In accordance with the above covenant, Islam Khan confirmed Raja Pratapaditya in all his possessions and granted to him the revenue of the districts of Sripur and Bikrampur in lieu of his allowance’ (ibid.: 28-29). Again, another set of gifts were bestowed upon the Raja which included ‘a khilat, a sword, a bejeweled sword belt, a bejeweled camphor-stand, five high bred Iraqi and Turkish horses, one male elephant, two female elephants, and an imperial kettle drum’ (ibid.).
But the Raja did not keep his words. He sent no help to the Mughals in their war against Musa Khan and proved to be a disloyal and disobedient vassal. After defeating Musa Khan the Mughals now determined to punish Pratapaditya. Pratapaditya, in order to pacify the Mughals …show more content…
This fort was captured by the Mughal commanders Mirza Nathan and Ghiyas Khan after a pitch battle. The Raja ‘with a dejected heart and weeping eyes fell back to Jessore and joined Udayaditya’ (ibid. 136). His commander Jamal Khan betrayed him and joined the Mughals. Pratapaditya, now, decided to surrender after discussing with his son Udayaditya. The Mughals gave him a horse and a khilat and subsequently it was decided that after leaving his officers with Udayaditya at Jessore, Pratapaditya himself would go to Jahangirnagar with Ghiyas Khan.
We do not have detail information regarding Pratapaditya’s last days. According to some legends, he breathed his last in Varanasi on his way to the Delhi court; or he was pardoned by the Mughals owing to the intercession of Ibrahim Khan Fathjang (Sarkar ed. 1973: 269).
The serious resistance to the Mughal imperialistic policies came from the Afghan zamindars of the Bhati region- Musa Khan and Usman Khan of Bokainagar were the most famous among …show more content…
But as the ‘dry light’ of history shows, he was neither a defender of ‘Bengal’s independence’, nor a hero, a ‘super personality whose bravery is worthy of our admiration’ (Chaudhurani [1879 Saka] 2010: 177). Pratapaditya was projected as the hero, I speculate, because he suits best the design of forming a Hindu Aryan identity in which a Hindu hero was projected as fighting to resist the invasion of a ‘foreign’ army. Certainly Bengalis do not have any Subhas Chandra Bose in the early years of 20th century and even the most orthodox of Bengali nationalists’ would hesitate to acknowledge Lakshmansena, the last Sena ruler of Bengal as a hero who fled away at the first sight of Bakhtiyar Khalji’s army in his capital. However, there are some instances to project Siraz-ud-Daulah as a tragic hero by some Bengali intellectuals such as Nabin Chandra Sen. But; in general, Siraj was depicted as an atrocious nawab guilty of torturing Hindus in history and literature as well. And certainly there was no Bengali national consciousness in the 16th century for which Pratapaditya would have fight. At the end of the ‘Muslim period’ there was a Bengali speaking people but the psychological set up which imagined a national community was still absent. It was only imagined in the late 19th century. Even then it was not precisely imagined- the Bengali nation was overlapped by the larger
But the Raja did not keep his words. He sent no help to the Mughals in their war against Musa Khan and proved to be a disloyal and disobedient vassal. After defeating Musa Khan the Mughals now determined to punish Pratapaditya. Pratapaditya, in order to pacify the Mughals …show more content…
This fort was captured by the Mughal commanders Mirza Nathan and Ghiyas Khan after a pitch battle. The Raja ‘with a dejected heart and weeping eyes fell back to Jessore and joined Udayaditya’ (ibid. 136). His commander Jamal Khan betrayed him and joined the Mughals. Pratapaditya, now, decided to surrender after discussing with his son Udayaditya. The Mughals gave him a horse and a khilat and subsequently it was decided that after leaving his officers with Udayaditya at Jessore, Pratapaditya himself would go to Jahangirnagar with Ghiyas Khan.
We do not have detail information regarding Pratapaditya’s last days. According to some legends, he breathed his last in Varanasi on his way to the Delhi court; or he was pardoned by the Mughals owing to the intercession of Ibrahim Khan Fathjang (Sarkar ed. 1973: 269).
The serious resistance to the Mughal imperialistic policies came from the Afghan zamindars of the Bhati region- Musa Khan and Usman Khan of Bokainagar were the most famous among …show more content…
But as the ‘dry light’ of history shows, he was neither a defender of ‘Bengal’s independence’, nor a hero, a ‘super personality whose bravery is worthy of our admiration’ (Chaudhurani [1879 Saka] 2010: 177). Pratapaditya was projected as the hero, I speculate, because he suits best the design of forming a Hindu Aryan identity in which a Hindu hero was projected as fighting to resist the invasion of a ‘foreign’ army. Certainly Bengalis do not have any Subhas Chandra Bose in the early years of 20th century and even the most orthodox of Bengali nationalists’ would hesitate to acknowledge Lakshmansena, the last Sena ruler of Bengal as a hero who fled away at the first sight of Bakhtiyar Khalji’s army in his capital. However, there are some instances to project Siraz-ud-Daulah as a tragic hero by some Bengali intellectuals such as Nabin Chandra Sen. But; in general, Siraj was depicted as an atrocious nawab guilty of torturing Hindus in history and literature as well. And certainly there was no Bengali national consciousness in the 16th century for which Pratapaditya would have fight. At the end of the ‘Muslim period’ there was a Bengali speaking people but the psychological set up which imagined a national community was still absent. It was only imagined in the late 19th century. Even then it was not precisely imagined- the Bengali nation was overlapped by the larger