Akharî. Nizamuddin Ahmad. Sultãn Ahmad Shãh I of Gujarat (AD 1411-1443) Mewar (Rajasthan) Balban, when he was Ulugh Khan Khan-i-Azam, once brought to Delhi (in about 1260) two hundred fifty 'Hindu leading men and men of position” from Mewar and Siwalik, bound and shackled and chained. During the expedition he had proclaimed that a royal soldier would be rewarded with two silver tankahs if he captured a person alive and one tankah if he brought the head of a dead one. They brought to his presence 300 to 400 living and dead everyday. The reigning Sultan Nasiruddin ordered the death of the leading men. The others accompanying them were shaken to the bones and completely tamed. Chapter 5 2 August 1680: ‘Temple of Someshwar in western Mewar ordered to be destroyed.’ Aurangzeb. Akhbarat. Jadunath Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Volume III, Orient Longman, New Delhi, 1972 reprint, pp. 185–89., quoted from Shourie, Arun (2014). All this reads like a fairy tale, but it is history. And the history of Mewar has a moral to teach : the spirit of man is unbending, unconquerable. Quoted in Lal, K. S. (2001). (II.199) The Rajput War of 1679-80 was accompanied by the destruction of 175 temples in Mewar alone, including the famous one of Someshwar and three grand ones at Udaipur. ‘Anecdotes of Aurangzib and Historical Essays’ by Jadunath Sarkar Babur Wikipedia has an article about: Mewar
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