>Justlettersandnumbers at 18:55, 8 May 2021

2021-05-08T18:55:45Z

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{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2016}}
{{Use Indian English|date=January 2016}}
{{about|the war horse}}
{{Infobox animal
| name = Chetak
| image = Statue of Maharana Pratap of Mewar, commemorating the Battle of Haldighati, City Palace, Udaipur.jpg
| alt = Chetak
| caption = [[Maharana Pratap]] on Chetak, commemorative statue in [[Moti Magri Park]], [[Udaipur]]
| species = horse
| breed = unknown
| gender = male
| death_date = 1576
| death_place = [[Rajsamand]], [[Rajasthan]]
| nationality = [[Udaipur State|Mewari]]
| owner = [[Maharana Pratap]]
| role =
}}

'''Chetak''' or '''Cetak''' is the name given in traditional literature to the horse ridden by [[Maharana Pratap]] at the [[Battle of Haldighati]], fought on 18 June 1576 at [[Haldighati]], in the [[Aravalli Mountains]] of [[Rajasthan]], in western India. {{r|liz|page=45}}

== The story ==
[[File:Chokha, Battle of Haldighati, painted 1822, detail.jpg|thumb| Detail from ''[[Battle of Haldighati]]'' by [[Chokha (painter)|Chokha]] of [[Deogarh, Rajasthan|Devgarh]], 1822, showing the attack by Pratap, mounted on Chetak, on the leader of the [[Mughal Empire|Mughal]] forces, [[Man Singh I|Man Singh]] of [[Amer, India|Amber]], who is in a [[howdah]] on an elephant]]
Historical sources do not name the horse ridden by [[Maharana Pratap]] at the [[Battle of Haldighati]] on 18 June 1576, nor do they attribute any unusual feat or achievement to it.{{r|liz|page=45}}

According to tradition, the horse was called Chetak. Although wounded, he carried Pratap safely away from the battle, but then died of his wounds. The story is recounted in court poems of [[Udaipur State|Mewar]] from the seventeenth century onwards. The horse is first named Cetak in an eighteenth-century ballad, ''Khummana-Raso''.{{r|liz|page=45}} The story was published in 1829 by Lieutenant-Colonel [[James Tod]], a [[British Raj|colonial]] officer who had been [[Political officer (British Empire)|political officer]] to the Mewari court, in the first volume of his ''Annals and Antiquities of Rajast'han or the Central and Western Rajpoot States of India''.{{r|liz|page=46|tod|page2=339}} His account was based on the ''Khummana-Raso'', and became the most commonly followed version of the tale.{{r|liz|page=45}} In it, the horse is named Chytuc, and is once referred to as the "blue horse". Pratap is at one point called the "rider of the blue horse".{{r|tod|page=339}}

The story spread beyond [[Rajasthan]], to [[Bengal]] and elsewhere. There, Pratap was seen as a symbol of resistance against invasion and, by extension, of [[nationalist]] resistance to British colonial occupation.{{r|liz|page=47}}

== Commemoration ==
[[File:Chetak Samadhi.jpg|thumb|The [[Chetak Smarak]] at [[Haldighati]]]]
There are several statues and monuments to Pratap and Chetak. An [[equestrian statue]] was placed in [[Moti Magri Park]] in [[Udaipur]] by [[Bhagwant Singh of Mewar]] (''[[r.|r]]''. 1955–1984);{{r|liz|page=47|ud}} another overlooks the city of [[Jodhpur]].{{r|liz|page=47}} The [[Chetak Smarak]] at Haldighati in [[Rajsamand District]] marks the spot where Chetak supposedly fell.{{r|asi}}

== References ==
{{reflist|refs=

<ref name=asi>[http://asijaipurcircle.nic.in/Balicha%20-%20Chetak%20Samadhi.html Chetak Samadhi]. Archaeological Survey of India, Jaipur Circle. Accessed April 2017.</ref>

<ref name=liz>Elizabeth Thelen (2006). [https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/bitstream/handle/1773/2588/Elizabeth%20Thelen.pdf ''Riding through Change: History, Horses and the Reconstruction of Tradition in Rajasthan''] (senior thesis). Seattle, Washington: University of Washington. Accessed April 2017.</ref>

<ref name=tod>James Tod (1829). [https://archive.org/stream/annalsantiquitie01todj_0#page/n394/mode/1up/search/blue+horse ''Annals and Antiquities of Rajast'han or the Central and Western Rajpoot States of India''], volume I of II. London: Smith, Elder.</ref>

<ref name=ud>[http://www.udaipur.org.uk/monuments/pratap-memorial.html Maharana Pratap Memorial]. Udaipur India. Accessed April 2017.</ref>

}}

[[Category:Individual warhorses]]
[[Category:History of Rajasthan]]
[[Category:Maharana Pratap]]
[[Category:Horses in India]]

Chetak - Revision history

>Justlettersandnumbers at 18:55, 8 May 2021