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{{for|city in [[Somalia]]|Jowhar}}
{{Short description|Self-immolation of Queens in war}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}}
{{Use Indian English|date=April 2017}}
[[File:The Rajput ceremony of Jauhar (holocaust), 1567.jpg|thumb|The Rajput ceremony of Jauhar, 1567, as depicted by Ambrose Dudley in ''Hutchinsons History of the Nations'', c.1910]]
'''Jauhar''', sometimes spelled '''Jowhar''' or '''Juhar''',<ref name=battin285>{{cite book|author=Margaret Pabst Battin|title=The Ethics of Suicide: Historical Sources|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OJJZCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA285|year=2015|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-513599-2|page=285}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| author=Richard Maxwell Eaton| title=The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204-1760 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=gKhChF3yAOUC&pg=PA166 |year=1996| publisher=University of California Press| isbn=978-0-520-20507-9|page=166}}</ref> was a [[Hindus|Hindu]] practice of mass [[self-immolation]] by women, <ref>Eaton, R.M., (2019), ''India in the Persiante Age 1000-1765'', p219. Great Britain: Allen Lane</ref> in the [[Indian subcontinent]], to avoid capture, enslavement<ref>{{cite journal |last=Levi |first=Scott C. |date=November 2002 |title=Hindus Beyond the Hindu Kush: Indians in the Central Asian Slave Trade |journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=277–288 |doi=10.1017/S1356186302000329 |jstor=25188289|s2cid=155047611 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/3960723 }}</ref> and rape by an invading army,<ref>{{cite book | last=Jayawardena | first=K. | last2=de Alwis | first2=M. | title=Embodied Violence: Communalising Female Sexuality in South Asia | publisher=Bloomsbury Academic | series=ACLS Humanities E-Book | year=1996 | isbn=978-1-85649-448-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i2AObmt7Z8wC&pg=PA120 | page=120}}</ref> when facing certain defeat during a war.<ref>{{cite book|author=John Stratton Hawley|title=Sati, the Blessing and the Curse: The Burning of Wives in India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w_VbHItKQjYC|year=1994|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-536022-6|page=189}}</ref><ref name=harlan160/><ref>Arvind Sharma (1988), Sati: Historical and Phenomenological Essays, Motilal Banarsidass Publ, {{ISBN|9788120804647}}, page xi, 86</ref> Some reports of ''jauhar'' mention women committing self-immolation along with their children.<ref>{{cite book|author=Margaret Pabst Battin|title=The Ethics of Suicide: Historical Sources|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|page=285|quote="Jauhar specifically refers to the self-immolation of the women and children in anticipation of capture and abuse."}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Mary Storm|title=Head and Heart: Valour and Self-Sacrifice in the Art of India|publisher=[[Routledge]]|quote="The women would build a great bonfire, and in their wedding finery, with their children and with all their valuables, they would immolate themselves en masse."}}</ref> This practice was historically observed in northwest regions of India, with most famous jauhars in recorded history occurring during wars between Hindu [[Rajput]] kingdoms in [[Rajasthan]] and the opposing Muslim armies.<ref>Pratibha Jain, Saṅgītā Śarmā, Honour, status & polity</ref><ref>Mandakranta Bose (2014), Faces of the Feminine in Ancient, Medieval, and Modern India, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0195352771}}, page 26</ref><ref name=maliseruthven>Malise Ruthven (2007), Fundamentalism: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0199212705}}, page 63;<br>John Stratton Hawley (1994), Sati, the Blessing and the Curse, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0195077742}}, page 165-166</ref><ref name=harlan160>{{cite book|author=Lindsey Harlan|title=Religion and Rajput Women: The Ethic of Protection in Contemporary Narratives |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7HLrPYOe38gC&pg=PA160 |year=1992|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-07339-5|pages=160 footnote 8}}, Quote: "In this she resembles the sati who dies in jauhar. The jauhar sati dies before and while her husband fights what appears to be an unwinnable battle. By dying, she frees him from worry about her welfare and saves herself from the possible rape by triumphant enemy forces."</ref> However jauhar is performed during war, usually when there was no chance of victory. The practice was accompanied by saka, or a [[last stand]] in battle.

The term ''jauhar'' often connotes both ''jauhar''-immolation and ''saka'' ritual. During Jauhar, Hindu women committed suicide with their children and valuables in a massive fire, to avoid capture and abuse in the face of inescapable military defeat.<ref name=harlan160/><ref name=claude58/> Simultaneously or thereafter, the men would ritually march to the battlefield expecting certain death, which in the regional tradition is called ''saka''.<ref name=battin285/> This practice was intended to show that their honour was valued more highly than their lives.

''Jauhar'' by Hindu kingdoms has been documented by Muslim historians of the [[Delhi Sultanate]], and the [[Mughal Empire]].<ref name=claude58>{{cite book|author=Claude Markovits|title=A History of Modern India, 1480-1950|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r2OKvG5wbaAC |year=2004|publisher=Anthem Press|isbn=978-1-84331-152-2|pages=57–58}}</ref>{{sfn|Dirk H. A. Kolff|2002|pp=87, 100–101, 109}}<ref name="Storm2015p311">{{cite book|author=Mary Storm|title=Head and Heart: Valour and Self-Sacrifice in the Art of India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0sJcCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT311 |year=2015|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-317-32556-7|page=311}}</ref> Among the oft cited example of ''jauhar'' has been the mass suicide committed in 1303 CE by the women of [[Chittor Fort|Chittorgarh]] fort in Rajasthan, faced with muslim invaders of [[Khalji dynasty]] of the [[Delhi Sultanate]].<ref>{{cite book|author1=Clifton D. Bryant|author2=Dennis L. Peck|title=Encyclopedia of Death and the Human Experience|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Zt2AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA696|year=2009|publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=978-1-4522-6616-9|page=696}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Gavin Thomas|title=Rajasthan|year=2010|publisher=Penguin|isbn=978-1-4053-8688-3|pages=341–343}}</ref> The ''jauhar'' phenomenon was also observed in other parts of India, such as in the [[Kampili kingdom]] of northern [[Karnataka]] when it fell in 1327 to Delhi Sultanate armies.<ref name="Storm2015p311"/>

There is an annual celebration of heroism called the Jauhar Mela in Chittorgarh where the ancestors are commemorated.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Nijjar|first=Bakhshish Singh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xQM9voN21ekC&q=jauhar+history&pg=PA306|title=Origins and History of Jats and Other Allied Nomadic Tribes of India: 900 B.C.-1947 A.D.|date=2008|publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Dist|isbn=978-81-269-0908-7|language=en}}</ref>

==Etymology==
The word ''jauhar'' is connected to Sanskrit ''jatugr̥ha'' "house plastered with lac and other combustible materials for burning people alive in".<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://dsalsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.1:1:1287.soas | title=A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages}}</ref> It has also been wrongly interpreted to have been derived from the [[Persian language|Persian]] ''gōhar'', which refers to "gem, worth, virtue". This confusion, Hawley states, rose from the fact that ''jivhar'' and ''jauhar'' were written in the same manner with the same letter used to denote ''v'' and ''u''. Thus its meaning also came to wrongly denote the meaning of jauhar.<ref name="chivalric">{{Cite book |author=John Stratton Hawley |title= Sati, the and the Curse|year= 1994|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0195077742|page= 164|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G3Q8DwAAQBAJ&q=jivhar&pg=PA164}}</ref>

== Practice ==
The practice of Jauhar is claimed as being culturally not very related to ''[[Sati (practice)|Sati]]'', with both a form of suicide by women through self-immolation. However, the two are only superficially similar because the underlying reason for both were significantly different. Sati was the custom of a widow to commit suicide by sitting on her husband's funeral pyre.<ref name="ReferenceA">Veena Oldenburg, A Comment to Ashis Nandy's "Sati as Profit versus Sati as Spectacle: The Public Debate on Roop Kanwar's Death," in Hawley, Sati the Blessing and the Curse: The Burning of Wives in India, page 165</ref> Jauhar was collective self-immolation by women in order to escape capture and forcing into slavery by invaders,<ref>Mandakranta Bose (2014), [https://books.google.com/books?id=lNOUSo6Eb-oC&pg=PA26 Faces of the Feminine in Ancient, Medieval, and Modern India], Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0195352771}}, page 26</ref> when defeat was imminent. Self-immolation was preferred over simple suicide because that would negate the possibility of any defilement of their dead bodies which their husbands, children and/or clansmen might have to watch. Such defilement of the body of the defeated is something that has been a historical tendency in which the savagery prevailing in war results in foregoing of all type of dignified conduct on or off the battlefield, especially by foot-soldiers.{{Citation needed|date=October 2021}}

Kaushik Roy states that the ''jauhar'' was observed only during Hindu-Muslim wars, but not during internecine Hindu-Hindu wars among the Rajputs.<ref name=KaushikRoy182>Kaushik Roy (2012), Hinduism and the Ethics of Warfare in South Asia: From Antiquity to the Present, Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|978-1107017368}}, pages 182-184</ref> John Hawley however disagrees with this assertion. He links it to the [[Greek conquests in India|Greek conquerors]] who also captured Indian women, arguing that it might have started the spread of jauhar.<ref name="Hawley">{{Cite book |author=John Stratton Hawley |title= Sati, the Blessing and the Curse|date= 8 September 1994|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0195077742|pages= 165–166|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w_VbHItKQjYC&q=sati+greek&pg=PA166}}</ref> [[Veena Talwar Oldenburg]] disagrees as well, saying that "internecine warfare among the Rajput kingdoms almost certainly supplied the first occasions for jauhar, well before the Muslim invasions with which the practice is popularly associated" and that "the geopolitics of the northwest, whence a succession of invaders entered the subcontinent, made of Rajasthan a continual war zone, and its socially most respected community was therefore not the Brahmins but the kshatriya or Rajput castes, who controlled and defended the land. This history predates the coming of the Muslims by more than a millennium. Commemorative stones unearthed and dated in Rajasthan and Vijayanagara mark the deaths of both sexes. Their dates, which can be reliably determined, match perfectly the times and zones of war."<ref>Veena Talwar Oldenburg, "Comment: The Continuing Invention of the Sati Tradition" in John Stratton Hawley (ed.), ''Sati, the Blessing and the Curse: The Burning of Wives in India'', Oxford University Press (1994), p. 165</ref>

For obvious reasons, the phenomenon of ''jauhar'' has been reported by Hindus and Muslims differently. In the Hindu traditions, ''jauhar'' was a heroic act by women of a community facing certain defeat and abuse by the enemy.<ref name=harlan160/><ref>{{cite book|author1=Lindsey Harlan|author2=Paul B. Courtright|title=From the Margins of Hindu Marriage: Essays on Gender, Religion, and Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pi7xAWStawYC |year=1995|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-508117-6|pages=209–210}}</ref> For Muslim historians Jauhar was an act forced upon their women.<ref name=battin285/> [[Amir Khusrau]] the poetic scholar described it, states Arvind Sharma – a professor of Comparative Religion, as "no doubt magical and superstitious; nevertheless they are heroic".<ref>{{cite book|author=Arvind Sharma|title=Sati: Historical and Phenomenological Essays |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UJmWgz2mv5oC&pg=PA21 |year=1988|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0464-7|pages=21–22}}</ref>

== Occurrence ==
Among the more cited cases of Jauhar are the three occurrences at the fort of [[Chittaur]] (Chittaurgarh, Chittorgarh), in Rajasthan, in [[Siege of Chittorgarh (1303)|1303]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Main Battles |url=http://chittorgarh.nic.in/battles.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120206083524/http://chittorgarh.nic.in/battles.htm |archive-date=2012-02-06 }}</ref> [[Siege of Chittorgarh (1535)|1535]], and [[Siege of Chittorgarh (1567-1568)|1568 CE]].{{sfn|Dirk H. A. Kolff|2002|p=109}} [[Jaisalmer]] has witnessed two occurrences of Jauhar, one in the year 1299 CE during the reign of the [[Alauddin Khalji]], and another during the reign of the [[Tughlaq dynasty]] in 1326.<ref>{{cite book|author=Mary Storm|title=Head and Heart: Valour and Self-Sacrifice in the Art of India |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=0sJcCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT311 |year=2015 |publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-317-32556-7|page=142}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Hans-Joachim Aubert|title=DuMont Reise-Handbuch Reiseführer Indien, Der Norden: mit Extra-Reisekarte |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=B82mBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA307 |year=2014| publisher=Dumont Reiseverlag|language=de|isbn=978-3-7701-7763-9|page=307}}</ref> Jauhar and Saka were considered heroic acts and the practice was glorified in the local ballads and folklore of [[Rajasthan]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Andrea Major|title=Sovereignty and Social Reform in India: British Colonialism and the Campaign Against Sati, 1830-1860|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cnleBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA34 |year=2010|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-90115-7|page=34}}</ref>

=== Jauhar-like suicide of the Agalassoi and Malli: Alexander the Great ===
The mass self-immolation by the [[Agalassoi]] tribe of northwest India is mentioned in Book 6 of ''[[The Anabasis of Alexander]]'', [[Arrian]]'s 2nd-century CE military history of [[Alexander the Great]] between 336 and 323 BCE. Arrian mentions Alexander's army conquering and enslaving peoples of the northwest [[Indian subcontinent]]. During a war that killed many in the Macedonian and Agalossoi armies, the civilians despaired of defeat. Some 20,000 men, women and children of an Agalossoi town set fire to the town and cast themselves into the flames.<ref>{{cite book|author=Vincent Arthur Smith|title=The Early History of India from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest: Including the Invasion of Alexander the Great|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.505103|year=1914|publisher=Clarendon Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.505103/page/n103 93]–94 with footnotes}}</ref><ref>[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Anabasis_of_Alexander/Book_VI The Anabasis of Alexander/Book VI] by Arrian, translated by E. J. Chinnock, Wikisource</ref>

The [[Mallian Campaign|Malli tribe]] also performed a similar act, which Pierre Herman Leonard Eggermont calls jauhar. Arrian states that they started burning their houses with themselves in it though any Indian captured in them was slaughtered by the Greeks.<ref>{{cite book|author=Pierre Herman Leonard Eggermont|title=Alexander's Campaigns in Sind and Baluchistan and the Siege of the Brahmin Town of Harmatelia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nG0_xoDS3hUC&q=malli+jauhar&pg=PA20|year=1914|publisher=Clarendon Press|pages=20 with footnotes|isbn=9789061860372}}</ref>

=== Jauhar of Sindh: Muhammad bin Qasim ===
In 712, Muhammed bin Qasim with his army attacked kingdoms of western regions of the Indian subcontinent. He laid siege to the capital of [[Raja Dahir]], then the Hindu king in a part of [[History of Sindh|Sind]]. After Dahir had been killed, the queen (Ladi) coordinated the defense of the capital for several months. As the food supplies ran out, she and the women of the capital refused to surrender, lit pyres and committed ''jauhar''. The remaining men walked out to their deaths at the hands of the invading army.<ref>{{cite book|author=Partha Chatterjee|title=Empire and Nation: Selected Essays|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4zwyTMnl8J4C |year=2010|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-52650-0|pages=84–85}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Derryl N. MacLean|title=Religion and Society in Arab Sind|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xxAVAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA13|year=1989|publisher=BRILL Academic|isbn=978-90-04-08551-0|pages=13–14 with footnote 43}}</ref>

=== Jauhar of Gwalior: Iltutmish ===
[[Iltutmish|Shams ud-Din Iltutmish]] of the [[Delhi Sultanate]] attacked Gwalior in 1232, then under control of the Rajputs. The Rajput women committed jauhar instead of submitting to Iltutmish's army. The place where the women committed mass suicide is known as Jauhar-tal (or Johar kund, Jauhar Tank) in the northern end of the Gwalior fort.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Trudy Ring|author2=Noelle Watson|author3=Paul Schellinger|title=Asia and Oceania: International Dictionary of Historic Places|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=voerPYsAB5wC&pg=PA312|year=2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-63979-1|page=312}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Robert W. Bradnock|title=South Asian Handbook|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=le8uAQAAIAAJ|year=1994|publisher=Trade Publishers|page=297|isbn=9780844299808}}</ref><ref>For an image of the site, see [http://www.archaeology.mp.gov.in/cms/fileman/Uploads/Monuments/Gwalior%20Zone/GWALIOR.pdf Jauhar Kund, Gwalior Fort], Archaeology Dept, Government of Madhya Pradesh, page 2</ref>

=== Jauhar of Ranthambore: Alauddin Khalji ===
[[File:Sultan Alau'd Din put to Flight.jpeg|thumb|''Sultan Alau'd Din put to Flight; Women of Ranthambhor commit Jauhar''. Indian, Pahari style painting from c. 1825]]

In 1301, [[Alauddin Khalji]] of [[Delhi Sultanate]] besieged and [[Alauddin Khalji's conquest of Ranthambore|conquered the Ranthambore fort]]. When faced with a certain defeat, the defending ruler [[Hammiradeva]] decided to fight to death with his soldiers, and his minister Jaja supervised the organization of a ''jauhar''. The queens, daughters and other female relatives of Hammiradeva committed suicide in this jauhar.{{sfn|Dasharatha Sharma|1959|pp=118-119}} The ''jauhar'' at Ranthambore has been described by Alauddin's courtier [[Amir Khusrau]],{{sfn|Banarsi Prasad Saksena|1992|p=368}} which makes it the first ''jauhar'' to be described in a [[Persian language]] text.{{sfn|Satish Chandra|2007|p=97}}

=== First Jauhar of Chittor: Alauddin Khalji ===
According to many scholars, the first jauhar of Chittorgarh occurred during the [[Siege of Chittorgarh (1303)|1303 siege]] of the Chittor fort.<ref name="Thomas1999p122"/><ref name="Paul2005p48">{{cite book|author=E. J. Paul|title=Arms and Armour: Traditional Weapons of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IOzp2aC8ezAC&pg=PA48|year=2005|publisher=Roli Books |isbn=978-81-7436-340-4|pages=48–49}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=James G. Lochtefeld|title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: A-M|url=https://archive.org/details/illustratedencyc0000loch|url-access=registration|year=2002|publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-8239-3179-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/illustratedencyc0000loch/page/n390 318]}}; '''Quote:''' "It is particularly associated with the Rajasthani city of Chittorgarh, where jauhars occurred in 1303, 1535 and 1568";<br>{{cite book|author=Mary Storm|title=Head and Heart: Valour and Self-Sacrifice in the Art of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=98JcCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA141| year=2015|publisher= Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-32557-4|pages=141–142}}</ref> This ''jauhar'' became a subject of legendary Rajasthani poems, with [[Rani Padmini]] the main character, wherein she and other Rajput women commit ''jauhar'' to avoid being captured by [[Alauddin Khalji]] of Delhi Sultanate.<ref name="Thomas1999p122">{{cite book|author=Catherine Weinberger-Thomas|title=Ashes of Immortality: Widow-Burning in India|url= https://archive.org/details/ashesofimmortali0000wein |url-access=registration|year=1999|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-88568-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/ashesofimmortali0000wein/page/122 122]}}</ref> The historicity of the first jauhar of Chittor is based on Rajasthani traditional belief as well as Islamic [[Sufi literature]] such as [[Padmavat]] by [[Malik Muhammad Jayasi]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Catherine Weinberger-Thomas|title=Ashes of Immortality: Widow-Burning in India|url=https://archive.org/details/ashesofimmortali0000wein |url-access=registration|year=1999|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-88568-1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/ashesofimmortali0000wein/page/121 121]–123}}</ref>

===Jauhar of Kampili: Muhammad bin Tughluq===
The Hindu women of the [[Kampili kingdom]] of northern [[Karnataka]] committed ''jauhar'' when it fell in 1327 to Delhi Sultanate armies of Muhammad bin Tughluq.<ref name="Storm2015p311"/>

=== Jauhar of Chanderi: Babur ===
[[File:The Burning of the Rajput women, during the siege of Chitor.jpg|thumb|The self-immolation (''jauhar'') of the Hindu women, during the [[Siege of Chittorgarh (1567–1568)|Siege of Chittorgarh]] in 1568]]
The Hindu Rajput king [[Medini Rai]] ruled over [[Chanderi]] in northern [[Madhya Pradesh]] in early 16th century. He tried to help [[Rana Sanga]] in the [[Battle of Khanua]] against the Muslim armies of [[Babur]], the founder of the [[Mughal Empire]]. In January 1528 CE, his fort was overwhelmed by the invading forces of [[Babur]]. The women and children of the Chanderi fort committed ''jauhar'', the men dressed up in saffron garments and walked the ritual of ''saka'' on 29 January.<ref>{{cite book|author=Sunil Kumar Sarker|title=Himu, the Hindu "Hero" of Medieval India: Against the Background of Afghan-Mughal Conflicts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H8GH0MBWfcoC&pg=PA83|year=1994|publisher=Atlantic Publishers |isbn=978-81-7156-483-5|page=83}}</ref>

=== Second Jauhar of Chittor: Bahadur Shah ===
[[Rana Sanga]] died in 1528 CE after the [[Battle of Khanwa]]. Shortly afterwards, Mewar and [[Chittor]] came under the regency of his widow, [[Rani Karnavati]]. The kingdom was besieged by [[Bahadur Shah of Gujarat]]. Rani committed Jauhar with other women on 8 March 1535, while the Rajput army rallied out to meet the besieging Muslim army and committed saka.<ref>R.K. Gupta, S.R. Bakshi, Studies In Indian History: Rajasthan Through The Ages The Heritage Of ..., page 124</ref>

As Chittorgarh faced an imminent attack from the Sultan of Gujarat, Karnavati sought the assistance of the Mughal emperor [[Humayun]] to whom she had once offered a ''[[Raksha Bandhan|rakhi]]''. Bahadur Shah sacked the fort for the second time. Rani Karnavati with 13,000 women shut themselves with gunpowder, lit it and thus committed mass suicide.<ref>{{cite book|author=Everett Jenkins, Jr.|title=The Muslim Diaspora (Volume 2, 1500-1799): A Comprehensive Chronology of the Spread of Islam in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TxAkCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA58|year=2000|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-4689-6|page=58}}</ref>

However, the narrative of Karnawati sending Rakhi to [[Humayun]] is a imaginary story which wrongly became a part of folklore based on an unreliable gossip account from the 17th century. (200 years after the event) The contemporary Persian and Hindu authorities did not mentioned this story at all.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Satish Chandra|author-link=Satish Chandra (historian)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qDxuAAAAMAAJ |title=Mughal Religious Policies, the Rajputs & the Deccan |date=1993|page=11|publisher=Vikas Publishing House |isbn=978-0-7069-6385-4|language=en}}</ref>

=== Third Jauhar of Chittor: Akbar ===
The armies of Mughal Emperor [[Akbar]] besieged the Rajput fort of [[Chittor]] in September 1567.<ref>R.K. Gupta, S.R. Bakshi, Studies In Indian History: Rajasthan Through The Ages The Heritage Of ..., page 125</ref> After his army conquered Chittorgarh in Rajasthan, Hindu women committed ''jauhar'' in spring of 1568 CE, and the next morning, thousands of Rajput men walked the saka ritual.<ref>{{cite book|author=Annemarie Schimmel|editor=Burzine K. Waghmar|title=The Empire of the Great Mughals: History, Art and Culture|url=https://archive.org/details/empireofgreatmug00anne |url-access=registration|year=2004| publisher=Reaktion |isbn=978-1-86189-185-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/empireofgreatmug00anne/page/166 166]}}</ref><ref name=harlan162>{{cite book|author=Lindsey Harlan|title=The Goddesses' Henchmen: Gender in Indian Hero Worship|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EmbRCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA162|year=2003|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-534834-7|page=162}}</ref> The Mughal army killed all the Rajputs who walked out the fort.<ref name=harlan162/> [[Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak]], who was not an immediate witness, gave a hearsay account of the event as seen by [[Akbar]] and his army. Abu'l-Fazl states that the women were victims of Rajput men and unwilling participants, and these Rajputs came out walking to die, throwing away their lives.<ref name=battin285/> According to David Smith, when Akbar entered the Chittorgarh fort in 1568, it was "nothing but an immense crematorium".<ref>{{cite book|author=David Smith|title=Hinduism and Modernity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x-aRSuypah8C&pg=PA54|year=2008|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-0-470-77685-8|page=54}}</ref>

According to Lindsey Harlan, the ''jauhar'' of 1568 is a part of regional legend and is locally remembered on the Hindu festival of [[Holi]] as a day of Chittorgarh massacre by the Akbar army, with "the red color signifying the blood that flowed on that day".<ref name=harlan162/>

=== Three Jauhars of Raisen: Humayun ===
[[Raisen]] in [[Madhya Pradesh]] was repeatedly attacked by the Mughal Army in the early 16th century. In 1528, the first ''jauhar'' was led by Rani Chanderi.{{sfn|Dirk H. A. Kolff|2002|p=85}} After the Mughal army left, the kingdom refused to accept orders from Delhi. After a long siege of Raisen fort, that exhausted all supplies within the fort, Rani Durgavati and 700 Raisen women committed the second ''jauhar'' in 1532, the men led by Lakshman Tuar committed ''saka''.{{sfn|Dirk H. A. Kolff|2002|pp=99-103}} This refusal to submit to Mughal rule repeated, and in 1543 the third ''jauhar'' was led by Rani Ratnavali.{{sfn|Dirk H. A. Kolff|2002|p=85}}

=== Jauhar of Bundelkhand: Aurangzeb ===
[[Aurangzeb]] with three army battalions lay siege to [[Bundelkhand|Bundela]] in Madhya Pradesh in December 1634 CE. The resident women committed ''jauhar'' as the fort fell. Those who had not completed the ritual and survived the ''jauhar'' in progress were forced into the [[harem]], men were forced to convert to Islam, those who refused were executed.<ref>{{cite book|author=S.R. Sharma|title=Mughal Empire in India: A Systematic Study Including Source Material|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1wC27JDyApwC&pg=PA457|year=1999|publisher=Atlantic Publishers |isbn=978-81-7156-818-5|pages=457–458}}</ref>{{sfn|Dirk H. A. Kolff|2002|p=141-142}}

=== Jauhar of Daddanala: Mir Fazlullah ===
In 1710 CE, Mir Fazlullah, a rebel Mughal [[Emir|amir]], invaded Daddanala, a town in the [[Prakasam district|Prakasam District]] of Andhra Pradesh that was the capital of the Dupati [[Kamma (caste)|Sayapaneni Nayaks]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last1=Nārāyaṇarāvu|first1=Vēlcēru|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X0RuAAAAMAAJ|title=Textures of Time: Writing History in South India 1600-1800|last2=Shulman|first2=David|date=2001|publisher=Other Press|isbn=978-1-59051-044-5|pages=268–269|language=en}}</ref> As Sayapaneni Pedda Venkatadri Nayudu, who was in charge, died during the conflict, all the assembled Sayapaneni women set fire to the houses in the fort and were burnt to death.<ref name=":0" /> The five-year-old prince Mallikarjuna Nayudu was saved by a maidservant who had smuggled him out through an orifice in the walls of the fort and was raised by his [[Kamma (caste)|Kamma]] relatives.<ref name=":0" />

===Jauhar among Mughals===

Practices like the jauhar however weren't limited to Hindus and Muslim rulers are recorded to have their women killed in order to prevent any further degradation of their honour.<ref>{{cite book|author=J.J.L. Gomans|title=Mughal Warfare: Indian Frontiers and Highroads to Empire 1500–1700|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kNiAAgAAQBAJ&q=jauhar+rajput+warfare&pg=PA54|year=1999|publisher=Routledge|page=54|isbn=9781134552764}}</ref>

[[Jahangir]] in his memoirs states that his nobleman Khan-i-Jahan ordered his wives to commit ''jauhar'' during a battle with his enemy named Sher Shah. During a war with the [[Ahom kingdom]], Mirza Nathan ordered all Mughal women in his camp to be killed if he died. He later ordered them to perform jauhar.<ref name="Harbans">{{cite book|author=Harbans Mukhia|title=The Mughals of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ZYsjlmtSmAC&q=jauhar+baz+bahadur&pg=PA152|year=1999|publisher=John Wiley & sons|pages=152–153|isbn=9788126518777}}</ref>

== See also ==
*[[Honor suicide]]
*[[Akbarnama]]
*[[Puputan]] practice of Hindu kingdoms of Indonesia and Malaysia
*[[Seppuku]]
*[[Sati (practice)]]

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

=== Bibliography ===
{{ref begin}}
* {{cite book |author=Dasharatha Sharma |title=Early Chauhān Dynasties |publisher=S. Chand / Motilal Banarsidass |year=1959 |isbn=9780842606189 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n4gcAAAAMAAJ }}
* {{cite book |author=Dirk H. A. Kolff |author-link=Dirk H. A. Kolff |title=Naukar, Rajput, and Sepoy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SrdiVPsFRYIC |year=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-52305-9 }}
* {{cite book |author=Kishori Saran Lal |author-link=K. S. Lal |title=History of the Khaljis (1290-1320) |year=1950 |publisher=The Indian Press |location=Allahabad |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2XXqAQAACAAJ |oclc=685167335 }}
* {{cite book |author=Satish Chandra |author-link=Satish Chandra |title=History of Medieval India: 800-1700 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qHnHHwAACAAJ |year=2007 |publisher=Orient Longman |isbn=978-81-250-3226-7 }}
*{{cite book|author1=Beny, Roland |author2=Matheson, Sylvia A. | title=Rajasthan - Land of Kings| year = 1984| publisher=Frederick Muller| location=London| isbn = 0-584-95061-6| page = 200 pages}}
{{ref end}}

== External links ==
{{wikiquote}}
* {{commons category-inline}}
{{Mass suicide}}

[[Category:History of Rajasthan]]
[[Category:Indian women in war]]
[[Category:Rajput culture]]
[[Category:Women in medieval warfare]]
[[Category:Women in early modern warfare]]
[[Category:Suicide types]]
[[Category:Chittorgarh district]]
[[Category:Mewar]]
[[Category:Death in India]]
[[Category:Wartime sexual violence]]
[[Category:Religion and suicide]]
[[Category:History of women in India]]

Jauhar - Revision history

Bot at 19:24, 15 December 2022