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The history of Rajasthan is very rich.
Rajasthan’s medieval history is as rich in tales of velour and chivalry as it is in
folklore. 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
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 first external threat to the dominance of the Rajputs was that posed by the Arabs who took over Sind in
A.D.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.
Around A.D.1001, 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;
but it was too late to unite, and they were decisively and crushingly vanquished. |
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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 and upon hearing of their king's
death, 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.
In 1303 Allauddin khilji, Sultan of Delhi, intrigued by tales of the matchless beauty of Padmini, Rani of Chittor, of her wit and charm, decided to verify this himself. His armies surrounded Chittor, and the sultan sent a message to Rana Rattan Singh, Padmini's husband, to say that he would spare the city if he could meet its famous queen. But
Sultan could' not succeed in his plans and attacked Chittor.
Having lost of its best warriors, Chittor could not hold out.
Padmini and her entire entourage of women, dressed their wedding fine , slid their farewells, and singing ancient hymns, boldly entered the mahal and performed
jauhar. The men, watching with expressionless faces, then donned saffron robes, smeared the holy ashes of their women on their foreheads, flung open the gates of the fort and thundered down the hill into the enemy ranks, to fight to the
death.
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
1525 and 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.
Rana Sanga (reigned 1509-27) was a warrior and a man of great chivalry and honor reign was marked by a series of continual battles, in course of which he is said to have lost one arm and had been crippled in one leg and received eighty-four wounds on his body. The last of his battles was again Mughal invader, Babur, in 1527.Unfortunately, when the inevitable
confrontation took place, the Rajputs were defeated by
Babur. The defeat shook the very foundations of the princely states.
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). All the important 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.
In 1567 Emperor Akbar decided to teach it a lesson, he attacked Chittorgarh razed it to the ground. Five years later Maharana Pratap (reigned 1572-97) came to rule Mewar - a king without a capital. He continued to defy Akbar, and in 1576, confronted the imperial armies at Haldighati.
The battle ended in a stalemate and Maharana Pratap and his followers withdrew to the craggy hills of Mewar, from where they continued to harrass the Mughals through guerilla warfare for the next twenty years. Maharana Pratap made his descendants vow that they would not sleep on beds, nor live in palaces, nor eat off metal utensils, until Chittorgarh had been
regained. When news of Maharana Pratap's death reached Emperor Akbar in 1597, it is said that the Emperor's eyes filled with tears, and he ordered his court poet to compose a poem in honor of his gallant foe.
Aurangzeb after Akbar 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.
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.
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
inevitable decline of the rajput states.
In the early 19th century, the East India Company, was taken over by the
British Government, and India was effectively under British control.
The British negotiating treaties with the leaders of the main Rajput
states and British protection was offered in return for Rajput support.
One by one the princely states forfeited their independence in exchange for this protection. British residents were gradually installed in the princely
states and the Rajputs were effectively reduced to puppet leaders and lackeys of the British.
Mahatma Gandhi, who galvanised the peasants and villagers into then on-violent
resistance which was to spear-head the nationalist movement.
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.
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).
The princes of other states finally agreed to sign the Instrument of Accession, and the kingdoms of Bikaner, Jodhpur,
Jaisalmer and Jaipur were merged in 1949. 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 former kingdoms of Bharatpur, Alwar, Karauli and
Dholpur, was incorporated into Rajasthan. As a consequence, Rajasthan became the second largest state
in 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 commenced under-takings to discontinue the privy purses, which were abolished in 1971.
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