Rajput community is livid. They claim that a filmmaker from Mumbai has fiddled with history and demeaned their glorified ancestors. Astonishingly they came to know about the insult inflicted by the movie even before release of it.

Rajputs love to gloat over their past. They claim that Rajputs have been cut above, valorous and stood against all adversities for centuries. Their self-respect has been the most worthy possession and they had never compromised on that.

A commoner normally agrees with it as the saga of Rajput is by and large limited to all those heroic tales of Maharana Pratap, who stood strong against Mughals and kept fighting throughout his life but never accepted the supremacy of Akbar. Right from school days, we have been reading about famous Battle of Haldighati, distinctive horse of Pratap named Chetak (Bajaj auto dedicated one of its scooter model to Chetak). Various folklores have been doing round since ages that how Maharana Pratap was forced to wander in jungles, penniless and was forced to eat grass.

Maharana Pratap is revered in Mewar area unprecedentedly. For instance, Pratap’s right hand Jhala Manna scarified his life in bid to save Rana Pratap during legendary battle of Haldighati. Jhala Manna belonged to a small town called Badi Sadri in current district of Chittorgarh. Few years back I visited Badi Sadri. The town is known as city of brave Jhala Manna and people of town proudly quote Jhala Manna without fail while introducing themselves and Badi Sadri.

But does legend of Maharana Pratap reflects the overall history and essence of whole Rajputana over the past many centuries? Well, let’s find out.

Jaipur/Amber, Udaipur/Chittorgarh and Jodhpur were the most prominent princely states of Rajputana. There were few others noticeable states as well like, Bikaner, Alwar, Boondi etc.

Jodhpur state and related area is known as Marwar. The city of Jodhpur was founded by Rao Jodha in 15th century he was the first ruler of dynasty. Rao Bika, son of Rao Jodha fell out with his father and deserted Jodhpur. He established the kingdom bf Bikaner.

Jaipur/Amber is eight century old kingdom. It was known as Amber till early eighteen century when city of Jaipur was founded by Raja Jai Singh.

However it is kingdom of Mewar (Udaipur/Chittorgarh), which has been most famous and all-time favourite of story tellers of various generations. The dynasty was founded by Bappa Rawal in eighth century. Till 16th century, dynasty ruled from Chittorgarh and after that from Udaipur, as Rana Udai Singh (father of Maharana Pratap) founded the city of Udaipur after Chittorgarh was seized by Akbar. The ruler of Mewar ruled in name of Lord Ekling Ji and king supposedly remained a custodian. Rani Padmavati’s husband Ratan Singh belonged to this kingdom and so does Maharana Pratap.

Most of the folklores/stories, we have been reading since childhood about medieval glory of Rajput, actually belongs to this dynasty only. Apart from Maharana Pratap, legends of Mira Bai and Panna Dhai also belong to this dynasty and to the very fort of Chittorgarh.

During medieval era, Mewar was ruled by great rulers. Rana Kumbha was one of them; under him kingdom excelled and was at its zenith. Rana Kumbha made Mewar prosperous and built huge edifices like Fort of Kumbhalgarh (where Maharana Pratap was born in 1540 AD) and iconic Vijay Stambh inside Chittorgarh Fort.

Rajputs of Mewar during medieval era were great warrior and they defended their kingdom fiercely. Grandson of Rana Kumbha and grandfather of Maharana Pratap, Rana Sanga took Mughals head on, after Babur captured Delhi in 1526. Sanga lost out to Babur in the famous Battle of Khanwa in 1527. The victory, which established Mughals in India was a huge turning point for the country.

As a matter of fact, that is all as far as much talked about pride of Rajputana is concerned. Jodhpur and Jaipur gave in to the might of Mughals. King of Amber Raja Bharmal got her daughter married of Akbar. Akbar’s most trusted aide and prominent military commander Raja Man Singh belonged to ruling dynasty of Jaipur only (If you have seen Bollywood movie Jodha Akbar and Mughal-e-Azam, you can connect with it).

Ruler of Marwar (Jodhpur) though poised some resistance of Mughal, but in bits and pieces and without much success. Ultimately they also gave in.

Most of other rulers in Rajputana made treaties with Mughal to protect themselves. Sixth ruler of Bikaner, Rai Singh accepted the Mughal supremacy and suzerainty. Bikaner remained under Mughal suzerainty thereafter.

After Mughal period is over, none of these celebrated dynasties had the mettle to take on British Raj. All of them made treaties with British to buy peace and opulent life for themselves.

Rulers in Rajputana during this period (19th century onwards) lived in sumptuousness and splurge money on their pleasure at the cost of their subjects. They were spending their time in playing Polo, hunting, building palaces for themselves and most importantly keeping their masters (British officers) happy and pleased.

During my stay in Rajasthan for a decade, I visited almost all prominent palaces and museums. There are plenty of old pictures on wall, which depicts the lifestyles of Rajput rulers. Maharaja is proudly standing over a hunted tiger/panther/blackbuck and boasting a gun in hand, often accompanied by his prestigious and honourable guests from British Raj.

In turn of their outstanding services, Raj was honouring them with various titles, which used to be matter of proud for these rulers.

I once came across a document in Bikaner museum. It was regarding yearly spending by Maharaja on various heads during a particular year in 1920s. Intriguingly money spent on the wedding function of prince (heir apparent) was at par with spending on key sectors by Maharaja like health, roads etc.

The sycophancy was at its peak. As Kunwar Natwar Singh writes in his book on Maharaja of Patiala, that none of the Indian rulers had the temerity and guts to raise voice against British even after the horrifying massacre at Jaliawalanbagh; it included all rulers from Rajputana as well.

These entire Maharajas would buy swanky cars and even aircrafts. Maharaja of Jodhpur used to charter aircraft for personal pleasure at time when his subjects were living a very mediocre life. In fact Maharaja of Jodhpur Hanwant Singh died in a plane crash in 1952 (Bollywood movie Zubeidda).

Estate of Jaipur accumulated huge wealth over the years. There is story (though it was never made official) that how Indira Gandhi raided Jaigarh Fort near Jaipur during peak of emergency in 1976 in the hunt of gold which rulers of Amber had accumulated over the centuries. It is rumoured that 60 trucks filled of gold and other jewellery was transferred to Delhi overnight.

After the independence, most of the Rajputana rulers signed Instrument of Accession and became part of India. However somewhere the feeling of betrayal remained (particularly after Indira abolished Privy Purse). They are still nostalgic about days when they ruled and enjoyed life on their whims.

In 2002, Maharaj Gaj Singh celebrated his 50th anniversary of coronation (meaningless coronation though) with a grand gala function in Jodhpur. It was covered by INDIA TODAY, which of course was in disapproval for this inconsequential and meaningless function. Gaj Singh retorted with displeasure on this. He openly justified the function and his right to still assume himself the Maharaja of Jodhpur.

Rajput had a glorious past but a picture is far different than what current days Rajputs put up. Barring few Chittorgarh rulers in medieval India, Rajputs hardly fought for self-respect and rarely there were at the same side of righteousness.

Royals of Rajputana had a mixed past, as good or as bad as other princely state in the country. Certainly rating of outfits like Karni Sena about their ancestors is hugely over-rated and does not stand any merit.