Chittaurgarh Brief History

	Chittaurgarh Brief History
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The uncompromising policy of death before submission followed by Chittor's Sisodia overlords ensured that its history is replete with tales of loyalty and terrible sacrifice. In 1303, during the reign of Rana Ratan Singh, a devastating attack was launched by Ala-ud-din-Khalji, the fiercest of the Delhi sultans. Having besieged Chittaurgarh, he offered to withdraw on condition that he be permitted to glimpse Ratan's legendarily beautiful queen, Padmini.

After being admitted alone into the palace to view the queen's reflection in a lotus lake, however, the sultan contrived to have Ratan ambushed just as he was showing him out. But Padmini devised a plan to recapture him. Sending word that she would give herself up to the sultan, the queen left the fort accompanied by troops disguised as maids of honor.

Once inside the Muslim camp, the transvestite commandos managed to rescue Rana Ratan, but 7000 of them were killed in the process. As a result, the defense of the fort foundered and the Rajputs lost the ensuing battle. Thirteen thousand women, led by Padmini, committed johar by throwing themselves and their children onto a huge funeral pyre, whereupon the angry sultan destroyed most of the fort's temples and palaces.

After returning to Rajput hands in 1326, Chittaurgarh enjoyed two hundred years of prosperity. However, in 1535, an unexpected onslaught led by Sultan Bahadur Shah from Gujarat once again decimated the Rajput ranks, and the women surrendered their lives in another ghastly act of johar .

The young Rajput heir, Udai Singh , who had been whisked away to Kumbalgarh fort by his nursemaid Panna Dai, returned to Chittaurgarh at the age of 13. Aware of its vulnerability, he searched for a new site for his capital, and in 1559 founded Udaipur on the shore of Lake Pichola. This proved to be a prescient decision.

Akbar laid siege to Chittaurgarh in 1567. His forces killed 30,000 of the fort's inhabitants; the women once again sacrificed themselves on a raging pyre, and many of the buildings within the fort were devastated. Although Chittaurgarh was ceded back to the Rajputs in 1616, the royal family never resettled there.