History – Rana Kumbha – {Ep.227} – Stories From India – Podcast

Today’s episode is a story from history. It’s about a 15th century Rajput King who never seemed to give up against enemies, who never seemed to give up either. Rana Kumbha of Mewar was one of the most powerful rulers of his time, and one of the few to have never lost a war.

Welcome to “Stories From India”. This is a podcast that will take you on a journey through the rich mythology, folklore and history of the Indian subcontinent. I am Narada Muni, the celestial storyteller and the original “time lord”. With my ability to travel through space and time, I can bring you fascinating stories from the past, the present, and the future. From the epic tales of the Mahabharata and Ramayana to the folktales of the Panchatantra to stories of Akbar-Birbal and Tenali Raman, I have a story for every occasion.

The purpose of the stories is neither to pass judgment nor to indoctrinate. My goal is only to share these stories with people who may not have heard them before and to make them more entertaining for those who have.

Today’s Story

Today’s story is neither mythology nor folklore. It’s firmly on the history side of the fence. We’re going to talk about Rana Kumbha. Thank you Ankur for suggesting that we cover the life of this legendary Rajput ruler. Let’s jump right in.

Kumbhakarna was a terrible name, the queen screamed! Her own name was Sobhagya Devi. A good name. Literally. It means Good Luck Goddess. And she was intent on seeing that her son, the little prince, got a good name as well. Kumbhakarna was not her first choice. Nor was it her second, or third, or her hundredth.

Mokal Singh, her husband, and King of Mewar, didn’t understand his wife’s objection. Kumbhakarna was a character from the epic Ramayana, and he was a giant amongst men. Just as Mokal Singh hoped his child would become. He looked at her with a suspicious eye – did Sobhagya Devi have something against plus-sized people?

Sobhagya Devi quickly clarified that that wasn’t it at all. She was very progressive. She objected to the name Kumbhakarna because he was the brother of the mega villain in the Ramayana. He had fought against the good guys. And she wasn’t confident at all that her son’s name would remind people of Kumbhakarana’s physical size and appetite instead of all his evil deeds. Wasn’t it unthinkable to name a child “Ravana”? Kumbhakarna wasn’t as bad a name as Ravana, but it came close. I’m sure you listeners can relate. Naming someone Ravana was as bad as a modern day analogy of naming them after a certain 20th century German dictator.

But what could Sobhagya Devi do? She had to give in to the patriarchy. Mokal Singh dismissed her concerns. “What’s in a name?” he asked. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”. He pondered and added. “I like that quote. Maybe I should put it down, publish it.”

So their baby was named Kumbhakarna. But the prince was smart enough to realize that there was some stigma associated with the name. So he shortened it to Kumbha. Which literally means pot, but he didn’t care. Kumbhakarna literally meant pot-eared so it wasn’t a hard decision.

One day, the boy Kumbha was traveling with his father near the town of Chittor. At a rest stop, after doing a bit of wandering outside, he walked into the King’s tent and discovered something absolutely horrific! He saw his two uncles murdering his father. Mokal Singh’s brothers Chacha and Maira had decided that their brother had sat on the throne for too long and he needed to go on a trip. To the afterlife. Whether he liked it or not.

Kumbha had witnessed Chacha, Maira, and one other person. Mahpa Panwar. The image of the three assassins was burned in his memory. And his heart ached for revenge. But he was still just an unarmed teenager and he didn’t really have the skills to take revenge against three fully armed adults who had just now killed his fully armed and skilled father. So Kumbha dashed out of the scene before they could catch him. He grabbed a horse, one of the fastest and made it to Chittor. The assassins tried to follow him. But when they got to where they had parked the horses, they saw that Kumbha, even in his haste, had badly hurt the other horses, so a quick pursuit was impossible.

Kumbha was seething with rage. He must have his revenge, and in this he would get help from his grandmother, Hansa Bai. Well to be more accurate, he would get help from Hansa Bai’s brother, Ran Mal. Ran Mal came from a very powerful royal family in Mandore.

Interesting sidebar here, Hansa Bai had an unfortunate bait-and-switch pulled on her when she was marrying into the Kingdom of Mewar. She’d originally intended to marry Prince Chunda, oldest son of Lakha Singh, the King of Mewar back then. Lakha Singh was in advanced years, and while entertaining the bride’s group, he made an unfortunate joke about how Hansa Bai was obviously not here to marry him. Everyone laughed at the joke, despite the strange sense of humor. Everyone, except Prince Chunda. The way he saw it, his father had just rejected Hansa Bai, that meant in Chunda’s misogynistic mind that she was a hand-me-down. He would not marry Hansa Bai, come what may.

In order not to anger Hansa Bai’s very powerful family, Lakha was obliged to marry Hansa Bai himself. He got a little revenge on Chunda though by promising that Hansa Bai’s child would sit on the throne. And that child was Mokal Singh. When he was underage and unqualified, Mokal Singh got substantial help from his older brother, Chunda. But that was temporary because Hansa Bai grew suspicious of Chunda’s powers and forced him to retire early.

Now, Kumbha sought out help from his grandmother. And she was directing him to Ran Mal. You see, she had an IOU lying around. Mokal Singh had helped Ran Mal gain power, and become King of Marwar. Mokal Singh’s demise didn’t automatically cancel the IOU. In fact, it enhanced it so Ran Mal was obligated to help avenge Mokal’s assassination.

And in the meantime, Kumbha also became the King of Chittor. He raised an army. By then, Ran Mal had gotten his message and arrived with his own soldiers as well. The scouts and spies in the combined armies got to work. They spread out everywhere, disguised as locals, trying to find any trace they could of the assassins. It took a while, but finally their finest detective, Shersingh Homesh Rathore, managed to locate exactly the fort that the assassins were hiding in. He had used his elaborate chemistry skills in examining the garbage from 50 nearest forts. Which might explain that odd smell in the room, Kumbha thought but did not say. 

Shersingh Homesh Rathore’s detection was spot on. Kumbha and Ran Mal sneakily launched an attack on that fort the very night. It was a very one-sided battle. Most of the soldiers in that fort were sleeping. They surrendered easily enough when they realized that they were being woken up, not to be served breakfast in bed, but to be put in handcuffs.

Chacha and Maira were found and swiftly executed. There was no trial. But Mahpa Panwar was nowhere to be found. The entire fort was searched from top to bottom. And yet, Shersingh Homesh Rathore’s skills had placed him exactly in this place a few hours ago.

Ultimately the truth came out. Mahpa Panwar had sneaked out in the guise of a milkmaid.

Kumbha’s guards who were screening everyone had let her pass. To be fair, one of the guards had felt it was suspicious that the milkmaid had a full beard, but he thought it would be rude to bring it up, so he kept quiet.

It wasn’t quite back to square one, considering they did get Chacha and Maira. But Kumbha was annoyed at having let the assassin pass through his fingers. It took many more years to locate Mahpa Panwar. And again, it needed all of Shersingh Homesh Rathore’s skills to find him again. This time he was found in the fort of Mandu in the sultanate of Malwa.

Mahmud Khilji, the Sultan of Malwa, knew and recognized who Mahpa Panwar was, and continued to shelter him. The Sultan ignored Rana Kumbha’s demands for Panwar’s surrender. Why should he not? He told himself. The two kingdoms had not signed any kind of an extradition treaty, had they? And besides, who was Rana Kumbha anyway, to make demands of the Sultan of Malwa? Malwa was one of the most powerful Kingdoms at the time. It could have swatted Rana Kumbha’s army aside like a fly. So he gave Rana Kumbha the raspberry.

But little did he know that Rana Kumbha was not going to be cowed. Kumbha and Ran Mal assembled their armies again, which was a good thing. All those past campaigns together the soldiers had built together some camaraderie, which is always important to have in a tough working environment. This time, they headed for Malwa. Foreign territory no doubt, but the soldiers felt enough loyalty to their King that they were ready to give up their lives for his mad quest.

It turned out, most of them did not have to give up their lives. They had to take lives instead.

The Sultan of Malwa lost. By a huge margin. Up in the fort of Mandu, the families were shocked. They had been waiting to welcome back their heroic soldiers, and not those on the other side. Quickly, they managed to close the gates before the Rajput army waltzed in.

The siege was brief. Mandu was not prepared to hold out against Rana Kumbha and Ran Mal’s armies. And more importantly there was no fight left in them. When their fiercest warriors had perished, what hope did the remaining second-stringers have against the enemy that was at the gates? They were quite right in thinking so.

And for his part, Kumbha was generous when it came to the people of Mandu. He only wanted to take one man captive. Mewar wasn’t the largest kingdom in terms of prison capacity, so he couldn’t afford to take everyone there. Which meant they could continue to live in peace. They just had to hand over the assassin.

But Mahpa Panwar had escaped again. So Kumbha took the Sultan with him as a prisoner instead.

When he got back, Kumbha had his architects begin designing a massive pillar back in Chittor, to symbolize their victory against Malwa. It’s called the Vijay Stambha and still stands today. And Kumbha did one more thing – he released Muhamad Khilji. It was a gesture of goodwill. Besides, there was no use in keeping a Sultan in his prison. The novelty wears off, when you find that you can’t charge entrance fees to eager tourists who want to photograph a King behind bars. Maybe part of it had to do with the tourists finding out that Mahmud Khilji was just as ordinary as any other man. Perhaps being exposed to the heroic exploits of Kumbha had misled them into expecting much more from other rulers.

The Sultan, for his part, should have learned his lesson. He didn’t. He attacked almost immediately after he amassed his army. But he lost again obviously. Anyone keeping score had begun to realize that Kumbha had not yet lost anything. He seemed invincible. And yet, gamblers down at every pub speculated on the outcome of each battle. And regardless of the odds, Kumbha seemed to come out on top everytime.

This happened with some local skirmishes too. Kumbha quickly squashed a local rebellion or two. And most importantly, he had Ran Mal assassinated. That seems like a strange move especially when Ran Mal had supported him. But Kumbha was ruthless. He wanted control, and he wanted to rule strongly.

In one aspect Kumbha was not ruthless however. When Mahpa Panwar came to him for forgiveness, Kumbha let him live. Though, maybe not in complete freedom.

Kumbha seemed more and more of a formidable opponent to all the other Kingdoms around him. Which was not a good thing. You didn’t want to attract the attention of powerful Kingdoms like the Sultanate of Nagaur or the Sultanate of Gujarat. 

But that’s exactly what happened. The Sultan of Nagaur showed up first. At least Shams Khan claimed to be the rightful Sultan of Nagaur. He had been deposed by his brother, Mujahid Khan. He had come seeking Kumbha’s help.

Kumbha had learned. He had let Mahmud Khilji go only to have that Sultan attack him. So this time, Kumbha only agreed to help on one condition. Once Shams Khan became the Sultan of Nagaur, he would take down the battlements – which in case you don’t know are a parapet at the top of a fort wall, with regularly spaced squared openings for shooting through.. Shams Khan readily agreed to demolish these battlements in the fort of Nagaur. But spoiler alert: he didn’t.

Kumbha’s armies easily routed Nagaur and helped Shams Khan become the Sultan. But Shams Khan kept making excuses not to take down the battlements. Well if Kumbha needed a job well done, he needed to do it himself. So he invaded Nagaur and demolished the battlements himself. 

Kumbha had intended to have Shams Khan present so Kumbha could lecture this Sultan of Nagaur on how exactly battlements should be destroyed.

But Shams Khan had escaped. That should have triggered a review of the siege protocol or something because this was getting to be a habit. Mahpa Panwar had done it twice already, and now this!

Shams Khan went to Qutb-ud-din, the Sultan of Gujarat. Qutb-ud-din was more than willing to work with Shams Khan. Kumbha needed to be taught a lesson. Now, he estimated that between their armies, they could definitely defeat Kumbha easily. But just to be on the safe side, they decided to include Sultan Muhmad Khilji of Malwa. Three armies would easily overwhelm Kumbha.

Qutb-ud-din said he had a strategy that he liked to call divide and conquer.

Basically one big unit of his troops, led by his General Imad-ul-mulk would attack Kumbha’s forces at the city of Abu. Kumbha wouldn’t resist fighting in the battlefield himself. And while he was away, they’d perform what Qutb-ud-din called a pincer move. The combined Gujarat and Nagaur army would attack at one end, and Malwa would attack from the other direction.

If this didn’t bring Kumbha to his knees, Qutb-ud-din promised to eat his hat.

The attack at Abu was swift and brutal. But Qutb-ud-din and Shams Khan did not find that out immediately. Imad-ul-mulk sped there with a very small crew of soldiers. The General claimed that Kumbha had completely routed the Gujarat forces at Abu. But the silver lining was that Kumbha was busy in Abu. So the time to strike was right now! 

But when the soldiers began getting out their “Better wages now!” placards, the General had to quickly clarify. He meant Strike as in to hit deliberately and forcefully, as opposed to a refusal to work. So the soldiers dropped the placards, put their helmets back on and got ready for battle

The coalition army raced towards the city of Kumbhalgarh, confidently. With Kumbha out of the picture this should be a cakewalk. It was a cakewalk, but for Kumbha. Because, you see, he was already back using a shortcut that Imad-ul-mulk didn’t know about. 

Kumbha had correctly figured the attack in Abu for what it was: a diversion. And he had been smart enough to realize that the diversion was not just from the Malwa army attacking from the opposite direction.

Shams Khan asked Qutb-ud-din if he wanted any salt-and-pepper to sprinkle on his hat.

There was another battle or two with these sultans, but again Kumbha won those.

Ultimately, Kumbha could retire with an unbeaten record. Except, he didn’t retire. He was killed by his own son. Udaysimha approached Kumbha as the King sat praying at a temple. Killing a warrior without giving them a chance to defend themselves is about the worst possible sin for someone in the royal Rajput family. Some called it divine justice when Udaysimha was struck and killed by lightning a few years later.

That’s all for now

Some notes on the show

Maharana Kumbha became quite the legend, not just for all his victories in the battlefield, but also because of the legacy he left behind. Which included many large buildings and temples, including some that his father had begun construction on. He also consolidated some of the Rajput kingdoms, though he had been ruthless with some of his own relatives in order to do so.

That served him well in battle and against his enemies though. That being said, his personal vendetta against his father’s assassins caused thousands of lives lost. At the same time, those early victories helped him build up towards later, more complicated battles.

That’s all for now. 

Next Time

In the next episode, it’s Panchatantra time again. We’ll do a couple of stories about lions and jackals. We’ll see what might be an Ancient Indian version of Google Home or Alexa. And we’ll see one study of the Nature vs Nurture question when applied to a baby jackal.

Feedback

Thank you all for the comments on Social Media and on Spotify’s Q&A! I can’t directly reply to the questions there, but I’ll address them here on this show.

Thank you Aniver for your comments, I agree these stories are the best that our history and mythology and folklore has to offer.

Thank you Darsh – it was heartwarming to read your comment. I’m super thrilled as well, and happy to keep bringing more stories to you

Ayra, Rez and Hiranmayee, thank you for your kind words

Praveen, yes we’ll be doing both a Tenali Raman story and an Akbar Birbal one soon enough.

Agastya, I love the faith that you are listening to my podcast, but just to be clear – I wouldn’t recommend relying on my podcast alone for your history lessons. And I say this because although I have universal knowledge of the past, present, future

Suman – I’ll think about a story of the Indian scientists and slot that into an upcoming episode.

And Veena – I hear your request for a story about the current and popular businessman you mentioned, but as a time-traveler I have a policy of trying to minimize interfering with current affairs. So I’ll try to stick to ancient history when I’m talking about real events and people.

If you have any other comments or suggestions or if there are particular stories you’d like to hear, please do let me know by leaving a comment or a review on the site sfipodcast.com, or reply to the questions on Spotify Q&A. You can also find me on Instagram and Facebook, and on X.

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Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time!