9 Nov 2019, is a landmark day
~ a Red lettered day .. Supreme Court of India quashed the lower court's judgement and
ordered the 2.77 acre land to be handed over to a trust to build the Hindu
temple. The much-awaited verdict on the
decades-long Ram-Janmabhoomi -Babri Masjid suit stands judicially resolved.
Ram Bakths are happy that a beautiful Mandir will come up exactly in the
place of His birth ~ and in our lifetime, we would be able to have darshan of
Ram Lalla at His Janmasthan.
The
other litigant too would not be too unhappy – they have been asked to vacate
and provided a bigger place of 5 acres.
There have been some who had tried to project it as a great conflict in
history – that of Ram vs Babar. Sad that
we read only history of Moghuls hailing Babar – here is something which I never
read in school ! ~ but deeply recorded in history ! – sure, you know Keoladeo National Park [better known as Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary] in Bharatpur, Rajasthan, a famous avifauna
sanctuary that hosts thousands of birds, especially during the winter season.
Over 230 species of birds are known to be resident. It is also a major tourist
centre with scores of ornithologists arriving here in the hibernal season. It is a
man-made and man-managed wetland and one of the national parks of India. The
reserve protects Bharatpur from frequent floods, provides grazing grounds for
village cattle, and earlier was primarily used as a waterfowl hunting ground. .. most of us never knew that this was the
stage for a famous battle too - The Battle of Khanwa !! Bharatpur was also an independent princely state during
British rule and that they fought 13 back to back war with British and
won all - even Queen Victoria signed a treaty favouring jats and declared
Bharatpur a independent state.
In our school books, we read Battle of Panipat, dynasty founded
by Babar, followed Humayun, Akbar to Aurangazeb .. .. here is something more of
history -
Humayun,
son of Babar born out of Maham Begum,
succeeded Babur as the second Mughal Emperor.
His other siblings were – Kamran, Askari, Hindal, Ahmad, Shahrukh,
Barbul, Alwar & FaruQ – Mirzas. There were sisters too : Begum - Fakhr-un-Nissa,
Aisan, Mehr Jahan, Masuma Sultan, Gulzar, Gulrukh, Gulbadan, Gulchera, Gulrang,
.. .. .. all these before Babur died in Agra aged 47. He was first buried in Agra later removed to
Kabul. Zahīr
ud-Dīn Muhammad, famously known as Babar
was the first Emperor of the Mughal
dynasty. He was a direct descendant of
Emperor Timur (Tamerlane) from what is now Uzbekistan.
Babur
was born in Andijan, in the Fergana Valley, in modern Uzbekistan. He was the
eldest son of Umar Sheikh Mirza, governor of Fergana and great-great grandson
of Timur. Babur ascended the throne of Fergana in its capital Akhsikent in 1494
at the age of twelve and faced rebellion. He conquered Samarkand two years
later, only to lose Fergana soon after. In his attempt to reconquer Fergana, he
lost control of Samarkand. In 1501, his attempt to recapture both the regions
went in vain as he was defeated by Muhammad Shaybani Khan. In 1504, he
conquered Kabul, which was under the rule of the infant heir of Ulugh Beg II.
Babur formed a partnership with Safavid ruler Ismail I and reconquered parts of
Turkistan, including Samarkand, only to again lose it and the other newly
conquered lands to the Sheybanids.
After
losing Samarkand for the third time, Babur turned his attention to India. At
that time, the Indo-Gangetic Plain of the Indian subcontinent was ruled by
Ibrahim Lodi of the Afghan Lodi dynasty, whereas Rajputana was ruled by a Hindu
Rajput Confederacy, led by Rana Sanga of Mewar. Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi at
the First Battle of Panipat in 1526 and founded the Mughal empire. He faced
opposition from Rana Sanga. Rana
prepared an army of Rajputs and Afghans to force Babur out of India, however
the Rana was defeated in the Battle of Khanwa after which he was poisoned to
death by his own men !!
Babur
is considered a national hero in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Many of his poems
have also become popular folk songs. He wrote the Baburnama in Chaghatai Turkic
which was translated into Persian during Akbar's reign. Of his many battles, in our history books we
read of that ‘First Battle of Panipat’, on 21 April 1526, fought between the
invading forces of Babur and the Lodi Kingdom. It marked the beginning of the
Mughal Empire and the end of the Delhi Sultanate. This was one of the earliest
battles involving gunpowder firearms and field artillery in the Indian
subcontinent which were introduced by Mughals in this battle.
Intense
but lesser known (or lesser read !) war was – the Battle of Khanwa, fought near the village of Khanwa, in
Bharatpur District of Rajasthan, on March 16, 1527. It was fought between the
invading forces of the Babur and the Rajput forces led by Rana Sanga of
Mewar. The victory in the battle consolidated the new
Mughal dynasty in India.
Rajput
ruler Rana Sanga had sent an ambassador to Babur at Kabul, offering to join in
Babur's attack on Sultan Ibrahim Lodi of Delhi. Sanga had offered to attack
Agra while Babur would be attacking Delhi. Babur agreed to Sanga and attacked Lodi.
However, while Babur did attack Lodi and took over Delhi and Agra, Sanga made
no move, apparently having changed his mind. Babur had resented this backsliding;
in his autobiography, Babur accuses Rana Sanga of breach of agreement.
Historian Satish Chandra speculates that Sanga may have imagined a long,
drawn-struggle taking place between Babur and Lodi, following which he would be
able to take control of the regions he coveted. Alternatively, writes Chandra,
Sanga may have thought that in the event of a Mughal victory, Babur would
withdraw from Delhi and Agra, like Timur, once he had seized the treasures of
these cities. Once he realized that Babur intended to stay on in India, Sanga
proceeded to build a grand coalition that would either force Babur out of India
or confine him to Afghanistan.
On
30 Jan 1528 Rana Sanga died in Chittor, apparently poisoned by his own chiefs,
who held his plans of renewing the fight with Babur to be suicidal. It is
suggested that Rana was valiant but was defeated with the use of cannons which
were much modern than the warfare the artillery of Rana.
With
regards – S. Sampathkumar
12th
Nov. 2019.
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