RAO JAIT SINGH RATHORE OF BIKANER - IMMORTAL RAJPUTS

“सारां में सरदार जाडो जैतसी”

         - श्री भगवती करणीजी

राव जैतसी (१५२६-१५४२ ई.) बीकानेर, राजस्थान के राठौड़ शासक राव लुणकरण का पुत्र था। अपने पिता की मृत्यु के बाद राव जैतसी ने बीकानेर राज्य की बागडोर सॅभाली। वह बीकानेर का चौथा शासक था।

इसके समय में मुग़ल बादशाह बाबर के पुत्र व लाहौर के शासक कामरान ने सुदृढ़ क़िले भटनेर को सन १५३४ ई. के आसपास आक्रमण कर अपने अधिकार में कर लिया। पहले यह किला भाटी राजपूतों के क़ब्ज़े में था तथा १५२७ ई. में बीकानेर के चौथे शासक राव जैतसिंह ने यहाँ राठौड़ों का आधिपत्य स्थापित कर दिया था।इसके बाद कामरान ने बीकानेर पर आक्रमण किया तथा एक बार तो उस पर क़ब्ज़ा भी कर लिया, पंरतु राव जैतसी ने २६ अक्टूबर, १५३४ ई. को एक मजबुत सेना एकत्रित कर कामरान पर आक्रमण कर दिया। अप्रत्याशीत आक्रमण से मुग़ल सेना बीकानेर छोड़कर भाग खड़ी हुई और राव जैतसी की विजय हुई।

इस युद्ध का विस्तृत वर्णन वीठू सूजा कृत 'राव जैतसी रो छंद' नामक ग्रंथ में मिलता है। जो कि नीचे विस्तृत रूप में प्रस्तुत है।

सन १५४१ ई. में जोधपुर के शासक राव मालदेव ने बीकानेर पर आक्रमण किया, जिसमें राव जैतसी की वीरगति को प्राप्त हुवे और बीकानेर पर राव मालदेव का क़ब्ज़ा हो गया। सन १५४४ ई. में शेरशाह सूरी ने मालदेव को गिरिसुमेल के युद्ध में हरा दिया। इसमें राव जैतसी के पुत्र कल्याणमल जो भटनेर मे थे से शेरशाह की सहायता की और बीकानेर पर पुनः राज स्थापित किया।

At those time Kabul and Lahore were then held by Babar’s son Kamran who dreamt of building an empire on the ruins of the one left by his fugitive brother Humayun.

A Jain yati from Bhatner, who was angry with Rao Jaitsi for some trivial reason, forgetting all lessons of history approached Kamran, dangled before him the rich bait of Bhatner and persuaded him to march with his arms on Bhatner, the northern stronghold of the Rathores of Bikaner.

Kamran attacked Bhatner with a large army in Asadh of Samvat 1595. The small Bikaner army then recently mauled by the ill-advised invasion of Narnaul, by the late ruler Rao Loonkaran was numerically no match for the invading Mughals. Bhatner was captured by the invaders and they began preparations to march on Bikaner. Jaitsi feared the worse. Like his ancestors, Rao Jaitsi, in this hour of peril, repaired to Deshnok, and prayed for divine help in the following words:

जैत कमन्ध कर जोड़ियां, जीहा एह जपत्त।

करनल रिणमल बाचरी, पाल करो त्रिसकत्त।।

पाल करो त्रिसकत्त, जेज नंह कीजिये।

जैतो सरणै राज, उबारौ लीजिये।।

लियां संग नव लाख, सगत्ताँ झूलराँ।

आवो करनल प्राप, उबारण आपराँ।।

(Rathore Jaitsi with folded hands pray thus’ “Remember your promise to Ridmal and fulfill it. Fulfill it and delay not. Redeem Jaita who seeks your protection. Come yourself O ! Shri Karni with Navalkh Shaktis to save your own people).

For three days and nights, the Rao prayed continuously, determined not to leave Deshnok without divine assurance of help. Thirsty and hungry he sat at the gate of the sanctum. On the fourth day, an ivory-bangle-adorned Arm appeared at noontime and put his arrow on his bow. Assured by this manifestation of divine grace Rao Jaitsi rode north with confidence, to face the Mughal hordes.

Reaching the vicinity of Bhatner, he collected intelligence about enemy deployment and strength. Finding his brave Rajputs far outnumbered by the enemy, he decided to launch a surprise attack under cover of darkness. With lightning speed, the small Rathore force fell on the Mughals soon after darkness. A fierce battle ensued. The Rajputs fought with such courage and bravery as only Rajputs can muster. They were helped by a supernatural power. The atmosphere echoed with the sound of veer hak and innumerable missiles fell on the Mughals. Flabbergasted by this divine spectacle, the Mughal army fled the battle-field, and the Rathores made a jubilant entry into the fort of Bhatner.

“Much dread was then felt of the terrible Turks, and Jetsi feared to fight them. He derived little comfort from his counselors but when he consulted the oracle at Deshnok, he recovered confidence; for Karniji was propitious, manifested a hand, spoke graciously and on the Rao’s laying his arms before Her image caused an arrow to fit itself to the bow-string. The Rao thereupon made a sudden night attack on Kamran’s force. Supernatural assistance, in the shape of thousands of quoits flung from unseen hands upon the Turks, secured the victory to Bikaner. Kamran exclaimed that they must be violating some Peer’s tomb by camping on it and galloped off. At village Chotringa his umbrella was dropped in a hurry of flight, and, the village being bestowed on Charans, it is preserved by them to the present day.”

Powlett, Gazetteer of the Bikaner State, Page 15

The victorious Jaitsi returned to Deshnok, paid homage, and constructed a mandap over the ‘Gumbhara sanctum’ of the Deshnok temple. (The temple is called Mandh. )

An old Rajasthani poem from Bikaner, Chanda Rau Jeta Si ro (छंद राऊ जेठसी रॊ), describing a 16th century battle between the Rajputs of Bikaner and the Mughals of Punjab was translated by LP Tessitori:

This 400 year old poem is in archaic Marwari and the language will be quite difficult for modern Rajasthanis to understand. As an example, this single page, in which Rao Jeth Singh conducts psychological warfare  by sending a message to Kamran, describing how each of his ancestors like Mallinatha, Chunda, Jodha, Bika, and Duda had repeatedly defeated their Muslim opponents and how the Mughal Kamran would meet the same fate at his hands:

As a sample of the archaic language, the last line of the first quatrain reads: Jeev le bhaji gau Nemjir. Translated as:

(The Turk) Nemjir ran away (bhaji gau or "bhag gayo" in contemporary Marwari) with his bare life (jeev le).

It was composed by Vithu Sujo Nagarajota, a Charana at the stipend of Rau Jeta Sih (Rao Jeth Singh) of Bikaner, about the year 1535 A.D., to celebrate a victory obtained by the latter prince over Kamran who from the Panjab had invaded his territory. The fact that the Muhammadan historians do not even mention this unfortunate adventure of the son of Babar, only enhances the value of the poem, which may thus claim the credit of filling a small gap in the history of India. But the subject of the Jeta Si ro Chanda is not restricted to the battle in which Kamran was routed. Like all bardic poems of some bulk and importance, it contains also an introduction giving an account of the military exploits of Rau Jeta Sih's predecessors, from his ancestor Chundo (Rao Chunda), the daring Rathora who was the first to win for himself and his descendants the title of Rau of Marwar, down to Viko (Bika), the founder of Bikaner, and his son Luna Karana, the gallant father of Jeta Sih. It is the story of a gradual but at the same time amazingly rapid conquest on the part of a vigorous race (Rathore Rajputs), who in the narrow space of four generations succeeded in subjugating to its sway the greatest part of the Rajputana desert from the chain of the Aravalli to the bed of the Naiwal, a stretch of over three hundred miles.

The date for this battle between Rao Jait Singh and Kamran (Samvat 1591) falls within the period when Kamran, as we know from the Muhammadan chronicles, was consolidating himself in the Panjab. From the Bikaneri sources we know that Bhatner, the important stronghold on the Bikaner-Panjab frontier, had been conquered by Kheta Si Ararakamalota, a vassal of Rau Jait Singh, some time after the latter's accession in Samvat 1583, or thereabout. Naturally, Kamran must have felt tempted, if not actually compelled, to expel the Rathoras from Bhatanera, and after doing it, he probably resolved to continue his march southwards and inflict on Bikaner such a blow as would prevent the Rathoras from attempting for further conquest to his region. Though defeated and obliged to beat a hasty retreat from the fort of bhatner from the furious charge of Rathore's, he did not fail in his object altogether, for Bhatner remained in his hands of the Rathore's they were unable to pursue further for several years.

Note :- Many historians of today believe that the fight between Jaitsi and Kamran took place at Bikaner and not Bhatner. Also that, though Bhatner was renamed Hanumangarh because it fell to the Rathores on a Tuesday, but it was not done during Rao Jaitsi but during Maharaja Soorat Singh in V.S. 1805. Also, there is no verifiable evidence that Kamran dropped his umbrella and the same is preserved by the villagers to the present day.