Maharana Pratap was the great leader and warrior in the 16th century, who was known for his fighting skills and bravery. Let’s learn more about this personality in detail.
History related to Maharana Pratap
Maharana Pratap was born in royal family of Kings. His father name was Maharana Udai Singh II and his mother name was Rani Jeevant Kanwa. Maharana Pratap was born in the year 1540, on the May 9. He was having around 45 siblings and he was the eldest among them all and of these 45, 25 were his brothers and 20 were his sisters. From the very childhood days, Maharana Pratap was good at fighting skills and he knew and was well versed with all knowledge that Kshatriya should posses.
In his whole lifetime, Maharana Pratap was dedicated towards getting the lost Chittor back to himself. He was the king of whole Rajasthan, but his own hometown, Chittor, was not with him. Akbar Army attacked the Chittor, at the time when he was only 27 year old and his father Maharana Udai Singh II decided to shift his hometown to Gogunda.
But the fire of taking his home land back was ignited in the heart of the Maharana Pratap. The battle of the ‘Battle of Haldighati’ with the Akbar, was the best example as how desperate was Rajput king to get his hometown back. The story of this war is as follows. Akbar and armies of Maharana Pratap were facing each other, although Akbar Army was numerically outnumbering the King Pratap army. Maharana Pratap was having a famous horse named as Chetak and he was favorite of Maharana Pratap. Legends say that, none of the horse till date is like the one ‘Chetak’ was. Man Singh, who was with the Akbar Army was killed by the Maharana Pratap with His horse placing his front feet’s on his chest. But as Generals of Maharana Pratap came to know that, they will not last long in front of the Akbar due to the lesser number of soldiers they have, they told Maharana Pratap to go out of the field and hide himself somewhere, so that he can lead the future attacks on the Akbar Army. In this fight, horse chetak was badly injured and was profusely bleeding.
Then Maharana Pratap got way from the battle field with his horse, but on the way he was attacked by the two Persians Turks. But to his astonishment, his younger brother Shakti Singh killed them, although he was with the Akbar army. Shakti Singh broke in to tears of not helping his own brother and fighting against him. Maharana Pratap consoled him and gave him an important position in his army. After the war, Maharana Pratap conducted various gorilla war fairs. He also attacked the outposts of Akbar Empire and attacked many times. Already Akbar suffered heavy losses in the war of Haldighati and now, these small wars were seriously affecting their army strength. Akbar tried many times to kill King Pratap but the geographical location of Aravalli where King Maharana Pratap used to have base, led to failure of each plan. Although in his life time, Maharana Pratap was never been able to get back Chittor, but his hard work led to the foundation that finally led to the fall of Mughal Empire.
Maharana Pratap died in the hunting event, after getting critical wounds. He died at the age of 57 on January 29, 1597.
How People Celebrate Maharana Pratap Jayanti
Celebrations are mainly limited to the regions of Rajasthan. The famous Haldighati fair of Mewar is celebrated in the Rajasthan State. In various special cultural events are organized by the various organizations. Maharana Pratap was always considered as the symbol of bravery and passion, and many royal families of Rajasthan still worship him like a god. They distribute cloths, money etc among the poor people on this day.
In schools students performs various events that are dedicated to the life of Maharana Pratap.