Siege of Chittorgarh (1303): Alauddin Khalji and Mewar

The siege of Chittorgarh in 1303 was a campaign by Sultan Alauddin Khalji of Delhi against Chittor, the great hill fortress of the Rajput kingdom of Mewar in present-day Rajasthan. After about eight months the fort fell, and much of its population was massacred. The event is well documented by a poet who travelled with the sultan’s army, but it is better known today through a later legend: the story of the queen Padmini, or Padmavati.

Background

Alauddin Khalji, sultan from 1296 to 1316, was the most aggressive ruler of the Delhi Sultanate. After seizing power he sent armies to conquer Gujarat in 1299 and took the Rajput fortress of Ranthambore in 1301. He was also defending his realm against repeated Mongol invasions, one of which had reached the outskirts of Delhi at the Battle of Kili in 1299.

Chittor stood on a long, steep-sided plateau rising some 150 to 180 metres above the plain, with water reservoirs inside the walls that allowed it to withstand long sieges. It was the main stronghold of the Guhila dynasty of Mewar. In 1303 the fort was ruled by Ratnasimha (Ratan Singh), who had succeeded his father Samarasimha only a year or two earlier.

Mewar was one of several Rajput kingdoms in the region. Their rulers, drawn from warrior clans that claimed descent from ancient solar and lunar lines, controlled the hill forts and trade routes linking the Gangetic plain with Malwa and the ports of Gujarat. Earlier sultans of Delhi had raided Rajasthan, but none had held its great fortresses for long. Alauddin’s campaigns aimed to change that, both to secure his southern routes and to demonstrate that no fortress could resist him.

Why Chittor was hard to take

Chittor’s natural defences were formidable. The plateau stretches for several kilometres from north to south, with cliffs on most sides, and the approaches could be covered by archers on the walls. Inside, tanks and reservoirs collected monsoon rain, and the fort held space for fields, temples and houses, so a garrison could hold out for months.

Medieval armies in India took such fortresses by blockade, by mining and by building ramps and siege towers, or by persuading defenders to surrender. A direct assault was costly. At Ranthambore two years earlier Alauddin’s army had needed several months, and his commander Nusrat Khan had been killed by a stone from a siege engine. Chittor promised to be equally difficult.

The siege

According to Amir Khusrau, the Persian poet who accompanied Alauddin and described the campaign in his prose work Khaza’in al-Futuh (“Treasures of Victory”), the sultan left Delhi on 28 January 1303. His army camped near the fort between the Gambhiri and Berach rivers, and Alauddin directed the siege from a nearby hill.

Khusrau gives few military details, and he wrote in an elaborate, allusive style. It is clear, however, that the siege lasted about eight months, through the hot season and into the monsoon. The attackers used siege engines, and the fort was finally captured on 26 August 1303.

Khusrau reports that the Rai, the ruler, came out and surrendered to the sultan and was spared. He also states that Alauddin ordered some 30,000 Hindus to be killed in a single day. These details come from a single court source, and historians treat the number with caution, but the massacre is not disputed.

Alauddin renamed the fort Khizrabad and gave it to his young son and heir, Khizr Khan. He then returned quickly to Delhi, where a Mongol army under Targhi had taken advantage of his absence to besiege the capital for about two months.

Historians have long debated what happened to Ratnasimha. Khusrau’s statement that the ruler surrendered conflicts with later Rajput traditions of a heroic death in battle. Some later inscriptions of the Sisodia branch mention Lakshmasimha, a kinsman who is said to have died defending the fort with several of his sons, but these records were composed long after the event.

Key people

• Alauddin Khalji (reigned 1296-1316): sultan of Delhi, who led the siege in person.
• Ratnasimha (Ratan Singh): Guhila ruler of Chittor in 1303; his exact fate is uncertain, though Khusrau says he surrendered.
• Amir Khusrau (1253-1325): poet and courtier, the main contemporary witness.
• Khizr Khan: Alauddin’s son, made governor of Chittor after its capture.

After the conquest

Delhi’s hold on Chittor did not last. Around 1311 Khizr Khan was withdrawn and the fort was entrusted to Maldeva, a Songara Chauhan chief who had become Alauddin’s ally. After Alauddin’s death in 1316 the sultanate’s grip weakened. In the first half of the 14th century Hammir, of the Sisodia branch of the Guhila family, recovered Chittor. His Sisodia descendants ruled Mewar for centuries, with Chittor as their capital until the fort fell to the Mughal emperor Akbar in 1568.

Chittor was besieged twice more, by Bahadur Shah of Gujarat in 1535 and by Akbar in 1567-1568. Each siege became part of Rajput tradition of heroic last stands and jauhar, the self-immolation of women to avoid capture.

The Padmavati legend

The best-known story about 1303 comes from Padmavat, a poem in the Awadhi language completed in 1540 by the Sufi poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi. In it, the beautiful Padmavati, princess of Singhal (Sri Lanka), marries Ratansen of Chittor. Alauddin learns of her beauty, besieges Chittor to win her and is finally cheated of his prize when she and the women of the fort commit jauhar.

No contemporary source mentions Padmavati. Amir Khusrau, who was present, says nothing about a queen. Some writers have read a reference into his comparison of the campaign with the story of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, but most historians regard this as too slight to support the legend. An epilogue found in versions of the poem presents it as an allegory, in which Chittor stands for the body and Padmavati for wisdom.

The historian Ramya Sreenivasan has shown how the story was later retold by Rajput bards, Mughal-era writers, British colonial authors such as James Tod and modern nationalists, each adapting it to new purposes. The legend has inspired paintings, plays and films, and a 2018 Hindi film adaptation, Padmaavat, provoked widespread protests in India.

Myths and facts

• Myth: Alauddin attacked Chittor to capture Padmini. Contemporary sources present the siege as part of a broader conquest of Rajasthan’s fortresses; the romantic motive appears only in later literature.
• Myth: the 1303 jauhar is fully documented. Jauhar at Chittor is well attested for later sieges, but for 1303 it rests on later tradition rather than contemporary records.
• Fact: the dates of the siege and the massacre of the inhabitants are recorded by an eyewitness, Amir Khusrau.

Timeline

• 1301: Alauddin captures Ranthambore.
• 1303, 28 January: Alauddin leaves Delhi for Chittor.
• 1303, 26 August: Chittor falls; massacre of the inhabitants.
• 1303, autumn: Mongol army under Targhi besieges Delhi.
• c. 1311: Chittor handed over to Maldeva.
• 1540: Jayasi completes Padmavat.
• 1568: Chittor falls to Akbar.

Why it matters

Today Chittorgarh is often described as the largest fort in India by area and part of the Hill Forts of Rajasthan, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013. Its surviving monuments, such as the Vijaya Stambha (Tower of Victory) built in the 15th century, date mostly from after 1303.

The capture of Chittor marked the height of Delhi’s power in Rajasthan under Alauddin Khalji. Its afterlife in legend, through the story of Padmavati, has made it one of the most retold and debated episodes of medieval Indian history.