A Token of Love : Rani Hadi

Warriors are not only those who wear armours and fight on the battlefield, but sometimes warriors are the ones wearing henna in their hands carrying gentle fierceness in their hearts. One such warrior was Rani Hadi aka Rani Handa.

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This story dates back to the 16th century when Aurangzeb was trying to establish his complete dominance all over the country, alongside Rao Chundawat Ratan Singh married Rani Hadi of the Handa Rajput clan. Not long after their wedding, only Ratan Singh had to lead the troop to obliterate and stop the reinforcement army coming from Delhi for Aurangzeb’s help.

He was dismayed to leave his beloved wife but nevertheless with wishes from his wife to be victorious he went to the war to serve his motherland. Even after leaving the palace with his army Ratan Singh’s thoughts still lingered on his queen.

In the midst of the fierce battle, he sent a messenger to ask his wife to send a token to keep her in mind during the battle as it could be his last. The messenger conveyed the king’s message to the queen and she felt distressed that even in the event of war her husband was not fully focused and was thinking about her only then how will he be able to save his motherland?

The queen ordered the messenger to take her message and token to the king. When the messenger reached with the token the king was happy to have something brought to him from his love, upon removing the cloth covering the token he was devasted to see his beloved’s head on the plate, the queen had beheaded herself and sacrificed her life to give strength to her love and to save her country.

Ratan Singh understood his folly in not giving his best and rectified his mistake and the enemy was decimated without leaving any trace of life.

As Sadhu Vaswani once said, “True love is selfless. It is prepared to sacrifice” and truly the sacrifice of Rani Hadi proved to be the epitome of love- love for one’s motherland, love towards one’s duty and the strength to show one’s lover the correct path.