%2c_1567.jpg)
Jauhar, sometimes spelledJowhar orJuhar,[1][2] was a practice of massself-immolation byRajputkshatriya women and girls[3] in theIndian subcontinent to avoid capture, sex slavery, enslavement,[4] and rape when facing certain defeat during a war.[5][6][7] Some reports ofjauhar mention women committing self-immolation along with their children, Jauhar performed to avoid rape andnecrophilia by the invading Muslim armies.[8][9][10] This practice was historically observed in the northwest regions of India, with the most famous jauhars in recorded history occurring during wars between HinduRajput kingdoms inRajasthan and the opposing Muslim armies.[11][12][13][6] Jauhar was only performed during war, usually when there was imminent defeat. Jauhar involved Hindu Rajput women committing suicide with their children and valuables in a massive fire, in order to avoid capture and abuse in the face of inescapable military defeat.[6][14] At the same time or shortly thereafter, the men would ritualistically march to the battlefield expecting certain death, which in the regional tradition is calledsaka.[1] This practice was intended to show that those committing it valued their honour more highly than their lives.
Jauhar by Hindu kingdoms has been documented by Muslim historians of theDelhi Sultanate and theMughal Empire.[14][15][16] Among the most often cited examples ofjauhar is the mass suicide committed in 1303 CE by the women ofChittorgarh fort in Rajasthan, when faced with the invading army of theKhilji dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate.[17][18] Thejauhar phenomenon was also observed in other parts of India, such as in theKampili kingdom of northernKarnataka when it fell in 1327 to Delhi Sultanate armies.[16]
There is an annual celebration of heroism called the Jauhar Mela in Chittorgarh where the local people commemorate their ancestors.
The wordjauhar is connected to Sanskritjatugr̥ha, meaning a "house plastered with lac and other combustible materials for burning people alive in".[19] It has also been incorrectly interpreted to have been derived from thePersiangōhar, which refers to "gem, worth, virtue". This confusion, as author John Stratton Hawley states, rose from the fact thatjivhar andjauhar were written in the same manner with the same letter used to denotev andu. Thus,jivhar has also came to be incorrectly associated with the meaning ofjauhar.[20]
The practice ofjauhar has been claimed as being culturally related toSati, with both being a form of suicide by women through self-immolation. However, the two are only superficially similar, with the underlying reason for both being significantly different. Sati was the custom of a Hindu widow committing suicide by sitting on her husband's funeral pyre.[21] Jauhar was collective self-immolation by women in order to escape being captured and forced into slavery by invaders[22] when defeat was imminent. Self-immolation was preferred over simple suicide because it would negate the possibility of any defilement of their dead bodies which their husbands, children and/or clansmen might have to watch.
Kaushik Roy states thatjauhar was observed only during Hindu-Muslim wars, but not during internecine Hindu-Hindu wars among the Rajputs.[23] John Hawley, however, disagrees with this assertion; he links it to theGreek conquerors who also captured Indian women, arguing that the practice of jauhar might have started with the Greek campaigns in the region.[24]Veena Talwar Oldenburg disagrees as well, saying that "internecine warfare among the Rajput kingdoms almost certainly supplied the first occasions for jauhar, well before the Muslim invasions with which the practice is popularly associated" and that "the geopolitics of the northwest, whence a succession of invaders entered the subcontinent, made of Rajasthan a continual war zone, and its socially most respected community was therefore not the Brahmins but the Kshatriyas or Rajput castes, who controlled and defended the land. This history predates the coming of the Muslims by more than a millennium. Commemorative stones unearthed and dated in Rajasthan and Vijayanagara mark the deaths of both sexes. Their dates, which can be reliably determined, match perfectly the times and zones of war."[25]
The phenomenon ofjauhar has been reported and perceived by Hindus and Muslims differently. In Hindu traditions,jauhar was a heroic act by the women of a community facing certain defeat and abuse by the enemy.[6][26] For Muslim historians,jauhar was portrayed as an act forced upon women by their culture.[1]Amir Khusrau the poetic scholar described it, states Arvind Sharma – a professor of Comparative Religion, as "no doubt magical but nevertheless they are heroic".[27]
Among the most cited cases ofjauhar are three occurrences at the fort ofChittaur (Chittaurgarh, Chittorgarh), in Rajasthan, in1303,[28]1535, and1568 CE.[29]Jaisalmer was the scene of two occurrences ofjauhar, one in the year 1299 CE, during the reign of theAlauddin Khalji, and another during the reign of theTughlaq dynasty in 1326.[30][31]Jauhar andsaka were considered heroic acts, and the practice was glorified in the local ballads and folklore ofRajasthan.[32]
The mass self-immolation by theAgalassoi tribe of northwest India is mentioned in Book 6 ofThe Anabasis of Alexander,Arrian's 2nd-century CE military history ofAlexander the Great between 336 and 323 BCE. Arrian mentions Alexander's army conquering and enslaving peoples of the northwestIndian subcontinent. During a war that killed many in the Macedonian and Agalossoi armies, some 20,000 men, women and children of an Agalossoi town set fire to the town and immolated themselves when they came to believe that military defeat was imminent.[33][34]
TheMalli tribe also performed a similar act, which Pierre Herman Leonard Eggermont considersjauhar. Arrian states that they started burning their houses with themselves in it, though any Indian captured alive in their houses was slaughtered by the Greeks.[35]
In 712, Muhammed bin Qasim and his army attacked various kingdoms of the western regions of the Indian subcontinent. He laid siege to the capital ofRaja Dahir, then the Hindu king in the area ofSind. After Dahir had been killed, the queen (Ladi) coordinated the defense of the capital for several months. As the food supplies ran out, she and the women of the capital refused to surrender, lit pyres and committedjauhar. The remaining men walked out to their deaths at the hands of the invading army.[36][37]
Shams ud-Din Iltutmish, the Muslim sovereign of theDelhi Sultanate attacked Gwalior in 1232, then under control of the Rajputs. The Rajput women committedjauhar instead of submitting to Iltutmish's army. The place where the women committed mass suicide, in the northern end of the Gwalior fort, is known as Jauhar-tal (or Johar kund, Jauhar Tank).[38][39][40]
In 1301,Alauddin Khalji of the Muslim Khalji dynasty, and a ruler of theDelhi Sultanate besieged andconquered the Ranthambore fort. When faced with certain defeat, the defending rulerHammiradeva decided to fight to death with his soldiers, and his minister Jaja supervised the organization of ajauhar. The queens, daughters and other female relatives of Hammiradeva committed jauhar.[41]
Hammiradev’s wife Rani Rang Devi and his daughter Padmala, along with other women, made the decision to commitjauhar in order to protect their honor from the invading Islamic army. However, they found no time to arrange a huge sacrificial fire and altar in which to commitjauhar, thus they committed mass suicide by jumping into the reservoir at the fort. In her honor, the reservoir has been named "Padmala Talav".
Thejauhar at Ranthambore was described by Alauddin's courtierAmir Khusrau,[42] which makes it the firstjauhar to be described in aPersian language text.[43]
According to many scholars, the first jauhar of Chittorgarh occurred during the1303 siege of the Chittor fort.[44][45][46] Thisjauhar became a subject of legendary Rajasthani poems, withRani Padmini the main character, wherein she and other Rajput women commitjauhar to avoid being captured byAlauddin Khalji, a Muslim ruler of the Delhi Sultanate.[44] The historicity of the first jauhar of Chittor is based on Rajasthani traditional belief as well as IslamicSufi literature such asPadmavat byMalik Muhammad Jayasi.[47]
The Hindu women of theKampili kingdom of northernKarnataka committedjauhar when it fell in 1327 to the Muslim armies of the Delhi Sultanate ruled by Muhammad bin Tughluq.[16]
In 1486,Khalil Khan, prince ofMuzzafarid dynasty marched against Rana Vaghoji ofJhalavad, as he was rebellious. A battle took place between them near Saidpur, 6 km north ofDhrangadhra where Jhalas gained a decisive victory andKhalil Khan was captured, later released.Mahmud Begada accordingly marched towards Kuva (now Kankavati), the capital of Jhalas then. Rana Vaghoji assembled his vassals in his fort and prepared for battle. During the battle Rana Vaghoji's flag fell and his Rani's misunderstood that he is no more. So Vaghoji's 8 queens along with 750 women committedJal Jauhar by jumping into a well.[48]
Rana Vaghoji on knowing that all his wives committedJauhar, full of grief decided to die in the battlefield with his men. On Rana Vaghoji's death,Mahmud Begada sacked and destroyed the fort of Kuva, the day is known asKuva-no-ker (disaster of Kuva).[49]
The Hindu Rajput kingMedini Rai ruled overChanderi in northernMadhya Pradesh in early 16th century. He tried to helpRana Sanga in theBattle of Khanua against the Muslim armies ofBabur, the founder of theMughal Empire. In January 1528 CE, his fort was overwhelmed by the invading forces ofBabur. The women and children of the Chanderi fort committedjauhar, the men dressed up in saffron garments and walked the ritual ofsaka on 29 January.[50]
Rana Sanga died in 1528 CE after theBattle of Khanwa. Shortly afterwards, Mewar andChittor came under the regency of his widow,Rani Karnavati. The kingdom was besieged by the Muslim sultanBahadur Shah of Gujarat. Rani committed Jauhar with other women on 8 March 1535, while the Rajput army rallied out to meet the besieging Muslim army and committed saka.[51]
As Chittorgarh faced an imminent attack from the Sultan of Gujarat, Karnavati sought the assistance of the Mughal emperorHumayun to whom she had once offered arakhi. Bahadur Shah sacked the fort for the second time. Karnavati, along with 13,000 other women, shut themselves in a building with gunpowder, lit it, and thus committed mass suicide.[52]
However, the narrative of Karnavati sending Rakhi toHumayun is apparently a fictional story which wrongly became a part of folklore based on an unreliable gossip from the 17th century (200 years after the event). Contemporary Persian and Hindu authorities did not mention this story at all.[53]
The armies of the Muslim Mughal EmperorAkbar besieged the Rajput fort ofChittor in September 1567.[54] After his army conquered Chittorgarh in Rajasthan, Hindu women committedjauhar in the spring of 1568 CE, and the next morning, thousands of Rajput men walked the saka ritual.[55][56] The Mughal army killed all the Rajputs who walked out of the fort.[56]Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak, who was not an immediate witness, gave a hearsay account of the event as seen byAkbar and his army. Abu'l-Fazl alleged that the women were victims of Rajput men and unwilling participants, and these Rajputs came out walking to die, throwing away their lives.[1] According to David Smith, when Akbar entered the Chittorgarh fort in 1568, it was "nothing but an immense crematorium".[57]
According to Lindsey Harlan, thejauhar of 1568 is a part of regional legend and is locally remembered on the Hindu festival ofHoli as a day of Chittorgarh massacre by the Akbar army, with "the red color signifying the blood that flowed on that day".[56]
Raisen inMadhya Pradesh was repeatedly attacked by the Muslim Mughal Army in the early 16th century. In 1528, the firstjauhar was led by Rani Chanderi.[58] After the Mughal army left, the kingdom refused to accept orders from Delhi. After a long siege of Raisen fort, that exhausted all supplies within the fort, Rani Durgavati and 700 Raisen women committed the secondjauhar in 1532 while the men, led by Lakshman Tuar, committedsaka.[59] This refusal to submit to Mughal rule repeated, and in 1543 the thirdjauhar was led by Rani Ratnavali.[58]
Aurangzeb's vast Muslim army laid siege toBundela in Madhya Pradesh in December 1634 CE. The resident women committedjauhar as the fort fell. Those who had not completed the ritual and survived thejauhar in progress were forced into theharem. The men were forced to convert to Islam, whereas those who refused were executed.[60][61]
In 1710 CE, Mir Fazlullah, a rebel Muslim Mughalamir, invaded Daddanala, a town in thePrakasam District of Andhra Pradesh that was the capital of the DupatiSayapaneni Nayaks.[62] As Sayapaneni Pedda Venkatadri Nayudu, who was in charge, died during the conflict, all the assembled Sayapaneni women set fire to the houses in the fort and were burnt to death.[62] The five-year-old prince Mallikarjuna Nayudu was saved by a maidservant who smuggled him out through an orifice in the walls of the fort, and he was raised by his relatives.[62]
Practices like the jauhar was not limited to Hindus. Muslim rulers are recorded to have had their women killed in order to prevent any degradation of their honour.[63] In 1617, facing defeat near Dhaka, Mughal governorQasim Khan and his comrades beheaded their own wives to prevent their capture. This practice of jauhar, was a Rajput tradition assimilated into Mughal imperial culture through political and marital alliances and was now being practiced as far east as Bengal.[64]
In his memoirs,Jahangir, who was a Muslim emperor of Hindustan, stated that his nobleman Khan-i-Jahan ordered his wives to commitjauhar during a battle with his enemy,Sher Shah Suri. During a war with theAhom kingdom, Mirza Nathan ordered all Mughal women in his camp to be killed if he died. He later ordered them to perform jauhar.[65]
Jauhar specifically refers to the self-immolation of the women and children in anticipation of capture and abuse.
The women would build a great bonfire, and in their wedding finery, with their children and with all their valuables, they would immolate themselves en masse.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help){{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
Media related toJauhar at Wikimedia Commons