Abandoned castles of pride

Thirteen hundred and twenty six years,

After the time of Christ,

This story is said of a queen,

Who fought an emperor’s might.

The brave and young emperor,

From thousands of miles away,

Marched along to the Indian shores

Crushing, who stood in his way.

On the banks of the Chambal he stood,

With an army well trained and fierce

It was only a matter of time before

His enemy’s defence did pierce

But Rattan Singh with his army so small,

Was a brave and selfless king

That even today of his bravery,

Paens we proudly sing.

With horse and soldiers in thousands,

The khilji army thronged,

But they had left their shores long ago,

For their families, they badly longed.

But the brave soldiers of Rajput,

Were ready to defend their pride,

To take on their mighty enemy,

With their brave king by their side.

The armies began to charge

And a fierce battle ensued

Through days and nights the conflict

Without respite continued

Though aged and outnumbered

He was a lion on the field

Not an inch of his motherland

He was certain would he yield

But day by day his resources

Were slowly getting spent

And the battle was slowly slipping

To its unknown inevitable end

With his army decimated

The king was taken prisoner

Chained and tied he was brought

To the famous mogul emperor

The kingdom stood and wept

As quickly spread the word

That their brave and beloved king

Was to die by a foreigner’s sword

But the mirth of mogul was lust and greed,

For he had heard about the jewel,

With beauty as pageant and molten gold,

Queen Padmini sat in the fort unwell.

With all his army he charged upon,

To decimate and capture the women,

But as he reached the gates of fort,

A black smoke billowed to heaven

With cries and shouts as of a wailing,

Filled the fort’s alley,

And draped in red sarees flailing,

All women lunged forward slowly

There he saw her for one last time

Beauty as a pageant of gold

Clad in the ornaments of a royale

A tigress- defiant and bold

And now the women all ran along,

Towards their death-the pyre,

That reminds the abandoned castle still today,

Of sacrifice valour and fire.