MAHARANA PRATAP AND GREAT BATTLE OF DEWAIR OR DAWER. Part 1.

                      Maharana Pratap killing Bahlol Khan with his horse in two pieces.

                                                Amar Singh, son of Maharana Pratap

         “Akbar never won, Maharana Pratap never lost”

Maharana Pratap is the ruler of Mewar which includes 

modern day – Bhilwara, Chittorgarh, Rajsamand, Udaipur,

Pirawa (Jhalawar), Neemach and Mandsaur (in today’s MP) 

and some part of Gujarat.

Pratap Singh I, popularly known as Maharana Pratap, is the 

13th RANA of Mewar, a region in north-western India in the 

present-day state of Rajasthan. 

He was born on 9^th May, 1540 AD in Kumbhalgarh Fort and 

and dead on 19 January, 1597 at Chawand fort at the age of 

56 was the eldest son of Maharana Udai Singh II and 

Maharani Jaiwanta Bai.

Maharana Pratap Singh was 7.5 feet or 2.26 meter tall with 

110 kg weight, a massive man. He used to carry a spear 

weighing 80 kg, 2 swords of 50 kg and his armour is 72 kg.

This way he is one of the strongest warriors of India. 

Maharana Pratap’s Armour, Swords etc are safely preserved 

in the Udaipur Royal family museum. 

 

Historian Satish Chandra wrote - 

“Rana Pratap's defiance of the mighty Mughal empire, almost alone and unaided by the other Rajput states, 

constitute a glorious saga of Rajput valour and the spirit of 

self sacrifice for cherished principles. Rana Pratap's 

methods of sporadic warfare were later elaborated further by 

Malik Ambar, the Deccani general, and by Shivaji Maharaj”.

Following Haldighati battle, Maharana retired into jungles in

southern Mewar and from there he returned to Kumbhalgarh 

fort and continued his struggle. Maharana later had many 

big and small successes like winning battles of Dewar, and 

Goguanda.

After the battle of Haldighati or Haldi valley, only 7000 

soldiers were left with the Maharana. And in a short time the 

Mughals had authority over Kumbhalgarh, Gogunda, 

Udaipur and surrounding areas. 

The treasury of Maharana Pratap Bhama shah and his 

brother Tarachand Malwa presented twenty five lakh rupees 

of and two thousand ashfarias (gold coin) to Maharana. By 

giving this big amount Bhamashah serve the Mewar state. 

25 thousand soldiers could be given the logistics for 12 

years. Maharana again started to organize his army and in a 

short time a 40,000 powerful army came in light.

After this incident, Maharana Pratap highly respected 

Bhamashah and planned to attack Dewar. In 1582 AD, 

Dewair in particular was Maharana’s greatest success 

against Akbar in which Mewar army defeated the Mughals 

convincingly.

Maharana had changed his war strategy from frontal battle 

to Guerrilla warfare. This paid dividend to his fight against 

big Mughal armies. Seeing this Maharana used “guerrilla 

warfare” completely and the Mughals never allowed 

settlement in Mewar. 

Before the battle of Dewar Akbar 6 times sent his army to

capture or kill Maharana in Mewar. In 1577 he sent Raja 

Bhagwan Das Kachwaha of Amer with Amer prince 

Mansingh, along with Sayed Hashim, Sayed Kasim, and 

Shahbaz Khan Etc. with a big army. But the result was not 

achieved.

In 1578 Akbar sent Raja Bhagwan Das Kachwaha of Amer 

with Amer prince Mansingh, along with Shahbaz Khan and 

Kazi Khan Badkashi.

In 1579 Mughal army was sent under Shahbaz Khan to

conquer Mewar but in vain.

Again in 1580 Mughal army went to capture or kill Maharana 

but returned back empty hand. This time Abdul Rahim 

Khankhana was leading the Mughal army.

Battle of Dewar -  

In his book Colonel James Tod describes Haldighati as 

“Thermopile of Mewar” and called ‘battle of Dewar’ as 

“Marathon of Mewar”.

The Marathon war 490 BC was fought in a place Marathon 

in Greece. The war took place during second Persian

invasion of Greece. It was fought between the citizens of 

Athens, aided by Plataea and a Persian force commanded 

by Datis and Artaphernes. That time Darius 1 was the king 

of Persia. Persia was defeated by Greece though Persian 

had big army.

Colonel James Tod writes that, “The Maharana and his 

army were as brave as Spartans; they were knowing combat 

skills, courageous, had great determination, undaunted 

heroism and were not afraid to face even 4 times big army in 

the battle field”.

Western historians call ‘Battle of Dewar’ as the second 

part of ‘Battle of Haldighati’. In this battle Mughal emperor 

Akbar got tremendous defeat in the hands of Maharana 

Pratap.

                             Rest in next part