Rani Padmini

Rani Padmini Biography

Rani Padmini was the queen of Chittor and wife of King Rawal Ratan Singh, known for her bewitching beauty. Though there is no historical evidence that Rani Padmini actually existed, this famed queen is often referred for her beauty. Her name is referred for the first time in Padmavat, an epic poem written by Malik Muhammad Jayasi in 1540 CE. She is often referred to as Padmavati. In the epic poem it is referred to as Alauddin Khilji in AD 1303 attacked Chittor after hearing of the beauty of Queen Rani Padmini.

She was born in a royal family to Sinhala king Gandharvsen and Champavati. Padmini had a talking parrot named "Hiramani". Her father arranged a Swayamvara for her, to choose her husband. Though Malkhan Singh, a Rajput King was to marry her, King Rawal Ratan Singh of Chittor defeated malkhan Singh to marry Padmini. The king already had one wife – Nagmati. Thus Padmini was taken to Chittoor as second queen.

The Sultans of Delhi made repeated attack on Mewar and one of the reasons cited is Rani Padmini. Alauddin Khilji wanted to get beautiful Rani Padmini by force. Yet some historians believe that this story is not true. Rajput King Rawal Ratan Singh was a brave warrior, a loving husband and also a patron of the arts. The hatred was sown by a musician named Raghav Chetan who informed the sultan about the beauty of queen. Alauddin reached Chittor to find that the fort to be heavily defended. He sent a word to King that he looked upon Padmini as his sister and wanted to meet her. Emperor allowed him to see her mirror image and Sulthan believed that this beauty deserved to be in his harem.

Sulthan later attacked the kingdom and decided to lay siege to the fort as they couldn’t break it. Gradually supplies within the fort were depleted and finally King Ratan Singh gave orders to Rajputs to fight till end. On understanding that Rajputs cannot defeat Sulthan’s troupe, Rani Padmini decided to commit the divine suicide jauhar with other Rajput women. When Sultan’s troupe defeated Rajputs and entered the kingdom, Rani Padmini and other women had already performed jauhar to save their honour.

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Updated: September 24, 2017