The Queen in the Mirror

Smash the mirror of your soul
with your hauteur;
the flawless beauty of your queen

with a metal cup.
            Let the quadrants of history
            shatter with your fury.
            Herein lies the prolepsis of fable.

Lead your soldiers into battle,
where death and eternal glory
await the brave—

the reward for your braggadocio.
            Break the anvil of destiny
            with the hammer of your words.

            How can a sultan of Delhi
            be ever worthy of your trust?

Padmini, unveiled,
stands next to a lotus pool—
            and the emperor’s hand reaches out
            for the image of your queen.

            Listen, O Rana,
to the fatal whispers of time,
to the vocabulary of the sultan’s lust.

Fire waits hungrily to consume your hubris,
            a burning pyre awaits
            your queen’s honour.

            A blazing funeral for the living,
            legends of glory for the dead.

Remember:
this is the price you must pay,
            O Rana,
for your wife’s timeless beauty,
and for the innocence of your pride.

There are several oral and written legends about Padmavati (or Padmini), the Hindu queen of
the Rajput kingdom of Mewar (at the cusp of the 13th and 14th centuries). She was the wife
of Rawal Ratan Singh (or Ratan Sen), the Rana of Mewar. The historical authenticity of these
legends, however, cannot be easily verified.

Padmavati was famed all over India for her unparalleled beauty. According to a very popular
narrative, rumours reached Alauddin Khilji (1267?–1316), the Sultan of Delhi, that
Padmavati was the most beautiful woman in the world. As a guest of the Rajput king, Khilji
expressed his wish to meet the queen about whom he had heard so much. Padmini agreed on
condition that the sultan should see only her reflection, and, that, too, alone, and in the
presence of her husband and her handmaidens.

Padmini sat in a palace room at the edge of a pond. Khilji caught only a fleeting glimpse of
the queen from a distance in the mirror over the water—but this glimpse was sufficient to
ignite a ferocious lust in him for her. Smitten, Khilji’s hand involuntarily reached out for her
image. The furious Rana smashed the mirror and threw out the sultan.

A vengeful Khilji returned to devastate the capital Chittor. The Rajput army was decimated.
Yet, the sultan of Delhi could not lay his hands on Padmini: facing certain defeat, Padmavati
and all the women of the royal household of Mewar committed suicide so as to evade capture
and protect their honour. Rather than enter the harems of the Sultanate, they immolated
themselves en masse in burning funeral pyres (a practice known as jauhar).

The victorious sultan won only an empty fortress; enraged, he razed all the buildings in
Chittor (1303 CE). Though Khalji did succeed in conquering Chittor for the Islamic
Sultanate, he could not fulfil his personal ambition.