The untold story of jaita and kumpa.
After driving out the Mughal from India Sher Shah Suri was running high with continuous victories. He wanted to be an undisputed Lord of whole of Indian subcontinent.
To achieve this Sher Shah very well knew that he have to bring Rajput kingdoms of North India to there knees and he also wanted to teach them a lesson for helping the young Mughal king Humayun.
He decided to attack the most formidable Rajput kingdom that was the kingdom of Marwar under the king Maldeo Rathore with it’s capital as jodhpur. He marched from Delhi with around 1 lakh soldier’s.
Among all the king’s of medival India Sher Shah Suri had developed the most strongest and effective spy network. They gave him 100% accurate news of his enemies strength and weakness. As per his spy network it was impossible for him to win a head on clash by directly attacking Maldeo’s capital Jodhpur.They also informed him about the rajput’s valor and way of fighting wars. With this information he learned that 30 to 40 thousand rajput army is enough to annihilate his army of 1 lakh and Maldeo Rathore maintained a ready to fight army of 60 thousand troops and 10 to 12 thousand semi trained civilians who can join whenever he needs them.
Sher Shah immediately ordered his army to halt near a place called Giri Sumel about 90 kms from Jodhpur. Hearing this Maldeo came out of jodhpur with 50 thousand strong force and stationed his army at the out skirts of Sumel. Both army did not attack each other as both sides were not sure of there winning possibilities.
One month passed like this and Sher Shah position became critical due to food scarcity as he had marched a long distance from delhi and his supply line was badly stretched. He had two option either to attack immediately which was not possible as Rajput army was well prepared for this or to retreat which would have severely hampered his Prestige.
Sher Shah was very cunning he started thinking other treacherous ways and ordered his spies to drop letter’s in name of Jaita and kumpa near Maldeo Rathore tent. In these letters he hand thanked Rajput general’s for theiy help and promised gold coin and regions that he would allot them after his victory.
Maldeo Rathore was decieved and he believed that the letters were true and at once ordered his general’s to retreat and himself retreated with his personal body guard. Knowing this Jaita and Kumpa were greatly hurt.In the afternoon they sat infront af a lake and began thinking about what would be their future step as their king had lost faith upon them.At that time they heard local women’s talking about the conflict and saying that they have nothing to worry as long as Rajput army is there at Sumel hearing this both of them decided to stay and confront Sher Shah army even if their king had retreated.By that afternoon 42 thousand of Rajput armymen had left the camp and retreated following Maldeo’s order,only 8 thousand men loyal to Jaita and Kumpa stayed back.
This new’s spread like a wild fire in Sher Shah camp and at night there was a joyfully and relax environment in his camp. Sher Shah and his men believed that they had won this battle. A confident Sher Shah called his general’s and said that a handful of bajra is there in the field go bring it to me.
By the next day morning Afghan army was ready to follow Sher Shah order and prepared for the battle.
Jaita and Kumpa with 8 thousand men waited for the enimies calmly. Sher Shah watched from a distance and ordered his army to attack.In the first wave of attack 20 thousand of Sher Shah men comprising of both cavlary and infantry attacked the small Rajput formation.
To his astonishment 8 thousand Rajput men under Jaita and Kumpa not only put up a strong resistance,but within hours they cut down almost the entire first wave. Seeing this Sher Shah ordered his top general’s to attack with the remaining 80 thousand forces.
But Jaita and Kumpa were determined to give a stiff fight they boosted their men moral by reminding them of their responsibility towards their land which was inhabitated by their ancestors. Rajput men stormed towards the incoming Afghan forces and inflicted heavy casualties upon them. They started pushing back the huge Sher Shah army and by afternoon end almost half of the Sher Shah army had perished and Sher Shah himself feared that he was going to loose this battle as he saw Jaita and Kumpa had started attacking his formation of personal guards.
He mounted his horse and was about to retreat when he got the news that his personal guards had killed exhausted Jaita and Kumpa. As the battle ended he went in to assess his losses and found that more than 50 thousand of his men and many of his top generals had been killed.
He appreciated the bravery of Jaita and Kumpa and said to his minister what a battle it was for a hand full of bajra I almost lost the entire kingdom Hindustan.
Gyan granth 