Maharana Pratap

• Maharana Pratap was born in Kumbhalgarh, Rajasthan on 9th May, 1540.

• Maharana Pratap was the 13th King of Mewar.

• His father Maharana Udai Singh II was the founder of the Udaipur city. His mother name was Rani Jeevant Kanwar.

• Maharana Pratap was the eldest of twenty-five sons of Maharana Udai Singh II. He was the crown Prince of Mewar.

• Maharana Pratap had 11 wives from which Maharani Ajabde Punwar was his favorite. With those 11 wives, he had 17 sons and 5 daughters.

• After the Siege of Chittorgarh in 1568, Maharana Udai Singh II decided to leave Chittor and move his family toMaharana-Pratap Gogunda.

• Maharana Udai Singh died in 1572 in Gogunda. After the death of Maharana Udai singh, Rani Dheer Bai, the stepmother of Maharana Pratap tried Kunwar Jagmal Singh to become the king of Mewar. But the nobles of the court found Kunwar Jagmal to be unfit for the position and so Maharana Pratap was made the ruler.

• When Pratap Singh was crowned king in 1572, Akbar sent a number of envoys asking the Rana to become a vassal king like many other Rajput leaders in the region. In 1573, Akbar sent six diplomatic missions to Mewar to get Rana Pratap to accept Mughal’s influence in Mewar. But Rana Pratap turned down each one of them. When the Rana refused to personally submit to Akbar, the war became inevitable.

• The Battle of Haldighati was fought on 18 June 1576 between cavalry and archers supporting Maharana Pratap, and the Mughal emperor Akbar's forces, led by Man Singh I of Amber. The famous battle of Haldighati was fought with 20,000 Rajputs against a Mughal army of 80,000 men commanded by Raja Man Singh.

• After a fierce battle lasting more than three hours, Pratap found himself wounded. During the battle, Jhala Maan who had a close resemblance to Maharana Pratap, advise him to left the battlefied and wore the crown of Maharana Pratap. In the battle, Jhala Maan was killed. During the escape, Maharana Pratap's famous and loyal horse Chetak gave up his life trying to save his Maharana.

• It is been said that in the battle of Haldighati, Maharana Pratap sliced one of the Mughal opponent Behlol Khan into two along with his horse.

• As Maharana escape, the battle failed to break the deadlock between the two powers. Akbar led a sustained campaign against the Rana, and soon, Goganda, Udaipur, and Kumbhalgarh were all under his control. After 1579, when Mughals' focus shifted to other parts of the empire, Rana Pratap recovers much of the lost territory in the western parts of his kingdom. But Chittor and the rest of eastern Mewar continued to remain under Mughal control.

• It was his dream to free Chittor from Mughal. So he made a pledge that he would eat in a leaf plate and sleep on a bed of straws until he doesn’t win Chittor back. Even today some Rajputs place a leaf under their plate and straw under their bed in the honor of the King.

• Pratap was died of injuries sustained during a hunting accident at Chavand on 1th January 1597 at the age of 56. He was succeeded by his eldest son Amar Singh I.