Pratapaditya

Three contemporary sources remain[1][3] —

• Letters of Portuguese Jesuit priests
  • Collated in Histoire des lndes Orientales by Father Du Jarric
• Baharistan-i-Ghaibi
• Travelogues of Abdul Latif

Tradition asserts that Pratapaditya had his uncle murdered c. 1598–1600, with support from the Portuguese, and declared his independence.[1] In return, he would allow the Missionaries to settle in his territories; the first Church in Bengal would be opened at Chandecan in about 1600.[1]

In 1605, Pratapaditya invited Dominique Carvalho — a Portuguese war-master — only to have him arrested.[1] Du Jarric mentions the treachery to have stemmed from a secret treaty with Arakans to save his own territory; historian Aniruddha Ray speculates that pleasing the Mughals, who were on the ascendancy, might had been an additional factor.[1] Carvalho's arrest incited local Afghans to loot and massacre the Portuguese the same night; even the local missionary church was attacked.[1] The next day, Pratapaditya doubled down on the persecution; he destroyed Carvalho's fleet, arrested the surviving Portuguese, and confiscated all of their properties.[1] After a summary trial, four were put to death and a ransom of eleven thousand rupees was fixed for the rest.[1] However, the Portuguese refused to pay the ransom for weeks and in the meanwhile, local Hindus even raided the church suspecting the missionaries of fueling the Portuguese reluctance.[1] Once the ransom was paid, Pratapaditya had both the Portuguese and the Missionaries leave Jashore permanently.[1] However, by 1612 they were parts of Jashore army and must have entered into a truce sometime in-between.[1]

In 1609, Islam Khan was appointed as the Subehdar of Bengal.[1] Pratap sent his son Sangramaditya to greet Khan, who was inducted into imperial service; it was suggested that Pratap follow suit.[1] In 1609, Pratap met Khan with fifty thousand rupees and other presents, accepting Mughal vassalage and promising military assistance in subduing Musa Khan and other Zamindars in the region.[1][3] The deals was struck at a time when the Mughals were fighting multiple forces in Bengal and in a desperate need for allies.[1] By 1612, most of the rebel Zamindars were subdued and Mughal ascendancy in the region was established.[1] However, that Pratap did not help the Mughals in their expeditions, Islam Khan took umbrage and decided to seize Jashore alongside adjacent Bakla.[1][3][lower-alpha 3] Pratapaditya requested for a pardon and dispatched 80 war-boats under Sangramaditya but in vain; Sangramaditya was captured, and the fleet destroyed.[1][3]

This encounter led Pratapaditya to start preparing for the inevitable showdown.[1] Udayaditya along with the majority of his force was sent away to take a defensive stance on the banks of one Salka river, north of the capital, where a fort was rapidly constructed: a well-equipped navy was put under the command of Khwaja Kamal while the infantry unit was put under Jamal Khan.[1] Despite strategically sound warfare on Udayaditya's part, the actual face-off ended in a devastating defeat — he, alongside Jamal Khan, barely escaped to Jashore where the rear-guard was already being mounted.[1][3] The Mughals continued in their advance and camped at Buranhatty, not far from the capital.[3] Soon enough, Bakla fell.[1] With Jashore being opened up from all sides, Paratapaditya left for the Mughal camp to offer his submission.[1] However, for reasons unknown, he ditched the plan and the conflict continued.[1] Pratapaditya took, what would be his last stand, about 5 miles north of his capital, in a makeshift fort.[1][3] The defence hold for days before felling to a sudden attack, forcing him to retreat to Jashore and concede defeat.[1][3]

Paratapaditya was treated with respect and taken as a war-prisoner to Dhaka, where Islam Khan had him imprisoned along with his sons.[1] Whereas his sons were released soon, what happened to Pratapaditya is not known; his territory was distributed as jagirs.[1]

The earliest extant mention of Pratapaditya in vernacular literature is Annada Mangal, a mid-18th c. historical epic by Raygunakar Bharatchandra.[1] Pratap was a hero, blessed by Kali but vanity and pride hastened his end.[1] This theme would influence the first historical prose on the subject by Ramram Basu written Pratapaditya Charita.[1] Drafted as a historical romance novel c. 1800, Basu claimed to be among the heirs of Pratapaditya and used family letters and a Persian manuscript among sources.[1] Both of these works would influence the production of future literature on Pratapaditya; notably, it was caste that played a defining role in the rise and fall of Pratapaditya, and communalism was absent.[1]

In 1856, Harish Chandra Tarkalankar published The History of Raja Pratapaditya: "The Last King of Saugar lsland" , modernizing off Basu's novel.[1] Soon, the British administrators would start taking a keen interest in local history and naturally, Pratapaditya.[1]

In 1857, Smyth was the first colonial official to chronicle Pratapaditya in context of certain ruins in Sunderban.[1] 11 years later, Rainey read a paper on Pratapaditya in The Asiatic Society: the contents were borrowed from Tarkalankar's work and portrayed Pratapaditya as a hero.[1] The first critical evaluation came from Westland's Report of the District of Jashore (1874) — in the words of Ray, it "cut Pratap's heroism to size".[1] The same year, were published, three pioneering essays by Blochman.[1]

By mid-1870s, Pratapaditya was no longer an unanimous hero — the colonial administration was pushing back against panegyrics.[1] Beveridge's report in 1876 noted him to be a "cruel monster" for murdering Carvalho.[1] Falkner deemed him to be an adventurer, not worth more than a footnote.[1]