HistoryMedieval India: Bhakti Sufi Traditions

In a song, Mirabai sings: "What can Mewar's ruler do to me? If God is…

In a song, Mirabai sings: "What can Mewar's ruler do to me? If God is angry, all is lost, But what can the Rana do?" Into which clan had she been married?

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 2

The correct answer is Option (2) → Sisodia

Option (1) Rathor — Incorrect. The Rathors are a Rajput clan of Marwar, the region of Merta where Mirabai was born. The house of Mewar she married into was Sisodia.

Option (2) Sisodia — Correct. Mirabai was married against her wishes to a prince of the Sisodia clan of Mewar. So the Rana of Mewar she defies in her song was a Sisodia, her husband's family.

Option (3) Kachhwaha — Incorrect. The Kachhwahas are a Rajput clan of Amber, with no link to the royal house of Mewar.

Option (4) Chauhan — Incorrect. The Chauhans are a well-known Rajput clan of an earlier age, with their own separate line of rulers.

NCERT (2026-27): “8.3 Mirabai, the devotee princess
Mirabai (c. fifteenth-sixteenth centuries) is perhaps the best-known woman poet within the bhakti tradition. Biographies have been reconstructed primarily from the bhajans attributed to her, which were transmitted orally for centuries. According to these, she was a Rajput princess from Merta in Marwar who was married against her wishes to a prince of the Sisodia clan of Mewar, Rajasthan. She defied her husband and did not submit to the traditional role of wife and mother, instead recognising Krishna, the avatar of Vishnu, as her lover. …”

“In another verse, she sings: What can Mewar’s ruler do to me? If God is angry, all is lost, But what can the Rana do? Ü What does this indicate about Mirabai’s attitude towards the king?”