Amer Fort, included in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, has been in the news for the last few days. French President Emmanuel Macron is also arriving here on a visit on Thursday. Another interesting information related to this historical fort of Jaipur is also being discussed. Actually, King Bharmal here was the first Hindu ruler who married his daughter to a Mughal ruler.
Before independence, there were 19 princely states and 3 states in Rajasthan, which were merged to form Rajputana (Rajasthan). Different princes used to have different kings. Among them was Raja Bharmal of Amer state. Raja Bharmal was the first Hindu ruler who married his daughter to a Mughal ruler. Before this, no Hindu king had established marital relations with any Muslim ruler. To save his kingdom, Bharmal accepted the subordination of Mughal ruler Akbar and married his daughter to Akbar.
Bharmal became the king of Amer by removing his nephews.
Raja Bharmal or Biharimal became the ruler of Amer in 1547. Earlier the king here used to be Ratan Singh, who was the nephew of Bharmal. Bharmal made a move to dethrone his nephew. Bharmal told his second nephew i.e. Ratan Singh’s brother Askaran that Ratan Singh is of luxurious nature. He should remove it and become the ruler. Askaran obeyed uncle Bharmal and killed his brother Ratan Singh and himself became the king of Amer. After some time, Bharmal deposed Askaran as a murderer and himself became the king of Amer.
Raja Bharmal, who ascended the throne by getting one of his nephews murdered and another being branded a murderer, faces many challenges to save the kingdom. Askaran, who was dethroned, sought help from Salim Shah, son of Sher Shah Suri, and Salim Shah sent his advisor Haji Pathan with his army to attack Amer. To save his kingdom, Raja Bharmal convinced Haji Pathan by giving him a lot of money and also convinced Askaran to take a large part of Narwar (Madhya Pradesh) region. Thus the war of Amer was averted and Bharmal’s kingdom was saved.
Since many years ago the princely state of Amer used to belong to King Prithvi Singh. Prithvi Singh’s grandson Suja also wanted to regain the throne of Amer. Souza reached out to Mirza Sarfuddin, the governor of Mewat, who was the governor appointed by Akbar. Souza asked for help from Safruddin, Mirza Safruddin agreed to help and started moving towards Amer. To avoid this war, King Bharmal of Amer gave a lot of money to Safruddin and mortgaged three of his men to Safruddin. When Safruddin agreed, Bharmal mortgaged his son Jagannath, Raj Singh, son of Askaran and Khagal, son of Thakur Jagmal of Jobner.
In 1556, Salim Shah’s advisor Haji Khan prepared for war to capture the throne of Majnu Khan, the ruler of Narnaul. When Haji Khan’s army started moving towards Narnaul, Raja Bharmal of Amer intervened. Because during the attack on Amer, Bharmal had convinced Haji Khan by giving him immense money. In such a situation, they developed good relations with each other. After the treaty between Haji Khan and Majnu Khan, Bharmal’s relations with Majnu Khan became even better. Raja Bharmal of Amer first met Akbar through Majnu Khan.
As mentioned earlier, Souza wanted to acquire the throne of Amer through Emperor Akbar’s governor Safaruddin. If Suja had met Akbar directly through Safruddin, Bharmal would have had to abdicate the throne as soon as he got Akbar’s help. Bharmal wanted to meet Akbar directly to save his kingdom. In such a situation, Bharmal met Emperor Akbar even before Suja through Majnu Khan. When Emperor Akbar was going to Ajmer Sharif, he stopped at Sanganer for a few days on the way. Then King Bharmal of Amer went to Sanganer on 20 January 1562 and accepted Akbar’s subordination.
After accepting Akbar’s subordination, King Bharmal of Amer had to marry his daughter Harkhu Bai to Akbar. While returning from Ajmer Sharif, Bharmal married his daughter Harkhu Bai to Akbar on 6 February 1562 in Sambhar. This was the first time that the daughter of a Rajput king was married to a Mughal ruler. After her marriage to Akbar, Harkhoo Bai came to be known as Mariam uz Zamani. Many historians condemned this decision of Raja Bharmal but some historians and writers also praised Raja Bharmal. Dr. Historians like Tripathi and Gopinath Sharma called this decision of Raja Bharmal a right and far-sighted step. Salim, son of Akbar and Maryam uz Zamani, later became the Mughal emperor by the name of Jahangir.
