As the nation celebrates the Hindu festival of Rakshabandhan honouring the bond of brothers and sisters, yet another attempt has been made to ‘Mughalise’ a Hindu festival. On the 19th of August, Sudha Murty, the former chairperson of Infosys Foundation and author, claimed that the 16th-century queen regent of Chittorgarh and widow of Rana Sanga sent a Rakhi [sacred thread] to Mughal tyrant Humayun calling him her brother and seeking his help to protect her kingdom.
“Raksha Bandhan has a rich history. When Rani Karnavati was in danger, she sent a thread to King Humayun as a symbol of siblinghood, asking for his help. This is where the tradition of the thread began, and it continues to this day,” Sudha Murty said,
Murthy’s video message posted on X received backlash as several netizens pointed out that the story of Rani Karnavati sending Rakhi to Humayun is devoid of any factual evidence.
Raksha Bandhan DID NOT begin with this so called tale of Rani Karnavati @SmtSudhaMurty ji.
— Monidipa Bose – Dey (মণিদীপা) (@monidipadey) August 19, 2024
It began when Devi Indrani/Sachi tied a raksha thread or Rakhi on Indra deva’s wrist as a raksha kavach.
When the devas were on the verge of being defeated by the asuras, then Indra… https://t.co/77WHkGMqmd pic.twitter.com/D5AyyX9f56
Did Rani Karnavati send Rakhi to Mughal king Humayun?
The fable which has gained traction in modern times, claims that Humayun rushed to Rani Karnavati’s help after receiving the rakhi, but arrived too late to save Chittorgarh. The Mughal cheerleaders in modern times claim that Humayun had immediately rushed to save his ‘sister’ from the attack of Gujarat ruler, Qutubuddin Bahadur Shah. However, historical evidence and reliable sources contradict this account. There is no trace of any correspondence between Rani Karnavati and Humayun in this regard. The story is a later fabrication, presumably designed to make a ‘Mughlai’ version of the Raksha Bandhan festival and secularise the Mughal tyrants.
This myth finds its origins in a book written by East India Company’s Colonel James Tod, who was at the Mewar court in the 19th century. In his book, Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, Tod termed Rakshabandhan as the festival of bracelet.
“A whole province has often accompanied the Kachhli, and the monarch of India was so pleased with this courteous delicacy in the customs of Rajasthan, on receiving the bracelet of the princess Karnavati, which invested him with the title of her brother, and uncle and protector to her infant Udai Singh, that he pledged himself to her service,” even if the demand were the castle of Ranthambhor.” Humayun proved himself a true knight, and even abandoned his conquests in Bengal when called on to redeem his pledge and succour Chitor, and the widows and minor sons of Sanga Rana,” Tod wrote.
Pseudo-historian James Tod’s work, however, has been deemed unreliable by historians. It is pertinent to mention that the infamous Jodha-Akbar ‘love story’ is also James Tod’s figment of imagination. While this fake Jodha-Akbar lie inspired Bollywood movies and television series, historians of Akbar’s time made no mention of Jodha in their texts.
In his book History of Medieval India, historian Satish Chandra writes that no contemporary writer has mentioned the incident of Karnavati sending a Rakhi to Humayun and this may be a lie.
Meanwhile, historian SK Banerji in his book “Humayun Badshah” mentions that Rani Karnavati sought help from Humayun in defending Chittorgarh from Bahadur Shah’s attack, however, he did not mention anything about the queen sending Rakhi to the Mughal ruler. In fact, as SK Banerji’s book, Humayun sided with Bahadur Shah since he was waging Jihad against Kafirs [infidels].
SK Banerji’s book Humayun Badshah mentions correspondence between Humayun and Bahadur Shah during the Chittor invasion. Bahadur Shah had sent Humayun a letter alerting him that he was slaughtering ‘infidels’. In answer, Humayun wrote that the agony in his heart had turned into blood as if they were two people instead of one.
“From grief every fold of my heart has turned into blood (To think) that in spite of our oneness, duality is attributed to us,” Humayun wrote to Bahadur Shah.
The historical evidence indicates that neither Rani Karnavati sent any Rakhi to Humayun nor did the Mughal ruler ever intend to help her. Humayun attacked Bahadur Shah in AD 1535 defeating him at Mundi and Champaner, however, it has nothing to do with Rani Karnavati or any alleged Rakhi.
It is, thus clear that Sudha Murty has advertently or inadvertently ended up peddling the lies created by unreliable sources and propagated by contemporary Mughal cheerleaders. Being a renowned author herself, Sudha Murty should verify the historical evidence before furthering the lies and distortions around Hindu festivals giving mileage to the whitewashing of Mughal atrocities on Hindus. The very cheerleaders of Mughal tyrants have attacked her in the past for her practice of pure vegetarianism.
Falsely attributing Hindu festivals to Mughal invaders
This bogus ‘Rakhi’ narrative is part of a larger ploy to whitewash the Mughals’ crimes by claiming they were ‘ secular’. In addition, another sinister motive behind falsely attributing Hindu festivals and cultures to Mughal invaders is to establish the narrative that “Mughals brought culture to India”.
Notably, Hindu scriptures mention the festival of Raksha Bandhan even before the advent of Islam in the deserts of modern-day Saudi Arabia and the arrival of the Mughals in Bharat, thus cementing it as a Hindu practice. This unfounded fable seems like an attempt to alienate the festival from its Hindu roots and reinterpret it from a Mughal perspective.
Specifically, the Skanda Purana (Shravana Mahatmya, Chapter 21), Narada Purana, and Bhavishya Purana (Uttar Parva, Chapter 137) mention Raksha Bandhan. It is said that after the Rakshasas had been defeated in the Devasura Sangram, they went to their Guru Shukracharya to figure out the reason for their loss. Shukracharya revealed that Indrani Shachi [Lord Indra’s wife] had tied a sacred protective thread around Indra’s wrist to ensure his protection and that this Raksha Sutra rescued him. In Mahabharat, Lord Krishna told Prince Yudhishthira this story and how to perform this tradition. While Raksha Sutra can be tied to anyone, however, the festival has become majorly a celebration of the commitment of brothers and sisters to protect and stand with each other in good and bad times.
Left-liberals and their ever-burning desire to link everything good with Mughals
Notably, the Indian left-liberals have a perennial itch to associate Hindu festivals, food, and rituals with the Mughal era, as if culture and civilisation in the Indian subcontinent was a Mughal invention and nothing of note existed in the land before Mughals came to ‘civilise’ it. This opprobrious endeavour constantly entails romanticising the Mughals and portraying them as patrons of the ‘Hindustani’ culture, distorting historical facts. Back in 2021, OpIndia reported how a columnist credited Mughals for inventing “Petha”.
“Shah Jahan ordered his chefs to create something as pure and white as the Taj Mahal, and thus the petha was born. Will deniers of Mughal history give up petha now?” Shunali Khullar Shroff said citing a media report based on 100 percent limerence for Mughals and zero percent evidence. Pushpesh Pant, a noted Indian academic, critic and historian had outrightly rejected the claims made by the said report and said that “Petha is a poor man’s sweet and has no royal connection”.
In July this year, Pushpesh Pant said that “the idea that Mughlai food, which is often conflated with Indian khaana abroad, is an anachronistic invention that was lapped up by the British in the aftermath of the first war of Independence.” Interestingly, several mainstream media houses have attributed the invention of several popular Indian dishes to Mughals even though these dishes either had foreign origins or were locally invented by non-Mughals.
Another lie peddled by leftist historians is that the Mughal tyrants issued grants for the repair of temples destroyed in wars. Sadly, this blatant fabrication whitewashing the true iconoclastic nature of Mughals stemming from Islamic extremism found its place in NCERT history textbooks disseminating a completely distorted idea of Mughals and their policies towards Hindus. Back in 2021, in response to an RTI application, the National Council of Educational Research and Training admitted that it has no evidence to prove that Mughal emperors had rebuilt temples destroyed in wars as claimed in their textbooks.
Other than this, Kalyan Jewellers, one of the largest jewellery chain in India, had claimed in 2021 that nose rings were first introduced in India by the Mughals. “Nose rings were first in India by the Mughals from the Middle East,” it alleged. This came despite the fact that nose rings or “nath” have always been a part of “Solah Shringar” (16 adornments) used by Hindu women, particularly, Hindu brides. After an online backlash, the jewellery chain removed the Mughal reference from its controversial blog.
In another instance of ‘secularising’ the Hindu festival of Diwali, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor expressed his zeal over an Urdufication of the Hindu festival by calling it “Jashn-e-Chiraagh”.
Similarly, clothing brand FabIndia named its Diwali collection as “Jashn-e-Riwaaz” as if it was some Islamic festival. After an online uproar, they had to remove the collection.
While Mughal tyrants like Aurangzeb inflicted countless atrocities on Hindus including reimposition or Jizya, forcing Hindus to recite Quran verses, destroying Hindu temples etc, their modern-day cheerleaders are making various attempts to whitewash their crimes by peddling falsely glorifying Mughals.
Left-liberals regularly perpetuate the fallacy that the Mughals somehow did a favour on India and Hindus by invading the country, portraying their reign as one of cultural enrichment as well as tolerance’. The narrative, however, is both misleading and malicious since it completely downplays the widespread destruction and atrocities carried out during the Mughal era. The Mughals, like earlier Islamic invaders, aspired to expand their empire through violence and torture which resulted in mass deaths, forced conversions, temple demolition, and severe taxation of non-Muslims under the jizya system.
The Mughals’ glorification also ignores their imposition of Islamic laws on the native population, as well as their systematic efforts to eliminate or weaken indigenous cultures and beliefs. Historical accounts prove that millions of Hindus were slaughtered under the Mughal rule, with numerous temples and religious sites being destroyed or converted into mosques. The Romila Thapar and Ramchandra Guha versions of history have penetrated the minds of a significant section of Indians and convinced them that the very oppressors of their ancestors are worth appreciating and even expressing ‘gratitude’ for invading India.
The attempt to romanticise the Mughals as compassionate rulers who fostered ‘Hindu Muslim unity’, and discovered/invented all our popular recipes and cultural events distorts history and disparages the millions of Hindus, Sikhs, and other non-Muslim communities who suffered during that time. Forget addressing the devastation of lives, culture and Dharma caused during the Mughal rule, this narrative whitewashes the past by portraying the invaders as cultural benefactors rather than invaders. If a well-educated woman like Sudha Murty, who has authored many books and understands the importance of verifying facts before making a claim, believes the false story of Rani Karnavati sending Rakhi to Humayun while completely ignoring the festival’s Puranic origins, the impact of such lies on ordinary people can be alarming.
