Baji Rao and his Love Affair with a Muslim Girl Mastani
Baji Rao I( 1700-40) is one of the great Hindu warriors. He is one of the men to who the Hindus can look upto for inspiration, but sadly the average Indian knows very little about him. Baji Rao died young, but in his short life did enough to merit the title "great". I wonder why we talk more of Akbar the great and so less of Baji Rao. This is a typical case of misplaced priorities and doctoring of history under the Congress party.
In this post I shall not discuss the military prowess of Baji Rao, which by themselves merit an article on their own, for he fought nearly 41 battles and won each and everyone of them. I shall write about his love for a Muslim girl named Mastani. Baji Rao along with Maharajah Ranjit Singh were the Hindu rulers who loved Muslim women and gave them prominence in their lives. Ranjit Singh loved a Muslim girl named Moran and married her in 1802 and it is on record that she is his only queen in whose name he struck coins in his realm. He also built a mosque for her at Mati Chowk in Lahore.
In the 18 century, the Muslims were the rulers and the Hindus the subjects. Baji Rao was the second Hindu warrior after Samrat Hemchandra Vikramaditya ( 1555) who defeated the Muslims. He laid the foundation of the Mahratta empire in the 18th century. Muslim rulers were apt to marry Hindi girls to their harems. Baji Rao did the reverse and married a Muslim girl, who accepted him as her husband.
Baj Rao married a Hindu Brahim girl named Kashi Bai selected by his mother. The marriage took place in 1719 and had the blessings of the Hindu clergy. But another woman, a Muslim entered the life of Baji Rao. This woman named Mastani, is one of the great romantic figures of Indian history. There are many tales regarding her birth and lineage. One source says she was the daughter of the Nizum of Hyderabad, who after being defeated by Baji Rao was advised to give his daughter in marriage to Baji Rao. But most historians accept that she was the daughter of Raja Chatrasal from his Iranian Muslim wife. Mastani was brought up as a Muslim and reports tell us that she was extremely beautiful.
Baji Rao was smitten with the beauty of Mastani and prepared to marry her. This was resented by his first wife and mother, who opposed this marriage. Even the court officials opposed Baji Rao's marriage to a Muslim. However despite opposition from Brahmins and his first wife , he married Mastani. It was a union of love and Mastani became the first love in the life of Baji Rao. It must be mentioned that Mastani was not an ordinary woman and she was an adept horse rider and warrior in her own right. She accompanied Baji Rao in all his military campaigns.
Love must have a result and Mastani bore a son for Baji Rao. Reports suggest that Baji Rao was keen for his son to wear the sacred thread of a Brahmin, but there was intense opposition to this from the Hindu clergy as they felt that he was a Muslim. Thus the boy was named Shamsher Bahadur and brought up as a Muslim. Baji Rao had given him the name Krusnarao.
The love of Baji Rao for Mastani transcended all barriers and he built a special palace for her. A model of this palace can be seen in the Raja Kelkar Museum in Pune. Mastani shared her life with Baji Rao and was not averse to her son becoming a Hindu, but the Hindu clergy and Baji Rao's mother would not tolerate this.
Mastani had a deep love for Baji Rao and when the warrior died while on the march with 100,000 troops at Khargone near Indore in 1840, Mastani also did not live long after him. Some historians say she committed sati, but more likely she died of grief by poisening herself and her samadhi at Pabal is a tribute to a beautiful Muslim woman who shared her life with India's greatest Hindu warrior.
Mastani's son fought bravely in the 1761 clash( 3rd Battle of Panipat) with Abdali and died there. His son however ruled the lands of Budlekhand in UP as a just ruler. The tale of the love of the Muslim Mastani and Hindu Baji Rao is now being made into a movie picture. it will be interesting to watch it.
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