Padmavat is an epic poem in the Avadhi language, written in 1540AD by Malik Muhammad 'Jayasi' - possibly the first ever significant literary work in the Avadhi language of India. The poem-epic is a fictionalized version of the attack and siege of the Rajput Hindu city-state of Chittorgarh in 1303 by the then Sultan of Delhi, Allauddin Khiljee. Allauddin was so enamored after hearing about the fabled beauty of Padmini, the queen of Chittor and the wife of Raja Rawal Ratan Singh, that he had no recourse left but to attack the city-state and take the Queen for himself. However, after many intrigues, battles and long drawn out siege, when the Rajputs realized that defeat and capture was imminent, the ladies of the kingdom offered up their lives by jumping into lit pyres in the time honored tradition of jauhar, rather than give up their honor at the behest of their Muslim conquistadores. When all the ladies were dead, the remaining Rajput men attacked the invading Sultan's army in one last, brave attack of suicidal frenzy and were all killed in battle.
Allauddin Khiljee walked into a Chittor deserted, except for its burnt corpses of once beauteous women and brave men. In the futility of his rage, Allauddin ordered that Chittor be razed to the ground.
In Jayasi's epic, this is the bare central theme - however, the poem is remarkable for its multilayered, multi-dimensional treatment of the issues of love, hate and the divine, by ascribing temporal values to the corporeal forms of its many characters.