At the behest of Akbar, Mann Singh, the prince of Amber, goes to Rana Pratap's place.( Rana Pratap Singh is the king of State of Mewar) on the pretext of having lunch with him, and to ask Rana to give up his protocol and submit to Akbar. Pratap Singh does not chose to dine with the slave of Akbar and sends his son prince Amar Singh for lunch. He also follows the protocol of sending the prince to have dialogue with another prince and does not find it fit that an independent king should dine with a prince. The real reason , of course is his disapproval of Mann Singh's submission and lack of self-pride. Now Mann Singh and Rana Pratap are of same generation and relatives. Mann realizes that Rana is trying to avoid him. He directly brings the point. This enrages Amar Singh. He ridicules Mann Singh and his cowardice.Rana now comes into picture and reprimands Mann Singh and asks him to leave Akbar instead. Taking this as a personal insult, he leaves the lunch and goes hastily, saying that they will meet in battlefield.
The news spreads like wild fire in whole of northern india and rajasthan. Akbar orders Mann's Singh to get his troops ready. He also asks his troops under Abdul Rahim Khaninkhana ( Rahimdas, well known snippet writer) to get ready.The troop comprises of Turks and Afghans.
Situated in Mt Abu, not far away from Udaipur, is the most beautiful temple of India, in terms of architecture and concept. The Dilwara Temple, treasured huge wealth collected in form of precious metals and their jewelery.It is one of the most sacred temples for the Jains. With the unanimous consent of people of Mewar, this wealth was given to Rana to be used for battle exchequers, to prepare armours and weapons etc. More was contributed by the general people. Everybody realized the significance and the dire situation they were facing by not giving in to the demands of the Monster sitting in Agra.
Rana quickly combines his army with the bhils of the region and they plan to attack the Mughal army from three sides. Abdul rahim backs off, just prior to the battle, realizing that he is fighting a noble person and partially saves himself from the blot which the history is to put on the Mughal Empire.
The Mewar army divides itself in five parts, two parts were on each of the side of the hill, one part was to block the path lest the mughal army starts retreating. This part would attack once the Mughal Army comes into the ravine, or the ghati. The frontal attack is divided into two parts.
Mann Singh's army comes in, and it already outnumbers the Mewar army. Yet they are surprised by the sudden and strong assault from all the four sides and they panic.Legend has it that Bhama shah and Rana himself are such ferocious fighters that enemy troops are panic-stricken.Rana wearing 14 kilo armour and on Chetak,the super quality horse looks dangerous.Everyone in the land knew of chetak and his affection and faith towards his Master.The local people say, Chetak was very crucial to Rana's war skills and his agility.The mughal army quicky goes down in numbers and morale. They send the message to the turks and Afghans stationed outside the battle field.
And so the huge army of mughals comes in, and this is where numbers begin to matter.The battle slowly but steadily is turning in favour of Akber. Realizing that if something is not done quicky, the battle would be lost, Rana marches with chetak putting its front legs on the head of Mann Singh's elephant and Rana throws his lance. Mann would have died but for the loyal mahout who takes the assault on hinself and saves his master and dies.
If only the Mahout's loyalty had been more towards self pride and motherland, there could have been a different history.
While coming down the elephant's head, one of the fore limb's is seriously injured by the sword tied to the tusks. This becomes a turning point of the War. With Chetak injured, all on the side of Rana realize that battle cannot be won that day. Rana himself is mentally broken seeing chetak's injury. Jhala Singh, able commander of Rana forces him to leave the field. He wears on the armour of Rana and masquerades himself as Rana meanwhile. Chetak understands all this and takes his Master on back and runs tremendous speed fast for 5 kilometers and crosses a brook to take his Master to safety and dies immediately after landing across the brook. Chetak Smarak in Udaipur is to commemorate his valliant effort. Poems and local snippets have been written, and songs sung, to honour chetak.
For the brief battle of Haldighati, the Mughal army had suffered heavy loss, and Rana had left a lasting impression. He might have lost but had won the hearts of his people and enemy alike.
