2409:4060:2E0A:2E6F:0:0:A74A:4500 at 17:05, 22 November 2021

2021-11-22T17:05:41Z

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'''Raja Anup Rai''' (Singh Dalan) was a [[Rajput]] nobleman of [[Bargujar]] ancestry in seventeenth century [[India]], and a courtier of the [[Mughal Empire|Mughal]] emperor, [[Jahangir]].{{cn|date=April 2017}} He was also known as ''Singh Dalan'' (''lion crusher'') for intercepting a lion that was on verge of attacking the emperor during a royal hunt.<ref name="ref15zugal">{{Citation | title=Art and culture: painting and perspective | author=Ahsan Jan Qaisar, Som Prakash Verma | publisher=Abhinav Publications, 2002 | isbn=978-81-7017-405-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B3twGf3di2IC | quote=''... Anup Rai ... turned towards the lion ... manfully faced him and struck him twice with both hands on the head ... Baba Khurram and Ram Das came up to the assistance ... struck him two or three times on the cheek with his fist ...'' }}</ref>

==The lion hunt==
The royal party went on a hunt on or around January 6, 1611.{{cn|date=April 2017}} Jahangir dismounted from his horse and fired his musket at a lion during the hunt, but only wounded the animal. The lion began to advance on Jahangir, but Rai confronted the animal instead, armed with nothing but a stick.<ref name="ref38vopur">{{Citation | title=Pioneers in IndiaPioneers of Empire | author=Harry Johnston | publisher=Asian Educational Services, 1993 | isbn=978-81-206-0843-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AfQUY9NzZfsC | quote=''... The lion, being wounded, rushed furiously at the emperor; but the nobleman, who was a Rajput (Hindu) named Anuprai, stepped in front of the emperor. The lion, however, would not meddle ...'' }}</ref> He "''manfully faced him and struck him twice with both hands on the head''."<ref name="ref15zugal"/> When the lion still made for the emperor, Anup Rai used his bare arms against the maw of the animal, which grabbed both of Anup Rai's arms in his mouth and dragged him down to his knees. The crown prince, [[Shah Jahan|Khurram]], and another member of the hunting party, Raja Ram Das, attacked the lion with swords. Prince Khurram struck at the lion's haunches and Raja Ram Das at the shoulder. Somehow Anup Rai managed to free his arms, which had been bitten through, and "''struck him two or three times on the cheek with his fist''."<ref name="ref15zugal"/>

Had Rai not intervened, the emperor would likely have been killed. Jahangir was grateful. Rai received thirty-two wounds, which the emperor bound himself, taking him in the emperor's own [[palanquin]]. He was made a captain of five-thousand horsemen.{{cn|date=April 2017}}

==Khusrau Mirza's captor==
In 1616, Jahangir asked Rai to keep Prince [[Khusrau Mirza]] (Jahangir's oldest son, whom Roe called ''Corsoronne'') under confinement. [[Sir Thomas Roe]], the first English ambassador in India, records that [[Abdul Hasan Asaf Khan|General Asaf Khan]] and Prince Eteman Daulat waited until Jahangir was drunk one night and tricked the inebriated emperor into agreeing to release Khusrau into the prince's hands. General Asif Khan immediately went to Rai with an armed guard and demanded Khusrau's delivery to him. The Raja refused, saying that "''he had receiued the Prince his brother from the handes of the king and to no other would deliver him (sic)''." The next morning, Rai went to the emperor, and "''the king replyed: you haue done honestly, faythfully''."Khusrau was left in Rai's custodianship for the immediate period.{{cn|date=April 2017}}

==Founder of Anupshahr==
The town of [[Anupshahr]] in [[Bulandshahr district]] of [[Uttar Pradesh]] state was founded by '''raja Anup singh badgujar'''.{{cn|date=April 2017}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

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[[Category:Year of birth missing]]
[[Category:Year of death missing]]
[[Category:17th-century Indian people]]
[[Category:Mughal nobility]]
[[Category:Medieval India]]

Anup Rai - Revision history

2409:4060:2E0A:2E6F:0:0:A74A:4500 at 17:05, 22 November 2021