WHY WE ARE SHY OF GLORIFYING VALOUR OF OUR KNIGHTS?... DURGADAS AN UNDAUNTED SPIRIT WHO DARED AURANGZEB

WHY WE ARE SHY OF GLORIFYING VALOUR OF OUR KNIGHTS?...
DURGADAS AN UNDAUNTED SPIRIT WHO DARED AURANGZEB

Dr K Prabhakar Rao

It is a tragedy that our history books are silent about our own knights of medieval times who were brave and valiant and fought tooth and nail for justice against the ruling Islamic kings and Emperors. Durga das Rathore ( 13 Aug 1638-22 Nov 1718) is one such knight who belonged to 17 century when despot and fundamentalist Aurangzeb ruled over India ruthlessly and it was the darkest hour in the history of India. Unfortunately pseudo Indian historians and Europeans too down played the heroic deeds of Durgadas Rathore who fought the Mughals to uphold justice. They are more portrayed as lawless men, betrayers and anarchists. Even after gaining independence. Our pseudo secularists and rulers had no moral courage to make amends to the history fearing unhappiness from a section of Indians who chose to stay back in India after wrecking India. Durgadas has thus faded in to history’s pages like many such as Rana Pratap, Rana Sanga, Rana Kumbha, Amarsingh Rathore, Kapayya Naika, Veera Ballala, Veera Pandya Kattabomman, Velu Thambi, Rani chinnamma. Our history is full of heroic struggles of heroic men of great valor. Pattha and Jaimal of Chittor.

Durgadas Rathode was the undaunted spirit behind the heroic struggle of Rajputs to retain the throe of kingdom of Jodhpur for the real successor of Raja Jaswant singh who died while he was fighting rebels in Afghanistan borders near Khyber mountains at the behest of Emperor Aurangzeb. The family of Raja Jaswant singh served Mughals over many years loyally with undaunted spirit and loyalty. Instead of showing gratitude and sympathy and guiding smooth succession, Aurangzeb decided to annexed the kingdom to Empire. Eldest son of Jaswant singh too died in border fights before his father. But two Ranis of Jaswant singh were pregnant at this time and the emperor was requested for the delivery of Ranis so that a male off spring of late Jaswant singh could be crowned as the king. But the emperor was in no mood to listen and he sold the kingdom to a fellow Rajput of Marwar named Indra Singh who was disliked by one and all. Destruction of scores of temples in Jodhpur by Mughals infuriated Rajputs and rose against Aurangzeb.

Durga Das who was with the late king Jaswant singh at the time of his death returned from the battle front and on the way Ranis gave birth to two male princes and the eldest was named Ajit singh in 1679. Emperor was requested to recognize Ajit singh as the ruler. But Aurangzeb commanded that the queen s and the princes be brought to him at Delhi. The Ranis and the princes along with soldiers reached Delhi and they were imprisoned at Delhi. The emperor who was a religious bigot put a condition that he would recognize the prince as a ruler if he converted to Islam. Durgadas hatched a plan for escape. The Ranis in male attire with princes escaped from custody and they were allowed to proceed to Jodhpur. The emperor was furious when he knew about the escape. Although Mughal forces chased them Durgadas and Ranis, princes along with soldiers safely reached Jodhpur fort. Entire population of Jodhpur gave tumultuous welcome to them and they fought Mughals with great vigor and drove them away.

The angry emperor then ordered invasion of Marwar and he himself directed the operations from Ajmer. Durgadas under duress requested Rana Raj singh of Mewar for help who at once arrived with help. Rana Rajsingh saw danger to Mewar after Marwar at the hands of Mughals. The Mughal forces under Prince Mouazzam and Azam along with general Tahawur khan attacked Mewar. However Rana Raj singh along with his entire population vanished into the hills and commenced guerilla warfare. With a force of 20000 cavalry and equal infantry he fought Mughals vigorously and the Mughal forces were sacked from time to time. They defeated Mughals in open battles too. And they sacked the camp of Prince Akbar in a daring operation. This infuriated the emperor and he removed prince Akbar from the command. The brooding prince under the advise of Durgadas and Rajput commanders revolted against the emperor and declared himself as the emperor.. He prepared himself to attack Aurangzeb at Ajmer and who lacked forces at Ajmer. However the prince was lazy and wasted time in execution of attack which if carried out would have surely changed the course of Indian history. The prince lacked determination.

The cunning emperor was however was very clever than the prince and he forged a letter congratulating him for his plan of trapping the Rajputs and exhorted him to attack the Rajput forces from behind during the attack. He ensured that the letter fell into hands of Durgadas. For some time Rajputs were completely lost and left the camp with their forces. Emperor collected great forces for the battle. However Prince Akbar realized the cheating by his father and ran to Rajputs who realized the mistake. They were however not prepared to face Mughals. They also realized that it was not possible to protect prince Akbar from Mughals and safely escorted him to Maharaj Sambhaji in Maharashtra. Who was a terror to Aurangzeb? With this development Aurangzeb was furious and decided to punish Sambhaji. But he finally met his waterloo in Deccan where he died in exhaustion in 1707 after getting trapped in Deccan for next 25 years fighting Marathas and Golconda and Bijapur sultans.. Aurangzeb was a wretched person and did not spare even his sons. He even put his eldest son Mohammed Sultan who was married to the princess of Golconda in prison where he withered away and died.

Rana raj singh died while the struggle with Mughals was going on and his son Rana Jai singh too fought the Mughals in support of Durgadas. . However Aurangzeb came to terms with Mewar and did not further interfere in their affairs. The national struggle by Rajputs left the emperor high and dry and the struggles lasted two decades and left Mughals exhausted. Finally Ajit Singh entered Jodhpur and the Mughals were butchered by Rajputs. Some ran away in disguise of Hindus. It was the greatest victory for Durgadas in his life time. Raja Ajit singh was recognized as the ruler by Bahadur Shah I the Mughal emperor who succeeded Aurangzeb.. Rajputs ruled Jodhpur till the Englishmen occupied India.


Durgadas has gone down the annals of Indian history particularly in Rajasthan as the greatest warrior next only to Maharana Pratap. He waged relentless wars with Mughals when Aurangzeb was hell bent on smashing the Hindu kingdoms and erase Hinduism from India. He succeeded in liberating Jodhpur from Mughals. It is tragic to note that Indian History books directed by the Indian government has no place for such heroes and the pseudo secularists are busy highlighting the kith and kin of Gandhi and Nehru, apart from highlighting Mughals and the sultans who were mere killers, rapists and arsonists.. These cruel rulers have been glorified as the most benevolent rulers while the real facts are other way. We are hesitant to highlight our own heroes. Then who will do it? However truths can not be hidden for very long. One can fool others once or twice but not eternally.. The day is not far off when the Indian history will be re written and our children will be freed from swallowing false history down their throats. Durga Das and Ran Rajsingh carved a golden place for themselves in the history of India.

Indian history is replete with valor and sacrifice
Where our past knights laid down their lives
That we live in honor and with pride
However our pseudo leaders hide in beehives

Rana Pratap waged life long wars with Mughals
And he kept flag flying very high in fights
Alas our Indian history books to day
Have no place for the chivalrous knights

NOTE. Prince Akbar who took assylum with Raje Sambhaji Chatrapthi finally left for Persia disillusioned and he died there in course of time