Siege of Chittorgarh (1567–1568)
| Siege of Chittorgarh | |||||||||
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| Part of Mughal-Rajput War (1558-1578) | |||||||||
 The Mughal Emperor Akbar shoots a Rajput leader, using a matchlock. | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Mughal Empire | Rajputs of Chittorgarh Fort | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Akbar Abdullah Khan Khwaja Abdul Majid Ghazi Khan Mehtar Khan Munim Khan |
Rao Jaimal† Rana Jai Singh Patta | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
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80,000 men 80 cannons 95 swivel guns 800 matchlocks 5,000 war elephants | 8,000 men | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 29,336 to 39,500 | 8,000 Rajputs 30,000 civilians inside the fort | ||||||||
Template:Campaignbox Mughal-Rajput War
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Siege of Chittor, Siege of Chittorgarh. In October 1567, the Mughal forces of approximately 5,000 men led by Akbar surrounded and besieged 8,000 Hindu Rajputs in Chittorgarh Fort and within a few months Akbar's ranks expanded to over 70,000 men and possibly more than 80,000 troops during the late phases of the siege, which ended in a decisive victory of the Mughals.
The Rajput began to emerge as a dominant power after the defeat of the Lodi dynasty. The Rajputs were opposed to the rise of the Mughal Empire and they often supported Akbar's fellow Muslim rivals including Baz Bahadur causing much tension in the region. Akbar set out on a series of campaigns against the Rajputs. Akbar was worried of Mewar Prince Pratap who was a powerful and highly capable Rajput[dubious – discuss]. Akbar feared losing against the Rajputs. He made a plan to kill Raja Uday Singh but failed. Later on the Mughal army increased day by day in numbers and Akbar got much needed support. Akbar knew that attacking Chittor directly would end in the defeat of Mughals because of Rajput's support to Rana Pratap in the event. He ordered a siege of the fort of Chittor from all sides to cut off supplies from outside to demoralize the Rajputs. The Mughals had a high amount of cannons and other artillery. In the years preceding, Akbar had fought many battles against the Rajputs and had realized that the Rajput owned Chittorgarh Fort must be eliminated because it was used as a bastion for those who opposed him.
Technology
Due to the constant state of war between the Hindu Rajputs and the Mughal Empire, Akbar began to realize the importance of and utilize the Rajput blades known as the kitar alongside the Mughal talwars in battle. Akbar began to believe that war elephants were the key to military success and that that a single "Armored Elephant" was equal to 500 sowars. He also noted that elephants have the ability to move through the densest of forests clearing through woods and paving way for both the Mughal sepoys, sowars and cannons. Akbar owned 5000 well trained elephants and recorded the use of almost 40,000 across his Mughal Empire. Akbar's war elephants were also trained to wrestle other elephants, attack sowars and crumble entire sepoy ranks. He is also known to have replaced pairs of elephant tusks with a pair of double-curved tusk swords. War elephants were also utilized to carry out executions and crush the bodies of all those who fought against the Mughal Emperor.
The Siege
The Siege of Chittorgarh began when Akbar and his personal Mughal force of 5,000 soldiers surrounded a 6 mile territory around Chittorgarh Fort. On 23 October 1567, Akbar arrived and setup encampments he raised green flags of the Mughal Empire, according to Hindu accounts he also brought large Islamic banners and emblems (Islamic flags were commonly used by the Mughal army). His personal presence in the battlefield was a message for the Rajput flanks inside the fort that the siege was not a temporal affair. The next day Akbar unleashed his powerful cannons, but within a few days of the siege it was evident that his mortars needed higher elevation. Akbar then ordered his men to build the Mohur Margi (Mohur Hill, also known as: Coin Hill). Akbar also displayed heads of dead villagers to incite the Rajputs to come out.
After an arduous siege Akbar ordered his men to lift baskets of earth during both day and night, in order to create a hill right in front of the fort by which the Mughal cannons could be placed. When the hill was completed Akbar placed his cannons and mortars near its tip, but the cannons were too slow to breach the thick stone walls of the Fort.
Akbar believed that the only way to achieve victory and break the deadlock was to blow a hole underneath Chittorgarh Fort. Akbar then organized his sappers to dig two tunnels and to plant two separate mines under the heavy stone walls of the fortress of Chittor. More than 5,000 Mughals then dug their way through a secret tunnel that neared the gates of the fort, but one of the mines exploded prematurely during a military assault killing about a hundred Mughal sowars. The casualties on the Mughal side had risen to almost 200 men a day due to Rajput muskets and archers.
As the Siege of Chittorgarh commenced a massive Mughal Army of nearly 60,000 gathered for battle and in this situation, Akbar had prayed for help for achieving victory and vowed to visit the tomb of the Sufi Khwaja at Ajmer if he was victorious. As the bombardment and the continuous assaults on Chittorgarh Fort continued, during one particular assault it is believed that a shot from Akbar's own matchlock wounded or killed the commander of the already demoralized Rajputs. It was only when almost all the Rajput women committed Jauhar (self immolation of women) did he Mughals realize that the condition inside the fort was now out of control and the total victory was within grasp.
The Sack of Chittorgarh
The fortress of Chittor finally fell on February 1568 after a siege of four months when it was stormed by the Mughal forces. Akbar himself ordered two armored elephants" and 250 sowars to enter through two narrow breaches on the northern wall of the fort. Instead of surrendering to the Mughals the Rajputs chose to worship the sun one last time and fight to the death. This was common practise among the Rajputs also known as saka. Akbar then ordered the victorious Mughal forces to massacre the 30,000 civilian inhabitants of Chittorgarh Fort to compensate the soldiers killed in the war by the brave and talented Rajput soldiers.
Akbar then ordered the heads of his enemies to be displayed upon towers erected throughout the region, in order to demonstrate his authority and his victory over the Chittorgarh.[1][full citation needed][2]
Aftermath
The Rajput resistance against the Mughal Empire] began to break down. Many Rajput Maharajas and commanders surrendered their forts and founded large Jaghirs under Mughal patronage. The large efforts made by the Rajput to eliminate the Mughal Emperor Akbar ended in a devastating rout during the Battle of Haldighati in 1576 and its ruler Maharana Pratap Singh was forced to live in the hills for the next 21 years of his life. Pratap resumed the tactics of guerrilla warfare. Using the hills as his base, Pratap harassed the several-times-larger Mughal armies and therefore awkward Mughal forces in their encampments. He ensured that the Mughal occupying force in Mewar never knew peace: Akbar during his lifetime dispatched many more expeditions to ferret Pratap out of his mountainous hideouts, but they all failed with the heavy losses to the Mughals. At the Battle of Dewar the Rajput army defeated the Mughal army. It was one of the big victories of Rajputs over Mughals.[citation needed]
References
- ^ Smith 2002, p. 342
- ^ Chandra, Dr. Satish (2001). Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals. Har Anand Publications. p. 107. ISBN 81-241-0522-7.
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