Punja Bheel and Bhama Shah: Warrior Stars of Haldighati

Punja Bheel and Bhama Shah: Warrior Stars of Haldighati

Punja Bheel

Born in 16^th century in Merpur (Rajasthan), Punja Bheel is remembered as a great protector of Bhartiya culture. Initially a chieftain of Bheel tribal community, Rana Punja Bheel later got elevated as the king of Bhomat principality owing to his skill of organisation and heart of inspiring love of people for himself. Meantime in 1576 Mewar region faced the peril of Mughal invasion. Maharana Pratap sought the help from Rana Punja. He decided to stand by the side of Mewar, giving firm assurance that entire Bheel community was ready for the safeguarding the sovereignty of the region.

In the Battle of Haldi Ghati of 1576, Rana Punja put in all his strength and resources for the protection of Mewar. The Guerilla -warfare that he adopted was said to have been the main cause that brought about the battle against many times stronger Mughals turning indecisive, forcing them to retreat . As a memorial of which in the Mewar- royal insignia, the display on one side is the symbol of Bheel ; on the other, Rajputs. More notably, it was Maharana Pratap that bestowed upon him the highest honour of bravery and prowess on the battlefield that is ‘ Rana’ , hence being called ‘Rana Punja’ thereafter !

Many were the qualities that Maharana Pratap cherished beyond the bravery and prowess in the warfare. If the common subject held him in awe, he returned trust and love to them in spirit of a head of a vast family. As he enjoyed the faith of the rich like Bhama Shah of Jain community, so did he avail the unstinted loyalty of fierce fighters of a high rank like tribal community of Bheels , the brave bowmen of India.

From the inspiration of Acharya Muni Ratanasoori of Jainism, Kshatriya of Mewar (Rajasthan) relinquished meat-wine and adopted Jain dharma, to be called ‘Oswal’ henceforth. Bhama Shah was born to same Oswal clan in the house of Fort-commander of Ranthambhor fort, Kawadia Oswal Bharmal. When Udaysingh rose to be the Maharana of Mewar, Bharmal appointed as treasurer of kingdom. Onward from here only the friendship between the son of Uday Singh, Maharana Pratap, and Bhama Shah began to take shape.

Where father Bharmal offered his life fighting together with Uday Singh in 1567 on the battlefield, Bhama Shah spared no effort in displaying the highest degree of bravery and prowess against Mughals. For raising the fund for Mewar, Bhama Shah with his brother, Tarachand, invaded Mughal territories and acquired over 25 lacs rupees and offered them to Maharana Pratap.

With the amount given by Bhama Shah, Maharana Pratap raised army of 50,000 strong Bheel soldiers, apart from other Hindu Rajputs. In the place called Diver he then initiated the battle against Mughals. His son Amar Singh killed the commander Shahbaz Khan, the Uncle of Akbar , and Mughals thus ultimately driven back before they could make incursion inside Mewar . Thereafter Mughals could not win Mewar till Rana Pratap lived. Meanwhile, Bhama Shah got to be promoted to the post of Mahamantri of Mewar. Today in the Royal graveyard of Udaipur lies the sepulchre of Bhama Shah.

Now see, the ‘Maulavi Script’ that Sudhanshu Trivedi of BJP once referred to have been made way into the Constitution of India. However , that script could well be felt as to how nefariously in planned way was foisted upon in different walks of our national life. And history is no exception to this of course ! Going through the valiant fight that Hindus warriors unleashed against Mughals unitedly mentioned above confirms this.

Referring the book ‘A Wounded Civilization’ by VS Naipaul, Rajnath Singh once on the occasion of Maharana Pratap birth anniversary said, he (Naipaul) had observed India to be the only country in the world where that history is taught in the textbook which was written by the foreigners. Going ahead on the same note what he added was meant to draw the attention that it was nothing but a sheer concoction injected particularly by the British stooges before freedom , and thereafter their ‘Intellectual-offsprings’ in free India only to breed the defeatist mentality among the Indians vis a vis Muslims invaders. So that their arbitrary rule could continue to be prevail upon unchallenged in face of the subjects already gone blunt spirited.

However, thankfully, sometimes the truth within inner-self overrides the political-compulsion. Just like what happened with ex-president Pratibha Patil when she was invited in the ceremony organised on occasion of Maharana Pratap Jyanti in the premise of Udaypur Municipal Corporation on 17^th June, 2007. Addressing the crowd she said-‘The practice of taking the veil came into being to protect the women folk from the Mughal invaders’.

Image sourced from factmuseum.com website.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here (or facts presented) are solely of the author. My India My Glory does not assume any responsibility for the validity or information shared in this article by the author.

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