Akbar vs Pratap

Khushaal Mishra

Akbar vs Pratap

This is the story of India's most famous rivalry, which lasted roughly 20 years. It was a rivalry between Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar and Maharana Pratap Singh as the two combatants. Why did they have a war? Who won the battle in the end?

The two combatants, Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar (left) and Maharana Pratap Singh (right), in one frame; Image Source: MyVoice-OpIndia

To appreciate the narrative, you must first grasp the context of 16th-century India. Back then, Akbar had conquered a large portion of India. In the heart of this vast empire lay the little kingdom of Mewar in Rajasthan. Mewar was crucial to Akbar since it would have opened up his communication channels. It was crucial to the commerce route that ran from Gujarat to Delhi.

Now, unlike any previous monarch, Akbar did not rush into battle because he recognised that even if talks went against him, it would still cost him far less than fighting a war and losing life and property. As a result, he forged allies through marriage, commerce, and negotiation.

When discussions for Mewar failed, Akbar chose to invade Chittor in 1568, which was the capital of Rana Udai Singh II, the father of Maharana Pratap, and this assault resulted in a bloodbath in which 40,000 people were killed, including innocent people and women who committed Jauhar (mass self-immolation by women). This experience had a profound impact on Maharana Pratap, who was then a young prince. As a result, Rana Udai Singh II was forced to flee to Udaipur, which became the capital of Mewar. After his father died, Maharana Pratap Singh ascended to the throne.

However, the fight of Haldighati proved to be one of the most difficult conflicts Akbar had ever faced. And Akbar was unable to win the battle of Haldighati. This does raise the question, with four times the number of soldiers, three times the number of war elephants, and the enemy's brothers at his side Why couldn't Akbar win the battle? More importantly, how could Pratap defend against Akbar's army which most might think is impossible?

Again, once Pratap became king, Akbar dispatched numerous officials to persuade him to submit to Mughal control. He dispatched his top diplomats, including Todar Mal and Man Singh. However, Pratap ended up rejecting all of them.

According to legend, Akbar even went so far as to promise Pratap a huge portion of India on the condition that he submit to Mughal control. That was how vital Mewar was, and how much the Mughal Emperor desired Mewar. Following the failure of eight successive diplomatic missions, Akbar decided to launch an invasion of Mewar. This is what led to the most famous fight in Indian history, known as the Battle of Haldighati.

On one side, we had Maharana Pratap Singh, who had 20,000 warriors in all, and Emperor Akbar, who had 80,000 troops only for this fight. In the battle of Haldighati alone, Akbar possessed three times more war elephants than Pratap and far more horses than Maharana Pratap had in his whole army. While Maharana Pratap's army fought with swords, bows, and arrows, the Mughal army possessed firearms, which gave them a significant edge at the time. Most crucially, Maharana Pratap's brothers had joined forces with Akbar since they had not been handed the Mewar kingdom. So, as you can see, there was no way Maharana Pratap could have defeated Akbar's army on paper.