Raja Puran Mal (r. 1529 – January 1543) was a

Rajput Rājpūt (, from Sanskrit ''rājaputra'' meaning "son of a king"), also called Thākur (), is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating fro ...

ruler of

Chanderi Chanderi, is a town of historical importance in Ashoknagar District of the state Madhya Pradesh in India. It is situated at a distance of 127 km from Shivpuri, 37 km from Lalitpur, 55 km from Ashok Nagar and about 46 km ...

and Raisen, present-day town in

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...

, India, during the

Mughal period The Mughal Empire was an early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to the highlands of pre ...

and the

Suri dynasty The Sur Empire was an empire ruled by the Afghan-origin Sur dynasty in northern India for nearly 16 or 18 years, between 1538/1540 and 1556, with Sasaram (in modern-day Bihar) serving as its capital. It was founded by Sher Shah Suri. The ...

. He defeated

Babur Babur (; 14 February 148326 December 1530; born Zahīr ud-Dīn Muhammad) was the founder of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. He was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan through his father and mother respectively. He was also ...

Mughal army The army of the Mughal Empire was the force by which the Mughal emperors established their empire in the 16th century and expanded it to its greatest extent at the beginning of the 18th century. Although its origins, like the Mughals themselve ...

at Chanderi in 1529 and occupied the Chanderi Fort. Negotiations were made after

Sher Shah Suri Sher Shah Suri (born Farid al-Din Khan; 1472 or 1486 – 22 May 1545), also known by his title Sultan Adil (), was the ruler of Bihar from 1530 to 1540, and Sultan of Hindustan from 1540 until his death in 1545. He defeated the Mughal Empire, ...

's attack on the fort in 1542 but Puran Mal was killed by conspiracists. Though numerous other sources offer a different account, in which after the six-month long siege of Raisen, Puran Mal surrendered to Sher Shah and was thereafter executed.

Conflict with Babur

Babur attacked India in 1527 and Rajput kings of Rajasthan under the leadership of Rana Sanga of Mewar failed to stop him in Battle of Khanwa. The defeat of Rajput kings in Khanwa allowed Babur to capture a great portion of Indian territory, which included Chanderi. He is also noted to treat Hindus of Chanderi poorly. This was supposedly the reason why Puran Mal attacked Chanderi in 1529, defeated Mughal army of Babur and captured Chanderi fort. After this defeat, the Mughals left Chanderi and Puran Mal took over the control of Chanderi.

Conflict with Sher Shah Suri

The Mughal Empire was defeated by Sur Empire of Sher Shah Suri. In 1542, Sher Shah added Malwa to his empire. During this campaign, he ordered his amir Shujaat Khan to bring Puran Mal to his presence. Shujaat Khan conducted Puran Mal, who had taken with him 6,000 horsemen before Sher Shah, who at once presented his new ally with a hundred horses and a hundred splendid robes of honour and then sent him home. Puran Mal set out for the return journey to Raisen leaving his brother Chaturbhuj in the service of Sher Shah. This arrangement soon went away. In 1543, a year after the understanding between the Afghan sultan and the Puran Mal, Sher Shah took Chanderi from Puran Mal and then laid siege to his stronghold Raisen. As his motive for this campaign Sher Shah is said to have given vent to his anger against Puran Mal, ‘who had made captives of the families of Muslims in Chanderi’, had forcibly made their daughters to be the dancing-girls and had not co-operated with his son. The siege continued for six months with the fort coming under heavy bombardment. Artillery proved to be the deciding factor and Puran Mal had to negotiate once again with Sher Shah. The negotiations were soon successful. Sher Shah granted to Puran Mal the iqta of Benares.

Death

A little afterwards the negotiation, a number of Muslim women of Chanderi presented themselves before Sher Shah on the road-side and complained to him about Puran Mal. ‘He has killed our husbands’, they said, ‘put in chains our daughters whom he caused to dance along with the dancing-girls and has seized all our lands and earthly possessions.’ They threatened to accuse the sultan on the day of resurrection if he did not revenge them and, when he reminded them of the ‘oaths and vows’ that had been taken to guarantee the safety of the king, they told him to consult the ulema of his camp. Apparently Sher Shah simply had to comply with this. The ulema got together and issued a fatwa deciding that Puran Mal deserved death. The camp of the sultan’s new ally was now surrounded by elephants and troops. Seeing this, Puran Mal went into his tent and severed the head of his beloved wife, namely, Ratnavali, brought it before his dear and near ones and ordered them likewise to slay their families. In the ensuing fight, 10,000 Rajput soldiers laid down their lives fighting.

Abul Fazl Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak (14 January 1551 – 22 August 1602), also known as Abul Fazl, Abu'l Fadl and Abu'l-Fadl 'Allami, was an Indian writer, historian, and politician who served as the grand vizier of the Mughal Empire from his appointment ...

denounces Sher Shah for his dishonesty and calls the ulema misguided men. Historian

Abbas Sarwani Abbas Sarwani was a historian during the Mughal period in India. Little is known of his personal life, except that he was a member of the Sarwani Pashtun family. Accordingly, one of his ancestors settled near Banur town and received 2000 ''bi ...

describes a scene of the battle thus, "While the Hindus were employed in putting their women and families to death, the Afghans on all sides commenced the slaughter of the Hindus. Puran Mal and his companions failed not to exhibit valour and gallantry, but in the twinkling of an eye all were slain." Only a few women and children survived. Puran Mal's daughter was given to

minstrels A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. The term originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist enterta ...

to be a dancing girl while his three nephews were

castrated Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which a male loses use of the testicles: the male gonad. Surgical castration is bilateral orchiectomy (excision of both testicles), while chemical castration uses pharmaceutical ...

. As an excuse for the treachery, Sher Shah claimed it as a revenge for enslavement of Muslim women and that he had once, when seriously ill, pledged to wipe out the Rajputs of Raisen.

References

{{Authority control 16th-century Indian monarchs Hindu monarchs History of Madhya Pradesh