Krishna Kumari: The Rajput Princess,Chose Death Pyre To Save Her Dynasty

Here is the story of a true princess Krishna Kumari (1794 –1810), who chose death before a war was ignited.She choose death instead of putting the lives of their people at risk.Reality is harsh and painful. It is not lyrical fiction and it does not have Romeo-and-Juliet kind of endings.

 It was my second day of tour in Udaipur. We were in city palace of Udaipur and standing inside Krishna Vilas.  Krishna Vilas is another chamber inside City Palace, which has rich collection of miniature paintings that portray royal processions, festivals and games of the Maharanas.

However, there is tragic story linked to this wing of the City Palace. In the 19th century, a royal princess was unable to choose from two suitors seeking her hand in marriage, one from the royal family of Jaipur and another from Jodhpur, and hence in a state of dilemma, she poisoned herself to death

Princess Krishna Kumari was a Rajput princess with many suitors. A succession of battles was fought to gain her hand. Unlike Padmini, she was a real figure whose story was detailed in annals and letters composed during her life and immediately after her death. 

The manner of that death was unique and tragic, so shameful that no bard was ever commissioned to glorify it in verse.

Rana Bhim Singh was the ruler of Mewar in the early nineteenth century. The state had lost all its power and was beset by enemies from all sides.

The Marathas from the southwest had overrun parts of it and extorted levies from his subjects, while the states of Jaipur and Marwar were poised to attack him.

Jaipur and Marwar threatened war, not to increase their kingdoms but for another reason. Both the princes, Jagat Singh of Jaipur and the Raja Man of Marwar wanted to marry the Sisodia princess, Krishna Kumari, daughter of Bhim Singh. Bhim Singh dared not refuse either. He knew that whoever lost the hand of his daughter would join his enemies and attack his state.

Krishna Kumari, the young, sixteen-year beauty, was told of her father's predicament. She was determined to maintain the heroic tradition of her race and die rather than plunge her country into war

 Poison made of the Kasumba blossom was prepared for her. When the fatal cup was presented to her she received it with a smile, I fear not to die. Rajkumari Krishna Kumari drank it, and fell into a deep sleep … from which she never woke.

It happened in Krishna Vilas of the Udaipur palace, in a room that is still preserved exactly as it was when the brave Krishna Kumari gave her life to save the state of Mewar from war.

 Her mother, heartbroken at her daughter's fate, died soon after her. And Rana Bhim Singh, too weak to have prevented the sacrifice, consoled himself through the lonely years of his remaining life by turning his daughter's room into shrine of beauty and splendor.

The delicately frescoed Krishna Mahal is now a memorial to the girl (photography not permitted) in Udaipur City Palace, where respect can be paid to a brave little princess who became the victim of political circumstance.The room contains some of Mewar's best miniature paintings.The brave Krishna Kumari gave her life to save the state of Mewar from war.

Written and posted by Engr Maqbool Akram, with help of various materials available on net.