The fort fell in 1301; Hammir Dev died fighting and the women of the fort performed jauhar.
01A promise kept
Muhammad Shah and his brother had led a Mongol mutiny in the Sultan’s army after the Gujarat campaign of 1299 and fled to Ranthambore. Hammir would not give them up. Ulugh Khan and Nusrat Khan laid siege; Nusrat Khan was struck by a stone thrown from the walls and died. A first assault was beaten back. Alauddin then arrived in person and the siege dragged on for months, with mounds raised against the walls and the garrison running short of food.
02The end of the Chauhans of Ranthambore
Amir Khusrau, who was with the Sultan, records the fall of the fort in 1301 and the jauhar inside it. Hammir Dev went out with his men and was killed. The Hammira Mahakavya of Nayachandra Suri, written about a century later, keeps his memory as the king who would not break his word to those he had sheltered. Rajasthan still sings of “Hammir hath”, Hammir’s stubborn resolve.
Ranthambore was the first of the great Rajput forts to fall to Alauddin; Chittor followed two years later.