History
of Rajasthan
The north-western region of India, which incorporates Rajasthan,
remained in early history for the most part independent from the
great empires consolidating their hold onthe subcontinent. Buddhism
failed to make substantial inroads here; the Mauryan Empire (321-184
BC), whose most renowned emperor Ashoka converted to Buddhism in262
BC, had minimal impact in Rajasthan. However, there are Buddhist
caves and stupas (Buddhist shrines) at Jhalawar, in southern
Rajasthan. Ancient Hindu scriptural epics make reference to sites in
present day Rajasthan. The holy pilgrimage site of Pushkar is
mentioned in both the Mahabharata and Ramayma.
The fall of the Gupta Empire, which held dominance in northern India
for nearly 300 years, until the early 5th century, was followed by a
period of instability as various local chieftains sought to gain
supremacy. Various powers rose and fell in northern India. Stability
was only restored with the emergence of the Gurjara Pratihar as, the
earliest of the Rajput (from 'Rajputra', or Sons of Princes)
dynasties which were later to hold the balance of power throughout
Rajasthan. The emergence of the Rajput warrior clans in the 6th and
7th centuries played the greatest role in the subsequent history of
Rajasthan. From these clans emerged the name Rajputana, by which the
collection of princely states came to be known during the Muslim
invasion of India. The Sisodias of the Suryavansa Race, originally
from Gujarat, migrated to Rajas-than in the mid-7th century and
reigned over Mewar, which encompassed Udaipur and Chittorgarh.The
Kachhwa has, originally from Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, travelled
west in the12th century. They built the massive fortress at Amber,
the capital later being shifted to Jaipur. Like the Sisodias, they
belonged to the Suryavansa Race. Also belonging to the Suryavansa
Race, the Rathores (earlier known as Rastrakutas) travelled from
Kanauj, in Uttar Pradesh. Initially they settled in Pali, south of
present-day Jodhpur, but later moved to Mandore in1381 and ruled
over Marwar (Jodhpur). Later they commenced construction on the
stunning Meherangarh Fort at Jodhpur. The Bhattis, who belong to the
Induvansa Race, driven from their homeland in the Punjab by the
Turks, installed themselves at Jaisalmer in 1156. They remained more
or less entrenched in their desert kingdom until they were
integrated into the state of Rajasthan following Independence.
The first external threat to the dominance of the Rajputs was that
posed by the Arabs who took over Sind in 713. The Gurjara Pratiharas'
response to the Arab threat was largely defensive. The Arabs were
repulsed by the Gurjara Pratiharas led by their king, Nagabhata I,
founder of the Pratihara Empire. The Arabs also tested their
strength against the Rastrakut as. Unfortunately, when not pitting
their wits against the Arabs, the Pratiharas and Rastrakut as were
busy fighting each other. By the third decade of the 8th century,
anew threat was emerging in the form of the Turks, who had occupied
Ghazni in Afghanistan. Around 1001 AD, Mahmud of Ghazni's army
descended upon India, destroying infidel temples and carrying off
everything of value that could be moved. The Rajputs were not immune
from these incursions; a confederation of Rajput rulers assembled a
vast army and marched northwards to meet the advancing Turks.
Unfortunately, how-ever, it was a case of too little, too late, and
they were decisively and crushingly vanquished. The Pratiharas, then
centred at Kanauj, fled the city before the Turks arrived, and in
their absence the temples of Kanauj, as with so many others in
northern India, were sacked and desecrated, Towards the end of the
12th century, Mohammed of Ghori invaded India to take up where
Mahmud of Ghazni had left off. Hemet with a collection of princely
states which failed to mount a united front. Although initially
repulsed, Ghori later triumphed, and Delhi and Ajmer were lost to
the Muslims. Ajmer remained a Muslim stronghold over the centuries,
apart from a brief period when it was retaken by the Rathores. Today
it is an important Muslim place of pilgrimage.
Mohammed of Ghori was killed in 1206, and his successor, Qutb-ud-din,
became the first of the Sultans of Delhi. Within 20 years, the
Muslims had brought the whole of the Ganges basin under their
control. In 1297, Ala-ud-din Khilji pushed the Muslim borders south
into Gujarat. Ala-ud-din mounted a protracted siege of the massive
fort at Ranthambhore, which was at the time ruled by the Rajput
chief Hammir Deva. Hammir was reported as dead (although it's
unknown if he did actually die in the siege) and upon hearing of
their chief's demise, the womenfolk of the fortress collectively
threw themselves on a pyre, thus performing the first instance of
jauhar, or collective sacrifice, in the history of the Rajputs.
Alu-ud-din later went on to sack the fortress at Chittorgarh in
1303, held by the Sisodia clan. According to tradition, Alu-ud-din
had heard repute of the great beauty of Padmini, the consort of the
Sisodian chief, and resolved to carry her off with him. Like
Ranthambhore before it, Chittorgarh also fell to the Muslim leader.
The Delhi sultanate weakened at the beginning of the 16th century,
and the Rajputs took advantage of this to restore and expand their
territories. At this time the kingdom of Mewar, ruled by the
Sisodias under the leadership of Rana Sangram Singh, gained
preeminence among the Rajput states. Under this leader, Mewar pushed
its boundaries far beyond its original territory, posing a
formidable threat to the new Mughal Empire which was emerging under
the leadership of Babur (reigned 1527-30). Babur, a descendent of
both Timur and Genghis Khan, marched into Punjab from his capital at
Kabul in Afghanistan in 1525and defeated the Sultan of Delhi at
Panipat. He then focused his attention on the Rajput princely
states, many of whom, anticipating his designs, had banded together
to form a united front under Rana Sangram Singh. Unfortunately, when
the inevitable confrontation took place, the Rajputs were defeated
by Babur. They sustained great losses, with many Rajput chiefs
falling in the fray, including Rana Sangram Singh himself, who
reputedly had no less than 80 wound son his body suffered during
both this and previous campaigns. The defeat shook the very
foundations of the princely states. Mewar's confidence was shattered
by the death of its illustrious leader, and its territories
contracted following sub-sequent attacks by the Sultan of Gujarat,
At this time Marwar, under its ruler Maldeo, emerged as the
strongest of the Rajput states, and it recorded a victory against
the claimant to the Mughal throne, Sher Shah. However, none of the
Rajputs was able to withstand the formidable threat posed by the
most renowned of the Mughal emperors, Akbar (reigned
1556-1605).Recognising that the Rajputs could not be conquered by
mere force alone, Akbar contracted a marriage alliance with a
princess of the important Kachhwaha clan who held Amber (and later
founded Jaipur). The Kachhwahas, unlike their other Rajputbrethren
at the time, aligned themselves with the powerful Mughals, and even
sent troops to aid them in times of battle. Akbar also used more
conventional methods to assert, his dominance over the Rajputs,
wresting Ajmer from the Rathores of Marwar which had been briefly
restored to the Rajputs under Maldeo. All the import-ant Rajput
states eventually acknowledged Mughal sovereignty and became vassal
states of the Mughal Empire, except Mewar, which fiercely clung to
its independence, refusing to pay homage to the infidels. An uneasy
truce was thus maintained between the Rajputs and the Mughal
emperors, until the reign of Aurangzeb, the last great Mughal
emperor, when relations were characterized by mutual hostility.
Aurangzeb devoted his resources to extending the empire's
boundaries. The punitive taxes which he levied on his subjects to
pay for his military exploits and his religious zealotry eventually
secured his downfall. The Rajputs were united in their opposition to
Aurangzeb, and the Rathores and Sisodias raised arms against him. It
didn't take long for revolts by the enemies of Aurangzeb to break
out on all sides and, with his death in 1707, the Mughal Empire's
for-tunes rapidly declined.
Following the death of Aurangzeb and the dissolution of the Mughal
Empire came the Marathas. They first rose to prominence with Shivaji
who, between 1646 and 1680, per-formed feats of arms and heroism
across central India. The Maratha Empire continued under the Peshwas,
hereditary government ministers who became the real rulers. They
gradually took over more and more of the weakening Mughal Empire's
powers, first by supplying troops and then by actually taking
control of Mughal land. The Marathas conducted numerous raids on the
Rajputs, and the latter, too busy fighting among themselves, laid
themselves wide open to these aggressions, resulting in numerous
defeats in battle, the loss of territories and the invitable decline
of the rajput states.
In the early 19th century, the East India Company, a London trading
company which had a monopoly on trade in India, was taken over by
the British Government, and India was effectively under British
control. Meanwhile, the Marathas continued to mount raids on the
Rajputs. Initially the British adopted a policy of neutrality
towards the feuding parties. However, the British eventually stepped
into the fray, negotiating treaties with the leaders of the main
Rajput states. British protection was offered in return for Rajput
support. Weakened by habitual fighting between themselves and in
their skirmishes with the Marathas, one by one the princely states
forfeited their independence in exchange for this protection.
British residents were gradually installed in the princely states.
The British ultimately eliminated the Maratha threat, but by this
stage the Rajputs were effectively reduced to puppet leaders and
lackeys of the British. While the Rajput leaders enjoyed the status
and prestige of their positions, discontent was manifesting itself
among numbers of their subjects, which broke out in rebellion in
1857. This rebellion proved to be a precursor to widespread
opposition to British rule throughout India. It was Mohandas Gandhi,
later to be known as Mahatma Gandhi, who galvanised the peasants and
villagers into then on-violent resistance which was to spear-head
the nationalist movement. By the time WWII was concluded, Indian
independence was inevitable. The war dealt a deathblow to
colonialism and the myth of European superiority, and Britain no
longer had the power nor the desire to maintain a vast empire.
Within India, however, a major problem had developed: the large
Muslim minority had realized that an independent India would also be
a Hindu-dominated India. The country was divided along purely
religious lines, with the Muslim League, led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah,
speaking for the Muslims, and the Congress Party led by Jawaharlal
Nehru, representing the Hindu population. Gandhi was absolutely
opposed to the severing of the Muslim dominated regions from the
prospective new nation. However, Jinnah was intransigent: I` will
have India divided, or India destroyed,` was his uncompromising
demand. The new viceroy, Louis Mountbatten, made a last-ditch
attempt to convince the rival factions that a united India was a
more sensible proposition, but the reluctant decision was made to
divide the country. Independence was finally instituted on 15 August
1947, with the concomitant partitioning of the nascent country. The
result was a Hindu-dominated India and a Muslim-dominated West and
East Pakistan.
Emergence of the State of Rajasthan "It took some time for the
boundaries of the proposed new state of Rajasthan to be defined. In
1948, Rajasthan comprised the south and south-eastern states of
Rajputana. With the merger of Mewar, Udaipur became the capital of
the United State of Rajasthan. The Maharana of Udaipur was invested
with the title of rajpramukh (head of state). Manikya Lal Varma was
appointed as prime minister of the new state, which was inaugurated
on 18 April 1948.Almost from the outset the prime minister came into
opposition with the rajpramukh over the constitution of the state
government ministry. Varma wanted to form a ministry of all Congress
members. The rajpramukh was keen to have his own candidates
installed from among the jagirdars, or feudal lords. Jagirdars
traditionally acted as intermediaries between the tillers of the
soil (the peasants) and the state, taking rent or produce from the
tenants and paying tribute to the princely ruler. They were symbols
of the old feudal order, for whom millions of inhabitants of
Rajputana were held in serfdom. Varma was keen to abolish the
age-old system of jagirdari and, with Nehru's support, was able to
install his own Congress ministry and do away with this feudal
relic. Still retaining their independence from India were Jaipur and
the desert kingdoms of Bikaner, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer. From a
security point of view, it was vital to the new Indian Union to
ensure that the desert kingdoms, which were contiguous with
Pakistan, were integrated into the new nation. The princes finally
agreed to sign the Instrument of Accession, and the kingdoms of
Bikaner, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Jaipur were merged in 1949. The
Maharaja of Jaipur, Man SinghII, was invested with the title of
rajpramukh. Jaipur became the capital of the new state of Rajasthan.
Heera Lal Shastri was installed as the first premier of Rajasthan.
Later in 1949, the United State of Matsya,comprising the former
kingdoms of Bharatpur, Alwar, Karauli and Dholpur, was incorporated
into Rajasthan. As a consequence, Rajasthan became the second
largest state m India, exceeded in geographical area only by the
central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Rajasthan attained its
current dimensions in November 1956 with the additions of
Ajmer-Merwara, Abu Rd and a part of Dilwara, originally part of the
princely kingdom of Sirohi which had been divided between Gujarat
and Rajasthan. The princes of the former kingdoms were
constitutionally granted handsome remuneration in the form of privy
purses to assist them in the discharge of their financial
obligations (and to keep them in the style to which they had become
accustomed). In1970, Indira Gandhi (daughter of India's first prime
minister, Jawaharlal Nehru), who had come to power in 1966,
commenced under-takings to discontinue the privy purses, which were
abolished in 1971.
Many of the former rulers of Rajasthan continue to use the title of
maharaja for social purposes. The only power this title holds today
is as a status symbol. Since the privy purse abolition, the princes
have had to financially support themselves. Some hastily sold
valuable heirlooms and properties for literally nothing, in a
desperate attempt to pay bills. While a handful of princes
squandered their family fortunes, others refused to surrender their
heritage, and turned their hands to business, politics or other
vocations. Many decided to convert their palaces into hotels as a
means of earning income. Some of these palace-hotels have become
prime tourist destinations in India, such as the Lake Palace Hotel
in Udaipur, the Rambagh Palace in Jaipur and the Umaid Bhawan Palace
in Jodhpur. The revenue earned from such hotels has enabled the
maharajas to maintain their properties, sustain time-honored family
traditions and continue to lead a comfortable lifestyle. However,
not all palaces are on the tourist circuit and cannot rely purely on
tourism as a source of steady income. Many palaces and forts are
tucked away in remote parts of Rajasthan, and have been reluctantly
handed over to the government, because the owners were simply unable
to maintain them. Unfortunately, many of these rich vestiges of
India's royal past are poorly maintained.
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