Alauddin Khalji Remembered: Conquest, Gender

and Community in Medieval Rajput Narratives

Ramya Sreenivasan

Texas

This essay examines the varied literary narratives about Alauddin Khalji that
emerged in north-Indian Rajput courts during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Fifteenth-century verse narratives such as Nayacandra Suri's Hammiramaha-
kavyam (c. 1400?) and Padmanabha's Kanhadade Prabandh (c. 1455) were
produced in the courts of local Rajput lineages. These narratives cast Alauddin's
conquest as driven by his imperial ambitions and his desire for territory. In such
instances, the remembering of Alauddin's conquests served as a vehicle for assert-
ing the contemporary lineage's descent from the older Rajput lineages that had
been subjugated militarily by Alauddin. The derivation of such lineal descent was
a recognized avenue through which contemporary lineages acquired political stat-
ure and legitimacy. Similar concerns about legitimacy can be seen as driving the
resolutions of these narratives of conquest. Both Nayacandra's and Padmanabha's
poems end with the victory of Alauddin, the death of the Rajput king, and the
immolation of his queens.
In contrast, sixteenth-century narratives such as Narayandas's Chitai-varta
(c. 1520) and Jayasi's Padmavat (c. 1540) are focused on threats from the Delhi
Sultan to the royal women-the Rajput queens and princesses. These narratives
also emerged from local contexts where elite Rajputs constituted significant patrons
and audiences for heroic romance narratives. Jayasi and Narayandas's narratives
re-encode the Khalji Sultan's conquests as transgressing the norms of elite patri-
archy. The careers of the protagonists are re-shaped around the defence of their
queens in these fresh narrative reconstructions, as much as Alauddin's conquests
are reinterpreted. This essay explores transitions in Rajput state formation and
elite patriarchy that provided the context for this transformed memory of Alauddin
Khalji's conquests in the sixteenth century.
The essay begins with brief summaries of the plots of these four poems. Elements
significant to the argument here are highlighted in each narrative. The next section
identifies the contexts of elite patronage in which these reinterpretations of
Alauddin Khalji's conquests emerged, beginning a century after those conquests
themselves. All four narratives discussed here were produced under 'Rajput'
patronage of one kind or another. The third section briefly traces the tradition of

Studies in History, 18, 2, n.s. (2002)

SAGE PUBLICATIONS New Delhi/Thousand Oaks/London
276 / RAMYA SREENIVASAN

narratives recasting Alauddin's conquests, and speculates on the pressures of the

particular historical moments when the memory of those conquests was trans-
formed. The fourth section examines how the social origins and consequently the
politics of the elite Rajput groups of patrons and audiences for such narratives in
medieval north India, were not homogenous. These disparate origins implied dif-
ferent degrees of investment in the material, patriarchal and symbolic underpin-
nings of Rajput power, including sovereign control over territory, purity of lineage,
and polygynous marriages among the elite. The fifth section explores how these
differences in patronage contexts are articulated in the choice of genre, and differ-
ing norms of kingship, in the four narratives. The sixth and final section of the
essay suggests how the same differences in patronage contexts have shaped di-
vergent representations of Alauddin Khalji's conquests.

The Poems

Nayacandra Suri's Hammiramahakavyam is divided into fourteen cantos.' The

first four cantos trace the genealogy of the Cahamana (Cauhan), the lineage to
which Hammira of Ranthambhor belonged.l The genealogy begins with Brahma,
and recounts the story of the origin of Pushkar, the creation of the salt lake at
Sakambhari (Sambhar) by the benevolent patron goddess, and the establishment
of the Cahamana citadel at Ajayameru (Ajmer). The first Cahamana is asserted to
have descended from the sun to defend Brahma's sacrifice from the demons
(danava). After describing such mythic ancestry, the genealogical account identifies
the immediate Caharnana ancestors of Hammira. In addition to asserting the divine
descent of the Cahamana lineage, this mythic history sacralizes the main under-
pinnings of Cahamana rule: its control over the city of Ajmer with its sacred lake
Pushkar, and over the salt trade around Sambhar.
Among Harnmira's ancestors is Prthviraja Cahamana. The poem recounts his
conflict with Sahabadina, the Saka lord (sakesvara), arising out of the latter ts
oppression of the 'kings of the west' (pascimabhumipala) in his drive to subjugate
the earth. The Saka king is defeated seven times by Prthviraja, before he finally
captures the Cahamana king and puts him to death. There is no mention of Jaicand
of Kanauj, or Sanyogita, or of other episodes found in the Prthviraj Raso cycle.
After the death of Prthviraja, the Hammiramahakavyam also narrates the capture
by Sahabadina of other Cahamana strongholds, including Ranthambhor. By
describing this earlier conflict, Nayacandra's genealogical account locates the
conflict between its two protagonists, Hammira and Allavadina, within a history
of such conflicts between the two putative lineages, ksatriya and Saka/mlecchal
Yavana kings.

1 I am indebted to Dr Harbans Mukhia (or his comments on an earlier draft of this article. The

edition used in this essay is Nayacandra Suri, Hammiramahakavyam, ed., Muni Jinavijay, lodhpu T,
1968.
~ Throughout the essay, when referring to the poem, the spellings follow the forms used in the
original. When referring to the historical characters or places, the commonly used forms are used.
 Alauddin Khalji remembered / 277

The narration of this history of conflict is interrupted by three cantos describing

the seasons, and the sports and festivities in which Hammira engages. Here Naya-
candra's poem follows the conventions of the Sanskrit mahakavyam or court epic,
as also in narrating a long sermon from Hammira's father to his young son on the
conventions of good govemance-nitisastra.
The conflict between Hammira and Allavadina arises on the same grounds as
the precedent-setting conflict between their 'ancestors', Prthviraja and Sahabadina.
Both kings aspire to conquer 'the world' . Two disgruntled ministers of Hammira
trigger off the direct confrontation between the rival kings. First, Dharmasimha is
blinded and castrated by Hammira for losing a battle against Allavadina. Although
later reinstated by Hammira, he continues to seek vengeance for his humiliation.
Then the loyal Bhojadeva is spumed by Hammira and defects to Allavadina's
court. Neither of the two SIdes in this battle are homogenous groups. If Allavadina
is aided by Hammira's disgruntled ministers, Hammira in tum is served faithfully
by mudgala (Mughal) chiefs. Ultimately, Hammira is betrayed by his own asso-
ciates. The women of the household immolate themselves, and the men die in
their last battle against Allavadina.
Padmanabha begins his Kanhadade Prabandh by praising his patron's lineage
and his capital city Jalor.' The poem then narrates the conquest of Gujarat by
Alauddin. As in the Hammiramahakavyam, the catalyst in the conflict is Madhav,
the favourite minister of the Gujarati king Sarangde. Insulted by his king, Madhav
swears vengeance and goes to the turak ('Turk') Alavadin's court in Delhi. He
laments the demise of khitri dharma-in Gujarat, where the king killed Madhava's
brother and took the latter's wife into the royal harem. The angry Madhav takes
Alavadin's army into Gujarat and reveals its military secrets to the Sultan. The
first canto describes how Alavadin's general Alukhan (Ulugh Khan) attacks
Gujarat, sacks its cities and loots the temple of Somnath. On his return journey to
Delhi, he is defeated by Kanhadade, the Cahuan (Cauhan) ruler of Jalahur. Kanha-
dade rescues the prisoners along with the idol of Somnath, which is being carried
to Delhi to be ground to lime.
In the second canto, the turak Sultan attacks Jalahur in retaliation. The fortress
of Samiyana (Siwana) is defended in vainby the hindus," Kanhadade's nephew
Santal Siha dies defending the fortress, and his wives commitjamahara (jauhar).
In the third canto, Alavadin advances on Jalahur. The Sultan's daughter Piroja
asserts that Kanhadade is the tenth incarnation (avatari) of Visnu. If AIavadin
persists in his assault on Jalahur, he will lose his life.' She also declares that she
wishes to marry Kanhadade's son Viramde, otherwise she will die. The Sultan is
initially dismissive, pointing out to his daughter that hindu and turak do not marry."
He gives in to her insistence, however, and sends an emissary to Kanhadade.

3 The edition used in this essay is Padmanabha, Kanhadade Prabandh, ed., K.B. Vyas, Jodhpur,

1953.
4 Padrnanabha, Kanhadade Prabandh, Canto 2, verses 32, 42.

S Ibid., Canto 3, verses 119-20.

6 Ibid., verse 123.

278 / RAMYA SREENIVASAN

Alavadin offers to make Kanhadade the governor of Gujarat, in return for accepting
the alliance. His offer is spumed as shameful by Viramde. Piroja is allowed to
visit Jalahur, however, and negotiates the release of Alavadin's chiefs (malika
rai) captured by Kanhadade in previous battles.'
In the final canto, the two sides face each other in conflict once again. Kanha-
dade's forces win many battles, but after a siege of eight years Jalahur is finally
taken by treachery. After Kanhadade's death in battle and the immolation (jama-
hara) of his queens, Viramde becomes king of Jalahurfor three days, before dying
similarly in battle. Piroja has her servant bring back the dead Viramde's head, and
immolates herself on the banks of the Yamuna, on the same pyre in which she cre-
mates the prince's head.
The plot of the Chitai-varta is as follows." Chitai is the daughter of Ramdev of
Devagiri. During Alauddin's progress through the southern part of the subcontinen t,
Ramdev agrees to accept Alauddin as his overlord. The king spends three years
with the Sultan at his court in Delhi, where he is treated with the same honour as
Alauddin's most important ministers. After three years, Ramdev returns to Devagiri
to get his young daughter Chitai married. To help prepare for the festivities, he
asks Alauddin to send with him a painter from the Delhi court. The painter catches
a glimpse of Chitai, and is smitten by her beauty. He returns to Delhi after Chitai ' s
marriage to the Rajput prince Saunrsi of Dwarasamudra 'in the south'.
Saunrsi goes hunting in the forests near Devagiri everyday, disregarding the
apprehensions of his father-in-law and his ministers, who remind him that hunting
brought about the downfall of so many kings in the past, including Pandu and
Dasaratha. One day, Saunrsi follows a doe to the ashram of Bhartrhari, who is
disturbed from his deep penance. The ascetic tries to rescue the doe from Saunrsi _
Failing to dissuade him, Bhartrhari curses the prince, saying that he will lose his
wife to another man. At key points, the narrative reiterates that the subsequent
course of events is determined by this curse, and by Chitai and Saunrsi's destinies,
Mean while, his painter's praise of her makes Alauddin desire Chitai. The Sultan
marches south and lays siege to the fort of Devagiri. The siege carries on, and
ultimately, Alauddin asks Raghava Cetan (who had assisted him in the conquest
of Chitor) for help. Raghava Cetan goes to Ramdev with Alauddin's demand to
surrender his daughter and the fort. The king of Devagiri refuses, of course. Mean-
while, the curious Alauddin has disguised himself and accompanied Raghava
into the fort. The Sultan is recognized by Chitai's servant Mainareha, and pleads
with her to let him go. In return for his freedom, he promises to lift the siege,
withdraw from Devagiri and give up his pursuit of Chitai.
The servant Mainareha does release him. Alauddin withdraws, true to his
word. A grateful Ramdev wishes to reward the servant, when a jealous minister
intercedes. The latter asks the servant to prove her power over the Sultan, by

7 Ibid., verse 247.

8 The edition used in this essay is Narayandas, Chitai-varta, ed., Mataprasad Gupta, Kashi,
1958.
 Alauddin Khalji remembered I 279

getting him to return. Irked, the servant promptly obliges, and Alauddin comes
back to lay siege to Devagiri. The battle continues. Ultimately Chitai is captured
by the Sultan while worshipping at a Siva temple some distance from the fort.
She is taken back to Delhi, but addresses Alauddin as her father. He recognizes
that he has failed in his quest to obtain Chitai for himself, and accepts her as his
daughter. However, he does not send her back to Devagiri for fear of ridicule.
Saunrsi hears of his wife Chitai's capture, and becomes a mendicant. He learns
the discipline and powers of jog from his guru Candranath, and learns the art of
entrancing animals and human beings with his music. He travels allover the sub-
continent as a mendicant, hoping to hear of Chitai. Finally, he hears that she is in
Delhi and proceeds to Alauddin's court. He wins over the Sultan with his musical
prowess, and asks for Chitai in reward. Alauddin pleads with Chitai to surrender
herself to the mendicant and preserve the Sultan's word. Chitai reveals to him
that this is her husband. The triumphant prince returns to Dwarasamudra with his
rescued wife, and with the gift of Gujarat's additional revenues from Alauddin.
The Padmavat narrates the love between Ratansen the king of Chitor and
Padmavati, the princess of Singhaldip.? Ratansen first hears of her beauty from
Hiraman, a parrot who was Padmavati's companion before being trapped by a
bird-catcher and eventually sold in Chitor. As soon as he hears of her beauty,
Ratansen becomes an ascetic and embarks on a quest to win this ideal woman for
his wife. He disregards the objections of his mother and his first wife Nagmati.
Sixteen thousand vassals accompany him on his journey to Singhal. In Singhal he
undertakes penance in a Siva temple in order to win the princess. Despairing of
success, he sets out to immolate himself 'like s sati', Siva and Parvati intervene to
quench this fire of 'desire' (kama) that threatens to bum down the entire world in
its intensity. With the help of Siva and Parvati, Ratansen then launches an attack
on the fortress, and is captured and imprisoned by the king of Singhal. Just as he
is about to be crucified, his identity is revealed. He marries Padmavati and returns
to Chitor with many wondrous gifts, after more adventures (including a shipwreck)
on the way back.
The Brahman Raghava Cetan enjoys many privileges at the court of Chitor
because of his magical powers. When he abuses his powers to deceive the king,
he is banished. Padmavati seeks to placate him with the gift of her priceless bangle.
The vengeful Raghava Cetan goes to Delhi, and describes Padmavati's beauty to
the Sultan. Alauddin lays siege to Chitor and demands the surrender of Padmavati.
Ratansen refuses to do so, but offers to pay tribute instead. Alauddin suggests
fresh terms and enters the fort, where he is entertained as a guest of honour. On
his return, the Sultan tricks and captures Ratansen, and takes him to Delhi. Gora
and Badal launch a rescue, disguised as Padrnavati and her companions. On the
return journey Gora is killed as he holds the Sultan's army at bay, while Badal
reaches Chitor safely with the king.

9 The edition used in this essay is the Jayasi Granthavali, ed., Mataprasad Gupta, Allahabad,

1952.
280 I RAMYA SREENIVASAN

Meanwhile, Devapal, ruler of neighbouring Kumbhalmer, takes advantage of

Ratansen's absence and suggests to Padmavati that she give up Chitor and become
his queen instead. Padmavati refuses, and tells Ratansen of this insult when he
returns from Delhi. Ratansen sets off to punish Devapal, promising to return before
Alauddin's forces reach Chitor. Devapal and Ratansen kill each other in single
combat. Nagmati and Padmavati commit sati. When Alauddin's army arrives,
Chitor's forces die in their last battle, and the women commitjauhar. Alauddin ac-
quires an empty fortress, cheated of victory even as Chitor is conquered by Islam.

Poets and Patrons in History

This section sums up the information available about the poets and their patrons,
to identify the historical contexts of patronage in which these four poems emerged.
Nayacandra Suri composed the Hammiramahakavyam at the court of the Tomar
ruler of Gwalior, some time between the late-fourteenth and early-fifteenth cen-
turies. The poet, a Jain monk, was the grandson of Jayasimha Suri who authored
the Kumarapalacarita, one of the best-known Jain prabandha kavyas of the medi-
eval period. Nayacandra invokes Hammira as an inspirational figure. The king
appears to the poet in a dream and inspires him to bring pleasure to the assembly
of king and courtiers by expounding on the heroic rasa in his narrative. 10
Padmanabha composed his Kanhadade Prabandb around 1455, at the request
of his patron Akheraj, the Sonigara Cauhan ruler of Jalor (in modem Rajasthan).
Akheraj was a descendant of Kanhadade, the chieftain of Jalor who died in 1311
resisting Alauddin's conquest. 11 Padmanabha was from the Nagar Brahmin caste,
that provided poets, scholars and administrators to the Rajput courts of Gujarat
and Rajasthan.
Little is known about Narayandas, the author of the Chitai-varta. Manuscripts
of the poem were rediscovered in the twentieth century. One manuscript, copied
in 1625, was discovered in Allahabad in 1941; in this version the poem was ascribed
to one Ratanrang. A second manuscript surfaced shortly after in the Kharatara-
gaccha Jain Bhandar at Bikaner, copied in 1590 and ascribing authorship of the
poem to Narayandas. Comparing these two manuscripts and a third that surfaced
later, the editor Mataprasad Gupta concludes that these manuscripts were copies
of a single poem, composed by Narayandas and later embellished by Ratanrang.P
From the self-description of the poet within the poem, the editor Gupta deduces
that the Chitai-varta was composed at Sarangpur at the court of Silhadi, the Purbiya
Rajput chieftain in Malwa."

10 See the poet's description of himself, his patron and the circumstances in which the poem was

composed, in Nayacandra, Hammiramahakavyam, Canto 14, verses 22-46.

II Padmanabha describes himself and his patron in Kanhadade Prabandh, Canto 3, verses

337-43.
I: For details about manuscripts and the piecing together of the poem in a modem critical edition ,
see Mataprasad Gupta, 'Prastavana', in Gupta, ed., Chitai-varta, pp. 1-11.
IJ For the career of Silhadi, see Dirk Kolff, Naukar: Rajput and Sepoy: The Ethnohistory of the

Military Labour Market in Hindustan, /450-1850, Cambridge and Delhi, 1990, pp. 85-102.
 Alauddin Khalji remembered I 281

Malik Muhammad Jayasi's Padmavat, the first known narrative about Padmini,
the queen of Chitor, was composed in Jayas (in the Amethi-Rae Bareli area of
modern Uttar Pradesh), around 1540. Not much is known about its author, other
than the fact that he was a Sufi. Some legends narrate that the local Raja Ramsingh
of Amethi invited him to Amethi town. The king had heard a wandering mendicant
recite the barahmasa from the Padmavat and was curious about the creator of the
verses. Another legend has it that Jayasi's blessings helped the king beget two
sons. Other modern editors have claimed that he attended the court of Jagat Deva,
an ally of Sher Shah. No evidence has been found to substantiate these courtly
affiliations. According to the legends, Jayasi spent the last years of his life in
meditation in the forests near Amethi. He died when he had turned himself into a
tiger, as he was wont to do, and was shot accidentally by the Icing's hunters. The
king ordained that his memory should be kept alive by burning a lamp at the tomb
and by recitations of the Koran. 14 Such legends were typical of stock narratives of
miracles associated with Sufi saints in medieval India.
The earliest of the four narratives, the Hammiramahakavyam, dates to around
1390 and the four poems together span roughly a century and a half (the Padmavat
was composed around 1540). All four poems enjoyed some sort of Rajput
patronage. As is apparent from the biographies of the poets, the Hammiramaha-
kavyam was produced in the Tomar Rajput court of Gwalior. The Chitai-varta
was probably composed in the Purbiya Rajput court at Sarangpur, Malwa.
Padmanabha's Kanhadade Prabandh was composed at the Cauhan Rajput court
of Jalor in Rajasthan.
The patrons and audience -of the Padmavat merit extended attention. Most
modern scholars read Jayasi's poem as a Sufi mystical allegory. They also regard
the poem as stitching together two distinct halves. The first half is read as dealing
with a spiritual quest. In contrast, the second half is read as a reconstruction of the
past, an exercise in which the allegorical/symbolic mode (dominant in the first
half of the poem) recedes. In other words, the first half of the Padmavat is read as
Sufi allegory, and the second as a (flawed) historical reconstruction.
The legends and apocrypha that have gathered around the figure of Jayasi in
Sufi hagiographies through the centuries, as well as the steady transmission and
reinterpretation of his poem within Sufi networks, confirm that the poem was
indeed intended to be read for its mystical import. At the same time, the premise
of a disjunction between the two halves of the poem is based upon a dominant
twentieth-century understanding of the irrelevance of politics and history to Sufism.
If Sufism has a history, then it is generally understood in terms of its theological
development. And if it has a politics, then it is understood iI1 terms of the engage-
ment between various Sufi shaikhs and kings.
In contrast, recent studies of the Padmavat and its companion 'tales of love' in
medieval Avadhi, have formulated a different relationship between the multiple
14 John Millis surveys all the evidence and sums up the scholarly consensus on layasi the poet.

See lohn Millis, Malik Muhammad Jayasi: Allegory and Symbolism in his 'Padmavut'; unpublished
Ph.D. thesis, University of Chicago, 1984, pp. 16-40.
282 / RAMYA SREENIVASAN

layers of signification in these poems and their multiple audience constituencies.

Thomas de Bruijn argues that the Avadhi 'tales of love' were meant to function
both in the environs of the local Sufi centres and in the courts of regional chiefly
patrons. He argues that this is why these poems illustrate both devotion and sacrifice
to God and the heroic bravery of the prince, 'thus connect(ing) the two spheres of
the poet's allegiance: the Sufi centre and the local court' .15 Aditya Behl extends
this argument by further clarifying two contexts-Islamic-courtly and Sufi-for
the genre of Avadhi romances that the Padmavat belongs to."
The ethos of regional and local courts under the Delhi Sultanate may have
been broadly Islamic. The local elite that patronized the production of literature
in the regional languages however, was by no means either exclusively Muslim
or exclusively Hindu. As Muzaffar Alam shows, in the early seventeenth century
a very large portion of land in the Mughal province of Avadh was in the control of
Hindu Rajputs. The districts in their control frequently formed a contiguous block.
This added to their power and.strength in the countryside. The Muslims, namely
the Afghans, Shaikhzadas (Saiyids and Shaikhs) and some local Rajput converts
also occupied a high position in the province: In terms of influence and strength,
the Muslims in Avadh were next only to the Rajputs." In this historical context,
the apocryphal stories of Jayasi's encounters with several local Rajput rulers,
suggest that the poet and his poem must be seen as implicated in a complex process
of engagement with local Rajput elites.
It is striking that all four narratives recast Alauddin Khalji's military campaigns
undertaken at the turn of the fourteenth century. Given the fact that all four were
composed under Rajput patronage, and describe the careers of protagonists belong-
ing to 'Rajput' lineages, these narratives can be classified as 'Rajput' reconstruc-
tions of Alauddin's conquests. Within this group of four narratives, the theme of
military conquest, and its relation to the status of women on either side, is repeat-
edly reconfigured.

Alauddin Khalji's Conquests Remembered

Alauddin Khalji's conquests of Ranthambhor, Chitor, Jalor and Devagiri were

the subject of a number of poetic narratives. Nayacandra Suri's fifteenth-century
Hammiramahakavyam in Sanskrit was followed, centuries later, by Jodhraj's
Hamir Raso or Hamirayan (1828), and two other, later compositions, Gval Kavi's
Hamir Hath and Chandrashekhar's Hamir Hath. Following the fifteenth-century
Kanhadade Prabandh, Khalji's conquest of Jalor was the subject of the anonymous

1~ Thomas de Bruijn, The Ruby Hidden in the Dust: A Study of the Poetics of Malik Muhammad
Jayasi's Padmavat, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Leiden, 1996, p. 63.
16 Aditya Behl, Shadows of Paradise: An Indian Islamic Literary Tradition. 1379-1545, New

York, 2001.
17 Muzaffar Alam, 'Assimilation from a Distance: Confrontation and Sufi Accommodation in

Awadh Society', in R. Champakalakshmi and S. Gopal, eds, Tradition. Dissent and Ideology: Essays
in Honour of Romila Thapar, New Delhi, 1996, pp. 164-91.
 Alauddin Khalji remembered /283

Viramde Sonigara ri Vat, probably composed in the early eighteenth century. 18

Jayasi's Padmavat was the subject of multiple Sufi reinterpretations in Persian,
Dakini and then Urdu, down to the twentieth century. 19 Further, the story of Padmini
of Chitor was also retold in multiple versions in medieval Rajasthan, beginning
with Hernratan's Gora Badal Padmini Caupai (c. 1589). The story was then retold
by Jatmal Nahar, Labdodhay and Bhagyavijay, besides figuring in the royal
chronicles and genealogies of the ruling Sisodiya lineage in Mewar. Narayandas's
account of the conquest of Devagiri was followed by another retelling in the
seventeenth century: Jan Kavi's Katha Chita ki.
Examining the contexts of these multiple retellings helps to illuminate the
functions of these narrative adaptations ofAlauddin's conquests. Alauddin Khalji
was the first ruler of the Delhi Sultanate to make deep inroads into Rajasthan. His
campaigns had a profoundly destructive impact upon the ruling lineages in the
region. Thus the siege of Chitor seems to have marked the end of the Guhila
dynasty in Mewar. No major ruling lineage emerged in the region for more than a
century after this. However, the emergence of later accounts suggests that the his-
torical memory of these events circulated orally, long after the events themselves.
These oral accounts were recovered by later ruling lineages for their own purposes.
Thus it was a descendant of the Cauhan chief of Jalor defeated by Alauddin, who
commissioned the production of the Kanhadade Prabandh. From the mid-fifteenth
century onwards, newer Rajput ruling lineages consolidated power and established
legitimacy by claiming genealogical (and thereby political) descent from those
past ruling lineages whose power had been destroyed by Khalji's campaigns.
This is the period whenthe historical memory ofAlauddin began to be transformed.
The next spurt of literary activity around the subject of Khalji's Rajasthan cam-
paigns took place in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when the ruling
lineages in Rajasthan were engaged in negotiating the terms of their relations
with Mughal imperial authority in Delhi. Once again, the memory of the earlier
Khalji campaign was resonant with possibilities for reinterpretation at this historical
moment This pattern continues into modem times. As late as the nineteenth cen-
tury, Rajput elites claiming descent from older lineages continued to commission
the production of heroic narratives about the defeat of their 'ancestors' at the
hands of Alauddin. Thus the Brahmin Jodhraj composed the Hamir Raso at the
instance of his patron Candrabhanu, the Cauhan chief of Nimrana, in 1828. 20

The 'Rajput' Patrons in History: Politics and Patriarchy

The social origins of these regional. and local elites in medieval north India were
by no means homogenous. Their disparate social locations often implied

18 Purshottam Lal Menariya, Rajasthani Sahitya ka Itihas, Jaipur, 1968, p. 60.

19 For Persian and early Urdu versions of the Padmavat, see S.A.H. Abidi, 'The Story of Padmavat
in Indo-Persian Literature', Indo-Iranica, Vol. 15: 2,1962, pp. 1-12.
:20 Narottamdas Svami, Raso Sahitya aur Prthviraj Raso: Sanksipt Paricay, Bikaner, B.S., 1885,

p.19.
284/ RAMYA SREENIVASAN

disjunctions in politics and patriarchal practices, within an evolving definition of

'Rajput' ethics. As Dirk Kolff demonstrates, the term Rajput did not necessarily
denote a fixed ethnic identity, at least between the fifteenth and seventeenth cen-
turies. The label encompassed the entire 'continuum between at one end, mainly
in Rajasthan, a genealogically defined Rajput aristocracy and ... an opposite end
occupied by a variety of peasant groups and tribal elites, largely in Hindustan' .21
As Kumkum Sangari points out in the context of medieval Mewar, the political
history of the Rajput kingdoms in this period was one of 'ceaseless competitive
warfare' , a condition both of steady expansion and of insecurity. Constant warfare
reinforced the mutual dependence between ruler and clan, and ruler and vassals.
In this polity the notion of kul (lineage) acquired added significance. The need for
lineage cohesion and familial solidarity based on kinship was persistent-since
these were the coordinates of military success. However, the conquest of neigh-
bouring territories provided the king and state with an economic and political ad-
vantage over kinsmen, and made relations between them tense and unstable." In
the context of these contradictions, political alliances cemented through marriage
played a distinctive role in elite Rajput polity between the fifteenth and eighteenth
centuries.
The ruling family negotiated the balance of power within its own clan through
exogamous marriages. These brought in for the ruler the allegiance and military
support of other clans. The relative status of the bride's family was often asserted
by providing her with an entourage of chiefs (with their own military retainers),
who relocated with her to her husband's kingdom. Subsequent relations with the
king were always fraught. On the one hand the latter could use the chiefs related
to his wife's natal lineage, as a buffer against his own fractious chiefs and kinsmen.
On the other hand, the power of the queen's party was always a potential point of
conflict between the king and the queen's relatives. A striking instance is the con-
flict between Rana Ratansingh of Mewar and his maternal uncle, Suryamal Hada
of Bundi, in the sixteenth century. At the request of the queen, Rana Sanga ap-
pointed her brother Suryamal as the guardian of her two sons Vikramaditya and
Udaisingh, and gave them control over Ranthambhor. When another son, Ratan-
singh succeeded Rana Sanga, he attempted to regain control over Ranthambhor,
and this worsened relations between Suryamal and him. Ultimately the king and
his uncle killed each other.P
It is clear that in this political order marriage was an institution integral to the
maintenance and consolidation of state power. The polygamous family was the
means by which military and political alliances were forged within an internally
competitive ruling elite. Marriage relations were part of 'a system of gaining

:!I Kolff, Naukar; Rajput and Sepoy, p. 73.

:!:! Kumkum Sangari, 'Mirabai and the Spiritual Economy of Bhakti', Economic and Political
Weekly, 7 July 1990, p. 1465.
:!.1 See Mamamahopadhyay Kaviraj Shyamaldas, Vir Vinod: Mewar ka ltihas, 4 vols., New Delhi,

(1944) 1986, Vol. 1, p. 362.

 Alauddin Khalji remembered /285

land, influence, power, honour, status and alliances"." Thus, it is to be expected

that the evolving patterns of such matrimonial alliances reflected the changing
status of the Rajput clans within the medieval political hierarchy. When the Rathors
of Marwar rose to prominence in the mid-fifteenth century, marriage alliances
with them were keenly sought after. Similarly, with the entry of clans like the
Shekhawat and Baghela into the mansabdari system of the Mughals, their increased
prestige was reflected in the matrimonial arena as well."
Among the other political functions that marriage served, the daughter of a
defeated chief was customarily offered as a token of political submission. For
instance, Rana Kumbha (reigned 1433-68) conquered Hamirnagar and married
its chief's daughter," Similarly, the Rao of Sirohi offered his daughter in mar-
riage to Abhai Singh of Jodhpur, after being defeated by him in 1730. 27 Genealogies
of the period reveal how the custom functioned as an index of a ruler's status.
Thus the seventeenth-century Sisod Vansavali exalts the status of Bapa Raval
(now appropriated as the founder of the Sisodia lineage) by narrating how the
rulers of Kanauj, Ujjain, Gujarat, Marwar, Sambhar and Delhi were defeated by
Bapa in battle, accepted his overlordship (page laga), and wedded their daughters
to him."
It is well known that Akbar embarked on a series of such political marriages in
the second half of the sixteenth century, as a means of 'building and consolidating
local support' .29 Daughters of Rajput kings and chieftains had been given in mar-
riage to Muslim rulers from at least the thirteenth century onwards, notably to the
Ghuri and Tughlaq rulers of Delhi. As both Ziegler and Taft demonstrate, 'obtaining
a Muslim alliance by giving a daughter appears to have been an accepted tactic"."
The Rajput lineages of Rajasthan continued to exploit marriage alliances with the
Mughals to their own advantage. Thus, as Taft points out, the first Rajputs to
enter into marriage alliances with the newly emergent Mughal dynasty, Bhannal
Kachvaha and Mertiya Rathor Jagmal Viramdevot, were seeking theformer's
help in their efforts to gain or regain control of their lands.
Marriage was thus a central mechanism among the Rajput elites of medieval
Rajasthan, for the building of alliances and the settlement of political and clan
hostilities (vair). As Dirk Kolff points out, the alliances formed by marriages

24 Sangari, 'Mirabai', p. 1466.

~ Varsha Joshi, Polygamy and Purdah: Women and Society among Rajputs, Jaipur, 1995, p. 53.
:!6 Shyamaldas, Vir Yinod, Vol. 1, p. 335.

'!7 Frances Taft Plunkett, 'Royal Marriages in Rajasthan', Contributions to Indian Sociology, 7,
1973, p. 70.
:!8 Hukam Singh Bhati, ed., Sisod Yansavali evam Rajasthan ke Rajvaron ki Yansavaliyan, Udaipur,

1995, p. 26.
~ Frances Taft, 'Honor and Alliance: Reconsidering Mughal-Rajput Marriages', in Karine
Schomer, Joan L. Erdman, Deryck Lodrick and Lloyd I. Rudolph, eds, The Idea of Rajasthan:
Explorations in Regional Identity, 2 vols., New Delhi, 1994, Vol. 2, p. 221.
30 Taft, 'Honor and Alliance', p. 225. See also Norman P. Ziegler, Action, Power and Service in

Rajasthani Culture: A Social History of the Rajputs of Middle Period Rajasthan, unpublished Ph.D.
thesis, University of Chicago, 1973, pp. 61-64.
286/ RAMYA SREENIVASAN

were even more vitally important for the Rajputs of central and north India, since
agnatic ties were of minor importance. 'Their investment was ... in their saga .. _
their alliance network ... (was) the result of negotiation, not ascription' .31 In the
case of these 'Rajputizing' military elites of medieval Hindustan, the pattern that
can be discerned is that of upward mobility and consolidation of status and re-
sources through marriage alliances rather than through agnatic ties.
Between the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, Rajput states engaged in
territorial expansion (in Rajasthan and Malwa) were inevitably confronted by the
rival political ambitions of the Delhi and Malwa sultanates. The Rajput chiefs in
the Avadh region were engaged in comparable negotiations with the Jaunpur
sultanate. It is plausible that in this period of intense territorial rivalries and frequent
military conflicts, the importance of political alliances negotiated through marriage
would have grown. These heightened stakes suggest an increasing symbolic invest-
ment in the women through whom such alliances were contracted. This is the
context in which the heroic narratives of this late-medieval military elite gradually
came to define the honour of the lineage through the defence of its threatened
queen.
As indicated above, the Kanhadade Prabandh was produced in the fifteenth
century in Jalor (Rajasthan), the seat of a lesser Rajput lineage, the Sonigara
1

Cauhans, rather than at the courts of the more dominant Rathor and Sisodiya
lineages of Marwar and Mewar respectively. The Hammiramahakavyam, while
produced in Gwalior, belongs to an earlier period, the tum of the fifteenth century _
Both the Chitai-varta and the Padmavat were produced in the early sixteenth
century, outside the region of modem Rajasthan, i.e., Sarangpur and Avadh. This
would suggest that the Rajput patrons of these narratives belonged to the more
open-ended military groups of medieval Hindustan, than to the Rajput elite of
Rajasthan. The latter group was defined with increasing genealogical rigidity from
the sixteenth century onwards. This essay suggests that such distinctions in the
historical location of the poems and their patrons, shape the different narratives
of Alauddin's conquests in these poems.

Genre and Kingship

This section explores how these divergent contexts of origin are articulated in the
choice of genres made by the poets discussed in this essay. The range of medieval
narrative genres these poets chose to appropriate elements from, as well as the
norms of kingship they chose to celebrate, were shaped by the socio-political
locations in which these poems were produced. By the fifteenth century, the Rajput
elites of Rajasthan were already consolidating their rise to political dominance
through their distinctive appropriation of literary genres such as the vansavali
(genealogy) and the raso {heroic romance, for want of a better term), In these
Rajasthani narrative traditions of the late-medieval period, heroism was defined

31 Kolff, Naukar; Rajput and Sepoy, pp. 71-82.

 Alauddin Khalji remembered / 287

and celebrated as a continuing tradition, as an essence transmitted by hereditary

lineage. In other words, when a ruler or a chieftain demonstrated valour in battle
in these Rajasthani narratives, he merely displayed and confirmed the heroic
essence inherent in his lineage. The revelation of such lineage-essence confirmed
the right of the king or chief to rule. Thus it is that the heroic traditions of the
region begin by tracing the lineage of their protagonists.
As indicated above, the Hammiramahakavyam begins by identifying the Cauhan
ancestry of its protagonist Hammira. The Kanhadade Prabandh, while not tracing
an elaborate line of descent, demonstrates the same concern with lineage differ-
ently. It was explicitly commissioned by the chieftain of Jalor, Akheraj, to celebrate
the heroic exploits of his ancestor Kanhadade. Such recollection of the past clearly
functioned as a strategy to legitimize Akheraj's own rule, as a descendant of the
same lineage. The significance of these celebrations of lineal descent is apparent
when compared to the Chitai-varta and the Padmavat. Neither of the latter poems
invokes the ancestors of its protagonists: the Chitai-varta does not mention that
the king of Devagiri defeated by Alauddin had belonged to the Yadava dynasty.
The Padmavat is similarly silent about Ratansen's ancestry, and does noi mention
the Guhilas of Chitor.
The Hammiramahakavyam belongs to the genre of the Sanskrit 'court epic',
following in the footsteps of such canonical predecessors as Kalidasa's Kumara-
sambhavam. Indeed, Nayacandra explicitly invokes this canonical literary tradition
in his poem. According to him, some courtiers ofhis patron (the king Virama)
asserted that the excellence of the old Sanskrit poets could no longer be found.
Inspired by this challenge to his powers as a poet, Nayacandra composes this
mahakavyam. Further, he begins the poem by invoking the poetic virtuosity of
Kalidasa.
Unlike court epics such as Kalidasa's Kumarasambhavam, the Hammiramaha-
kavyam does not launch its narrative from prior epic or Puranic narratives. It
does, however, display an easy familiarity with the conventions of the genre,
including such stock tropes as celebrations of the seasons and discourses on good
governance. Also, Nayacandra legitimizes his king's authority to rule by his very
choice of language and genre. In a period when local narratives, both courtly and
popular, were gradually emerging in a regional linguistic and literary tradition,
Nayacandra chose to compose in a classical language and a canonical genre.
Through such choices, the poet tacitly exalts his patron by locating him on the
same plane" as the great kings of the past, in whose courts such poems were
composed.
It is this concern with legitimizing his patron (the present king) that shapes
Nayacandra's treatment of his protagonist. It is Hammira's kingship that is cele-
brated, as he launches a series of expeditions to conquer Sarasapura, Dhara, Ujjaina,
Citrakuta (Chitor), Abu, Varddhanapura, and several other kingdoms and towns.
These conquests are accompanied by plunder. Alternatively, local kings and rulers
forestall the plunder by acknowledging Hammira's overlordship. They pay as
tribute, the revenues that would otherwise have been extracted as loot following
288 I RAMYA SREENIVASAN

conquest. Hammira's victories are a direct challenge to Alauddin's authority.

Further, the Sultan also claims that Hammira's father Jaitrasimha used to pay
tribute to him, a practice discontinued abruptly by the son. The conflict between
Hammira and Alauddin is thus a clash of rival kings, equal in stature and military
might. Hammira of Ranthambhor is also asserted to be the pre-eminent king in
the region, through the description of his conquests. He is ultimately defeated by
treachery, and confrrms his pre-eminence by choosing to die in battle.
Similarly, it is kingship that is at stake in the Kanhadade Prabandh. The poem
belongs to the genre of the prabandh, a term used in many fourteenth-century
texts to describe 'poems of a pseudo-historical nature based on the lives of the
Jain saints or of the kings and ministers of Gurjaradesh' .32 As has been demon-
strated by Toshikazu Arai in his study of the Jain prabandh narratives, between
the twelfth and sixteenth centuries the genre of the prabandh in Gujarat (and
Rajasthan) constructed a 'historical' lineage of ideal kings within this regional
narrative tradition.
The author, Padmanabha, a Nagar Brahman, invokes Puranic norms of kingship
.in explaining Kanhadade's resistance to Alauddin KhaIji. As indicated above,
Kanhadade refuses to allow safe passage through his kingdom to Alauddin's armies
on their way to Gujarat. His reasons are as follows:

This is not our dharma! .... Where villages will be destroyed, people will be
enslaved, where the ears of helpless women will be tom off (for their ornaments)
... where Brahmins and cows will suffer, there the Rai will not give free passage
(to the Sultan)."

As demonstrated by Cynthia Talbot, the terms of this description of Alauddin's

oppression are entirely formulaic, coming from a Brahmanical tradition of repre-
senting the threat from foreign groups, and used extensively throughout the medi-
eval period, to describe Muslim conquest." As much as Padmanabha's deployment
of these tropes serves to demonize Alauddin Khalji, it also exalts Kanhadade by
placing him within a tradition of epic and Puranic defenders of realm, land and
the Brahmanical order. The same theme shapes the description of Alauddin' s assault
upon the idol of Shiva at Somnath, and Kanhadade's rescue of the lingam as it
passes through his territory en route to Delhi to be ground into lime. Kanhadade
is inspired, literally, to recapture the lingam, by the exhortations of Ganga and
Gauri who appear before him in a dream. Having defeated Alauddin's general
Ulugh Khan and rescued the lingam, Kanhadade carves out five images and ritually
installs them at five different points throughout his kingdom-Soratha, Lohasing,

~~ I.M.P. Raeside, 'A Gujarati Bardic Poem: The Kanhadade-Prabandha', in Christopher Shackle
and Rupert Snell, eds, The Indian Narrative: Perspectives and Patterns, Wiesbaden, 1992, p. 138.
31 Padmanabha, Kanhadade Prabandh, Canto 1, verses 31-33.

34 Cynthia Talbot, 'Inscribing the Other, Inscribing the Self: Hindu-Muslim Identities in Pre-

Colonial India', Comparative Studies in Society and History, 37, October I YY5, pp. 6Y7-98.
 Alauddin Khalji remembered / 289

Abu, Jalor and Saivadi-thus sacralizing his entire realm." Again, as in the Ham-
miramahakavyam, the ultimate death of Kanhadade in battle only confirms his
status as ideal king. Further, the poem is at pains to narrate the subsequent death
of his son Viramde in the same battle, after ruling for three days. The death of the
son is further confirmation of the pre-eminent status of the lineage to which the
poet's patron belonged.
As stated above, the Chitai-varta and the Padmavat are not concerned with
celebrating the legitimacy of particular ruling lineages. Nor are they concerned
with the model of kingship-s-derived from Puranic traditions---exalted in the
Hammiramahakavyam and the Kanhadade Prabandh. Instead, both depict a king/
prince embarking on a quest for his beloved, renouncing the world and perfecting
the discipline of asceticism, and ultimately succeeding in his quest after over-
coming several hurdles. As Thomas de Bruijn points out, the motif of a king from
Northern India making the journey to Sinhaladvipa in order to marry a southern
princess, appears in various forms of ancient and medieval Indian narrative. In
the epic traditions, such marriage clearly has a special meaning. It completes the
warrior/king/hero's domination over the subcontinent and fulfils the ideal of the
cakravartin. The motif is repeated in the Udayana story in" Harsha's Ratnavali, in
which the king desires to become the ideal cakravartin by marrying a princess
from the south. The Kathasaritsagara also features a princess Padmavati from
Magadha, in connection with the same narrative and political trope of ideal
kingship."
Other narrative tropes from the Kathasaritsagara figure in a number of medieval
love-stories. For example, the hero and heroine often fall in love after encountering
each other in a dream, or on hearing of each other. The heroine is often located on
an island (Malayadvip, Sinhaladvip, Ratnadvip, and so on). In these instances the
hero's journey to obtain her involves a sea voyage, shipwreck and the escape of
the hero. The hero frequently dons the guise of a Brahmin, mendicant or ascetic,
as he sets out from his kingdom in pursuit of the princess. The first meeting between
the hero and heroine often occurs in a temple, or in a garden of flowers. As the
hero sets out on his journey to obtain the heroine, he meets more beautiful prin-
cesses, who are captives of a demon or tyrant. The hero frees such beauties, and
often marries them en route to the main object of his quest. Final success often.
comes with the help of a siddha, or a god, or a vetala,"
It is clear that the Padmavat and the Chitai-varta appropriated a series of tropes
from these narrative traditions. The production of similar narratives in medieval
India, such as the Madhavanal Kamakandala or stories about Usha and Aniruddha
or Nala and Damayanti, indicates that they continued to circulate in the late-
medieval period, when heroic romances like the Chitai-varta and the Padmavat

3~ This is pointed out by Richard H. Davis, Lives of Indian Images, Delhi, 1999, p. 193.
36 De Bruijn, The Ruby Hidden in the Dust, p. 80.
37 Ganapati Chandra Gupta, Hindi Sahitya ka ,Vaigyanik Itihas, 2 vols., 5th rev. edn, Allahabad,

1994, Vol. 1, p. 310.

290 / RAMYA SREENIVASAN

were being composed. The Padmavat clearly indicates its awareness of these nar-
ratives, when Ratansen compares himself to such lovers as he describes his own
suffering in love.
The differences between the Padmavat and the Chitai-varta indicate how this
trajectory-of love, renunciation, quest and ultimate success-e-could be deployed
within diverse genres of narrative. Both poems make the renunciant a Nathjogi,
educated in the -rigours of ascetic discipline by a preceptor. Such Nathjogis were
among the earliest religious groups to take to arms following the Muslim conquest,
and were known to have been active both politically and militarily in Mughal
times." Several scholars have pointed out that the warrior-ascetic who renounces
his home and his familial ties and travels to distant lands to do battle, figures
widely in the oral epics of medieval north India. Kolff argues that the pervasive
presence of such a figure in medieval narrative traditions encodes the typical
career of the pastoralist, semi-tribal, war-bands who entered the service of warlords
laying claim to 'Rajput' status." The presence of such a figure in the Chitai-varta
and the Padmavat is yet another indication that the Rajput elites addressed by
these poems did not belong to the elite lineages of sixteenth-century Rajasthan,
rigidly defined by 'purity' of lineal descent.
However, the Chitai-varta emphasizes Saunrsi's magical powers: from his guru
Candranath, he learns the art of entrancing animals through his music. In contrast,
the Padmavat does not attribute any such powers to the renunciant Ratansen. The
Sufi moorings of the poem are apparent in its sustained Sufi reinterpretation of
Nathpanthi cosmology and ascetic discipline.
In spite of these variations, however, the similarities in the careers of Ratansen
and Saunrsi are striking. Both of them refuse to surrender their women to the
Sultan. It must be emphasized, however, that neither Ratansen nor Saunrsi has
any qualms about accepting Alauddin's overlordship. In the Padmavat, Ratansen
is willing to pay tribute to the Sultan. And in the Chitai-varta, Saunrsi ultimately
wins back his wife Chitai from Alauddin, and also accepts the revenues of Gujarat
as a reward. In doing so, Saunrsi explicitly acknowledges the overlordship of the
Sultan of Delhi.
Thus, the normative elite, rajaputa (princely) ethic outlined in the Chitai-varta
and the Padmavat, can be seen as sharply articulating the situation and values of
the Rajputizing groups of central and northern India, described by Kolff." In one

38 David Lorenzen, 'Warrior ascetics in Indian history', Journal ofthe American Oriental Society;

Vol. 98, 1978, p. 68.

39 Kolff, Naukar, Rajput and Sepoy, pp. 74-85.

40 AU Hiltebeitel claims a similar, lower-status Rajput-Afghan audience for oral epics in the

vernacular languages of north India, especially the Alha story. See Hiltebeitel, Rethinking India's
Oral and Classical Epics: Draupadi among Rajputs, Muslims and Dalits, Chicago, 1999, Chapter
10 especially. In the context of Hiltebeitel's description of the audience for the Alha cycle of'
stories, it is significant that the first Avadhi Sufi heroic romance (in the genre of the Padmavat) was
Maulana Dawud's Candayan, drawing on the same oral epic traditions of regional 'Rajputizing "
groups.
 Alauddin Khalji remembered / 291

more instance where this local context manifests itself, Ratansen's ascetic journey
to acquire Padmavati is not undertaken alone. He is accompanied by sixteen thou-
sand companions who vow to fulfil th.e obligations of their sat, their service to
him. This service entails an attack up on the fort of Singhala, and capture and
imprisonment with their lord. This wou.ld be familiar in a region from which large
numbers of Rajputs as well as other pastoral and semi-tribal groups left home and
travelled long distances in service of a warlord or military commander, The stakes
involved were the gain of personal hon our and the material rewards of military
success-loot. This would have been OJ1le of the commonest avenues for upward
economic, political and social mobility- -through military service under the king
with whom the local warlord could negotiate favourable terms, Hence it is that
Ratansen and Saunrsi are prepared to ace ept the overlordship of the Delhi Sultan.
Thus, the Chitai-varta and the Padmavat describe a trajectory for their protagonists
that articulates an avenue of upward m, obility familiar to the military elites of
central and north India.

Kingdom versus Queen: Alauddin's Conquests Recast

This concluding section of the paper explo:res the multiple configurations in these
poems, of the relationship between the figures of the conqueror Alauddin Khalji,
and the Rajput queens or princesses of the kingdoms that he seeks to subjugate.
As stated above (The Rajput patrons in history), it was customary practice in
many parts of north India for subjugated kings or chiefs to offer their daughters
in marriage to the new overlord who had defeated them in battle. While such
marriages were less frequent between the Sultans of Delhi and the daughters of
the ruling lineages in Rajasthan, they were not unknown. The four narratives of
'Rajput' heroism discussed in this essay reveal a running preoccupation with the
practice. Irrespective of the historicity of Alauddin's alleged pursuit of these
'Rajput' princesses, the four poems can be read as indicative of evolving Rajput
ethical norms surrounding the practice of marriages between daughters of subju-
gated chiefs and victorious kings.
It is useful here to briefly survey the historic-al evidence about these princesses
and queens of Chitor, Ranthambhor and Devagiri. As is well known, contemporary
historians of the reign of Alauddin Khalji such as Amir Khusrau and Ziyauddin
Barani are silent about Padmini the queen of Chitor, Similarly, Khusrau, Barani
and Isami mention different reasons for Alauddin's attack on Ranthambhor. Barani
states that Alauddin attacked Ranthambhor because of its proximity to Delhi, and
because its ruler Hammira was the grandson of Pithora Rai, the former king of
Delhi." Isami states that Hammira had given refuge to two Mughal chiefs seeking
protection from Alauddin, and this insult to his authority prompted the Sultan to
attack Ranthambhor.? No contemporary accounts mention the figure of Hammira's

41 S.A.A. Rizvi, ed., sel., and trans., Khalji kalin Bhara t (1290-1320), Aligarh, 1955, p. 59.
4:2 Rizvi, Khalji kalin Bharat, p. 200.
292 / RAMYA SREENIVASAN

daughter who appears in the Hammiramahakavyam. Both Isami and Khusrau

mention Alauddin's conquest of the fortress of Siwana, controlled by Sital Dev.
This conquest is the subject of the second canto in the Kanhadade Prabandh. The
contemporary accounts do not mention Alauddin's conquest of Jalor: however, it
may simply have been the case that Jalor was not regarded as being of the same
strategic importance as Ranthambhor, Chitor, or even Siwana.
As to the conquest of Devagiri, contemporary accounts concur in their descrip-
tions ofAlauddin's first attack on the southern kingdom in the reign of Jalaluddin
Khalji. Alauddin is stated to have been covetous of Devagiri's enormous wealth,
and is said to have defeated its king Ramdev. After extracting enormous wealth in
gold and precious jewels from Ramdev, Alauddin is said to have returned his
kingdom to him. Barani does not mention Ramdev's daughter, nor does Khusrau
in his Khazain-ul Futuh:" Isanti however, records Ramdev's surrender of his
daughter to the prince Garshasp (Alauddin), after the latter had defeated the king
of Devagiri during the reign of Jalaluddin Khalji." Isami also subsequently narrates
that it was this queen's son who succeeded Alauddin to the throne as the six-year-
old Shahabuddin, before being replaced by Sultan Qutbuddin Mubarak Shah."
Near the end of the Hammiramahakavyam, Ratipala (Hammira's treacherous
minister) sets forth the rumour that Alauddin desires to marry Hammira's daughter,
and will withdraw from Ranthambhor if his request is acceded to. The princess
DevaIla Devi informs her father Hammira that she will agree to marry the Saka
king (sakendra) for the sake of the kingdom." Hamrnira angrily rejects her offer.
Marriage with the Saka will pollute their lineage, and thus constitute a transgression
of his dharma:" The rumour is generated to aggravate the conflict, and serves
precisely this purpose.
When compared with the other three poems, however, it is noteworthy that the
Hammiramahakavyam invokes this possibility of the Sultan marrying the Rajput
princess only at the level of rumour. As indicated above, the figure of Hammira's
daughter does not appear in the accounts of Khusrau, Barani and Isami. Naya-
candra's introduction of this figure allows him to consider the issue of marriage
alliances between the conquering Sultan and the local princess. However, by casting
the possibility of such an alliance as mere rumour, and then dismissing it out of
hand, Nayacandra reiterates the purity of his protagonist's lineage. This treatment
of the issue also has consequences for the representation of Alauddin's conquest
of Ranthambhor. In Nayacandra's narrative, the contest between Hammira and
Alauddin remains unambiguously about control of territory and imperial over-
lordship.
The Kanhadade Prabandh inverts this logic to telling effect. The elite woman
is still symbolic of the 'honour' of her lineage. This honour is put at stake in the

43/bid.,p.161.
+4 Isami, cited in Gupta, Chitai-varta, p. 56.
45 Rizvi, Khalji kalin Bharat, pp. 207, 208.
~6 Nayacandra, Hammiramahakavyam, Canto 13, verses 106--14.
47 Ibid., verses 123-24.
 Alauddin Khalji remembered /293

military conflict. The Piroja- Viramde subplot serves two functions in the poem.
First, it demonstrates the 'real' superiority of the Jalor ruler, since the Sultan's
offer of a marriage alliance is spurned, and his daughter is repeatedly rejected.
Viramde articulates the poem's awareness of the politics of such marriages. He
scornfully rejects the proposal as the Patisah's ruse to obtain their land (dest:"
Second, Piroja's account of her past lives, and her trajectory in the poem
appropriate the Sultan's daughter into the Rajput fold, as it were. In Piroja's nar-
ration, she is impelled to marry Viramde because she has been his wife in six
earlier lives. In those earlier incarnations, she has been the daughter of the kings
Jaicand, Ajaypal, Mahangrai, Yogade, Jaital and Palhan in turn; while Viramde
has been the son of Bapal, the son of the lord of Kasi, the son ofVasudev, then of
Manikrai, Prthvirai and Somesar in his fourth, fifth and sixth incarnations. The
names of these kings indicate that both Piroja and Viramde are located in the line-
ages ofkings of northern and western India, identified under the umbrella category
of 'Rajput'. In each of these earlier incarnations, Piroja has ended her life by
immolating herself on the pyre of her dead husband, on the banks of the Yamuna.
She thus demonstrates her steadfast adherence to wifely virtue (satidharmay." As
the poet comments, the love between Piroja and Viramde has survived the span of
several successive lives. Such enduring love will thus transcend even the bound-
aries of distinct communities (jati).50 Even when rejected by Viramde, Piroja con-
siders herself wedded to him. Thus when the Jalor prince ultimately dies in battle,
she instructs her servant to bring back his decapitated head from the battlefield.
After cremating his head ceremonially, she immolates herself in the same pyre,
on the banks of the Yamuna once again. The Sultan's daughter has thus proved
her satidharma once again. The Rajput order triumphs even as the Rajput kingdom
itself is conquered.
It must be remembered, however, that Piroja's desire for Viramde is not the
trigger for the conflict in the Kanhadade Prabandh, Alauddin's imperial ambitions
are. Once again, it is significant that when the Kanhadade Prabandh does introduce
the narrative possibility of a marriage alliance between the two warring aides, it
does so only as a late sub-plot that doesn't really affect the outcome of the conflict.
For the narrative, the core issue is still Alauddin's desire for conquest and imperial
power and Kanhadade's heroic resistance and preservation of the Brahmanical
moral order.
Both the Chitai-varta and the Padmavat explicitly invoke Alauddin's other
conquests-s-of Chitor, Ranthambhor and Devagiri respectively. Both poems ascribe
these conquests to the Sultan's desire for the queens of these kingdoms. The Chitai-
varta explicitly links the conquests of Ranthambhor, Chitor and Devagiri by
Alauddin Khalji, and ascribes them all to the Sultan's desire for the queens of the

48 Padmanabha, Kanhadade Prabandh, Canto 3, verse 132.

49 Ibid., verse 204.
50 Ibid., verse 206.
294 / RAMYA SREENIVASAN

respective kingdoms. Jayasi praises Hammira of Ranthambhor, who cut off his
own head rather than surrender his wife, his gihini (the woman of the household)."
In the Padmavat, the terms of Ratansen's negotiations with Alauddin Khalji are
clear: he is willing to pay tribute and accept the Sultan of Delhi as his overlord,
but he will not cede his wife. As Kolff points out, for a regional Rajput ruler in
medieval Hindustan, his wife represented his network of political alliances. His
status and prestige within that network depended upon his ability to offer protection
to his women. In these circumstances, the normative warrior-ethic was constituted
around the defence of a threatened queen. Alauddin attempts to lure Ratansen by
offering to bestow Chanderi on him in exchange for the surrender of Padmavati.
However, for Ratansen this control over additional territory would be meaningless
if his status within his own network of alliances were undermined. The Rajput
king has no option but to refuse.
The resolution of the Padmavat also indicates that the threat to the Rajput queen
comes not only from the Delhi Sultan, but from other enemies as well. Like
Alauddin, Devapal too woos Padmavati in Ratansen's absence. And Ratansen
falls not to Khalji's attack but to this Rajput ruler's poisoned spear in single combat.
Significantly, though, he dies avenging the insult to his queen and to his honour."
In the political order encoded by the poem, such insults can originate as much
from a Rajput neighbour as from the emperor of Delhi.
The Chitai-varta presents yet another resolution to such desire and such conflict.
Alauddin is successful in capturing Devagiri and abducting its already married
princess. However, she preserves her virtue (sat) by addressing the emperor
as her father (tat).53 Alauddin accepts that he has been defeated in his desire to
make Chitai his wife." Narayandas's narrative preserves both Chitai's virtue and
Alauddin's imperial status, as the Sultan accepts the role of 'father' to the princess.
Her husband Saunrsi sets off to win her back. His Rajput honour and valour (virata)
are preserved in tum, and suitably rewarded by the paternalistic Sultan. Not only
is he reunited with his wife by the Sultan, he also obtains the additional revenues
from Gujarat.
Such a linkage between threatened queen and threatened kingdom is especially
significant in the immediate contemporary context of these poems. In the early
decades of the sixteenth century, control over large parts of north India frequently
changed hands between multiple aspirants to imperial power: the Lodi kings of
Delhi, seeking to reassert their control over their former territories; Sher Shah
Sur, who began with his father's estates in Bihar and in about a decade controlled
the territory between Delhi and Bengal; Rana Sanga, who sought to widen Mewar's
sphere of influence over parts of Malwa and Gujarat, while eyeing Delhi at the
same time; and Babur, seeking to establish his own control over these territories.
In these times of uncertain central authority and shifting alliances between

~I Jayasi, Padmavat, stanza 491.

5: Ibid., stanza 646.
<li3 Narayandas, Chitai-varta, verses 534-35.
~ Ibid., verses 536, 552.
 Alauddin Khalji remembered /295

warlords, chieftains and imperial aspirants, for the military elites of north India,
the constant reassertion of status and preservation of military resources were
essential strategies of survival in a fluid political hierarchy.
The 'Rajputs' and 'Rajputizing' groups of medieval Hindustan who patronized
the production of such heroic romances as the Chitai-varta and the Padmavat,
were engaged in forging and renegotiating alliances with regional and imperial
centres of political power. For such groups, addressed as the immediate audience
of patrons in these poems, dynastic control over territory was far less significant
than the preservation of their military resources. It was the continued availability
of such resources that would enable such chiefs or aspiring chiefs to continue
seeking upward mobility through service with a regional or imperial centre of
power. One source of such military resources was their network of polygamous
marriage alliances with other Rajput kings and chiefs. This is the context in which
the Chitai- varta and the Padmavat recast the imperial conquests ofAlauddin Khalji
as driven by his pursuit of their queens. For these regional Rajput elites, the asser-
tion of sovereign control over territory was not a significant issue. Both Ratansen
in the Padmavat and Ramdev and Saunrsi in the Chitai-varta agree to pay tribute
to Alauddin as their imperial overlord. However, the surrender of the queen implies
the inability of the Rajput warrior-protagonist to defend his resources and thereby
preserve his honour and status. Thus it is, that both the Chitai- val ta and the Padma-
vat define the honour of their protagonists primarily in terms of their protecting
their women from being given to superior, stronger enemies.
Other evidence from the·early sixteenth century lends credence to this hypo-
thesis. Dattu Sarvani, a mercenary Afghan soldier of the period, describes the
flight of Afghan nobles followirig the battle of Panipat, with their entire house-
holds-possessions, flocks and families. 55 Dirk Kolff refers to the Purbiya warlords
taking women from the harem of the defeated Malwa Sultan into their households.
The status of these captured women became a political issue in the prolonged
conflict and negotiations between Silhadi, the probable patron of the Chitai- varta,
and Sultan Bahadur Shah of Gujarat. These instances suggest that the increased
political turbulence and military conflict in sixteenth-century North India implied
the increased vulnerability of the women attached to the households of the military
elites as well.
To sum up the argument in this section, all four narratives of Alauddin Khalji's
conquests discussed in this essay engage with the practice of marriages between
victorious kings and the daughters of the chiefs or kings they defeat in battle. In
the poems emerging from contexts where patrons were asserting dynastic control
over territory, Alauddin's conquests are seen primarily in terms of the acquisition
of such territory and his imperial ambitions. In such poems as the Hammiramaha-
kavyam and the Kanhadade Prabandh, Alauddin's potential marriage as victor,

55 Sarvani's description figures in his anecdotes, attached to the Lata'if-i Quddusi that was
compiled around 1537. See Simon Digby, 'Dreams and Reminiscences of Dattu Sarvani: A Sixteenth
Century Indo-Afghan Soldier', Indian Economic and Social History Review, 1965, pp. 52-80,
178-94.
296 / RAMYA SREENIVASAN

with the daughter of the kings of Ranthambhor or Jalor, is either absent from the
range of narrative possibilities, or is evoked only to be dismissed as unfounded
rumour.
In contrast, the Chitai- varta and the Padmavat emerged from regional contexts
of patronage where elite status was tied not to sovereign control over territory but
to the preservation of military resources. Such military resources of the elite were
embodied in their network of marriage alliances. These poems consequently recast
the threat from the conquering Alauddin Khalji, emperor of Delhi, as directed not
at their territory but at their queens. The instance of the Padmavat also clarifies
that such a threat to the Rajput queens does not originate exclusively from the
Delhi Sultan. Rajput neighbours pursuing the queen constituted just as grave a
threat to the honour of the Rajput protagonist. In these instances, the protagonist
must defend his women from the threat of surrender, in order to preserve not only
his military resources but also his honour and his elite status.

Conclusion

To sum up, the primary issue for the poets and patrons of the Hammiramahakavyam
and the Kanhadade Prabandh was the honour of the patron's lineage, asserted
through his ancestor's defence of his sovereign control over the territory of his
kingdom. The surrender of elite women by the defeated side, in acknowledgment
of the victor's overlordship, is clearly one of the political practices encoded by
these poems. That both these narratives stop short of actual surrender of Rajput
women, is simply a device to reinforce the notion of the pre-eminent status of the
lineage in question.
In contrast, for the poets of the Chitai- varta and the Padmavat, and for their
audience of patrons, the status of the patron's lineage depended on the preservation
of his military resources. The acceptance of imperial overlordship was less of an
issue. Service with a regional or imperial power was in fact the recognized avenue
for upward mobility. However, the surrender of their women after defeat in battle
signified their inability to preserve their military resources, their honour, and con-
sequently their st~tus. In both these narratives therefore, the core of the Rajput
order-the elite women through marriage to whom military and political alliances
were contracted-is preserved inviolate, even as the Sultan triumphs in battle.
Thus it may have been that in the turbulent years of the mid-sixteenth century,
the real and perceived vulnerability of women in the households of the regional
Rajput elite of medieval Hindustan, provided the impetus to contemporary heroic
narratives-that recast the ruler of Delhi's imperial conquests of territory in terms
of his desire for their women.