Person · Rajput ruler of Chittor · India
Rāwal Ratan Singh
Also known as Rawal Ratan Singh, Rana Ratan Singh, Rātanaśiṁha
Guhila ruler of Mewar from Chittorgarh at the time of Alauddin Khilji's 1303 siege, which ended the fort's Rajput tenure for nearly three decades until Rana Hammir re-established the Sisodia line there. Ratan Singh died defending the fort; his queen Padmavati committed jauhar at the fall, in the single most-told episode of the Rajput honour tradition as fixed by Malik Muhammad Jayasi's 1540 Padmavat. Whether Alauddin's siege was motivated by Padmavati's reputed beauty — Jayasi's claim — or by Delhi Sultanate strategic needs against Mewar is debated; the siege itself is documented in Amir Khusrau's chronicle.
- Date
- 1270–1303
- Function
- Military & resistance
- Patron dynasty
- Guhila / Mewar
- Tradition
- Standard reference and biographical literature; contemporary chronicles.
- Confidence
- Mixed / layered
Worth knowing
The Guhila dynasty of Mewar passed through a thirty-year interregnum of Delhi Sultanate overlordship after Ratan Singh's death until Hammir Singh's recovery in 1335, when the Sisodia branch of the Guhilas re-established Mewar's independence. Ratan Singh's samadhi within the Chittorgarh fort complex is a site in the Padmavati literary tradition rather than a documented historical burial.
About the place
Placed at Chittorgarh. Historicity attested in Khilji chronicles.
Connections (2)
- Husband ofRānī Padmāvatī
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.
- Ruled fromChittorgarh
Rawal Ratan Singh of Mewar ruled from Chittorgarh at the time of Alauddin Khilji's 1303 siege, which ended his reign and the Guhila dynasty's tenure of the fort for about thirty years. The fort was recovered by Rana Hammir of the Sisodia Guhila branch in 1335; Chittorgarh remained the Mewar capital for two more centuries until Udai Singh II founded Udaipur in 1559.