Meanwhile, Rana Pratap reached the dense forest inhabited by his loyal Bheel tribals. Bheels hid him in an inaccessible cave and arranged for his care and treatment. They spread out in the forests to keep track the activities of Mogul soldiers or spies.
Rana lay on his cave sick bed and pondered over the battle that had claimed 14,000 out of his 20,000 soldiers. It was a crippling blow. He had lost faithful comrades like Churavat, Ramdas and Mamaji. Mamaji had sacrificed his life to save him. And, there was his dear Chetak who gave up his life to see him safely out of the danger zone. Then, there was his brother—volatile, angry, childish, revengeful, repentent and God knows what. How shall he ever be able to evaluate Shakti Singh? What new faces Shakti would reveal in the coming years?
Rana Pratap tried to analyse the reasons of his defeat. The biggest reason was Rajputs were no match to Moguls in strength. Moguls were too many and they had too many guns. Rajput army was ill trained and ill equipped. Its resources were limited. Rajputs were not united and felt a sadistic pleasure in destroying one another. Rajputs were the power of Moguls. What a tragedy?
It was another Rajput Madho Singh Kachhava who had tried to spear him from the back in the Haldighati battle. Rajputs were killing Rajputs. But strategically the biggest weakness of Rajputs was lack of cannons. No war could be won without the backing of the cannons any more. The cannons had become the deciding factor. In Haldighati exchange Rajputs were doing good until the cannons intervened and blasted Rajputs turning the battle in Mogul favour.
Rana Pratap wished he too had some cannons.
Here it should be noted that Rajputs were very poor planners. They gave little attention to planning a battle and they used little intelligence or information gathering about the enemy. Had they given attention to this important aspect of the battle they would have already known the importance of cannons in the battle. It appears that Rajputs had no idea about the new devastating weaponry. Rajputs thought that only valour, charged emotions and patriotism mattered. The fact was that emotions could not match the fire power of cannons. And Rajputs were so emotional creatures that they failed to learn any lesson which required a cool mind.
So, they committed same strategic mistake again and again.
As Rana Pratap recuperated in the caves of Bheel area Moguls fretted at their failure to net the enemy. Emperor Akbar was very worried. The victory and the gain of Kumbhalgarh fort gave him little pleasure. Man Singh particularly was sheepish.
Prince Saleem was embarrassed.
Mogul court got the news that inspite of defeat and the loss of 14000 soldiers Rajputs were not demoralised. They were infact upbeat that their hero Rana Pratap had escaped and they were anxious to regroup under his leadership. Pratap’s stock had infact gone up in the public esteem. For them Pratap was no more Rana but Maharana Pratap.
It was also learnt that Rajputs had plans to procure cannons for the next round. It was no good news for Moguls.
Akbar at once set out for Ajmer on a pilgrimage ostensibly. His real purpose was to organise his forces against the revival of Rana Pratap. From Ajmer Akbar reached Mohi on 11th October, 1576 where he appointed Gazi Khan Badakshi as garrison commander to head a force of 3000 soldiers stationed there. He was to be assisted by Sharif Atka Mujahid Khan and Shuban Ali Turk.
From Mohi, Akabr reached Gogunda. That post was given in the charge of Raja Bhagwandas and Kutubuddin Mohammad Khan. Shah Fakruddin and Jagannath Kachhava were given the command of Udaipur.
In this way Akbar took entire Mewar under his effective control. Now only a few hilly areas and forests remained out of his reach due to inaccessibility. That was where Maharana had taken refuge.
The fear of Maharana kept haunting the minds of Mogul soldiers. They had seen his dare devilry in Haldighati Battle. As long as Akbar stayed in the area the Mogul soldiers remained in battle stations. But as soon as Akbar withdrew they started breaking down.
Maharana Pratap’s soldiers began probing attack on the Mogul units. Several areas were cleared of the enemy. The news did not unduly worry Akbar. He expected it to happen. He was well aware of the dare devilry of Pratap and his soldiers and knew that Mogul soldiers could not hold all the grounds. He only wanted to keep Pratap under pressure and on the run to prevent him from setting down which could enable him to moblise new armies.
Mogul soldiers and spies were combing the forests in search of Maharana. Because killing him or capturing him could earn them a big prize, may be a small state. They knew that the venture was dangerous but the prize was too attractive to be ignored. They were risking their lives.
It was apparent that Maharana was some where in those hills or forests. Bheels were keeping a twenty four hour watch for such groups because they posed a big danger to Maharana. Bheels were able to eliminate many such groups. It was happening in the jungles of Bittoor.
Maharana had sent for his family to live with him. To escape from the Mogul sniffers Maharana had stopped living at one place. He was always on the move with his family eating wild berries or edible roots. The tribal Bheels were themselves extremely poor people. They also lived on wild berries, nuts, fruits and roots. The tribal women sometimes baked rotis made of a kind of seedy wild grass ground into thick paste. Most of the tribals had never even seen cereals like rice or wheat.
So, Maharana family had to learn to live like tribals. It was an extremely tough life.
Bheels were loyal to Maharana and they could only offer their loyalty. They had no money or material to offer. Many a time Mogul spies were able to come dangerously close to Maharana. Then, to save Maharana Bheels had laid down their lives. During Maharana’s exile into the forests hundred of Bheels sacrificed their lives to save Maharana.
It pained Maharana because he was causing the deaths of so many loyal Bheels.
Maharana, his wife and the children were most of the time on the run. Wild fruits were not always available. Many a time the family went hungry. Maharana’s heart wept at the state of his family. The queen and her children were now reduced to skeletons. Their eyes had sunk into deep holes. Sometimes they looked scary figures.
Once in on such run Maharana and his family took shelter in a cave. They had not eaten anything for days. The children were crying for something to eat. The queen desperately scouted the area around the cave. There were no berries, nuts or edible roots fit for eating. She then saw the grass she had seen tribal women baking rotis of. The queen decided to give it a try. She collected the grass, ground it between two flat pieces of stone. She baked a few rotis on the stone tawa (hot plate).
Just as she was preparing to serve the rotis to her children a wild cat jumped in and ran away with the grass cakes (rotis). May be, that grass was favourite food of cats when cooked because it smelled like a kind of river fish.
The children screamed in anguish. The queen started crying at the tragedy.
Maharana watched the scene in horror. His conscience asked “Is this the honour you are trying to defend? What honour and pride! Even a wild cat is mightier than you, Rana.” Maharana had reached the break limit. Now everything looked so meaningless. Could his children eat Rajput honour and pride? Why should he alone suffer for it? A stage had come where others were looking at him as a foolhardy Joker.
In the meantime when Maharana went through all those troubles Rajputs had further degenerated. Most of the remaining Rajput rulers had accepted the domination of the Mogul empire and become its faithful soldiers. There were many who were planning to nab or destroy Rana Pratap to rise in the esteem of the Mogul Emperor. Maharana himself had become very weak. His mental resistance power was getting eroded.
He was getting the news that the people of Mewar were behind him and they wanted to help him. But as he was on the run how could he contact his people or sources of support. The misery of his wife and the children so broke his heart that he drafted a peace treaty and sent it to Akbar through a confidant.
