Jauhar: All You Need To Know

 We have no Knowledge of the beginning and end of the world, the first and last of this ancient book has fallen out ~  Abu Talib Karim.

Rightly said by the poet laureate of Emperor Shah Jahan above, we do not actually know the beginning and end of anything in the universe, be it the traditions, culture or human race, or the world. What we know are fragments of the past we extract from evidence. It is in vain to try to determine the first and last of something.
For the past few months, owing to some media hype on Jauhar, many of you have asked me questions. I tried to answer most of them. However, a lot remained unsaid and unwritten. Mostly because some things are impossible to put into words. But here I try my best. Today is a very significant day in history. On the 23rd of February 1568, the world saw the last “Jauhar” of Chittorgarh, recorded in the medieval history of India. Akbar had invaded Mewar, and the four-month siege of four months ended in the Saka. There was no better day for me to post this article I have been longing to do for a long time now. 

What Is Jauhar?

Traditionally speaking, it is an act of self-immolation by the women of a house, clan or state to save their honour and dignity if their army or men of the family were losing a battle with an enemy. It was done to avoid capture, rape, forceful marriage into harems of enemies or forced slavery by the enemy.  The most common way for this mass immolation was by jumping into the fire, while other methods like “Jal Jauhar” were also prevalent. It was a tradition that ran mostly among the Hindu Royals. The word Jauhar comes from the Sanskrit word “Jatugriha”, meaning “house of fire”, which finds its reference in the Mahabharata where the Pandavas and Kunti were plotted to be burnt alive in a house of inflammable objects by Duryodhan and Shakuni.

Origin of Jauhar: Difference with Sati

The most common notion I see among people is that they do not understand the difference between Sati and Jauhar. Sati was a term that came from the Shiva Purana, in Hindu Mythology. The Goddess Adi Shakti, who was born as the daughter of Prajapati Daksh, was called Sati. The princess had married Lord Shiva, against her father’s wishes. Daksh once held a Yajna for the Gods and invited everyone. Hoping that her father had forgiven her and understood how perfect a husband Shiva was, Sati went there uninvited to her father’s house at Kankhal near present Haridwar. Shiva’s opposition was unheard of as she alone went to the Yajna, citing that she was uninvited because families need no invitation. Daksh lost his temper at her sight and insulted Sati as well as Shiva. Enraged and humiliated, Sati acted upon the insult. She couldn’t stand being the reason her husband was insulted amidst the great gods who stood as mute spectators. She could hear his insults no more. So she invoked Lord Agni and his wife, Goddess Jwala and jumped into the very same fire altar that Daksha had set up for the Yajna. Most of us know about this story and regard it as the first act of self-immolation or “Sati” after her name. But, we do not know if Sati herself followed the example of someone before her or whether the tradition was prevalent before her also. “Sati” in the modern day is termed as the act of immolation by fire, upon the death of one’s husband. The next popular example we find of it is of Madri, the mother of Nakul and Sahadev in the Mahabharata, who committed Sati on the pyre of Pandu, her husband. Sita, however, didn't commit Sati. Many have this false assumption as well.

For a person with absolutely no knowledge of the two, it may look one and the same. In fact, from the early Vedic ages to the early medieval eras, the term Sati was very prevalent in both cases, while the term Jauhar was coined much later. The need to coin a separate term for the act of “Mass Self-Immolation” was very simple. During the later medieval age and early modern era, especially in Renaissance Bengal, the act of Sati was no longer voluntary in nature. Young, helpless women were burnt alive forcefully by the orthodox society upon the pyres of their much older husbands. They found no place in the houses of their parents or in-laws, especially if they were childless. This act was stopped by the joint efforts of the British with Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and Raja Ram Mohan Roy, by the establishment of the Sati Act, which began as a regulation in the year 1829. You can read more into Sati from the SSRN paper I co-authored, here.

Raja Ram Mohan Roy

Jauhar, on the other hand, was an act of self-immolation that was never forced or done unwillingly. The act of Jauhar was usually done alongside or before the last battle to avoid being stopped or captured by the enemies. The basic difference between Jauhar and later age “Sati” was this. Sati was often done on the pyre of the husband and was individual in nature. The factor driving it was the death of a husband, natural or otherwise, whereupon the women wanted to travel to the afterlife with him. In the medieval age, widow remarriage was not very prevalent, and the belief in the afterlife made people commit Sati. Jauhar, on the other hand, was to save one’s honour from falling into the hands of an enemy. It was done only when the husband lost his life at Saka or was about to. Against the popular notion, the acts of Jauhar or Sati are both Hindu traditions and have not been limited to Rajputana alone.

Reasons and Rules: Saka and Jauhar

The main reason to perform Jauhar was when there was no chance of winning the battle, and the men decided to die valiantly in their last war. The term Saka was coined under the influence of the English word “Sack”, meaning siege. When a fort, state, city or house was under siege by an enemy, the warriors wore saffron robes, symbolising sacrifice and went out on their last war, chewing betel and basil leaves in their mouths as holy signs. They killed as many of the enemies as they could and swore not to return defeated but to die with pride.  The women simultaneously performed the Jauhar. In popular terms, the Saka and Jauhar happened together, and the women did not wait for the news of the defeat before performing the act. 

Sack of Ranthambore

However, historically speaking, this depended upon the situation on the battlefield. If the war was a lost cause, like in the case of the third Saka of Chittor, the Jauhar happened before the Saka, while in cases of uncertain results, the women waited for the news of defeat, like the First Saka of Chittor. The evening before the Saka and Jauhar was celebrated with much grandeur as the men feasted together one last time, bathed in sandal and milk, and the priests did a night-long yajna for their safe passages to heaven.

 

Memorial of Jauhar, Mehrangarh, Jodhpur

The women, after the same bath, wore their bridal finery, with all their jewellery and mixed a little amount of opium into their food to avoid feelings of fear and pain. They did the traditional puja of Goddess Bhavani and prayed for strength while the men handed over their weapons. They put the Kesari tilak on the forehead of fathers, brothers, husbands and sons, without a tear or shake of a hand. The men, in turn, filled their hairlines one last time with their blood before heading out to the war. They promised to meet their better halves in the afterlife. The Rajputani, in return, asked them to wait on the other side, to go to a new life where they would unite again. A kund, probably a man-made pool or a larger area of the dungeon, was lit up by wood, ghee and lamps, and the women, led by the eldest queen or the wife of the leader at the battle made their way to the area, that was cordoned off and protected by eunuchs with doors closed on all sides. They had the same plate of lamp and Kesar in their hand, the one with which they had done the last aarti of the warriors. The echo of “Jai Bhavani” filled the air with the swords clashing to “Har Har Mahadev” while the women led their children to the fire altar. They took seven rounds around the altar to promise their next lives to their husbands. Princesses, Women, Girls, Maidens, everyone willingly jumped into the altar after invoking lord Agni to take them to safety, away from the touch of the invaders on their mortal bodies. The priests chanted the verses of the Gita as long as the Saka and Jauhar took place. 

Pregnant Women and infants below five were, however, forbidden to commit Jauhar. They have led out of the fort well ahead of the siege to safety. Every fort had secret tunnels and passageways for escape routes, and these were used by the best protective eunuchs to escort the pregnant ladies and children out of the fort the night before the Jauhar. This was to ensure that the lives of those who couldn’t decide for themselves were safe enough, and they had a chance to live and carry forward the blood of their kin. In Chittorgarh, Nahargarh, as well as Mehrangarh, such tunnels can still be seen and explored.

Akbarnama depicts Jauhar

Was there a way out?

The next most commonly asked idea is that of escape. “If the pregnant women could escape, why not the others? Why did they have to die?”  First, you cannot expect a whole fort full of women to escape unnoticed by enemies. The safety of the children came first. Secondly, the whole idea of Jauhar was to be with the men in every situation. While they fought the enemy, the women chose death in their own way. Some women also made their way to the battlefield for their infant sons and died at war. Even leaving corpses around was a risk. Many texts hint at men of the enemy taking away the corpses of women for pleasure in the dead bodies. In such cases, a dignified Hindu woman chose death by fire, where only her ashes and bones remained. Her act, even if criticised for glorification, was indeed brave, as living in the harem of the enemy as a slave girl was definitely a worse option. There are instances where princesses had been captured before they could commit Jauhar, one being Roop Kanwar of Ranthambore by Khilji. Some claims suggest she was married to one of Khilji's sons.

In Literature and Folklore

Many books, from the Khoman Rasa to the Veer Vinod, from Akbarnama to Annals of the Rajas, from Padmavati to the Prithviraj Raso, mention the act of Jauhar. In almost all medieval texts, even Jayasi’s Padmavat, it is referred to as Sati. The act of Jauhar in Jayasi’s book is mentioned as Sati mainly because the term Jauhar was coined much later in popular culture and literature. Jauhar was then a word probably used locally. Jayasi describes the individual pyre of the queens led by Padmavati, or Padmini, as it was popular in Sati, but historically, evidence of a mass Jauhar is found at the now famous “Jauhar Sthal” beside the Vijay Stambh, where once stood the palace of Rawal Ratan Singh I. Various versions of the legends of Prithviraj Chauhan’s wife Samyogita and Rani Roopmati, wife of Baz Bahadur of Malwa, also hint toward Jauhars, but historically, these are not proven.

Jauhar Sthal, Chhittorgarh

True or not, each of these legends speaks highly of the Rajputani’s high courage, patriotism, loyalty, honour and determination. Col. James Todd, in his book “Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan”, mentions that to an outsider, especially the invaders, the life of a Rajputani seemed that of extreme hardship, as death is ready to claim her at every stage of life, due to uncertainties of war and the horrors of captivity. Manoshi Bandyopadhyay, in her “Royal Rajputs”, states the reason behind Jauhar is to free the men of their worldly bondage before they go into a war for death without worry. Every historian, writer and poet has given their own version of the act of Jauhar based on their perspective.

 

Many claim that Meera Bai refused to do the Sati after her husband died at war. This conception is wrong. The Rajput women never did the Sati or Jauhar unless the fear of being harmed by enemies was considered.  Meera’s husband, Bhoj Raj, died when his father, Rana Sanga, was still the ruler of Mewar. The question of Sati did not arise here. The widows and mothers enjoyed their influential positions in the zenana before they decided to leave for hermitages to places like Varanasi, Vrindavan or Dwarka. None of the women in the zenana was forced into the hermitage or Sati by men.

Stories in Popular tradition: Women we remember

“Naari ki balidaano ko sadev bhulta aya hai itihas.” 

This line is a favourite of mine from the show "Bharat Ka Veer Putra Maharana Pratap" on Sony. The contribution of women, as daughters, sisters, mothers, wives and rulers has often been forgotten or criticised. Those who dared to step out of the inner palaces like Razia, Noor Jehan, LaxmiBai or Durgawati faced constant criticism during their times. Jauhar, the tradition itself was an act of selflessness. None of the thousands hoped to be remembered in history when they jumped into the pyres.

The first story of Jauhar that became popular was the Padumawat by Mallik Mohammad Jayasi in 1540, more than 200 years after it occurred in 1303. The Saka is first mentioned in Khoman Rasa in 1326. The first medieval age Jauhar was, however, mentioned by Amir Khusrau during the reign of Khilji at the fort of Ranthambore. In later years, in the Akbarnama, Abul Fazl, in detail, mentioned the Saka of Chittorgarh. The aim of the book Padumawati by Jayasi was to write about the Islamic invasion and how the Hindus resisted it. The story is woven mystically and talks of Padmini, the princess of Singhal, who is won at a Swayambhar by the prince of Mewar, Ratan Singh. Allauddin Khilji, who was in the lust of her beauty, invaded Chittor to capture Ratan Singh and took him to the foothills of the fort. Here, Gora and Badal, dressed as ladies, went to save their king, whereupon a humiliated Khilji declared war. Ratan Singh united the Rajputs under the saffron banner of Mewar’s golden sun. His queens Nagmati and Padmini led the Jauhar (here mentioned as Sati) of around 10,000. Jayasi wanted to portray how greed and lust led man to paths of misdeed. He also states that the story is not his. He had heard this tale since time immemorial around him as the Legend of Padmini. Historically, no incident involving such a queen is found, as historians attribute Khilji’s invasion to the political reason of making a path to the ports of Gujarat through Mewar. The Sati described by Jayasi was actually a Jauhar performed at the centre of the fort. He also mentions it as the first one, which is also not true. Historically, the Jauhar took place on the 12th of August 1303.

 

Jauhar Gate and palace ruins, Chittor

The second Jauhar of Chittor was led by Rajmata Karnadevi under her son Vikramaditya, who fled after a lack of help from Humayun when Bahadur Shah invaded. When Humayun arrived to restore his throne, the Jauhar had already been done.

Ruins at Padmini's Jauhar Sthal

The third Saka in the reign of Akbar was done by the royal chieftains and their wives, where the women blew themselves up with gunpowder before the men headed out after a six-month-long siege. The reason for this was a lack of resources inside the fort as well as time. Even today, the house of Jaimal and Patta witnesses the black soot that once rose from the Jauhar. Many women joined the Saka in the third siege due to a lack of manpower. They fought men valiantly as equals and killed themselves once they were heavily injured to avoid capture. One such valiant woman was fifteen-year-old Jiwa Bai, the bride of Rawat Patta Singh Sisodia. These two Jauhars have been accounted for in the books of Mughal rulers.

House of Jaimal and Patta, site of the Last Jauhar

Another story speaks of a Jauhar in the fort of Jalore when attacked by Jodhpur is which once shook the fort wrongly as the news of defeat arrived. The victorious men came back home to find that the women had already done the Jauhar due to the arrival of the wrong news. Such traditions were later avoided when Saka and Jauhar happened only on the last day of the war, when no hope remained, simultaneously.

Chronology of Jauhars

The tradition of Jauhar or Mass Sati, as stated in the chronicles, dates back to the reign of Alexander in 327 BC. Interestingly, Alexander’s own wife also jumped into a well with her son to avoid capture by enemies. Returning to India, here are the records I compiled of the Jauhars as they occurred.

Opinion:

For all those who claim so, Jauhar is not unnecessarily glorified. We need to understand the situation of the women during those days to reach a judgment about why they chose Jauhar. It is not a way to look down upon women to glorify Jauhar. In fact, it is the right way to show the strength and valour women had. The high self-esteem that they possessed during those times, to choose honour over death when the men fought for them on the battlefields, is truly to be praised. I saw many articles about why “educated” girls are supporting the norm. It is because the educated masses know that the situation then was pretty different from what it is for us now. In the modern era of democracy, our rights, freedom and independence are being rightly used by all women who are well aware of our survival strategies. There is no enemy at our door waiting to lay their hands on our chastity or freedom. There can be no comparison of female rights then and now, or whether women then were deprived. To my knowledge, they were not. For centuries, men and woman had chosen their Dharma and Karma well, and the royal women had to rule their households while the men ruled the country. Stories of Rajputanis, or queens of influence for that matter, time and again prove their influence on kings, politics and life of the time. Jauhar, unlike suicide, was a battle they fought within the walls of the Mahal. A battle between life and honour. If the men’s dying over ambition of power and throne was worth the glory, so were the women who chose their honour above all.

All said and done, I would like to add that this article is probably not complete. It can never be. Information and knowledge are unlimited. And I promise, as and when I get to know more about Jauhar and its tradition from other sources, I will add them here. If you, readers, have any questions or want to add something, feel free to comment below.