Rani Padmini, the wife of King Rawal Ratan Singh was the queen of Chittor and often personified as a mythological figure for her Indian woman-hood, sacrifice and velour. Rani Padmini and her story has been immortalized in Padmavat, which is an epic poem written by Malik Muhammad Jayasi in the Awadhi language in the year 1540.
During the 12th and 13th centuries, the Delhi Sultanate subjugated the political setting of Northern India. The Delhi Sultans made frequent attacks against their Rajput opponents, especially the Sisodias of Mewar, on one excuse or the other. The first sack of Chittor by Ala-ud-din Khilji in 1303 AD is conventionally thought to be the result of his infatuation with Ratan Singh`s wife, Rani Padmini. Ala-ud-Din Khilji received support for his seizure attempts from two of Ratan Singh`s own courtiers, who were his brothers, namely Raghav and Chetan. The brothers had initially enjoyed Ratan Singh`s highest confidence and had been privy to many State secrets, which they often threatened to betray if they were not paid well for their secret.
Ratan Singh had married the incredibly gorgeous Rani Padmini, the daughter of King Gandharvasen, also called as Hamir Sank of Sinhala Dvipa (present-day Sri Lanka) and his wife, Queen Champavati and had received a handsome and openhanded dowry from her parents. The brothers thus demanded a large portion of this dowry as payment for their silence. Furious at their refrain, Ratan Singh banished them from Chittor and almost warned them that they would be killed if they were ever found on his territory again. In revenge, the brothers went to Delhi and prompted Ala-ud-din Khilji to attack Chittor by inflaming both the Sultan`s attraction for beautiful women and his stubborn greed for land and more territory.
Since Ala-ud-din realized that he and his opponent were equally matched in military potential, he decided a tricky way out to treachery and discretion to conquer Chittor. He sent word to Ratan Singh that he was willing to offer friendship if he could only see the rare beauty Rani Padmini`s face just once and also claimed that he considered Rani Padmini to be his sister. The unsuspecting Ratan Singh asked Rani Padmini to meet her newfound `brother`, but the Queen also had sharp brain and could smell a trap. She refused to meet him; instead, she insisted that her husband only allow the Sultan to look at her reflection in a mirror.
Ratan Singh agreed and called for Ala-ud-din. He instantly arrived to meet Rani Padmini, accompanied by his most trusted generals and soldiers. While Ala-ud-din waited eagerly to meet Rani Padmini, his generals watchfully examined the fort`s defenses to help them plan their attack of Chittor. Rani Padmini stood by a lotus pool as Ala-ud-din was stunned and gazed at her reflection in a mirror, awed by her sparkling beauty. When he was further informed that he would not be able to meet Rani Padmini personally, despite his claims of newfound relationship with the couple, the Sultan felt both embarrassed and cheated. As Ratan Singh accompanied him out of the fort, as a good host should, his men pounced upon the King and took him as a prisoner to the Sultan`s camp.
Ala-ud-din then sent a note to Rani Padmini that if she wished her husband to get freed unharmed then she should immediately become his mistress. The Rani responded that she would meet the Sultan the next morning. At the very opening of dawn the following day, one hundred and fifty palanquins (covered carriages in which royal ladies were carried about in medieval times) left the fort and moved towards Ala-ud-din`s camps. 150 strong and stout soldiers, escorted by Rani Padmini`s brother, Badal, came out from these carriages and fell upon the Sultan`s unwary men in a sudden and unexpected attack. The Rajputs then returned to the fort, after having rescued their King, and momentarily scoring a chief victory over the Sultan of Delhi.
Ala-ud-din responded by laying blockade to the fort of Chittor. After a long drawn out operation, supplies within the fort gradually decreased and Ratan Singh gave orders for the fort`s gates to be flung open and an all-out attack be planned on the would-be invaders as they could not hold out any more. Rani Padmini was aware that her husband`s troops were very less in number and they would be easily defeated and dishonored once they enter the battlefield. The Sultan`s army started pillaging Chittor, Padmini and her attendants of women. All of them decided to commit suicide. The children of the graciousness were moved out of the fort with trusted escorts and attendants in order to save them from the invaders.
At dawn on August 26, 1303, a huge pyre was lit in a room with a single door. Rani Padmini and the noblewomen belonging to her court, the wives, sisters and daughters of ministers and courtiers, moved away their young children and menfolk out of the area to safety lands, then dressed up in their wedding finery and went into the room with the pyre, locked the door behind them and jumped into the flames in mass. The men with heavy heart put on saffron robes, and threw open the gates of the fort. Almost all of the Rajputs died in the battle that day. The Sultan and his troops entered the fort, eager to seize all the females, but were highly disappointed when confronted with the evidence of the mass suicide. Rani Padmini`s life and death has been the subject of many legends, ballads and even movies in recent years. Unfortunately, no images of Rani Padmini have been preserved to tell about her exceptional beauty and personality, although her courage and sacrifice continue to make an impression one today as they did during her lifetime more than seven centuries ago.
