Beyond the Battle...

'For the first time in fifty years the Mughals suffered their first setback and Haldighati shattered the myth of their invincibility — symbolic of the war that was fought for the protection and preservation of self-respect, self-reliance and independence. The battle of Haldighati unlike any other battle in the military history of warfare has aroused the greatest and most multifaceted interest'

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In Udaipur's City Palace Museum is the grand oil painting on canvas titled 'Depicting the Battle of Haldighati fought on 18th June 1576 CE between Maharana Pratap and the Mughal Forces of Akbar led by Kanwar Man Singh of Amber'.

The artists, Chaturbhuj and sons of Udaipur in 1935, spared no effort to capture dramatic sequences of the battle considered not just a historic landmark of pre-modern India, but as an endless source of inspiration for military commanders and strategists, litterateurs and playwrights, classical and folk poets, and, of course, historians-chroniclers of Rajasthan and India over the last five centuries.

The painting's description says it all: "On 18th June 1576 CE Kanwar Man Singh of Amber mounted on his mighty war elephant led the Mughal armies of Akbar against Maharana Pratap I (period of reign, 1572-1597 CE) who on his incomparable white stallion Chetak carried the crimson banner of Mewar into the thrust of the battle. Neither lance nor sword, nor the arrows that rained like hail around him could stem the course of that intrepid charge. For the first time in fifty years the Mughals suffered their first setback and Haldighati shattered the myth of their invincibility — symbolic of the war that was fought for the protection and preservation of self-respect, self-reliance and independence. The battle of Haldighati unlike any other battle in the military history of warfare has aroused the greatest and most multifaceted interest.