The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c29.s2.105

v3.c29.s2.105

Little more that is authentic is known of the history of the Gahlots or Sesodias until the reign of ‘Alā-ud-dīn Khaljī, who, having already captured Ranthambhor from the Chauhāns, besieged and took Chitor in 1303¹. The bard’s account of this siege is most inaccurate and misleading. He antedates it by thirteen years, to a time when ‘Alā-ud-dīn had not ascended the throne; he makes Lachhman Singh, a distant cousin of the ruling prince, Rānā of Chitor at the time of the siege; and he makes the fair Padminī, whom ‘Alā-ud-dīn coveted, the wife of the prince’s uncle. These gross inaccuracies entirely discredit a story improbable in itself, at variance with known facts, and designed to minimize the disgrace of the loss of a strong fortress, of treachery on the part of ‘Alā-ud-dīn. The facts were that Ratan Singh was Rānā of Chitor, and that Lachhman Singh, Rānā of Sesoda, commanded the fortress on his behalf. Their common ancestor was Karan Singh, Rāwal of Chitor, from whom Ratan Singh was ninth and Lachhman Singh eleventh in descent. Ratan Singh was apparently in the fortress when it was besieged, but, though the rite of *jauhar* is said to have been performed and Lachhman Singh and eight thousand other Rājputs fell, he was taken alive and carried off to Delhi. The fair Padminī did not perish in the fire, as related by the bard, but lived to be the subject of negotiation between her husband and his captor, and the object of the bard’s fiction appears to be the concealment of Ratan Singh’s readiness to obey the ancient maxim which permits a Rājput to surrender his wife in order to preserve his land.