Siege of Chittorgarh (1567–1568)
The siege of Chittorgarh (23 October 1567 – 23 February 1568) was the military expedition of the Mughal Empire under Akbar against the Mewar kingdom that commenced in 1567 during which the Mughals successfully captured the fort of Chittorgarh after a hard-pressed siege which lasted for several months.
| Siege of Chittorgarh (1567–1568) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Mughal-Rajput War (1558-1576) | |||||||||
21st century view of Chittor | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Mughal Empire | Mewar Kingdom | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Akbar Asaf Khan Jalal Khan † Alam Khan † Quazi Ali Baghdadi † Adil Khan † Abdul Majid Khan † Wazir Khan † Mir Qasim † Hussain Quli Khan † Imteyaz Khan Syed Jamaluddin Barha † |
Jaimal Rathore † Patta Chundawat † Ishwar Das Chauhan † Rawat Sai Das Chundawat † Kalyan Singh Rathore (Kalla) † Ballu Solanki † Dodiya Thakur Sanda † Rawat Sahibkhan Chauhan † Raj Rana Surtan Singh Jhala † Udaibhan † Sahib Khan Rathore † | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| unknown | 7,000-8,000 cavalry and musketeers | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Heavy (around 25,000) | Heavy (8,000) | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Akbar under his expansionist policy, besieged the strategic Sisodia capital of Chittor in October 1567 and further gave a religious colour to the struggle by declaring it as a Jihād against the infidels. On Akbar's advance, Sisodia ruler Rana Udai Singh moved to the mountainous principality of his kingdom (on the advice of his war councils) and placed the fort under the command of Jaimal Rathore.
After over four months of seesaw action during which the Mughal forces suffered heavy casualties, the battle eventually broke the deadlock when Jaimal succumbed to a musket shot of Akbar on 22 February 1568. The fort was captured the next morning on the day of Holi after a gallant resistance by the Rajputs. The conquest of Chittor was proclaimed by Akbar as the victory of Islam over infidels.
After the subjugation of the fort, Akbar ordered a general massacre of Chittor's population in the course of which 30,000 Hindu civilians were slaughtered and a large number of women and children were enslaved. Akbar placed the fort under his general Asaf Khan and returned to Agra.