Vernacular Sources on Queen Padmini

History and Myth

Abstract

‘Myth’ is time and again gazed at as an assurance or an idea, or popular belief that is made-up and baseless. It is prevalently known that King Rattan Singh of Chittor married Padmini, the princess of Sinhala Island and Allaudin Khilji, the Sultan of Delhi, attacked Chittor to betroth her. Although this belief is widely held and convincing too, it is inappropriate because, in history, nothing of that sort happened; in fact, the mere conjecture of ‘myth’ is incorrect. It is a different matter that one should not have expectations from myth vis-à- vis modern history. The present paper discusses the initial historicity of the event and its characteristics in the fabled episode. An attempt is to establish that Padmini-Rattan Singh episode is interwoven with history in mythical and semi-mythical narratives.