Chetak Horse of Maharana Pratap

The horse was ridden by Maharana Pratap at the Battle of Haldighati, fought on June 18, 1576, at Haldighati, in the Aravalli Mountains of Rajasthan, western India, is known as Chetak or Cetak in traditional literature.

The story

The horse rode by Maharana Pratap at the Battle of Haldighati on June 18, 1576, is unnamed in historical records, and no special feat or performance is attributed to it.

Chetak was the horse’s name, according to legend. He brought Pratap safely away from the combat while being injured, but he died of his wounds later. From the seventeenth century forward, the story is told in Mewar court poems. Cetak is the name given to the horse in the eighteenth-century ballad Khummana-Raso.

Lieutenant-Colonel James Tod, a colonial officer who had served as the Mewari court’s political officer, published the narrative in the first volume of his Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan or the Central and Western Rajpoot States of India in 1829. 

His version, which was based on the Khummana-Raso, became the most widely accepted version of the story. Chytuc is the name of the horse in the story, and he was originally known as the “blue horse.” Pratap is dubbed the “rider of the blue horse” at one point.

The narrative traveled beyond Rajasthan, to Bengal, and other parts of India. Pratap was regarded as a symbol of resistance to invasion and, by extension, nationalist opposition to British colonial occupation in that country.

Commemoration

There have been several statues and monuments erected in honor of Pratap and Chetak. Bhagwant Singh of Mewar (r. 1955–1984) erected an equestrian statue at Moti Magri Park in Udaipur, and another overlooks Jodhpur. The Chetak Smarak at Haldighati, Rajsamand District, commemorates the alleged fall of Chetak.

The horse is named after the helicopter HAL Chetak, which is a licensed model of the Aérospatiale Alouette III.

Chetak Smarak

Chetak Smarak, also known as Chetak Samadhi, is a memorial in the Indian state of Rajasthan commemorating Maharana Pratap’s famous steed Chetak.

After assisting the Rana in a spectacular escape from the Battle of Haldighati, the horse died of battle wounds. Chetak is reported to have died in the place where the memorial was created.

The village of Balicha is located in the Aravalli hills of Rajsamand’s lake district. The Archaeological Survey of India designated the temple as a Monument of National Importance in Rajasthan in 2003.

It’s a fascinating tiny town with an ancient museum dedicated to the fight and a new one on the way. It is around 4 km from the temple town of Nathdwara and is easily accessible by road.