Person · Rajput queen of Chittor · India
Rānī Padmāvatī
Also known as Rani Padmini, Padmāvatī, Padmavati, Padmini of Chittor
Fourteenth-century Rajput queen of Chittor whose historicity is uncertain but whose literary life is one of the most consequential in subcontinental tradition. Malik Muhammad Jayasi's 1540 Awadhi epic Padmavat recounts her husband Rawal Ratan Singh of Mewar and the Delhi Sultan Alauddin Khilji's siege of Chittorgarh of 1303, with Padmavati committing jauhar at the fort to escape capture when the walls fell. Jayasi's poem allegorises her as the soul and the sultan as worldly desire. The Padmavati tradition became the central text of Rajput honour literature, is retold across north Indian languages, and shaped nineteenth- and twentieth-century Rajput cultural memory decisively.
- Date
- 1270–1303
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Patron dynasty
- Guhila / Mewar
- Tradition
- Standard reference and biographical literature; contemporary chronicles.
- Confidence
- Qualified / contested
Worth knowing
The 1303 siege and sack of Chittorgarh by Alauddin Khilji is documented in Amir Khusrau's Khaza'in ul-Futuh; there is no contemporary mention of Padmavati, who first appears in Jayasi's Padmavat two centuries later. The jauhar — mass self-immolation of women — is independently documented at the 1303 siege, which is partly why the Padmavati tradition attached to that specific event. Her story returned to public controversy with the 2018 Hindi film Padmaavat.
About the place
Placed at Chittorgarh. Historicity contested; the literary tradition is well attested from 1540.
Connections (3)
- PursuedAlauddin Khilji
Rajput tradition from the sixteenth century onward presents Alauddin Khilji's 1303 siege of Chittorgarh as motivated by his desire for Rani Padmavati, wife of Rawal Ratan Singh of Mewar. The literary tradition — Jayasi's 1540 Padmavat, the many later retellings — treats their encounter allegorically as the soul (Padmavati) resisting worldly desire (Alauddin). The contemporary chronicle by Amir Khusrau records the siege but does not mention Padmavati.
- Died atChittorgarh
Rani Padmavati committed jauhar — mass self-immolation of Rajput women — at Chittorgarh in 1303 when the Delhi Sultan Alauddin Khilji's eight-month siege ended with the fort's fall and her husband Rawal Ratan Singh's death. The jauhar is documented at the 1303 siege; Padmavati's specific role is from Malik Muhammad Jayasi's 1540 Awadhi epic Padmavat two centuries later, which is the first substantive source for her story.
- Husband ofRāwal Ratan Singh
Rawal Ratan Singh of Mewar is remembered as Rani Padmavati's husband in the literary tradition Malik Muhammad Jayasi's 1540 Padmavat fixed — he died defending Chittorgarh in Alauddin Khilji's 1303 siege, and Padmavati's jauhar followed on the fort's fall. The historical Ratan Singh is attested in Khilji chronicles; the historical Padmavati is not, though the pairing has become inseparable in Rajput tradition.