Battle of Dewair (1582)

Battle of Dewair of 1582
Statue of Pratap in Dewair
Date 16 September 1582 Location Dewair, Rajasthan Result Mewar Victory
Belligerents
Kingdom of Mewar	Mughal Empire
Commanders and leaders
Maharana Pratap Shakti Singh Amar Singh I Rawat Krishnadas Chundawat Bhamashah Rana Punja	Sultan Khan

The Battle of Dewair (1582) was a battle fought between Maharana Pratap of Mewar and Mughal garrison of Dewair in 1582. Pratap recovered Western Mewar including Kumbhalgarh, Udaipur, and Gogunda, which were lost in Battle of Haldighati. The victory of Dewair was a crowning glory for the Maharana, with James Tod describing it as the "Marathon of Mewar". Later Pratap built a new capital, Chavand, near modern Dungarpur.

History

Following the Battle of Haldighati, Pratap lost half of his army and Mughals captured Kumbhalgarh , Gogunda , Udaipur & Chappan. In such conditions, Pratap changed his strategy from open to guerrilla warfare and did not allow Mughals to settle and retake his lost territories. To suppress Pratap, Akbar himself arrived at Mewar in September 1576 for hunting expeditions in forests during which he occupied Udaipur and its southern region called 'Wagad' and established Mughal rule in these regions. Pratap and his family took shelter in dense hills at that time and managed to hide till May 1577 when Akbar returned to Fatehpur Sikri. Only the fortress of Kumbhalgarh was yet unconquered thus Akbar sent his general Shahbaz Khan to do so in the next year.

• 1577 : Shahbaz Khan
• 1578 : Shahbaz Khan second time
• 1579 : Again Shahbaz Khan ( Third time attacked Mewar )

Each of these invasions was able to occupy cities like Udaipur, Chawand, Gogunda, and Kumbhalagarh but were unsuccessful in capturing Pratap as he was till that time became a master guerilla and each path of Aravali hills was now in his mind this allowing him to hide from Mughal troops each and every time till the Mughal's departure from Mewar. When Pratap was facing a shortage of funds, his minister Bhamashah, whose family held the office for ages, placed at Pratap's disposal their accumulated wealth, which with other resources, is stated to have been equivalent to the maintenance of army for 12 years. Thus name of Bhamashah got preserved as saviour of Mewar. With such help from Bhamashah, Pratap was able to arrange his new army and planned a major attack on Dewair Fortress defended by a garrison of less than a thousand men.

Battle

on 16 September 1582, on the occasion of Dashehra , Maharana Pratap motivated his soldiers to fight back and make Mewar independent once again . Accordingly Mewar army was divided under two groups : One under Maharana Pratap and other under Kunwar Amar Singh and

Map of Dewair (Rajasthan)

Pratap attacked the Mughal garrison of Dewair, commanded by Mughal officer Sultan Khan, and defeated it.

Aftermath

Thus, the Battle of Dewair was a success. In this campaign, Pratap recovered Dewair Fort, which had been lost during Shahbaz Khan's invasion one year ago.

Memorial

On 10 January 2012, a victory memorial commemorating the victory of Maharana Pratap at Dewair was inaugurated by the President of India, Smt. Pratibha Patil.

In the memory of Bhamashah, Bhamashah's birth anniversary or Bhamashah Jayanti is celebrated on 29 June every year..A Bhamashah Yojana bas been started on his name by government of Rajasthan.

See also

• Battle of Dewair (1606)
• Udai Singh II