Rani Karnavati also known as Rani Karmavati (died 8 March 1534), was a

princess Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin '' princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince. Princess as a subs ...

and temporary ruler from

Bundi Bundi is a city in the Hadoti region of Rajasthan state in northwest India and capital of the former princely state of Rajputana agency. District of Bundi is named after the former princely state. Demographics According to the 2011 Indian cens ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. She was married to Rana Sanga (c.1508-1528) of Mewar. She was the mother of the next two Ranas, Rana Vikramaditya and Rana Udai Singh, and grandmother of

Maharana Pratap Pratap Singh I, popularly known as Maharana Pratap (c. 9 May 1540 – 19 January 1597), was a king of Mewar from the Sisodia dynasty. Pratap became a folk hero for his military resistance against the expansionism of the Mughal Empire under A ...

. She served as regent during the minority of her son, from 1527 until 1533. She was as fierce as her husband and defended Chittor with a small contingent of soldiers until it inevitably fell to the Gujarat army which was led by

Bahadur Shah of Gujarat Qutb-ud-Din Bahadur Shah, born Bahadur Khan was a sultan of the Muzaffarid dynasty who reigned over the Gujarat Sultanate, a late medieval kingdom in India from 1526 to 1535 and again from 1536 to 1537. He ascended to throne after competing with h ...

. She refused to flee and performed

Jauhar Jauhar, sometimes spelled Jowhar or Juhar, was a Hindu practice of mass self-immolation by women, in the Indian subcontinent, to avoid capture, enslavement and rape by an invading army, when facing certain defeat during a war. Some reports of ...

to protect her honour.

Biography

After Babur had captured the throne of Delhi in 1526 AD, Rana Sangram Singh or Rana Sanga of Mewar lead a confederation of

Rajput Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Ra ...

Kings against Babur to capture the throne of Delhi. Initially the Rana succeeded in pushing the Mughal army back in the

Battle of Bayana The Battle of Bayana or the Siege of Bayana was a military conflict between the Rajput Confederacy under Rana Sanga on one side and Afghans of Bayana under Nizam Khan and Mughal advance guard, led by Abdul Aziz on other side. Background Babur' ...

. But in

Battle of Khanua The Battle of Khanwa was fought at Khanwa on March 16, 1527. It was fought between the invading Timurid forces of Babur and the Rajput confederacy led by Rana Sanga for suprermacy of Northern India. The battle was a major event in Medieva ...

, he was defeated due to Babur's superior tactics, cannons and artillery. Rani Karnavati took up the regency in the name of her elder son Vikramaditya, a weak ruler. In the meantime, Mewar was attacked for the second time by

, at whose hands Vikramaditya had earlier received a defeat. It was a matter of great concern for Rani. The antagonized nobles were not ready to fight for Vikramaditya and the imminent battle was sure to be another blot in the history of Sisodias. Rani Karnavati wrote to the nobles to come forward for the sake of the honour of the Sisodias, and was able to persuade the nobles to fight for Mewar, if not for Vikramaditya. Their sole condition was that Vikramaditya and Uday Singh should go to Bundi during the war for their personal safety. Some later unsophisticated legends say that the Rani also sent a Rakhi to the

Mughal Emperor The Mughal emperors ( fa, , Pādishāhān) were the supreme heads of state of the Mughal Empire on the Indian subcontinent, mainly corresponding to the modern countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The Mughal rulers styled t ...

Humayun Nasir-ud-Din Muhammad ( fa, ) (; 6 March 1508 – 27 January 1556), better known by his regnal name, Humāyūn; (), was the second emperor of the Mughal Empire, who ruled over territory in what is now Eastern Afghanistan, Pakistan, Northe ...

, calling him a brother and asking for help. Thus her name became irrevocably linked to the festival of

Raksha Bandhan Raksha Bandhan Quote: m Hindi ''rakśābandhan'' held on the full moon of the month of Savan, when sisters tie a talisman (rakhi q.v.) on the arm of their brothers and receive small gifts of money from them. is a popular and traditionally Hin ...

. However this is not supported by any contemporary writer and modern historians like Satish Chandra consider this to be a fable rather than a historical fact. Rani Karnavati agreed to send her sons to Bundi and told her trusted maid

Panna Dai Panna Dai was a 16th-century nursemaid to Udai Singh II, the fourth son of Rana Sanga. She was a Rajput of Kheechi Tribe. In Hindi, ''Panna'' means "emerald," and ''dai'' means "nurse." Udai Singh was left in care of Panna, after Rani Karna ...

to accompany them and take good care of them. Panna was reluctant, but surrendered to the wishes of the queen. The Sisodias had fought valiantly, but they were outnumbered and the war was lost. Bahadur Shah entered Chittorgarh and ransacked it for the second time. Realizing that defeat was imminent, Karnavati and the other noble ladies of the court immolated themselves in

on March 8, 1534 A.D., while all the men donned saffron clothes and went out to fight to the death and thus committed Saka. This is the occasion for the second of the three Jauhars performed at Chittor.KARNAVATI, QUEEN OF CHITTOR
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Notes

References

Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals Part - II
{{DEFAULTSORT:Karnavati, Rani Year of birth missing Indian princesses Mewar dynasty People from Chittorgarh district 1535 deaths People who committed sati Indian female royalty Indian queen consorts 16th-century Indian monarchs 16th-century women rulers 16th-century Indian women 16th-century Indian people 16th-century suicides Rajput princesses