Rana Pratap

Who was Maharana Pratap: Maharana Pratap was 16th century King who ruled Mewar, a state in north-western India. He was born on 9th May 1540 in Kumbhalgarh, Rajasthan. His father was Maharana Udai Singh II and mother was Rani Jeevant Kanwa. He was the eldest among 25 brothers and 20 sisters and was the 54th ruler of Mewar. He belonged to the Sisodiya Rajput clan.
From childhood Rana Pratap had the passion that a Kshatriya king needs to possess. In 1568, when Maharana was just 27 years old, the Mughal emperor Akbar conquered Chittor. Maharana Udai Singh, hisfather decided to leave Chittor and moved to Gogunda. Seeing this as opportunity, his half brother Jagmal took away the throne. When Jagmal was unable to manage affairs he joined the army of Akbar with an idea to take revenge with Maharana Pratap.
Maharana faced many struggles in his career. He kept on fighting with Akbar all his life. Akbar tried several ways to win over Maharana Pratap but he was always a failure. Maharana could not forget when Akbar killed 30,000 unarmed residents of Chittor only because they refused to convert to Islam. This made Maharana revolt against Akbar and he followed strict codes of Kshatriyas to fight with Akbar.





One more attribute of Maharana Pratap was his horse named Chetak. Chetak was a white horse. The horse was divine gift of God. It is described that Chetak was very faithful to Maharana. It had beautiful big eyes and with an extremely attractive appearance. It was blessed with “flying” legs. It was swift and expert.
Maharana Pratap was a hero among Hindu leaders and kings. He won several battles. He died on 29th January 1597 when he was seriously injured in a hunting accident. Maharana Pratap died fighting for his people, for his nation and protected the honor of Rajputs.