Padmavati and Controversial Stories Around The Legendary Queen!
Now, everyone knows that Deepika Padukone is playing the Hindu Queen Padmavati in the movie, but how many of you know the story of real Padmavati?
Padmavati: The Story Of Legendary Queen!
Ever since Sanjay Leela Bhansali decided to come with a powerful historical entertainer Padmavati, it resulted in huge controversy. This snowballed into a bigger one with tempers running high between all the factions and politicians and media instead of cooling the tempers are adding fuel to the fire for their TRPs.
With both Bhansali, Karni Sena and other outfits adamant on their positions, there is no love lost between them tough they are slowly trying to find a solution. Now in the midst of all this many started researching as to who is Padmavati and what is her story and history behind her.
Who is Rani Padmavati?
A look at the history shows that not all the stories around Padmavati are same. There are more than three to four stories surrounding Padmavati. Now the big question is will Bhansali's Padmavati resemble any of the story about Padmavati in the history.
Already Rajasthan, Madhaya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh governments banned the film. Even Punjab CM Amarinder Singh, who is from Congress opposed the film. Many say the poem Padmavat written by 1540 Sufi poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi in Awadhi language is the real story about Padmavati.
The Popular Story:
Those who know about Padmavati, have the popular story version embedded in their minds. Padmavati, the beautiful princess of the Singhal kingdom (Sri Lanka) was exceptionally beautiful and had a talking parrot named Hiraman. After her father got furious over Padmavati and Hiraman’s friendship, the parrot flew away. The Rajput ruler of Chittor, Ratan Sen heard about the beauty of Padmavati from Hiraman and decided to make her the Queen of Chittor. He married Padmavati after an adventurous quest, and brought her to Chittor.Now, Padmavati was a god’s own creation, thus the popularity of the Queen was unable to stay under the walls of Chittor. The Sultan of Delhi, Alauddin Khilji, and the king of Kumbhalner, Devpal both heard about the priceless beauty of Padmavati and attacked Chittor to obtain her.
The king Ratan Sen was killed in a combat with Devpal but before Alauddin Khilji or Devpal can get their hands on Padmavati, she committed self-immolation with her other companions to save her honor.
That’s the popular version. Now there are four major categories which denote the story of Padmavati. The Persian or Urdu Adaptations, The Rajput Ballads, The James Tod Version and The Bengali Adaptations.
All of them have a single thing in common, the narration of Padmavati’s beauty. They all declare her almost like a blooming rose or a poet’s dream. Out of these four adaptations, the first two are the most Fascinating ones.
Padmavati Three Popular Stories!
In all the three to four stories few elements remain the same. As such Pamavati is the queen of Sinhala. She marries Ratnasen, ruler of Chittorgarh. Allauddin Khilji attacks Chittorgarh after hearing about Padmavati's beauty. In the war Ratnasen gets killed and Padmavati too ends her life. However many say all this is just a myth.Popular stories revolving around Padmavati are as follows.
Story 1:
Padmavati is known as Rani Padmini. She used to have a parrot that can talk. Sinhala King Gandharvasena gets irritated to see his daughter spend time tiwh the parrot. He decides to kill the parrot but Padmini frees her . The parrot reches Ratnasena, king of Chittorgarh and it tells about Padmini's beauty to Ratnasena.
Ratnasena decides to posses Pamavati and goes to Sinhala with 16000 soldiers. Ratnasena who is a devotee of Shiva offers prayers in a Temple and during that time Padmavati comes and leaves the place. He decides to end his life as he didnot see her. Lord Shiva and Parvathi appear in front of him and asks him to meet Padmavati in the fort.
Ratnasena goes to the fort in the guise of a devotee. Sinhala King tries to imprison and kill him. However he decides to get his daughter marry Ratnasena after his supporters sing praises of Ratnasena. He even presents 16000 Padmini women to Ratnasena. While heading to Chittorgarh they get engulfed in a sand storm but escapes with the blessings of the Lord Shiva.
Ratnasena already has first wife Nagamani. When Padmavati was along with Ratnasena, her conhort, a brahmin by name Raghava Chetana enters. Ratnasena gets angry and banish him from the country. Padmavati presents him a beautiful bangles and Raghav meets Delhi Sultan Allauddin Khilji. When Khilji asks him about the bangles, he reveals about Padmavati and her beauty.
Khilji goes to Chittorgarh to posses Padmavathi but he loses the war. He enters into a pact with Ratnasena and he was invited into Chittorgarh fort. He sees Padmavati but cannot possess him. Khilji deceives Ratnasena and gets him imprisoned him and takes him to Delhi.
Padmavati sends two commanders to Delhi to free the king. While one of them dies fighting Sultan's soldiers,another one frees the king. In the midst of all this neighbouring King Devapala tries to win Padmavati and attacks Chittorgarh. A the sametime Ratnasena reaches Chittorgarh and in the battle that follows both loses their lives. Padmavati too ends her life after hearing the death of her husband. Even Nagamani too ends her life.
Khilji attacks Chittorgarh after sometime and try to posses all the women. They end their life after coming to know about Khiljis evil designs. The story ends that Khilji for all the desperate attempts fail to posses even a single Rajput woman and could turn only Chittor Fort into Islam.
Story 2:
Rajputs believe in this story only. Padmavati is the Princess of Sinhala Kingdom. None can match her in sword fight. She vows to marry the person who can defeat her in a sword fight. She actually was referring to herself only. Many kings fight with her and get defeated. However Ratnasen, king of Chittorgarh defeats her and Padmavati marries him. Raghav Chetan happens to be her trusted lieutenant.
Ratnasen banishes him from the country as Raghav Chetan happens to be a sorcerer. He reaches Delhi and sing praises of Padmavati's beauty in front of Alauddin Khilji. Khilji attacks Chittorgarh to posses Padmavati. In the war, Ratnasen dies and Padmavati to escape from Khilji reaches Jauhar Kund through a secret way and sacrifices by diving into the kund.
Story 3:
James Todd, an officer in East India Company came with another story about Padmavati. This story changes completely. Here too Padmavati is the Princess of Simhala. However her marraige version changes completely.
Lakshman Singh is the rurler of Chittorgarh. Padmavati marries his relative Bheem Singh. Delhi Sultan Khilji attacks Chittorgarh knowing Padmavati's beauty. Khilji later enters into a pact and expresses his wish to see Padmavati in the mirror. Khilji after seeing her in the mirror, imprisons Bheem singh and demands to get Padmavati to marry him for his release. Padmavati enters the fray and seeks the help of her relatives.
They with 700 rajput soldiers fight Khilji. Bheem Singh dies in the war and Padmavathi ends her life committing Jauhar.
Strange Isn’t It? No wonder it has been a controversial topic since the beginning of the shooting. Obviously, the history does not justify if there was a Padmavati, the Queen of Chittor or she was merely a sweet imagination of a poet who wanted to pen down the description of the most beautiful woman in the world.
