Rajasthan Quiz: Marwar and the Rathores

In 1459 Rao Jodha shifted the Rathore capital from Mandore to a defensible hill called Chidiyatunk, founded the city of Jodhpur named after himself and laid the foundation of the Mehrangarh fort that still dominates the city.

Giri Sumel, near Jaitaran in the present Pali district, was fought in 1544 between the Afghan ruler Sher Shah Suri and Rao Maldeo of Marwar.

Chandrasen ruled from 1562 to 1581, never attended Akbar's court and carried on resistance from the hill country of Siwana and Bhadrajun even after Jodhpur was occupied by imperial troops.

After Maharaja Jaswant Singh I died at Jamrud in 1678, Aurangzeb tried to bring Marwar under direct imperial management and to keep the late ruler's posthumous son under control at Delhi.

In 1730 the ruler's men came to Khejarli village in the Jodhpur region to fell khejri trees for burning lime for a palace.

Mandore, a few kilometres north of the present city of Jodhpur, was obtained by Rao Chunda and served as the Rathore capital until Rao Jodha founded Jodhpur in 1459 and moved to the new fort of Mehrangarh.

Manavati Bai, titled Jagat Gosain, was a daughter of Mota Raja Udai Singh of Marwar, the first Rathore ruler to accept the Mughal alliance.

Rao Bika was a son of Rao Jodha of Jodhpur. He moved north into the Jangladesh region and founded the city and state of Bikaner in 1488, which is why Bikaner and Jodhpur are branches of the same Rathore house; the Junagarh fort at Bikaner was built later by Raja…

The integration of the Rajputana states took place in stages, and in the fourth stage the four large states of Jodhpur, Jaipur, Bikaner and Jaisalmer were merged with the earlier union to form Greater Rajasthan on 30 March 1949, with Jaipur as the capital.

The Rathore rulers of Jodhpur used the title Maharaja, the early ones being styled Rao, as in Rao Jodha and Rao Maldeo.

The khejri, botanically Prosopis cineraria and called the kalp vriksha of the desert because its pods, leaves and shade all serve desert households, is the state tree of Rajasthan.