Some time ago he had attended a seminar on medieval warfare, with particular reference to the Rajputs. One of the speakers extolled the courage and fighting skills of the Rajputs. He further commented that Rajputs never compromised their dignity and that was the reason why Rajput women committed ritual death ‘Jauhar’ by burning. In this way the ‘honor’ of Rajput women was saved. At the end there was a question and answer session and I asked the speaker what was the reason why the Rajputs gave their daughters in marriage to Muslim nawabs and shenshah (emperors), thus condemning these poor girls to a life of endless work in a harem It was obviously an awkward question and the man groped for an answer. He gave an unconvincing answer and stated that the Rajput princesses themselves were probably happy with this arrangement. This is an absolute lie as in 100% of the cases these Rajput girls had no voice and were forced to marry Muslim kings and emperors and thus sentenced to please the Muslim ruler and die in the harem .
I have been observing this aspect of the Rajput character and have wondered how such a brave and outspoken race could have succumbed to the standard of giving their daughters to harems of Muslim emperors. It must be remembered that warriors who win battles always covet women. She is spoils for the victor and she is not voluntary at all. This was also in the Middle Ages in Europe as well. I remember seeing a movie with Micheal Caine, the biggest English star in which he played a warrior in the Middle Ages. After winning a battle, the first thing the warrior claims as a prize is the wife of the vanquished. Thus, a defeated man separates himself from his women as a gift to the victor. One can remember the sack of Delhi by Timur Lang in 1398. After the sack, Timur captured more than 2000 (this number may vary) Hindu women of great beauty for his harem and his nobles. It was the spoils of war.
Field Marshal Viscount Barnard Montgomery of El Alamein in his “War Story” has a whole chapter devoted to the war of the Hindus. It is a chapter worth reading and has excellent observations. Montgomery is well known as the British commander who knocked Rommel and his Afrika Corps out of North Africa with a six and stopped him at the Battle of El Alamein, some 60 miles from Alexandria in Egypt. He is a veteran soldier and the observation of him has merit. Monty, as he is popularly called, extols the bravery of the Rajputs. What is bravery? It is courage in battle and a fatalistic contempt for death. The Rajputs had this to a great extent, but they lacked strategic sense and study of the finer points of the art of war. This resulted in defeats and more defeats against the invading Turko-Muslims.
One example is the Tarain battles fought by the last Hindu king of North India, Prithviraj Chauhan against the fierce fighter Mohammed of Ghor. In the first battle in 1192, Ghor, facing a combined charge from the Rajput army, was found wanting and defeated. The logical course for the Rajputs was to pursue Mohammed de Ghor and capture him. However, misplaced notions of tolerance and lack of a strategic concept allowed Ghor to escape. He returned the following year, disciplined and wise, and once again met the Rajputs at the second Battle of Tarain. By the way, Tarain is close to modern Panipat. He came up with a proper plan, while the Rajputs relied on their old tactic of a massive charge. This failed as Ghor was ready. Prithviraj was captured, armored and killed. So far tolerance. Furthermore, another factor was the lack of unity among the Rajputs, thus negating a principle of warfare, namely unity of command. One of the Rajput kings named Jaichand sided with Ghor. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back and after this battle, the Rajputs were decisively defeated in every battle with the Muslim invaders.
The crown of Delhi passed into the hands of the Turks, who were later displaced by the descendants of the Mongols, led by Babur, who founded the Mughal dynasty. Babur came to India in the 16th century and won his first battle at Panipat against Ibrahim Lodhi, who was of Turkic origin, in 1526. Until Babur’s arrival, the Rajputs bravely fought against the various dynasties that ruled Delhi, such as the Slave dynasty and Khilji. dynasty. Unfortunately, in all these battles, the Rajputs either failed or were defeated. This was the period when Rajput morale was at a low point. At that time, some weaker Rajput advisers and princes had the idea to placate the Muslim rulers in Delhi with Rajput girls for their harems. This is the harsh reality and yet most Indians still speak of the chivalry of the Rajputs. Giving your daughters and princesses to be part of Muslim harems cannot, in any case, be cited as an example of chivalry. However, this is a fact of history.
There were a few isolated examples of some Rajput women committing Jauhar, the ritual death by burning when their husbands were defeated in battle. But it was a negative concept and shouldn’t be praised, as I wonder why these women couldn’t take up the sword and die fighting like Joan of Arc and Bibi Harshimran Kaur, and then jump on a pyre and burn to death. Muslims coveted Rajput and Hindu princesses and many went out of their way to have a group of Rajput girls in their harems. Some like Akbar were tolerant and allowed Hindu princesses to continue their Hindu rituals, but the fact is that a Rajput princess when she entered the harem of a Muslim king only left him when she died.
The Rajputs (although many will deny it) reached a compromise. To use modern parlance, they used women and sex to accomplish what they couldn’t accomplish in battle. Perhaps their repeated defeats, including those of their stalwarts like Ran Sangha and Rana Pratap, unnerved them. Many Rajputs also accepted the fait accompli and placed themselves at the service of the Muslim rulers, who can be said to have been generally fair in their dealings with them. Some famous generals in the Mughal army were Rajputs. But the end result was to gift Rajput princesses to the harems of Muslim rulers. The Rajputs thus made peace and were rewarded by being allowed to be local rulers under the imperial durbar in Delhi. In my opinion, it looks like crumbs thrown to hungry people.
The Rajputs were very brave, there is no doubt about that. The British recognized this and classified the Rajputs as a martial race and incorporated them into their Rajput regiments in the British Indian Army. However, this gift of Rajput girls to Muslim harems is a difficult fact to explain. Notably, there was no reverse traffic of Muslim princesses marrying Rajput kings. This dichotomy needs to be examined and studied. There seems to be no rational explanation why the Rajputs were forced to accept this arrangement and why they accepted it for almost 400 years. It only became extinct after the death of Aurangzeb and the rise of Maratha power. Later, the capture of India by the East India Company put an end to this practice.
Indian writers have not commented much on the life of Rajput princesses in Muslim harems. Only a few Western writers/historians have written about it. Life was generally not bad, but living the life of a concubine can never be the same as living as a free Hindu princess. Most harems were well provided for and had a world of their own. It is a peculiar Muslim concept, but later many Hindu kings like Maharajah Ranjit Singh also adopted this harem concept and reverse traffic also started, such as Hindu kings marrying Muslim girls.
Coming to the point of the Rajput psyche, it needs further study. It is necessary to find a rational explanation that a race classified as martial would end up giving its women to the same ones that defeated them. Perhaps the explanation is simple and is about victories and defeats and using women and girls as spoils of war.
