'Women are the most creative creatures to exist.'
We have a history of influential women, who have led from the front when their people needed.
For leadership, doesn't differentiate between gender.
When a queen takes charge, the calamity is bound...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
It is said that, 'A man controls a woman's honour and insults. She has no personal honour or insult' but the story of Rani Samyukta is different from other women. She was a woman who stood against all the odds and fought her way to become the beloved of Prithviraj Chauhan.
Samyuktha is the daughter of Jai Chand, King of Kannauj.
Her story starts from when a painter from Prithviraj's court, Panna Ray, visited Kannauj. The painter showed the painting of Prithviraj Chauhan to the princess. The same painter, upon returning, painted Sanyogita's portrait and showed it to Prithviraj. This incident marks the beginning of the most Romantic and heroic love story of the medieval period.
Samyukta was a very bold woman. She was an active court member at Kannauj, and why not when she represented the women council. She had many enemies around her which included her father as well. Jai Chand didn’t like the independent thoughts of her daughter.
On finding out about the affair, Raja Jaichand was outraged that a romance had been budding behind his back. Jaichand decided to insult Prithviraj, and so arranged a swayamvara for his daughter in 1185 CE. He invited royalty from far and wide to the ceremony, every eligible prince and king, except Prithviraj. He then commissioned a clay statue of Prithviraj, which served as a dvarapala (or, a figurative "doorman") to Jaichand's court.
When she came to know that he wasn't even invited to the swayamvara, she was devastated and wrote him a letter expressing her desire to marry him. To this, Prithviraj promised her that he would come to the swayamvara .
He devised a plan to elope with the bride. On the day of the ceremony, Samyukta walked through the court holding the ceremonial garland, ignoring the gazes of her ardent suitors. She passed through the door and put the garland around the neck of Prithviraj's statue, declaring him her husband. Prithiviraj, who meanwhile was hiding behind the statue, caught Samyukta up in his arms, set her on his horse, and whisked her away to Delhi.
Prithviraj Chauhan then openly challenged Jayachand to stop him from taking his wife. This made Jayachand shake with rage at the insult in front of a huge gathering of kings and princes.
That day, thousands of soldiers laid their lives to make sure that Prithviraj Chauhan escaped safely from Kannauj, with his newly-wedded wife Samyukta.
After that, they both reached Delhi, where in a grand ceremony both were wedded. She was the third wife of Prithviraj Chauhan. She didn’t hold any grudge against her co-wives. She reunited the family of Prithviraj into one like name which means, "united" in Sanskrit.
In Prithviraj raso, it is said that she was well versed in sword fighting and she used to practice fencing with her husband. She was the first woman of the medieval period to organize a women’s army.
She lived an extraordinary life with her husband but it is said that happiness only lasted for sometime and her doom was bought by her own father.
Her own father conspired against her with her husband's everlasting enemy, Mahumaad Gauri. The army of Jai Chand and Gauri surrounded the city of Delhi and Leigh put down a siege of the fort city. After six tough months it was decided to fight the last war against Gauri. Samyukta and other two queens knew the outcome of the war so they decided to commit jauhar.
Samyukhta’s history is never taught in our textbooks and it has been ignored. She is an example of women's power and self-respect. Her beauty and skill made her one of the best women figures in Indian history. There are many things we can learn from Samyukta. Her life started as a princess and ended as a Sati. She is worshiped as Goddess in Rajasthan.
Her tale is an enchanting tale which shows that everything's fair in love and war.
