Udai Singh I, also known as Udaikaran, was the Sisodia Rajput ruler of

Mewar Kingdom The Kingdom of Mewar was an independent Hindu kingdom that existed in the Rajputana region of the Indian subcontinent and later became a dominant state in medieval India. The kingdom was initially founded and ruled by the Guhila dynasty, foll ...

. He was the eldest son of

Rana Kumbha Kumbhkaran Singh (1417–1468), popularly known as Maharana Kumbha, was the ruler of the Kingdom of Mewar in medieval India. He belonged to the Sisodia clan of Rajputs. It was during his reign that Mewar became one of the most powerful politic ...

whom he assassinated to gain the throne of Mewar.

Biography

Rana Udaykaran/uda was born to

as his eldest son. He was suspicious that his father wanted to make his younger brother, Raimal, his successor. So he assassinated his father Rana Kumbha in the year 1468 while he was praying in the Kumbhashyam Temple in Kumbhalgarh Fort. Thereafter, he became known as ''pitrahanta'' (patricide) or ''"Uda Hatiyaro"'' (Uda, The Murderer). Udai Singh himself died in 1473, with the cause of death sometimes being stated as being struck by lightning but more likely to have also been murdered by his own brother

Rana Raimal Rana Raimal Singh, also known as Rana Raimal, (r. 1473–1509) was a Hindu, Sisodia Rajput ruler of the Mewar, Kingdom of Mewar. Rana Raimal was the younger son of Kumbha of Mewar, Rana Kumbha and younger brother of his predecessor Udai Singh ...

to avenge the death of their father, Rana Kumbha. The death by lightning account is mentioned in the late 19th century Mewar chronicle "''Vir Vinod"'' by the court poet Kaviraj Shyamaldas, which

James Tod Lieutenant-Colonel James Tod (20 March 1782 – 18 November 1835) was an officer of the British East India Company and an Orientalism, Oriental scholar. He combined his official role and his amateur interests to create a series of works ...

mistook to be about the sultan of Delhi rather than

Ghiyath Shah Ghiyath Shah, also known as Ghiyas-ud-Din Shah or Ghiyasuddin, was a Sultan of the Malwa Sultanate in the fifteenth century. The son of his predecessor Mahmud Shah I, he reigned from 1469 to 1500. A military leader before his accession, he was ...

, the Sultan of

Malwa Sultanate The Malwa Sultanate was a late medieval kingdom in the Malwa, Malwa region, covering the present day Indian states of Madhya Pradesh and south-eastern Rajasthan from 1401 to 1562. It was founded by Dilawar Khan, who following Timur's invasion ...

.It was Ghiyath Shah who agreed to render assistance to Udai Singh, and in return Udai Singh agreed to give his daughter in marriage to him. The proposed matrimonial alliance aimed at establishing friendly relations between the two kingdoms. But destiny had it otherwise. Rana Udai Singh was struck with lightning, when he was returning to his camp, after completing the negotiations, and thus the entire plan fell through and no marriage took place. His two sons Surajmal and Sahasmal, however, remained in the Malwa court and continued to press the Sultan to help them in recovering their patrimony. Sultan Ghiyath Shah finally agreed to assist them and with his forces marched on Chittor, the capital of Mewar.

References

Year of birth unknown Monarchs of Mewar 1473 deaths {{india-royal-stub