A sojourn of two-and-a-half kilometres southwards from the rarefied precincts of Eklingji terminates at the ruins of the once-resplendent Sahasrabahu Mandir at Nagda. Or, if one prefers a longer route, Nagda is about 30 kilometres from the famous Krishna-Kshetra, Nathdwara.
Nagda, the glorious capital of Medapaṭa (Mewar) which had radiated Hindu political power, prosperity and piety for centuries under the gallant Guhila dynasty. Perhaps it was in the fitness of things, when we look back. The Guhila empire has been immortalised by the doughty Bappa Rawal, the frontline lion-heart who repelled the early Turushka invasions and further enshrined himself in Hindu hearts by building the grand Ekalinga Devalaya. The debt that the global Hindu community owes to this gallant clan of Kshatriyas who won and lost and lost and won against the serial depredations of the Turushkas but never gave up their sacred Dharma cannot be repaid.
The same courageous blood of Bappa Rawal flowed in the veins of the protagonist of this essay. He was the 27th descendant of the Guhila dynasty. His name: Rawal Jaitra Simha.
Like with hundreds of such heroes, Jaitra Simha stays buried in the abyss of obscurity in what passes as history today. This is a tragedy that continues to earn compound interest on the seed capital known as Hindu civilisational amnesia.
Jaitra Simha should have ideally been better known, his valour celebrated on a wider scale compared to his illustrious ancestor. But then, the vast political geography of north and western Bharata had changed beyond recognition in the four-and-half centuries that separated Jaitra Simha from Bappa Rawal. In Jaitra Simha’s time, this sacred space had been permanently defiled by waves of Muslim invasions whose central features included epic temple destructions, cow slaughter, and mass slave-taking of men, women and infants.
When Jaitra Simha shot into prominence in 1213, twenty years had elapsed since the great Prithviraja Chahamana had been defeated treacherously by Muhammad Ghori. Rajputana had fallen into disarray and Muslim power had acquired an impressive foothold in Delhi. Their hunger for enlarging Islam’s dominions in infidel Hindustan only increased. With the fall of the mighty Ajayameru, the substantial territory of Rajputana became one of their prime targets for frequent raids.
With the protective umbrella of solid Samraṭs like Prithviraja Chahamana lifted off their heads, various branches of Rajputs not only declared independence but began fighting one another. In the long run, including our own time, the Hindu civilisation and society has paid dearly for this recurrent blunder. Individually however, these Rajput dynasties fully retained the unyielding spirit of defiant independence against the hated Turushka whom they correctly understood as a foreigner whose manners and lifestyle were worse than Asuras.
Thus, by the time Jaitra Simha ascended the throne, the Hindu political theatre in Rajputana was a competitive quadrangle comprising the Chahamanas of Ranasthambhapura, the Guhilas of Mewar, the Chahamanas of Jalor, and the Bhatis of Jaisalmer.
Of these, only Jaitra Simha stood unrivalled in not only repelling the Turushkas from Delhi on multiple occasions but instilled lasting fear in their hearts. Till the end of his life, Jaitra Simha stood undefeated. This is a stupendous feat considering the small size of his empire.
Sometime in the previous century, Mewar had become a feudatory of the Gujarat Chalukya (Solanki) King Bhimadeva II. It was Jaitra Simha who declared independence.
A few years into Jaitra Simha’s rule, Iltutmish announced a jihad against Bhimadeva II. History had guided Iltutmish’s choice of Gujarat. It was a mulk prized in the annals of the Islamic conquest of Hindustan. It was here that Mahmud of Ghazni had won his most prized victory: the raid and destruction of Somanatha, the sacred Jyotirlinga Kshetra. Ever since, Gujarat had been transformed into an irresistible magnet for all sorts of alien Islamic invaders.
And so, between 1222-26, Iltutmish selected Mewar as the initial leg of his planned invasion of Gujarat and led a substantial force. The scene of the first battle was the aforementioned Nāgahrada or Nagda, the capital.
The Mount Abu inscription written in beautiful Sanskrit versification describes both Medapaṭa (Mewar) and Nagahrada quite picturesquely. The inherent piety in the verses is impossible to describe in mere words: “This territory of Medapaṭa surpassing by its excessive loveliness the town of Amaravati and completely humbling the pride in its beauty of all other towns, received the name of glorious Medapaṭa. Here there is an extensive town, Nagahrada, where a multitude of Rishi Harita’s disciples, rich in penance, performed various penances. This town is engaged in a series of Yajnas for the benefit of all the worlds. In one corner of the town, some people offer sacred oblations to the sacred Agni, which they have produced with the power of their Tapas. In other solitary spots of the town, other sages, having attained the rising of the Eternal Truth, behold Atmajnana and take delight in Pranayama. In a grove, ascetics freed from worldly bonds have their eyes half-closed looking upwards, the vision of divine contemplation. It is here that Rishi Harita, the abode of perfection, having attained union with Shiva himself bestowed the splendour of royalty.”
The author of the inscription was not speaking as a mere inhabitant of his town. His description was fully backed by tradition, which lists Nagahrada as a Tirtha-Kshetra of great antiquity. The towering scholar V.S. Sukhthankar writes that Sri Ramachandra, in the course of his banishment, took a sacred bath in a lake in the vicinity of Nagahrada. It is clear that even during Jaitra Simha’s tenure, Nāgahrada was the pulsating abode of innumerable Shaiva, Vaishnava and Jain temples, and some Buddhist stupas.
Iltutmish decided to honour it with the familiar piety of Islam.
Accordingly, his large force inflicted an orgy of savagery impelled by unchecked fanaticism. The Hammira-Madamardana, a contemporary play describes in excruciating detail how Hindus in the town were filled with dismay and terror.
Their foreknowledge of this vile Turushka’s barbarism compelled them to commit suicide en masse instead of being captured alive. Some jumped into wells, some set fire to their own houses and immolated themselves, and others hanged themselves. Consumed with fury, a few desperate, unarmed citizens grouped together and tried to counter the Turushka army but were heartlessly slaughtered. Heart-rending screams and wails of infants and small children pierced the air. In the end, the barbaric Turushka soldiers burnt the entire city till nothing but ashes were left. The devastation was so extensive that Jaitra Simha had to abandon the capital forever. He shifted the seat of his Government to Chittorgarh.
But the obliteration of Nagahrada was the only victory of Iltutmish’s army of Islam. A fuming Jaitra Simha decided to inflict a far more horrifying lesson upon the Turushka.
The Chirwa stone inscription gives us a vivid and heroic narrative of a commander named Talaraksha Yoga Raja whose son inflicted a crushing defeat against the Suratrana’s (i.e., sultan) forces in a village named Bhutala (now, Untala) near Nāgahrada. Sadly, he died in the battle.
And now, the indomitable Jaitra Simha himself entered the fray and battered Iltutmish so thoroughly that he never forgot the humiliation. The aforementioned Mount Abu inscription describes how Jaitra Simha “proved to be the very Agastya Rishi who drank the sea of the Turushka army, and even the sultan could not humble him… Even now, goblins loudly sing in battle the valour of the arm of the illustrious Jaitra Simha, having their minds ecstatic with the pleasure caused by the embrace of their mistresses who are tottering around, intoxicated with the blood of the Turushka army. He is the foremost among the rulers, who like Varaha, having the flashing sword as his tusk, in one fierce moment lifted the deeply-sunk land high out of the Turushka-sea”.
Indeed, Jaitra Simha’s pounding was so decisive that for the rest of his blighted rule, Iltutmish did not dare to look in the direction of Mewar. The silent evidence of his lasting humiliation and the voiceless tribute to Jaitra Simha’s Kshatra is the fact that none of the Muslim chroniclers mention this event.
Jaitra Simha’s deathless fame as an extraordinary Hindu hero who sprang up during a tumultuous period in Hindu history is truly remarkable for another reason. His regime which lasted for forty-three glorious years from 1213-56 was distinguished for the singularity that he never suffered a single defeat, he never ceded an inch of Hindu territory to the Turushkas.
Rawal Jaitra Simha’s valour and renown stood on the unshakeable foundation of his uncompromising spirit of independence. He stood alone as the insurmountable barrier, frustrating Islam’s march into the prosperous regions of Gujarat and Dakshinapatha by blocking its route that passed through southern Rajasthan. In other words, for about half a century, Jaitra Simha singlehandedly safeguarded the Hindus living in southern India.
For this and more, he has earned undying fame and our lasting gratitude. However, our textbooks have completely erased his name for reasons which have nothing to do with historical truths. This, as I mentioned, is the greater injury to his illustrious memory.
The author is the founder and chief editor, The Dharma Dispatch. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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