BATTLE OF KHANWA
‘A generation which ignores history has no past and no future’—what an excellent quote by the famous American author Robert Heinlein that stands true cutting across seas, continents and mountains even to this day. History is that hard task master whom if you do not master, is bound to repeat itself in myriad ways for the discomfit of an entire race. In other words, this the only subject in the world that has within its folds lessons that are hard to come by except through experiences good or bad. Unfortunately humans what they are, generally ignore the lessons from history often at their own peril drawn as it is due to expediencies of time.
When seen and experienced from the prism of India’s history recorded as well as passed down through the ages riding on the shoulders of generations of our forefathers, it is often observed a yawning gap between long held beliefs in the latter vis-a-vis that is peddled to us via various sources viz…school curriculums, official position and through the yellowing pages of our master historians. All very often working at cross purposes to each other, yet claiming their version of history as a thumb rule for that given epoch. It is in this very context that our present PM Mr Narendra Modi way back in 2022 at the 400th birth anniversary of legendry Ahom general ‘Lachit Barphukan said these prophetic words—‘The history of India is not just about slavery. It is about emerging victorious; it is about the valour of countless greats. It is about standing against tyranny with unprecedented courage’ unquote.
The Prime minister’s clarion call on the occasion was to ‘Correct distortions of history” which he said was written as a part of conspiracy during the medieval era as well as the colonial era of the British. Stressing the need to dig out local heroes from the confines of historical labyrinthine and make them visible to the public was his abiding mantra on the occasion. Towards this end, the date of 16th March holds very important for the entire sub –continent of India; since it was about 500 years back (16th March 1527) that the epochal ‘battle of Khanwa’ was fought between the Mughal emperor Babur and Maharana Sanga (Sangram Singh) of Mewar that changed the entire socio-religious milieu of India, birthing the advent of Islam and finally changed the way war was fought in the sub-continent with introduction of cannons and gun powder in the war. But the above mentioned points are only forming semantics of this epochal war. A much more sinister game plan was in the offing when this war was labeled as the last nail in the coffin of ‘Rajput- confederacy’ by various authors down the timeline with Babur being proclaimed as the unqualified champion of ‘Battle of Khanwa’.
The fact that this epochal ‘Battle of Khanwa’ was ‘tutored & not actually championing’ the cause of Mughals and Babur per se has enough empirical data to fall back upon which I in my article have tried to portray as history testified to it also. The ‘Battle of Khanwa’ was a sequel to the yet another famous ‘Battle of Bayana’ which was fought few days before and set the stage for Babur’s future plans of conquest of India. Yet this battle of Bayana was a stinging chastening of Mughal forces when the advanced guard of Maharana’s forces slaughtered 1500 soldiers of Mughal army resulting into a hasty retreat of Babur himself. A Mughal General, Mansur Barlas after this slaughter at Bayana under Babur was quoted as saying—‘The Rajputs have indomitable courage. They are personification of azrail(death). Unlike our troops, they do not abandon the field’.
With such a resounding victory under his belt at ‘Bayana’ , how could ‘Maharana Sanga’ bite dust within less than a month at ‘Khanwa’ as has been portrayed down the ages by various authors of repute both Indian and foreign? And the same narrative is being peddled in our national psyche from ages blunting us to secure more facts and figures about the purported victory of Babur over Rana Sanga. Babur in fact had himself written in ‘Baburnama’ his autobiography the following—‘The kafirs( Hindus) fought so much that the Mughal army was destroyed to a great extent. At Bayana, the Rajput army outnumbered us as well as demoralized our men. Wasn’t this ‘Self admonishment’ by Babur in the aftermath of his defeat at Bayana just a month before a wakeup call for our historians to dig a little more deep and ascertain the truths of Battle of Khanwa?
It is true that at the Battle of Khanwa, Babur completely outsmarted the Rajputs who numbering a sizable 2 lakhs against 90,000(ninety thousand) of the Mughals were left gaping with bewilderment when Babur used his cannons/ firepower for the first time in the sub-continent with devastating results. Thousands of Rajput soldiers collapsed under the onslaught of cannon fire of the Mughal army. This resulted into quick confabulations amongst the Rajput generals on the battlefield itself who goaded themselves and their soldiers to come up with a suicidal mission of sinking their heads into the blazing cannons , thus rendering the guns ineffective with their meat and blood splattered all over the gun barrels. Though I will not go into the semantics of the battle of ‘Khanwa’ as such , I will try to stick to my terms of reference which disputes this battle as a victory of Babur over Rana Sanga and touted all over the world in the opposite manner.
The basic rule of historiography is that the claims of victory by any party are not accepted on their face value unless corroborated by an independent neutral source/s or from the opposite camp. If no other version is available then the claim is not considered final. Some of the fundamental questions that go unanswered in this case are documented as below— If Battle of Khanwa was indeed a victory of Babur over Rana Sanga, then why was the Rana not killed by the Mughal army? Babur killed Ibrahim Lodhi at the famous battle of Panipat. Throughout his battle campaigns in India, Babur was known to kill his opponents. Then what prevented him to not kill Rana Sangha?
The only reason for this could be that Rana Sanga had inflicted enough damage on Babur at Khanwa so as to immobilize him .Besides, with the powerful kings of Jodhpur, Amer, Sirohi and Chanderi still at his side, Sanga was still a formidable force. Another question that I wish to put across to the noble historians is that if Khanwa was lost by Sanga , why wasn’t Sanga chased even a few kilometers ?
In fact Babur writes in Baburbnama, ‘When I had gone 2 miles, towards the pagan’s camp, I turned back because it was late in the day. I came back to our camp at the bed time prayer. Knowing the fact that MaharanaSanga was in that camp and resting why didn’t Babur choose to attack Sanga there and then? Did the Mughal army go by a glorious tradition of fighting the battles as per the laid down rules of engagement prevalent at that time? Maharana Sanga survived almost a year after the battle of Khanwa, but Babur was unable to even cause a whisker of damage on the self of Rana. How is that possible?
There are at least three independent sources from Mewar history that talk of Khanwa as a victory for RanaSanga after a fierce battle. Ranchod Bhatt in his book ‘Amarkavyam’ writes of a meeting between Babur &Sanga after Khanwa. ‘Chittor Patnama’ too mentions of a similar meeting after Khanwa. Surajmal Misran writes in his epic work ‘VanshBhaskar’ about the conclusive victory of Sanga over Babur at Khanwa. These are the writings from the local areas of Mewar which both Indian as well as foreign writers and even Muslim historians have failed to mention anywhere.
If indeed Khanwa was lost by Sanga why was Humayun, Babur’s son sent to Kabul to take a refuge instead of being stationed in India immediately after Khanwa? If we look at this battle from the Mughal perspective and their claims of having won Khanwa, then their only premise of having said so is based on memoirs of Babur in Baburnama. There is no other independent neutral source to corroborate the same. It is very intriguing, that Baburnama very meticulously gives details of the battle of Khanwa and Bayana. But is silent on the death of Babur’s bête noire i.e. Rana Sanga. Why so?
If Rana Sanga didn’t lose at Khanwa, then it can be said with reasonable certainty that Sanga was indeed poisoned by Babur, since Mughals have had in their later history of conquest of India of Auangzeb having poisoned Mirza Raja Jai singh his trustworthy general at Burhanpur for letting Shivaji escape from the palace of Ram singh at Agra .
Some historians including foreigners have claimed that the defeat at Khanwa was the end of ‘Rajput Confederacy’. This is utterly baseless. If indeed Rajput Confederacy was destroyed how come the same Rajput confederacy under Maharana Pratap and later under his son Rana Amar singh managed to keep at bay Akbar and the future Mughal emperors from Rajasthan?
The entire gamut of my article over here is to lay stress on actual historiography and come out with true facts with regards to this epochal battle at Khanwa so that the nation and in particular the student lot of the country come to know the willful obfuscations, of the past governments both colonial as well as indigenous often colluding with each other to churn out a false narrative of this momentous occasion of the Indian history. It is this effort to let know the masses of India the true valour of Indian ‘fighter class’ (read Rajputs) and how for ages they have been short-shrifted at the altar of expediencies of the then rulers.
The present Modi government has been harping upon correcting the distortions of Indian history and portray it to the masses and the intelligentsia as it occurred. Even otherwise history should be portrayed as it occurred and not as few self-consumed historians want it to be peddled to the country. Let this month of March-2025 be the harbinger for such endeavours and brand itself on the mental firmament of our national educators.
(The writer is a retired army officer and a regular scribe of Rising Kashmir. He can be approached on his email: slalotra [email protected])
