L’amour that led to war
A slice of history
By Ajit Dalal

A LOVE affair in the 18th century made a son and his father oppose one another in the battlefield. This historic story, related to the famous Jat Maharaja Suraj Mal of Bharatpur and his son Jawahar Singh, is little known to the common man.

Jawahar Singh was the first born son of Maharaja Suraj Mal from his Rajput wife. But he was adopted by Maharani Kishori, the brilliant queen of Suraj Mal. Being a darling of his grandfather, the childhood of Jawahar Singh passed under the loving supervision of his grandfather Raja Badan Singh. The grandfather trained Jawahar Singh in warfare activities and imparted him administrative skills. The well-known general, Krishan Mahant, was appointed to train the young prince in the art of war and Acharya Som Nath was deputed for teaching Sanskrit, philosophy and mathematics. The young prince was intelligent, bold and clever. At an early age, he learnt riding, archery, gun-shooting and war strategies. His grandfather was his lone tutor in teaching him diplomatic tactics. Jawahar Singh’s marriage was solemnised in November 1743.

Jawahar Singh was endowed with a stout body and robust constitution. Possessed of great military talents and administrative skills, he was a born ruler.

Till his grandfather was alive, Jawahar Singh lived with him and hardly visited his father. Raja Badan Singh, his grandfather, deputed him to wage many wars and fortunately Jawahar Singh did not lose even a single battle as long as Raja Badan Singh was alive. He was termed as ‘Prince of Victories’.

When Raja Badan Singh expired on June 7, 1756, Jawahar Singh lost his greatest patron. The young prince soon developed differences with his father, Maharaja Suraj Mal, and with the passage of time, the rift, between the father and son widened. The major cause of their disagreements was simple. Maharaja Suraj Mal did not like some of the friends of Jawahar Singh and warned him to get rid of them. But Jawahar Singh argued heavily in favour of his friends. This led to tense relations between the father and the son.

Their relationship futher worsened when Jawahar Singh had an affair with Ganna, the beautiful daughter of Ali Quli Khan, a high ranking noble of Alamgir II. Ganna was extremely talented and beautiful. Hence, her hand was sought by the highest nobles in the land such as Shuja-ud-Daula and Imad-ul-Mulk. After the death of her father, Ganna’s mother decided to take her to Lucknow to be married to Shuja-ud-Daula. But Ganna preferred Jawahar Singh to other nobles. She passionately appealed to him to take her away with him. There upon, the young prince deputed his men near Agra to kidnap this famous beauty till their marriage took place. But Suraj Mal’s spies informed him about this plan of Jawahar Singh. He immediately intervened and prevented the execution of the plan.

This act of Suraj Mal made Jawahar Singh revolt against his father. He took possession to Deeg, the previous capital of Bharatpur state founded by his beloved grandfather, and began preparations to fight his father. This came as surprise to everybody because by the time Suraj Mal had occupied a high status among the Indian kings and neither Marathas, nor Rajputs,nor the Mughals had the courage to fight against the great Jat Maharaja.

After the revolt of Jawahar Singh, Suraj Mal at first sent messengers to pacify his son. But the ‘injured lover’ did not stop his rebellious acts. Hence Suraj Mal decided to bring the situation under control by using strong methods. He himself led a contingent to Deeg. Father Wendel describes what followed: "A dogged combat took place. In the first round Jawahar Singh’s army had the upper hand and Suraj Mal’s forces had to come back. But the next day Suraj Mal was successful in winning over the close associates of Jawahar Singh and these lieutenants of the young prince changed sides in the night of the second day. This was a great setback to Jawahar Singh, but he didn’t lose his temper or courage. The young prince, trained by his grandfather was a much better war strategist than his father. But he lacked the means and forces. In spite of this, Jawahar Singh rushed in to the thickest of the fray and fought with exceptional courage. He was seriously wounded by a sabre cut, a lance thrust and a shot which went through the lower part of his abdomen. Suraj Mal, more pained about the wounds of his son than about the destruction of Deeg, rushed breathlessly to snatch his son away from the hands of Balram, the maternal uncle of Nahar Singh, who wanted to kill Jawahar Singh, so that his nephew Nahar Singh could occupy the throne of Bharatpur after Suraj Mal. K. Natwar Singh writes that Balram in spite of all the cries of Suraj Mal was about to crush the wounded prince.

Jawahar Singh’s wounds did not take long to heal but due to his injuries he became impotent. After this war, Suraj Mal reposed full confidence in the courage, vigour, fighting skills, war strategies and administrative ability of his son. Suraj Mal was so confident of his son’s bravery that he made him command his army whenever a war was waged, and the young prince always proved his worth every time in battlefield. But this incident had made Jawahar Singh wary of his father’s policies. That is why he established a separate state in Haryana consisting of Rewari, Farrukh Nagar, Pataudi, Badshahpur, Ghasera, Jhajjar, Bahadurgarh, Hasangarh, Rohtak, Meham, Gohana, Julana and Hansi. Jhajjar was his capital. For winning these Haryana territories, Maharaja Suraj Mal sent big contingents to aid his son. Though Jawahar Singh was revengeful like his grandfather Raja Badan Singh, he always felt grateful towards his father. That is why he himself went to the battlefield against Ahmed Shah Abdali, leaving his father in the capital. Similarly, he himself advanced to Delhi for looting the walled city. His love for his father is evident from the fact that he avenged the murder of his father, whereas all his other four brothers —Nahar Singh, Nawal Singh, Rattan Singh and Ranjit Singh — were busy plotting ways to take over their father’s great kingdom. Jawahar Singh’s mother Maharani Kishori had decided to take a holy dip in the sacred lake at Pushkar, ever since he had adopted Kehri Singh as his son and heir apparent. Kehri Singh was the son of Jawahar Singh’s brother Rattan Singh. But till then only Rajputs were allowed to take a holy dip at Pushkar. Respecting his mother’s wish, Jawahar Singh challenged all Rajput rulers of Rajasthan. He defeated them and fulfilled his mother’s wish of taking bath at the Pushkar lake. But this brave Jat king never forgave Balram and Nahar Singh, who always remained after his blood.

But the question that has baffled many is that why Suraj Mal did not allow Jawahar Singh to marry Ganna, when the two were deeply in love. Moreover, Suraj Mal himself had been married four times and Badan Singh’s harem was no less than that of the Mughal emperors. A simple love affair should not have become such a serious issue forcing both son and father to come to the battlefield. This love story of 18th century still remains a mystery and a chapter for historians to explore further.