Samajwadi Party Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh Ramji Lal Suman has sparked a controversy by calling Maharana Sangram Singh, popularly known as Rana Sanga, a traitor. Speaking in the Rajya Sabha on Saturday (March 22), the Samajwadi MP said that Rana Sanga had called Babar to India to defeat Ibrahim Lodi. He called Hindus the children of the ‘traitor’ Rana Sanga. Now the question is what actually happened.
Haters often claim that Rana Sanga called Babar to India to defeat the then Delhi Sultan Ibrahim Lodi. However, in reality, Rana Sanga had already defeated Ibrahim Lodi repeatedly. Apart from this, he had defeated the armies of the Sultans of Gujarat and Malwa several times and even defeated the combined army of both. So why would he need help from any outsider, that nobody answers.
Maharana Sanga, who became the ruler of Mewar in 1508, fought more than 100 battles in his life, but he was not defeated in any except in the battle of Khanwa. He was given the title of ‘Hindupat’ because of his valor. Due to these battles, he lost an eye and a hand. Even one of his legs did not work. There were more than 80 serious wound marks on the body. Yet, nothing stopped Rana Sanga.
Under the rule of Maharana Sangram Singh, the boundaries of Mewar spread far and wide. The boundaries of Mewar reached Agra (presently in Uttar Pradesh) in the east and the border of Gujarat in the south. According to Colonel James Todd, a scholar of Rajputana history, Maharana Sangram Singh had 80,000 horses, 500 elephants and about 2 lakh infantry soldiers.
Colonel James Todd said that Maharana Sangram Singh had seven high ranking kings, 9 Raos and 104 Rawals. The kings of Gwalior, Ajmer, Sikri, Raisen, Kalpi, Chanderi, Bundi, Gagraun, Rampura and Abu considered him their overlord.
Not just Ibrahim Lodi, Rana Sanga also defeated Sultans of Malwa-Gujarat
Rana Sanga fought 18 fierce battles with the Sultans of Delhi, Malwa and Gujarat and defeated them all. During his reign, he conquered and annexed modern Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, northern parts of Gujarat and some other parts including Amrakot in Pakistan. He re-established Rajput rule in Malwa for the first time after the fall of the Parmar Empire in 1305 AD.
The Battle of Khatoli was fought in 1517 between the Lodi dynasty led by Delhi Sultan Ibrahim Lodi and the Mewar Empire led by Rana Sanga. In this battle, Rana Sanga badly defeated Ibrahim Lodi. He again tried to take revenge from Rana Sanga by attacking in 1518-19, but Rana Sanga again defeated him badly in Dholpur, Rajasthan. Ibrahim Lodi fled from there.
Ibrahim Lodi fought with Sanga several times, but every time he had to face defeat. Due to these wars, Ibrahim lost all his land in modern Rajasthan. At the same time, Rana Sanga extended his influence to Peeliya Khar in Agra. According to the 16th century manuscript ‘Parshvanath-Shravan-Sattavisi’, Rana Sanga defeated Ibrahim Lodi in Ranthambore just after the siege of Mandsaur.
In 1517 and again in 1519, he defeated Mahmud Khilji II, the ruler of Malwa. The battle took place at Idar and Gagron. He captured Mahmud and held him captive for 2 months. Later, Mahmud apologized and vowed not to attack again, so Rana Sanga released him following the Sanatan war rules. However, in return, he annexed a large part of Mahmud’s kingdom to his kingdom.
In 1520, Rana Sanga defeated the army of Nizam Khan of Idar state and pushed it towards Ahmedabad. Rana Sanga stopped his attack 20 miles away from the capital of Ahmedabad. After several battles, Rana Sanga successfully captured North Gujarat and made one of his vassals the ruler there. Rana Sanga defeated the combined army of the Sultans of Malwa and Gujarat at Hateli.
Similarly, Rana Sanga defeated Sultan Nasiruddin Khilji of Malwa badly and annexed Gagron, Bhilsa, Raisen, Sarangpur, Chanderi and Ranthambore to his kingdom. Maharana Sanga abolished the Jaziya tax imposed by Muslims on non-Muslims from all the kingdoms he conquered and got the mosques and tombs built by them demolished.
Rana Sanga defeated Babar in the battle of Bayana
After winning Punjab and Sindh, Babar planned to capture Delhi. He attacked the Sultan of Delhi Ibrahim Lodi. On 21 April 1526 AD, a fierce battle took place between Babar and Ibrahim Lodi in Panipat, Haryana. Babar won this battle and killed Ibrahim Lodi.
However, Rana Sanga in Chittor and Afghans in the east were creating problems for Babar. Rana Sanga started preparing to stop Babar’s growing power. He started preparing to attack Agra, which was under Babar’s rule. When Babar came to know about this, he called his son Humayun. Further, outside Agra were strong forts of Dholpur, Gwalior and Bayana.
Babar first planned to get these forts under his control. At the time, the fort of Bayana was under the control of Nizam Khan. Babar tried to reach a compromise with him. Later, Nizam Khan joined Babar’s side. On 21 February 1527, the armies of Babar and Rana Sanga came to the battlefield in Bayana. In this war, Babar’s army suffered a crushing defeat. He returned to Agra after the humiliating defeat.
In this war with Babar, Maharana Sanga was supported by Maldev, son of Rao Ganga, the ruler of Marwar, Medini Rai of Chanderi, Raimal Rathore of Merta, Akheraj Duda of Sirohi, Rawal Uday Singh of Dungarpur, Rawat Ratnasingh of Salumbhar, Jhala Ajja of Sadari, Jhala Sajja of Gogunda, Chandrabhan Singh from Chandawar region of Uttar Pradesh, Manikchand Chauhan and Mehndi Khwaja etc.
Scottish historian William Erskine has written that Babar already knew about the valor of Rana Sanga, but he faced him for the first time in the battle of Bayana. He has written, “In Bayana, the Mughals realized that they were facing a much more formidable army than the Afghans. The Rajputs were always ready to fight in the battlefield and did not hesitate to sacrifice their lives.” Regarding this war, Babar himself wrote in his autobiography ‘Babarnama’, “The infidels fought such a fierce battle that the morale of the Mughal army was broken. They were terrified.” According to historian VK Krishnarao, Rana Sanga considered Babar a tyrant and a foreign invader. He wanted to end the foreign invaders by conquering Delhi and Agra.
Battle of Khanwa
Babar was getting discouraged following the terrible defeat of Bayana. His soldiers started talking about leaving India. However, Babar wanted to try one more time. He invoked Islam to keep unity in his army. He tried to get the Afghans, who supported the Rajputs, to join him by calling them infidels and traitors. He filled his soldiers with enthusiasm in the name of Islam.
Babar told his soldiers, “Sardars and soldiers, every human being who comes to this world has to die. When we are gone, only one God will remain. It is better to die with honor than to live here with disgrace. God has been very kind to us. If we die in this war, we will be called ‘Shaheed’ and if we win, we will be called ‘Ghazi’. Therefore, we have to take an oath with the Quran in our hands that as long as we are alive, no one will turn his back in the war.”
On the other hand, Rana Sanga also wanted to give a final blow to Babar. He started preparing for the war. Finally, on 16 March 1527, the armies of Babar and Rana Sanga came face to face in Khanwa, 60 km west of Agra. It is said that Rana Sanga’s army had 1 lakh soldiers, while Babar had 80 thousand. All historians agree that Rana Sanga’s army was much more powerful than Babar’s.
This was the first time India was seeing gunpowder, cannons, and guns which were used by Babar’s Army. Historians believe that if Babar did not have cannons, it would have been difficult to defeat Rana Sanga. Like his ancestor Bappa Rawal, Rana Sanga was also fighting the foreign invaders by forming an alliance of Hindu rulers.
Historian Pradeep Barua writes that if Babar had not taken the help of cannons and had not repeated the Panipat strategy, then perhaps the saffron flag of Mewar would have been flying in Delhi. After this war, the alliance of Hindus formed by Rana Sanga disintegrated forever and the Mughals ruled India for the next 250 years.
Did Rana Sanga invite Babar to India
Historians believe that Punjab Governor Daulat Khan wanted to replace Delhi Sultan Ibrahim Lodi. He knew that Fargana ruler Babar was coming to India after conquering Afghanistan. At the same time, Ibrahim Lodi’s uncle Alam Khan also wanted to capture the Sultanate. Alam Khan and Daulat Khan invited Babar to come to India.
Actually, in 1523, Babar was invited to India by the prominent people of the Delhi Sultanate. This included Sultan Sikandar Lodi’s brother Alam Khan Lodi, Punjab Governor Daulat Khan Lodi and Ibrahim Lodi’s uncle Alauddin Lodi. These people had sought his help to challenge Ibrahim Lodi’s rule.
Alam Khan also visited Babar’s court. There, Alam Khan Lodi told Babar about the political instability in India. After this, Babar sent his envoy to Punjab. His envoy’s report found Alam Khan’s words to be correct. After this, Babar started dreaming of conquering Hindustan. He attacked India in 1503, then in 1504, then in 1518 and 1519. However, he was not successful.
After this, Babar attacked Ibrahim Lodi in 1526. Rana Sanga had already weakened him by defeating him in many wars. Due to this, in this battle of Panipat, Babar defeated Ibrahim Lodi badly and captured the throne of Hindustan. Earlier, he was trying to seize the throne, but he was afraid of Rana Sangram Singh, Rana Sanga.
Historians deny that Rana Sanga had invited Babar to defeat Ibrahim Lodi. Actually, Rana Sanga was the most powerful ruler of that time. He had formed an alliance by combining all the rulers of Rajputana (old name of Rajasthan). It was impossible to defeat him. He defeated everyone from the Sultan of Delhi to the Muslim rulers of powerful Gujarat and Malwa.
Rana Sanga defeated Ibrahim Lodi repeatedly. Once he even defeated Babar in the battle of Bayana. Therefore, it is completely wrong to say that Rana Sanga had invited Babar to defeat Ibrahim Lodi. After the defeat in the Battle of Bayana, Babar himself wrote in his autobiography Babarnama, “There is no greater ruler than Rana Sanga in Hindustan and Krishnadev Rai in the Deccan.”
Dr. Mohanlal Gupta, who wrote a book named ‘Influence of Mewar in National Politics’, also does not agree with this. He has written that Babar wanted to capture Delhi and he was aware of the enmity between Ibrahim Lodi and Rana Sanga. In view of this, Babar sent a messenger to Rana Sanga and said that Babar wanted to fight with Ibrahim Lodi, the Sultan of Delhi.
The messenger told Rana Sanga that this is why Babar has sent a letter of treaty with him. In his book, Mohanlal Gupta further writes that Babar further wrote that he would attack Delhi. However, most historians do not agree with this. They believe that the most powerful king of that time did not need the cooperation of any outsider.
Many historians like GN Sharma and Gaurishankar Hirachand Ojha believe that Babar had already planned to invade India. He had tried to invade India four times before winning the first battle of Panipat, but did not win. He was aware of Rana Sanga’s prowess. He wanted Rana Sanga not to interfere.
