Who was Rana Sanga
Rana Sanga was a Rajput ruler of the Sisodia dynasty, his childhood name was Maharana Sangram Singh, he was born in 1484 and died in 1528, his father’s name was Rana Raimal. Rana Sanga ruled from 1509 to 1528.
Rana Sanga History
Maharana Sangram Singh played an important role in the progress and expansion of Mewar. He improved his relations with all the other Rajput kings. He was declared the ruler after the death of his father Raimal in the year 1509. After becoming the ruler, he was known as Rana Sanga.
Mewar is located in Rajasthan, the state of India, It was ruled by Rana Sanga from 1509 to 1528. At that time many foreign invaders were trying to attack his motherland, due to which he united all the Rajput rulers. He was a brave warrior as well as a moderate.
He was the most powerful king in his time, therefore, he was successful in protecting his States from Mughal.
Rana Sanga defeated Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire, in the Battle of Bayana in the year 1527. Rana Sanga used to follow Rajputana traditions on the battlefield. In the battle of Khanwa, the commander of Rana Sanga was Hasan Khan.
Rana Sanga was badly defeated by the enemy army in the battle of Khanwa on 16 March 1527. Due to this, he had to leave the war and come to Baswan where he died in 1528. However, his last rites were performed in Bhilwara. According to historians, he would not have lost in the war if his people did not betray him. Whatever be the case, he has inspired the next generation with his bravery.
He was so brave that even after his leg and eye were injured in the war, he continued to fight and defeated Sultan Muhammad Shah and was taken, prisoner. However, after some time he had freed that captive king and returned his kingdom to him as well.
Rana Sanga had more than 80 injuries in the battle of Khanwa but still, he did not lose his control, which shows his bravery, Babur has also mentioned the Rana in his autobiography “Baburnama”, in which it’s written that Rana Sanga became very powerful on the strength of his sword. If Rana Sanga’s successors were brave like him and he was fearless, then perhaps it would take a long time for the Mughal Empire to spread to India. And there might not have been a Mughal Empire at all.
Early Life
Rana Sanga had two brothers, Prithviraj and Jagmal. At one time these three brothers were fighting to become the ruler of Mewar. But one day a fortune-teller told that Rana would become the ruler of Mewar, as soon as his brothers came to know about this, they tried to kill Rana but could not do so. Because Rana had gone from Mewar to Ajmer where he took shelter of Karamchand Panwar. in the year 1509 with the help of Karamchand he become the ruler of Mewar.
Military Power
If we believe the Mughal emperor Babur, then he was the most powerful emperor in the whole of India at that time. According to Babur, the Rana had mastery in war. His army consisted of more than 100,000 Rajput soldiers as well as many war elephants and cavalry. Only Rajputs were included in his army, as he himself was also a Rajput, his army did not include people of other castes. Perhaps in his eyes, Rajput was enough to fight because Rajput is considered a warrior caste.
He defeated the rulers of Delhi Sultanate, Gujarat, and Malwa on the strength of his army and became the most powerful emperor of northern India. According to historians, he had fought more than a hundred battles and in all of them lost his body parts and got badly injured in some.
Reign
He had taken most of the Rajputs with him during his reign, due to which he was able to save his empire. He extended his empire to Sindh, Punjab, Malwa, and Sutlej river. And it included many more Rajputana states.
He had expanded his empire to Sindhu, Bharatpur, and Gwalior and was the first Hindu ruler to establish his empire in such a large area. Earlier such a huge empire belonged to Muslim rulers only. However, there was also a large Hindu kingdom in the south which is called Vijayanagara Empire. Apart from this, he twice defeated Sultan Ibrahim Lodi of the Lodi Dynasty in battle. Along with this, he also prevented the Sultan of Gujarat from conquering Mewar.
He defeated the Mughal emperor Babur in the battle of Khanwa, while Babur’s army was also good. however, This was the important reason that Rana Sanga made a different identity in history. He was the most powerful Indian king in the sixteenth century with more than 80 injuries on his body. After this, the next brave Hindu was Maharana Pratap and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
Conquest of Malwa
A war was fought in 1519 between the Muslim ruler of Malwa and Rana Sanga. And in this war, Rana had captured the fort of Chanderi and a large part of Malwa. Many other Rajput rulers were also involved with him in this war. In the battle of Malwa, the Rana was supported by Medini Rai and Silwari, due to which he easily won the war and later Medini Rai declared Chanderi as his capital. Medni Rai also appointed Rana Sanga as one of his trusted vassals.
After this, Rana’s fight was also with Mahmud Khilji, in which Rana also had a large army of Chittor. In this war, his army included a large number of cavalry.
In the battle of Malwa, as soon as the Rajput cavalry moved to Sultan’s army, they had given up. Asaf Khan’s son and many senior officers were killed in this war and after this Asaf Khan also demanded protection. After winning this war, Rana’s army took Mahmud Khilji as a captive and then removed all the taxes from Malwa which Mahmud had imposed.
Victory of Gujarat
In the year 1520, Rana attacked Gujarat and in this war, Bharatmal was commanding the army of Muzaffar Shah. However, in a short time, the army of Rana had driven out Muzaffar’s army. And then he looted Visnagar and Ahmednagar of Gujarat.
Rana Sanga and Ibrahim Lodhi
When Ibrahim heard that someone had attacked his territory, he prepared his army and in 1517 started a war against Mewar. After this, Rana and Ibrahim Lodi met at Khatauli and their war started, in which Ibrahim Lodi was badly hurt by Rana. In this war, Ibrahim’s army had retreated because Rana’s army was overwhelming them. However, Ibrahim Lodi was caught in this war, apart from this Rana also suffered many injuries.
After this, when Ibrahim became free, he rearranged his army to take revenge and appointed Mian Makhan as commander. After this, in the year 1518, again war took place between the army of Ibrahim and Rana Sanga, in which the Rajputs got the victory. Seeing the Rajput army, Ibrahim’s army was terrified. However, Rana’s army had followed Ibrahim’s army for a long distance and evacuated the area till Fatehpur Sikri. And besides this, he captured many more areas of Malwa which were earlier under the control of Lodis,
Flights Against Mughal
In the year 1526, Babur invaded India and defeated Ibrahim Lodi, that war is also called the First Battle of Panipat.
Babur was a very clever person, when Rana Sanga’s army attacked him, he ordered one of his troops to make noise. And because of that noise, the Rajputs’ horses and elephants were frightened due to which they started trampling their people. At one point in time, two Rana found it impossible to attack the Mughals, but then he gathered courage and ordered his army to attack. In retaliation, the Mughals also attacked, due to which this war lasted for more than three hours. After some time there was a ceasefire but after some time the war started again. After a time, both the kings were tired due to which Babur gave up the dream of conquering Mewar.
How Rana Sanga died
According to Indian historian KV Krishna, Rana did not like Babur because he was a foreigner. That is why in 1527 AD, he attacked the Mughals with his army, in retaliation, the Mughals also attacked. And after this war, Rana Sanga died in the year 1528 and it is said that the reason for his death was to kill him by poisoning.
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