Jauhar

Jauhar and Saka were originally the voluntary death of the royal womenfolk of Rajputs and Rajput men in order to avoid capture and dishonour at the hands of enemy. The term is extended to describe the occasional practice of mass suicide carried out in medieval times by Rajput women and men. Mass self-immolation by women was called Jauhar, and riding out and fighting till their last breath by men was called saka. The practice is often described in terms of the women and children alone, but should correctly be understood as including the death of the men on the battlefield. As generally described, Jauhar and saka involved:
 * 1) A defending Rajput army being besieged inside a fortification by an invading enemy army;
 * 2) The realization by the defenders that defeat was imminent or unavoidable and no options were left.
 * 3) The realization by the defenders that the enemy army would capture and dishonour womenfolk.
 * 4) The immolation, en masse, of women and young children to avoid molestation by the victorious invading army;
 * 5) The riding out, into open battle and certain death, of the menfolk, there to die on the field of war.

The Jauhar in itself could not be performed without the "Saka" part of Jauhar and Saka. When defeat became certain in a war, it was considered proper to fight to the last breath, but to avoid capture and dishonour of royal women, Jauhar was committed.

There is extensive glorification of the practice in the local ballads and folk-histories of Rajasthan; however, the accuracy of these accounts has probably degraded due to over-romanticization. Accounts of the invaders finding a deserted city with no living residents are not historically accurate; the Brahmins, Charans, servants and slaves and other communities also lived with Rajputs. They lived to tell the story. The cases of Rajputs running from battle at the time of "Saka" have not been established. In fact, Rajputs considered it disgraceful to run from battlefield. Jauhar and Saka were limited to the Hindu Kshatriya caste named Rajputs, who formed the upper and ruling classes and castes of Rajasthan and northern India. The Rajputs were the fighting warrior caste of this area.

Despite occasional confusion, this practice is not at all related with "Sati". Sati was a custom performed by widowed women only. Jauhar and Saka were committed while both the partners were living and at a time of war only. They were committed together. On the final day, women sacrificed before the fire god and men bearing a Kesariya Bana(saffron coloured dress), attacked the enemy. It was estimated prior to this that the enemy was so powerful that death was almost certain. There were few options, and Rajput men chose to fight and die. Jauhar was the only precaution against their women being molested and dishonoured at the hands of the enemy. Jauhar and Saka were always performed together.

The best examples of Jauhar and Saka were at three occasions.

I: Ala-ud-din Khilji: Sultan of Delhi sieged Chittor fort in 1303 AD. Ultimately he agreed to have a glimpse of Rani Padmini in a mirror.The Rana agreed to this. After this was done, Rana accompanied him due to courtesy to gates of fort. The Rana was dishonestly arrested and kept as hostage for Padmini. With no options left, Padmini decided to commit Jauhar and the men decided to commit Saka. But before this Rajputs made last attempt to free the Rana from captivity of Ala-ud-din Khilji. Misleading information was sent to Alluddin that Padmini has decided to come to Ala-ud-din, but as her status demanded, she was to come with 700 women. Allauddin agreed to this. The Rajputs were thus able to infiltrate about 2000 men into Allauddin's army. Each Palaqi contained two Rajput soldiers and four men to lift it. Gora and Badal were leading this team. When they failed to free Rawal Ratan Singh a signal was sent and Padmini together with other women committed Jauhar. Rajput men fought till their last breath.

II: Rana Sanga died in 1528 AD after the Battle of Khanua, his widow Karmawati was ruling Chittor as regent. Bahadur Shah of Gujarat besieged the fort. Karmawati sent Rakhi to Humayun the son of Babur for help as brother, Humayun is said to have accepted the gift but as was his nature Humayun could not make a decision in time or deleberately avoided to arrive in time. The Rani committed Jauhar with other women on March 8,1535 AD. Rajput men fought their last battle.

III: Emperor Akbar sieged the fort of Chittor in September 1567 AD. Changing the strategy, Rana Udai Singh II his sons and royal women left Chittor soon after this incident by a hidden way.The fort was left in charge of Jaimal Rathore and Patta Sisodiya. One morning Akbar found Jaimal inspecting repair works of the fort which was damaged by mines. He shot him with his gun. The bullet hit Jaimal in the leg and wounded him seriously. The same day Rajputs found defeat was certain, their women committed Jauhar in the night of February 22,1568 AD.Next morning Rajput men committed saka. (Abul Fazal has given a true account of the event as seen by Akbar in his biography in 1568 AD.)

There are many more instances, but not properly recorded. At the fort of Bayana King Vijaipal's wife committed Jauhar based on misleading information from "Timan Garh" (Timan Garh is famous for old sculpture). It is now in the Karauli district of Rajasthan)

The best known cases of Jauhar are the three occurrences at the fort of Chittaur (Chittaurgarh, Chittorgarh), in Rajasthan, in 1303, in 1535, and 1568. Jaisalmer has witnessed two occurrences of Jauhar. Another occurrence was in Chanderi.